Beyond Westminster.
All of the articles we have published under the tag Beyond Westminster, beginning with the most recent.
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Social Democracy by the Back Door: Europe and the Labour Party
A new history of Labour's engagement with Europe indicates that it has been driven more by expediency than internationalist principle.
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A draft model motion in support of trans comrades.
Transphobia is intensifying in society as a whole and within the labour movement. We have prepared a model motion to try to help combat it.
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The Capacity to Imagine: Labour in Local Government
The Labour left's presence in local government remains weak. What can the history of 'municipal Labourism' teach us about the challenges councils face today?
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The Unmaking of the British Working Class: A Highly Provisional Thesis
With the push for Scottish independence only likely to gather in strength, Scottish Labour cannot afford to find itself on the anti-democratic side of the divide.
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No Final Defeat
As crushing as Labour's electoral defeat was, the Labour left must find a way of picking itself up again - because the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.
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Another Pardoner's Tale: Labour in Canterbury and Whitstable
The media discourse on the election in Canterbury suggests that Remain will be decisive if Labour is to hold the seat, this erases questions of material need throughout the constituency.
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Pro-remain electoral pact in Wales – the not very progressive alliance
The alliance between the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Greens in Wales is a shabby piece of horsetrading that makes a Hard Brexit supporting Tory government more likely.
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Office Without Counter-Power?
Without the backing of a vibrant and assertive social movement behind it, any left-led Labour government risks merely occupying office rather than wielding real power.
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Wales' Progressive Alliances
Any ‘progressive alliances’ involving the left must be ones of working-class solidarity – across ‘national’ borders, among communities and, where necessary, beyond party lines.
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The Trigger Ballot in Bermondsey
Campaigning to trigger a full selection in Bermondsey & Old Southwark has shown me how ill-conceived this procedure is. We need open selection.
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Aneurin Bevan killed my sheep: Labour and Welsh independence
The prospect of Welsh independence demonstrates how the dissolution of Britain and its rebuilding as a confederation can provide an opportunity for socialist change.
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The Prentice Saga
Though a relatively forgotten figure today, renewed hostilities between Labour's left and right make the story of Reg Prentice's bitter divorce from the party newly relevant.
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Labourism and the Local: The Situation on Teesside
Labour's recent struggles in some of its former post-industrial heartlands indicate long-term weaknesses of Labourism itself.
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A New Internationalism is Possible: Notes from the first International Social Forum
A participants overview and thoughts of Labours International Social Forum at SOAS in London on the 13th and 14th July 2019.
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The Salford Docker: Doing Political Education Differently
Salford Community Theatre's latest production, 'The Salford Docker', points the way to new and more engaging forms of socialist political education.
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The Defiance of Durham
The achievements of mining communities and unions are celebrated in spite of the conditions in which they arose, not because of them, and this heritage also fuels today's struggles.
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Reclaiming Our Buses: Following Scotland’s Example
New legislation recently adopted in Scotland could spell the end of the Thatcherite consensus on buses south of the border as well.
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Britannia Waives the Rules
With Labour's attempts at securing a Brexit compromise apparently dead, there are no easy answers for Jeremy Corbyn in deciding what to do next.
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45 Years On: The History and Continuing Importance of ‘No Platform’
Universities are not just ‘marketplaces of ideas’ – the fight against racism and fascism must take place in academia as well as on the streets.
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Emma DeSouza and Soldier F Reveal the Colonial Contempt of the UK
The British government has been unilaterally reneging on its obligations under the Good Friday Agreement, showing nothing but contempt for the citizens of its colony in the North of Ireland.
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Corbynism at a Crossroads
The infrastructure of Corbynism provides a unique opportunity to build the socialism of the future: it is imperative we take it in our hands.
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How Do We Solve a Problem Like Labour Students?
Labour Students is an organisation that has a long history of dubious practices, but this year it has provided a masterclass on how to exclude your base.
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Fossil Fuels and the Corporate Takeover of Higher Education
A series of recent revelations have exposed the close ties between the fossil fuel industry and the higher education sector.
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Whitehall, Unite!
From 7am tomorrow (22 January), outsourced workers across two major government departments — organised through two very different unions — will strike together.
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As Radical as Our Time Requires: Labour, the Left and Brexit
To be at the forefront of the battle for an alternative future, Labour cannot be side-tracked into campaigning to restore the status quo ante.
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The Fight for Party Democracy in Bermondsey
Those pushing for member-led local party democracy must be aware of the opposition they are likely to face, and to be prepared for it.
