Tribune (magazine)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Tribune
ISSN
0041-2821
Websitetribunemag.co.uk

Tribune is a

political magazine founded in 1937 and published in London, initially as a newspaper, then converting to a magazine in 2001. While it is independent, it has usually supported the Labour Party from the left. Previous editors at the magazine have included Aneurin Bevan,[2] the Minister of Health who spearheaded the establishment of the National Health Service, former Labour leader Michael Foot,[3] and writer George Orwell, who served as Literary Editor.[4]

From 2008 it faced serious financial difficulties until it was purchased by Jacobin in late 2018, shifting to a quarterly publication model. Since its relaunch the number of paying subscribers has passed 15,000,[1] with columns from high-profile socialist politicians such as former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn,[5][6][7][8] former Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Pablo Iglesias[9] and former Bolivian President Evo Morales.[10] In January 2020, it was used as the platform on which Rebecca Long-Bailey chose to launch her Labour leadership campaign.[11][12]

History

Origins

Tribune was founded in early 1937 by two wealthy left-wing Labour Party Members of Parliament (MPs), Sir Stafford Cripps and George Strauss, to back the Unity Campaign, an attempt to secure an anti-fascist and anti-appeasement united front between the Labour Party and socialist parties to the left.[13] The latter included Cripps's (Labour-affiliated) Socialist League, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).

The paper's first editor was William Mellor. Among its journalists were Michael Foot and Barbara Betts (later Barbara Castle), while the board included the Labour MPs Aneurin Bevan and Ellen Wilkinson, Harold Laski of the Left Book Club, and the veteran left-wing journalist and former ILP member H. N. Brailsford.

Mellor was fired in 1938 for refusing to adopt a new CPGB policy – supported by Cripps – of backing a popular front, including non-socialist parties, against fascism and appeasement; Foot resigned in solidarity. Mellor was succeeded by H. J. Hartshorn, a secret member of the CPGB. Meanwhile, Victor Gollancz, the Left Book Club's publisher, joined the board of directors. For the next year, the paper was little more than an appendage of the Left Book Club, taking an uncritical line on the Popular Front and the Soviet Union.

1940s

With the

fellow travellers at Tribune were either dismissed, or in Postgate's words, "left soon after in dislike of me".[14] From then on, the paper became the voice of the pro-war democratic left in the Labour Party, taking a position similar to that adopted by Gollancz in the volume Betrayal of the Left he edited attacking the communists for backing the Nazi-Soviet pact.[citation needed
]

Early 1941 Tribune flier

Bevan ousted Postgate after a series of personality clashes in 1941, assuming the role of editor himself, although the day-to-day running of the paper was done by Jon Kimche. The Tribune campaigned vigorously for the opening of a second front against Adolf Hitler's Germany, was consistently critical of the Winston Churchill government's failings, and argued that only a democratic socialist post-war settlement in Britain and Europe as a whole was viable.[citation needed]

Tosco Fyvel
, but he remained a regular contributor until March 1947.

Orwell's most famous contributions to Tribune as a columnist include "You and the atom bomb", "The sporting spirit", "Books v cigarettes", "Decline of the English Murder", and "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad", all of which have since appeared in dozens of anthologies.

Other writers who contributed to Tribune in the 1940s include Naomi Mitchison, Stevie Smith, Alex Comfort, Arthur Calder-Marshall, Julian Symons, Elizabeth Taylor, Rhys Davies, Daniel George, Inez Holden, and Phyllis Shand Allfrey.[15]

Kimche left Tribune to join Reuters in 1945, his place being taken by

Sunday Pictorial
) and in 1948 himself became joint editor with Anderson, after Kimche was fired for disappearing from the office to travel to Istanbul to negotiate the safe passage of two Jewish refugee ships through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles.

In the first few years of the Attlee administration, Tribune became the focus for the Labour left's attempts to persuade Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Secretary, to adopt a "third force" democratic socialist foreign policy, with Europe acting independently from the United States and the Soviet Union, most coherently advanced in the pamphlet Keep Left (which was published by the rival New Statesman).

