Labour’s founder is often presented as old and sad at the state of the world. But, argues PAULINE BRYAN in the Introduction to her latest volume of essays, his main motivation wasn’t sadness, but anger....
New Blog to Explore Fenner Brockway’s ‘Extraordinary Life’
The “extraordinary life and career of Fenner Brockway” is due to be explored in a new blog on the long-time ILPer and anti-war campaigner, set up by Paul Simpson of the ‘Lives on the Left’ podcast and Hazel Kent of Bishop Grosseteste University....
The Thriving Paper for Sheffield Co-ops
The need for a co-operative response to the 2019 election result and the Covid-19 pandemic, community solutions to the housing crisis and reflections on the Peterloo massacre are just a few of the issues covered in the latest edition of The Sheffield Co-operator, published this month....
Orwell and the ILP
On the 70th anniversary of his death aged 46, BENEDICT COOPER assesses George Orwell’s relationship with the ILP and its effect on his life, writing and politics. ‘The ILP helped shape Orwell and he helped secure, and clarify, the ILP’s once-maligned place in history.’...
Listen in to New Labour History Podcast
A new podcast series of indepth interviews about leading figures from the history of the Labour movement is now available online, thanks to the efforts of host Paul Simpson, Academic Tutor in History at Sunderland University....
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 …...
P5 Publishes Carpenter’s ‘Sheffield and Socialism’
Sheffield learning resources co-operative Principle 5 has ventured into pamphlet publishing for the first time with a re-print of Edward Carpenter’s Sheffield and Socialism, first extracted from his biography Days and Dreams by Mushroom Bookshop in 1993....
The New Movement for Political Education
Left-wing political education is needed like never before, argues KEITH VENABLES. And a movement of new and inspiring organisations is offering a way forward....
Anti-Fascist Plaque to be Unveiled at Clarion House
A plaque to honour members of the Independent Labour Party and the National Clarion Cycling Club who fought in the Spanish Civil War will be unveiled at Nelson ILP Clarion House on Sunday 20 October....
Bob Smillie: A Moving Tribute to a Brave Man
MARIADO HINOJOSA reports on a day of tribute and remembrance in Valencia on Tuesday 14 May when one of the ILP’s most prominent Spanish Civil War volunteers was honoured with a specially commissioned plaque in the cemetery that holds his grave. Like all stories of idealism and fraternity, this is also a story of love...
Bob Smillie: ‘One of Our Own’
Chair DAVID CONNOLLY was one of a number of ILPers who attended the commemoration of Spanish Civil War volunteer, Bob Smillie, in Valencia today (Tuesday 14 May). Here is his speech to the gathering in Spain where a specially commissioned plaque was unveiled....