The Trust was founded through the benefaction of Mr Michael Lipman, a socialist businessman, and later added to through a bequest by his widow, Mrs Gertrude Lipman. In 1994 the trustees decided to commemorate Ralph Miliband's contribution to socialist thought by changing the name of the Trust to the Lipman-Miliband Trust.

The Trust supports projects in Britain and elsewhere who find it difficult to get funding from established sources. We encourage a broad variety of socialist projects in the following fields:

  • Popular writing, academic research and journalism, mainly in the social sciences, humanities and science relating, in the broadest terms, to the organisation of society and human emancipation.
  • Projects in collective democratic participation.
  • Cultural activities such as theatre, film making and visual arts on themes relating to social issues.
  • Debates, meetings, group activities, international exchanges and networks.
  • Activities for peace and international cooperation

Examples of projects we have supported:

  • Women's Cooperative League exhibition in Calderdale.
  • Assistance to libraries and labour archives.
  • A documentary video about a declining mining community in India.
  • Contribution to publication costs of local history and biographies of local activists.
  • Assistance to a variety of journals and to the costs of translation of significant articles or books.
  • Art/photographic installations commemorating the 'disappeared' in Argentina and Chile.
  • Medical support for women in Bosnia.
  • The Sheffield Socialist Choir.
  • Support for Palestinian children's dance groups.
  • International Women in Black Conference, Jerusalem.
  • Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
  • Women Working Worldwide.

We have occasionally sponsored one-off projects to encourage work with a particular focus such as:

  • Alternative social policy awards for initiatives relating to particular areas of national policy such as social exclusion, community development and the British pensions system.
  • Nationalism and the Left conference, April 2001, Leeds.
  • The John Saville award in radical history.

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