Campaign for a New Workers' Party conference 19 March

THERE ARE now over 1,000 signatories to the Campaign for a New Workers' Party declaration. Click here to see the signatures (426Kb html file). This shows the support these ideas are getting amongst workers, community activists, students, socialists and others.

Fiona Pashazadeh

The national conference of the campaign will be taking place on Sunday 19 March at the University of London Union. All those who support the campaign and have signed the declaration should aim to attend and take part. The conference is an important opportunity to bring supporters and activists together to discuss, debate and agree on the way forward.

Supporters of the campaign are angry about New Labour's constant attacks on education, the NHS, housing, jobs and pensions. The occupation of Iraq continues, costing more and more public money yet we are told that there is no more money to fund public services.

Centrica, the owners of British Gas, have announced a £1.5 billion profit just one week after raising gas prices by 22%. Despite the obvious effect this will have on working-class people, no mainstream political voice has spoken out against this startling example of unashamed corporate greed.

It is now time to come together to plan the next stages towards establishing a real political alternative, a party that will stand up for the millions not the millionaires.

The opening rally of the conference will include Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary and Claus Ludwig, a councillor from the new left formation, the WASG, in Germany. These speakers will introduce the discussion but the emphasis will be on debate and discussion from the floor and we hope that as many points of view as possible will be heard in the time available.

The conference will include workshops so that activists from different areas, such as trade unions, community campaigns and youth and student groups can discuss how to build the campaign in their respective areas. We also hope that an initial steering committee will be elected that can carry out the day-to-day tasks of the campaign.

The website (www.cnwp.org.uk) has been updated recently with more details of the running of the conference.

We will do our best to accommodate everyone who turns up on the day but due to space limitations, we cannot guarantee this. Register now to secure your place!

You can do this via the website or by sending contact details and payment to CNWP, PO Box 858, London E11 1YG (cheques made payable to CNWP).

We look forward to seeing you on 19 March!

GLENN KELLY is a member of the UNISON union's national executive and a signatory, in a personal capacity, to the CNWP declaration. He will also be speaking at the conference on 19 March:

"Council workers are preparing for strike action to defend their pensions from attack by the government. Every day those workers are on strike they will sacrifice a minimum of £50 million in wages.

"Yet UNISON has just handed over nearly £500,000 in the last quarter alone to the Labour Party - the architects of those attacks. It's the equivalent of buying your boss a pair of Doc Martens so he can give you a good kicking."