After the Soviet rejection of

which?] declaring in November 1948: "The major threat to democratic socialism and the major danger of war in Europe arises from Soviet policy and not from American policy. It is not the Americans who have imposed a blockade on Berlin. It is not the Americans who have used conspiratorial methods to destroy democratic socialist parties in one country after another. It is not the Americans who have blocked effective action through one United Nations agency after another".[This quote needs a citation
]

Bevanism and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Foot remained in the editorial chair until 1952 when

Mervyn Jones
, who related his experience on the paper in his autobiography Chances.

1960s and 1970s

After Foot was re-elected to Parliament in 1960 for Bevan's old seat of Ebbw Vale, Richard Clements became editor. During the 1960s and 1970s the paper faithfully expressed the ideas of the parliamentary Labour left and allied itself with the new generation of left-wing trade union leaders that emerged on the back of a wave of workplace militancy from the early 1960s onwards.

As such, it played a massive role in the politics of the time. Although it welcomed the election of Harold Wilson's Labour government in 1964—"Tribune takes over from Eton in the cabinet", exclaimed a headline—the paper became rapidly disillusioned. It denounced the Wilson government's timidity on nationalisation and devaluation, opposed its moves to join the European Communities (EC) and attacked it for failing to take a principled position against the Vietnam War. It also backed the unions' campaigns against the government's prices-and-incomes policies and against In Place of Strife, Barbara Castle's 1969 package of trade union law reforms.

The paper continued in the same vein after Edward Heath won the 1970 general election, opposing his Tory government's trade union legislation between 1970 and 1974 and placing itself at the head of opposition to Heath's negotiations for Britain to join the EEC. After Labour regained power in 1974, Tribune played a central part in the "no" campaign in the 1975 referendum on British EEC membership.

However, Tribune in this period did not speak to, let alone represent, the concerns of the younger generation of leftists who were at the centre of the campaign against the Vietnam War and the post-1968 student revolt, who found the paper's reformism and commitment to Labour tame and old-fashioned. Circulation, around 20,000 in 1960, was said by 1980 to be around 10,000, but it was in fact much less.

Brief support of Tony Benn

Clements resigned as editor in 1982 to become a political adviser to Foot (by now Labour leader), a role he continued under Foot's successor as Labour leader, Neil Kinnock. Clements was succeeded in the Tribune chair by Chris Mullin, who steered the paper into supporting Tony Benn (then just past the peak of his influence on the Labour left) and attempted to turn it into a friendly society in which readers were invited to buy shares, much to the consternation of the old Bevanite shareholders, most prominent among them John Silkin and Donald Bruce, who attempted unsuccessfully to take control of the paper. A protracted dispute ensued that at one point seemed likely to close the paper.[16]

Paper of the soft left

Mullin left in 1984, with circulation at around 6,000, a level it roughly remained for the next ten years. He was replaced by his equally Bennite protege

Paul Anderson
took much the same line, although both clashed with Kinnock, particularly over his decision to abandon Labour's non-nuclear defence policy.

Under Kelly, Tribune supported John Prescott's challenge to Roy Hattersley as Labour Deputy leader in 1988 and came close to going bust, a fate averted by an emergency appeal launched by a front page exclaiming "Don't let this be the last issue of Tribune". Under Anderson, the paper took a strongly pro-European stance, supported electoral reform and argued for military intervention against Serbian aggression in Croatia and Bosnia. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Tribune acted as a clearing house for arguments inside the Labour Party, with contributions from all major players.

Back to basics

From 1993,

Clause Four
of the Labour Party constitution and resisted his rebranding of the party as New Labour.

After Labour won the

invasion of Iraq
in 2003. The paper under Seddon also reverted to an anti-European position very similar to that it adopted in the 1970s and early 1980s and campaigned for Gordon Brown to replace Blair as Labour Leader and Prime Minister.

Tribune changed format from newspaper to magazine in April 2001, but remained plagued by financial uncertainty, coming close to folding again in 2002.

T&GWU),[19]
who became majority shareholders in return for a significant investment in the magazine in early 2004.

