 There was a strong left-libertarian current in the British labour movement and the term "libertarian socialist" has been applied to a number of democratic socialists, including some prominent members of the British Labour Party.The Socialist League was formed in 1885 by William Morris and others critical of the authoritarian socialism of the Social Democratic Federation.It was involved in the New Unionism, the rank-and-file union militancy of the 1880s–1890s, which anticipated syndicalism in some key ways (Tom Mann, a New Unionist leader, was one of the first British syndicalists).