Welcome to your August Members' Update.
August was dominated by the NEC elections, but that wasn't the only thing Mainstream members were getting stuck into.
As we organised to elect our team to Labour's governing body, we also prepared for Party Conference, supported members in Scotland, published new ideas and continued building Mainstream locally
Read on to find out what we achieved together in August - and what's coming up next.
Our major focus in August was organising for Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) elections.
Thank you to all those who got involved, helped to spread our message of hope and change, and voted for the Mainstream team.
Your hard work and determination helped elect two members of the Mainstream team - Cat Arnold and me - to represent party members at the very top of our party.
This is not a victory that should be taken lightly. There were some who said that an organisation as new as ours, founded less than a year ago, could not succeed.
Together, we’ve proven them wrong and laid the foundations for an even stronger Mainstream movement within our party.
Read our full response to the NEC election results below.
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With the NEC elections now wrapped up, we turn our focus to supporting our brilliant team of candidates for Labour's NPF.
Unlike the NEC, NPF representatives are elected by delegates to Labour Party Conference rather than by a ballot of all party members. That's why it's crucial that we connect with as many delegates as possible before Conference.
If you're a delegate to Conference, or know your CLP or socialist society's delegates, complete or share our delegate confirmation form on the link below.
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If this Labour Government wants to end 40 years of neoliberalism, we must start by returning services like water into public ownership.
Working with Labour's Environment Campaign - SERA, that's the message we're sending to Labour Party Conference this September. But we need your help to get it there.
We're asking CLPs across the country to submit our contemporary motion on public ownership of water to Conference before the 17th September deadline.
Use the button below to access the motion, then send it to your CLP or branch secretary and ask for it to be discussed at your next meeting.
Take a stand for public ownership of water
This year's Labour Party Conference will be an important opportunity to organise, debate and make the case for the kind of Labour politics our country needs.
But Conference is about more than the formal debates and decisions. This September, Labour members and supporters from all across the UK and beyond will come together to build relationships, share and test ideas, and celebrate wins from across our movement.
We'll be hosting two events at this year's Conference and we hope to see you there. Find out more and register below.
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Labour’s Rule Book commits our party to building a society where “power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few”.
But what does that mean in practice - and how do we get there? Join us at 4.15pm on Monday 28th September for a discussion on what it would take to build a truly democratic economy, drawing on the ideas from Mainstream’s recent publication, The Productive State: A Framework for Manchesterism, and beyond.
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Join Mainstream and radical realists from across the UK from 7.30pm on Monday 28th September to celebrate a year of building a movement for transformative change.
In just 12 months, Mainstream has brought together Labour members from across the country who believe that our politics can be more ambitious - and that turning those ambitions into reality requires organisation, relationships and collective power.
Our 2026 Conference Rally and Party is a chance to celebrate what we’ve achieved together and look ahead to the challenges and opportunities still to come.
With a leadership contest underway in Scotland due to Anas Sarwar's appointment to the House of Lords, Scottish Labour stands at a crossroads.
In early August, we surveyed Mainstream members in Scotland about their preferred candidates, priorities and hopes for Scottish Labour's next leader.
On the basis of that survey, Mainstream endorsed Monica Lennon, who was supported by 83% of respondents. We also called for this to be a circuit-breaker moment for Scottish Labour and a real debate about our strategy and programme in Scotland. However, Monica did not secure sufficient support from Scottish Labour MPs and MSPs to advance to a vote of members, despite winning the backing of major trade unions and socialist societies.
While we are disappointed that members will not have the opportunity to vote for Monica, we hope the priorities raised during this process will continue to shape the debate about Scottish Labour's future.
Read our endorsement of Monica, who we are sure will continue to do excellent things in Scotland, below.
August was a quieter month on the Mainstream Blog as we focused on the NEC elections, but we still published some brilliant and reflective pieces. Highlights included:
We're always looking for new ideas, thoughtful reflections and fresh commentary. If you'd like to join a debate, or start one, we'd love to hear from you.
Alongside organising locally for the NEC elections, August saw Mainstream members continuing to build power and relationships locally for a new kind of Labour politics.
This month, Hackney Mainstream formed with a members' assembly to agree a statement of purpose and initial plans.
Mainstream Local Groups are spaces for discussion and debate, ideas and strategy generation, political education and relationship-building.
Interested in Hackney Mainstream's story? Read their statement of purpose below and see whether it could provide a starting point for organising in your area.
Read Hackney Mainstream's statement of purpose
We have some brilliant members' events planned for September.
At 6.00pm on Wednesday 16th September, we'll hold our next Policy Assembly - this one focused on taxation and how Labour can build a better tax system. We'll be joined by Stewart Lansley, author of The Richer, the Poorer, and Caitlin Boswell, Deputy Director at Tax Justice UK.
At 1.00pm on Thursday 17th September, we're holding a joint discussion with our friends at the Labour Movement for Europe (LME), at which we'll be joined by LME's Chair, Stella Creasy MP. Join us to discuss the kind of relationship Labour should seek to build with Europe.
Register: Mainstream x LME Discussion
August showed what we can achieve when Labour members come together with a shared sense of purpose.
September brings new challenges and new opportunities - at Conference, in our communities and across the party.
Thank you for everything you've done to build Mainstream so far. I hope you'll continue to play your part in the months ahead.
In solidarity,
Kerry
Chair, Mainstream
CLP Representative on Labour's NEC
