A SEISMIC shift has taken place in British politics. The much-heralded “centre ground” is desperately grasping onto the edge of a cliff for dear life and for the Establishment the unfathomable has happened — socialism is back on the agenda.

When the Tories came to power in 2010, propped up by the spineless Liberal Democrats, they unleashed an age of austerity that PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka described as the “political equivalent of shock and awe.”

Serwotka was right, the savage attacks on the welfare state have left communities broken, families fearing for the roof over their heads and vital public services battling for mere survival.

Simply put, the Tories are burdening millions of ordinary people with poverty to serve their failed ideological agenda and this is nothing less than a complete and utter disgrace.

The East Midlands has felt the brutality of this agenda first hand.

A recent report from the Local Government Association shows that the area ranks right at the bottom when it comes to investment in public services when compared with the rest of the country.

Post-Industrial and rural communities, still decimated from the wholesale destruction of industry throughout the diabolical reign of Margaret Thatcher, have been pushed further into insolation.

Therefore, it was hardly surprising that those who had suffered at the hands of neoliberalism, in towns such as Mansfield, chose to reject the status quo, opt for Brexit and in turn reject the political establishment that had failed them for so long.

With the election of Jeremy Corbyn in 2015 we were shown another way.

Powered by a mass social movement, a generation that has had individualism and consumerism hammered into its consciousness from birth, was stirred into a realisation that neoliberal exploitation was not the only way.

Ordinary people need to become part of the political process and become empowered through collective change

Joining forces with more experienced members in the anti-austerity movement and trade unions, many tasted the fruit of collective labour for the first time with the consecutive elections of Corbyn and the toppling of Theresa May’s majority in the summer of 2017 and what a deliciously ripe fruit this has been.

At the heart of this project is socialism — once a dirty word — and a mass awakening to the principle that nobody in our society should be left behind.

With a truly transformational agenda, Labour’s 2017 manifesto For the Many reached the hearts of millions of ordinary people, despite co-ordinated attacks from Establishment apparatchiks in the mainstream media, not to mention the “moderate” Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) that fears nothing more than ordinary people realising that capital is no longer king.

Were it not for the malcontents and saboteurs, as well as the now defunct narrative that only Tories can be trusted with Brexit, the most radical Labour government since 1945 could have now been in power, improving the lives of millions.

However, in order to move forward and ensure that, come the next general election, we elect a radical Labour government that works in the interests of the many not the few, we must continue to grow our grassroots movement.

Momentum has changed and will continue to transform the Labour Party for the better, but its successes and victories have mainly been in big cities and metropolitan areas.

In Derby, the city in which I live and work, far away from the London Establishment, Labour recently lost control of the city council.

Ordinary voters in working class areas, themselves the biggest victims of cuts, turned their back on a party perceived locally as the purveyors of austerity, allowing central government to shift the burden of the blame.

An unholy alliance of Tories, Liberal Democrats and Ukip took control and this coalition will make sure that Derby once again feels the brutality of ideological austerity, tearing these communities even further apart.

It is these communities that our movement now needs to reach.

The post-industrial and rural communities that have become so isolated after suffering from such long-term underinvestment through neoliberal short-termism are in desperate need of transformation.

Ordinary people need to become part of the political process and become empowered through collective change. It is our job as socialists to make sure that this happens.

This is why, on September 1, we are bringing together activists, politicians and academics for a festival of ideas called Derby Transformed to discuss how we change the East Midlands for the many.

Panellists and speakers such as Paul Mason, Ash Sarkar, Ann Pettifor and Chris Williamson MP among many others will be discussing topics such as Labour in local government, what is Corbynomics and the future of work and trade unions, while workshops led by local activists will also be held.

From this we can begin to set the narrative for radical change and build the social movement that the East Midlands desperately needs. Together we can build a Midlands, and a world, that works for the many, not the few.

You can register your place for Derby Transformed at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/derby-transformed-tickets-47181941457?aff=es2