BARRY WINTER introduces the ILP’s new perspective document, The ILP: Our Politics, arguing that our political morality forms the basis of our critique of capitalism. When you look back at the history of the left in politics, whether in the UK or internationally, you could be forgiven thinking that with its often terrible record,...
A Sustaining Weekend
Around 40 ILP members, friends and fellow travellers gathered in Scarborough on 7/8 May for the organisations’s annual weekend school, where the politics of the ILP, the coalition government and the Labour Party came under scrutiny. “Why have people like us not given up?” asked Barry Winter at the start of two days of...
Labour, the left, and capitalism
An interview with Harry Barnes, former Labour MP and ILP friend, which appears on the Irish Labour Watch website: http://irishlabourwatch.wordpress.com Harry talks about his political influences, the politics of Northern Ireland, Iraq, Libya, new Labour, the Robin Hood Tax, and much more besides. Read the full interview here. Read Harry Barnes’ own blog here....
31 51 81: Why Labour stayed in opposition, part 3
The third part of BARRY WINTER’s report on a conference to explore Labour’s lost decades, held on Rotherham on 19 March. Part 3: the 1950s and the 1980s The 1950s Mark Wickham-Jones argued that some important reasons why Labour did not do so well in the 1950s have been neglected. Apart from a team...
Combating the Coalition, Constructing an Alternative
The 2011 ILP Weekend School Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 May 2011 On the agenda: the politics of the Conservative-led government and the growing opposition to the cuts the challenges facing the Labour leadership rebuilding the party’s internal democracy (we will be discussing the Party’s Refounding Labour review and consultation document) the ILP’s political...
31 51 81: Why Labour stayed in opposition, part 2
The second part of BARRY WINTER’s report on a conference to explore Labour’s lost decades, held on Rotherham on 19 March. Part 2: the 1930s David Howell disagreed with Hobsbawm’s notion of Labour’s continued forward march during the 1930s; the pattern of support was more complex. Electorally the ‘terms of trade’ were...
31 51 81: Why Labour stayed in opposition
BARRY WINTER reports on a conference to explore Labour’s lost decades, held on Rotherham on 19 March. Andrew Gamble began by offering some opening pointers to Labour’s lost decades. First, the long Conservative hegemony which means that it has been in office for two-thirds of the last 90 years. Since 1918, the Conservatives have...
Marching for an alternative
The TUC’s anti-cuts protest was a good start, but much remains to be done to turn this widespread opposition into a movement that can really challenge the government. Saturday’s TUC march against government cuts exceeded most expectations in terms of size and the good nature of the protest. Giving a proverbial two fingers to...
Is Compass losing direction?
The recent decision by Compass, the centre left pressure group, to open up to members of all parties has prompted a series of resignations. MATTHEW BROWN looks at the implications for advocates of progressive realignment. Last Saturday (12 March), a group of Compass members wrote a letter to the Guardian announcing their decision to...
Sheffield’s day of rage?
William Brown reports on the protest at the Liberal Democrats spring conference in Sheffield and argues that the anti-cuts movement urgently needs to find leadership and popular appeal....
Compass: a wider view or loss of focus?
The left of centre think tank, Compass, is currently consulting and balloting its members on proposals to become more ‘pluralistic’ by allowing full voting membership to members of political parties other than Labour. It would be easy to regard this debate as relevant only to Compass itself, and those with an unhealthy interest in...
Education is a social good, not a commodity
On 7 December, former New Statesman editor Peter Wilby wrote in The Guardian that Ed Miliband was wrong to oppose the government’s proposals to treble tuition fees. Here, BERNARD HUGHES says his argument is based on a view of education as a commodity not a social good. Peter Wilby’s argument has two main problems....