12th Summer University of the European Left

19 July 2017
-
23 July 2017
19 July 2017 - 23 July 2017
Budapest
Venue:
Hôtel Vitta
Váci út 27-29
1047 Budapest

12th Summer University of the European Left
Every year since 2005 activists, party members, and members of social movements from all over Europe and beyond meet for four days to jointly develop ideas for an alternative Europe. The Summer Universities are jointly organized by transform! europe and the Party of the European Left.
This year’s Summer University will be held in Budapest, Hungary, from 19 to 23 July 2017. The topics will be on alternatives for Europe, a focus on Central and Eastern Europe, and peace, democracy and international solidarity.
Our this year’s host is the Hungarian Workers’ Party 2006 (Magyarországi Munkáspárt 2006).
transform! europe co-organizes as every year and prepares also autonomously 3 workshops:
1. European Integration: Impasses and Alternatives
2. Is the Danger Over? The Radical and Populist Right in Europe
3. Migration, the Rise of Xenophobia and Criminalization of Solidarity: Where does the Left stand?
Furthermore we will present our new digital platform Colours of a Journey, a newly released cultural and memory project encouraging refguee and migrant children to tell their personal stories.
You will find more information on the EL website, as details for accommodation or late program updates.

Programme

(Preliminary version, 12 July 2017)

Wednesday, 19 July: Arrival and Opening

Morning: Arrival, accommodation and registration

17:30-20:00

Opening session

Speakers:

Cornelia Hildebrandt (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, transform! europe, Berlin, Germany)
Attila Vajnai (Chairman of the Workers' Party of Hungary 2006, Hungary)

Presentation of the program of the Summer University

Presentation of the exposition “Colours of a Journey”

Performance of the Ságvári Choir

20:00 Dinner and welcome Party at Vitta Hotel

Singing with Attila Tapolczai

Thursday, 20 July: Alternatives for Europe

9:00 Opening of the Bookshop

9:30-11:20

PLENARY 1: Europe in the new globalisation era

Speakers:

Representative of the Foro de São Paulo (Equador), tbc
Francis Wurtz (Former MEP, French Communist Party, France)
Dagmar Enkelmann (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation)
Moderator from the European Left

11:20-11:30 Break

11:30-12:30

SEMINARS:

The Left – Ecosocialism and Ecofeminism

Speakers:

Corinne Morel Darleux (Parti de Gauche, France)
Gitte Pedersen (Red-Green Alliance, Denmark)

Consequences of the Brexit vote

Speakers:

Felicity Dowling (Left Unity, United Kingdom)
Moderator: Waltraud Fritz (Communist Party of Austria, Austria)

12:30-14:30 Lunch

14:30-15:30

WORKSHOPS:

Reflection before the visit of the Georg Lukács Archive

Speakers:

Péter Szigeti (Former President of Electoral Committee of Hungary)
Tamás Krausz (Historian, University Professor, Hungary)
Péter Agárdi (Member of Lukács Archive International Foundation)

Visiting the Holocaust Memorial Center at Páva street (until 16:00)

European Integration: Impasses and alternatives

Speakers:

Angelina Giannopoulou (transform! europe, Athens, Greece)
Cornelia Hildebrandt (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, transform! europe, Berlin, Germany)
Marga Ferré (Europe of Citizens Foundation, transform! europe, Madrid, Spain)
Moderator: Dagmar Svendova (transform! europe, Břeclav, Czech Republic)

The past 20 years in local government, challenges and corruption

Speaker:

Ferenc Gegesy (Former Mayor of IX. District of Budapest, Hungary)

16:00-17:30

PLENARY 2: Different roads for the left in Europe

Speakers:

Eftychia Achtsioglou (Minister of Labour, Social Security and Social Solidarity, Greece), tbc
Bloco de Esquerda, Portugal, tbc
Sinn Fein, tbc
Marga Ferré (Europe of Citizens Foundation, transform! europe, Madrid, Spain)
Moderator: Maurizio Acerbo (National Secretary of the Rifondazione Comunista, Italy)

17:30-18:30 Dinner

18:30-19:20 From Hotel to Metro and to the river port

19:30- 21:30 Cultural Political sightseeing on river boat

Friday, 21 July: Future for Central Europe and Eastern Europe

9:30-11:20

PLENARY 3 : Social and democratic rights in Hungary. To be or not to be in EU?

