The Co-operative Bank debacle is a wake-up call for those in the movement who think continuous expansion is always a sign of success. The focus must always be on members, argues EDGAR PARNELL....
Articles
New Online Directory for Sheffield Co-ops
An IT co-operative in Sheffield has set up a new online directory and forum for all co-operative organisations in the city. Developed by Webarchitects (Webarch Co-operative Limited), the site will become a directory, networking and news service for community co-operatives in Sheffield....
ILP@120: Reflections on the ILP’s History
BARRY WINTER celebrates the ILP’s 120th anniversary with a brief survey of its history and consideration of the lessons it can pass on to a left struggling to make headway in our highly disconnected and politically disenchanted society....
ILP@120: Keir Hardie – Labour’s champion
PAUL SIMPSON examines the life and politics of ILP founder Keir Hardie, uncovering staunch principles, distinct traits and personal contradictions. James Keir Hardie was born in Lanarkshire in Scotland in August 1856. At seven he began work as a message boy and by the age of 10 he was working in a mine as a...
ILP@120: Anna Turley to address ILP Weekend School
Prospective Parliamentary candidate Anna Turley will address the ILP’s annual gathering of members and friends at Scarborough’s Esplanade Hotel this weekend. Turley will speak on emerging co-operative alternatives to public sector privatisation as part of a two-day programme of political discussions entitled ‘Ethical Socialism, Capitalism and the State’....
The Future of the NHS
Martin Rathfelder, director of the Socialist Health Association, will speak about the future of the health service at Dronfield Labour Party’s May Day public discussion meeting....
ILP@120: Jennie Lee – A Child of the ILP
KATH CONNOLLY delves into the early life of socialist firebrand Jennie Lee, finding a woman steeped in the ILP and the politics she learned at the family fireside in Fife. Growing up in the 1950s and ’60s I remember Jennie Lee as a small, grey-haired woman, a fiery speaker and chair of Labour Party conference....
The death of Thatcher – your views
Glenn Greenwald writing in the Guardian earlier this week argued that upon their demise public figures are due a frank, rather than a respectful assessment. The ‘death etiquette’ which means we shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, should not apply to public figures. The demand for ‘respectful silence’ is politically irresponsible. During Margaret Thatcher’s time...
Co-op schools campaign for a level playing field
The Co-operative Party is campaigning for a change in education legislation so that more academy and trust schools can be set up on a co-operative model rather than relying on backing from private companies....
ILP@120: Alfred Salter & the Bermondsey Revolution
GRAHAM TAYLOR celebrates the life and achievements of Alfred Salter, the brilliant doctor, Bermondsey MP and lifelong ILPer who helped transform an impoverished corner of south east London. His life is chiefly known from Fenner Brockway’s 1949 classic of political biography, Bermondsey Story, which describes in moving terms how the young doctor dedicated his life...
The Tories’ Poisoned Apple, mark 2
Just like the YTS and the New Deal, the government’s mandatory work programme will cost billions and fail to work, argues ERNIE JACQUES. ...
ILP@120: Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
DAVID HOWELL remembers DH Lawrence and ‘the Eastwood circle’, a dissenting academy in Nottinghamshire ‘with the ILP at its heart’. Its lost world of Edwardian socialism shows that while ‘vision is essential, it is never enough’. The Eastwood circle epitomised the ILP's moral politics at a moment of optimism and diversity – a politics of...