This article addresses the programmatic and strategic choices facing the progressive and left movement in education after the May general election. It draws a critical balance sheet of the education policies in Labour's election manifesto and of the strategy of attempting to influence them in a more progressive direction. An analysis of the education policies of the four Labour leadership candidates reveals that only one, Jeremy Corbyn, marks out a new and radical direction. The article argues that a new strategy is needed, based on building a popular social movement for education, in order both to develop resistance to the policies of the Conservative government and to transform those of the Labour Party as the only governmental alternative. The article ends by offering examples of the resources on which the project of a radical social movement for education can draw.