Labour Party history

Resources, including a reading pack, for the 18 February 2012 dayschool "New Unionism: how workers can fight back". Agenda for the day - click here to download as a PDF Reading pack - click here to download as a PDF Slides from workshop on working-class political representation: Keir Hardie - click here Henry Hyndman - click here Alexander MacDonald - click here William Morris - click here Philip Snowden - click here Will Thorne - click here

What We Are And What We Must Become [SECTION 3] VULGAR MATERIALISM AND PLATONIC PERSPECTIVES By Rachel Lever, Phil Semp and Sean Matgamna "The only true prophets are those who carve out the future they announce." James Connolly "While the real teaching of Marx is the theoretical formula of action, of attack, of the development of revolutionary energy, and of the carrying of the class blow to its logical conclusion, ... (the Austro-Marxist school) ... was transformed into an academy of passivity and evasiveness ... and reduced its work to explaining and justifying, not guiding and overthrowing...

Poverty and all its associated miseries can crush and starve the human spirit, but it can also be the kindle that starts raging fires in individuals and movements. Julia Scurr (née O’Sullivan) was born into, grew up with, and lived with poverty and all the miseries it lavishly spreads so freely; but crush and starve her it did not. Politically active from her late teens, she fought tirelessly against the ills and injustices of capitalism until her early death (at the age of 54) in 1927. At 1905 Julia was working alongside George Lansbury, Dora Montefiore and Keir Hardie; she organised a...

- "Yeltsin's dirty war in Chechenia" by Dale Street - "80,000 new Labour Party members: where are they?" by Colin Foster Click here to download article as pdf .

The fight to defend Clause Four and halt the "New Labour" project. Click here to download article as pdf .

A Young Labour activist writes about the left's attempts to fight Blairite influence within Labour's youth wing. Also included is a review of Roy Porter's London: A social history . Click here to download article as pdf .

Editorial comments on Blair's "modernisation" project in the Labour Party and the peace process in Northern Ireland. Click here to download article as pdf . Article continues on page 5 .

An extract from Ken Coates' book Clause Four, Common Ownership and the Labour Party . Click here to download article as pdf .

Click here to download article as pdf . - "Strong moves to a united Ireland" by John O'Mahony - "School cuts spark nationwide fightback" by Colin Foster - "The lesson of the animal rights protests: if the law is wrong, disobey it!" by Wayne Nicholls - "Mandela's government attacks the working class" by Bobby Navarro - "The fight for Clause Four" by Gerry Bates - "Rail union backs Clause Four" by Alan Pottage (RMT National Executive, Scottish Area) - "The diary of a Clause Four activist" by Roland Trechet

“Women do not want their political power to enable them to boast that they are on equal terms with the men. They want to use it for the same purpose as men – to get better conditions. Every woman in England is longing for her political freedom in order to make the lot of the worker pleasanter and to bring about reforms which are wanted. We do not want it as a mere plaything…” (Selina Cooper, Wigan Observer 1906) A millworker from the age of 12, and daughter of a navvy, Selina Cooper (née Coombe) was born into a big working class family in 1864. She was a trade unionist, suffragist and...