So this is the new politics. On 22 June chancellor George Osborne’s budget unveiled the government’s intention to cut public spending harder and faster than any time since the second world war. Despite prime minister David Cameron’s claims that the budget would somehow “protect the poor”, and Osborne’s now infamous remark that “we’re all...
Crises of capitalism
Radical sociologist DAVID HARVEY provides a clear and concise analysis of the recent financial crisis and asks if it’s time to look beyond capitalism to a new social order. “Any sensible person now would join an anti-capitalist organisation,” he says. “We have a duty to change our mode of thinking.” Click here for Harvey’s...
Towards an ILP Perspective
The following is a statement – ‘a modest perspective’ – prepared by the ILP’s National Administrative Council for discussion at the 2010 ILP Weekend Seminar, ‘After the Election, What Next for the Left?’, to be held in Scarborough on 5-6 June. We hope it will stimulate comment and debate here on the website, at...
Cutting Public Debt: Economic science or class war?
We must reject the lies and misrepresentations in this phoniest of elections, says HUGO RADICE This week’s major intervention in the election campaign has surely been the call by the Institute for Fiscal Studies for the major parties to ‘come clean’ about their strategies for reducing the public sector debt, if elected. The IFS report...
After the election, what next for the left?
What will the election mean for the left? Where will it leave the Labour Party? How should the ILP respond? Whatever the results we will want to talk about it. If you do too, come to the ILP’s 2010 Round Table Seminar in Scarborough on 5/6 June. Admission is free and accommodation is available...
Kurdistan’s message of hope for Iraq
Iraq could work if the steady success of its Kurdistan Region is supported and spreads throughout the country. GARY KENT reports from a fact-finding mission The Kurdistan region of Iraq enjoyed a head start over the rest of the country. Its 1991 uprising ousted Saddam’s genocidal forces which had murdered nearly 200,000 Kurds at...
Disaffiliation and its aftermath
For all its fascinating detail and insights, IAN BULLOCK wants more from Gidon Cohen’s The Failure of a Dream This account of the ILP in the 1930s begins with an outline of the party’s history during the seven years between leaving the Labour Party and the outbreak of war. The second chapter looks at...
Desperate times
Could this be the last Labour government? DAVID CONNOLLY looks at the Compass group’s call for electoral reform The left wing pressure group Compass has an impressive record of campaigning on a wide range of issues, attempting, with some success, to challenge the neo-liberal agenda that shapes much of government policy. Whatever the outcome...
The Failure of a Dream
A recent book provides a “just about” convincing argument that the ILP’s decline in the 1930s was not an inevitable consequence of disaffiliation. CHRISTOPHER HALL reviews Gidon Cohen’s welcome attempt to fill a gap in ILP history The history of the Independent Labour Party from its foundation until it was disaffiliated from the Labour...
Sticks in Time
The Lost Revolution: the story of the Official IRA and the Workers’ Party, is a riveting tale, but it underplays their influence on the British Labour movement, says Gary Kent. The Troubles have produced a vast library but this is the first major history of an overlooked but influential movement: the Official IRA and...
The Good Society Debate
Across the continent, the left’s response to the recent economic crisis has been poor, verging on non-existent, just when the situation demanded a credible alternative to the dominant political and economic orthodoxy. That’s the starting point for a Europe-wide online debate on the future of social democracy hosted by the Soundings and Social Europe...
Stop the BNP
If you haven’t already done so you can protest about the BBC extending a hand of friendship to the BNP via the Hope not Hate website. On Thursday afternoon (22 October) Hope not Hate are going to the BBC to deliver the Question Time presenter, David Dimbleby, thousands of messages of hope from supporters....