Ideas for Freedom 2006

Submitted by Anon on 16 July, 2006 - 10:40

The annual Ideas for Freedom conference took place over the 1-2 July and continued to prove its value as a nucleus for activists around and within the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (AWL), to assess the past, present and future on a local, national and international scale.

The flight of discussions took a variety of routes - from Bolivia and Venezuela to the US, over to Iran and Iraq, and Northern Ireland back to Britain - with the central concern of all being the conditions facing the labour movement and the constant dialectic driving forth workers’ struggle.

In an astute and honest deliberation on the war in Iraq, both the keynote speaker Greg Palast and the contributions from the floor offered a piercing critique of imperialism and the Islamist so-called ‘resistance’. The common commitment of critique from all was solidarity with the struggles taking place in Iraq by trade unionists, secularists and feminists against both foreign military occupation and the resurgence of Islamist forces - an unfortunately rare stance that has been compromised by other sections of Britain’s revolutionary left. This discussion was particularly alert to the follies of ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’ because of the lessons previously brought up on the weekend by Iranian comrades from the 1979 Khomeini-led Iranian revolution.

The debate between the AWL and those involved in writing the much-hyped Euston Manifesto was lively and perceptive. The Euston Manifesto was picked up on its plain absence of any role for the labour movement and its faith in ‘liberal democratic’ states. Its loyal proponents rather confirmedthe impressions we previously had from those reading the document — that it represents a self-declared ‘new left’ of mostly intellectual and media-type suited men, who have basically given up on the central role of workers in the fight against things that we in the AWL have always taken seriously — left anti-Semitism, Islamism, etc.

Other pertinent debates took place on the role of the Labour Representation Committee in catalysing a fight within the Labour Party between the bourgeois-complicit leadership and rank-and-file trade unionists; and (relating to this) on the notion of a new workers’ party, particularly the issue that such an initiative must come from the workers themselves (as born out of such an aforementioned struggle).

Overall, this event stood out especially for its calibre of speakers (both from the platform and the floor) and its quality of debate. What struck me most on this was the young people at the conference who participated and spoke in the sessions with a rigour and maturity achievable only by the ongoing supplement of thought and ideas.

Furthermore, the invite for debate and the fruition it bore over the weekend exemplified once again the political health of those organising the conference. This is not to be underestimated (particularly given the nature and state of the British revolutionary left) - debate is the healthy heart to any Marxist ideas and campaigning, since it provides the lifeblood to any real sense of democracy and participation. Ideas for Freedom lives on.

Camila Bassi, Sheffield

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.