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About Compass

Compass is the independent democratic left pressure group, whose goal is to debate and develop the ideas for a more equal and democratic world, then campaign and organise to help ensure they become reality. We have over 2500 members across the UK.

The organisation was launched in 2003 with the publication of our founding statement A Vision for the Democratic Left. It was the first stage in a process to develop a more coherent and radical programme for a progressive left government.

The primary focus for Compass is the Labour Party and the international, European, national, regional and local institutions in which it operates.

Compass is open primarily to people who are eligible to be Labour members, but we constantly seek to engage with all progressive members of society who support building a more equal and democratic world. More importantly Compass is building a bridge to the 200,000 or so progressives who have left the Labour Party and to many more who have never joined.

Download the Compass constitution

Download 'What is the Democratic Left'
by Neal Lawson, Paul Thompson and Dave Purdy

Download 'Gramsci and Us'
By Andrew Permain

How Compass is governed

Compass operates on the basis of democratic principles.

The organisation is run by an annually elected Management Committee and relevant officers to oversee the actions of Compass. The current members elected for the year 2007/2008 are:

Neal Lawson (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). Gavin Hayes, the General Secretary of Compass, also serves the committee as its Secretary but as a full-time member of staff does not have voting rights.

We also have an Annual General Meeting that takes place every year and all members are welcome to attend.

What is distinctive about Compass is that we are:

• An umbrella grouping of the progressive left whose sum is greater than its parts.
• A strategic political voice - unlike thinktanks and single issue pressure groups Compass can and must develop a politically coherent position based on the values of equality and democracy.
• An organising force - Compass recognises that ideas need to be organised for and will seek to recruit, mobilise and encourage to be active, a membership across the UK to work in the pursuit of greater equality and democracy.
• A pressure group focussed on changing Labour - but recognises that energy and ideas can come from outside the party, not least the 200,000 who have left since 1997.

Join the Compass movement today and become a member of the UK's fastest growing left-of-centre pressure group. Join and we will:

• Invite you to events and conferences to encourage real debate and real discussion.
• Send you regular discussion pamphlets and our monthly Compass e-bulletin.
• Give you free entry to the login area of the website, giving you access to online discussions.
• Provide speakers for  meetings and events.
• Campaign, take positions and lead the debate on key issues facing the democratic left, arguing for them directly through our members and the media.
• Give you a democratic say in how the organisation is run.