Ardunan Labour Party

The Ardunan Labour Party (ALP) is a Left-wing political party in the Commonwealth of Ardun. Founded in 1212-4a, the ALP was the leading political party in the Ardunan Revolution, and has been one of the main parties in government since the founding of the Commonwealth.

History

The ALP was founded by followers of the late Trade Unionist George Snowden, who referred to themselves as the "Fairness Society". This Society included many delegates from the Trade Union Congress who wished to expand the labour struggle into the parliamentary arena, directing TUC resources towards the re-election campaigns of labour-friendly Liberal MPs.
The highest-profile MP to receive the support of the TUC was Sir Alan Cormac, a radical within the Liberal Party who had become an outcast among his peers for his support of labour actions. Though he was not expected to win his re-election campaign, TUC support gave him a steady victory, proving the Fairness Society thesis that organized Labour could defeat business interests in parliamentary races. With the rest of the TUC now on board with their program, the Snowdenites invited Alan Cormac to cooperate with the unions more closely and, in June of 1212, the Ardunan Labour Party was founded.
The party's founding convention saw Cormac elected as the first Party Leader, along with a slate of working class and middle-class representatives. The convention was a small affair, as the police crackdown on labour following the Gaeler Rising, and the subsequent years of persecution, were still living memory for many in attendance. In fact, declassified reports from the Royal Directorate would later reveal that no less than 9 attendants were informants for the secret police.
Because of this general uncertainty, it was decided that the Labour Party should not officially be a vehicle for advancing the wider cause of socialism, as many within the labour movement wanted, but instead to achieve piecemeal improvements and reforms within parliamentary allowance. This resolution caused an uproar within the more radical faction of the convention, creating a rift within the party that would become a common issue in the years leading up to the revolution. But the final decision on the matter was out of most delegates' hands; in fact, the only reason the Labour Party was even allowed to act in legality was due to weeks of secret negotiations between Cormac and his contacts within the government. With the labour movement still to weak to engage in revolutionary disputes, parliamentary reformism would be the order of the day.

Party Leadership

Party Leader	Term
Alan Cormac	1212 - 1215
Harry Davis	1215 - 1219
Arthur Lowe	1219 - 1224
Jesse Aalto	1224 - 1229
Angus Goodman	1229 - 1234
Calvin Kennedy	1234 - 1242
Jack Lennon	1242 - 1249
Cullen Radcliff	1249 - 1274
Maeve Sinclair	1274 - 1282

Abbreviation
ALP

Founding Date

1212-4a

Type

Political, Faction / Party

Headquarters
Caerun, Ardune
Newspaper
The Red Flag
Youth Wing
Young Socialists' Union
Women's Wing
ALP Women's Auxiliary
Labour Wing
United Labour Front
Paramilitary Wing
Redwatch
Ideology
Social-Democracy (before 1242)
Syndicalism
Marschism-Lennonism