Corbyn, the Left and Labour’s Future

Red Labour’s BEN SELLERS talks to ILPers and fellow north-east party members MARY STRATFORD and DAVID CONNOLLY about the gains and losses of the Corbyn leadership, the role of the left under Keir Starmer and how Labour can re-build in ‘red wall’ communities....

What Now for Scottish Labour?

Last December Labour returned only one MP in Scotland for the second time in three general elections and it’s been out of power in Holyrood for 13 years. The time has come for change, say DANIEL DEERY and CIAN IRELAND, or the party faces continued decline....

Coronavirus: On the Ground in Croydon

In the first of a series of despatches from ILPers and friends around the country, SEAN CREIGHTON reports from Croydon where a network of mutual aid groups, willing individuals and the local authority are working hard to support the community....

A Glittering Forest of Christmas Trees

For some, Labour’s 2019 manifesto remains totemic, a badge of faith that all leadership candidates must swear allegiance to. For JONATHAN TIMBERS, however, it is one of the main reason’s for Labour’s defeat....

The Strange Death of Labour England

The scale of Labour’s election defeat is hard to take in, says JONATHAN TIMBERS. But it has been a long time coming and will take a long time to put right. This election defeat is not only a “disaster”, as John McDonnell correctly said, it is a body blow that might lead to the...

Voting Behaviour

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 and the Corbyn Effect

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...

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....