Green Left Summer Camp - Manchester August 15th/16th

Every year Green Left holds a summer gathering called 'Summer Camp'. For the last two years it was held in Headcorn, Kent but this year it was felt to be better to hold it in the north and in the traditional centre of English radicalism, Manchester. This also coincides with the 190th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre, in St Peter's Fields, in the city. We will be having a number of speakers and looking particularly towards the Convention of the Left in Brighton on September 26th at which Green Left is organising the 'Planet' workshop and Caroline Lucas MEP will also be speaking at the Convention, which is planned to take place at the same time and same city as the Labour Party Conference.

The recent European election campaigns in both the North West and West Midlands regions demonstrated how parties of the Left can work together and we are seeking to explore those options further. We are also less than a month away from the Green Party conference in Hove, at which Green Left will be holding two fringe meetings and probably nine months from a general election which is widely expected to see the election of a Tory government and the possible implosion of the Labour Party.

Adie Mormech will also be giving us an indication of what life is like in Gaza and how to organise radical and consciousness raising campaigns to offset the general disllusionment and malaise around electoral politics. Green Left has been at the forefront of many recent campaigns including those supporting the Vestas workers, the SOAS occupation for the rights of migrant workers and the anti-war movement. The year ahead is likely to see many more workers' occupations and climate actions, as well as an increasing resistance to the war in Afghanistan and Trident.

Green Left Summer Camp

Saturday 15th August

Friends Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester M2


12pm Welcome and Introductions

12.15 to 1.15pm Campaigns - Adie Mormech (one of those recently arrested in Israel on a boat bringing relief supplies to Gaza)

1.15 to 1.45pm Lunch

1.45 to 2.45pm Working with the Left (Kay Philips, Chair of Respect North West and John Nicholson, Convention of the Left)

2.45pm to 3.45pm Increasing our profile in the Green Party

3.45pm to 4pm Break

4pm to 4.45pm The Peterloo Massacre and its resonance today (Paul Fitzgerald, Peterloo Memorial Campaign)

4.45pm to 5pm General Discussion and AOB.

There will be a meal in a central Manchester venue in the evening after the meeting.

We will be participating in the Peterloo Massacre Commemoration events on Sunday 16th August – details of which have already been sent out.

http://www.quakertrading.co.uk/central-manchester/getting-here

See above for details of how to get there. Open to members of Green Left.