Rita Hinden memorial lecture: Why Labour mustn't lose: social democracy vs the bros’

About this event

Tuesday September 9^th in A130. Doors will open at 6:30pm for a 7pm start. Light refreshments will be served in the foyer of the Great Hall following the lecture.

The Finsbury Institute and Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy are delighted to welcome Dr. Anneliese Dodds MP to present the Rita Hinden Memorial Lecture.

Summary of the talk

Rita Hinden was famously one of the authors of 'must Labour lose', after the party's crushing 1959 general election defeat. On the surface, 2024's landslide couldn't feel more different. But a year in, unprecedented pressures face both the delivery of Labour's pledges and its electoral coalition.

Anneliese will argue that, while critical, delivery on its own will be insufficient given the growing power of the information and attention economy. Labour must therefore also act in response to the profound impact of new technologies on our economy and on political communication.

A new collectivism is needed, one which recognises that an 'abundance of stuff' won't be enough; that human relationships are critical to citizens' perceptions of control; and that protecting and renewing democracy is urgent and requires building a new coalition of global allies.

About the speaker

Dr Dodds has been the MP for Oxford East since 2017.

During Labour's time in opposition, she served as Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Shadow Chancellor, and Shadow Secretary for Women and Equalities; in government, she served as Minister for International Development and Women and Equalities Minister, until resigning from cabinet over aid cuts in February of this year.

She was also chair of the Labour Party between 2021 and 2024, and a member of the European Parliament between 2014 and 2017.

About Dr Rita Hinden

Dr Rita Hinden (1909-1971) was a socialist and internationalist activist who played an important role in the intellectual life of the mid-twentieth century Labour Party - most notably as secretary of the Fabian Colonial Bureau, and as editor of the influential journal Socialist Commentary. After her death, an earlier iteration of the Rita Hinden Memorial Lecture ran from 1972-1981, with speakers including David Marquand, Roy Jenkins, and Michael Young.

Renewal has chosen to revive this Lecture because we believe that Rita Hinden’s life and work embodied a commitment to the kind of holistic, internationalist, and intellectually engaged social democratic politics that we believe to be more necessary than ever today.

About Renewal: A journal of social democracy

Renewal: A journal of social democracy is a quarterly journal of politics and ideas, committed to exploring and expanding the radical potential of social democracy. For more information see the Renewal website.