Transform Newsletter 5th February 2025

 5th February 2025

Welcome to issue 19 of the Transform Newsletter. If you’re raging against what you’re seeing in the news, and want to fight for a better world, you’ve come to the right place.

Action Call for February 2025: climate emergency

Transform’s campaigning focus in the month of February will be on the climate emergency and protecting our environment, and we would love for you to get involved. Please write in with your views, articles, photos, and details of local environmental campaigning actions for us to send out on our social media. These should be emailed to Marianne at: info@transformpolitics.uk.

It is now a decade since the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty which set out the goal of holding global temperature increases to 1.5°C above the pre-industrial yearly average to avoid an irreversible climate disaster. 2024 was the hottest year on record, and was the first year that temperatures rose above the 1.5°C threshold. The impact of climate change is becoming more and more visible and devastating all the time.

The election of Donald Trump is a disaster for the environment, and indeed for our chances of survival. Already, he’s withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement for the second time, promising to “drill, baby, drill” and to boost oil and gas production.

We’re also moving backwards here in the UK. Last week George Monbiot wrote in The Guardian “I can scarcely believe I’m writing this, but it’s hard to dodge the conclusion. After 14 years of environmental vandalism, it might have seemed impossible for Labour to offer anything but improvement. But on green issues, this government is worse than the Tories.” Among the evidence he cites is Labour’s ideological insistence that economic growth trumps all other considerations. Labour sank the climate and nature bill, whose purpose was to bring government policy into line with its international commitments. And they’re now backing a third runway at Heathrow – reportedly overriding the opposition of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, as well as Labour’s affiliated Environment Campaign group SERA.

Transform is an ecosocialist party. Our policies include investing in green energy, a national programme of reforestation, electrifying public transport and increasing accessibility, banning factory farming, ensuring the security of our water supply, and working to end fossil fuel production, to name but a few.

The argument that environmentalism is a “middle-class concern” belongs to the Dark Ages. The climate crisis affects everyone on the planet, and the global poor more than anyone. It’s often claimed too glibly that working class people aren’t able to make lifestyle changes, yet according to ONS statistics 86.5% of the population report having made at least some changes to their lifestyle to help tackle environmental issues. On top of what we do as individuals, we can also work together to hold our politicians and capitalist enterprises to account, and to fight for a society that prioritises humanity and ecology over profit.

Ultimately, that might be our only option: “Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this one out” – Carl Sagan.

Online Conference: responding to the threat from the Far Right

It’s horrifying reading all the stories coming out of the White House since Trump’s inauguration. Almost as alarming is the fact that many people in the UK and Europe are cheering him on – and we’re not just talking about the Far Right. The lessons of the 1930s have not been learned. This Labour Government is crawling cap in hand to the Trump administration, and both David Lammy and Peter Mandelson have completely disowned their past criticisms of the US President.

The good news is that there’s also a great spirit of resistance to Trump and the Far Right in this country. There’s a buzz of interest around Transform’s Conference on Sunday 9th February. It’s a strong Panel line-up, however the Panelists won’t be making long speeches – the agenda will be driven by workshop discussions.

Click here to register for what should be a lively afternoon. Please note that Zoom links will be sent out to registrants by email a few days before the event.

Marching against Tommy Robinson

Stand Up To Racism say that thousands came out on Saturday to oppose Tommy Robinson’s far right thugs. “Their side was smaller than before – but the dangers of Musk, Trump and Farage are growing. We’re building a movement to stop them.”

Transform activists were on the march, leafleting about our upcoming conference.

Get organised in your community !

Sign up to our project to build local community power

Doug Thorpe reports: “Transform, Assemble, The Ron Todd Foundation, For the Many, Majority and OCISA have set up a joint project supporting Assemblies and community action groups that give local people power in their neighbourhoods and nationally. You can sign up to the project here.

On 28 January the organisers held a welcome call for people who had signed up and wanted to find out more. 63 people attended, many on behalf of existing campaigns or community hubs. Presentations were given by each of the organisations involved: Anwarul Khan for Transform; Molly Sheldon for Assemble; Naomi Wimborne Idrissi for For the Many, Jamie Driscoll for Majority and Eric Jarvis for OCISA.

The campaign aims to do politics differently, putting ordinary people in control by enabling them to start up Community Action Groups in their area and/or to support and link up existing groups. There were two sessions of break out rooms for participants to share information and ask questions. There were a number of suggestions for ways people could take this further. Some may want to join up with Assembles’s House of the People project. For Transform’s part we just want to support local activists to create Community Action Groups and link up with others across the country. This is not about building a new party but eventually, if a new left party comes about it is hoped that many in the community action groups will join it and give it a real community base.

