It was on this day, 13th January, 119 years ago that 120 or so young, working class, mainly male delegates gathered at the Labour Institute in Bradford to found the Independent Labour Party.
John Lowe recorded everything that happened to him and his Nottinghamshire NUM comrades during the 1984-5 miners’ strike. His grandson, JONATHAN SYMCOX, who edited the newly published diary, recalls a man transformed by the dispute.
John Lowe of Clipstone in Nottinghamshire was off sick in spring 1984 when the National Coal Board and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government put into motion their long-prepared pit closure programme. The miners’ strike for jobs erupted almost overnight.
Socialism did not begin with the ILP. But the ILP created a unique blend of socialism. Not only did it achieve independent representation for labour and links with the trade unions, it also worked outside the formal political structures.
From the beginning, the ILP accepted women and men as equal members and, as early as 1895, it supported the extension of the vote to both women and men.
Part one of the ILP’s history pamphlet, The ILP: Past and Present, written by BARRY WINTER, covering the birth of the organisation and its role in helping to found the Labour Party.
It was no coincidence that the ILP’s founding conference was held in Bradford. The city and surrounding textile areas had a strong tradition of radicalism dating back to the early years of the industrial revolution.
Out of these sometimes exciting and sometimes bitter experiences, often ending in defeat, grew the idea that trade union activity was not sufficient to serve working people’s interest. In addition, independent political action was necessary.
MATTHEW BROWN reports on the left’s response to the government’s spending review and Jon Cruddas’s call for Labour to embrace the ‘good society’.
There have been many responses to the coalition government’s emergency budget and comprehensive spending review, those from the left ranging from the timid “too much, too soon” sound-bite of the uninspiring shadow chancellor, [...]
PAUL SALVESON recalls a doyen of the Lancashire labour movement whose dialect writing still has relevance today.
‘I daresay Teddy Ashton’s droll sketches have done more to help reforms than far more pretentious and direct articles. For Teddy, even in his comic (dialect) sketches, pokes sly fun and undermining sarcasm at the iniquities and social injustices [...]
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 [...]
Independent Labour Publications (ILP) is an educational trust, publishing house and pressure group committed to democratic socialism and the success of a democratic socialist Labour Party.
The ILP was formed in 1893 as the Independent Labour Party, which became a co-founder of the Labour Party at the beginning of the 20th century. Today we remain committed to Labour's aim of creating 'a society for the many, not the few' and seek to engage with others in discussing how this vision can be turned into reality.
Land and Freedom
A short, moving account of the Spanish Civil War. Focusing on events in Catalonia, it shows how even today, there is more to be remembered than the courage of the International Brigade.
ILP - Past & Present
A lively, frank and well-illustrated account of the ILP’s history from its origins in the 1890s, the Labour party’s development, and the rise and fall of the Labour left.