• Economy and Politics
• People and Power
• News Brief
• Coalition of Resistance
• common wealth
• cuts
• government cuts
• Blog

The Coalition of Resistance against the government's public spending cuts, which is bringing together trade union, community, political and civil society groups, has announced the agenda for its organising conference on 27 November - which already has 500 representatives signed up.

The Common Wealth network of Christians (http://commonwealthnetwork2010.blogspot.com/.) is encouraging people (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/13571) to support the Coalition (http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/). Ekklesia is supporting both initiatives.

The gathering takes place at the Camden Centre, Bidborough Street, London WC1H 9DB from 10.00 - 17.00.

AGENDA

10:00 - 10:30 REGISTRATION

10:30 - 11:45 OPENING PLENARY
Mark Serwotka PCS, Andrew Murray, Jean Lambert MEP, Bob Crow RMT, Christian Mahieux (Solidaires unions, France), Clare Solomon NUS, Heather Wakefield UNISON, People's Charter, John McDonnell MP, Lindsey German CoR.

12:00 - 13:15 ORGANISING AGAINST THE CUTS LOCALLY
Range of speakers from anti-cuts and other organisations from around the country

ANALYSING THE CRISIS
James Meadway, Stathis Kouvelakis, Derek Wall, Hilary Wainwright

MOBILISING THE UNIONS
Alan Whittaker President UCU, Rebecca Allen PCS, George Binette UNISON

WHAT SHOULD POLITICAL REPRESENTATIVES DO?
Liz Davis, Samir Jeeraj (Green Party), Billy Bragg, Laurie Penny

YOUTH, STUDENTS AND EDUCATION
Speakers from recent school and student protests, Alex Kenny NUT, Jean-Baptiste Tondu (NPA student , France)

RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Chris Baugh PCS, Jonathan Neale CACC, Peter Robinson

13:15 - 14:00 LUNCH

14:00 - 15:15 DEFENDING THE WELFARE STATE
Colin Leys KONP, Chris Nineham CoR, Dr Jacky Davis, DCH

ALTERNATIVES TO THE CRISIS
Ozlem Onaran, Richard Brenner, John Hilary (War on Want)

STATES OF INEQUALITY
Zita Holbourne, Terry Conway, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, Katherine Connelly, Linda Burnip

COR: HOW AND WHY
Paul Mackney, Andrew Burgin, Lindsey German

DEFENDING BENEFITS AND PENSIONS
George Thompson PCS, Colin Hampton (Chesterfield UWC), Pip Tindall (BBC), Pensioners' Convention

15:30 - 17:00 VOTING, ELECTIONS AND CLOSING PLENARY
Dot Gibson (Pensioners Convention), Lee Jasper (BARAC), Jeremy Dear (NUJ), Jeremy Corbyn MP, John Rees (CoR), Kate Hudson (CND), Chris Bambery (RTW), Lowkey, Tony Benn. Chairing by Paul Mackney and Romayne Phoenix

There will be elections for a National Steering Committee - nominations will be taken at the conference from individuals,organisations and anti-cuts groups that support the Coalition's galvanising statement (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/13394). There will be a vote on a campaigning plan for the forthcoming period. The plan of action will be amendable at the conference and will include suggestions from the sessions. This is a founding conference and we are proposing that the incoming steering committee prepare a resolution based conference to take place within nine months.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 England & Wales License. Although the views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Ekklesia, the article may reflect Ekklesia's values. If you use Ekklesia's news briefings please consider making a donation to sponsor Ekklesia's work here.