English Heritage marked International Women’s Day today (8 March) by erecting one their famous blue plaques to honour the life and achievements of ILPer Ada Salter who in 1922 became the first Labour woman in Britain to be elected mayor and the first woman mayor of a London borough....
Before he died, Walter Smith wrote a personal account of growing up in a left-wing household at the start of the 20th century. It is, says MATTHEW BROWN, a poignant reflection on the hopes and failures of the socialist movement....
The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign has issued a statement of labour movement solidarity to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion on 24 February 2022....
Socialist historian IAN BULLOCK marks the ILP’s 130th anniversary by reflecting on its fateful decision to disaffiliate from Labour and his own relationship with the Party, drawing pointers for today’s left about the unhappy consequences of separation....
Founded in Bradford on 13 January 1893, the ILP marked its 130th anniversary this month when 130 socialists, activists and community workers came together ‘to create a positive collective vision of what a society that works for everyone might look like’. MARY STRATFORD reports. ...
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....
George Orwell’s celebrated book on the Spanish Civil War is often misinterpreted, says DANNY EVANS. It deserves to be read afresh without political blinkers....
When Eric Preston died in September 2020, the ILP lost one of its leading writers and thinkers, a man who – in the words of David Connolly’s obituary – “was ahead of his time” in thinking through the dilemmas and difficulties faced by a Labour left operating within a cautious party and against a...
SHEILA TAYLOR reflects on the huge success of Southwark’s Salter Centenary project, which comes to an end in January. ‘Throughout the year I kept remembering how historians described the ILP, that it was less of a political party than a way of life,’ she says....
Edith Jacques lived from 1909 until 2012. Her twin sons, Terrance and Ernie, were born in 1938 and, at the age of 84, have written a fine biography of their mother. HARRY BARNES reflects on what we can learn from this tough but enthralling story....
The housing market is broken. And those who rely on rental properties are often at the sharp end, as MARY HULL discovered when her son was forced to find a new home. It’s a dispiriting tale of unscrupulous landlords, powerless tenants and squalid, overpriced flats....
TREVOR FISHER examines the causes and consequences of Labour’s often bitter splits into hard left and right factions. The soft left could provide the bridge, he says, but it remains organisationally weak and politically invisible....