As a 20-year-old member of the Independent Labour party, Hetty Bower from Hackney in East London supported the General Strike, which lasted from 4-13 May 1926. She is now 106 years old, but remembers it vividly....
The crisis, Europe and the left
Successes for left parties in France and Greece are welcome signs of resistance to the right’s austerity measures. But the legacies of the economic crisis mean there are no easy choices for Europe’s social democrats, argues WILL BROWN. Electoral advances for the left in Europe are long overdue coming after a succession of defeats and...
How to overcome the north-south divide
The secretary and chair of the Hannah Mitchell Foundation will speak at a public meeting in Chesterfield on May Day to discuss how to tackle the growing north-south divide. ...
Crisis, Markets and Protest
Today capitalism is news. Talk about capitalist crisis is widespread in ways that have not been heard for decades. Yet, it is the forces of the right that continue to dominate politically, even though the system they most strongly espouse is facing severe upheavals. Often discredited, social democratic parties are struggling to get a...
Socialism with a Northern Accent
“There is much in the British socialist tradition that has been forgotten or ignored, and which runs counter to state centralism, in particular a stress on grass-roots solutions, co-operation and an emphasis on local culture. Applied imaginatively, these traditions open up the possibility of creating a popular democratic culture which reflects different but complementary...
Beyond Blue Labour
Marc Stears, Professor of Political Theory at Oxford University, spoke at Leeds University earlier this month on democracy and the politics of protest. BARRY WINTER reports....
Stop Kony, stop thinking?
In the past week, the ‘Stop Kony’ campaign, aimed at the arrest of African ‘warlord’ Joseph Kony, leader of the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army, has become an unlikely internet phenomenon. There is an undoubted justice to the campaign to the extent that, as the LRA leader, Kony is responsible for crimes against humanity stretching...
Recognising the Anfal genocide
A campaign is launched this week to urge the UK government to recognise the genocide against the people of Iraqi Kurdistan. The aim is to collect 100,000 signatures on an e-petition to trigger a parliamentary debate. GARY KENT reports....
Hannah Mitchell Foundation launched
More than 120 people attended the launch of the Hannah Mitchell Foundation at Bradford City Hall on Friday 9 March. It was “a cracking start” according to the organisation's president Linda Riordan MP. “The meeting showed a sense of purpose and feeling on the issues facing the north,” she said. “It shows that there is...
‘A triumph for activism’
The Working Class Movement Library, which houses some of the ILP archives, has won the national Museums at Night contest to stage an international artist event in May. The Salford-based library beat Quay Arts on the Isle of Wight and the Guernsey Museum in a public vote described as 'a triumph of activism' by its...
Writing the Con: Housing and the Big Society
A big society can't be a good society unless it's underpinned by decent housing, according to Labour MP Karen Buck. MATTHEW BROWN reports on the launch of two new Chartist pamphlets....
Crisis and a new economy
The present crisis shows that our economic model needs a radical re-design, according to Tim Jenkins of the New Economics Foundation, guest speaker at the latest 'Dialogues in Politics and Culture' event organised by the Leeds Taking Soundings group....