Whilst Tribune editor, Seddon was elected several times to the Labour Party

Grassroots Alliance coalition of left-wing activists. He resigned as editor in summer 2004 and was succeeded by Chris McLaughlin, former political editor of the Sunday Mirror.[20]

During 2007, Tribune spawned two offshoot websites: a Tribune Cartoons blog, put together by cartoonists who draw for the magazine; and a Tribune History blog.

In September 2008, the magazine's future was again in doubt thanks to problems with its trade union funding. An attempt by the Unite trade union to render Tribune its wholly owned subsidiary had a mixed response,[21] but on 9 October it was announced that the magazine would close on 31 October if a buyer could not be found.[18] The uncertainty continued until early December 2008, when it emerged that a 51% stake was being sold to an unnamed Labour Party activist for £1, with an undertaking to support the magazine for £40,000 per annum, and with debts written off by the trade union now-former owners.[22]

Tribune's

]

Changes of ownership (2009–2018)

In March 2009, 100% ownership of the magazine passed to Kevin McGrath through a new company, Tribune Publications 2009 Limited, with the intention of keeping Tribune a left-of-centre publication, though broadening the readership.[19][23][24]

In late October 2011, the future of Tribune looked bleak once again when McGrath warned of possible closure because subscriptions and income had not risen as had been hoped.[25] Unless a buyer could be found or a cooperative established, the last edition would have been published on 4 November.[26] McGrath committed to paying off the magazine's debts. Another rescue plan saved the magazine at the end of October.[27] In 2013, Tribune claimed a circulation of 5,000.[28]

In the autumn of 2016, the journal was owned by the businessman Owen Oyston, who acquired its parent company London Publications Ltd.[29] Oyston filed for bankruptcy and ceased to publish Tribune in January 2018.[30]

Relaunch (2018–present)

In May 2018, it was announced that the Tribune IP had been sold to the American socialist magazine

Labour Party Conference in September.[32][33] At the official re-launch in September 2018, Tribune was announced as a bimonthly magazine with a high-quality design, concentrating on longer-form political analysis and industrial issues coverage, thus differentiating Tribune from other UK leftist media outlets such as Novara Media and the Morning Star.[30] Tribune had 2,000 subscribers, with an aim of reaching 10,000 within a year.[34] The magazine is currently published quarterly.[35] In December 2020, the magazine's editor announced it had 15,000 subscribers.[1]

Tribune often represents the views of Labour-aligned left, most notably for being the publication chosen to launch Rebecca Long-Bailey's leadership campaign.[11][12] High-profile writers for the publication include former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn,[5][6][7][8] and other members of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs such as Lloyd Russell-Moyle.[36] Issues have contained interviews with international socialist politicians such as Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Pablo Iglesias[9] and former Bolivian President Evo Morales.[10]

In February 2021, in an interview on Novara Media, editor Ronan Burtenshaw announced that Tribune was being sued in a libel case. Though he did not comment on the nature of the case, he commented: "It is not a case that has any substance, we are going to fight it and I think we are going to win it. I can't say anymore, I am legally restricted from saying any more about it, it's not related to the Labour Party before anybody goes on that tangent".[37]

Connections to the Labour Party

Labour Party Conference

The magazine has historically hosted panels and rallies- or fringe events- at Labour Party Conference.[13] In 2021 they invited Labour Party MP and SCG member Andy McDonald[38] and US politician and organiser Nina Turner.[39]

Tribune Group of MPs

The Tribune Group of Labour MPs was formed as a support group for the newspaper in 1964.[13][40] During the 1960s and 1970s it was the main forum for the left in the Parliamentary Labour Party, but it split over Tony Benn's bid for the deputy leadership of the party in 1981, with Benn's supporters forming the Campaign Group (later the Socialist Campaign Group). During the 1980s the Tribune Group was the Labour soft left's political caucus, but its closeness to the leadership of Neil Kinnock meant that it had lost any real raison d'etre by the early 1990s. It ceased to promote a list of candidates for shadow cabinet elections.[41]

