BERNARD HUGHES provides a quick before-and-after survey of three areas of transport to help illustrate the marketisation issue Let me start with some caveats. First, it deliberately takes no ideological position about the question of public ownership of the means of providing public services. It’s a strictly mechanical cui bono look at the results....
Developing democracy
STEPHEN YEO argues that cooperative politics can help to address the democratic deficit. As mainstream politics, including Labour’s, becomes more consumerist and less based on values and principles, the task of bringing cooperation into politics, rather than politics into cooperation, becomes more urgent. There is a growing democratic deficit in Britain, which cooperative and...
Mutuality and radical politics
SEAN CREIGHTON traces the historical association of mutual organisations and the labour movement, and questions what the ‘new mutualism’ can offer to radical politics in the future. Scarborough’s Central Public Library is housed in the Oddfellows Hall opened in 1840. From 1857 it became the base for the Mechanics’ Institute and its library. The...
Reimagining socialism, reinventing democracy
BARRY WINTER finds much to admire in Hilary Wainwright’s book Reclaim the State, but says she is still romantically optimistic about the prospects of new left parties. My interest in Hilary Wainwright’s recent and, I think, important book initially came from a desire to discover more about the practical ‘experiments in popular democracy’ indicated...
The Challenge of Mutuality
This issue of Democratic Socialist is dedicated to continuing the discussions and debates raised by the ILP’s weekend school, held in Scarborough at the beginning of May. Entitled ‘The Challenge of Mutuality’, the school brought ILPers and non-ILPers together to discuss the politics of cooperation, mutuality and social enterprise, and examine their relevance to...
Neighbourhood renewal and co-operative communities
ANDY HANSFORD looks at the causes of social exclusion, and unpicks the government’s plans for regeneration. A year ago, parts of the left press were highly critical of some measures coming out of the Social Exclusion Unit, which had recently published its ‘national strategy action plan’, called A new commitment to neighbourhood renewal. Neighbourhood...
Mixed greens
For all its good ideas, says Jonathan Timbers, the Green Party needs to do some serious thinking if it is to be a credible and progressive alternative to Labour The Green Party is often seen by some democratic socialists in England as a left-wing alternative to the Labour Party. There are a growing number...
Leaders not into the future
Does Labour’s change of leadership reflect anything more politically profound than a change of personnel? HAZEL HAED asseses the evidence. Gordon Brown’s long and painful wait to assume the top spot in British politics is now coming to an end. After enduring Tony Blair’s farcically long goodbye, Brown was shorn of the need actually...
Beyond the market, below the radar
Barry Winter reports on a Catalyst conference that raised more questions than it answered Billed by Catalyst as a ‘major pre-election conference’ on renewing the public services, this event – ‘Beyond the Market: Public services in the twenty-first century’ – aimed to create ‘a positive agenda and a new progressive alliance’ on the left....