Labour in Crisis Revisited

When Eric Preston died in September 2020, the ILP lost one of its leading writers and thinkers, a man who – in the words of David Connolly’s obituary – “was ahead of his time” in thinking through the dilemmas and difficulties faced by a Labour left operating within a cautious party and against a...

Compass Calls on Labour to Cease Faction Fighting

Campaign group Compass has called on the Labour Party’s central office to stop the “spurious and factional dismissal of talent and breadth” in its current round of candidate selections, a process that’s seen “favoured candidates of the leadership waved through” while others are blocked or penalised....

Labour’s Deep Divide

TREVOR FISHER examines the causes and consequences of Labour’s often bitter splits into hard left and right factions. The soft left could provide the bridge, he says, but it remains organisationally weak and politically invisible....

Labour’s Constitutional Challenge

The rise of nationalism at home and abroad makes tackling the constitution vital for Labour, says TREVOR FISHER. The Starmer team needs to map out a coherent alternative both to Tory-style unionism and independence. The answer lies partly in Corbyn’s manifesto....

Can Labour Remain the Party of Labour?

VINCE MILLS marks the 90th anniversary of the Independent Labour Party’s disaffiliation from the Labour Party in July 1932 by calling for the current Labour left to stick with the party and not add to the long list of failed attempts to build a socialist alternative....

In the Shadow of the Mine

LEWIS MATES reviews a new book that charts the decline of former mining communities in Durham and south Wales, and explores the political and cultural consequences of their demise....

Labour & the Constitution

WILL BROWN reflects on a recent Compass paper on electoral reform, the union and devolution, that calls for Labour to be far more radical on constitutional reform than the current debates over proportional representation. ...

Social-Democracy with a Hyphen

The Social-Democratic Federation had various names and endured many splits during its existence, but at its best it embodied the crucial and often neglected link between socialism and democracy. PAUL MAYNE reviews a new book on one of Labour’s founding organisations....