For what seems like the last five years now almost every article I have read on the future of the Labour party has at some point claimed that we need to ‘renew ourselves.’ It’s such a wonderful phrase because it could mean almost anything to anyone. That’s probably why it’s so popular. Precisely for that reason, I’m going to use this column to argue against it.
My point is this: to say we need to ‘renew’ in no way goes far enough. We don’t need to renew the Labour party. We need to completely rebuild it.
The idea of a Labour movement, of organising a critical mass of people around a set of political objectives, is all but dead. In most parts of the country what we currently have is what more accurately should be described as a Labour bureaucracy. CLPs organise to get an MP elected, wards to nominate local council candidates, other parts of the family to do similar things. But, in terms of building wide scale participation in politics, or actively campaigning on non-legislative priorities, we’re not in the game at all.
The trade unions, whilst still being significantly larger organisations than the Labour party, aren’t faring much better. Most unions are doing fantastic work, and, individually, there are some real recruitment success stories (such as USDAW) but no-one could deny that the sense of long-term decline is being felt just as sharply. Union recruitment levels in the private sector are particularly ominous.
In a centralised country like Britain I accept it makes sense for a political party to try and capture the council and parliamentary seats required to move the levers of power. There is a great deal of good we can do in this way. But this isn’t enough in itself to sustain progressive politics. Aside from the fact that we need a pool of people to do the canvassing and leafleting, and to act as a source of future candidates, modern political movements need participants, advocates, and organisers support them. Without these people they are too hollow, and too prone to fall away in the face of resistance.
It’s easy to write a narrative of this decline as some sort of inevitable transition from the politics of the last century to the current one. Anyone can identify that what were formerly the agencies of mass political socialisation, such as the church, the job-for-life, or the mass member union branch, no longer exist. As a result, neither does political activism. But it’s just not the case. Other organisations, be it London Citizens or Hope Not Hate, are a reminder that grassroots organising and campaigning are just as powerful as they once were. They just take a lot of time, a great deal of commitment, and a willingness to give the people you’re organising genuine power.
Win or lose the next election, the Labour party will need rebuilding as an organisation. In the best traditions of progressive politics, we can look at this as a problem or use it as an opportunity. I say let’s not renew a political structure that was designed for the twentieth century. Let’s rebuild a Labour party that’s relevant to the world today.
The point about renewal is a fair one, but this article also does not contain specific proposals.
Have to quibble the point about the state of the Labour movement. It is vastly stronger than when the Labour Party was first founded. It might not have as many members, but that means little. It is more effective now it is a political insider.
Also, it is worth remembering that there was not much time between Keir Hardie and the total outlawing of Trade Unions.
Well, to rebuild the Labour Party we’ll need a lot more members! Loads have left since 1997.
It might, sadly, be a Conservative general election victory this year than gets people joining Labour again. The tories will cut too soon and things will slide back into a deeper recession.
I also think Labour needs to communicate directly with members more. When did anybody get a mailing (never mind a magazine) from head office?
Dear Jonny
Rebuild? Yes. Completely? No. There are examples around the country of highly successful campaigning branches and CLPs, that have connections with mainstream single issue organisations, resident groups, development trusts and the like.
As a possible step to getting a better understanding of this ‘good’ campaigning capacity, as opposed to the ‘rotten boroughs’ branch and CLP mode (l that I suspect we are both familiar with), I made a suggestion to Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the last Labour Party NEC. I proposed that he got a brefing from the General Secretary about the number of active branches operating at a local government electoral ward level throughout the country.
Going back a bit, the LabOUR Commission wrote to the then chair of the NEC, Mike Griffiths, in May 2007 suggesting detailed research on the state of the party on the ground. All to no avail, yet.
