This year marks the 130th anniversary of the ILP, a milestone in British political history that we aim to mark and celebrate over the next 12 months in a number of ways....
ILP Profiles: Sarah Reddish – A Neglected Lancashire Hero
PAUL SALVESON hails the work of a north-west ILPer and intrepid co-operator whose life and achievements are finally due to be commemorated nearly a century after her death....
Fenner Brockway & the Return of ‘Hungry England’
CHRISTOPHER OLEWICZ looks back 90 years at Fenner Brockway’s ground-breaking report on destitution in 1930s Britain. With the current cost of living crisis, he asks, is ‘literal starvation’ once again stalking the nation’s poorest communities?...
ILP Profiles: Andrew Amos – Socialism’s Centre Half
GRAHAM TAYLOR recounts the tale of a long-forgotten Bermondsey ILPer who once scored a crucial goal for England before joining the church in south east London where he was a keen supporter of Ada and Alfred Salter....
Waiting for the Workers
IAN BULLOCK reviews an unusual and valuable account of the ILP before, during and immediately after the Second World War, a period when it hovered on the brink of virtual extinction....
How the ILP’s Vision Created the Labour Party
It is a common misconception that trade unions founded the Labour Party in 1900. Not so, says JOHN H GRIGG. It was the ILP that drove the initiative....
Throwing a Spotlight on ILP Women
To mark International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we are highlighting the lives of nine ILP women who played important roles in the early years of the Labour movement. All of them were tireless campaigners for women’s votes and gender equality, and against war and poverty....
Forgotten Women
JAIME REYNOLDS reveals the remarkable achievements of four unknown ILP women who became important local government leaders between the wars but have since been left out of Labour history....
Natural Born Rebel
PAULINE BRYAN reviews a major new biography of Sylvia Pankhurst – suffragette, class warrior and tireless campaigner against racism, fascism and imperialism. ‘Her big life deserves such a big book.’...
Keir Hardie & the Power of Anger
Labour’s founder is often presented as old and sad at the state of the world. But, argues PAULINE BRYAN in the Introduction to her latest volume of essays, his main motivation wasn’t sadness, but anger....
Orwell and the ILP
On the 70th anniversary of his death aged 46, BENEDICT COOPER assesses George Orwell’s relationship with the ILP and its effect on his life, writing and politics. ‘The ILP helped shape Orwell and he helped secure, and clarify, the ILP’s once-maligned place in history.’...
Making Socialists in Great Yarmouth
East Anglia is hardly known as a bedrock of the early ILP. But as MIKE WADSWORTH illustrates in his portrait of the Great Yarmouth branch before the First World War, local ILPers were as committed and passionate in their socialism as any of the organisation’s more famous figures....