MARIA GOULDING reviews Bernardine Evaristo’s 2019 Booker Prize winning novel, Girl, Woman, Other – an interwoven tale of diversity and race that has much to teach us about the need for tolerance in modern Britain. ...
As He Saw It
When Eric Preston died on 20 September this year it not only brought to an end his long and active life in the struggle for socialism, but marked the passing of an era for the ILP too. Eric’s writing and thinking over more than 60 years of ILP membership was hugely influential, not only...
Antisemitism: Time for Change
BARNABY MARDER of Socialists Against Antisemitism recalls the events that led to Labour being investigated by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, and considers what it must do now to restore the confidence of the Jewish community. ...
Seeking Shelter from the Storm
Reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered in the run-up to the US election was a sobering and resonant experience, says MARIA GOULDING. It’s a story centred on a dilapidated old house, a powerful image for an American society struggling to overcome its legacy of lies, injustice and inequality....
Student Housing: A Stirling Campaign
Tenant activists in Stirling have been inspiring fellow students across Scotland to fight back against rip-off landlords and university rent rises. CIAN IRELAND and DANIEL DEERY report on 18 months of hard campaigning....
From Sympathy to Solidarity
WILL BROWN reviews a fascinating and timely examination of the sources of anticolonial opinion in Britain, one that reinforces the importance of new and more honest accounts of Britain’s imperial past....
Starmer’s (Un)Balancing Act
DAVID CONNOLLY reviews the Labour leadership’s response to recent controversies at the Proms and with the Overseas Operations Bill and wonders whether Keir Starmer is trying to ride two horses at the same time....
An Author for All Seasons, a Writer for our Times
MARIA GOULDING reflects on Ali Smith’s recently completed series of seasonal novels, an interwoven quartet written and published each year since the Brexit referendum. They are, she says, ‘both enjoyable and serious novels for our times’....
Corbyn, the Left and Labour’s Future
Red Labour’s BEN SELLERS talks to ILPers and fellow north-east party members MARY STRATFORD and DAVID CONNOLLY about the gains and losses of the Corbyn leadership, the role of the left under Keir Starmer and how Labour can re-build in ‘red wall’ communities....
Coronavirus: Back to Normal in Newham?
JOY WHITE reports from Newham in east London where a changing community is struggling to recover from Covid-19 after a decade of austerity, inequality and widening wealth gaps....
A System Designed to Punish
With so many pressing political priorities, the scandal of unjust and degrading disability benefits assessments could easily be forgotten. MARY HULL recounts three shocking stories that epitomise the kind of society we've become. ...
Coronavirus: The Global Roots of a Predictable Outbreak
In the second part of her interview with WILL BROWN, global health expert SOPHIE HARMAN looks at why the international response to Covid-19 has been so flawed and calls on Labour to start a new conversation about development....