A report and details of resolutions passed at Counterfire National Conference 2015

Counterfire held its fourth annual conference over the weekend. Delegates discussed  a series of political crises; Syriza’s retreat in Greece and the implications for the left in Europe, the ongoing decay of the British politics and the prospects for the general election, and the turmoil caused by Western foreign policy in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe.
 
The resolutions on these subjects and others are listed below.

Resolutions

• Building Counterfire
• Syriza and the European crisis
• Finance
• Imperialism, Islamophobia and Racism
• The crisis of British politics
• Building local Counterfire groups
• Housing
• Counterfire logo
• Counterfire Paper
• The Constitutional Crisis

One of the central themes was the ideological crisis caused by the economic and political ferment which has led to a sharp increase in the audience for revolutionary ideas.
 
Group after group around the country reported much bigger meetings, and a significant number of people joining. Rapid growth in our online readership was also reported. This pattern was confirmed by the 400-strong London Marx in a Day event earlier this month.
 
To respond to this a number of different measures were agreed including a more ambitious recruitment policy, the establishment of a supporters/subscribers category and more emphasis on public events to disseminate our ideas and analyses. We also agreed to begin producing a regular free broadsheet to help increase the visibility of revolutionary arguments in the movement and beyond.
 
In order to roll out this ambitious programme it was agreed we need to have a much bigger emphasis on fundraising, starting with a quick push to raise an initial £4,000 from members for start up costs for the broadsheet.
 
There were significantly more Counterfire groups represented from around the country than in previous conferences, all of them playing a central role in the movements locally. This is evidence of the great potential for growth in the months ahead. Read more.