MIKE DAVIS became editor of the Labour left publication Chartist 40 years ago. Here he reflects on the very different political world of 1974, how the left has been weakened in the intervening years, and the daunting challenges it faces today. Chartist was a very different political animal when I took over editing in spring...
Tony Benn, the Labour Left ‘and all that’
BARRY WINTER reflects on Tony Benn’s personality and politics, interweaving his own memories of the period as he considers the left’s failures in the 1970s and ’80s and the lessons for those seeking progressive change today. Few people in contemporary politics have attracted such public affection as Tony Benn. In spite of years of vilification...
No Short Cuts to a Progressive Scotland
The Yes campaign is winning increasing support among the left. But, says VINCE MILLS, this is based on wishful thinking about Scottish social attitudes and a failure to grasp the real difficulties of radical social and economic change. ...
Conference to Mark Workers’ Internationalism
A conference to mark two significant anniversaries of workers’ internationalism will be held in Norwich this weekend....
Miners’ Strike Film-Makers Appeal for Funds
The makers of a new film about the miners’ strike have launched a crowd-funding campaign to help raise money to complete the project in time for next year’s 30th anniversary of the strike....
Two-Thirds Hit by Cost of Living Crisis
David Cameron and George Osborne’s cost of living crisis is strangling households, according to an independent survey showing a drop in disposable income of £129 a month since May this year....
ILP@120: George Lansbury, the ILP and a Re-Imagined Labour Party
Labour MP JON CRUDDAS recently delivered the inaugural George Lansbury Memorial Lecture at Queen Mary University in Mile End, east London. He called it ‘The Choice before One Nation Labour – to Transact or Transform’. Here is the text. George Lansbury is one of the great figures in the history of the Labour Party, a...
ILP@120: Ada Salter – Sister of the People
Ada Salter’s ideas and activism transformed social and economic conditions in a poverty-stricken corner of south-east London, and revolutionised local politics. So why has she been written out of Labour history? GRAHAM TAYLOR reveals her remarkable story. Ada Brown was born in 1866 in Raunds, Northamptonshire. Her family were Gladstone Liberals in politics and Wesleyan...
ILP@120: Hugh Roberton – Radical Conductor of the ‘People’s Choir’
Hugh Roberton is best known for creating the Glasgow Orpheus Choir. He was also a pacifist and an ILPer, as HELEN CORR explains. Hugh Stevenson Roberton was born on 23 February 1874 in Glasgow, son of James Roberton, manager of a prosperous family funeral undertakers business and Mary (née Sim). Hugh attended Abbotsford elementary school...
ILP@120: Enid Stacy – Bristol Pioneer of Peace and Socialism
RAE STREET unveils the life and work of Enid Stacy, a young woman from Bristol whose contribution to the spread of early socialist ideas has often been overlooked. To understand how Enid Stacy, a young woman in Victorian society, became an active socialist and anti-war activist against the Boer War, we need to look at...
ILP@120: John Wheatley – Glasgow’s Christian Socialist
From the pits to parliament via Glasgow rebellion, IAN S WOOD charts the often turbulent life and political career of John Wheatley. John Wheatley was born on 19 May 1869 in Bonmahon, a village in Waterford, Ireland, the son of John Wheatley, a miner, and Johanna (née Ryan). The Wheatley family emigrated to Scotland and...
Workfare Won’t Work
Chancellor George Osborne announced yet another back-to-work scheme at the Conservative Party conference this week. ERNIE JACQUES has seen it all before and knows where it will end: in misery for some, in riches for others, but with few new jobs. ...