A new information hub, library and resource centre for the Yorkshire co-operative movement opened its doors in Sheffield last month....
Rally to Mark Burston School Strike
A rally to mark ‘the longest strike in history’ will be held in Burston, near Diss in Norfolk, on Sunday 1 September....
ILP@120: Martin Haddow – Glasgow’s Social Reformer
HELEN CORR recalls the life of Scottish ILP activist and social reformer Martin Haddow who worked tirelessly to improve the health and education of Glasgow’s working class children. Born on 29 March 1865, William Martin Haddow was the second son of Robert Haddow, a grain merchant and his wife Janet (née Martin). At the time...
Academies Treat Support Staff as ‘Luxuries’
The government’s drive to convert schools to Academies is threatening the jobs and working conditions of the most vulnerable members of school communities, according to the GMB union....
Co-op schools campaign for a level playing field
The Co-operative Party is campaigning for a change in education legislation so that more academy and trust schools can be set up on a co-operative model rather than relying on backing from private companies....
Academies and Lies
The tale of a north London primary school which resisted Michael Gove’s forced academy programme has been captured in a powerful new documentary. MATTHEW BROWN reports. In September 2011, pupils and teachers returned to Downhills Primary in Haringey, north London, for the start of a new school year full of hope and optimism about...
Case Studies of Co-operative Schools
Enforced academisation is not the only way to transform attainment. Co-operative schools raise attainment from within, rather than through the government’s preferred options of involving charities, businesses and for-profit providers. Meanwhile, the co-operative multi-trust model, where a number of schools team up to form a co-operative trust and share resources and expertise, is becoming...
Are Co-operative Schools the Answer?
MERVYN WILSON argues that increasingly popular co-operative schools provide a democratic, community-based alternative to Michael Gove’s attack on state education....
Communications and other Big Issues
The Raymond Williams Foundation is holding a ‘Communications’ residential weekend seminar at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool on 23-25 November....
Co-op weekend to focus on next generation
The new Co-operative Party general secretary, Karin Christiansen, will be guest speaker at the party’s north of England and Scotland weekend school at the end of November....
Present prospects, future hope
“We meet on a weekend of elections,” said ILP chair David Connolly as ILPers and friends gathered in Scarborough on 5/6 May for the organisation’s annual weekend school of political debate and discussion....
A New School for Democratic Socialism
KEN CURRAN introduces a new political education initiative set to launch in Sheffield this autumn Socialism as an idea and as a movement has a long history. But as a consequence of Thatcher’s election in 1979, the triumph of neo-liberalism and the collapse of Communism after 1989, socialism became unpopular. Key figures in Labour...