Angst over the invasion of Iraq in 2003 shouldn’t prevent the left offering real solidarity to Iraqi Kurds in 2014, argues GARY KENT. The Kurds have long been a cause celebre for the international left. Iraqi Kurds were victims of genocide and all Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria were denied basic rights. Support...
Now for the Hard Part
While the No victory in the Scottish referendum was a huge relief to many, the political minefield the campaign left behind means there is much hard work to do before we’ll see any renewal of Labour and the UK left. WILL BROWN reports. The No vote means that we have avoided many problems independence would...
Beware New Threat to the Co-op Party
After a turbulent 18 months, the recent changes to the Co-op Group’s rules were no great shock. But, says JACK STREET, the new structure could lead to funding problems for the Co-op Party in years to come....
Labour’s ‘New Approach’ Outlined by Cruddas
“Labour stands for big reform without big spending,” writes Jon Cruddas in the preface to his new pamphlet on the party’s recently completed policy review, a publication published today that claims to set out “Labour’s new approach in a time of financial constraint”....
Scotland’s Referendum: Why the Left Should Oppose Independence
Far from being a certain route to social democracy, as some suggest, Scottish independence is a short-cut to nowhere, says WILL BROWN. We need a longer term strategy for a progressive unionist future. A key argument on the left of centre in Scotland, repeated this week by George Monbiot in the Guardian, is that independence...
WWI: Harold Croft and the Northampton Anti-War Campaign
JOHN BUCKELL describes the life and times of Northampton ILPer Harold Croft, who faced prison, hardship and abuse for being a conscientious objector and anti-war activist. On 9 November 1920, at statutory meetings all over England, borough councils elected mayors and aldermen. Almost always these were a formality, the results agreed in advance between the...
WWI: Resisting the War in Hebden Royd & Calder Valley
JONATHAN TIMBERS looks at the activity of ILP branches in the Upper Calder valley in the period before conscription was introduced in 1916, when the British army relied on volunteers to fight the Germans. It was the period before conscientious objection. The story reveals a lot about the troubled relationship developing between the ILP and...
ILP Profiles: Morgan Jones and the First World War
WAYNE DAVID recounts the life of Morgan Jones, an ILP councillor and anti-war activist who emerged from the hardship of prison to become the first conscientious objector elected to Parliament. Morgan Jones was born on 3 May 1885 in the village of Gelligaer at the foot of Gelligaer mountain. His birthplace was the small Rhos...
ILP Profiles: Clifford Allen – The ILP’s Enigmatic Thinker
DAVID HOWELL recounts the life and career of Clifford Allen, an ILP chairman and editor between the wars, whose marginalised political vision was, perhaps, a lost alternative for the party and the progressive movement. Reginald Clifford Allen was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, on 9 May 1889. His father owned a drapery business; his mother died...
Unbalanced Britain: Wealth, Power and Poverty
ILP members and friends gathered at the Circle conference centre in Sheffield at the end of June for the first in a series of one-day workshops on ‘Unbalanced Britain’....
Blue Labour Thinkers Gather in Nottingham
Blue Labour thinkers, supporters and activists met at Nottingham University on 5 July to discuss ‘The Strength of Association: in the Family, Community and Workplace’....
Unbalanced Britain: Corporate Power and our Me-Based Culture
Over the past 30 years the New Right, aided and abetted in some respects by New Labour, has introduced changes that have profoundly damaged, not only our economy, but British culture and politics. The result, says BARRY WINTER, is a seriously unbalanced society. We live in an era of what the American philosopher, Michael Sandel,...