After a turbulent 18 months, the recent changes to the Co-op Group’s rules were no great shock. But, says JACK STREET, the new structure could lead to funding problems for the Co-op Party in years to come....
Labour’s ‘New Approach’ Outlined by Cruddas
“Labour stands for big reform without big spending,” writes Jon Cruddas in the preface to his new pamphlet on the party’s recently completed policy review, a publication published today that claims to set out “Labour’s new approach in a time of financial constraint”....
WWI: Alternative Voices & War Resisters
A series of talks, discussions and conferences to remember those who opposed the First World War will be held in London this autumn, providing an alternative narrative to the official commemorations currently enjoying such a high profile in the media....
Scotland’s Referendum: Reimagining a Nation
BARRY WINTER reviews Common Weal, the new book from the Jimmy Reid Foundation, which sets out a vision for Scotland run by its people, for its people. “Scotland’s people are in a unique position – we have been invited to imagine our nation afresh.” So argues Robin McAlpine in the opening sentence of his interesting...
Scotland’s Referendum: Why the Left Should Oppose Independence
Far from being a certain route to social democracy, as some suggest, Scottish independence is a short-cut to nowhere, says WILL BROWN. We need a longer term strategy for a progressive unionist future. A key argument on the left of centre in Scotland, repeated this week by George Monbiot in the Guardian, is that independence...
People’s NHS March Arrives in London
The People’s March for the NHS will arrive at its destination in London this Saturday, 6 September, when campaigners will be joined by thousands of demonstrators for the final leg from Red Lion Square to Westminster....
WWI: Harold Croft and the Northampton Anti-War Campaign
JOHN BUCKELL describes the life and times of Northampton ILPer Harold Croft, who faced prison, hardship and abuse for being a conscientious objector and anti-war activist. On 9 November 1920, at statutory meetings all over England, borough councils elected mayors and aldermen. Almost always these were a formality, the results agreed in advance between the...
Unbalanced Britain: What Future for Young People?
GREG ROBERTS is an apprentice accountant and youth campaigner in north east Derbyshire. In June he spoke to the ILP’s day school on Unbalanced Britain about life for young people in these austere times. Despite being born and spending half of my early childhood in Sheffield, I have, for the past eight years, lived on...
New Plaque for Refurbished Clarion House
The country’s oldest surviving Clarion House has been undergoing some much needed renovation work thanks, in part, to the Big Lottery Fund, and the building now has a new plaque to adorn its newly refurbished walls....
WWI: Resisting the War in Hebden Royd & Calder Valley
JONATHAN TIMBERS looks at the activity of ILP branches in the Upper Calder valley in the period before conscription was introduced in 1916, when the British army relied on volunteers to fight the Germans. It was the period before conscientious objection. The story reveals a lot about the troubled relationship developing between the ILP and...
Village Socialism in Theory and Practice
PAUL SALVESON argues that today’s open garden schemes put into practice some early ILPers’ theories of village socialism....
WWI: Exhibition Explores War Myths and Realities
An exhibition exploring the myths and realities of World War One opens in the Working Class Movement Library in Salford on Wednesday 6 August....