JS

In many ways, yes. We now have 20,000 members, approaching 200,000 supporters and over 160 local groups. We have just finished fighting the campaign for Jeremy Corbyn’s reelection as Labour leader, during which we mobilized more than twice as many volunteers as we had done a year ago. It was more organized, more efficient and, ultimately, more successful — his mandate is now larger.

We also managed to put together The World Transformed in Liverpool during party conference. That pointed a way to what we would like to do: bring people together to build a vibrant movement that takes seriously the question of what the future will look like.

We have some thinking to do about structures. For that to happen there will be a national conference in January or February. Proposals are being debated by Momentum groups currently and these suggest that delegates will attend as well as it being livestreamed online to allow for maximum participation. In addition, there is support for an all-member voting conference where members can submit proposals for structure as long as they’re backed by a designated number of groups or members.

I think some of our difficulties here, with democracy and accountability, comes down to trying to establish what exactly we are. We’re not a political party or a trade union, we’re not just a social movement, so there isn’t a model for how we should be structured. Personally, I think we need to try to become more democratic, to allow for direct input, regular voting, and the election of senior staff. The relationship between the people who take decisions and the people who do the work in the local groups should be more direct.

In terms of our aims, Momentum has a dual strategy. We want to make the Labour Party more open, participatory, and democratic. We want it to be an activist party, organizing to win in every community, standing for Corbyn’s platform. We want to transform the party so that it can transform society. But we also want to provide a point of connection between the movements and the party, to use this moment to build popular power and increase capacity at the grassroots level.

The Labour Party should be a giant lever for all popular struggles, raising them up and uniting them, providing them with a strategy to take power and win. To do that it we need a party strategy and a social strategy, in concert with each other.