MAURICE GLASMAN traces the history of the City and asks, 'Whatever happened to London?' For the first 1500 years of its civic life, London conformed to the European pattern of urban development as a self-governing city, free from feudal Lordship and hospitable to the civic virtues of legality, trade, democratic self-government and professional association....
Lessons of the May Day Manifesto
The British New Left had a critical approach towards neoliberal and authoritarian models of modernisation, ideas shared by more recent political trends, says MICHAEL RUSTIN in this his talk to the British New Left and Labour seminar held in London in June 2012....
Reflections on Bradford West
As the shock of the Bradford West by-election defeat fades, BARRY WINTER argues that we must learn the lessons if Labour is to rebuild a vibrant local politics....
Present prospects, future hope
“We meet on a weekend of elections,” said ILP chair David Connolly as ILPers and friends gathered in Scarborough on 5/6 May for the organisation’s annual weekend school of political debate and discussion....
Beyond Blue Labour
Marc Stears, Professor of Political Theory at Oxford University, spoke at Leeds University earlier this month on democracy and the politics of protest. BARRY WINTER reports....
Writing the Con: Housing and the Big Society
A big society can't be a good society unless it's underpinned by decent housing, according to Labour MP Karen Buck. MATTHEW BROWN reports on the launch of two new Chartist pamphlets....
Why I support an assembly for the north
BARRY WINTER, chair of the Hannah Mitchell Foundation, explains why he's changed his mind about a northern assembly and argues that regional devolution can play its part in an ethical socialism for our times. Let’s begin with a confession. When the idea of regional devolution was being discussed in the party nearly a decade ago,...
The Joy of Living: In memory of Johnny Dent
Johnny Dent died of cancer on 29 January 2012 in St Cuthbert’s Hospice, Durham. He was a member of the ILP for many years, and a staunch trade unionist. His friend HUGH SHANKLAND gave this moving tribute at his funeral on 6 February....
Vote for the hidden treasure of the working class
The Working Class Movement Library, which houses some of the ILP archives, has been shortlisted in the Arts Council-funded Museums at Night competition to win an artist to appear in an event at the library in May. Museums at Night is an annual after-hours celebration when hundreds of museums, galleries, libraries, archives and heritage...
Summat’s going on in Leeds
Ed Carlisle is a project manager with Leeds-based charity Together for Peace and one of the organisers of the Leeds Summat Gathering which took place in November last year – strapline ‘Get Connected, Be Inspired, Join in Action for Change’. He talked to BARRY WINTER about the aims and objectives of the initiative, the American...
Diary of a striking giant
John Lowe recorded everything that happened to him and his Nottinghamshire NUM comrades during the 1984-5 miners’ strike. His grandson, JONATHAN SYMCOX, who edited the newly published diary, recalls a man transformed by the dispute. John Lowe of Clipstone in Nottinghamshire was off sick in spring 1984 when the National Coal Board and Margaret Thatcher’s...
Hannah Mitchell Inspires the North
PAUL SALVESON traces the life of early ILPer Hannah Mitchell and explains why her kind of politics is still an inspiration today. When I was getting interested in working class history, back in the early 1970s, I was fascinated by a book called The Hard Way Up. It was written by a Northern working class...