The World Transformed

Grenfell must be a 'never again' moment in the history of this country. The fire has exposed incestuous relationships between local, as well as national government, and the construction industry. In or out of government, how can Labour effectively engage with this issue, beyond superficial lip service? How can Labour act now to put the party at the disposal of a horrified and haunted community forced to campaign through their trauma for the safety of all across the country?

Come and hear from those who have spent the last two years fighting tooth and nail for a justice which may never come.

With Speakers:

Lowkey; A poet, playwright, political activist and award winning hip-hop artist.

Karim: The Vice-Chair of Grenfell United, the official organisation of survivors and bereaved families of the Grenfell Tower fire, working together to campaign for safe homes, justice and change.

Reis Morris: A local activist and former resident of the Grenfell Tower.

Zeyad: An organizer of the Grenfell Tower Silent Walk - an annual walk organised by Grenfell United to remember the Grenfell Tower fire.

Daniel Renwick: A videographer and writer who made Failed By The State - the struggle in the shadow of Grenfell. He is a youth worker and advocate in the local community

A discussion of a new report from Common Wealth looking at the economic gap between private and state schools across England.

The report by Dr Sol Gamsu shows how English private schools receive four times as much money per pupil as local state secondary. In some schools this figure is much higher with the wealthiest schools in the South of England having 8,9,10 times the income of local state secondary schools.

Is a system where some schools have tens of thousands of pounds to spend per pupil justifiable?

With: Dr Sol Gamsu (Durham University) // Professor Rebecca Boden (Tampere University) // Steven Longden (Abolish Eton).

You can read the full report here: https://www.common-wealth.co.uk/reports/why-are-some-children-worth-more-than-others

In 2020, writer Owen Hatherley published two books about London. One, Red Metropolis was a polemical history of municipal socialism in Britain's capital. The other, was an alternative guide to London's boroughs featuring 33 activists, historians, architects and politicians exploring stories and neighbourhoods from across each of the city's 33 boroughs.

The alternative guide, which was commissioned by Open City, a charity best known for its London-wide festival of remarkable architecture Open House, attempts to unpick the social and political dimensions of London's built fabric while taking the reader on an adventurous journey encompassing everything from Brutalist Polish community centres to suburban garden cities, from pioneering modernist estates to ornate Victorian greenhouses.

In this special event, Owen is joined by Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty, who wrote the alternative guide's chapter on the London borough of Haringey, and graphic designer Rosa Nussbaum to discuss contemporary London following the mayoral election, property development in Haringey and beyond, and wider themes of both books.

The Alternative Guide to the London Boroughs is available from the Open City online shop. Anyone who would like to get hold of a copy before this event can use the one-off discount code THEWORLDTRANSFORMED to get 40% off the cover price.

The event will be introduced by Phineas Harper, architecture writer and director of Open City who commissioned the Alternative Guide to the London Boroughs and compered by Sam Swann from The World Transformed.

The shocking scenes of the MET’s violent response to those seeking to mark and protest the death of Sarah Everard made visible the kind of state violence that has been meted out to communities since the force’s inception.

This week, the government plan to rush through parliament a significant increase in police powers over public demonstration. The recently published Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is full scale assault on our civil liberties, threatening our rights to protest even further, expanding stop and search powers, and further criminalising traveller communities.

Join us to better understand its implications, hear from those being targeted by the bill, and discuss our options for resistance.

With:

Shami Chakrabarti - Barrister, human rights activist & former director of Liberty

Zehrah Hasan - Barrister, founding member and Director of Black Protest Legal Support

Becka Hudson – Organiser and researcher on prison, psychiatry and empire

Luke Smith – Co-founder, Labour for Gypsy, Roma & Traveller communities

Chantelle Lunt – Founder Merseyside Black Lives Matter Alliance

Ali Brumfitt – Organiser with Global Justice Bloc

Common Wealth and The World Transformed are pleased to present the launch of 'Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone', the latest book from labour journalist Sarah Jaffe.

'Work Won’t Love You Back' is a thoroughly reported investigation into the persistent myths around a “labour of love”, where work is done out of passion instead of pay. Told through the lives and experiences of workers in various industries — from the unpaid intern, to the overworked teacher, to the nonprofit worker and even the professional athlete — Jaffe reveals how all of us have been tricked into buying into a new tyranny of work.

Jaffe is joined by Dalia Gebrial (Associate Researcher at Autonomy) and Amelia Horgan (author of the forthcoming Lost in Work: Escaping Capitalism). The discussion explores workplace democracy, the labour movement and more.

Transphobia is on the rise across society and within the left. A recent report suggested four in five trans people in the UK have experienced a form of trans hate crime over the last 12 months. Meanwhile public figures including MPs have been able to use their platform to express transphobic views, often without consequences.

But what even is transphobia? How does it manifest in different parts of society? And how can understanding its roots and role in modern day politics help us all get better at identifying and challenging it when it arises?

Join us for the third event in a series of political education on trans liberation being organised by trans people within The World Transformed, Labour Campaign for Trans Rights and Momentum.

Speakers:

- Shon Faye: Writer

- Lola Olufemi: Black Feminist and Researcher

- Juliet Jacques: Writer and Filmmaker

- Chay Brown: Director, TransActual

- Felix Mufti: Organiser, Labour LGBT+ Network (chair)

As part of Disability History Month 2020 TWT and Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) teamed up to create this introduction to disability oppression. In it DPAC activist and Labour NEC member Ellen Morrison speaks to author and DPAC activist Ellen Clifford about: Who disabled people are? The difference between deaf and disabled people? The specific type of oppression disabled people face under capitalism? And how disability oppression manifests within our own movement?

This is part of a workshop plan that we’d encourage you to run with friends and/or your local group. You can find the workshop plan here: https://theworldtransformed.org/resourcehub/disability-oppression-101/

What has lockdown taught us about ‘freedom’ under capitalism? Whose freedom is more important: the freedom of businesses to make money, or the freedom of workers to stay healthy? Is freedom a question of personal rights and privileges, or the shared ability to decide what kind of world we want to live in?

For the past 40 years, we’ve been told that governments can’t do much to change our lives: they can’t fix climate change, they can’t make housing cheaper, they can’t care for the old or educate the young properly. Suddenly this year, we learned that they can manage a complete alteration of every aspect of our lives in a matter of weeks. How come?

Why have renters been hit so hard by the Covid crisis? Why are so many young people forced to rent? Why is rent so expensive and why do renters in the UK enjoy so few rights? Why have governments become obsessed with maintaining property prices and is there an alternative?