“He was a great man of a new kind, which the history books have not caught up with yet,” wrote JB Priestley of Fred Jowett. IAN BULLOCK profiles the ILPer who campaigned tirelessly for democratic reform.

FW – or Fred – Jowett (1864-1944), known widely during his lifetime as ‘Jowett of Bradford’, was a prominent member of the ILP from the party’s foundation in Bradford in 1893, through all its trials, tribulations, vicissitudes and disaffiliation from Labour until his death towards the end of the Second World War.

As the shock of the Bradford West by-election defeat fades, BARRY WINTER argues that we must learn the lessons if Labour is to rebuild a vibrant local politics.

A campaign is launched this week to urge the UK government to recognise the genocide against the people of Iraqi Kurdistan. The aim is to collect 100,000 signatures on an e-petition to trigger a parliamentary debate. GARY KENT reports.

The third part of BARRY WINTER’s report on a conference to explore Labour’s lost decades, held on Rotherham on 19 March.

Part 3: the 1950s and the 1980s
The 1950s

Mark Wickham-Jones argued that some important reasons why Labour did not do so well in the 1950s have been neglected. Apart from a team at the [...]

The second part of BARRY WINTER’s report on a conference to explore Labour’s lost decades, held on Rotherham on 19 March.

Part 2: the 1930s

David Howell disagreed with Hobsbawm’s notion of Labour’s continued forward march during the 1930s; the pattern of support was more complex.
Electorally the ‘terms of trade’ were changing radically. The party’s [...]

AARON KIELY provides a student’s eyewitness account of police brutality at the tuition fees demonstration in Parliament Square last week.
First, I have to state that I am a member of Labour Party, a candidate in the upcoming local elections, a Committee member of the NUS Black Students’ Campaign and an elected representative of Kent Students’ [...]

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 [...]

Gary Kent argues that the global financial crisis makes the case for a Tobin Tax even more compelling.
Some ideas are nurtured for decades before they shoot to prominence usually to the surprise of those who have long advocated them. This could be the fate of the Tobin Tax, originally devised by the American Nobel Laureate [...]

It is right that there is anger over MPs’ expenses, says Will Brown, but let’s not damn all politics.
The row over MPs’ expenses and the misuse of public funds have rightly been met with pubic anger and criticism. It is indeed indefensible that MPs should be making a fast buck from the public purse at [...]

WILL BROWN examines two welcome contributions to debates on democratic renewal and progressive social change
The need to extend democratic practices within society, beyond the confines of the parliamentary system, has been widely recognised on the political left for some time. However, in a context of rising political apathy and a perceived ‘crisis’ of democracy, the [...]