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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1097/31160
From The Socialist newspaper, 5 August 2020
Engage for Change Hull - trade union youth festival goes online
Hull 'Engage for Change' festival 2019, photo Lucy Nuttall (Click to enlarge)
'Engage for Change' held an online, virtual festival on 25 July. Engage for Change aims to educate young working-class people on the role of trade unions through music and the arts. It's an initiative of Hull and District Trades Union Council, the body that brings together the trade unions in the city.
This year's physical festival, as with most other major events, was cancelled due to Covid-19. We felt it was important to put on a virtual festival.
The virtual festival had bands, solo artists, and poets plus discussions on Black Lives Matter and the impact of Covid on the music industry. We heard about strikes and workers' disputes on NHS pay, Tower Hamlets council contracts and British Airways jobs.
The event videos had over 16,000 views live and since, a tremendous success. It gives Engage for Change a really strong basis for more events and festivals.
Matt Whale, Hull Socialist Party
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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In The Socialist 5 August 2020:
News
From first wave to second? Capitalism's Covid failures
Capitalism's 'vaccine war' shows need for socialist cooperation
Tories' obesity plans - blaming individuals not the profit system
What we think
Labour payouts: unions must discuss political representation
Workplace news
Wales: GE Aviation workers march to save jobs
PCS union: Reject longer DWP opening hours
'First you clap us then you slap us': hundreds march for NHS pay rise
Sick pay victory at Homerton hospital!
Unite union branch pledges to support socialist candidates who oppose cuts
Oppose BT site closures - national strike ballot needed
No going back
What would socialist universities look like?
International
Cuba: Covid-19 and the 60-year-old embargo
Anniversary of nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
80 years since the murder of Leon Trotsky rally
Campaigns
A-level results day 2020: Fight for our future!
Fighting to end racism and capitalism
North London: Socialist Party speaks at BLM protest
Doncaster: Vigil for murdered women
Engage for Change Hull - trade union youth festival goes online
Campaign stalls on jobs, pay, NHS and racism
Why I joined - Covid changed my outlook
Socialist Party meetings: Online and in-person
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