Chancellor George Osborne announced yet another back-to-work scheme at the Conservative Party conference this week. ERNIE JACQUES has seen it all before and knows where it will end: in misery for some, in riches for others, but with few new jobs. ...
Public Sector Job Cuts Reach 10 Per Cent
More than 600,000 jobs have been cut from the public sector since the Con Dem coalition came to power at the 2010 general election according to the GMB union's analysis of official figures from the Office of National Statistics....
Balls to Call for a Co-operative Economy
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls will outline his vision of an economy based on co-operative values when he speaks at the Co-operative Party conference next weekend....
One Nation Book Launched at Conference
A new book about the ideas behind Ed Miliband’s ‘one nation Labour’ was launched at the Labour Party conference in Brighton last weekend and is now available to buy or download from the Labour website....
Maxton: The Will to Socialism
Written by JAMES MAXTON in 1927 Why should people live lives of poverty and toil? Why should people rise in the morning fearing to face life because of the evils, the cares and the sorrows it brings. Should life not rather be a carefree joyous adventure that all should meet with confidence and hope?...
ILP@120: James Maxton – Socialism’s Great Crusader
James Maxton was the ILP’s visionary, a man with “an inherent sense of human equality” who ultimately failed in his mission to make socialism the common sense. GORDON BROWN MP assesses his life and legacy. Throughout his career, whether on a street corner or in the House of Commons, Maxton sought to make socialism the...
First Impressions of the People’s Assembly
MATTHEW BROWN reports from the first meeting of a local People’s Assembly, where hardship and hope were much in evidence – unlike the Labour Party. “I paid my rent just 10 minutes ago and now I have £22 left in my account.” The words came from a young man introducing himself to the first meeting...
End of the Party?
PAUL SALVESON ponders the future of party politics and sees instead a future dominated by regionalist movements and single-issue campaigns....
March to Save the NHS
Supporters of the National Health Service will be marching in Manchester at the end of the month to deliver a message to Conservative Party conference that they mean to save the NHS from cuts and privatisation, and “defend jobs, services and a decent welfare state”....
A Club of One’s Own
PAUL SALVESON laments the decline of labour and socialist clubs. But while many are closing, he says, at least one is being re-born in a new co-operative guise....
Condemn One Dictator; Invite Another?
The UK government is condemning violence in Syria just days before inviting other brutal regimes to shop for weapons at a massive arms fair in London, according to Campaign Against the Arms Trade....
Opposing World War One
Peace and anti-war movements prior to World War One will be the focus of attention at the 2013 Peace History Conference to be held in Manchester on 20 and 21 September....