The Importance of the Contribution Made by the Socialist Societies to the Formation and Development of the Labour Party There are many factors that have contributed to the formation and development of the labour party. Firstly Britain was in a state of great depression, a mass 30% of people lived in extreme poverty. The two main parties at the time were Liberals and conservatives. There was a popular feeling amongst the poor that neither of the two main political parties were not doing anything at the time to eradicate the problem. Wages were also decreasing at the time, which help to lead to greater awareness of poverty and a need for a political party to represent the poor. Awareness was also increased when a book was published by Henry George called ‘Poverty and Progress’ which highlighted the greed of landowners and blamed them for the current state of poverty and depression that factory workers were faced with. Newspapers also began to aim at the working class and socialists groups began too emerge. From this awareness three main socialist societies were formed in 1884. One of the groups was called the socialist democratic Federation (SDF). The SDF were a revolutionary group more than socialist and their ideologies were based on the work of the communist philosopher Karl Marx. Their leader was a man called H.M. Hyndman, who wanted to start a mass revolution and cause a up rise amongst workers. The SDF’s main aim was to turn the country into a communist regime. They were a small and aggressive group and the main cause of the 1887 Trafalgar Square riots leading to ‘Bloody Sunday’. General public opinion was that they did not want a hostile group like the SDF to lead them and that the aggressive attitude and behaviour was not the way forward. A second group to emerge was the ‘Socialist League’. They were set up by a man called William Morris, who came from a Christian background. He believed that everyone hated their jobs and that this was the reason for the increased amount of strikes and rebellions.