Sunday, June 03, 2007

Solidarity and Rights: Euston Manifesto One Year On


On Wednesday (afternoon and evening) I went to the first “Euston Manifesto” conference held at the SOAS, University of London. It was sold out. I arrived a bit late and the lecture theatre was packed with people, many were sittings on the isles or standing at the sides. There was a notably good mix of people (age, sex and race). I really enjoyed the conference even though some of it made my head hurt. I accept that many will be unclear about what the Euston Manifesto stands for – this is the preamble from the website

“We are democrats and progressives. We propose here a fresh political alignment. Many of us belong to the Left, but the principles that we set out are not exclusive. We reach out, rather, beyond the socialist Left towards egalitarian liberals and others of unambiguous democratic commitment. Indeed, the reconfiguration of progressive opinion that we aim for involves drawing a line between the forces of the Left that remain true to its authentic values, and currents that have lately shown themselves rather too flexible about these values. It involves making common cause with genuine democrats, whether socialist or not.”

They are "For democracy, No apology for tyranny, Human rights for all, Equality, Development for freedom, Opposing anti-Americanism, For a two-state solution Against racism, United against terror, A new internationalism, A critical openness, Freedom of ideas, Open source and A precious heritage"

There are nearly 3000 signatures to the Euston Manifesto. A left wing mate who heard I was attending this conference suggested that I had become a “liberal tankie” (discuss)

There were five main speakers. I will try to make relevant comments (my own personal interpretations of course) on each of the speakers during the next week or so.

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