Every government since New Labour has made education its top priority yet inequality still runs through the system from top to bottom. So why have they failed and how can Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party win support for a return to the principles and values of the comprehensive system? That was the question raised by...
The Road to Brexit: Why We Are So Divided
Our society is deeply divided and full of uncertainty. HUGO RADICE asks how we got here and wonders what it might take to create a more equal and united world....
Taking Back Control of our Money Supply
It’s widely assumed that the Bank of England creates money, but only 3% of the money in circulation is physical cash. The other 97 per cent is produced online by the big, commercial banks. And what’s more they make whopping profits from doing so....
The Strike that Changed the Rules
BARRY WINTER reviews the second edition of Jack Dromey and Graham Taylor’s book about the Grunwick dispute which has been republished by Lawrence & Wishart to mark the strike’s 40th anniversary. Forty years ago an amazing trade-union struggle took place in Brent in north London. Beginning very locally at the Grunwick Photo Processing Plant in...
New Labour and the Roots of Labour’s Crisis, Part 2
HARRY BARNES continues his investigation of the state of Labour, looking at the failures of the Miliband leadership, the basis for Jeremy Corbyn’s triumph and the prospects for party unity. I have never met Ed Miliband and only went to hear one or two of his platform speeches. However, I do feel that he was...
Orgreave: Still Waiting for Justice
The news that there will not be a public inquiry into the events at Orgreave during the 1984-85 miners’ strike was described by Labour’s Andy Burnham as ‘an estabishment stitch-up’. GERRY LAVERY recalls what happened 32 years ago and reports on the campaigners’ fights for justice. The news that there will not be a public...
A Visit to Glen Cottage
STEVE THOMPSON visited a Lancashire youth hostel this summer and found a memorial to one of the ILP’s founders and pioneers that is now fighting to survive. For a long time I have intended to get to know more about Lancashire, so in June this year I looked up a youth hostel in the county...
New Labour and the Roots of Labour’s Crisis, Part 1
In the first of a two-part examination of the state of the Labour Party, HARRY BARNES looks at the roots of Jeremy Corbyn’s rise and the Party’s turmoil. He begins with New Labour’s emergence after the death of John Smith. I start by referring to a period during my own time as an MP when...
Labour on the Brink: Debating the Party’s Future
It seems hard to believe that the 2015 general election was only 18 months ago, so profound has been the change in the political landscape since the Tories’ unexpected triumph. For Labour, the political and emotional traumas of that defeat have been resonating ever since as it’s reeled from Jeremy Corbyn’s shock victory in last...
Corbyn Urged to Speak Out on Syria
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been urged to speak out against “the ongoing slaughter of civilians by Russian and Assad-regime forces in Syria” by party members, Momentum activists and socialists, including many self-declared Corbyn supporters. Signatories to the open letter, published online on 3 October, declare their “wholehearted” agreement with Corbyn’s opposition to militarism and...
New Website Marks 80 Years Since Cable Street
Hope not Hate have launched a new website to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street when the people of the east end of London united to halt Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists (BUF) from marching through Stepney. The fascists were subjected to a humiliating defeat as the police...
Jayaben Desai and the ILP Tradition
Saturday 20 August 2016 marked the 40th anniversary of the day when Jayaben Desai walked out of the Grunwick photo-developing company in London, igniting a strike which drew support from thousands. GRAHAM TAYLOR remembers the woman whose dignity in dispute recalled the ethical traditions of the ILP. For Jayaben Desai, the Grunwick strike was about...