Compass (think tank)
Encyclopedia
Compass is a left wing pressure group, aligned with the UK Labour Party
describing itself as 'An umbrella grouping of the progressive left whose sum is greater than its parts'. Compass differs from a classic think tank
in that it is a membership organisation and thus seeks to be a pressure group and a force for political organisation and mobilisation.
Compass was launched in 2003 with the publication of a founding statement called A Vision for the Democratic Left. Supported by a number of academics and Labour politicians unhappy with the political direction of Tony Blair this was the first attempt by Compass to develop a more coherent and radical programme for a progressive left government. Since then it has published a number of pamphlets and a series of booklets as part of its Programme for Renewal charting an alternative path for the New Labour Government and for progressive, Centre-Left activists in the UK.
, writes regularly for The Guardian
newspaper and when he called for Tony Blair
to resign in May 2006, it was widely reported in major newspapers.
Compass organises a high-profile annual conference. The conference on 17 June 2006, included many public figures such as Ed Balls
, Neal Lawson
, Derek Simpson
, Hilary Benn
, Fiona Millar
, John Harris
, Hazel Blears
, Kevin Maguire
, and Ed Miliband
. There were calls for, amongst other things, the abolition of the monarchy and the destruction of nuclear weapons put forward by the membership. That year it merged with the Catalyst
think tank. The 2007 Robin Cook
Memorial Conference 'Shaping Our Global World', included speakers such as Ken Livingstone
, Dave Prentis
, Frances O'Grady, Jon Cruddas
and Helena Kennedy as well as panels and seminars organised by groups such as UNISON
, Friends of the Earth
, War on Want
, Liberty
, The Fabian Society
and the Citizen Organising Foundation.
The Compass website is a widely used source of information and debate about progressive politics with opinion pieces posted regularly by a wide range of authors made available for online comment and debate.
(Chair), Willie Sullivan (Vice Chair and Scotland Rep), Mark Cooke (Treasurer), Meg Russell, Colin Crouch, Trevor Fisher, Alan Finlayson (Wales Rep), Jon Trickett
MP (co-opted), Chuka Umunna
(co-opted), Anna-Helga Horrox (co-opted), Sarah Jayne Clifton (co-opted). It also holds an Annual General Meeting open to all members at which the constitution, policy and strategy of the organisation can be debated and amended. Gavin Hayes is the General Secretary of Compass, and also serves the Management Committee as its Secretary but as a full-time member of staff does not have voting rights.
Miranda Grell
announced on her website in an entry dated 1 December 2007 that she has resigned from the Compass Management Committee following the failure of her appeal against her conviction for two offences under the Representation of the People Act 1983.
It is most famous for its campaigning on Votes at 16
, its participative manifesto debates and Love Difference festivals. It has developed right across the country represented regionally and on university campuses.
It also has its own Youtube, Facebook, Flickr and Netvibes channels.
The current Chair of Young Labour, Sam Tarry, was previously chair of the Compass Youth Organising Committee.
and several other bloggers) for both its critical attitude to Tony Blair's premiership and the left-leaning policies advocated so far. It is frequently compared to Progress
as a faction
of the Labour Party.
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
describing itself as 'An umbrella grouping of the progressive left whose sum is greater than its parts'. Compass differs from a classic think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
in that it is a membership organisation and thus seeks to be a pressure group and a force for political organisation and mobilisation.
Compass was launched in 2003 with the publication of a founding statement called A Vision for the Democratic Left. Supported by a number of academics and Labour politicians unhappy with the political direction of Tony Blair this was the first attempt by Compass to develop a more coherent and radical programme for a progressive left government. Since then it has published a number of pamphlets and a series of booklets as part of its Programme for Renewal charting an alternative path for the New Labour Government and for progressive, Centre-Left activists in the UK.
Activities
Since its inception Compass has rapidly risen in influence and media prominence. The Chair, Neal LawsonNeal Lawson
Neal Lawson is a political commentator in the United Kingdom.He was born on the 21st March 1963 in Lewisham and brought up in 1960s/70s in Bexleyheath . He got into politics through his father who was a printer in Fleet Street and joined the Labour Party at 16...
