Stella Creasy: Involve non-party members

Sometimes it can seem as though we forget activism is voluntary. As a result, discussions about party reform tend to revolve around rethinking our meetings rather than refocusing on our motives. Yet the future of our party and our politics depends on finding ways to organise ourselves that honour the resource that has kept Labour going from the start: the willingness of men and women to give time to working together for social justice.

On many challenges facing Britain the public’s instincts are for progressive responses. Tap into these mutual concerns and it is possible to craft connections to our work that generate offers of help. Building coalitions with the likeminded doesn’t diminish the importance of membership but rather acknowledges that an all-or-nothing approach to recruiting and retaining activists is counterproductive. In Walthamstow we seek out and invite to our campaigns those who share our causes, if not our committees. People who would baulk at being asked to join have nevertheless participated in Labour-led activism fighting the BNP, addressing child poverty and debating climate change.

In achieving social change many hands make light work, so we turn these people away at our peril. Some may join – and some always feel membership or the party is not for them. Furthermore, focusing on issues, not institutions, has helped reawaken the passion of existing members for party activism. None of us join for the meetings, but we stay for a meeting of minds. Renewal of our movement must start with the people, not the process.

Stella Creasy is PPC for Walthamstow

Jessica Asato: Invest in grassroots

Labour’s policymaking process, Partnership in Power, needs a rethink. It was the right concept when it was introduced – replacing tired old mechanisms which did more to put people off engaging in policy development than to encourage them to think freely. But given the party’s declining membership, lack of central resources to run the process, and general hostility from the grassroots, PiP will not be able to provide the basis for Labour to renew and refresh its thinking over the next decade.

Instead the NEC should consider introducing a new system which would require local constituency parties to develop their policy in concert with local residents. This would both help to reach out to the community at a time when Labour has lost touch and also ensure that any policy made would reflect the real concerns of ordinary people. It would give policy prescriptions from the grassroots more legitimacy, meaning the leadership would find it more difficult to ignore. Imagine if a resolution came from your GC backed by 1,000 local Labour voters? The average membership in a CLP is 280 people, yet the electorate are 70,000 strong. Surely we are more likely to find fresh ideas and new ways of thinking about old ideas if we used our policy process to communicate our values and passions beyond our own tiny meetings?

To help develop local members’ skills to achieve this, the Labour party should offer two weekend training sessions a year for free across a wide range of areas: speech writing, research methods, public speaking, campaigning techniques to name a few. As a party, we need to provide our members with the new skills they need for Obama-style movement politics and put our commitment to nurturing the talent of all into practice.

Jessica Asato is acting director of Progress

Paul Richards: Let members speak to each other

The Labour party communicates with its ever-decreasing band of members at two levels, reflecting our structures: communications from ‘head office’ and communications from the local CLP. In recent months, communications from head office have improved. They are mostly emails, and sometimes they don’t even ask for money. But the model remains ‘top down’: our leaders speak, and we listen.

Communications at the local level, from my experience in different CLPs, relies on the quality of the MP or PPC. Some members can expect good campaigning materials, information about local events and chances to get involved. Others can expect only a letter every few weeks offering the opportunity to attend a meeting.

I have always found it strange that local Labour relies so heavily on the postal service. If I were to find myself organising a social or political event, I might email or text my target audience. I might even use a device which relays live sound in real time, and allows instant responses, called a telephone. But I would never get out the writing paper and stamps, so why do we organise our branches and GCs in the manner of an Edwardian dinner party?

A modern party cannot function on a top-down model. People join us because they have views, they are passionate about causes, and they want change. The internet allows member-to-member communication, across the false divides of constituency boundary. We must be prepared to let go of the old command and control, and let member speak unto member. If we don’t, we won’t have many members left to lecture, fleece and patronise.

Paul Richards writes a weekly column for Progress Online archive.progressonline.org.uk

Anthony Painter: More Obama-style community organising

There are so many lessons that can be taken away from Obama ’08. However, one that must not be lost is the community grassroots organising effort that took place.

Barack Obama’s own political roots were the politics organised around poor communities in Chicago. He was a disciple of the Saul Alinsky school of community organising, whose Rules for Radicals is a must read as we consider the future of the Labour party.

In The New Organisers (on the web), Zack Exley explains how the Alinsky-esque grassroots community organising ethos was applied on Obama ’08. I happened to pass a copy of this article to the campaign team in Birmingham Edgbaston and Gisela Stuart, the local MP. They asked me if it could be done in the UK.

I felt that it could. The principles are simple: focus on organisation building initially, rather than directly on outputs like voter-ID numbers or leaflets delivered, build numbers, train organisers and build your organisation further. It focuses on processes and then outputs and, ultimately, outcomes like resolving community issues.

The results? Birmingham Edgbaston has recruited over 100 new volunteers. They continue to perform astoundingly, and now those volunteers and new organisers are the eyes and ears that enable the local party to respond to issues as they arise.

This operation could be replicated in every constituency in the UK. Now, Birmingham Edgbaston, with its warmly liked MP, a key seat has given itself the best chance possible to hold it for Labour next year. That is the future of our party.

Anthony Painter is author of Barack Obama: The Movement for Change

Steve Terry: Look closer to home for primaries

The MPs’ expenses debacle has reduced levels of trust in politicians to a new low and the apparently successful Tory primary in Devon has led to suggestions that Labour look for new ways to reconnect with voters. Difficult financial circumstances prevent Labour from adopting a postage paid ballot model.

Party selections sometimes involve only a few hundred members. Yet in every constituency, thousands of trade unionists pay the political levy, providing a direct link to Labour.

Labour’s unique constitution offers a way forward. Responding to the criticism that trade union members are unaware that they pay a levy, unions have proposed levy payers’ rights are extended to have a say in the selection of candidates, benefiting both party and unions, helping make the link more real and extending the reach of the selection process.

If Labour extended voting rights, the numbers involved would match those Labour needs to ensure electoral success as levy payers fall between 2,000 and 5,000 in each constituency. For cost reasons, it may be that the system should only be used in the selections where Labour can win.

Only Labour has this untapped pool of potential supporters. In Walthamstow, party activists involved trade union members in child poverty and environment campaigns where their interests as members of the community are the priority, with success.

For other parties it’s either party members only or the entire electorate. Labour’s relationship with the trade unions provides an opportunity to transform local levy payers from awkward relations to active players in the Labour family.

Steve Terry is chair of Walthamstow CLP