WILLIAM BROWN reports from the Compass annual conference where the Labour left considered the post-election political landscape
In a conference hall not so far away, the labour left gathered on June 12th for the Compass annual get together. Launching this year’s event, optimistically titled ‘A New Hope’, Compass chair Neal Lawson set off on a slightly [...]

The following is a statement – ‘a modest perspective’ – prepared by the ILP’s National Administrative Council for discussion at the 2010 ILP Weekend Seminar, ‘After the Election, What Next for the Left?’, to be held in Scarborough on 5-6 June. We hope it will stimulate comment and debate here on the website, at the [...]

For all its fascinating detail and insights, IAN BULLOCK wants more from Gidon Cohen’s The Failure of a Dream
This account of the ILP in the 1930s begins with an outline of the party’s history during the seven years between leaving the Labour Party and the outbreak of war. The second chapter looks at the disaffiliation [...]

A recent book provides a “just about” convincing argument that the ILP’s decline in the 1930s was not an inevitable consequence of disaffiliation. CHRISTOPHER HALL reviews Gidon Cohen’s welcome attempt to fill a gap in ILP history
The history of the Independent Labour Party from its foundation until it was disaffiliated from the Labour Party has [...]

The Compass lecture given by Jon Cruddas attracted a lot of coverage last week. But there was a familiar hole in the heart of his plan for the left, says Matthew Brown
Whatever else you might say about Compass, the Labour left pressure group, those people certainly know which way is north when it comes to [...]

“There is a sense of uncertainty and flux, a feeling that we’re coming to the end of an era in politics. It’s one that we’ve never much liked, yet we know what’s coming could be so much worse.”
With those unsettling words David Connolly, chair of Independent Labour Publications, opened the ILP’s weekend seminar in Scarborough [...]

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Crunch Times: Politics And The Crisis
 
“You can only be flabbergasted … at how Labour kowtowed to wealth,
glorified the City and put all the nation’s economic eggs into one
dangerous basket.”
Polly Toynbee, The Guardian
 
ILP Round Table Seminar 
Esplanade Hotel, Scarborough 
13th-14th June 2009
Saturday   13th June   2.00 pm start
Sunday     14th June   9.30 am start
 
Session 1: From boom to bust
• How did [...]

The inaugural Victor Grayson memorial lecture in Saddleworth was a great success, reports Paul Fryer
It took two years to put together, but in November 2004, members of the Saddleworth Labour Party organised an event to celebrate one of the area’s most famous MPs, Victor Grayson. The memorial lecture was held in one of the [...]