Campaigns

A weekend of socialist discussion and debate hosted by Workers’ Liberty

Friday 29 June-1 July
Highgate Newtown Community Centre, 25 Bertram St, London N19 5DQ.

Ideas for Freedom is an event which combines a serious, thoughtful approach to socialist ideas with a commitment to activism in the workers’, student, feminist and other movements. We emphasise accessibility, self- and mutual education and free debate. For a report and pictures of IFF 2011, see here.

As the capitalist crisis deepens and a variety of anticapitalist ideas take shape, this year’s Ideas for Freedom will focus on understanding what capitalism is and what kind of anticapitalist politics are necessary to fight and overthrow it.

Facebook event

Weekend tickets brought before the end of May are £24 waged, £16 low-waged/HE students, £6 unwaged/FE/school students. Day tickets also available. Send a cheque made out to AWL to AWL, 20E Tower Workshops, 58 Riley Road, SE1 3DG, or pay online here.

DRAFT AGENDA (will be updated regularly)

FRIDAY 29 JUNE
7pm @ the Exmouth Arms, Starcross Street, Euston, London NW1 2HR

1972-2012: How can workers fight and win?
This year is the 40th anniversary of the magnificent working-class struggles of 1972, which prepared the way for the downfall of Edward Heath's Tory government. We will be celebrating '72, but also discussing the lessons of recent struggles in which workers have fought back and won. What are the lessons of the 1970s for our struggles now?
Speakers: Pete Radcliff, who took part in the successful mass picket at Saltley Gate; Jean Lane, Unison rep in the victorious anti-cuts dispute at Central Foundation Girls School; an activist from successful anti-victimisation disputes on London Underground
Facebook event for Friday night

SATURDAY 30 JUNE
@ Highgate Newtown Community Centre, Bertram Street, Archway, N19 5DQ

12.15 How do we make socialism a force again?
Speakers: author and journalist Owen Jones; Workers' Liberty and Unison activist Rosie Woods; Alex Phillips, Brighton and Hove Green councillor; and Anton Thierry, a member of the L'Etincelle tendency of France's New Anticapitalist Party

1.15 Lunch

2.15
a) 33 Revolutions Per Minute: author Dorian Lynskey and hip-hop artist/spoken-word poet The Ruby Kid on protest songs past and present.
b) Is Greece on the brink of revolution? Theodora Polenta and Ed Maltby
c) Roma and traveller communities under attack, with Roma activist Toma Nikolaev and Dan Barron from Traveller Solidarity
d) Introduction to Marxism 1: What is capitalism? Alice Marshall and Liam Conway

3.45 Break

4
a) The class struggle in Iran, international solidarity and the threat of war. Amin Kazemi, Iranian Revolution Marxist Tendency, and Cathy Nugent, Workers' Liberty
b) The NHS we had, the one we have and the one we want. Dr Jacky Davis, NHS Consults' Association, and Jill Mountford, Workers' Liberty
c) Is Marxism Eurocentric? Paul Hampton and Camila Bassi
d) Introduction to Marxism 2: Marxism and trade unions. Janine Booth, member of the RMT national executive, and Hannah Thompson, Unison activist in a school in East London

5.35
a) Women versus capitalism. With Jean Lane, Workers' Liberty, and a speaker from Women Against Pit Closures
b) Understanding the economics of the Eurozone crisis. Speakers include professor John Grahl, Middlesex University, Professor Jo Michell, SOAS, and Martin Thomas, Workers' Liberty
c) In the Diamond Jubilee year: When Britain was a republic - the English revolution and civil war. John Moloney

7 Dinner

8 Film showing and social

SUNDAY 1 JULY

10.30
a) The left and anti-semitism. Professor Colin Schindler, SOAS, journalist and blogger Dave Osler and Tom Unterrainer, Workers' Liberty
b) The National Minority Movement of the 20s: lessons for building a union rank-and-file movement today. Becky Crocker, RMT activist on London Underground, and Patrick Murphy, NUT national executive and steering committee member of new NUT rank-and-file initiative
c) What kind of anti-capitalist organisation do we need? Luke Cooper, Anti-Capitalist Initiative, debates Elaine Jones, Workers' Liberty

12.20 Lunch

1
a) Should the left boycott Israel? Debate between Michael Chessum, NUS national executive, and Sacha Ismail, Workers' Liberty
b) Introduction to Marxism 3: Why is the left so divided? Liam McNulty and Sarah Weston
c) The left and the crisis across Europe. Speakers include left activist in Irish Labour Youth Neil Warner, Anton Thierry from the L'Etincelle fraction of the NPA, and Vicki Morris, Workers' Liberty

2.35
a) 30 years since the Falklands war: what are the lessons?
b) Introduction to Marxism 4: What will socialism look like? Alison Brown and Daniel Lemberger Cooper
c) What's wrong with conspiracy theories? Jack Ferguson, Scottish Socialist Party

4 Closing plenary
Finish by 4.30

Free accommodation, free creche and cheap food available.
For more information email awl@workersliberty.org or ring 07796 690 874.

The AWL is expanding its activity, and needs to raise money to do it. Total so far (9 March 2012): £9,787.