EC Meeting Papers January 2019

institutions, leaving us with an underdeveloped grassroots political culture, as well as a

lack of resources and infrastructure to enable the regeneration of mass political

education and left culture. Where positive examples are happening these initiatives are

fragmented, disproportionately based in the major cities and overly dependent on a few

organisers. There is currently no forum for joined up coordination, ideas sharing,

collective assessment, and thus for scaling-up projects.

The need:

In October 2018 we sent out a survey to members of Momentum to learn from them

about their needs for political education. We received over 600 responses in 48 hours.

We found that:

- 76% were interested in organising political education initiatives in their area.

- 86% of respondents rely primarily on online articles to develop their political

ideas, and 64% also rely heavily on social media.

- 71% said they needed help accessing political education resources such as

expert speakers.

- 65% said they needed support with ideas and materials for political education in

their area.

- 57% said they needed help finding other organisers interested in developing

political education.

- 43% said they needed training on facilitation and organising political education.

Bearing in mind that this is a self-selecting sample of people who are already to some extent engaged and interested in political education, these figures may reflect a pronounced lack of political education opportunities and resources in communities around the UK.

What political education initiatives are out there already?

There are a range of existing political education initiatives on the UK left.

The Labour Party and Momentum

-

- Good initiatives are happening in a small number of areas at a local level.

2