Leftfield in Liverpool

Wednesday 14th May saw the Leftfield tent from Glastonbury hit Liverpool as part of the Capital of Culture celebrations.  The Left Field has become a major part of the Glastonbury Festival.  It is organised by trade unionists and committed to combining music with political campaigning.

The North West TUC was invited to be involved in the event in Liverpool and we enthusiastically said yes!  Emma Lipscombe, Academy Organiser, Organising Working Students Project, decided to do a mini photo exhibition portraying young people and students at work from across the area.  She hoped that the process of photos being taken and submitted would open opportunities for discussion around the rights of young people  - and that those in the exhibition would bring their mates along!

Emma was also asked to speak at the event and she asked Carly Doyle, who works for the NUT with student teachers and is a former PCS activist, to get involved as well.

Just before The Rascals were due to take the stage Emma and Carly were summoned to say their bit and introduce the band.  They went up on stage and blasted their message to the crowd: that as young workers they have rights, they deserve respect in the workplace and they can get involved in things to actively make a difference.  It went down really well and several people came over to discuss their working rights at the TUC stall afterwards.

We hope the people at the concert took away the TUC’s message and that this will encourage them to act if they are getting treated unfairly.

It was a really good night and when Alex from the Arctic Monkeys came in towards the end of the night it gave the night a real celebrity buzz!!!