NEW UNIONISM 2014: a conference for activists
Saturday 29 March - University of London Union, WC1E 7HY

How do we defend ourselves against the bosses' attacks, rebuild working-class power and transform the labour movement to change the world?

Sponsored by organisations including Workers' Liberty, IWGB University of London, Lambeth Activists, PCS Independent Left and Ruskin College UCU

Draft agenda below – more soon.

For more information, to book tickets or a place in the creche:  http://workersliberty.org/newunions, ring 07840 136 728 or email  daniel.cooper@ulu.lon.ac.uk

 https://www.facebook.com/events/584293994979347/

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12 Opening plenary

12.40 Workshops
i. 3 Cosas: outsourced workers at University of London fight back (IWGB University of London branch)
ii. The heroic years of the Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-14
iii. “Broad lefts” or rank-and-file networks (Gemma Short and Pat Murphy, activists in the LANAC teachers' rank-and-file group and Workers' Liberty)
iv. How boses use “performance management” as a weapon of class war

2 Lunch

2.50 Workshops
i. Micro-unions, pop up unions and more: what role in transforming the labour movement? (Daniel Randall, RMT activist and AWL industrial organiser)
ii. Many “New Unionisms”: 200 years of British labour movement history (Edd Mustill, Independent Working-Class Education Network)
iii. Back to the workplace: how to transform a union branch (Lambeth council workers' group Lambeth Activists)
iv. Women rail workers' fight against sexism – in their industry and in their unions (Becky Crocker and Christine, RMT activists just returned from an international women transport workers' conference in India)
v. The fate of the “organising model” in the US and UK (Kim Moody, author of US Labour in Trouble and Transition)

4.10 Break

4.25 Workshops
i. Independent working-class education past, present and future (Colin Waugh, author of Plebs: the lost legacy of working-class education)
ii. How New Zealand fast food took on McDonald's and won (speakers include Mike Treen, national direct of the Unite union in New Zealand, via Skype)
iii. Mary MacArthur and the 1911 chainmakers' strike (Jill Mountford, Workers' Liberty)
iv. Working and organising in the NHS today (4:1 rank-and-file campaign for minimum worker-patient ratios)

5.50 Closing Plenary, including speaker from UID-DER, a rank-and-file network in the Turkish labour movement, via Skype

6.30 Close – followed by a fundraiser for the 3 Cosas ( http://3cosascampaign.wordpress.com) campaign in the ULU Library Bar from 8pm