Chair DAVID CONNOLLY was one of a number of ILPers who attended the commemoration of Spanish Civil War volunteer, Bob Smillie, in Valencia today (Tuesday 14 May). Here is his speech to the gathering in Spain where a specially commissioned plaque was unveiled....
Dossier Delivers New Doubt on Smillie’s Civil War Death
The long-lost prison files of Bob Smillie, one of the ILP’s most notable Spanish Civil War volunteers, have finally been unearthed in Valencia, casting new doubts on the official version of his mysterious death in 1937....
The Causes and Cures of Brexit
“The Brexit vote was the biggest single democratic revolution the UK has experienced in decades,” according to Neal Lawson of Compass, whose new report brings together more than 20 short essays…...
Shadow Foreign Secretary to Give Hopper Memorial Lecture
Two of Labour’s leading women shadow ministers will take centre stage at the second Dave Hopper Memorial Lecture on the eve of the Durham Miners’ Gala in what will be a fitting climax to Education 4 Action’s week-long fringe programme called ‘Politics, Pits and Protest’....
With Orwell, Cottman and Quinto in Catalonia
ILP Chair DAVID CONNOLLY reports on his visit to Catalonia last year to mark the 80th anniversary of George Orwell’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War. George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia is one of the great books of political literature of the 20th century. It records his time in Spain as a volunteer with the...
Remember The Ebro: Commemorative Tour
The North West Trade Union International Committee (NWTUIC) is organising a trip to Spain next April to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Ebro, the last great offensive against Franco. ...
1917: Revolution Then and Now
‘The revolution is dead, long live the revolution’ is the theme of an afternoon seminar in London on Saturday 21 October to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution in 1917....
Campaign to Honour Spanish Civil War Heroes
Sculptor Frank Casey is aiming to raise £5,000 through a crowdfunding campaign to cast busts of Spanish Civil War heroes Bob Smillie and John Cornford....
Prisoners of Conscience
The experiences of Fenner Brockway and Eamonn de Valera in Lincoln Prison during World War One will be discussed at an event on freedom, justice and equality at Lincoln’s Bishop Grosseteste University in September....
Barcelona May Days: 80 Years On
The street-fighting that took place in Barcelona in May 1937 remains one of the most controversial episodes of the Spanish Civil War. Hundreds died as the city was criss-crossed by a labyrinth of barricades....
Commemorating the Leeds Convention of 1917
The 100th anniversary of an historic mass Labour and Socialist Convention held in support of the Russian Revolution at Leeds Coliseum in 1917 will be marked at a one-day event in the same city on 3 June this year. ...
Tribute to Claudia Jones at WCML
To mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, the Working Class Movement Library is hosting a talk by Marika Sherwood on Claudia Jones, the Trinidad-born communist, feminist, peace activist, orator, journalist and founder of the biggest street festival in Europe....