The Lipman-Miliband Trust was founded in 1974 by Michael Lipman, a socialist businessman who established the charity to support the practice and dissemination of socialist education and research, something that was often excluded from mainstream funding. Lipman invited Ralph Miliband, a Marxist scholar and Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds, to serve as the Trust’s first Director.
Miliband, a leading figure of the New Left and co-founder of The Socialist Register, brought the Trust to the attention of a growing network of socialist thinkers, educators and activists. He chaired the Trust until his death in 1994. In 1995, in recognition of his contribution to the Trust and his lifelong commitment to socialism, the organisation was renamed The Lipman-Miliband Trust.
Over the past 50 years, the Trust has played a consistent role in supporting socialist political education and practice. Our grants have helped seed and sustain some of the UK’s most influential radical projects, including Red Pepper, Novara Media and The World Transformed, as well as many other initiatives focused on trade union and community organising, climate justice, land rights, international solidarity and more.
Today, we continue to support bold and underfunded work in socialist education and research, grounded in community groups, co-operatives, trade unions, and in both formal and informal spaces of learning and organising. Although the demand for funding continues to exceed our modest resources, we remain committed to the vision shared by Michael Lipman and Ralph Miliband: to help build a more just and equal society through political education and transformative action.
