6: Thatcher & Beyond The Thatcher years Under James Callaghan, the Labour government came to a humiliating end in 1979. Its defeat followed a fierce battle with public service workers in the 1978/79 ‘winter of discontent’. The Labour government, which had won office five years earlier promising a partnership with the unions, came to...
Beyond Blue Labour
Marc Stears, Professor of Political Theory at Oxford University, spoke at Leeds University earlier this month on democracy and the politics of protest. BARRY WINTER reports....
The ILP: Past & Present (1993)
The ILP, which returned to the Labour Party in 1975 as Independent Labour Publications, was in many respects a shadow of its former self. But what it lacked in size and organisations it intended to make up for with political clarity, intellectual honesty and a determination to learn from the left’s past failures, including...
The ILP: Past & Present (1993)
In trying to change society the ILP has, throughout its history, been challenging the ‘common sense’ ideas of the time....
Why I support an assembly for the north
BARRY WINTER, chair of the Hannah Mitchell Foundation, explains why he's changed his mind about a northern assembly and argues that regional devolution can play its part in an ethical socialism for our times. Let’s begin with a confession. When the idea of regional devolution was being discussed in the party nearly a decade ago,...
The ILP: Past & Present (1993)
Throughout the turbulence of the past 120 years, the ILP has been firmly committed to the idea of equality and common humanity of all peoples....
The ILP: Past & Present (1993)
4. War & After The ILP in the 30s Despite its numerical decline, the ILP remained a significant political force throughout the thirties. In addition, it retained a small but vocal parliamentary presence until Jimmy Maxton’s death in 1946. But, if disaffiliation appeared to resolved the ILP’s dilemma about its role as a left...
Summat’s going on in Leeds
Ed Carlisle is a project manager with Leeds-based charity Together for Peace and one of the organisers of the Leeds Summat Gathering which took place in November last year – strapline ‘Get Connected, Be Inspired, Join in Action for Change’. He talked to BARRY WINTER about the aims and objectives of the initiative, the American...
The ILP: Past & Present (1993)
3. Labour’s Rise & Disaffiliation Labour’s Rise From 1918 Labour’s star was in the ascendant. Within four years it held over 140 parliamentary seats and it began to eclipse the Liberals. Other factors lay behind Labour’s rise. In 1918, under the influence of both Sidney Webb, the leading Fabian, and Arthur Henderson, the Labour...
The ILP: Past & Present (1993)
Strongholds of the ILP The ILP had branches across Britain. In some places, it was not only strong but influential. Growth depended heavily on local political and economic conditions, and on the qualities and energies of the people drawn to the “rising sun of socialism”. England & Wales The first strongholds of the ILP...
The ILP: Past & Present (1993)
Socialism did not begin with the ILP. But the ILP created a unique blend of socialism. Not only did it achieve independent representation for labour and links with the trade unions, it also worked outside the formal political structures....
The ILP: Past & Present (1993)
From the beginning, the ILP accepted women and men as equal members and, as early as 1895, it supported the extension of the vote to both women and men....