Monday 22 March 2010

Time: 6.30pm -8.00pm

Venue: Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Room , Houses of Parliament, London SW1A 0AA (use Cromwell Green Visitors' Entrance)

Speaker:

• Mustafa Sarigül, Leader of Turkey's Movement for Change (TDH) and Mayor of Sisli Municipality

Chair

• Adam Hug, Policy Director, Foreign Policy Centre

The Foreign Policy Centre is delighted to be hosting Mustafa Sarigül, leader of Turkey's Movement for Change, that describes itself as a new progressive political force in the centre-ground of Turkish politics.

Since its breakthrough victory in 2002, the AKP party of Prime Minister Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics, leaving the old guard parties struggling to find an effective response. Despite its modest gains in last year's local elections, the main opposition party, the Kemalist CHP party, under the veteran leadership of Denis Baykal, is struggling to convince the Turkish public that it could form a plausible alternative government. It is in this environment that Mustafa Sarigül's Turkish Movement for Change is being formed and it has the potential to reach out across the political spectrum.

Sarigül started his political career as Turkey's youngest Parliamentarian in 1987 as part of the CHP. In 1999 he left Parliament to become mayor of Istanbul's central Sisli district, a post he still holds. Blocked from the CHP Presidency in a close-fought internal battle with the incumbent Baykal in 2004, this year he has founded a new party, backed by former members of both the CHP and AKP and high profile figures such as Hikmet Çetin and Faruk Logogu.

This event will explore the new movement's chances of success, the challenges it faces and what lessons can be learned from the fate of similar movements in recent Turkish political history.

Please RSVP by email to: events@fpc.org.uk

Download Invitation: A new politics for Turkey? (200 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Dissent Magazine, Democratiya, Compass, Progress & Renewal

Date: Wed 24 Mar, 6.30pm

Venue: Mishcon de Reya, Summit House, 12 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4QD

Speakers:

• Michael Kazin, Co-editor of the leading US journal, Dissent, and Professor of History, Georgetown University
• William D. Barnard, Chair, Democrats Abroad UK
• John Kampfner, Chief Executive, Index on Censorship and author, 'Blair's Wars and Freedom For Sale: How We Made Money And Lost Our Liberty'

A recent New Statesman front cover featured 'Barack W. Bush.' Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts senate seat has gone Republican. Health reform is stalled, again, but bankers' bonuses are climbing. The rightist Tea Party movement is on the march. And Fox News is officially the most trusted TV network in the US. It wasn't meant to turn out this way. What's gone wrong? How can Obama and the Democrats get back on track? What role can progressive ideas and movements play?

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to: events@mishcon.com

Friday May 21st, 4pm-5.45pm

Room tbc, The Senedd, The National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, CF99 1NA

This is the final event in the FPC and European Commission Representation in the United Kingdom's Reconnecting the European Parliament and its People series.

Chair

• Rt Hon Rhodri Morgan AM, Former First Minister of Wales and Chair of the Welsh Assembly European and External Affairs Committee

Speakers

• Derek Vaughan MEP (Labour)
• Dr Kay Swinburne MEP (Conservative)
• Jill Evans MEP (Plaid Cymru)
• John Bufton MEP (UKIP- tbc)
• Dr Adam Marshall, Director of Policy and External Affairs, British Chambers of Commerce
• Further Speakers TBC

Please RSVP to events@fpc.org.uk

Download Reconnecting the European Parliament and its People: Cardiff (170 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Survey to accompany the FPC and European Commission Representation in the UK project on 'Reconnecting the European Parliament and its People.'

Survey

Click on one of the links below to download the survey, complete and return it to us:

• Word version to email back: adam.hug[at]fpc.org.uk
• PDF version to print and post back: FPC, Suite 11, 23-28 Penn St, London N1 5DL

If you experience any problems, please email anna.owen[at]fpc.org.uk

Many thanks!

• Word Document
• PDF file