At Momentum’s festival this weekend, I realised why Jeremy Corbyn is going to win the next election

This wasn’t just a pageant of blue sky ideas, this was a place where people networked and came up with practical strategies to win power

It became clear that people are genuinely excited about the transformative social vision the Labour leader’s new form of politics offers (Getty)

Walking past a queue that snaked its way around the venue in which Jeremy Corbyn was speaking at this year’s The World Transformed – the four-day fringe festival organised by Momentum and a group of loosely affiliated activists, happening at the same time as the mainstream Labour conference in Brighton – I overheard a political journalist, sent from the main Labour conference floor to cover the leader’s speech say: “I just don’t get it. I mean, I like politics, but why would people queue up for two hours to see a politician?”

I’m not sure what he was doing for most of 2017, but the answer seemed pretty clear to me. After Corbyn’s Labour won 40 per cent of the vote in the general election a few months ago, and the self-flagellating analysis of political commentators who got it wrong began to appear, it became clear that people were genuinely excited about the transformative social vision his new form of politics offers. The Labour manifesto gave people ideas that reinvigorated their interest in politics, and it was that same enthusiasm that meant people were willing to queue for two hours in a street in Brighton this weekend.

True to its name, the festival has taken those ideas to another level. Crucially, because it’s a non-party event, it has been able to debate ideas that the party is unable or unwilling to raise. From a group called Mums4Corbyn debating whether Universal Basic Income is the best way forward for parental equality to academics asking whether Labour should bring in the four-day working week and nationalise data, it felt like witnessing the evolution of ideas that will soon become mainstream discussions in politics.

This stands in stark contrast to an opposition party who are so uninspired that they have been forced to reach out to Labour for policy ideas. Labour had ideas that helped them make massive gains in 2017, and it feels like that energy is continuing towards a better result in 2022.

But it wasn’t just a pageant of blue sky ideas: there were sessions dedicated to training attendees and coming up with practical strategies. Momentum held sessions on how to have persuasive conversations on doorsteps; Party Time taught newbies exactly how Labour works and on Sunday, I ran a session alongside Ben Soffa, head of digital organising for Labour, in which a room full of people who had gone out and knocked on doors during the election discussed the development of an app that would help them draw up local and national policy stats at the tap of a smartphone while canvassing. When politics can seem the reserve of a small bubble of people holed up in Westminster, being able to share skills in that way among grassroots campaigners is particularly empowering.

The simple fact is that the left is now networked and dangerously organised. It’s not just brocialist beard-strokers and policy wonks attending these talks; I saw panels that comprised, and were attended by, party and non-party members alike; young and old; MPs and anarchists; mainstream journalists and “new left” bloggers; economists and socialists who were just down for “the sesh”.

The atmosphere was downright celebratory. I spied some very high-profile political advisors to the leadership team sipping warm Red Stripes with party members – because nothing is too good for the workers. It’s undeniable that, in sharp contrast to the Conservatives and their ill-fated youth groups, the movement behind Corbyn is tongue-in-cheek and fun. It is perhaps best encapsulated by Emma Goldman, who memorably stated: “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”

This wasn’t the first time this mixed bag had got together – many friendships had been forged in the fire of the wars that were the 2015 and 2016 leadership elections and the 2017 general election. “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” is the war chant – as recognised by Richard Seymour at a talk titled “Understanding Corbynism” – and a good chunk of the army was here at the festival. When you compare that with the embarrassingly attended “Tory Glastonbury”, it’s not hard to see why Labour has a firm upper hand.

And here’s the most important thing to bear in mind about the festival: the whole thing was volunteer-run. They are managing to organise and coordinate 300 speakers and 5,000 attendees, across four days’ worth of talks over nine venues. That’s a lot of people who are willing to give up their free time, organise between one another and actively work to progress their ideology. Yes, mobilising a few thousand people is different to getting millions out to vote – but from where I stood this weekend, it didn’t seem like an insurmountable task.