NSW Labor's left wing has taken a swipe at the party's dominant right flank, accusing it of masquerading as grassroots progressivism while blocking internal reform necessary to engage the next generation of young Australians.

In a call-to-arms ahead of Labor's NSW state conference at the weekend, the left factional leaders have argued for a return to a policy platform that is "unashamedly economically left wing" as the party's best hope of winning the state and federal elections.

NSW Labor assistant secretary Rose Jackson

NSW Labor's assistant secretary Rose Jackson and George Simon, secretary of NSW Left, argue the status quo of machinist politics has seen the party fail to tap into a surging strain of grassroots progressive politics that has lit up other Western democracies.

"While [UK Labour Party leader] Jeremy Corbyn speaks to football stadiums full of young people chanting his name, our party membership stagnates at a paltry 20,000," the pair wrote in a co-authored piece in Labor's left magazine Challenge.