BARRY WINTER reviews a new book on the Labour Church, and suggests the much-forgotten movement provides an important guide on how to remake left politics in the modern age. Huddersfield-born Labour leader, Harold Wilson famously declared that the British Labour movement owes more to Methodism than Marxism. While he was right to recognise the religious...
Boggart Hole Clough & the ILP’s Campaign for Free Speech
An area of open ground in north Manchester once hosted meetings with Keir Hardie and Emmeline Pankhurst, and became the focus of a battle for political freedom. ROD PETERS tells the tale. Boggart Hole Clough in the 1890s covered some 147 acres of rough grass, sandy slopes, fields and natural woods. The geography of the...
Freedom of The City for Edward Carpenter
CHRISTOPHER OLEWICZ calls on Sheffield to correct “a historic injustice” by erecting a statue to the early ILPer and pioneer of gay rights an awarding him posthumously with the Freedom of the City....
Sheffield Co-op Paper Marks Party Centenary
Members of the Sheffield Co-operative Party have published a special commemorative edition of the party’s old monthly newspaper to mark the national Co-op Party’s 100th anniversary this year....
Understanding Corbyn’s Politics
BARRY WINTER examines the political origins of Jeremy Corbyn’s politics, asking: what are its ideological roots and what is the nature of his leadership?...
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....
Call Mr Robeson Returns to Croydon
Call Mr Robeson, Tayo Aluko’s portrayal of the famous actor, singer and civil rights campaigner, returns to Croydon in south London on Friday 24 November....
Under Siege: The ILP in the Interwar Years
Despite its decline, the Independent Labour Party preserved the values of democratic socialism during the interwar years, according to ILP historian Ian Bullock in his new book, due to be published by Athabasca University Press....
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. ...
Robert Blatchford, the Clarion and Socialism as a Way of Life
STEVE THOMPSON sketches a brief profile of Robert Blatchford, the founding editor of The Clarion newspaper, who campaigned for socialism as a way of life....
Standing Without Clapping – Assessing Corbyn’s Labour
Labour’s position now looks similar to its 1945 stance, but we live in an entirely different nation and a much altered world. HARRY BARNES considers what the ’45 government achieved and what Corbyn’s party can learn from those years....
Watch Online: Suffrage Stories from the Leeds Convention
The 100th anniversary of an historic Labour and Socialist Convention held in support of the Russian Revolution at Leeds Coliseum in 1917 was marked by a one-day event in the same city on 3 June this year. And now one of the key discussions from that event is available to watch online....