Ideas for Freedom is a weekend of discussion, debate, and education, hosted by Workers’ Liberty. The event aims to provide socialist activists, and those interested in socialist ideas yet to take the step into regular political activity, with opportunities to discuss the ideas we need to change the world.
This year it will take place on 22-23 November in Islington, north London. Venue details will be sent to ticket holders.
Early Bird weekend tickets (until 4 October): £45 waged, £25 low-waged and students, £8 unwaged. Day tickets are: £22 waged, £12 low-waged and students, £4 unwaged. Solidarity price (weekend): £70
This year, a core theme of the event will be resistance to the global wave of far-right authoritarianism, at home and abroad. We’ll discuss how to fight fascism and defend migrants’ rights here in the UK, along with sessions looking at working-class and democratic struggles against right-wing regimes in Israel, Argentina, the USA, and Turkey. We’ll hear from socialist activists from Ukraine about the resistance to Russian imperialism.
We’ll also discuss organising in workplaces and unions, housing struggles, and the struggle for trans rights. There’ll be debates with other socialist currents, about Stalinism and nationalism. Plus, sessions on events and trends within the history of our movement.
There is a free creche staffed by professional childcare workers (register before 1 November) and crash accommodation on request. Affordable vegetarian/vegan food and refreshments will available on both days.
Saturday runs from 11am (registration) to 7pm. Sunday runs from 11am to 4.20pm.
- On Friday 21 November 7pm we are hosting a debate: “A new party, the future of the left in Britain?” At Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Square, London W1T 6AQ. Free entry to IFF25 ticket holders or £5/£3 on the door.
Sessions include:
A new party? The future of the left in Britain, with invited speakers from a range of left organisations and groupings
Fighting the far right, with speakers including Mark Osborn, editor of How to Beat the Racists
Renewing socialist feminism, with speakers including Frieda Afary, Iranian-American socialist-feminist activist and author of Socialist Feminism: A New Approach
Housing as a site of class struggle, with a tenants’ rights activist
The fight for trans rights, with Kacey de Groot and Natalia Cassidy
The Erdoğan regime in Turkey, with Pete Boggs
1949 and the legacy of Maoism, with Chan Ying
How to transform our unions, with rank-and-file trade union activists
Justice for Grenfell, with Paul Hampton, author of Culpable: Deregulation, Austerity and the Causes of the Grenfell Tower Fire
Workers’ and democratic struggles in the Middle East, with speakers including Israeli socialist Asaf Yakir
Voices against Putin’s war, with Rueben Woolley and Simon Pirani, author of Change in Putin’s Russia: Power, Money and People and editor of Voices Against Putin’s War: Protesters’ Defiant Speeches in Russian Courts
A Short History of the Arms Industry and Campaigns Against It, with Prof. Catherine Fletcher, author of the forthcoming book The Handgun Revolution
Are Stalinist states an advance on capitalism?, Workers’ Liberty debates Socialismo O Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism)
Different modes of capitalism, with Martin Thomas, editor of Crisis and Sequels: Capitalism and the New Economic Turmoil Since 2007
Railways 200: Two Centuries of Struggle, with Janine Booth, author of a forthcoming book on the history of class struggle on the British railways
Confronting Antisemitism on the Left, with Daniel Randall
The Milei regime in Argentina, with a speaker from Socialismo O Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism)
Phyllis and Julius Jacobson and the Third Camp tradition, with Kent Worcester, co-editor of Third Camp Socialism: A Phyllis and Julius Jacobson Reader
Marxists and the national question: is self-determination still a relevant demand?, debate with Lotta Comunista (Communist Struggle)
Plus:
- Class struggle under the Trump regime
- With Ukraine against Russian conquest, with Ukrainian workers against their bosses
- Building workers’ climate action
- The fight for free movement
More sessions and speakers to be announced. Please note that sessions are subject to change.