After the election, this campaign was quietly dropped by the coalition, but with the resonance of the Movement for Change and the impetus behind recasting local Labour parties as agencies for social action, I believe that the spirit of this campaign can be resurrected in CLPs across the country.

My constituency, Dulwich and West Norwood, held its first social action day on the 30 October. We’re one of the largest constituency parties in the country, with 950 members, up by 240 since the election. Many of these new members are former Liberals, appalled at their collaboration with the Tories in the coalition.

We wanted to ensure that the day would offer the opportunity for all of our members to live through action the values that made us join the Labour party – and to offer positive activity beyond passing GC resolutions on a wet Thursday night.

The day was meticulously planned. It began with political discussion amongst members, over tea and coffee, about what the CSR would mean for progressive politics, particularly given that Lambeth and Southwark are both braced for huge cuts in their funding from central government.

After this, members dispersed to support four projects for the morning – all of which involved local party members working together with local community activists. The first project was at a local tenants’ hall on the Kingswood Estate, where we cleared an overgrown and unsightly flower bed.
We then moved on to filling a neglected flower bed on the Berridge Estate, and followed that with helping support the inauguration of a new tenants’ association on the Holderness Estate – where the energy and impetus had come from two dedicated women with a real passion for the shared life of their community. 

Afterwards, we broke from community action to have lunch together, some then going on to do their shopping and watch the football, and others going on to Brixton for the second part of the day. Our work there centred on a small, much loved, but neglected community park – where we planted around 50 bulbs, spring plants and two trees. One of these was donated by a young man with cerebral palsy who had saved £4.98 from his disability living allowance to express his thanks to the park where he learned to walk.

Driven in by the rain, we then enjoyed tea and cakes baked by local residents, with local councillors and myself spending an hour doing an ‘any questions’ style session for around 40 local residents.

All in all, about 100 party members were involved in the day and the feedback around the event was fantastic. It reminded each and every one one of us that whether we were planting bulbs, clearing ground, protecting the group against the menace of speeding cars or engaging with bored and disaffected kids – we achieve more together than we do alone.