Thanks to the support of individual members and affiliates this year. Liberation had a successful 2024 campaigning for peace, human rights and social justice in the Global South. There is always an enormous amount of work that goes on behind the scenes with shorter and longer term objectives carried out by some really dedicated volunteers and activists, so this is but a flavour:
-Held a pro-peace fringe meeting at the annual conference of the UK’s biggest union, Unison, chaired by the union’s Assistant General Secretary (Watch Rashid Elsheikh, a Sudanese anti-war activist, on youtube or listen to all the speeches on Spotify)
-Strengthened engagement with and support from a number of unions, with stalls at Unison, UCU and NEU conferences, working with our affiliate CODIR, the Iranian human rights organisation, while welcoming an additional two dozen branches into affiliated membership
Palestine Ambassador, HE Husam Zomlot with Codir Assistance General Secretary and Liberation Executive member Jamshid Ahmadi and Liberation Education Committee member Liz Payne
Protest in central London to demand an end to the proxy war in Sudan (Liberation Executive Committee member Jamshid Ahmadi centre)
-Bolstered joint working with progressive, popular Palestinian and Sudanese organisations with a representative of the Palestine People’s Party and a seasoned Sudanese activist joining Liberation Central Council, as well as strengthening links with the embassies of Cuba and Palestine
Morning Star business manager Jimmy MacIntyre at Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival in Dorset
– Reconnected and / or strengthened partnerships/joint working with progressive organisations in the UK, including the Morning Star, Stop the War Coalition, the Young Communist League and Manifesto Press
-Held two well attended webinars, on Sudan and Palestine with high profile and authoritative speakers including activists and politicians from the UK and Sudan
-Engaged with the UK general election campaign and new parliament setting out our vision of a progressive, independent foreign policy and inviting new MPs to speak at our events.
-Engaged with and informed thousands of activists through our journal published 3-4 times this year as a supplement in the Morning Star newspaper, which also carried multiple additional articles with authoritative comment on, and analysis of issues relevant to the work of Liberation. Also extended our reach and engagement on social media using Facebook, X and Instagram, the emerging Blue Sky social network as well as launching on Spotify–
Left to right: Robin (actually a previous volunteer who has renewed volunteering with us), Sabina and Olie at Unison’s National Delegate Conference
-Built organisational capacity with amazing new volunteers and contributors to our journal
Liberation joint President Maggie Bowden with Liberation colleagues at our 70th at the Cypriot Community Centre, London (Photo: Emily Cosgrove)
-Celebrated our 70th anniversary with a lively event in London (watch the video and listen to the speeches) and a special edition of our journal; we also came across some fascinating archive material from earlier moments in our history like Tony Benn’s speech at in a debate organised by Liberation in Conway Hall in January 1995, marking our 50th birthday