The Rose Bowl at Leeds Beckett University was the venue for the ILP’s second Unbalanced Britain seminar on 14 March, examining the campaign for a living wage and Labour’s response. The recession and its lop-sided recovery have left millions of working people in poverty, claimed Tom Chigbo of Leeds Citizens. Addressing the latest ILP seminar...
Reasons for Hope?
HARRY BARNES picks apart the Labour Party’s policy process and finds a raft of positive proposals. He just wishes they were being delivered in a less piecemeal way....
Last Chance to Book for the ILP’s Unbalanced Britain Seminar
It’s the last chance to book for the ILP’s free Unbalanced Britain seminar on ‘Work, Wages and Labour’ in Leeds this Saturday, 14 March. The second in the ILP’s Unbalanced Britain series, this one-day workshop will explore on-going changes in the labour market and work conditions, their political and social consequences, and what is being...
One afternoon, 100 Speakers, One Hell-of-an Experience
BARRY WINTER was intrigued, confused and stimulated by the recent Compass carnival in London, the second of its ‘Change: How?’ events....
Miliband Promises New Rights to Co-op Ownership
Labour leader Ed Miliband committed to “put co-operative values at the heart of Labour’s platform for government” on Friday (6 February), saying that if Labour wins the general election workers will have the right to buy out the firm they work for when it comes up for sale or is threatened with closure. Writing in...
Greece Must Not Stand Alone
Support for the new Greek government is vital and in Labour’s interests, argues MIKE DAVIS. Hope, dignity, bread could summarise the slogans of the newly elected Syriza party in Greece. It has been an historic victory, the first radical left party to be democratically elected in Europe since the Second World war. Expectations of the...
Commit to Publicly-Owned Services, Labour Told
The We Own It campaign is lobbying for the Labour Party to include a Public Services Users’ Bill in its election manifesto, and calling for all supporters of publicly-owned services to put pressure on Labour’s shadow minister for procurement, Jon Trickett....
Support Grows for Syriza’s New Model Politics
Support for Greece’s new Syriza-led anti-austerity government is growing on the British left with Labour MPs putting their weight behind an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons and an open letter published in today’s Guardian (27 January). According to the Greece Solidarity Campaign, the EDM is already backed by 12 MPs, while the...
Unbalanced Britain: Work, Wages and Labour
Since the crash of 2008 the dominance of corporate elites has remained largely unchanged and unchallenged. Instead we have seen ever-increasing pressure on wages and conditions of work, zero hours contracts and cuts to in-work benefits. The ILP’s second seminar in its Unbalanced Britain series on Saturday 14 March will explore the on-going changes in...
GMB Welcomes Labour’s Election Pledges
The GMB union has welcomed the Labour Party’s election pledges to put working people and trade unionists at the centre of the 2015 general election....
The Case for Democratic Devolution
In recent decades our society has become seriously and, indeed, dangerously unbalanced in a series of crucial, yet interlinked, ways. BARRY WINTER argues that regional devolution could play an important part in re-democratising and re-balancing society. Unbalanced Britain is being subjected to growing poverty and widening social inequalities generally; to increasing and irresponsible financial and...
Yorkshire Celebrates Tom Paine’s Birthday
The Sheffield School of Democratic Socialism is revising a practice of 1820s British radicals by holding a meeting at the end of January in celebration of Tom Paine’s birthday....