Like many working-class socialists, Blackburn ILPer Johnnie Duxbury left only a faint footprint on the historical record. Yet his life of brave activism and everyday kindness ‘enriches our understanding of socialist commitment’, argues ROGER SMALLEY....
BARRY WINTER remembers Arthur Raistrick, the writer, geologist, pacifist, educator and ILPer who became the ‘Dalesman of the Millennium’. Arthur Raistrick was born in 1896 into a working class family in the model industrial village of Saltaire in Yorkshire. His mother, Minnie, together with other relatives, worked at the famous Salt’s textile Mill. His father,...
PAUL SALVESON laments the decline of labour and socialist clubs. But while many are closing, he says, at least one is being re-born in a new co-operative guise....
This year marks the 120th anniversary of the ILP, a milestone in British political history that we aim to celebrate over the next 12 months. The Independent Labour Party was founded on 13 January 1893 when some 120 delegates gathered at the Labour Institute in Bradford to create a national political party to represent working...
Strongholds of the ILP The ILP had branches across Britain. In some places, it was not only strong but influential. Growth depended heavily on local political and economic conditions, and on the qualities and energies of the people drawn to the “rising sun of socialism”. England & Wales The first strongholds of the ILP...
Links —- Harry Barnes Blogsite of former Labour MP Harry Barnes: http://threescoreyearsandten.blogspot.com —- Chartist Website of Chartist magazine for democratic socialism: www.chartist.org.uk Chartist styles itself the radical alternative, read by those who want politics beyond mainstream slogans and banal cliches. —- Clarion House Website of Clarion House, a co-operative cafe in the ‘Hidden Valley’...
Latest Events Orwell to be honoured by International Brigades The International Brigades Memorial Trust is holding a special event to mark the 75th anniversary of George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. The Len Crome Memorial Lecture, ‘George Orwell: Homage to Catalonia 75 Years On’, will be held on Saturday 2 March 2013 at the Manchester Conference...
Labour MP Jon Cruddas has written a sweeping history of the party over the last 100 years, assessing its record, its leaders and the ideas that underpin it. IAN BULLOCK follows the ups and downs....
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....
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....
The first ever biography of socialist pioneer and Burnley Labour MP Dan Irving is due to be published by Nelson ILP Land Society....
We live in challenging times. Decades of insecurity and rampant inequality are generating widespread anger and intolerance. All too often this animosity is directed at the victims of injustice rather than its perpetrators or the system that generates it. Ours is a damaged society where political disenchantment is tangible. At home and globally, too...