, writes regularly for The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper and when he called for Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
to resign in May 2006, it was widely reported in major newspapers.
Compass organises a high-profile annual conference. The conference on 17 June 2006, included many public figures such as Ed Balls
Ed Balls
Edward Michael Balls, known as Ed Balls, is a British Labour politician, who has been a Member of Parliament since 2005, currently for Morley and Outwood, and is the current Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer....
, Neal Lawson
Neal Lawson
Neal Lawson is a political commentator in the United Kingdom.He was born on the 21st March 1963 in Lewisham and brought up in 1960s/70s in Bexleyheath . He got into politics through his father who was a printer in Fleet Street and joined the Labour Party at 16...
, Derek Simpson
Derek Simpson (trade unionist)
Derek Simpson is the former Joint General Secretary of the UK's biggest private-sector trade union, Unite from 2007 until 2010. He was General Secretary of the Amicus trade union from 2002 until its merger with the Transport and General Workers' Union to form Unite in 2007.-Early life:Derek...
, Hilary Benn
Hilary Benn
Hilary James Wedgwood Benn is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Leeds Central since 1999. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2003 to 2007 and as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs...
, Fiona Millar
Fiona Millar
Fiona Millar is a British journalist and campaigner on education and parenting issues. She was a former adviser to Cherie Blair. She writes a blog, The Truth About Our Schools, on education issues.-Early life:...
, John Harris
John Harris (critic)
John Rhys Harris is a British journalist, writer, and critic.-Early life:Harris was raised in Wilmslow in north Cheshire by a university lecturer and a teacher, daughter of a nuclear research chemist...
, Hazel Blears
Hazel Blears
Hazel Anne Blears is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Salford and Eccles since 2010 and was previously the MP for Salford since 1997...
, Kevin Maguire
Kevin Maguire (journalist)
Kevin Maguire is a British political journalist, currently Associate Editor at the Daily Mirror newspaper. From an Irish Catholic family, earlier in his career Maguire was Chief Reporter for The Guardian....
, and Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...
. There were calls for, amongst other things, the abolition of the monarchy and the destruction of nuclear weapons put forward by the membership. That year it merged with the Catalyst
Catalyst (think tank)
Catalyst was an independent left wing think tank based in London, United Kingdom, set up in 1998 to promote policies directed to the redistribution of power, wealth and opportunity...
think tank. The 2007 Robin Cook
Robin Cook
Robert Finlayson Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Livingston from 1983 until his death, and notably served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001....
Memorial Conference 'Shaping Our Global World', included speakers such as Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
, Dave Prentis
Dave Prentis
Dave Prentis is the current General Secretary of UNISON, the United Kingdom's largest trade union. He was originally elected on 1 January 2001 and was re-elected in March 2005, with 77% of the vote.-Early life:...
, Frances O'Grady, Jon Cruddas
Jon Cruddas
Jonathan Cruddas is a British Labour Party politician who is the Member of Parliament for Dagenham and Rainham. He was first elected in 2001 to the seat of Dagenham....
and Helena Kennedy as well as panels and seminars organised by groups such as UNISON
UNISON
UNISON is the largest trade union in the United Kingdom with over 1.3 million members.The union was formed in 1993 when three public sector trade unions, the National and Local Government Officers Association , the National Union of Public Employees and the Confederation of Health Service...
, Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
, War on Want
War on Want
War on Want is an anti-poverty charity based in London, England. It seeks to highlight the needs of poverty-stricken areas around the world and lobbies governments and international agencies to tackle problems as well as raising public awareness of the concerns of developing nations while...
, Liberty
Liberty (pressure group)
Liberty is a pressure group based in the United Kingdom. Its formal name is the National Council for Civil Liberties . Founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith , the group campaigns to protect civil liberties and promote human rights...
, The Fabian Society
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...
and the Citizen Organising Foundation.
The Compass website is a widely used source of information and debate about progressive politics with opinion pieces posted regularly by a wide range of authors made available for online comment and debate.
