North Essex Momentum

11/06/2026

What is the Socialist Case for Proportional Representation?

The Sandy Martin Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform interview

Andy Burnham has got us all talking about Proportional Representation (PR), and so we should be if we want to stop Nigel Farage marching into Downing Street with his own ‘wide but shallow parliamentary majority’. Bryn Griffiths of the Labour left Podcast spoke to Sandy Martin, the Chair of the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform, to consider what we need to do to get PR done.

You can watch the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts Audible , Substack and listen to it on Spotify. You can even ask Alexa to play the Labour Left Podcast. Wherever you look just search for the Labour Left Podcast and it should be there. If you appreciate what we are doing, please give us a like and a follow. Every comment draws the podcast to a wider potential audience. Please, please, please share it with your friends as it gets the podcast to a wider audience.

The podcast traces a path which stretches right back to the Chartists, a working class and social reform movement of the 19th Century. Looking at our modern history, we discover the PR campaign is one of stops and false starts. We consider the 1980s campaign Charter 88; the 1997 Jenkins Commission; and, the forgotten Alternative Vote Referendum of 2011 under the Cameron-Clegg austerity government.

The Labour left has not always embraced PR, so Bryn shares his experience of joining the late Bob Cryer MP’s First Past the Post Campaign. Having explained Bob Cryer’s reasoning, he invites Sandy to rescue PR from Labour’s centrists and put today’s case for reform. Bryn also sets out his case that, if the facts change, you review your strategy.

Former Leader Neil Kinnock, a recent convert to PR, used to loathe the idea and Bryn cites his abusive riposte to the campaigners of an earlier generation.

In the second-half Bryn and Sandy start off by agreeing that the Makerfield by-election and the possible election of Andy Burnham could be the big moment for PR. With that in mind, Sandy tells us exactly what we need to do if we are going to get PR done, overturn Starmer and implement the historic 2022 Labour Conference policy shift.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive.

28/05/2026

Colchester Labour Group Split.

A view from Bryn Griffiths a local Momentum activist.

If you’re one of my friends from outside Colchester and think you’re about to read an article about another localist leftist split from Labour please don’t let my update detain you any longer. There is little sign this is a split driven by Starmer and Labour Together style politics. The reasoning on this occasion is not a misplaced suggestion that a localist venture can enable the councillors to pursue socialism with more gusto!

As far as I can see nobody on the Labour Left supports the split. We all think it was wrong for the three Labour councillors to leave the Labour Group and thus the Labour Party to set up a new group with a former Liberal Democrat. If you are on the left and think the split has any socialist virtue please illuminate us on your thinking in the comments below.

Labour Left activists and party members as a whole wish the triumvirate had raised their concerns within the Labour Group and especially at a Colchester Labour Party meeting. If they had deigned to discuss their concerns with the party that got them elected we would no doubt have supported their views getting a fair hearing so party members could have had their say.

The biggest question Colchester Labour Party members have for the former Labour councillors is: what exactly is it that has led you to this point? We could make a stab at guessing what the reasoning might be but it would be a guess because party members only found out from the local rumour mill!

I do not recall any of the triumvirate ever raising their concerns in a Colchester Labour members’ meeting. We met as Colchester Labour members last Thursday for a full and frank discussion of the election results and on that occasion the triumvirate either did not attend or sat on their hands and said nothing. If they had serious political concerns about Starmer, the new Labour Group Leader, perhaps the Regional Office or who knows what wouldn’t it have been a good idea to raise them in a meeting of Labour members. As it is Labour members have been left guessing what has led them to this position?

To find out what the new grouplet might stand for we have been left to pour over the pages of the Gazette. The article in the local paper is not impressive.

https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/26141670.colchester-labour-councillors-resign-become-independents/

The former Labour Councillors and their new former Liberal Democrat ally declared proudly that “…the alliance is non-political and does not have a whip, meaning they are free to vote as they choose in council meetings”. On this basis it would appear that the new grouplet is going to stand for absolutely nothing.

For non-Colchester readers its worth pointing out that when the Council debated Netanyahu’s genocide not one of them saw fit to vote to back a call for a ceasefire. The huge credit on that front went to the former Labour Councillor Molly Bloomfield.

I am very concerned about their defection for the following three reasons:

1. As stated above they have not spoken to local Labour Party members whose party they are supposed to represent alongside local people about their concerns.

2. I do not want anything to happen which will make it more difficult for us to beat Nigel Farage’s Reform in Colchester in 2029. Neither do I want to do anything which will allow the Colchester Conservatives to get anywhere near office in the final moments of Colchester City Council before its incorporation into a new unitary council. I am concerned that such divisions may divide us and make it easier for Reform to win come General Election time. This article in the Gazette suggests that this wholly avoidable division is already proving to be unhelpful.

https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/26143919.colchester-council-fails-elect-leader-due-big-meeting/

Please can the Labour defectors at least have the decency to use their votes in the council chamber to put the party whose voters elected them back into the Cabinet.