Speakers:

Gyula Molnár (President of Hungarian Socialist Party)
Maite Mola (Vice-President of the Party of the European Left)
Moderators: Gyula Hegyi (former MEP) and Attila Vajnai (Chairman of the Workers‘ Party of Hungary 2006)

11h20-11h30 Break

11:30-12:30

SEMINARS:

The European Campaign against human trafficking

Speaker:

Cristina Bernabeu (Communist Party of Spain, Spain)

For a Europe of Public Services to fight for (first part)

Speakers:

Szöllősi Istvánné (Teachers’ Trade Union, Former Secretary of PSZ, Hungary)
Toni Barbara (Ex-Coordinator of the Public Services Working Group of the EL and Social Activist)

WORKSHOPS:

Election systems

Authoritarianism and a two-speed Europe(Example of Poland, Serbia, Ukraine and Balkans)

12:30-14:30 Lunch

14:30-15:30

SEMINARS:

Focus on Health and Education: Universal, Guaranteed, Public and Qualitative (second part)

Speakers:

Toni Barbara (Medical activist and founder of the Marea Blanca of Catalonia and the Spanish coordination)
Sonja Crivelli (Responsible of the Education Working Group of the EL, Labour Party of Switzerland)

WORKSHOPS:

Visiting the Georg Lukács Archive (until 16:00)

Social Media Knowledge: intelligence, strategy and setting-up of web communication

Alessandro Pacini
Izquierda Unida Press team

PowerPoint presentation on the past and the present of the former industrial area at the neighborhood of Vitta Hotel, afterwards visiting a nearby bankrupt factory at Váci Road

15:30-17:30

PLENARY 4: The rise of the right: authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe, a laboratory for a European development?

Speakers:

Gáspár Miklós Tamás (Marxist philosopher, Hungary)
Olesya Orlenko (Friends of L’Humanité)
Dagmar Svendova (transform! europe, Břeclav, Czech Republic)
Moderator: Tamás Csiszár (Member of the foreign Affairs Committee of the Workers’ Party of Hungary 2006, Hungary)

17:30-19:30

SEMINARS

The situation of women in Central and Eastern Europe

Speakers:

Rita Antoni (President of Civil Organisation for Womens)
Ana Simona Zelenović (Member of Serbian Green Youth)
Moderator: Judit Morva (Workers’ Party of Hungary 2006, Hungary)

Is the Danger Over? The Radical and Populist Right in Europe

Speakers:

Czesław Kulesza (Naprzod Foundation, Warsaw, Poland)
Barbara Steiner (transform! europe, Vienna, Austria)
Antoine de Cabanes (Espaces Marx, Paris, France)
Moderator: Marga Ferré (Europe of Citizens Foundation, transform! europe, Madrid, Spain)

WORKSHOPS:

On the Visegrád group

Speakers:

Jiri Hudecek (Party of Democratic Socialism, Czech Republic)
Attila Vajnai (Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Hungary 2006, Hungary)

20:00 Dinner

21:00 Visiting the Statue of Liberty at the Citadel (by public transport)

Saturday, 22 July: Peace, Democracy and International Solidarity

9:30-11:20

PLENARY 5: Migration, Refugees, Anti-racism

Speakers:

Aslı Aydın (Freedom and Solidarity Party, ÖDP, Turkey)
Attila Melegh (Professor of Corvinus University, Hungary)
Angeliky Visviki (Syriza, Greece)
Marta Stojić Mitrović (The Institute of Ethnography SASA, Belgrade, Serbia)
Moderator: AKEL, Cyprus, tbc

11h20-11h30 Break

11:30-12:30

SEMINARS:

Marseille Forum

Speakers:

Cornelia Hildebrandt (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, transform! europe, Berlin, Germany)
Anne Sabourin (French Communist Party, France)

12:30-14:30 Lunch

14:30-15:30

WORKSHOP:

Commemoration at the statue of soldier, guarding the short lived (129 days) Soviet Republic in 1919

15:30-17:30

PLENARY 6: What peace politics for a Europe on the verge of militarisation?

Speakers:

Maite Mola (Vice-President of the Party of the European Left)
Inger V. Johansen (Red-Green Alliance, Denmark)
Jiri Hudecek (Party of Democratic Socialism, Czech Republic)
One more speaker speaker, tbc
Moderator: Marga Ferré (Europe of Citizens Foundation, transform! europe, Madrid, Spain)

17:30-19:30

SEMINARS:

Struggling to end the violence against women

Speakers:

Rosario Luque Galvez (Izquierda Unida, Spain)
Nicoletta Pirotta (Feminists for Another Europe, Italy)
Inna Supac (MP, Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, Moldova)

The unity of the Left in Europe

Speakers:

Natasa Theodorakopoulou (SYRIZA, Greece)
Bloco de Esquerda, Portugal, tbc

Migration, the Rise of Xenophobia and Criminalization of Solidarity: Where does the Left stand?

Speakers:

Jon S. Rodríguez (GUE/NGL, European Parliament)
Elengo Manousaki (Solidarity Clinic and Pharmacy of Athens, and member of SYRIZA, Greece)
Moderation: Angelina Giannopoulou (transform! europe, Athens, Greece)

WORKSHOPS:

“Our Marija/Belgrade at Midnight” – Political Theater between East & West (Cultural workshop and performance)