The street-fighting that took place in Barcelona in May 1937 remains one of the most controversial episodes of the Spanish Civil War. Hundreds died as the city was criss-crossed by a labyrinth of barricades....
Re-balancing Education: Dear Labour Councillor…
BEN SELLERS wrote an angry and articulate open letter to Durham County councillors on his blog last month, following their decision to suspend plans to cut the pay of local teaching assistants. As part of our series on education, we are re-publishing his letter below, prefaced with an explanatory note from ILP chair DAVID...
Unbalanced Britain: Education and Inequality
MELISSA BENN examines the continuing inequalities in our education system, and the failures of recent governments to close the gaps. What could Labour do to promote an alternative vision? Despite endless policy initiatives, exhaustive reforms and official obeisance to the questionable aim of ‘social mobility’, our education system still has yawning gaps in outcomes between...
Re-balancing Education: The Democratic Deficit
VICKY SEDDON attended the ILP’s Unbalanced Britain conference on education last month. Here, she argues that any future progressive reforms must include changes to our structures of democracy and control. The ILP hosted a very interesting discussion on 4 March in Sheffield. Melissa Benn was informative, strategic and focussed; Julie Thorpe was interesting and thought-provoking...
Red Noses For You
At a time when the UK aid budget is under concerted attacks from right-wing Tories, UKIP and the media, it might seem churlish to criticise one of the great ‘set piece’ British events that focus our attention on development in Africa. However, David Lammy’s Guardian comment is a necessary and welcome contribution to Red...
Commemorating the Leeds Convention of 1917
The 100th anniversary of an historic mass Labour and Socialist Convention held in support of the Russian Revolution at Leeds Coliseum in 1917 will be marked at a one-day event in the same city on 3 June this year. ...
Manchester to Host Co-op Education Conference
A conference on co-operative education in the current period of rapid social change will take place at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Geoffrey Manton Building on 5 and 6 April. ...
Back to the Future: Re-balancing Education
Every government since New Labour has made education its top priority yet inequality still runs through the system from top to bottom. So why have they failed and how can Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party win support for a return to the principles and values of the comprehensive system? That was the question raised by...
The Road to Brexit: Why We Are So Divided
Our society is deeply divided and full of uncertainty. HUGO RADICE asks how we got here and wonders what it might take to create a more equal and united world....
Tribute to Claudia Jones at WCML
To mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, the Working Class Movement Library is hosting a talk by Marika Sherwood on Claudia Jones, the Trinidad-born communist, feminist, peace activist, orator, journalist and founder of the biggest street festival in Europe....
Taking Back Control of our Money Supply
It’s widely assumed that the Bank of England creates money, but only 3% of the money in circulation is physical cash. The other 97 per cent is produced online by the big, commercial banks. And what’s more they make whopping profits from doing so....
New ILP Pamphlet Explores Ethical Socialism
The ILP has published a new pamphlet by acclaimed author Graham Taylor which explores the origins of the early ILP’s ethical socialism and argues that the ideas behind its hard-headed moral and political framework can serve as an inspiration for the left today....