Unite, the largest union in Britain, has come up with an imaginative response to the current austerity crisis by creating a community arm that supports people hard hit by the cuts. GERRY LAVERY reports on how it helps them campaign for change. The aim of Unite Community is to unionise and embrace people “being pushed...
Labour Needs to Push its Progressive Electoral Programme
HARRY BARNES has analysed Labour’s electoral programme and believes it starts to ‘open the door’ towards democratic socialism. He’s also provided a readable 16-part summary for those who haven’t yet ploughed through the 200-page document. ...
Immigration Fears: Who is to Blame?
With discussion of immigration becoming ever more toxic, how should progressives respond to UKIP’s blame game and what can they offer as a humane approach?...
Where is the Left’s Anger over Isis?
Angst over the invasion of Iraq in 2003 shouldn’t prevent the left offering real solidarity to Iraqi Kurds in 2014, argues GARY KENT. The Kurds have long been a cause celebre for the international left. Iraqi Kurds were victims of genocide and all Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria were denied basic rights. Support...
Owen Jones: Our Prophet of Hope?
BARRY WINTER was one of 260 people who piled into the largest lecture theatre at Leeds Beckett University last week to hear left wing author and journalist Owen Jones. He left feeling impressed, and a little bit inspired....
Global Justice Now: New Name for WDM
The World Development Movement will have a new name next year when it is relaunched as Global Justice Now following a vote of the organisation’s members last month....
Podemos: A New Way of Politics?
The sudden rise on the Spanish political scene of Podemos, a radical political party based on the indignados 15M movement, will be the subject of discussion at the next Taking Soundings meeting in Leeds on Wednesday 26 November....
Full Reading of Salters Play
A full reading of Alison Mead’s play ‘Politic Man’, about pioneering ILPers Alf and Ada Salter, will be staged in Kent on Monday 24 November....
WWI: Lest We Forget
One hundred years on from the start of World War One, PAUL SIMPSON remembers the tale of a Durham ILPer and conscientious objector who died in prison for his anti-war beliefs. As we approach Remembrance Day on the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, I am reminded of an account I read...
Barnsley Hosts Two Exhibitions on the Miners’ Strike
Two innovative exhibitions are currently showing in the gallery at Barnsley’s Civic Theatre to mark the legacy of the 1984/5 miners’ strike....
‘Don’t Let Them Drown,’ cries HOPE not Hate
HOPE not Hate has launched a petition condemning the government’s decision to withdraw support for migrant rescue missions in the Mediterranean, describing the stance as “inhumane and unacceptable for a modern civilised country”....
WWI: Communities of Resistance
Cyril Pearce will introduce ideas from his forthcoming book on British conscientious objectors in a talk at the Experience Barnsley Museum and Discovery Centre on Saturday 8 November....