Programme for Renewal
The Programme for Renewal is the name of the Compass policy review. This has involved commissioned 'thinkpieces' for publication on the organisation's website, seminars, working groups and online discussions involving over a hundred academics, policy thinkers and practitioners. The outcome of this process was three short books. The Good Society outlined the Compass conception of a progressive society, A New Political Economy explored progressive and alternative economic policies and Democracy and the Public Realm looked at the renewal of democratic processes and structures. The text of these books was made available online in order to be subjected to discussion and debate.Compass Governing Structure
Compass is managed by a committee of persons elected by the membership annually. The members of the committee for the year 2007/2008 are: Neal LawsonNeal Lawson
Neal Lawson is a political commentator in the United Kingdom.He was born on the 21st March 1963 in Lewisham and brought up in 1960s/70s in Bexleyheath . He got into politics through his father who was a printer in Fleet Street and joined the Labour Party at 16...
(Chair), Willie Sullivan (Vice Chair and Scotland Rep), Mark Cooke (Treasurer), Meg Russell, Colin Crouch, Trevor Fisher, Alan Finlayson (Wales Rep), Jon Trickett
Jon Trickett
Jon Hedley Trickett is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Hemsworth in West Yorkshire since a 1996 by-election...
MP (co-opted), Chuka Umunna
Chuka Umunna
Chuka Harrison Umunna is a British Labour Party politician and employment lawyer. He has been the Member of Parliament for Streatham since 2010. After less than 18 months in Parliament, he was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Business Secretary by Labour Leader Ed Miliband on 7 October 2011...
(co-opted), Anna-Helga Horrox (co-opted), Sarah Jayne Clifton (co-opted). It also holds an Annual General Meeting open to all members at which the constitution, policy and strategy of the organisation can be debated and amended. Gavin Hayes is the General Secretary of Compass, and also serves the Management Committee as its Secretary but as a full-time member of staff does not have voting rights.
Miranda Grell
Miranda Grell
Miranda Agnes Jayne Grell is a former Labour Party politician and councillor for the London Borough of Waltham Forest. She was the first person to be found guilty of making false statements under the Representation of the People Act 1983 and banned for holding public office for three years as a...
announced on her website in an entry dated 1 December 2007 that she has resigned from the Compass Management Committee following the failure of her appeal against her conviction for two offences under the Representation of the People Act 1983.
Compass Youth
Compass Youth is an autonomous organisation which aims to engage young people to find out what issues really matter, develop their skills to turn ideas into action as well as organise and champion campaigns young people can get involved in.It is most famous for its campaigning on Votes at 16
Votes at 16
Votes at 16 is a campaign in the United Kingdom which argues in favour of the reduction of the voting age to 16 for all public elections.-Coalition:...
, its participative manifesto debates and Love Difference festivals. It has developed right across the country represented regionally and on university campuses.
It also has its own Youtube, Facebook, Flickr and Netvibes channels.
The current Chair of Young Labour, Sam Tarry, was previously chair of the Compass Youth Organising Committee.
Criticism
Since its inception, Compass has been criticised by some (most notably Tom Watson MPTom Watson (politician)
Thomas Anthony Watson is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East since 2001. Watson was a Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from 2008 to 2009...
and several other bloggers) for both its critical attitude to Tony Blair's premiership and the left-leaning policies advocated so far. It is frequently compared to Progress
Progress (organisation)
Progress is a political organisation linked to the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1996. It is broadly viewed as supportive of the leadership of the party, being pro-former leader Tony Blair...
as a faction
Political faction
A political faction is a grouping of individuals, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a political purpose. A faction or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, “parties within a party," which may be referred to as power blocs, or voting blocs. The individuals...
of the Labour Party.
See also
- Labour Representation CommitteeLabour Representation Committee (2004)The Labour Representation Committee is a British socialist pressure group within the Labour Party and wider labour movement. It is often seen as representing the most left wing members of the Labour Party.-Overview:...
- Progress (organisation)Progress (organisation)Progress is a political organisation linked to the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, founded in 1996. It is broadly viewed as supportive of the leadership of the party, being pro-former leader Tony Blair...