{"id":4998,"date":"2015-07-28T16:46:55","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T15:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4998"},"modified":"2015-07-28T16:46:55","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T15:46:55","slug":"left-fest-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4998","title":{"rendered":"Left fest forward!"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Saturday in Southampton (July 26) was a day of music, comedy, free food and, yes, politics. Hundreds of people from Hampshire and beyond poured into a packed church hall to enjoy the port city’s first ever Unite Community-organised “Left Fest.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The event, which even included an all-day poetry tent, was held to celebrate the first birthday of Unite’s Community Branch in Southampton.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Unite Community Branch, which organised the day, represents a wide range of local people including retired and unemployed workers, people with disabilities and home carers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The crowd of over 300 heard speeches from branch chair Mike Dukes and Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Executive Council chair, Tony Woodhouse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tony called on the people of Southampton to reject austerity and to resist further cuts. Picking up Mike’s theme, Tony issued a plea to the union’s industrial branches across the country to back Community colleagues.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“The Community branches need your support,” said Tony. “Dig deep into your pockets.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The throng was entertained by stand-up comedienne and political activist, Kate Smurthwaite, serenaded by folk band Polite Mechanical<\/em> (main picture) over from nearby Portsmouth, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0098cider\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 band legends, Farmaggedon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the highlight for many was the fabulous catering \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all created from scratch \u00e2\u20ac\u201c by \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Southampton Unite Community\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own Joe Dukes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"kelly\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Southampton branch was supported by South East Community Co-ordinator Kelly \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Poppadom Queen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Tomlinson ( pictured above) and Ian Woodland, regional political officer, as they rolled up their sleeves, busily helping\u00c2\u00a0the many volunteers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Our first Left Fest was a huge success,” said Mike Dukes afterwards. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs well as being a great first birthday party, \u00c2\u00a0the event has given a kickstart to future campaigning activity in Southampton.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Unite Community member<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Sean Cannon is a Southampton Unite Community member\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday in Southampton (July 26) was a day of music, comedy, free food and, yes, politics. Hundreds of people from Hampshire and beyond poured into a packed church hall to enjoy the port city’s first ever Unite Community-organised “Left Fest.”   The event, which even included an all-day poetry tent, was held to celebrate the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[27,232],"wps_subtitle":"Southampton's Unite Community celebrate in style ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4998"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5002,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4998\/revisions\/5002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}