The lecturers’ strike, affecting more than 60 Universities and more than one million students, has thrown up new challenges to an increasingly dysfunctional university system. HAZEL HEAD reports. As the lecturers’ strike by the University and College Union enters its third week, pressure is mounting on the well-heeled leaders of higher education to give ground....
DAVID CONNOLLY reports from last week’s Co-operative Solidarity conference in Manchester. “Co-ops are at the heart of Labour’s economic programme.” That was the key message from Shadow Business Minister Rebecca Long-Bailey at the Co-operative Solidarity conference. Drawing attention to the ‘right to own’ commitment in Labour’s election manifesto last year, she said that a Labour...
Behind the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst were many lesser-known figures in the Votes for Women campaign in the north of England, some of them members of the ILP. ANTONIA CHARLESWORTH remembers their contribution to the fight for women’s suffrage and profiles one Lancashire ILPer who played her part. Manchester’s place in the history of...
BARRY WINTER reviews a new volume of essays that analyse and criticise Labour’s much-heralded 2017 election manifesto, concluding that much more now needs to be done. With a Preface by Ken Loach, an Afterword from Jon Lansman, and a dozen lively and informative essays evaluating Labour’s 2017 General Election Manifesto, For the Many does an...
MARTIN WRIGHT remembers the remarkable life and immense contribution of a north Walian stonemason’s son who was instrumental in the early ILP’s growth and influence in Wales. Wales was one of the great socialist heartlands of 20th century Britain. The early growth of the ILP was, however, relatively slow there. The party began to put...
DAVID CONNOLLY reviews a recent collection of essays that examine Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and seek to map out a possible future for the Party. I recently overheard a conversation in a café in Chester-le-Street that illustrated an on-going problem – namely that despite the many and varied travails of the May government, Labour...
ILP Chair DAVID CONNOLLY reports on his visit to Catalonia last year to mark the 80th anniversary of George Orwell’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War. George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia is one of the great books of political literature of the 20th century. It records his time in Spain as a volunteer with the...
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...
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...
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....
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?...
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....