3. If their intent was to in any way make our party a bit more radical once again, their actions are occurring just as, for the first time since 2019, there is a little bit of hope things might change for the better. If any of them wanted to influence the direction of the remaining years of a Labour Government they’ve completely blown that opportunity. But if they want to take the politics out of local government in the manner that was continually suggested by the SDP back in the 1980s maybe that wasn’t their aim!

I heard about the triumvirates plan, when the horse had already pretty much bolted, but even at what proved to be five past midnight I and other party members urged the councillors to immediately withdraw their resignations and talk to the members of Colchester Labour Party. Even now and with the councillors having gone public I still urge them to think again. The Labour Left and we suspect all Labour Party members are all ears to hear what you’ve got to say.

So for one last time I say to all the defectors please don’t cut yourselves adrift.

I have had my say what do other Colchester residents make of this complete bolt from the blue?

COLCHESTER Council’s annual council meeting took place within Town Hall earlier today following the mayor making ceremony in Moot Hall.

26/05/2026

*REMINDER... The Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia - Clare Reeve ...TONIGHT!*
_A free talk and discussion from North Essex Transformed_
🕑 7:30-9pm Tuesday 26th May
📍 The Odd One Out (back room)
🎟 Book your free ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-free-and-independent-republic-of-frestonia-tickets-1984888861015?aff=ebdsoporgprofile&_gl=1*1yjsqbd*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTA2Mjk1MzY2NC4xNzc5MTczNzgy*_ga_TQVES5V6SH*czE3NzkxNzM3ODEkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzkxNzM3ODEkajYwJGwwJGgw
💻 Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/launch/jc/89225145203 (ID: 892 2514 5203 / Passcode: 173617)

_Faced with eviction and inequality, a community declared itself a family, declared itself a republic, and made the state listen._

In 1977, on a short stretch of Freston Road in Notting Hill, 120 squatters declared independence from the UK and formed The Republic of Frestonia. It was political theatre with real stakes. The area, acquired and neglected by the Greater London Council, had been allowed to fall into disrepair, with families rehoused to towers such as Trellick Tower and Grenfell Tower, dismantling an existing community. When redevelopment plans were announced, residents refused to disappear quietly.

Inspired by experiments in communal living such as Christiania in Copenhagen, social activist Nicholas Albery and others proposed secession. They used media spectacle, legal argument and disciplined solidarity to force negotiations with the government. The result was the Bramleys Housing Co-operative, working with Notting Hill Housing Trust to secure decent homes. It was a working class experiment in collective power that won tangible gains.

Fifty years on, Frestonia’s lesson for activists is clear: solidarity can be imaginative, strategic and joyful. Faced with eviction and inequality, a community declared itself a family, and made the state listen.

Clare Reeve has worked across London and Middlesex in varied roles with children and families from diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. She has been active in campaigns and politics for over twenty-five years. She maintains a strong interest in working-class politics, art and culture in North Kensington, particularly around Latimer Road and Ladbroke Grove in Notting Dale and Notting Hill, where her Irish grandparents settled in the 1950s.

Clare spent a lot of her childhood at her grandparents' house a stone’s throw from Frestonia. Her uncle was a Frestonia tenant between the ages of sixteen and twenty years old. As a child, she wandered with him through the community's jumble sales in the People’s Hall, absorbing the music drifting from commune windows. He told her how they rewired derelict houses, grew food together and barricaded the road when the police came to try and evict them. The legacy of Frestonia continues to inspire her.

18/05/2026

If you’re interested in considering ‘What Happened to Local Government?’ Bryn Griffiths a local Momentum supporter is giving a talk to the Fabian’s at 7pm Tuesday 19 May, Quaker Meeting House.

All welcome.

The title of this talk suggests that we have lost something. Since Margaret Thatcher took on what we called municipal socialism in the 1980s we have seen a complete transformation of local government. We now have councils that are substantially diminished and Britain’s Government is more centralised than ever. Bryn will draw upon both his 27 years of local government experience and international comparisons to describe what happened and consider what Starmer’s local government reforms might deliver next.

Since the description above was written we have had the catastrophic election results so we might want to consider what we need to do in this new context.

📷: Bryn Griffiths Hackney local government protest 1980s

14/05/2026

Great film this Friday and a good discussion as well. See you there.

📽 *Colchester Unite Against Racism film screening and discussion: This is England Shane Meadows.

