About Compass

Compass enables people to go out, take action and make real change happen! We're the UK's most influential ideas and action based political pressure group with over 40,000 members and supporters across the country.

Compass is building the ideas and organisation for a new progressive consensus based around our core values of democracy, equality and sustainability - instead of silos we know you can't have one without the other two. As the planet gets hotter and the poor get poorer we're campaigning collaboratively with progressive politicians of all parties, pressure groups, trade unions, think tanks, NGOs, academics, activists, campaigners and across civil society. We're building a coalition for a radical 21st century politics the country needs now.

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.

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

Download the Compass constitution

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 for the year 2010/2011 are:

Neal Lawson (Chair); Sue Goss (Vice Chair); Mark Cooke (Treasurer); Meg Russell; Lisa Nandy MP (Parliamentary Rep); Sam Tarry; Willie Sullivan (Scottish Rep); Baroness Helena Kennedy QC; Ruth Lister; Jon Cruddas MP; David Ritter; Luke Pearce(Compass Youth); Daniel D'eath (Welsh Rep); Kamaljeet Jandu; 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 democracy, equality and sustainability.
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 democracy, equality and sustainability.
a pressure group focussed on changing Labour - but recognises that energy and ideas must 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 most influential left-of-centre pressure group. Become a member now and benefit from:

being empowered with the ideas and tools to campaign for a more democratic, equal and sustainable world.
a direct input into how Compass is run through regular membership engagement and democratic decision-making through regular membership consultations, AGM and committee elections.
priority copies of cutting-edge Compass publications.
priority invites to some of the best political events held in towns and cities all over the country.
the opportunity to get involved in a Compass local group.
our weekly to fortnightly regular eBulletin and one-off SMS updates on major activities