As a member of Save the Labour Party since 2003, I could go on. But if you look at our latest newsletter for CLP and branch officers we are offering a survey service for our affiliated CLP and branch members to find out about member loyalties ahead of the election. It is a communications device. The response rate via Membernet was 1% of total respondents (n=421) last week, compared with over 60% via a Facebook group, ‘At the 2010 General Election, I am voting Labour’.
Whatever Head Office’s shortcomings, our view is that we the members should just get on and communicate with each other.
Dear Jonny
Rebuild? Yes. Completely? No. There are examples around the country of highly successful campaigning branches and CLPs, that have connections with mainstream single issue organisations, resident groups, development trusts and the like.
As a possible step to getting a better understanding of this ‘good’ campaigning capacity, as opposed to the ‘rotten boroughs’ branch and CLP mode (l that I suspect we are both familiar with), I made a suggestion to Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the last Labour Party NEC. I proposed that he got a brefing from the General Secretary about the number of active branches operating at a local government electoral ward level throughout the country.
Going back a bit, the LabOUR Commission wrote to the then chair of the NEC, Mike Griffiths, in May 2007 suggesting detailed research on the state of the party on the ground. All to no avail, yet.
As a member of Save the Labour Party since 2003, I could go on. But if you look at our latest newsletter for CLP and branch officers we are offering a survey service for our affiliated CLP and branch members to find out about member loyalties ahead of the election. It is a communications device. The response rate via Membernet was 1% of total respondents (n=421) last week, compared with over 60% via a Facebook group, ‘At the 2010 General Election, I am voting Labour’.
Whatever Head Office’s shortcomings, our view is that we the members should just get on and communicate with each other.
Dear Jonny,
In response to some of the other comments above –
Graeme, I don’t agree that having more members is an aim in itself, it’s a by product of a strong campaigning party, although we should always make sure we ask potential members to join. For me being a member is a contract which says that the member agrees to always support Labour candidates, and in return gets a say in choosing those candidates and in setting our policies. That’s really important, as we need the widest possible range of voices in making those decisions, but you can have a campaigning force that includes people who haven’t yet or might never signed up on the dotted line – indeed we won’t renew our membership without it.
Peter, I do understand your point but our head office is woefully overstretched. I do tend to subscribe to the viewpoint that you’ve also come round to, that if you think something is important you should probably do it yourself rather than complain that others aren’t. Technology obviously makes that a possibility for anyone with a computer.
Jonny, to return to your main points. – building a party wide scale participation in community activism and campaigning. I agree, and I also think we already know what we need to do and in some places are doing it.
One model is that of the Labour party activist as community activist – Labour Students do some great stuff cleaning off graffiti, picking up litter, whilst wearing a Vote Labour sticker, being explicitly Labour branded. The issue with this is that most Labour activists are also community activists, but once you’ve lived somewhere for a while it’s a bit inappropriate to turn up to your school governors meeting or volunteer at a youth club wearing a rosette. I do think it’s important for the Labour Party to have a function as a broker for people who are inspired by politics to make a difference in their local area, and for Labour activists to be seen to be acting on their values, not just asking for votes. Leaflets with well known community activists on in their own right, not just as endorsers, celebrating their achievements maybe.
The second is for the Labour Party to be a campaigning force, difficult to do when in government, challenging to be a part of the anger and passion that drives change whilst you and your close colleagues are the ones holding the levers of power. Make Poverty History is a good international example, and there are plenty of local ones – but not enough in the national political arena. A local example – where are the thousands of Labour members on the streets calling for an end to overcrowding and the appalling state of much of our housing stock. We had a brief blip of a conversation about housing during the deputy leadership election, but it’s not had the same profile since. Our Labour government, working with local authorities, has channelled enormous resource into changing housing management and achieving Decent Homes standards, but we have failed to harness the full energies of the people living on our estates in making that change, leaving the public discourse to people who offer plenty of problems but no solutions. We all came into the Labour Party because we wanted to change the world, because inequality and unfairness makes us angry and we are passionate about democracy as well as socialism. We have to make that real.