Session 1: Why is austerity a political choice? | 11:30am - 1pm

Chair: Claudia Webbe is a British socialist politician, campaigner and former UK Member of Parliament for Leicester East (2019-2024). She has spent decades advancing racial, social, economic and climate justice. Her work spans local government, policing reform, community empowerment and the charitable sector. She is a patron of the Stop the War Coalition and a trustee of the Marx Memorial Library. A committed feminist and Pan-Africanist, Claudia advocates for peace, equality and human rights, confronting structural racism and injustice in Britain and internationally.

Jennifer Forbes is an experienced trade unionist in the CWU and UCU. She is also the chair of Your Party. She now works in trade union education and volunteers on VAWG projects. Having worked on zero-hours contracts and rented privately for decades she knows that our class depends on tackling inequality. In 2019 she stood for parliament in Truro and Falmouth.

Prem Sikka has been a member of the UK House of Lords since October 2020. He is also Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and University of Sheffield. His research on accountancy, auditing, tax avoidance, tax havens, corruption, corporate governance, money laundering, insolvency and business affairs has been published in international scholarly journals, books, newspapers and magazines. He has appeared on domestic and international radio and television programmes to comment on business matters. He has advised and given evidence to a number of UK and EU parliamentary committees.

Patricia Pino is co-host of the MMT Podcast and founder of the MMTUK Policy Research Group, which she set up to challenge the economic myths that make austerity look inevitable. She is an economics researcher at UCL's Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, where she works on public investment, industrial strategy and inflation.

Carolina Alves is Associate Professor of Economics at University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) and a Fellow in Economics at Girton College, University of Cambridge. Her research spans critical macro-finance, structuralist macroeconomics, political economy, development studies, and the decolonisation of economics, with a particular focus on how economic ideas shape public policy and institutional change. Carolina is widely recognised for her work advancing more pluralist, historically grounded, and policy-relevant approaches to economics.

Session 2: How can we stop Palantir? | 2pm - 3pm

Chair: Alia Butt is an existential analyst and has experience working across various child, adolescent, and adult mental health services within the NHS. Alia works as a house therapist for the Philadelphia Association, established in 1965 where she also teaches on various courses, including the psychoanalytic psychotherapy training. Alia is a political activist and has written articles for various publications and spoken on television and radio on topics such as the NHS, mental health, social policy, and violence against women.

Shirley Franklin works primarily as an activist, trade unionist, author, and retired educator. She is deeply involved in public health campaigns, and is chair/coordinator for the Defend the Whittington Hospital Coalition, fighting against healthcare privatisation and austerity. She is chair of her local UCU retired members branch.

Shockat Adam is the Independent MP for Leicester South, overturning a 20,000-majority in the last General Election. In September 2024, he became a founding member of the Independent Alliance. As a practising optometrist and long-standing NHS advocate, Shockat introduced the Glaucoma Care Bill to champion eye health. With a focus on global justice, he has tabled the Palestine Statehood Recognition Bill and led a debate challenging UK-Israel military cooperation. Whilst serving his home city of Leicester, he has successfully campaigned to save playgrounds and libraries from closure, fought for fair pay and against local job cuts, and worked to strengthen community cohesion.

Duncan McCann is the tech and data lead within the legal team at Good Law Project. Duncan is responsible for managing all of our tech and data related legal campaigns, working in very close collaboration with the campaigning team and technical teams at GLP. In addition Duncan is responsible for building new legal campaigns, being the GLP subject matter expert on GDPR and other data/tech legal issues and representing GLP externally.

Session 3: Solving the housing emergency | 3pm - 4pm

Chair: Marion Roberts is a director of the Peace and Justice Project and an Emeritus Professor of Urban Design at the University of Westminster. In her career as an academic she published widely on the topics of the night time economy and on social issues in urban design. Her authored and co-authored books include Living in a Man-Made World and Planning the Night Time City. Since retiring her political activism has extended into joining the executive committee of Jewish Voice for Liberation and volunteering in Architects for Gaza.

Suzanne Muna worked in housing for almost 20 years. She is the Secretary and Cofounder of housing campaign group SHAC, a grassroots network of tenants, residents, and housing workers. She spearheads major campaigns for housing justice, including current efforts to launch a national, democratic, tenant and resident led housing union. Almost continuously throughout her employment, Suzanne has been an active trade unionist. She has served as an elected delegate to the Unite executive council for over 11 years.

Victoria Cooper is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Criminology at The Open University. She is co-editor of The Violence of Austerity (Pluto Press, 2017), and has published on issues relating homelessness and housing: violence against homeless women, anti-homelessness media crusades, housing inequality, evictions, and housing decarbonisation.

Glyn Robbins has worked in, campaigned on and written about housing for over 30 years. He is an active trade unionist and Co. Secretary of Tower Hamlets Trades Council. His writing has been widely published, including in the national media and he is a regular contributor on housing for BBC Radio London. His book about union-sponsored housing cooperatives in New York City is due for publication by Cornell University Press in 2027. He is a two-time Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Senior Scholar at the LSE.

Session 4: Why do we need political education? | 4:15pm - 5:30pm

Chair: Alison McGarry has been active in the labour movement from age 15. She worked in Inland Revenue,TV, Schools, and FHE. As TUC Training & Development Officer, Alison supported unions to build capacity for Organising. At the ITF, Alison developed and delivered the first women’s ‘Leading Change’ global development programme in partnership with the Harvard Law School Labor & Worklife Program. Alison continues to work with unions supporting their strategic development.

Louise Regan is a National Executive member of the National Education Union. She chairs the NEU international committee. She was the national President of the NUT in 2017 and also held the role of membership and equalities officer for 5 years. Louise is a full time primary teacher in Nottingham. She has led many international delegations in her role as national President and chair of the international committee. She is also the chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Fran Heathcote is the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union. Following her election in 2023, she is the first woman to hold this position in the 130-year history of PCS and its predecessor unions. Fran is leading the fight as general secretary to keep driving up PCS members’ pay, improve members’ terms and conditions, deal with the cost-of-living crisis and to campaign for justice both at home and internationally. Fran is a key figure in the British trade union movement. Having previously been a lay rep for 30 years, holding positions at every level, she served as PCS President for 5 years prior to becoming General Secretary. Fran has tirelessly campaigned against the fragmentation and privatisation of public services.

Jeremy Corbyn is the founder of Peace & Justice Project, Parliamentary Leader of Your Party and former leader of the UK Labour Party from (2015-2020). He has served as a Member of British Parliament in Islington North for 40 years and is a Parliamentary Member of the Council of Europe. His expansive and lifelong campaigning for peace, justice and human rights has taken him across the world, advocating in senior roles for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, UN Human Rights Council in New York (review of the Geneva Convention), nuclear non-proliferation, trade unions, employment rights, Indigenous rights and many social movements. He has twice been awarded prizes for promoting peace, including the Seán MacBride Peace Prize for his sustained political work for disarmament and peace.