By Kieran Glasssmith

Bristol Transformed was founded in 2018 by a group of local socialists. Most of us had become politically active due to Jeremy Corbyn’s election to the Labour leadership, brought together through the struggle for democracy and socialism within the Party. It was a time of highs – after 2017, many felt that a socialist Labour government was within reach, and we wanted to celebrate, spread socialist ideas, and keep raising the level of political education in our movement.

The first Bristol Transformed was heavily inspired by The World Transformed festival which takes place outside Labour Party Conference. TWT aimed to “revitalise the left’s presence at the Labour Party conference, bridge the gap between the parliamentary and social movement left, and develop a space for radical, participatory and creative political education.” We aimed for much the same, inspiring people in Bristol that a better world is possible, creating a space for collective education, and linking up the Labour Party, trade unions, activists, armchair socialists and all other parts of the socialist movement.

The second Bristol Transformed came just months after the 2019 electoral defeat of the left. With a heroic effort by many good comrades, the festival was organised in just two months to run in February 2020, bringing people together again and demonstrating that socialists were still here and still fighting. As an added bonus, we were remembered by many as “the best event of 2020”, sneaking in just before everything else was cancelled!

In the years since, the left in Bristol has felt – although this is hard to quantify – as if it held together much better than in many areas of the country. I do believe that Bristol Transformed played a part in this; these local festivals hold a loose community together, by giving people something to collaborate on and an opportunity for collective joy.

While the Labour left which Bristol Transformed grew from has been greatly weakened, the festival itself has continued to great success. The same desire for socialism still exists throughout the country: it just lacks a focus to organise around.

As the national situation of the left within the Labour Party has worsened under the barrage of attacks from Starmer and the right, many Labour socialists have found more success by focusing on local struggles – especially within some local councils around the country. Just as TWT was established to bring together and inspire the nationwide socialist movement, building local Transformed festivals can help to bring together a local left community without a focus. It doesn’t build power on its own, but it lays the groundwork for well-connected and confident socialists to stride out into further practical organising.

Bristol Transformed takes a model of grassroots education, by and for the people. The festival is organised and run by volunteers, and funded by ticket sales and donations from supporters, particularly trade unions. This isn’t just to keep the festival affordable to everyone; it can also be a valuable part of the wider education provided by the festival.

Very few people have serious experience in organising something big, planning consistently over a long time period, and working in large groups. But our aim as socialists is a world run by and for the working class, and our core task is to build a mass movement of people capable of bringing that world about: people with the skills and knowledge needed to transform, and then run the world.

This means people who are politically educated; who understand the world as it is and the world we’re fighting for. But it also means people confident in the practical activities of running an organisation – it’s difficult to build a mass-movement capable of running society if nobody has any organising experience! The millions of people we need to lead union branches, cooperative workplaces, party organisations, etc. will each need to be taught through practical experience on a small scale. Developing these skills in our volunteer organisers will benefit the socialist movements of the future – so each year, we aim to engage more new people in our work to develop their skills and confidence.

Building a movement for the future, we need to do more than teach existing ideas: we need to develop new ones for the times we find ourselves in. We can’t stagnate with the same few talks and speakers repeated at every festival, no matter how good they are. We need debate, workshops, discussion, people writing and sharing their ideas for others to critique and build on.

As Bristol Transformed has moved forwards, we’ve become more confident in ourselves – and our ability to draw an audience without ‘big name’ speakers. In each successive festival, we’ve increased our number of local and less well-known contributors: local trade unionists and academics; newly published authors; festival volunteers who’ve run reading groups and developed a session through the year. The strength of the left comes from below, not just in our organising, but in the development of our ideas and education.

Even the most Starmer-tolerant of Labour members has to admit that the current leadership are not developing any new ideas of their own. The radical ideas we need to transform our world will come from the wider movement, and from the ground up: the debates at festivals like Bristol Transformed and the conversations between new comrades at the pub afterwards. Socialist Labour members can feel isolated and directionless right now, but the first step to bringing about the change we need is to build a core of people who understand what is needed. Find out if there’s a Transformed festival near you, and volunteer to help make it happen!

Kieran Glasssmith is a member of the Bristol Transformed committee.

Bristol Transformed is taking place this weekend – June 16th-18th. Festival tickets are on sale at hdfst.uk/E86494