Saturday 7 September, 10.30-16.30
Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, Manchester M2 5NS
As part of the Green Party Autumn Conference 2024 we are holding a day of radical thinking and of hope for a better world, which will be open to the public.
If you would like to be involved/help on the day, please email charlotte.lafferty@greenparty.org.uk
Sessions lined up so far:
Fascism: What it is; how we defeat it
10.30-11.15, Main Hall
What we have seen in our towns and cities this summer is organised political violence and we need to name it: fascism. But what is fascism? How can we be sure this is what we are seeing? And, most importantly, how can we stand together in solidarity to defeat it?
Molly Scott Cato, former MEP, will speak about the key characteristics of fascism as an ideology.
Tom Scott, Campaigns Coordinator for GPEW, will speak about how Greens are responding and what we can learn from the history of anti-fascist campaigning.
Shahin Ashraf, Mayor of Solihull will speak about the experience of the Muslim community and how we can show solidarity
Asma Ashraf, Chair of Muslim Greens
Changing the world with four MPs?
15.00-16.15, Main Hall
The Greens have quadrupled their Commons representation – to just four MPs. Repeating that feat at the next two general elections would bring them fewer MPs by 2032 than the Lib Dems have now. But we need radical and far-reaching change well before that if there is to be any chance of averting climate and ecological catastrophe. How could four MPs be parlayed into the opportunity for such change?
Rupert Read, long-standing Green activist and co-Director of the Climate Majority Project, argues for a strategy of transformative truth-telling, drawing on his article just published by Green House Think Tank here: https://www.greenhousethinktank.org/the-true-power-of-the-green-party-is-now-to-admit-our-own-powerlessness-to-save-the-world/ . John Foster of Green House asks whether the most effective audience for such truth-telling should really be citizens at large – should it instead be a potential vanguard phalanx?
The discussion will be chaired by Christina Coleman, Green councillor and former Chair of Wealden District Council and a recent Parliamentary candidate.