The ILP was a major driver of opposition to the First World War in many parts of the country. The south London borough of Southwark was no different, as new research by JOHN TAYLOR has revealed....
History Comes Alive as the ILP Socialist Institute Re-opens in Nelson
Nelson’s restored Unity Hall finally opened its doors to the public on Saturday 9 October with the official launch of the Selina Cooper Project. JEANNINE SUDWORTH and NEIL RHODES were there to admire the impressive work of the hard-working team who made it happen....
Celebrating Selina at Unity Hall
It’s been a long, hard journey for the Selina Cooper project team in Nelson, from a dusty archive in the local library to a long-delayed public launch at one of the town’s oldest buildings. But with Covid restrictions finally easing, their struggle to commemorate the locality’s proud socialist history is finally coming to fruition....
Pioneering ILPer Selina Cooper to be Honoured in Nelson
One of the founding members of the ILP and a leading suffragist is to be celebrated by a major exhibition and education programme in Nelson next year. The Selina Cooper Project will be launched in 2021 thanks to a £50,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant raised earlier this year by local volunteers Gary and Kevin Webb....
Making Socialists in Great Yarmouth
East Anglia is hardly known as a bedrock of the early ILP. But as MIKE WADSWORTH illustrates in his portrait of the Great Yarmouth branch before the First World War, local ILPers were as committed and passionate in their socialism as any of the organisation’s more famous figures....
The Drums of Armageddon
In the words of the author himself, Ian Bullock’s latest work of left-wing history, The Drums of Armageddon, is an unusual book in several ways. First, The Drums of Armageddon covers a very short period …...
The Interwar ILP – Lessons for Today?
IAN BULLOCK assesses the record of the ILP between the wars and seeks to draw a few lessons for Labour and the left today. All in all, he says, the influence of the radical and democratic ILP on the Labour Party of the later 20th century was an extremely positive one....
Between the Wars
The period between the two world wars was one of the most turbulent in political history. The events of that time had a profound impact on the ILP and the development of British left-wing politics, as Ian Bullock describes in his important new book, Under Siege, reviewed here by HARRY BARNES. After setting the scene...
Alfred Martlew and the Richmond 16
ROS BATCHELOR examines the short life and sad death 100 years ago of an early ILPer and World War One CO who paid a heavy price for sticking to his conscience in defiance of military orders. On 11 July 1917, a young man was found drowned in the River Ouse at Bishopthorpe, a village south...
Prisoners of Conscience
The experiences of Fenner Brockway and Eamonn de Valera in Lincoln Prison during World War One will be discussed at an event on freedom, justice and equality at Lincoln’s Bishop Grosseteste University in September....
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. ...
Walter Ayles Plaque to be Unveiled
A blue plaque to commemorate ILPer and conscientious objector Walter Ayles will be unveiled in Bristol on Sunday 17 April, exactly 100 years to the day since he was arrested for campaigning against the Military Service Act of 1916....