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Capitalist Investment has failed the Elephant
The scheme planned for the Elephant and Castle provides yet another stark realisation of the housing crisis - and how we are still failing to resolve it in ways that meet the needs of existing communities
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Tiny Wars and Special Cases: Remembering Local Struggle
Rescuing the memory of past working-class struggles, like Telford's 'Cinderloo', can kindle political commitment for the present and future.
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The Left and the Media, Then and Now
Radical media reform is an absolute necessity. But redressing the imbalances in our media unavoidably requires prolonged and bitter political struggle.
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Questions for the organisers of the People’s Vote campaign
The people's vote campaign need to clarify key questions of tactics, aims, logistics and strategy.
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The Spectre of Militant
A quick Google of 'Corbyn Militant' can find you the current Labour leader opposing the purge of that organisation from Labour in the 1980s. What does it all mean?
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The Anti-Brexit Left: A Critical Appraisal
The confused goals and loyalties of the anti-Brexit Left have rendered it unable to follow its convictions through to their meaningful conclusion.
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Save Our Nurseries: 'Corbynism from Below' in Tower Hamlets
The fight to save nurseries in Tower Hamlets has much to tell us about how the contradictions within Labour might play out over the coming years.
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Neither Red Nor Green: Labour's Dilemmas in Wales
With leadership changes in both Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour, Dan Evans assesses the challenges now facing the left in Wales.
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Northern Ireland and the Fight for Reproductive Rights
It would be hard to come by a better opportunity to decriminalise abortion than the one we’ll be presented with on October 23.
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How To Win A Pub Strike: An Interview with Ivy House Workers
An interview with two workers at London's Ivy House pub on their strike for union recognition, fixed-hour contracts and the reinstatement of sacked workers.
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Is Corbynism Dead in the Water?
New proposals for Labour leadership nominations thresholds and reselection of MPs risk setting the entire Corbyn project back.
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The Cleaners' Triple Strike: PCS and UVW Join Forces
UVW and PCS are going to be demonstrating together on the 5th September against both the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
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Reselection of MPs and Party Conference: A Delegates’ Guide
Momentum's Lead Organiser argues that tactical nous at conference will be crucial to changing the way Labour selects its parliamentary candidates.
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The Case for Open Selection
Democratising Labour is an uphill struggle, but we have the opportunity to empower the membership significantly and open up the selection procedure. It is vital we take it.
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United Voices' New Ambition
Whether UVW and IWGB’s militancy coheres and spreads is now one of the more pressing and increasingly practical questions not only for them, but the wider labour movement.
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A 21st-Century Party? Labour’s Democracy Review, Reviewed
We take a closer look at the most important measures outlined so far by Labour's Party Democracy Review.
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Clear Red Water?
Labour's Corbyn revolution has been viewed by controlling elements in the party machine in Wales as a dangerous insurgency.
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Labour Councillors and Local Accountability
Except for a tiny few cases, all elected representatives of the Labour Party are only where they are because they enjoy the red rosette as lent by local members.
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Salford Community Theatre: Reinventing the Community Play, Reinvigorating the Left
The community play demonstrates how solidarity and celebration are interconnected and how essential this is to successful collective action.
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Elephant and Castle: A Community Fights Back
It is time for Labour in local government to send a message to the profiteering development industry that our communities are not for sale.
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Left Out? Socialists and the Scottish Independence Movement
The weakness of the socialist pro-independence movement should be cause for concern rather than celebration for the Scottish Labour left.
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Waking Up the Giant: Political Education and the Labour Movement
The object of socialist political education has to be to continually foster the development, sharpening and intensification of popular demands.
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Mandatory Reselection: Democratising the Party
A statement from Young Labour's National Committee on why it is proposing drastic changes to parliamentary candidate selection.
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Further Education: Fighting for a Future
Many staff at colleges across Britain - as well as feeling demoralised and undervalued - are finding it increasingly difficult simply to make ends meet.
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It’s Time for Labour to Disassociate from the SDLP
Labour's link to the SDLP should leave a sour taste in the mouth of any progressive or socialist.
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Mandatory Reselection: A Necessity, Not an Indulgence
A PLP that's in step with the Labour Party as a whole is imperative, and mandatory reselection the only method to realising that goal in the time we are likely to have available to us.
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A Revolution of Souls: Culture Wars vs. Cultural Renewal
With its vastly expanded membership, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party has the potential to help lead a grassroots cultural renewal.
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Detoxifying Welsh Labour
Despite the leftward shift of the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, in Wales it’s hard to be filled with much enthusiasm.
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Corbynism and The Youth Wing
An interview with Lara McNeill, Momentum activist and newly-elected Youth Rep on the NEC
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The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn's Improbable Path to Power
In an exclusive extract from the new edition of "The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn's Improbable Path to Power", Alex Nunns explains how the movement behind Corbyn came about.
