Welcome to your July Members' Update.
It's been a busy month for Mainstream, and a month of huge change for the Labour Party. Our party has a new leader, and our country a new Prime Minister, in Andy Burnham - one of the signatories to Mainstream's founding statement.
Already, we are seeing some welcome action from the government, on social care, devolution, and the cost of living.
But as we have always said: change is not about any one person. To build a genuinely transformative project, we must organise at every level of the Labour Party for mainstream Labour values.
That's why this year's NEC ballot, which opened on Monday, is so crucial. So is continuing to build support across the country for radical realist policies on housing, public services, ownership of utilities and more.
Here's how Mainstream has been working to pioneer a new politics for Labour in July.
As of Monday 27th July, the ballot to elect representatives to Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) is officially open.
The NEC is Labour's central governing body. Electing reps to serve on it who are committed to pluralism, democracy and a politics of transformative change is critical.
If you haven't yet voted, please do. We are recommending a vote for Cat Arnold, Kerry Postlewhite and Jovan Owusu-Nepaul for the CLP section of the NEC. We recommend ranking these brilliant candidates in different orders, depending on where you are in the UK. You can find our recommendation below.
We recommend using your remaining 6 votes for any candidates who have pledged to Reset the Labour Party.
If you're a councillor, we urge you to vote for Elizabeth Dennis who will be a tireless advocate for local government on the NEC.
And if you're a Welsh Labour member, please vote for Mick Antoniw, a former NEC member and former Member of the Senedd.
Let us know when you've cast your vote using the link below. You will automatically be sent resources that you can use to support the campaign.
In Greater Manchester, Labour has spent years proving that politics can be done differently. That's why it was so important to us to support Labour's candidate, Bev Craig, for Greater Manchester Mayor last month.
We held two campaign days - thanks to all those who joined us! And it paid off! Last night, Bev Craig was officially announced as the Labour & Co-operative Mayor of Greater Manchester. Congratulations, Bev!
✉️ Our message to Andy Burnham, new Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Mainstream's Interim Council issued the following statement in response to Andy Burnham's announcement as Leader of the Labour Party in July:
Mainstream’s Interim Council sends its congratulations to Andy Burnham on becoming Leader of the Labour Party and, from Monday, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
We were proud to launch with his backing last year, and like the whole Labour movement, we are hopeful for this shared opportunity to write a transformative new chapter for the country. This is our final chance to defeat the forces of the authoritarian right, pull our party back from the brink and build a country that shifts power and wealth decisively back to the majority. To deliver on the promise of “change” we made in 2024, what comes next must be radically and meaningfully different. Business as usual must end.
We face a growing inequality and climate crisis, which is feeding spiralling living costs and a basic sense of scarcity, injustice and unfairness across the country. To tackle it, Labour must be prepared to invest in the bonds that hold communities together, pioneering a new political economy and rebuilding our broken democracy. In our recent paper, The Productive State: A Framework for Manchesterism, we set out in detail how this new settlement can take shape.
Facing international instability, Labour must champion solidarity, human rights, and collective action. We must reject the extraction, exploitation and grotesque inequalities promoted by domestic and global economic systems.
To win support for a popular, principled, and practical left politics, Labour must also change within. We must unlock the wisdom, talents, and energy of all of our members and our wider movement to lead the change our country so urgently needs. Our new leadership must root out the factionalism and insularity of recent years, embracing democracy, pluralism and participation.
This should start with the full implementation of the recommendations of the Forde Report on Labour Party culture. It also demands that our new leader’s first Cabinet properly represents our party’s tradition as a broad church, not a boys’ club. We hope, in particular, to see the appointment of a progressive Chancellor with vision, values and a record of delivering structural change; someone who understands the threat that climate breakdown poses to people and planet and who has the courage to rebuild our state’s productive capacity.
May’s devastating election results showed that, in every nation and region of the UK, vast swathes of voters have lost faith in Labour. Party membership has sunk to a dangerous low, and much of our movement feels dejected and disempowered. The process to change the leadership did little to address this at the grassroots. Labour have been given a lifeline - but we are by no means out of the woods. Change at the top is necessary, but to make hope a reality, this next chapter for Labour and the country must follow a genuinely different path.
We look forward to playing our part in making real change happen - but we do so with our eyes wide open to the scale of the fight ahead.
On 30th July, we held our monthly Organising Forum where we discussed and debated how Mainstream should engage with our party's new leadership.
Members voiced optimism about a fresh start for Labour and the possibility of cultural change within the party, but were disappointed by some Cabinet appointments and the risk of not yet choosing a different path on migration policy. There was broad support for Mainstream being a critical friend to the government and for continuing to build power throughout Labour for progressive action and ideas.
We published a number of brilliant pieces on the Mainstream blog this month, including two by Barry Gardiner MP.
Highlights included:
We're always looking for bright ideas, reflection and commentary. If you'd like to join a debate, or start one, we'd love to hear from you.
Last month, we were thrilled to co-host an event for Mainstream members with the Socialist Educational Association (SEA).
We were joined by the SEA's General Secretary, James Whiting, to answer the question: with schools on the brink after years of Tory neglect, what should a Labour government do to restore our education system?
Working with socialist societies and affiliates from across the Labour movement is something we're proud to do as Mainstream.
If you missed the event, you'll soon be able to watch it on our YouTube channel, and we can't wait to invite you to more events like this one.
In the coming weeks, we'll be prioritising resources for Mainstream's NEC campaign and planning for Labour Party Conference in September, where we'll be holding a panel event in the afternoon of Monday 28th September and a party that night too.
We will also share Mainstream's contemporary motion to Conference in early August.
We'll be in touch with an update on policy and ideas work soon too, and to survey your views on a number of key and contemporary issues.
As always, thank you for being a member of Mainstream and for powering our collective efforts to build a bolder, broader and brighter Labour Party.
