US-based labour and social movements authors and organisers Robert Ovetz and James Tracy interview DANIEL GROSS about his new book, Unions of Our Own: Eight Building Blocks to Change Work and the World
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Labour and the ‘broad church’ projects
Organising inside or outside the Labour Party? The question is not a new one, observes KEITH FLETT
Right-wing Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell, and leftwingers Tony Benn and Laura Pidcock
JOHN CALLOW introduces the work of Geoffrey Trease, who placed ordinary people at the centre of his historical fiction for children, creating adventurous stories to inspire the possibilities of social change
The Isle of Wight’s Victorian holiday boom drew visitors from across Europe, including the founders of scientific socialism, writes KEITH FLETT
The campaign against the Bank of England’s ongoing theft of Venezuelan gold is gaining support across the labour movement and beyond, writes MATT WILLGRESS
Unless ministers match reform with investment, the profession and the people it serves will continue to bear the cost, says KATE RAMSDEN
Claims that Nicaragua has abolished elections followed a headline that stripped Daniel Ortega’s remarks of their historical and political context. The full speech tells a different story, says BECCA RENK FOSTER
THE late Ralph Miliband wrote one of the best books about the history of the Labour Party, Parliamentary Socialism: A Study in the Politics of Labour (Allen & Unwin, 1961). Albeit of course it doesn’t cover the last 60 years.
Miliband, the father of David and Ed, opens the book by making the statement that, as a democratic socialist party, Labour had always been among the most dogmatic — not about socialism but about the use of parliamentary as opposed to extra-parliamentary forms of struggle.
His view at that time was that Labour under Hugh Gaitskell was not a vehicle for socialist advance and the leadership of the rather more “left-wing” Harold Wilson did nothing to change his mind.
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KEITH FLETT looks at geographical roots of working-class activism in Britain
Keir Starmer's early political life suggests a very different future from the one he ultimately embraced, says KEITH FLETT
Who you ask and how you ask matter, as does why you are asking — the history of opinion polls shows they are as much about creating opinions as they are about recording them, writes socialist historian KEITH FLETT