Debating the Future of Public Ownership

“Public ownership used to be out in the wilderness; now it’s all the rage,” claims the publicity for an event organised by the Independent Working Class Education Network to debate the future shape of the public sector....

Ways Forward Through Co-operative Solidarity

DAVID CONNOLLY reports from last week’s Co-operative Solidarity conference in Manchester. “Co-ops are at the heart of Labour’s economic programme.” That was the key message from Shadow Business Minister Rebecca Long-Bailey at the Co-operative Solidarity conference. Drawing attention to the ‘right to own’ commitment in Labour’s election manifesto last year, she said that a Labour...

Back to the Future: Re-balancing Education

Every government since New Labour has made education its top priority yet inequality still runs through the system from top to bottom. So why have they failed and how can Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party win support for a return to the principles and values of the comprehensive system? That was the question raised by...

A Visit to Glen Cottage

STEVE THOMPSON visited a Lancashire youth hostel this summer and found a memorial to one of the ILP’s founders and pioneers that is now fighting to survive. For a long time I have intended to get to know more about Lancashire, so in June this year I looked up a youth hostel in the county...

Keep It Co-op – Again!

The Keep It Co-op campaign has been re-launched just a year after winning a resounding victory in a vote to retain the historic link between the Co-operative Group and the Co-operative party....