Ed Miliband, Gordon Brown & Shaka Hislop headline CWU Engagement Festival next week

September 24 2020

Thursday 24th September 2020

Tune in Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday for the Big Event…

Our Shadow Business Secretary, the most recent Labour Prime Minister, and a former West Ham United goalkeeper top a high-profile list of guests joining our ground-breaking Online Engagement Festival, which runs for three days next week.

From Monday morning (28^th) through to the Wednesday evening (30^th), leaders of the CWU will head a wide variety of debate sessions and workshops – joined by friends of the CWU from across our movement…and, most importantly of course…YOU.

Following on from the cancellation of 2020 Annual Conference, along with all our normal collectively-attended events, general secretary Dave Ward has been determined to find the best way to bring our branches and activists together in another form if possible.

And with the assistance and support of our head of comms Chris Webb, this innovative three-day event aims to meet this challenge.  

Dave Ward tells CWU News: “We in the CWU have been at the very forefront of innovative technology-driven communications and engagement and this event will build on that and take it further forward.

“It’s going to be fantastic to welcome the former Labour Prime Minister and Chancellor Gordon Brown, as well as our current Shadow Secretary of State for Business Ed Miliband – a former Labour Party leader as well of course.

“But what I’m most excited about is being able to welcome thousands of our magnificent CWU members, who all do such a superb job for this country week in, week out – but who have stepped up to the challenges and difficulties of this terrible Covid crisis with tremendous spirit and have rightly won plaudits for their efforts.

“Yes of course it’s a great shame, due to the awful circumstances, that we can’t hold our annual conference or our many other lively collective events,” Dave continues.

“But it’s our hope – it’s certainly our intention – that next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, more members than ever before will be able to directly engage with the debates and discussions that are the lifeblood of this great union.”  

Our CWU president Karen Rose will join Dave in opening CWU 2020 Festival Day One, with a morning of debate focussing on the timely topic of Post-Covid challenges and the direction of the CWU.

The challenges ahead for us and the wider movement are and will be huge – and this session will be a great opportunity to debate the key priorities for us, with ideas, suggestions and contributions from branches particularly welcome.

Future World of Work and New Deal for Workers is the first topic tackled after lunch and our general secretary will debate world of work issues with Carolyn Jones from the Institute for Employment Rights (IER), think-tank Autonomy’s Will Stronge and Gordon Brown.

Ms Jones’s IER campaigns for the removal of anti-trade union laws, Mr Stronge is currently writing a book entitled ‘Post-Work’ and of course Mr Brown has over a decade of experience right at the heart of government – so this promises to be a thought-provoking conversation.

The second part of this first afternoon focusses on our union’s core postal and telecoms industrial constituencies – and Industrial Roundtable will be two separate ‘breakout’ events led by deputy general secretaries Terry Pullinger and Andy Kerr respectively.

So if you’re a Royal Mail member with a question about the current national negotiations, a BT worker worried about your job, or if you’re from one of our other postal, telecoms or financial services companies, this is a great chance to hear what your senior national officer has to say, or to contribute your views.

But of course, the CWU’s industrial work isn’t confined to Royal Mail and BT. We’ve seen the launch of our new United Tech & Allied Workers (UTAW) national branch and the union has a new head of recruitment & organising, Ray Ellis, who leads the first session of Day Two: New Opportunities To Grow.

Ray will be setting out the CWU’s ambitious plans to unionise the UK’s growing tech-sector and our future wider strategy, while deputy head of comms Amie Retallick will explain how we are developing a new App for current and potential members.

Ian Lavery MP joins our general secretary for CWU Political Engagement, which kicks off Tuesday afternoon and also features former MP Laura Smith.   

This session will look at how our union has significantly raised our game politically in recent years and pose the key questions: How do we build on this? How do we do more? How do we get more CWU members into Westminster? How can we create change in our communities? 

Show Racism the Red Card honorary president Shaka Hislop is our guest at 2.30pm, when he and our own head of equality, education and development Kate Hudson present CWU Against Racism.

Mr Hislop was capped 26 times for his country, and kept goal for Reading, Newcastle United, Portsmouth and West Ham United between 1992 and 2006.

He also played a key role in the foundation of SRtRC and, in a column for the campaign’s website in June, he wrote: ‘The “normal” that we have enjoyed or endured can be no more. We all have a place in shaping what that new normal looks like, let’s all play our parts.’

 CWU senior deputy general secretary Tony Kearns meets Ed Miliband and TUC safety officer Shelly Asquith on Wednesday morning to debate Climate Change/Green New Deal, Safe Working Environment.

As well as being our party leader between 2010 and 2015, Mr Miliband also served As Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change under Gordon Brown’s premiership and the issue is of key importance to him in his current role as Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary. Our own Tony Kearns has long been active within the trade union movement’s climate change campaigns, particularly the Just Transition initiative, while Shelly Asquith leads for the TUC on safety at work issues – exceptionally important at this particular time and during our current pandemic.

This session will ask: Is climate change a trade union issue? Do the CWU have a role to play in calling for and supporting a Green New Deal? How do we ensure our workplaces are as safe as possible both during and after Covid-19?

Guests Aaron Bastani and Bhaskar Sunkara, from Novara Media and Jacobin US respectively, will be welcomed by CWU head of comms Chris Webb in the afternoon for the important Future CWU Communications Strategy discussion.

Looking ahead to this session, Chris tells CWU News: “We’ve overhauled the union’s communications strategy in the last five years, but now is not a time to stand still.”

This discussion will look at “the next steps planned by our Communications Department, including a range of new ideas and plans,” adds Chris.

Hearing from our guest speakers is also going to be extremely interesting – their innovative work is reaching millions of people, communicating radical new ideas and, in many respects, giving voice to the voiceless.

And finally, Dave Ward and Karen Rose will come back for the concluding session. 

Our general secretary and president will look back over the three days of debate and discussion, summarise the event, look ahead to the next steps we’ll take together and then formally bring CWU Festival of Engagement 2020 to a close.

Speaking to CWU News just a few days before the Big Kick-Off, Dave says: “Everyone’s really been working hard to put together what we hope will be an interesting, informative, engaging and also fun event.

“We reckon this is going to be great – don’t miss it.”