The success of Sheffield Renewables has shown how attitudes to energy policy can be changed with local engagement and a co-operative business model that offers much more than profit. DAVE BERRY explains....
Labour in Government: Joseph Rowntree & the Need for a Moral Crusade
Sick of waiting for free markets and trickle-down economics to make us all better off, ERNIE JACQUES looks for hope in the legacy of a northern factory owner and philanthropist whose social reforms inspired the welfare state. ...
ILP Archives – Now Available Online
LSE Library has completed the first stage of a long-term project to digitise the ILP archive material held in its collection and make it freely available for all to view online....
New Approaches to Tackling the Far Right
Compass and the Co-operative Party have both launched new initiatives in recent weeks aimed at understanding and tackling the rise of the far right....
A Novel Account of the Left’s Long Struggle
MATTHEW BROWN reviews two recent books on the early Labour movement – a hefty historical novel focused on the ILP; and a slim pamphlet on the 1924 government....
Edward Carpenter & the Future of Freedom
How would society change if no-one needed to work to stay alive? That was the question Edward Carpenter set out to answer almost 130 years ago in an essay titled ‘Transitions to Freedom’. Would it hail a new collectivist phase? And would that then lead to full individual and social liberty?...
The ILP: Past & Present, Part 2
The ILP: Past & Present, Part 2 by Barry Winter and William Brown brings the ILP’s story right up to date, covering the post-war period when it struggled to survive and retain political relevance; to 1975 when it made a bold and principled decision to return to the Labour Party as Independent Labour Publications....
Ada Salter’s Blue Plaque Unveiled on International Women’s Day
English Heritage marked International Women’s Day today (8 March) by erecting one their famous blue plaques to honour the life and achievements of ILPer Ada Salter who in 1922 became the first Labour woman in Britain to be elected mayor and the first woman mayor of a London borough....
A Family Affair
Before he died, Walter Smith wrote a personal account of growing up in a left-wing household at the start of the 20th century. It is, says MATTHEW BROWN, a poignant reflection on the hopes and failures of the socialist movement....
Ada Salter to be Honoured with Blue Plaque
ILPer Ada Salter is due to be honoured with one of London’s famous blue plaques, the round English Heritage markers that “link the people of the past with the buildings of the present”....
Tales From the Tracks
PAUL SALVESON’s latest book is a collection of short railway stories set in northern England featuring unions, strikes, ILPers … and signalbox ghosts....
Labour Together’s ‘Covenant’ Promises a Road to Political Renewal
Enquiries into the nature and purpose of the Labour Party have been coming thick and fast since its calamitous defeat at the 2019 general election. The latest, and perhaps most comprehensive comes from Labour Together… ...