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Labour’s Next General Secretary: Building a Transformative Party
The Labour left shed few tears for Iain McNicol last month when, after nearly seven years in the job, he finally announced his intention to take his leave as general secretary of the Labour Party.
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Gentrification in a Post-Conflict City: The Case of Belfast
Capital taking advantage of post-conflict opportunities is transforming Belfast, but not in the interests of working class residents
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Resisting the Neoliberal University
In 2014, I moved to Bath to study for a PhD at a university that was confident, growing and acclaimed.
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The Challenges of Solidarity: IWGB and The Struggle Against Outsourcing
The Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) union has been organising, in its words, ‘some of the most vulnerable and under-represented workers in the UK’ since August 2012.
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ACORN Manchester and the Fight for Housing Justice
Over the past decade, north-west England has seen a dramatic rise in the number of people renting privately, and the costs they have to manage.
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The Elephant in the Room
As we begin 2018, the housing crisis which is blighting the lives of Londoners, threatening communities and changing the face of our city is rolling on with relentless pressure.
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Council Tax: Punishing the Poorest?
It is quite obvious that local government is, along with public sector unions, in the front line in the struggle against the Tory government.
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London Young Labour: Artin Giles for Chair
On Saturday February 3rd, London Young Labour will be holding their Annual General Meeting to elect the next chair and committee.
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BAME Labour: Time for Reform
The Labour Party has long seen itself as the unequivocal champion of values of equality and diversity, and relies heavily on the ‘Ethnic Minority vote’ in elections.
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From South Lanarkshire to Santiago: Nae Pasaran
In 2015, three retired Scottish workers from the Rolls-Royce factory of East Kilbride, Scotland received the highest honour given to foreign civilians from the Government of Chile to the rank of Commander.
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"We Took the Last Option": The Fight for Democracy in Haringey
In the predictable rush by the right-wing media to label recent developments in the Labour Party a “hard-left purge”, the details of local circumstances are conveniently overlooked.
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Labour NEC Elections: Support the Left Slate
New Socialist is calling on all socialists in the Labour Party to vote for all three candidates from the left slate - Jon Lansman, Yasmine Dar and Rachel Garnham.
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Overthrowing the Big Society: The Third Sector’s Neoliberal Embrace
The Silicon Valley transport app Lyft recently launched a new service, calling it 'Shuttle'.
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BiFab: The Threat of a Good Example
Thursday morning tourists filing through Edinburgh’s Medieval old town on the way to view its castle were this week bemused to find themselves amid a far more modern conflict.
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Class Power and Red Robbo
The death of car worker, trade union activist and Communist Derek “Red Robbo” Robinson last month at the age of 90 did not make an especially huge splash in the national media.
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Chorlton Socialist Club: Building On a Movement
Let’s face it, local politics can be pretty humdrum at the best of times. Mired in stultifyingly dull procedural detail, it will always struggle - in its formal configuration - to appeal to those of a radical bent.
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A Taxing Problem
The Paradise Papers are the latest confirmation that when it comes to tax there is one rule for the super-rich and one for everybody else.
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Richard Leonard: Working to Build a Sustainable Scotland
At the start of Richard Leonard’s 'Plan for Real Change in Scotland' he states: “We need to win again for all those people in all those communities who need a Labour government in Scotland."
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The Right and the Market Versus Free Speech on Campus
Three years ago, my university took me to court. I was the first named defendant in an injunction case cracking down on a peaceful protest.
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Report on National Youth Policy Conference
Last weekend, young members of the Labour Party descended upon the University of Warwick to take part in the National Youth Policy Conference, which I attended as a delegate.
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Fighting for Democracy in Young Labour
On October 14th and 15th, Young Labour will meet for its 2017 National Policy Conference where 303 delegates will debate submissions to the Labour Party’s National Policy Forum.
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Healthcare is a Human Right: Migrant Solidarity in the NHS
The success of the Socialist Health Association (SHA) motion to Labour’s 2017 conference marks significant progress.
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Reflecting on Labour Conference and The World Transformed – Part One
Part one of a series with New Socialist editors reflecting on their experience of Labour Party Conference and The World Transformed 2017.
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Beyond mere Policy Making: A Response to the IPPR's "Time for Change" Report.
The IPPR, which describes itself as The Progressive Policy Think Tank, has launched the interim report of its Commission on Economic Justice, titled Time for Change: A New Vision for the British Economy.
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Labour’s NEC ‘Deal’: Paving the Way for Change?
