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....
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?...
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....
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....
Cable Street Anniversary Prompts Call for Support
Hope not Hate have marked the 81st anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street with a call for donations towards its current day efforts to “present a steadfast and united opposition to fascism”. The day on 4 October 1936 when the people of the east end of London united to halt Oswald Mosley and his...
Fear and Hope in a Divided Country
England is both an increasingly tolerant and open society and a more divided place, according to the latest ‘Fear and Hope’ survey published this week by Hope not Hate. In its fourth survey of attitudes to race, faith, belonging and identity since 2011, the anti-extremist campaign group finds that England is more tolerant and open...
Alfred Martlew and the Richmond 16
ROS BATCHELOR examines the short life and sad death 100 years ago of an early ILPer and World War One CO who paid a heavy price for sticking to his conscience in defiance of military orders. On 11 July 1917, a young man was found drowned in the River Ouse at Bishopthorpe, a village south...
Labour Saves Itself, and Restores Hope
Labour’s unexpected ‘success’ in last week’s general election has been greeted with relief and joy across the left. But we need words of caution as well as cheers, says WILL BROWN, for there is still much to do to turn this opportunity into a real transformative victory. Given what seemed possible a few weeks ago,...
The Progressive Alliance and a War of Position
Is the Progressive Alliance an idea whose time has come? GERRY LAVERY thinks so after reading a new Compass pamphlet on the election initiative. The call for a Progressive Alliance starts from the idea that our electoral system gives the Conservatives a built-in advantage and enables them to govern nationally even though most people do...
The Age-Old Roots of Labour’s Current Crisis
Labour is facing an existential crisis, and parallels with the 1980s are painfully obvious. But the roots of the current crisis go much deeper, writes MARTIN WRIGHT. The Labour Party is the child of hope and compromise. Its political DNA was made from two main elements more than a century ago. One was the counter-cultural,...