Matt Willgress

Matt Willgress

Morning Star conference: Fightback

With Prof. Lydia Hayes, Lord John Hendy KC, Andrew Murray, Sarah Woolley, Jeremy Corbyn, Chris Kitchen, Fiona Edwards, Ian Lavery MP, Ben Chacko, Sevim Dagdelen, Helen O'Connor, Alex Gordon, Pete Lazenby, Rebecca Long-Bailey MP, John Rees, Kate Hudson, Sam Browse, Hugh Lanning, Tom Greenwood, Terry Renshaw, Erkan Ersoy, Matt Willgress, Heather Wood.

"Stopping the virus"

"Stopping the virus: It doesn't have to be this way"

Zero Covid Coalition was live January 24 2021.

Our demand is that the government adopt a Zero Covid strategy, learning from the great success it has had in in other countries. To do this, we are uniting all those who want more effective action from the government.

Join us to hear from 25+ speakers including Jeremy Corbyn MP, Diane Abbott MP and Richard Horton (Lancet) to find out more.

Participants included Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP chair, Jo Grady UCU, Jay Patel, Robert West, Richard Burgon MP, Dr. Coral Jones, Keith Venables, Zita Holbourne, Sabby Dhalu Stand Up To Racism, Karen Reissmann People Before Profit, Lawrence Davies Equal Justice solicitors, Dr. Emma Runswick Zero Covid Coalition, Ramona McCartney The People's Assembly, Louise Irvine Keep Our NHS Public, Ben Chacko Morning Star, Howard Beckett Unite the Union, Riccardo la Torre FBU, Pascale Robinson We Own It, Matt Willgress, Arise and Labour Outlook, Sonali Bhattacharyya Momentum UK, Larissa Kennedy NUS, Helen O'Connor GMB.

Arise Festival

Arise Festival was held online January 2021. Thousands of Labour activists tuned in to be part of Arise Festival’s kickstart to a year of activism, ‘Fighting back in 2021: How Labour’s Left should respond to the current crisis’. Listeners heard from an impressive array of speakers, ranging from MPs in the Socialist Campaign Group, left journalists, trade unionists, and activists in the Labour Party and wider social movements. The message was loud and clear – the Labour left is here to stay, and will be at the forefront of both resisting the Tories’ reactionary agenda, and standing for socialist solutions to the crisis and democracy in the Labour Party.

The final rally was chaired by Matt Willgress (Arise Festival National Organiser) and featured John McDonnell, Richard Burgon, Nadia Jama (Labour NEC), Rachel Garnham (CLPD), Matt Wrack (FBU General Secretary and LRC) and Ian Lavery.

Outlining an agenda for action for the new year, the panellists spoke to the theme of ‘Fighting back in 2021: Fighting for socialist solutions’. Nadia Jama set out a raft of measures Labour should support both immediately and in the long term, and emphasised the importance of supporting workers ‘not only when bosses abuse the rules, but when Ministers write rules that cannot responsibly be followed’.

Given the challenges outlined by the other panellists, Richard Burgon empathised with those who were struggling to maintain their political optimism in the new year, but concluded the rally by quoting the inspiring words of Salvador Allende, the Chilean President murdered in a US-backed fascist coup.

“As the final moments of his life came, Allende said ‘we will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Go forward knowing that sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again, where free people walk to build a better society’.

“His voice endured those circumstances, his message endured the decades since then, and the spirit of that message lives on. Let’s keep it close to our hearts and know that however difficult it may seem, others have struggled against far far greater difficulties. We can fight; we must fight. If we do, we can win. Never has there been a more crucial time to win for the working class in all its diversity. That’s our duty. Now, let’s get to it”.