Delegates bored with the debate at the official Labour conference in Manchester were able to nip down the road to the free entry Convention of the Left, a fully fledged alternative conference that took everyone from SWP, the Communist Party, Respect to the Greens, Scottish Nationalists and Campaign Group MPs. Three union general secretaries, Jeremy Dear (NUJ); Mark Serwokta, (PCS) and Matt Wrack (FBU) addressed the conference. For a full week up to 150 people debated globalisation, climate change, affording housing, free public transport and foreign policy. Highlight was undoubtedly the meeting on globalisation and climate change. Here the delegates openly revolted, changed the agenda of conference to combine both issues into one marathon session. Quality of the debate was extremely high with people like Essex University professor Prem Sikka, a well known opponent of private equity and PFI.
Organisers were amazed at the attendance boosted by the world financial crisis with people even coming in form the streets curious about what alternatives to world capitalism were on offer. Meanwhile the conference t shirt slogan could well be prophetic… things can only get bitter.
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