History is littered with leaders and movements, now long vanished and mostly forgotten, who failed to get to the deep truths of how and why their defeat happened. This is where the Labour party finds itself today, in existential crises, with its right to exist far from a forgone conclusion, against Tory opponents we keep on underestimating and who keep several steps ahead of us. Labour must use this leadership contest to fundamentally rethink how it works in the 21st century.

In a party as divided as our own, the risk now is for leadership candidates to either opt for analysis that conforms to simple factional advantage or triangulates between them; offering a comfort blanket of bland truism that won’t enable us to win in 2024. There is no single demographic to appeal to: towns or cities, cosmopolitans or communities. None of us fit such neat stereotypes – we are complex and so is our society.

The real challenge is to transcend these divides with a powerful national story of renewal because we all want the same things – good schools for our children, accessible healthcare, clean air to breathe, decent work, affordable housing, proper care for our elderly, public transport that serves all our communities, the right to live without fear of harassment or discrimination, and action to protect our climate from those who want to ravage it. We must keep this in the front of our minds because I urgently want to win the next election for the millions of people up and down the country who need a Labour government.

But to do this, we have to get real about the situation we find ourselves in. In the past 40 years neoliberalism has dominated life across the west and while many in the party have understood its economic implications, the democratic ones are less well recognised. Add in rapid technological change, that tears us apart and reconnects us in dizzying ways, and the climate crisis and you have an almost perfect storm that 20th century social democracy is simply incapable of dealing with.

We now have an opportunity to look forward and ask ourselves how on earth we will win next time given this situation we find ourselves in.

This moment is not just an opportunity for those standing for the leadership to put forward their vision, but also for all parts of our movement to engage in the debate together. The way we do this is critical. I’m fed up with the top-down style of politics, where discussion in our party is stifled because of sectarianism and tribalism. We can’t grow as a party, if we’re afraid of having difficult conversations. For me this means starting to devolve power away from head office and to our constituencies. We need to become a formidable force in all our communities, but that cannot be done by diktat from Southside.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Caroline Lucas MP. Photograph: Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament/AFP via Getty Images

And that’s why I’m standing, because I see a party in crisis and democracy in crisis. Unless we address these fundamental issues, a few tweaks here or there of policy here, or a slight change of leader there, isn’t going to bring the real change that this country needs. This is why the litmus test of survival for Labour is pluralism – the recognition that we as one party don’t and can’t have all the answers to the complex challenges we face. We are going to have to collaborate.

It’s not that we can’t win alone, it’s that we can’t change society alone. This is why I’ve championed the idea of progressive alliances and is why, if I win, I will push for Labour to accept the moral and electoral case for proportional representation. It is why I’ve been working with Green MP Caroline Lucas to develop a radical Green New Deal. It’s why I support the Scottish and Welsh Labour parties to have full autonomy over all their affairs. And it is why I will set up a Labour Members’ Assembly to determine the future structure and governance of our party so that power is the hands of local members to decide priorities and really shape the national agenda.

We must do these things now or we will face another defeat – when it could well be too late to try again. Since 1918 there have been 28 elections and Labour has only won eight of them, often with small majorities and a short government. When we won convincingly from opposition in 1997, it was after a tack to the right and accepting neoliberal orthodoxy. My approach isn’t about watering down our socialism but rather holding on to it, by working out where and how we can work with others that share our values.

There is no rerun of what we’ve done in the past. Yes, we have to listen but critically we have to lead, being clear in our values, not just for greater equality, but also for open and collaborative behaviour. Labour can no longer impose a future on the country, instead it must negotiate one. We do this, or we die.

Clive Lewis, the MP for Norwich South, is the shadow financial secretary to the Treasury and a candidate for the leader of the Labour party