ILP@120: Lessons for Today
Lessons of ILP history will up for debate at the next Dronfield Labour Party discussion meeting held on the 120th anniversary of the founding of the Independent Labour Party in Bradford in 1893....
Jayaben Desai and the ILP Tradition
Saturday 20 August 2016 marked the 40th anniversary of the day when Jayaben Desai walked out of the Grunwick photo-developing company in London, igniting a strike which drew support from thousands. GRAHAM TAYLOR remembers the woman whose dignity in dispute recalled the ethical traditions of the ILP. For Jayaben Desai, the Grunwick strike was about...
Ada Salter and the Origins of Ethical Socialism
In writing his lauded biography of ILPer Ada Salter, GRAHAM TAYLOR began to wonder about the ILP’s ethical socialism. In a recent lecture to the Socialist History Society, he traced the history of those ideas and values which the Salters epitomised through their lives in south east London. I must start with a confession. When...
Ada Salter: Pioneer of Ethical Socialism
Graham Taylor’s fine biography of Ada Salter provides a vivid account of the ILP’s ethical socialism as she lived it, says BARRY WINTER. Ada Salter’s hands-on approach to making the world a better place is told with clarity and passion in Graham Taylor’s new biography of the pioneering ILPer. Moreover, Ada’s busy life is explored...
Ada Salter’s Story Out Now
Graham Taylor’s new biography of pioneering ILPer and ethical socialist Ada Salter has been published by Lawrence & Wishart. Salter played a key part in the ‘Bermondsey Revolution’ in south east London and had a major influence on the development of socialist politics nationally....
New Pamphlet: Homage to Tom Maguire
The ILP have re-published EP Thompson’s celebrated 1960 pamphlet on Leeds ILPer, poet, propagandist and photographer Tom Maguire with a new introduction by Labour historian David Howell and an additional profile by former Labour MP, John Battle. Maguire was, according to Howell’s introduction, “the personification of the marginalised”, a radical organiser who played a vital...
The Alf Mattison Collection
The life of 19th century ILPer and Leeds local historian Alf Mattison will be put under the spotlight by Professor Malcolm Chase during a lunchtime talk at Leeds Central Library on 14 January....
Living for That Better Day
Keir Hardie dedicated himself to ‘constant agitation’ and left a singular political legacy in the form of the Labour Party. David Connolly reviews What Would Keir Hardie Say?, a book of essays published last September to coincide with the centenary of Hardie’s death. Keir Hardie is an iconic figure in the history of the Labour...
Brown Hails Hardie’s Moral Courage
Former Labour leader Gordon Brown traces the life of the Party’s first figurehead in a half-hour documentary broadcast on BBC Radio4 this morning (Thursday 10 September), a programme to be repeated this evening at 21:30 and available via BBC iPlayer....
Keir Hardie Centenary Celebrations
‘The Keir Hardie Factor’ at the Edinburgh Festival tomorrow (Thursday 27 August) is the first of a series of events being held across the country over the next month to mark the centenary of the Labour Party founder’s death on 26 September 1915....
Remembering Bristol’s Anti-War Hero
Until recently Walter Ayles was almost a forgotten figure in Bristol. But a new group is reminding the city of a man who opposed the First World War from its jingoistic beginning to its bitter end. COLIN THOMAS explains why the group is campaigning for a blue plaque to honour his memory. Bristol’s Remembering...