MATTHEW BROWN reports from the first meeting of a local People’s Assembly, where hardship and hope were much in evidence – unlike the Labour Party. “I paid my rent just 10 minutes ago and now I have £22 left in my account.” The words came from a young man introducing himself to the first meeting...
ILP@120: Herbert Witard – From Ragamuffin to Lord Mayor
Herbert Witard emerged from a childhood of dire poverty to become an ILP councillor and Labour’s first Lord Mayor of Norwich. MAGGIE PEPLOE tells the tale....
End of the Party?
PAUL SALVESON ponders the future of party politics and sees instead a future dominated by regionalist movements and single-issue campaigns....
March to Save the NHS
Supporters of the National Health Service will be marching in Manchester at the end of the month to deliver a message to Conservative Party conference that they mean to save the NHS from cuts and privatisation, and “defend jobs, services and a decent welfare state”....
ILP@120: Arthur Raistrick – The Dales’ Own Man of Peace
BARRY WINTER remembers Arthur Raistrick, the writer, geologist, pacifist, educator and ILPer who became the ‘Dalesman of the Millennium’. Arthur Raistrick was born in 1896 into a working class family in the model industrial village of Saltaire in Yorkshire. His mother, Minnie, together with other relatives, worked at the famous Salt’s textile Mill. His father,...
ILP@120: Dorothy Jewson – Norwich Socialist and Suffragette
FRANK MEERES reveals how the daughter of a famous builders’ merchant from Norwich became a suffragette and ILPer, and one of the Labour Party’s first women MPs. Dorothy Jewson was born on 17 August 1884, the daughter of George and Mary Jewson of Braemar, on the Thorpe Road in Norwich. She was christened Dorothea but...
A Club of One’s Own
PAUL SALVESON laments the decline of labour and socialist clubs. But while many are closing, he says, at least one is being re-born in a new co-operative guise....
Condemn One Dictator; Invite Another?
The UK government is condemning violence in Syria just days before inviting other brutal regimes to shop for weapons at a massive arms fair in London, according to Campaign Against the Arms Trade....
Opposing World War One
Peace and anti-war movements prior to World War One will be the focus of attention at the 2013 Peace History Conference to be held in Manchester on 20 and 21 September....
ILP@120: Fenner Brockway – Standing out for Socialism
HAZEL KENT traces the life and career of Fenner Brockway, with particular emphasis on his long association with the ILP. Although I never had the pleasure of meeting Fenner Brockway, I spent three fascinating years in his company while researching his contribution to the ILP for my PhD thesis. Study of his books, newspaper articles,...
Labour and the World of Work
After a series of revelations about zero-hours contracts, ERNIE JACQUES calls on the leaders of ‘One Nation Labour’ to show their support for Britain’s exploited working people. ...
Derby Honours Anti-War Campaigner
ILPer and anti-First World War campaigner Alice Wheeldon has been honoured with a blue plaque on her home in Derby nearly 100 years after she was arrested and imprisoned on fabricated evidence....