One hundred years on from the start of World War One, PAUL SIMPSON remembers the tale of a Durham ILPer and conscientious objector who died in prison for his anti-war beliefs. As we approach Remembrance Day on the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, I am reminded of an account I read...
WWI: Communities of Resistance
Cyril Pearce will introduce ideas from his forthcoming book on British conscientious objectors in a talk at the Experience Barnsley Museum and Discovery Centre on Saturday 8 November....
ILP in Devon on BBC Four
The ILP’s role in promoting workers’ rights and pacifism in Devon during World War One is currently featuring in a documentary on BBC4, to be shown again this Friday morning and available on iPlayer....
The Democracy of Oaks
A ‘semi-staged, rehearsed reading’ of The Democracy of Oaks, Adrian Drew’s acclaimed play about Walt Whitman and Edward Carpenter, will be staged at the Fan Museum in Greenwich on Friday 10 October....
Salters Play to Perform at Cockpit Theatre
A new play about the pioneering ILPers, Alfred and Ada Salter, will get its first hearing at London’s Cockpit Theatre on Monday 13 October....
WWI: ILP Oppose the War Drive
In September 1914, ILP representatives refused to follow the Labour Party in heeding the government’s call for a national campaign of recruitment to the armed forces, arguing that they would not “stand by militarists and enemies of labour”. Here, we reproduce a report from the Glasgow Herald of 3 September 1914 of the ILP national...
WWI: Alternative Voices & War Resisters
A series of talks, discussions and conferences to remember those who opposed the First World War will be held in London this autumn, providing an alternative narrative to the official commemorations currently enjoying such a high profile in the media....
WWI: Harold Croft and the Northampton Anti-War Campaign
JOHN BUCKELL describes the life and times of Northampton ILPer Harold Croft, who faced prison, hardship and abuse for being a conscientious objector and anti-war activist. On 9 November 1920, at statutory meetings all over England, borough councils elected mayors and aldermen. Almost always these were a formality, the results agreed in advance between the...
New Plaque for Refurbished Clarion House
The country’s oldest surviving Clarion House has been undergoing some much needed renovation work thanks, in part, to the Big Lottery Fund, and the building now has a new plaque to adorn its newly refurbished walls....
WWI: Resisting the War in Hebden Royd & Calder Valley
JONATHAN TIMBERS looks at the activity of ILP branches in the Upper Calder valley in the period before conscription was introduced in 1916, when the British army relied on volunteers to fight the Germans. It was the period before conscientious objection. The story reveals a lot about the troubled relationship developing between the ILP and...
Village Socialism in Theory and Practice
PAUL SALVESON argues that today’s open garden schemes put into practice some early ILPers’ theories of village socialism....
WWI: Exhibition Explores War Myths and Realities
An exhibition exploring the myths and realities of World War One opens in the Working Class Movement Library in Salford on Wednesday 6 August....