EC Meeting Papers January 2019

Beyond the festival TWT has also supported activists to organise their own events. In

early 2017 we worked with activists in Bradford, Sunderland, Plymouth, Croydon and

with young people in London to organise a series of one day events called Take Back

Control . Each event brought together hundreds of people for workshops, talks, culture

and entertainment, all around the theme of what it would really mean to take back

control in their area.

Through our organising we have built strong working relationships with the Labour

Party, trade unions and Momentum, as well as with a range of NGOs, activist groups

journalists and academics. Unlike other organs of the Labour left, political education is

the sole focus of TWT. Every other national organisation linked to the Labour leadership

faces a myriad of other priorities and short-term structural pressures (whether electoral

cycles, press cycles, etc) which invariably take precedence. TWT is uniquely well placed,

having the space and autonomy to give political education the focus that it requires.

Over the last three years TWT has built up considerable resources when it comes to

organising political education events. This expertise includes event organising ‘know-

how’, extensive contacts in politics (national and international), academia, popular

culture and the media, and a strong brand reputation. We believe it is essential that

these resources are shared and a similar capacity is built up throughout the country.

We want The World Transformed to provide more than a 4-day festival held once a year.

We are proposing to develop a political education network and programme for the

purpose of promoting, improving and scaling-up radical political education across the

labour movement.

The Vision: A Socialist Club Culture for the 21st Century

We need to build a new political hegemony, rooted in people's everyday experiences

and able to outlast any one politician or parliamentary term. Popular political education

is crucial to achieving this longer-term shift. To revitalise popular political education in

5