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With the world turned upside down by coronavirus, five more years of Tory Government ahead of us and the Labour leadership drifting rightwards, we must not give up hope.

We need socialist politics more than ever, and a people-powered movement to fight for it in every community and in the Labour party.

Momentum can be the force to unite the left and drive forward the campaign for a socialist and democratic society. But to be ready for the challenges ahead, Momentum needs to change. Momentum has to be rebuilt by its members.

This rebuilding has already begun. Thousands have got involved in Forward Momentum and taken part in discussions across the country to work out the way forward for our movement.

Together we have forged a vision for what Momentum could be: a powerful, democratic organisation that can unite the socialist left and use its mass membership to campaign for change and win victories.

Now we’ve got a plan to take Momentum forward. So join our campaign and get involved.

  • Fight for socialist policies in the Labour Party, defending and building on the 2019 manifesto: a Green New Deal, public ownership, a just welfare system, rolling back privatisation of the NHS, repealing all anti-trade union laws, advancing migrants’ rights, international solidarity, and more.

  • Organise for a united left slate for the next NEC elections, involving members and working openly with other left groups. Unity cannot be imposed from above or by one group over another.

  • Campaign for greater democracy in the Labour Party and for comprehensive reform of its structures, organisation and culture to revitalise it as a campaigning force at all levels. Support Open Selections, democratise Local Campaign Forums and Regional Boards, and properly resource and renew key affiliated groups.

  • Challenge racism and oppression in the Labour Party, starting by organising to make sure the racist, misogynistic and anti-democratic behavior of senior staff exposed in the Labour Leaks report is held to account and never repeated.

  • Develop a programme of municipal socialism based on strong public services and economic democracy, while training a new generation of grassroots candidates to run for local government and working with a strengthened and truly accountable Councillor Network, where councillors side with working class communities and not developers.

  • Refound Momentum through a member-led process, with deliberation conducted in local groups, on a newly built digital platform and at a Refounding Convention to be held by May 2021. All members will then be given the chance to vote on a new constitution and decide our organisation’s long-term future.

  • Deliver immediate reforms on the first day: place data under the democratic control of the National Coordinating Group (NCG) and enshrine this in the constitution; hold NCG meetings once per month and lower the barriers to initiating all-member ballots.

  • End selection stitch-ups and backroom deals. Local groups should decide for themselves which candidates to support for local government and Parliament; and members should select, by all-member vote, Momentum's candidates for major internal Labour Party elections, working with other left organisations and their candidates to build united slates.

  • Develop a democratically-run Momentum BAME members network to support BAME self-organisation, build BAME power and promote BAME leadership. Provide training, skill-sharing and political education for BAME members.

  • Foster joined-up self-organisation in BAME, LGBTQ+, Women’s and Disability Momentum sections to formulate a coherent fight against bigotry, oppression and the exploitation of the working class in all its diversity.

  • Equip local groups and members to launch and support community and workplace struggles, collaborating with trade, community, and tenants’ unions to build working class power, foster class solidarity across communities and grow deep-rooted support for socialism.

  • Turn members into organisers: roll out year-round skills training and establish an annual organising summer school; develop cutting-edge campaign tools and support creative projects such as workplace canvassing.

  • Encourage members to join trade unions and become active workplace organisers, by establishing a Momentum trade unionists’ network, with a focus on developing and sharing organising skills. This network will have an elected full-time officer tasked with its growth and coordinating with unions at both local and national levels.

  • Unleash the power of Momentum’s mass membership beyond elections. Organise at least one member-led national campaign each year to force change, build capacity and drive recruitment. These campaigns should be truly UK-wide and created in partnership with activists from across the regions and nations.

  • Scale-up political education, working with trade unions and left organisations to create dynamic and welcoming spaces for the discussion of socialist and anti-racist ideas and the development of shared political perspectives, while respecting disagreement.

  • Put local groups first, and place Momentum’s data and digital tools at the service of members to support their campaigns at local, regional, and national levels, including Scotland and Wales. Local groups should be supported to become vibrant centres of working class culture across all parts of the country, through campaigning, community outreach, political discussion events, sports and the arts.

  • Give members control over resources, by creating regional and national funding pots through which local groups can bid for projects and campaigns, with decisions on funding made transparently by all local groups in the same region or nation (Scotland and Wales). Funding pots should be weighted towards where Momentum is least present, rather than where it is strongest.

  • Refound Momentum in Scotland and Wales and redesign their relationship to Momentum in England, ensuring Momentum’s constitution, funding and function enables coordination, not centralisation. The particular needs and strategic objectives of Momentum in these nations will be determined by members and sister organisations there rather than dictated by Momentum in England.

  • Develop plans to open Momentum offices across the UK, by scaling down the London office and allocating resources to the regions and nations. The first of these new offices should be located in the North of England, and they should spearhead the establishment of new groups in areas where Momentum has no foothold.

  • Redraw the regional groupings used by Momentum to better reflect the geographic, cultural and political particularities of the UK’s regions, and support the growth of new regional networks to coordinate activity between local groups.

  • Develop and launch a member-led campaign in partnership with trade unions and the Labour left to demand a socially just and green solution to COVID-19, and to ensure that the long-term ‘cost’ of the bailout falls on the wealthiest and not on working people.

  • Organise in the Labour Party to pressure the current leadership to offer meaningful opposition to the Conservative Government's disastrous COVID-19 response and their repeated attacks on the working class.

  • Throw Momentum’s weight behind unions and community groups organising mutual aid and calling for immediate policy change, such as rent freezes, an end to evictions, and no forced redundancies.

  • Link up with socialists across the world to develop an internationalist response to COVID-19, centred on migrants' rights and combating nationalism: support community struggles and push the Labour Party to advocate for free movement of people, safe passage for refugees, universal access to public services and funds, the closure of detention centres, and the full voting rights for all residents.

  • Work with trade unions and community organisations to develop and popularise policy for a green and socially just recovery from COVID-19, with a Green New Deal at its heart, so we don’t move from the COVID crisis into the worst of the climate crisis.

Support our plan? Signup, get involved & vote for the Forward24

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