Independent Labour Publications

Independent Labour Publications is a left-wing pressure group inside the British Labour Party. It is the successor to the Independent Labour Party and is mostly known simply as "The ILP" in order to maintain that link with its predecessor organisation.

Brief history

Since its re-establishment in 1975, the ILP has been a campaigning organisation rather than an electoral group (its constitution prevents full members from standing for elective office). Before entering parliament, former Labour Member of Parliament Harry Barnes was a member of the ILP. As an MP, he was obliged to resign and join a supporters group, Friends of the ILP.

It has been involved with opposition to various workfare schemes imposed by the British Conservative government of the 1980s, and has argued for open democratic structures within the Labour Party, and an emphasis on co-operative systems of organising economic activity. The ILP has been out of line with many traditional leftist positions, for instance in its rejection of a simple "troops out" approach to the conflict in Northern Ireland, and was critical of what it saw as knee-jerk anti-Americanism on the left following the US's reaction to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Publications

The organisation publishes occasional pamphlets on contemporary issues. The paper Labour Leader (published 1975–86) and the ILP Magazine: for socialist renewal (published 1987–92) were successors to the Independent Labour Party's New Leader (1922–46) and Socialist leader (1946–75). A newsletter called Democratic Socialist was the belated successor to the ILP Magazine.

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