PAULINE BRYAN reviews a major new biography of Sylvia Pankhurst – suffragette, class warrior and tireless campaigner against racism, fascism and imperialism. ‘Her big life deserves such a big book.’...
Keir Hardie & the Power of Anger
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....
An Author for All Seasons, a Writer for our Times
MARIA GOULDING reflects on Ali Smith’s recently completed series of seasonal novels, an interwoven quartet written and published each year since the Brexit referendum. They are, she says, ‘both enjoyable and serious novels for our times’....
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....
Owning the Future: The Co-op Party’s Plan for a Post-Pandemic Economy
A new report from the Co-operative Party is calling for the post-pandemic economy to be built on equality, community ownership and a spirit of solidarity, rather than a return to division and austerity....
Labour’s Forgotten Patriot
STEVE THOMPSON reviews the first ever biography of Labour’s former Cabinet minister and independent-minded MP, Peter Shore....
Will We Ever Learn?
BARRY WINTER reviews Searching for Socialism by Leo Panitch and Colin Leys, a valuable examination of the left’s ongoing struggle to transform the Labour Party....
The Wonder of Clare in a Time of Crisis
For MARIA GOULDING, John Clare’s poetry is not only uplifting and restorative, but deeply relevant in our age of environmental uncertainty and social unease....
The Root of the Problem
MARIA GOULDING reviews The Overstory by Richard Powers – probably ‘the best novel ever written about trees’, a tale with a compelling political message for our lockdown times. The characters and narrative are engrossing, and the big themes are of urgent contemporary relevance....
Beyond the Boundaries
In his new book, the shadow justice minister and MP for Tottenham claims we need to reach across society’s tribal lines to create inclusive and dynamic communities. BARRY WINTER reviews David Lammy’s Tribes....
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....