DAVID CONNOLLY pays tribute to Alistair Graham, an ILPer for more than 60 years, who died on 27 February after a lifetime dedicated to the Labour and peace movements....
ILP@130: Striking Portraits Published of ILP Birthday Event
Photographer Simon Weldon has published an online gallery of participants at the Indie Labour Fest event held to mark the ILP’s 130th anniversary in Bradford in January....
Ada Salter’s Blue Plaque Unveiled on International Women’s Day
English Heritage marked International Women’s Day today (8 March) by erecting one their famous blue plaques to honour the life and achievements of ILPer Ada Salter who in 1922 became the first Labour woman in Britain to be elected mayor and the first woman mayor of a London borough....
A Family Affair
Before he died, Walter Smith wrote a personal account of growing up in a left-wing household at the start of the 20th century. It is, says MATTHEW BROWN, a poignant reflection on the hopes and failures of the socialist movement....
ILP@130: A Festival of Hope
Founded in Bradford on 13 January 1893, the ILP marked its 130th anniversary this month when 130 socialists, activists and community workers came together ‘to create a positive collective vision of what a society that works for everyone might look like’. MARY STRATFORD reports. ...
Five Misrepresentations of Homage to Catalonia
George Orwell’s celebrated book on the Spanish Civil War is often misinterpreted, says DANNY EVANS. It deserves to be read afresh without political blinkers....
Labour in Crisis Revisited
When Eric Preston died in September 2020, the ILP lost one of its leading writers and thinkers, a man who – in the words of David Connolly’s obituary – “was ahead of his time” in thinking through the dilemmas and difficulties faced by a Labour left operating within a cautious party and against a...
Celebrating the Spirit of the Salters
SHEILA TAYLOR reflects on the huge success of Southwark’s Salter Centenary project, which comes to an end in January. ‘Throughout the year I kept remembering how historians described the ILP, that it was less of a political party than a way of life,’ she says....
A Telling Tale
Edith Jacques lived from 1909 until 2012. Her twin sons, Terrance and Ernie, were born in 1938 and, at the age of 84, have written a fine biography of their mother. HARRY BARNES reflects on what we can learn from this tough but enthralling story....
Room for Rent?
The housing market is broken. And those who rely on rental properties are often at the sharp end, as MARY HULL discovered when her son was forced to find a new home. It’s a dispiriting tale of unscrupulous landlords, powerless tenants and squalid, overpriced flats....
Labour’s Deep Divide
TREVOR FISHER examines the causes and consequences of Labour’s often bitter splits into hard left and right factions. The soft left could provide the bridge, he says, but it remains organisationally weak and politically invisible....
Feeding the People
The cost of living crisis requires bold action by the state to prevent severe hunger, says CHRIS OLEWICZ. Perhaps today’s ideological government could learn from the ‘national kitchen’ and ‘British restaurant’ initiatives of war-time Britain....