ACTIVISTS are planning a “state-of-the-art” and “radical” alternative to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool this autumn in a “new left-wing fightback” against Keir Starmer’s party.

The new conference “Beyond the Fringe — the Future of the Left” is set to be a three day series of events from September 26-28 running alongside the Labour Party conference, and is organised by mainly Merseyside socialists, some expelled from Labour.

A parallel left-wing conference alongside Labour, The World Transformed, has run for several years and will also be back in Liverpool this year.

Some of the major themes due to be debated at Beyond the Fringe include the future of the political left, the Forde report, the cost-of-living crisis, the secret state, questions over whether the Labour Party is finished, the increase in trade union activism, the war in Ukraine, racism, and sexual politics.

Speakers are set to include Stella Assange, who is the wife of jailed journalist Julian Assange, former Labour MP Chris Williamson, anti-racism campaigner Jackie Walker and Liverpool campaigner Audrey White who confronted Keir Starmer in a video which went viral. 

Beyond the Fringe producer Paula Drummond said: “We wanted a real alternative fringe rather than the sanitised and controlled meetings you usually get at the Labour Party conference.” 

“So we developed the idea of a live online TV format, with interactive debate open to everyone, with a strong Scouse flavour. It’s vital that now more than ever the left, both inside and outside Labour, discusses the way forward and develops a real strategy.”