As Len McCluskey retires, the ballot to elect the next general secretary of Unite opens on Monday 5 July. For the union, Labour and the left, there’s a lot at stake. GERRY LAVERY assesses the field....
How the ILP’s Vision Created the Labour Party
It is a common misconception that trade unions founded the Labour Party in 1900. Not so, says JOHN H GRIGG. It was the ILP that drove the initiative....
Positive Pandemic Stories Needed for TUC’s HeartUnions Week
The TUC is asking union members and reps to share positive stories of how they have supported colleagues during the Covid-19 pandemic as part of its HeartUnions week taking place on 8-14 February....
The Pit Families’ Powerhouse: Remembering Anne Suddick
Anyone from Northumberland or County Durham involved in the 1984 miners’ strike will know the name of Anne Suddick, who died in January aged 72. Anne was a founding member of Women Against Pit Closures, set up the Durham Miners’ Support Group, and coordinated the Northumberland and Durham Justice for Mineworkers Campaign. MARY STRATFORD...
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....
Labour’s Leadership Choices
Once the labyrinth of the Labour’s nomination process has been navigated, the membership still faces some difficult choices about the future direction and leadership of the party, says WILL BROWN....
Baroness Chakrabarti to Give Hopper Lecture
Baroness Shami Chakrabarti will deliver the third annual Dave Hopper Memorial Lecture at Durham’s Miners’ Hall on Friday 12 July as part of Education4Action’s ‘Politics, Pits and Protest’ 10-day fringe programme leading up to the 2019 Durham Miners’ Gala....
Shadow Foreign Secretary to Give Hopper Memorial Lecture
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’....
People, Pits and Politics
Durham is set to host a two-day ‘political festival’ called ‘People, Pits and Politics’ in the run-up to the north east city’s annual Miners’ Gala this July....
Debating the Future of Public Ownership
“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....
Striking for a Higher Purpose
The lecturers’ strike, affecting more than 60 Universities and more than one million students, has thrown up new challenges to an increasingly dysfunctional university system. HAZEL HEAD reports. As the lecturers’ strike by the University and College Union enters its third week, pressure is mounting on the well-heeled leaders of higher education to give ground....
Jack Lawson: A Man’s Life
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....