EC Meeting Papers January 2019

the UK we need a network of organisers and educators working together to develop

popular political education in their communities.

We envision a network of popular education clubs across UK towns and cities. These

clubs will support members to increase their understanding of politics, power,

economics and history; engage with the contemporary political landscape and develop

ideas for a different future; link their own local struggles to a broader national and

international context. Like the socialist clubs that have recently developed in

Merseyside, Chorlton and Derby, they will bring together political discussions, cultural

activities and mutual aid and provide a platform for social movements and campaigns.

Furthermore they will:

● Be places for working class people to develop a sense of community, class

consciousness and resistance.

● Connect Labour party and trade union members, the broader left and social

movements.

● Provide a space for youth and popular culture to intersect with political

struggles.

● Be regular spaces for transformative education through a range of formats,

mediums and pedagogical styles, orientated towards collective action.

● Create opportunities for debating divisive and/or complex issues such as Brexit,

identity politics or democratising party structures.

● Promote an ethos of collective joy, accessibility, solidarity and liberation.

This network will be linked together under a shared branding and supported by a staff

organising team and by extensive digital resources in a digital education hub. We will

run regular training and skill share events, including at The World Transformed festival,

for educators and organisers to share best practice.

Our website and social media will function as a forum for this network to communicate

and organise together, supported by our staff team. It will also host a library of

resources that organisers can use to put on their own political education events and

programmes, including ‘off-the-shelf’ sessions with extended media and further reading.

This will include a ‘speakers network’, a database of left-wing academics, activists, trade

unionists, politicians and commentators willing to speak on different topics. These

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