HARRY BARNES picks out a few problems and positives from the Labour leader’s recent Fabian pamphlet....
United by the Struggle
MARY STRATFORD reviews a joint memoir from two remarkable women who were thrust into the spotlight by the 1984 miners’ strike and found a shared sense of values, commitment and joy. ‘It is so rare to see a book in which defiant working-class women are able to recount their own tales and define their own...
Waiting for the Workers
IAN BULLOCK reviews an unusual and valuable account of the ILP before, during and immediately after the Second World War, a period when it hovered on the brink of virtual extinction....
Carpenter’s Long-lost Co-op Pamphlet Re-published
A long forgotten pamphlet by Edward Carpenter extolling the virtues and advantages of co-operatives has been re-published by the Yorkshire Co-operative Resource Centre, Principle 5....
The (Unbelievable) Intrigues of Jennie Lee
KATH CONNOLLY finds the latest book on the mould-breaking ILPer and Labour MP an unlikely and infuriating mix of fact and fiction....
ILP Profiles: Allen Clarke – A Radical Writer Remembered
Allen Clarke was a well-known figure in the north of England socialist movement between the early 1890s and 1930s, yet today he is virtually forgotten. PAUL SALVESON recalls the extraordinary achievements of a working class writer and romantic radical who deserves a larger legacy....
Brockway’s Book & the Post-Covid Search for a Utopian Future
How can progressives describe the society they wish to build if they cannot first imagine it? CHRISTOPHER OLEWICZ recalls Fenner Brockway’s forgotten novel and laments the lack of utopian fiction for a post-Covid world....
Work, Community & Labour’s Renewal
PAUL SALVESON reviews The Dignity of Labour by Labour MP Jon Cruddas, a fascinating engagement with the changing nature of employment and a thoughtful search for a popular, progressive politics that can provide a clear alternative to the Tories....
Bordered Minds: A Century of Division in Northern Ireland
GARY KENT reflects on the 100th anniversary of partition on 3 May and the distorted thinking that for decades dominated left-wing approaches to the province, the Troubles and the sectarian divide. ...
Brexitland: A New Landscape for the Left
BEN SALTONSTALL reviews a powerful and timely study of the influence of identity politics on recent British history. It’s an analysis the left must consider if Labour is ever to rise from the ashes of 2019....
Nelson ILP to Publish First Irving Biography
The first ever biography of socialist pioneer and Burnley Labour MP Dan Irving is due to be published by Nelson ILP Land Society....
The Orwell Society Talks to Eileen’s Biographer
The Orwell Society has released the latest recording in its online ‘George Talks’ series featuring an interview with Sylvia Topp, author of the highly-regarded biography of Orwell’s first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy....