We must reject the lies and misrepresentations in this phoniest of elections, says HUGO RADICE This week’s major intervention in the election campaign has surely been the call by the Institute for Fiscal Studies for the major parties to ‘come clean’ about their strategies for reducing the public sector debt, if elected. The IFS report...
After the election, what next for the left?
What will the election mean for the left? Where will it leave the Labour Party? How should the ILP respond? Whatever the results we will want to talk about it. If you do too, come to the ILP’s 2010 Round Table Seminar in Scarborough on 5/6 June. Admission is free and accommodation is available...
Kurdistan’s message of hope for Iraq
Iraq could work if the steady success of its Kurdistan Region is supported and spreads throughout the country. GARY KENT reports from a fact-finding mission The Kurdistan region of Iraq enjoyed a head start over the rest of the country. Its 1991 uprising ousted Saddam’s genocidal forces which had murdered nearly 200,000 Kurds at...
Disaffiliation and its aftermath
For all its fascinating detail and insights, IAN BULLOCK wants more from Gidon Cohen’s The Failure of a Dream This account of the ILP in the 1930s begins with an outline of the party’s history during the seven years between leaving the Labour Party and the outbreak of war. The second chapter looks at...
Desperate times
Could this be the last Labour government? DAVID CONNOLLY looks at the Compass group’s call for electoral reform The left wing pressure group Compass has an impressive record of campaigning on a wide range of issues, attempting, with some success, to challenge the neo-liberal agenda that shapes much of government policy. Whatever the outcome...
The Failure of a Dream
A recent book provides a “just about” convincing argument that the ILP’s decline in the 1930s was not an inevitable consequence of disaffiliation. CHRISTOPHER HALL reviews Gidon Cohen’s welcome attempt to fill a gap in ILP history The history of the Independent Labour Party from its foundation until it was disaffiliated from the Labour...
Sticks in Time
The Lost Revolution: the story of the Official IRA and the Workers’ Party, is a riveting tale, but it underplays their influence on the British Labour movement, says Gary Kent. The Troubles have produced a vast library but this is the first major history of an overlooked but influential movement: the Official IRA and...
The Good Society Debate
Across the continent, the left’s response to the recent economic crisis has been poor, verging on non-existent, just when the situation demanded a credible alternative to the dominant political and economic orthodoxy. That’s the starting point for a Europe-wide online debate on the future of social democracy hosted by the Soundings and Social Europe...
Stop the BNP
If you haven’t already done so you can protest about the BBC extending a hand of friendship to the BNP via the Hope not Hate website. On Thursday afternoon (22 October) Hope not Hate are going to the BBC to deliver the Question Time presenter, David Dimbleby, thousands of messages of hope from supporters....
The void in the mind of the left
The Compass lecture given by Jon Cruddas attracted a lot of coverage last week. But there was a familiar hole in the heart of his plan for the left, says Matthew Brown Whatever else you might say about Compass, the Labour left pressure group, those people certainly know which way is north when it...
Wise words on the Irish question
Words are weapons and can also save lives. It’s possible the wise words of a young Danish sociologist could have saved hundreds of lives in Northern Ireland if they had been heeded. Gary Kent explains why This slim but weighty pamphlet was published by the Independent Labour Party in 1972 and in that year’s...
Time for the Tobin Tax
Gary Kent argues that the global financial crisis makes the case for a Tobin Tax even more compelling. Some ideas are nurtured for decades before they shoot to prominence usually to the surprise of those who have long advocated them. This could be the fate of the Tobin Tax, originally devised by the American...