ILP@120: Tom Maguire – A Leeds Pioneer

Tom Maguire died tragically young, but for 10 years he built a formidable reputation as an orator, organiser and poet. JOHN BATTLE tells his tale. Tom Maguire, the Leeds socialist pioneer, fought for a new politics at the end of the 19th century. He saw his struggle primarily as building up a movement to wrest...

Homage to Tom Maguire

The following extracts are from EP Thompson’s ‘Homage to Tom Maguire’, first published in 1960. The spread of socialist ideas socialist ideas was not spontaneous but was the result of the work,over many years, of a group of exceptionally gifted propagandists and trade unionists. This did not begin with street-corner oratory...

Encompass All, Change Nothing?

‘Change: How?’ was the deliberately open question posed by the recent Compass conference in London. But the event raised another question too – has the organisation changed so much it’s lost its political bearings? MATTHEW BROWN reports. It was nearly three years ago when Compass decided to change. Set up in 2003 to galvanise the...

The Case For Public Ownership

Arguments for public ownership did not start with Sidney Webb, nor end with Tony Blair, says HARRY BARNES. Once we create the conditions, we might be surprised at just how revolutionary our gradualism can become....

ILP@120: John Bruce Glasier – Socialist Pioneer

An appreciation of John Bruce Glasier, written by Scottish ILP activist and social reformer MARTIN HADDOW in the 1940s. “What the socialist movement needs is a deepening of socialist life within – something that will exalt its faith and purpose, something that will suffuse it with the socialist spirit, rather than encourage lust for...