The World Transformed (or TWT) is a political festival, which until 2023 was held as an unaffiliated fringe event running at the same time as Labour Party conference.[1][2] Beginning in 2016, organisers describe its purpose as "to create a space in which ideas can be freely exchanged and collectively developed".[3][4]
Background
Matt Zarb-Cousin and journalist Ash Sarkar at The World Transformed 2017
The festival was created with an aim of bringing together the activist and intellectual parts of the left together, and was inspired by the Dialectics of Liberation Congress held in 1967 which took place at the Roundhouse in London.[5] It was originally organised by the left-wing campaigning organisation Momentum, though is independent and still receives support.[6][7] Some of the festival's original organisers were Andrew Dolan, Joseph Todd and Sasha Josette.[3][8][9] With the first festival in 2016, Todd said he wanted the presence of the festival to take over the city it was happening in, much like the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.[8] Voices in the media, such as Guardian columnist Zoe Williams, had echoed its similarity to the Edinburgh fringe festival and labelled it "a festival of ideas".[10] Through this festival, discussions around political education and municipal socialism – considered by the New Statesman'sGeorge Eaton to have been previously dormant – were said to be revitalised.[11]
The second festival in 2017 based in Brighton was successful, incorporating 9 different venues and had between 5,000 and 8,000 attendees. The organisers considered incorporating the Brighton Dome into the festival.[9][5] In 2017 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn endorsed the festival, describing it as "a powerful new space on the Labour Party conference fringe for people to debate policies, exchange ideas, and expand our political horizon with arts, music and culture."[12][13] The attendees were largely young people who had previously taken little interest in party politics before the election of Corbyn as Labour leader in 2015 and were coming together to discuss how to build on Labour's advances in the 2017 general election.[14] Its development has led to delegates from left-wing organisations and parties from across Europe and the USA.[15]
Following the 2018 World Transformed event, many local events not directly organised by Momentum or TWT began to emerge. The events have been seen to foster political education, active participation, skills training, critical thinking and intellectual curiosity.[16][17] Whilst some are one-day events, others such as the events in Bristol and Birmingham are multi-day festivals.[18]
The 2020 festival took place online as a pay what you want festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown that ensued. It spread over the entire month of September rather than over four days.[19][20][21] In 2021, the festival returned as a physical festival in Brighton with additional online access and – while using local venues and community centres – used its first purpose-built festival space,[22][23] which was built in Old Steine Gardens park.[24]
The 2022 and 2023 festivals took place in Liverpool.[25]
The World Transformed does not plan to hold a 2024 festival alongside the Labour Party Conference, and that the festival will instead reportedly return in Spring 2025 in a new iteration.[26]
The first festival was hosted at the Black-E arts and community centre.[27] Conversations at the first TWT led to a series of "Take Back Control" events being organised for 2017.[8] Jackie Walker, Momentum's then vice-chair, caused controversy as she suggested Holocaust Memorial Day only commemorates the Jewish victims.[28] She was suspended from Momentum and the Labour Party.[29]
The festival hosted over 5,000 attendees with events in 9 different venues.[5][12] The venues include Synergy Centre, Komedia and Fabrica.[13][9] There was a stand-up comedy performance from Ava Vidal and a art display from Kennard Phillips.[31]
In October 2017, Labour MP Clive Lewis was criticised for language used at a fringe event of the conference in which he told the actor Sam Swann to "Get on your knees, bitch!". Swann later described the incident as "jovial".[32]
The venue chosen had a capacity for 10,000 attendees.[2] Momentum had banned journalists from The Sun newspaper from having access to the festival due to its reporting of – and subsequent lack of apology for – the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster.[1]
One of the events hosted by TWT was a "Radical Bus Tour with Dan Carden". Carden, the MP for Liverpool Walton, gave a bus tour covering the key locations of protest, struggle and social progress in Liverpool.[37]
September 2019
Brighton
Adriana Alvarez, prominent activist in the Fight for $15 movement[38]
Over 5,000 people attended the festival which used 10 different venues,[43] including setting up a hub in the Old Steine Gardens.[39] Several Labour MPs hosted sessions as part of the "Radical Variety Show": such as Ed Miliband as a gameshow host, John McDonnell spinning a wheel of public ownership and Diane Abbott acting as an agony aunt.[44]
The festival trialled its own "policy labs" during the festival, leading to the organisation compiling these ideals and publishing a "Manifesto for the Movement".[45][46][15]
Owing to the lockdown, the festival was completely online and took place over a month, during which dozens of events took place.[7] A revitalised Left Book Club provided a reading group guide during the festival.[48] Transatlantic strategy for the left was a big topic of conversation,[49] with one segment including a conversation between Ash Sarkar, Diane Abbott and Ilhan Omar.[6] There was also sessions that covered issues such as Black Lives Matter to rights of tenants in the private rented sector.[7]
Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communications Workers' Union[50]
–
Festival organisers stated that over 2,000 people attended the festival and thousands more watched the talks online live.[24]
With the change in Labour party leadership and its political shift, it was noted by various writers the difference of atmosphere between The World Transformed and Labour Party Conference. The party conference was described by some as fractious and tense; whilst TWT was seen as vibrant and good humoured.[52][53][54]
An incident occurred when Corbyn was speaking on a climate change panel and his brother Piers Corbyn, a well known climate change sceptic and COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theorist, interrupted the panel alongside another anti-vaxx activist to spread conspiracy theories about vaccines and climate change, to which they were dealt with by the panel.[59][60]
List of locally organised World Transformed events
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