“He was a great man of a new kind, which the history books have not caught up with yet,” wrote JB Priestley of Fred Jowett. IAN BULLOCK profiles the ILPer who campaigned tirelessly for democratic reform. FW – or Fred – Jowett (1864-1944), known widely during his lifetime as ‘Jowett of Bradford’, was a prominent...
This year marks the 120th anniversary of the ILP, a milestone in British political history that we aim to celebrate over the next 12 months. The Independent Labour Party was founded on 13 January 1893 when some 120 delegates gathered at the Labour Institute in Bradford to create a national political party to represent working...
Iconic political cartoons from the 1890s and 1920s are featured in a new wall calendar published by the ILP to mark our 120th anniversary next year. Launched to celebrate the founding of the Independent Labour Party in Bradford in 1893, the A4 calendars are illustrated by biting socialist cartoons first published in Keir Hardie’s newspaper,...
The 100-year-old ILP Clarion House in Nelson was visited by Hardeep Singh Kohli for his Sunday Lunch programme on BBC Radio 4 this week (16 December)....
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....
JON CRUDDAS MP recalls the life of former Labour leader and east London ILPer George Lansbury, arguing that his life, work and principles crystallise the journey of political rediscovery underway in Ed Miliband’s ‘one nation’ Labour Party. George Lansbury is one of the great heroes of the Labour Party. He was to quote the great...
“We meet on a weekend of elections,” said ILP chair David Connolly as ILPers and friends gathered in Scarborough on 5/6 May for the organisation’s annual weekend school of political debate and discussion....
Today capitalism is news. Talk about capitalist crisis is widespread in ways that have not been heard for decades. Yet, it is the forces of the right that continue to dominate politically, even though the system they most strongly espouse is facing severe upheavals. Often discredited, social democratic parties are struggling to get a...
The ILP, which returned to the Labour Party in 1975 as Independent Labour Publications, was in many respects a shadow of its former self. But what it lacked in size and organisations it intended to make up for with political clarity, intellectual honesty and a determination to learn from the left’s past failures, including...
In trying to change society the ILP has, throughout its history, been challenging the ‘common sense’ ideas of the time....
Johnny Dent died of cancer on 29 January 2012 in St Cuthbert’s Hospice, Durham. He was a member of the ILP for many years, and a staunch trade unionist. His friend HUGH SHANKLAND gave this moving tribute at his funeral on 6 February....
The ILP is supporting a public meeting in London to launch two new pamphlets from Chartist, the magazine for democratic socialism, on housing and the Big Society....