The group was reformed in 2005, led by Clive Efford, MP for Eltham. Invitations to join the newly reformed group were extended to backbench Labour MPs only.[42] The group, which included former cabinet minister Yvette Cooper and former Labour policy coordinator Jon Cruddas, relaunched themselves in April 2017 aiming to reconnect with traditional Labour voters while also appealing to the centre ground. They supported "opportunity and aspiration" being central to the party's programme, with policies supporting the "security of its people at its heart". While not critical of then-leader Jeremy Corbyn, it was considered as a group of centre-left and moderate Labour MPs who would resist a left-wing successor being selected.[40] The group has no connection with the current incarnation of the newspaper. In 2018 it listed more than 70 MPs as members.[43]

The group launched a new website in 2021, listing 78 MPs as members including Labour leader Keir Starmer.[44]

Content

Aside from its online articles and quarterly newspaper, Tribune has other content and operations.

A World to Win podcast

On 19 August 2020, Tribune launched the podcast A World to Win alongside economist Grace Blakeley and with funding from The Lipman-Miliband Trust.[45] Notable guests on the podcast include Jeremy Corbyn,[46] Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald,[47] philosopher and activist Cornel West,[48] and academic and author Naomi Klein.[49]

List of editors

  1. William Mellor (1937–1938)
  2. H. J. Hartshorn (1938–1940)
  3. Raymond Postgate (1940–1941)
  4. Aneurin Bevan and Jon Kimche (1941–1945)
  5. Frederic Mullally and Evelyn Anderson (1945–1946)
  6. Jon Kimche and Evelyn Anderson (1946–1948)
  7. Michael Foot and Evelyn Anderson (1948–1952)
  8. Bob Edwards
    (1952–1955)
  9. Michael Foot (1955–1960)
  10. Richard Clements (1960–1982)
  11. Chris Mullin (1982–1984)
  12. Nigel Williamson (1984–1987)
  13. Phil Kelly (1987–1991)
  14. Paul Anderson (1991–1993)
  15. Mark Seddon (1993–2004)
  16. Chris McLaughlin (2004–2018)
  17. Ronan Burtenshaw
    (2018–2023)
  18. Taj Ali and Karl Hansen (2023–present)

