‘Red Ellen' Wilkinson Her Ideas, Movements and World

Unearthing new evidence to provide a richer understanding of her life, this study delves beyond the familiar image of Ellen Wilkinson on the Jarrow Crusade. From a humble background, she ascended to the rank of Minister in the 1945 Labour government. Yet she was much more than a conventional Labour politician. She wrote journalism, political theory and novels. She was both a socialist and a feminist; at times, she described herself as a revolutionary. She visited Soviet Russia, the Indian civil disobedience campaign, the Spanish Civil War and the Third Reich. This study deploys transnational and social movement theory perspectives to grapple with the complex itinerary of her ideas.

This research is timely because interest in her remains strong among academic and non-academic audiences alike. This is in part because her principal concerns – working-class representation, the status of women, capitalist crisis, war, anti-fascism – remain central to contentious politics today.

Matt Perry is Reader in Labour History at Newcastle University, UK.

Introduction
1. Socialist Ideas and Movements
2. Feminism and the Women's Movement
3. The Trade Union Movement
4. Against Imperialism and War
5. The Commons and the Parliamentary Labour Party
6. A Journey Through the Crisis Years: The Slump, Travel and Anti-Fascism
7. 'The Hope of the World': Spain in Revolution and War, 1933–39
8. In Government, 1940–47
Bibliography
Index