Remember the war dead, but remember the conscientious objectors too, says ERNIE JACQUES....
New Edition of Land and Freedom
The ILP has published a new expanded edition of its popular Spanish Civil War pamphlet Land and Freedom, including a brief profile of the ILP volunteer Stafford Cottman written by historian and author Christopher Hall....
Orwell’s Complex Commander
Georges Kopp was George Orwell’s commander when he fought with the ILP contingent in the Spanish Civil War. A new biography reveals a brave man of many parts and much mystery, as CHRISTOPHER HALL explains. Anyone who has read Homage to Catalonia, or any major biography on Orwell, will have come across several mentions of...
ILP@120: What Can We Learn from the Interwar ILP?
IAN BULLOCK examines three debates which occupied the ILP in the interwar years and asks what they can tell us about the relationship between socialism and democracy today....
ILP@120: Hugh Roberton – Radical Conductor of the ‘People’s Choir’
Hugh Roberton is best known for creating the Glasgow Orpheus Choir. He was also a pacifist and an ILPer, as HELEN CORR explains. Hugh Stevenson Roberton was born on 23 February 1874 in Glasgow, son of James Roberton, manager of a prosperous family funeral undertakers business and Mary (née Sim). Hugh attended Abbotsford elementary school...
Music and Democracy
A lecture by Hugh Roberton, conductor of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir, from 1912. As we come marching, marching, in the beauty of the day, A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses For the people hear us singing: Bread and Roses, Bread...
ILP@120: Enid Stacy – Bristol Pioneer of Peace and Socialism
RAE STREET unveils the life and work of Enid Stacy, a young woman from Bristol whose contribution to the spread of early socialist ideas has often been overlooked. To understand how Enid Stacy, a young woman in Victorian society, became an active socialist and anti-war activist against the Boer War, we need to look at...
ILP@120: John Wheatley – Glasgow’s Christian Socialist
From the pits to parliament via Glasgow rebellion, IAN S WOOD charts the often turbulent life and political career of John Wheatley. John Wheatley was born on 19 May 1869 in Bonmahon, a village in Waterford, Ireland, the son of John Wheatley, a miner, and Johanna (née Ryan). The Wheatley family emigrated to Scotland and...
Maxton: The Will to Socialism
Written by JAMES MAXTON in 1927 Why should people live lives of poverty and toil? Why should people rise in the morning fearing to face life because of the evils, the cares and the sorrows it brings. Should life not rather be a carefree joyous adventure that all should meet with confidence and hope?...
ILP@120: James Maxton – Glasgow’s Red Rebel
WILLIAM KNOX charts the devoted life of ILP leader James Maxton, “a special kind of orator who inspired human beings to struggle for socialism”. James Maxton was born on 22 June 1885 in Pollockshaws, Glasgow, the son of James Maxton, schoolteacher, and Melvina (née Purdon), a former school teacher. At the time of Maxton’s...
ILP@120: James Maxton – Socialism’s Great Crusader
James Maxton was the ILP’s visionary, a man with “an inherent sense of human equality” who ultimately failed in his mission to make socialism the common sense. GORDON BROWN MP assesses his life and legacy. Throughout his career, whether on a street corner or in the House of Commons, Maxton sought to make socialism the...
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....