List of staff writers

Past
Current

References

  1. ^ a b c Burtenshaw, Ronan [@ronanburtenshaw] (December 22, 2020). "With our latest issue, Tribune has passed 15,000 subscribers. 2020 wasn't an easy year but we've grown 50% since April. Way beyond expectations. There's space out there for unapologetic socialism, and Tribune proves it. We'll keep right on down that left wing in 2021" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ "About Us". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
  3. ^ "About Us". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
  4. ^ "About Us". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
  5. ^ a b Corbyn, Jeremy (24 September 2019). "This Crisis Can Only Be Settled with a General Election". Tribune. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  6. ^ a b Corbyn, Jeremy (14 March 2020). "Corbyn's Coronavirus Letter". Tribune. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  7. ^ a b Burtenshaw, Ronan (11 October 2020). "Jeremy Corbyn: 'We Didn't Go Far Enough'". Tribune. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  8. ^ a b Corbyn, Jeremy (15 October 2020). "Jeremy Corbyn: 'It's Time to Stand Up for Human Rights and Oppose the Spy Cops Bill'". Tribune. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  9. ^ a b Gilmartin, Eoghan (24 October 2020). "'Great Disasters Turn Neoliberals into Neo-Keynesians'". Tribune. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  10. ^ a b Rogatyuk, Denis; Sommer Catalán, Bruno (18 October 2020). "'We Have to Recover Democracy and Take Back Our Country'". Tribune. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  11. ^ a b Long-Bailey, Rebecca (6 January 2020). "To Win We Must Unite All of Labour's Heartlands". Tribune. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  12. ^
    ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  13. ^ a b c Wainwright, Hilary (23 December 2018). "Critical tradition: Tribune then and now". Red Pepper. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  14. ), pp. 48-49
  15. .
  16. ^ For a detailed account of the Silkin takeover attempt, see articles by Chris Mullin, New Statesman, January 11 and 18, 1985.
  17. ^ MacMillan, Gordon (25 November 2002). "Industrial strife sees troubled Tribune revival". Campaign. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  18. ^ a b Plunkett, John, "Tribune set to close by November", The Guardian, 9 October 2008. The first cited reference is slightly misleading: Amicus merged with the TGWU in 2007 to form Unite.
  19. ^ a b McNally, Paul (17 March 2009). "Sale of Tribune to Labour party activist is completed". Press Gazette. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
  20. ^ Hagerty, Bill (14 September 2004). "The Media Column: 'The bottom has dropped out of the left-leaning periodical market'". The Independent. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  21. ^ Paul Anderson "Better read than dead", The Guardian (Comment is Free website), 11 September 2008.
  22. ^ Richmond, Keith, "Tribune’s future: unions and buyer agree deal for sale", Tribune blog, 5 December 2008.
  23. ^ "Tribune Saved – Weekly Political Journal Under New Ownership". Tribune. 16 March 2009. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
  24. ^ Chris McLaughlin (26 March 2009). "Tribune's new board and plans for expansion are unveiled". Tribune. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
  25. ^ Gribbin, Alice, "Tribune magazine to close", New Statesman, 25 October 2011
  26. ^ Robinson, James, "Tribune, journal of the left, faces closure after 75 years", The Guardian, 25 October 2011
  27. ^ Peyton, Antony (31 October 2011). "'Tribune' magazine saved from closure at eleventh hour". The Independent. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  28. ^ "Don't you know who we are? Tribune cries foul over Tory press 'snub'". Evening Standard. London. 29 July 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  29. ^ Private Eye, issue 1464 (26 February 2018), "Street of Shame", p. 10.
  30. ^ a b James Walker, Dorothy Musariri (1 October 2018). "New owner of relaunched bi-monthly Tribune magazine says 'Morning Star will cover the beat and we'll do more analysis'". Press Gazette. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  31. ^ Maguire, Kevin (3 May 2018). "Commons Confidential: How Amber's voyage to No 10 turned rudderless". New Statesman. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  32. ^ Di Stefano, Mark (31 August 2018). "An American Publisher Wants To Unite The British Left With George Orwell's Old Magazine". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  33. ^ Waterson, Jim (31 August 2018). "US journalist to revive Labour left magazine Tribune". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  34. ^ Waterson, Jim (27 September 2018). "New owners of Tribune shrug off criticism from former staffers". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  35. ^ "Subscribe". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  36. ^ Woodcock, Andrew (28 June 2020). "Labour MP apologises after accusing JK Rowling of using her history of abuse in transgender row". The Independent. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  37. ^ Bastani, Aaron; Burtenshaw, Ronan (23 February 2021). "Conservatives Don't Care About Free Speech | Interview with Ronan Burtenshaw". YouTube (Podcast). Novara Media. Event occurs at Event occurs at 17:30. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  38. ^ Bloom, Dan (28 September 2021). "Andy McDonald resignation reignites Labour civil war as MP accused of 'sabotage'". Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  39. ^ Hollaway, Lester (30 September 2021). "Keep the faith in Labour says Bernie Sanders' campaign chief". Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  40. ^ a b Helm, Toby (2 April 2017). "Labour MPs revamp centre-left Tribune group to win back middle-class voters". The Observer. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  41. . Retrieved 15 December 2016.
  42. ^ "Commons Confidential: November 2005". BBC News. 30 November 2005.
  43. ^ "Tribune Members". Tribune Group of MPs. Archived from the original on 14 May 2018.
  44. ^ "The MPs". Labour Tribune MPs. 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  45. ^ "Introducing 'A World to Win'". Tribune. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  46. ^ "Jeremy Corbyn: Ministers had herd immunity strategy for coronavirus". BBC News. 20 August 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  47. ^ "A World to Win with Grace Blakeley: A NEW REPUBLIC: An interview with Mary Lou McDonald on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  48. ^ "A World to Win with Grace Blakeley: DOMINATION AND LIBERATION: An interview with Dr Cornel West on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  49. ^ "A World to Win with Grace Blakeley: THE NEW SHOCK DOCTRINE: An interview with Naomi Klein on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  50. ^ "About Us". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-03-14.

Further reading

External links