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....
Bob Smillie, one of the ILP’s most prominent Spanish Civil War volunteers, will be honoured in Valencia on Tuesday 14 May when a specially commissioned plaque is unveiled close to his grave....
Labour seems divided over ideology and strategy, between the ‘old’ left and ‘new’. BEN SELLERS traces the history of Labour left groups over the last few years and calls for a new bridge across the generational divide....
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....
A one-man ‘magic lantern’ performance of Robert Tressell’s classic book, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, is currently touring the country to rave reviews....
A bid to reprint Towards Democracy, the seminal poem of Sheffield radical and founding ILPer Edward Carpenter, has been kickstarted with a crowdfunding campaign by the new co-operative publishing company, Millthorpe Press....
Durham Labour Left, a group of democratic socialists based in the north east, is organising a regional conference for local Labour Party members on Sunday 21 October....
Britain’s self-styled “oldest democratic socialist publication” was relaunched at Labour Party conference this week with new owners and a new editor....
Jeremy Corbyn’s rise is only the latest in a long line of left-wing ‘corrections’ to a rightward drift in the Labour Party, which date from before it was even founded, argues GRAHAM TAYLOR....
Until recently, pioneering ILPer Ada Salter was little known in her home town of Raunds. GRAHAM TAYLOR reports on the first event ever to celebrate her legacy in the Northamptonshire town....
IAN BULLOCK assesses the record of the ILP between the wars and seeks to draw a few lessons for Labour and the left today. All in all, he says, the influence of the radical and democratic ILP on the Labour Party of the later 20th century was an extremely positive one....
The ILP archives at the London School of Economics is regarded as a “key heritage collection” by the library’s politics curator, DANIEL PAYNE. It contains a huge variety of fascinating material dating from the organisation’s birth 125 years ago, and covering much of its rich history as a significant force in shaping the outlook...