🗓️ *Date:* Fri 15th May
🕘 *Time:* 7pm
📍 *Location:* Firstsite, Colchester, CO1 1JH
🎟️ *Tickets:* From £5.50-£11.50 (including booking fee): https://firstsite.uk/event/this-is-england-qa/

Join Colchester Unite Against Racism for a screening of Shane Meadows' seminal 2006 coming of age drama _This is England_ which tells the story of Shaun, a lonely boy who discovers a sense of belonging in a skinhead gang and before long finds himself having to navigate the rise of extremist nationalist ideologies. This seminal work of British social-realist cinema explores themes of identity, loss, and the influence of far-right racism on 1980s youth subcultures which couldn't be more relevant today. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Kostis Roussos, a lecturer at Essex University whose research interests include antiracist social movements and solidarity, and Ryan Flitcroft a PhD graduate whose research explores the relationship between far-right discourses and party politics in the UK.

This Is England follows a young boy who becomes friends with a gang of skinheads, where friends soon become like family and relationships are pushed to the very limit.

11/05/2026

After Labour’s electoral catastrophe can we stop Nigel Farage in 2029?

Six questions to ask all the Leadership candidates to make sure we can.

In 1929 the first British General Election took place under universal suffrage. In the light of the catastrophic local election results, Bryn Griffiths asks will the next General Election, on the c…

28/04/2026

Colchester Friday 1st May – Monday 4th May 2026 Bryn Griffiths reports on how Colchester is shaping up nicely to have a fantastic weekend of radical activities across the May Day Bank Holiday Weeke…

27/04/2026

*The Conflict in Sudan - Charlotte Martin*
_A free talk and discussion from North Essex Transformed_
🕑 7:30-9pm Tuesday 28th April
📍 The Odd One Out (back room)
🎟 Book your free ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-conflict-in-sudan-tickets-1984822287893?aff=oddtdtcreator

The conflict in Sudan has been called ‘The Forgotten War’ due to a lack of concern and action by the international community in working for peace and stopping the international arms trade that fuels the war. Charlotte will outline the current conflict, its historical context, and community responses. She will end by discussing the situation facing Sudanese asylum seekers in Africa and Europe and offer resources for those interested in knowing more.

Charlotte Martin lives in Colchester and has worked as a teacher, lecturer and trainer in primary schools and in universities. She has also worked in the field of international development, primarily in North and East Africa and the Middle East. She has a long engagement with Sudan and South Sudan, and has edited the journal of the _Society for the Study of the Sudans_ (_SSSUK_) for the past twelve years.

Charlotte Martin surveys the conflict and humanitarian in crisis in Sudan, its historical context, and community action on the ground.

23/04/2026

🎶*Colchester Unite Against Racism - East Anglian Folklore Centre - North Essex Transformed - present... a May Day Folk Sing-Around!*🎶

🕑 7-10pm Friday 1st May
📍 The Commons Cafe, CO1 1UE

🎟 Tickets £5 from: https://www.ticketsource.com/folksingaround/t-ejjdyod

On Friday 1st May, Colchester Unite Against Racism, the East Anglian Folklore Centre, and North Essex Transformed will join forces to celebrate May Day. Join us for a really enjoyable and lovely evening of singing folk & other music together, building friendships & solidarity through song. We will gather in _The Commons Cafe_- an intimate venue where you'll feel at home and ready to throw yourself into the sing-around. May Day is a long held festival which has marked the beginning of summer since ancient times and in more recent years has also become known as International Worker’s Day.

The evening will raise funds to support the vital work of CUAR and NET. Grab your ticket for just £5, or pay the solidarity price of £10 to give our work a real boost! If the ticket price will be a struggle please get in touch.

_Never been to a sing-around before? Then read on..._

*What is a Sing-Around?*
A Sing-Around is an event where folks get together to sing! Usually one person will lead a song, explaining its history and meaning, and those who know it will join in particularly during choruses. Often the songs are from the "folk tradition", but we welcome any songs people may want to share. In keeping with May Day, expect individuals to introduce songs which celebrate solidarity between workers from all parts of the world.

*Do I have to sing?*
No! No one will be obliged to sing but we will make sure that everyone who wants to is given the space to. You also don't need to be a "good" singer to join in or even lead a song. You are still welcome to join even if you don't want to sing and just enjoy the uplifting atmosphere and refreshments from _The Commons_.

*What if I don't know any folk songs?*
There will be a song book with popular sing-around folk songs for those who don't know the songs or might want a reminder of some classics. You will also likely find you will pick up the chorus or hook of a song after hearing it once or twice and be able to join in. We also aren't strict on what a folk song is or isn't! You are welcome to share any song you think people may enjoy singing together. If you’re singing an original song or one most people may not be familiar with we would encourage you to perhaps share the chorus with everyone first so they can join in. (Of course, we ask that everyone to please be conscious of remaining inclusive to everyone and avoid songs with offensive language.)

*Do I have to stay the whole time?*
We hope you can! But if you need to leave early or come late that's not a problem. If you come late it might be good to check the song you want to sing hasn't already been done.

18/04/2026

Today’s the day we show our support for refugees in Colchester. If you’re in North Essex please join us at 11.30 am at St Botolphs to say loud and clear 1/2