Foundation

The group was founded in June 1975 by councillors and other individuals on the right wing of the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

. Peter Stephenson, the editor of Socialist Commentary, became its chairman. The group claimed to stand in the tradition of Hugh Gaitskell

Hugh Gaitskell

Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell CBE was a British Labour politician, who held Cabinet office in Clement Attlee's governments, and was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955, until his death in 1963.-Early life:He was born in Kensington, London, the third and youngest...

's Campaign for Democratic Socialism

Campaign for Democratic Socialism

The Campaign for Democratic Socialism or CDS was an organization of the British Labour Party, serving as a pressure group representing the right wing of the party...

, and claimed the support of Cabinet members Roy Jenkins

Roy Jenkins

Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician.The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in...

 and Reg Prentice. It initially focussed on anti-communism

Anti-communism

Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...

, and on supporting Labour MPs who backed the government's economic strategy against deselection attempts.

Activities in the 1970s

At the party conference, the group accused eleven members of Labour's National Executive Committee

National Executive Committee

The National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the UK Labour Party. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party and European Parliamentary Labour Party, Constituency Labour Parties,...

 of being communist sympathisers. This position was disowned by Jenkins and by Shirley Williams, and as a result, Stephenson resigned and called for the group to be disbanded. He was replaced by Roger Fox, while Douglas Eden and Stephen Haseler

Stephen Haseler

Stephen Haseler is Professor of Government, author of numerous books on contemporary politics, and Director of The Global Policy Institute in London...

 became the organisation's secretaries. They built links with the Trade Union Education Centre for Democratic Socialism and the Common Cause industry pressure group. They won publicity the following year by publishing a list of Labour MPs they alleged were linked with communist organisations, including Michael Foot

Michael Foot

Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...

, Tony Benn

Tony Benn

Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...

 and Neil Kinnock

Neil Kinnock

Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...

. Further similar allegations led the founders of the Campaign for a Labour Victory to explicitly avoid any links, although they did achieve coverage in Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 supporting newspapers during the 1979 UK general election campaign. The group also called for voters not to support the Labour candidate in Liverpool

Liverpool (European Parliament constituency)

Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales...

 at the European Parliament election, 1979

European Parliament election, 1979

The 1979 European elections were parliamentary elections held across all 9 European Community member states. They were the first European elections to be held, allowing citizens to elect 410 MEPs to the European Parliament, and also the first international election in history.Seats in the...

.

Expulsion from the Labour Party

In 1980, the SDA announced that they would stand candidates against left-wing Labour MPs at the next general election, unless the party marginalised them. They also published a manifesto, which gained the support of MP Neville Sandelson

Neville Sandelson

Neville Devonshire Sandelson was a British politician.Sandelson was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a barrister, called to the bar by Inner Temple in 1946, and director of a publishing company...

. The Scunthorpe Democratic Labour Alliance, a small Labour Party breakaway, merged with the SDA, followed by Dick Taverne's Lincoln Democratic Labour Association. The plans to stand against Labour candidates led the party to expel the SDA's leading members, although most were re-admitted on appeal. The group refused to co-operate with a Labour enquiry into the activities of groups within the party, and in November it supported a candidate in Scunthorpe

Scunthorpe

Scunthorpe is a town within North Lincolnshire, England. It is the administrative centre of the North Lincolnshire unitary authority, and had an estimated total resident population of 72,514 in 2010. A predominantly industrial town, Scunthorpe, the United Kingdom's largest steel processing centre,...

 against the official Labour candidate, leading the party to proscribe membership of the SDA in December.

Formation of a new party

In January 1981, the SDA jointly organised a conference to discuss founding a social democratic party with Colin Phipps

Colin Phipps

Dr Colin Barry Phipps was a British petroleum geologist and formerly a Labour Party politician.-Early life:He was born in Swansea....

' Association of Democratic Groups, and George Brown

George Brown, Baron George-Brown

George Alfred Brown, Baron George-Brown, PC was a British Labour politician, who served as the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970, and served in a number of positions in the Cabinet, most notably as Foreign Secretary, in the Labour Government of the 1960s...

 was appointed as its new president. They were overtaken by events, as Jenkins, Williams, David Owen

David Owen

David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen CH PC FRCP is a British politician.Owen served as British Foreign Secretary from 1977 to 1979, the youngest person in over forty years to hold the post; he co-authored the failed Vance-Owen and Owen-Stoltenberg peace plans offered during the Bosnian War...

 and Bill Rodgers - the "Gang of Four" - formed the Campaign for Social Democracy

Campaign for Social Democracy

The Campaign for Social Democracy was a minor political party operating in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.They were formed in September, 1973 by Dick Taverne, who had resigned from the Labour Party, after falling out with his Constituency Labour Party over the European Economic Community.He had...

. The SDA said that they hoped to form the local structure of a new organisation.

Despite opposition from the Gang of Four, the SDA immediately began negotiating local pacts with the Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

, and stood eight candidates in the Greater London Council election, 1981

Greater London Council election, 1981

Turnout: 2,250,118 people voted. All parties shown.This was the last election to the GLC. The Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher took the decision to abolish the council in the mid-1980s. For more information on this see the article, Greater London Council. Following the abolition of...

 against Labour left-wingers. None came close to being elected, but their intervention did prevent Ted Knight from holding his seat.

Once the Gang of Four had officially founded the Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (UK)

The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...

, the SDA dissolved itself into it. Haseler stood to become president of the new party against Williams and Rodgers, but took last place in the poll.