You don’t have to look too far to see the absurdities in Labour’s leadership election, claims WILL BROWN. Here are some he has noticed....
The Politics of Panic and Failure
Despite what Alan Johnson says, the rise of Corbynism is a symptom of New Labour’s failed legacy, claims ERNIE JACQUES....
Labour’s Leadership Election: A Problem Foretold
As Labour’s controversial voter registration process closes and ballot papers for the leadership elections go out, it’s time to indulge in a spot of ‘we told you so’, says WILL BROWN. Despite it being a giant stride in the right direction, major weaknesses have been exposed in Labour’s new electoral system, as reformed by former...
Reading the Past
The pre-war ILP plays a leading role in two new books of contrasting types – one a novel set in north east England, the other a radical ramblers’ guide to the capital. MATTHEW BROWN follows the literary and geographical traces of our past....
Britain’s Post-Election Blues
DOREEN MASSEY and MICHAEL RUSTIN are the founders and guiding lights behind the Kilburn Manifesto, one of the most cogent analyses of neoliberalism and the state of the left. Here they provide a brief reflection on the general election and what it means for the future of social democracy. At the closing of the polls...
‘Blatant’ Union Bill Designed to Damage Labour
The Trade Union Bill published by the Conservative government today (Wednesday 14 July) is designed to damage the Labour Party financially and will poison relations between workers and managers, according to the GMB union. The Bill introduces turnout threshold of 50% for strike ballots, and requires unions in the health, education, fire, transport, water, security...
One Man Against the War
HOLLIE BUSH tells the tale of Alf Myers, an ILPer and ironstone miner from a small Teesside village, whose refusal to fight in World War One almost cost him his life. Many lived through the conflict of World War One. Some fought in it, some lived it out on the home front – in Teesside,...
Why Labour Needs to Change
Like many on the left, the election result came as a nasty shock to JONATHAN TIMBERS. Yet despite the desperate outlook, he believes a future Labour government is possible if the party becomes a very different kind of organisation. Some on the left say they do not expect to see another Labour government in their...
Remembering Bristol’s Anti-War Hero
Until recently Walter Ayles was almost a forgotten figure in Bristol. But a new group is reminding the city of a man who opposed the First World War from its jingoistic beginning to its bitter end. COLIN THOMAS explains why the group is campaigning for a blue plaque to honour his memory. Bristol’s Remembering...
Labour’s Housing Problem
ERNIE JACQUES argues that Labour’s ‘curate’s egg’ of a manifesto is a long way from being social democratic or balanced. It’s a confused approach exposed most clearly by its housing policy. While there are undoubtably progressive nuggets in the Labour Party’s manifesto, which sets it apart from the nasty party, it is nevertheless remarkably timid...
Judging Labour’s Manifesto
HARRY BARNES casts his scrutinising eye over the details of Labour’s election manifesto, and concludes that it contains the seeds for a progressive government. At the 2014 Labour Party conference a document entitled National Policy Forum Report 2014 was adopted. My own summary of its contents appeared on my blog and covered 16 separate items....
Chartist Unveils its Anti-Austerity Manifesto
In a period awash with party election manifestoes, the left magazine and campaign group, Chartist, has unveiled its own manifesto for “a properly democratic socialist alternative to austerity”. Chartist’s 2015 manifesto is a revised version of one published by its editorial board in 2007 – “the year before financial capitalism fell in on itself”. “Capitalism...