GRAHAM TAYLOR recounts the tale of a long-forgotten Bermondsey ILPer who once scored a crucial goal for England before joining the church in south east London where he was a keen supporter of Ada and Alfred Salter....
Marching Altogether: Lessons of the Jarrow Crusade
MATT PERRY marks the 85th anniversary of the Jarrow Crusade with a call for the revival of the grassroots campaigning politics that roused the marchers on their month-long trek and helped Labour recover from electoral disaster in the 1930s....
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....
Nelson’s Selina Cooper Project Finally Opens to the Public
The Selina Cooper project and exhibition at Nelson’s Unity Hall will finally open to the public this Saturday with a launch event to celebrate the history of the building, and the community of ILPers and socialists who built and ran it more than 100 years ago....
Eric Preston: The ILP’s Optimistic Pessimist
DAVID CONNOLLY celebrates the political thinking of Eric Preston, the ILP activist and theoretician who died a year ago....
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....
French Lessons for the British Left
The Parti Socialist Unifie ceased to exist more than 30 years ago. But, as one-time member GARY KENT suggests, its grit, principle and foresight has much to teach the modern left on both sides of the Channel....
Pedal Power: Has the Clarion Lost its Calling?
News that the Clarion Cycling Club has dropped its historical association with socialism made national headlines last week as critical voices lamented the demise of one of the left’s oldest institutions. So has the Clarion changed gear? Not quite, explains the club’s former chair, IAN BULLOCK....
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....
Celebrating Selina at Unity Hall
It’s been a long, hard journey for the Selina Cooper project team in Nelson, from a dusty archive in the local library to a long-delayed public launch at one of the town’s oldest buildings. But with Covid restrictions finally easing, their struggle to commemorate the locality’s proud socialist history is finally coming to fruition....
ILP Profiles: Ethel Carnie Holdsworth – Poet, Campaigner & Pioneering Writer
ROGER SMALLEY recounts the life of a Blackburn ILPer who wanted her work ‘to sting people into rebellion against poverty and fire their hearts with a cause’. Ethel Carnie left an impressive legacy of dissent that continues to have relevance today....