500
trade unionists activists, Labour activists, politicians, campaigners
and academics from all over the country came to TUC Congress House
yesterday for the first National Conference of the Centre for Labour and
Social Studies (Class), the independent think tank founded by the trade
union movement.
[...] The
central theme of Class Conference 2013 was the construction of a new
political economy. Billy Hayes, General Secretary of CWU, and others
pointed out that Class has a key role to research, analyse and prove
that there is a popular and credible alternative to austerity.
Conference saw the wheels of this role being set into motion, with
practical ideas like housing and education policy being discussed
alongside political analysis – like Professor Costas Lapavitsas developing his ideas on financialisation, and Marianna Mazzucato explaining the vital role of the state in innovation.