Last week, it was announced that the party’s ruling National Executive Committee had agreed a deal relating to the so-called ‘McDonnell amendment’.
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Austerity is not Gender Neutral
The Labour Party’s analysis indicates that 86% of the burden of austerity since 2010 has fallen on women.
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Labour’s ‘Contentious Alliance’ at Conference
The Labour Party Conference occupies a central role in the party’s culture.
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'A Bold and Radical Shift': Richard Leonard and Scottish Labour
In choosing Richard Leonard, Scottish Labour would move towards the idea that workers can be active agents of change.
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The NPF and Party Policy at Conference
One of the promises made during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaigns was for greater membership involvement in policy formation.
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For a Socialist Young Labour: Back the Momentum Slate
Voting is now open, until this Wednesday (13th September), for the upcoming Young Labour policy conference.
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‘Better a Dented Shield’? The Left and Labour Councils
It’s become something of a cliché to say that Momentum and the Left within the Labour Party have not done enough to think about local government and, in particular, about Labour councils and councillors.
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The Labour Party: A Socialist Reading List
Since Jeremy Corbyn’s initial election as leader of the Labour Party in July 2015, the hundreds of thousands of people who have flocked into the party have been treated to something of a crash course on it.
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The Labour Left’s Scottish Success
It is a truth universally acknowledged by all factions of the Labour Party that we could have done better in Scotland.
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Forging New Solidarities: Trade Unions and Migrant Workers
The question of trade union decline is one that’s central to understanding labour relations and political discourse within Britain today.
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Labour Party Conference: Call for Contributions
This September, thousands of Labour Party members - including constituency and trade union delegates from across Britain - will descend upon Brighton for this year’s Labour conference.
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Corbynism: What Next?
On Saturday 8 July, 200,000 people marched through the narrow streets of Durham city centre to the Racecourse to celebrate the 133rd Gala - the Big Meeting - of the Durham Miners’ Association (DMA).
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Young People and Trade Union Membership
This piece is a response to Nadine Houghton's article in New Socialist, 'Re-Newing Trade Unionism: What the Unions can learn from Labour's Election Campaign'.
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In Defence of Party Democracy
It seems that whenever the Labour left has the temerity to organise to bring about whatever changes it wishes to see, this is almost without fail treated as an unconscionable outrage.
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Momentum Beyond the Moment
Momentum ran a stellar campaign during the general election. Aside from a formidable ground game, they dominated the social media scene.
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Community Solidarity after Grenfell
On the 14th of June early morning, I couldn't sleep due to the heat and my ongoing battle with insomnia. I was scrolling through Twitter trying to pass time and boredom when I found out about the Grenfell fire.
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Transforming Labour: Rule Changes for 2018
With this year’s Labour Party conference looming on the horizon, it may seem premature to some to start thinking ahead to the party’s 2018 gathering in Liverpool.
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Northern Ireland, The DUP and Colonialism
The province of Northern Ireland has been continually raised as a spectre during the election campaign and is now once more on the forefront of the political agenda.
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Organising for Conference
Labour Party members, supporters and activists - particularly those on the left - are still on something of a high after the party’s far better than expected performance in the recent general election.
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Reflections from Wales
I’ve always had a deeply ingrained sense that, rather than Wales abandoning the Labour Party, the Labour party had abandoned Wales.
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Re-Newing Trade Unionism: What the Unions can learn from Labour's Election Campaign
Union membership is in decline and yet the unions remain the most relevant and necessary organisations in the fight for a better, more equal society.
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Hope, Slammed Doors and "Ronnie Corbett": Tales from the Campaign Trail
We caught up with four activists all of whom went out on the campaign trail for the Labour Party this spring.
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The Red Tide Hits Chingford
There were many exciting outcomes; support for a left wing manifesto, increase in youth voter turnout, and strong performances in unexpected seats.
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A Missing Link: British Attitudes towards Abortion in Ireland and Northern Ireland
It may come as a surprise that people from Protestant backgrounds can just be as anti-choice as their Catholic brethren.
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Corbynism from Below?
The Labour leadership must urgently turn its attention to how it harnesses the capacities of the party membership, buoyed up by their recent successes.
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Northern Ireland: Past and Present, Real and Imaginary
Northern Ireland is regarded as a thing that happened rather than a place that exists; the country, and the issues it faces, are all but ignored.
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On the Croydon Central Campaign
We have learnt just how much more we are capable of. Everyone will feel able to do more than they did before.
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Independence is not the Same as Isolation: Political Experiences of People with Learning Disabilities/Difficulties
The Conservative government have seen a marked decrease in the support and services available to people with learning disabilities/difficulties.
