Keir Hardie in Trafalgar Square, 1908

The history of socialism in this country is, generally speaking, a history of failure. This isn’t the fault of all socialists past, it’s a function of specific historical conjunctures – and the formation of the Labour Party, in its specificity, has played a key role. There are a number of reasons for this, rooted in the history and formation of the party, but they can be summarised by the fact that the Labour Party has never been a Marxist party and has always been collaborationist. If we accept the centrality of Labour to the historical failure of socialism in the UK – in the absence of a convincing theory *and* praxis aimed towards crushing the party – it’s necessary to think about how exactly to engage with it.