Last month JON CRUDDAS delivered the Clement Attlee Memorial Lecture at University College, Oxford. Here, in an edited version of that talk, the Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham, argues that, far from his cold, taciturn image, Attlee was always at heart an ILP socialist. A host of very readable biographies exist, yet there remains...
‘I have never wavered…’
The Labour Party in Perspective by Clement Attlee was published in 1937. Here are a couple of brief extracts. ‘Some thirty years ago, when I was a young barrister just down from Oxford, I engaged in various forms of social work in East London. The condition of the people in that area as I...
Attlee seminars in Labour history
'Patriotism, Fellowship and the Left: Explorations in British Labour History', a series of lectures by Jon Cruddas MP, are at University College, Oxford in November....
Kicking the dog
A real movement for social change must have real democracy, co-operation and mutuals at its heart, says EDGAR PARNELL...
Scarborough calling
Advance notice: the ILP's 2012 Round Table Discussion weekend will be held on 5th/6th May next year at the Esplanade Hotel in Scarborough....
The ILP: Our Politics
A booklet version of The ILP: Our Politics, the ILP's recent statement on the current political situation, is now available....
Young people to lobby Parliament
Hundreds of young people will travel to Westminster on Tuesday 25 October to warn MPs that the youth service will soon be the first public service to fall under the coalition’s austerity axe....
They did not pass
The 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street will be celebrated on Sunday 2 October with a commemorative march and rally, and numerous other events organised by Cable Street 75 and supported by more than 40 organisations....
Trying to make sense of Hackney’s riots
Local resident MATTHEW BROWN sifts through the context and consequences of the riots which erupted on Hackney's streets and estates on 8 August....
Cameron’s Con continues
With the Office for Civil Society – the supposed engine room of the prime minister’s ‘Big Society’ – hit by a hefty 61 per cent cut in funding, the government’s con is well and truly exposed, Unite the union says today. The cut to the Office for Civil Society is just one of the...
Remembering Spain’s volunteers
On Saturday 16 July, the 75th anniversary of the first involvement of anti-fascist volunteers from north west England in the Spanish Civil War was commemorated at Manchester Town Hall. CHRIS HALL was there. Over 100 people, including many young Spaniards, were present to hear about the contribution of the north west in the fight...
How Red Was Our Valley
PAUL SALVESON reports on the Colne Valley Labour Party’s 120th anniversary. Our former MP Kali Mountford described it as a ‘triumph’ and we’ll not disagree, self-effacing Northerners though we are. Last Thursday’s evening of walks, talks and drama to celebrate Colne Valley Labour Party’s 120th anniversary went pretty well. We had a capacity audience...