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What kind of Labour Party do we need?Join the debate today There is now strong evidence of serious and continuing decline in levels of Labour Party membership and local activism. This may be connected both to grassroots disaffection over controversial government policies such as tuition fees or the war on Iraq, and to deeper social and cultural trends that are loosening the purchase of traditional forms of collective organisation. Catalyst wants to encourage an inclusive and constructive debate about the future organisation of the Labour Party that we hope will air a full range of opinions and experiences from throughout the Party and the movement. We open this discussion with the publication of a major new pamphlet by Peter Hain which contains a series of concrete proposals aimed at reviving local activism, democratising the policymaking process, reaching out to new members, and strengthening the link with the trade unions. To facilitate the widest possible debate we are making the full pamphlet available for download free of charge from this website. Catalyst will be publishing a range of responses to the pamphlet and views on the issues it raises. What have been your experiences of the challenges of sustaining an active, engaged, mass membership party in the current period? What changes to the Labour Party’s activities and structures might be needed to address these problems? Are there examples of concrete innovations you can tell us about that have worked, or from which lessons can be learned? We look forward to hearing from you, and hope you will return to this page over the coming weeks to see what others think. |
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