Here are some end of year thoughts from Compass’ Director, Neal Lawson, shared with Compass members and supporters via email on 28th December 2024.
It’s been another tumultuous year in politics. The biggest event here was of course July’s election, in which the Tories were rightly shown the door, and we helped get a government that, on most issues, wants to do the right thing. It’s a relief.
But they’re clearly struggling to work out how. Let them know not to worry – we’re here to help with that too. We’ll support them to do the right things, push them to do better, and stop them if they try to do anything that’s wrong.
On the world stage, centre and centre-left parties struggled, not least the Democrats in the USA and the German SPD. It’s no exaggeration to say that social democracy is struggling just about everywhere. But there are shafts of light, not just the fact that our parliament saw the return of a record number of progressive MPs – Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green – and in France, their version of a progressive alliance, they call it the New Popular Front, quickly and decisively came together to thwart the populist right. We will be examining the potential of this new movement and what we can learn from it on the podcast in the New Year.
Whether we like it or not, the weaknesses of the old left, and the growing strength of the new right, provide a space for Compass and all who orientate around us.
The phrase that we will keep coming back to, again and again, in the New Year is the idea of a growing ‘systems consciousness’. This is the shift that people and organisations are making towards understanding that change isn’t about a single party or a single issue, but about the nature of our democratic and political system – which simply denies the possibility of the transformative change we need to see.
Our end of year report – Thin Ice – shows that progressives can win on a transformational agenda. If they don’t, it will be the populist right that does.
Compass exists to change the system so that we can change society.
2024 was the year to kick the Tories out. 2025, and beyond, will be the time to make the unarguable case for systems change and to build the alliances, in politics and civil society, to make what is essential become feasible.
We can and do dress it up with complex theories of change, but our approach really is as simple as a game of musical chairs. We have to be ready when the music stops. In a multi-crisis age, opportunities and threats will keep coming toward us, at a faster and faster rate. We need to be prepared with the messages, arguments, alliances and forces to wield real influence when chances open up to us.
Compass has never been more necessary, or better prepared to face and shape the future, and so much of that is down to you as members and supporters. Wherever and however you contribute, on calls, at meetings, through a local group, by paying your subs and giving support and legitimacy to what we do – you make everything possible. It was a delight to see so many of you at our AGM recently and we want to do more in-person events in London and across the country in the new year.
Thank you for being on this journey with us.
I wish you the very best for the season, and a new year in which we absolutely must set a progressive agenda for our country and its place in the world.