For some, Labour’s 2019 manifesto remains totemic, a badge of faith that all leadership candidates must swear allegiance to. For JONATHAN TIMBERS, however, it is one of the main reason’s for Labour’s defeat....
The New Movement for Political Education
Left-wing political education is needed like never before, argues KEITH VENABLES. And a movement of new and inspiring organisations is offering a way forward....
Recovering from Labour’s Election Trauma
Labour’s general election defeat was worse than anyone expected. ILP chair DAVID CONNOLLY considers some of the reasons and restates four principles for the Party’s conduct as it seeks renewal. ...
The Strange Death of Labour England
The scale of Labour’s election defeat is hard to take in, says JONATHAN TIMBERS. But it has been a long time coming and will take a long time to put right. This election defeat is not only a “disaster”, as John McDonnell correctly said, it is a body blow that might lead to the...
Some Suggested Priorities for Democratic Socialists
To help stimulate debate on the way forward for the left, HARRY BARNES has produced the following wish-list of priorities for democratic socialists. We welcome your thoughts and responses in the comments section below....
Voting Behaviour
Behind the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst were many lesser-known figures in the Votes for Women campaign in the north of England, some of them members of the ILP. ANTONIA CHARLESWORTH remembers their contribution to the fight for women’s suffrage and profiles one Lancashire ILPer who played her part. Manchester’s place in the history of...
Labour and the Corbyn Effect
DAVID CONNOLLY reviews a recent collection of essays that examine Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and seek to map out a possible future for the Party. I recently overheard a conversation in a café in Chester-le-Street that illustrated an on-going problem – namely that despite the many and varied travails of the May government, Labour...
Jack Lawson: A Man’s Life
Harry Barnes’s review of Jack Lawson’s autobiography, A Man’s Life, has been re-published on the North East Labour History website. Like many of his era, Lawson first became politically active through the ILP which he joined in 1904....
Remember The Ebro: Commemorative Tour
The North West Trade Union International Committee (NWTUIC) is organising a trip to Spain next April to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Ebro, the last great offensive against Franco. ...
Cable Street Anniversary Prompts Call for Support
Hope not Hate have marked the 81st anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street with a call for donations towards its current day efforts to “present a steadfast and united opposition to fascism”. The day on 4 October 1936 when the people of the east end of London united to halt Oswald Mosley and his...
The Lessons of 1917 … And All That!
IAN BULLOCK marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution by arguing that the profoundly anti-political stance that took root among Leninists had dire and lasting consequences for socialism in the west....
Orgreave: Still Waiting for Justice
The news that there will not be a public inquiry into the events at Orgreave during the 1984-85 miners’ strike was described by Labour’s Andy Burnham as ‘an estabishment stitch-up’. GERRY LAVERY recalls what happened 32 years ago and reports on the campaigners’ fights for justice. The news that there will not be a public...