There was a spread of participants from across the country (and one from the USA!), some were on their own and wanted to be linked up with others in their area, others were part of single issue campaigns but wanted to broaden these out to become assemblies and some were already organising on an Assemble or Community Hub basis and wanted to network. The mood of the meeting was very positive and upbeat and gave the organisers plenty to take away to work on to build the project further.”

Community organising in Enfield

There are many different models of community organisation. Khalid Sadur reports from north London: “The Enfield Community Action Group (ECAG) is a  grassroots organisation founded to provide a voice for local residents in Enfield. It was established a few months ahead of the 2024 General Election to provide an alternative for those disillusioned with politics both locally and nationally.

ECAG supported the three Enfield Community Independent candidates who stood across the three Parliamentary constituencies in Enfield in July 2024. They also subsequently contested a local council by-election (and with an endorsement from Jeremy Corbyn) finished third behind Labour and the Tories and ahead of the Greens, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK.

The organisation, which holds public meetings on an ad hoc basis, is keen on increasing civic engagement across all sections of society and allowing people to contribute to their community. They recently teamed up with a local mosque and a residents advice bureau to provide winter fuel grants to pensioners who had lost their winter fuel allowance locally.

ECAG will be contesting the council elections in May 2026 and are working with other groups on the Left such as Collective, Transform, Assemble and the Peace and Justice Project to provide a new voice for the people of Enfield.”

Transform Talks and Workshops

We have not one, but three talks and workshops in the coming weeks. These are all public events. The links will take you to Eventbrite pages where you can find more information, and sign up to receive the Zoom links.

Weds 19th Feb 6.30 – 8.30pm

What is Feminism ? presented by Mandy Parry

A wide-ranging talk, from feminist theory to campaigning priorities for today.

Weds 5th March 7 – 9pm

Road Blocking and Contempt of Court for Social and Climate Justice, presented by Giovanna Lewis

Giovanna is an ex-Labour councillor jailed for telling the truth in the Crown Court.

Tues 11th March 7 – 9pm

Tackling Transphobia, presented by Linda Wall

The aims of this interactive workshop are

• To foster a better understanding of what transphobia is and the ways in which it can be harmful
• To promote the idea of active allyship, and
• To give you a few ideas about effective ways of being an ally

The dangers of Freeports

Transform is also a co-sponsor of this event on 18th February. David Powell is an artist, lecturer, and political activist whose main focus is on informing the public of the inherent dangers that deregulated Special Economic Zones, and Freeports have on local economies, community infrastructure, councils, public services, the environment, and workers’ rights.

There will also be a Zoom link for those who can’t get to the Liverpool venue.

Eventbrite link to sign up for the event.

We won’t be stopped from marching

On 18th January the Met Police used heavy handed tactics and multiple arrests in an attempt to intimidate pro-Palestinian activists and to prevent us from protesting effectively. Let’s send them a clear message that they will not win by making the march on 15th February the largest yet.

Constitutional Conference postponed

We’ve decided to postpone the meeting to debate the Transform Constitution, which had been scheduled for 23rd February. The reason for this is that so many things are currently happening that are relevant to it but beyond our control. The plan now is to hold a meeting shortly to discuss the constitutional changes required to expedite policy formation more efficiently, and also make a few decisions on policy. An announcement will be made on this once a date has been confirmed.

Have you visited the Transform Website recently ?

The website is regularly being updated with new content. It’s still under development, and further changes are in the pipeline.

To help us make the website the best that it can be, we want to hear from you.

How do you access the website? If you search for us on Google, what search terms do you use?

Are there any areas of the website that you strongly think should be improved?

If you could add one thing to the website which isn’t there now, what would it be?

Please send your responses to us at info@transformpolitics.uk.

Are you a Transform member ?

As you can see from this newsletter, we’ve been busy. The goal has never been purely about building Transform as an organisation: everything that we do has an eye to the creation of a serious left alternative and to the interests of that wider movement. This is why we’ve reached out to our allies and are collaborating with them on a project to set up Community Action Groups. It’s why we’ve organised the Conference on opposing the Far Right. And it’s why all the workshops that we’re organising are free and open to anyone to attend.

We’d like to be doing even more, but we’re stretched. We’re not a large party, and we’re punching above our weight. If you’re reading this and aren’t yet a Transform member, please consider joining us and adding your energy to ours. And if you are a member, make this the day that you invite someone to join.

Next Newsletter

The next newsletter will be out on Wednesday 26th February. Will we have positive news to report ? That’s down to you. The potential exists for the growth of new networks of resistance and for a new generation of activists and leaders to emerge – but only if more of us are politically engaged and active in our communities. Please send us your reports and your photos. You can contact us at any time at info@transformpolitics.uk: please mark your email for the attention of the Newsletter Team.

In solidarity,

Transform Newsletter Team