Two of Labour’s leading women shadow ministers will take centre stage at the second Dave Hopper Memorial Lecture on the eve of the Durham Miners’ Gala in what will be a fitting climax to Education 4 Action’s week-long fringe programme called ‘Politics, Pits and Protest’....
“Public ownership used to be out in the wilderness; now it’s all the rage,” claims the publicity for an event organised by the Independent Working Class Education Network to debate the future shape of the public sector....
DAVID CONNOLLY reports from last week’s Co-operative Solidarity conference in Manchester. “Co-ops are at the heart of Labour’s economic programme.” That was the key message from Shadow Business Minister Rebecca Long-Bailey at the Co-operative Solidarity conference. Drawing attention to the ‘right to own’ commitment in Labour’s election manifesto last year, she said that a Labour...
Behind the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst were many lesser-known figures in the Votes for Women campaign in the north of England, some of them members of the ILP. ANTONIA CHARLESWORTH remembers their contribution to the fight for women’s suffrage and profiles one Lancashire ILPer who played her part. Manchester’s place in the history of...
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has promised to put “21st century public ownership” at the heart of a radically new economy if his party wins power at the next general election....
BARRY WINTER reviews a new volume of essays that analyse and criticise Labour’s much-heralded 2017 election manifesto, concluding that much more now needs to be done. With a Preface by Ken Loach, an Afterword from Jon Lansman, and a dozen lively and informative essays evaluating Labour’s 2017 General Election Manifesto, For the Many does an...
MARTIN WRIGHT remembers the remarkable life and immense contribution of a north Walian stonemason’s son who was instrumental in the early ILP’s growth and influence in Wales. Wales was one of the great socialist heartlands of 20th century Britain. The early growth of the ILP was, however, relatively slow there. The party began to put...
DAVID CONNOLLY reviews a recent collection of essays that examine Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and seek to map out a possible future for the Party. I recently overheard a conversation in a café in Chester-le-Street that illustrated an on-going problem – namely that despite the many and varied travails of the May government, Labour...
A report on Alternative Models of Ownership will be discussed by the Labour Party at a conference in central London on Saturday 10 February....
The ILP celebrates its 125th anniversary this week. BARRY WINTER marks the organisation’s brithday with a brief survey of its history and consideration of the lessons it can pass on to today’s left....
BARRY WINTER examines the political origins of Jeremy Corbyn’s politics, asking: what are its ideological roots and what is the nature of his leadership?...
Harry Barnes’s review of Jack Lawson’s autobiography, A Man’s Life, has been re-published on the North East Labour History website. Like many of his era, Lawson first became politically active through the ILP which he joined in 1904....