Working with what you have got is key to getting the Labour Supporters’ Network right

The Labour Supporters’ Network has not had the best start in life. Announced in the fanfare of Refounding Labour at conference, the plan for implementation is as yet a little hazy. But despite this bumpy beginning, we need to make every effort to make sure the supporters’ network works.

Community-orientated Labour parties up and down the country have been reaching out to engage with non-member supporters for some time, and are stronger for it. In Birmingham Edgbaston, 70 per cent of our activist base (which is hundreds strong) are not party members. They help us – we help them. We facilitate residents and supporters to campaign for change locally and they have more voice because they are ‘with us’ and part of a wider team. They come to our social events, and tell us the issues we should be campaigning on. We ask them to deliver leaflets and talk to voters. We all come together to discuss policy. Everybody wins when we are more inclusive.

So what would a successful supporters’ network look like? At its most basic level it is a group of people who are not members but who are fully engaged with their local Labour party. By engaged, I mean that they take action – whether that be making a phone call to tell us there is a problem down their road, doing a delivery round, or attending a social or a policy event. The key is that the relationship is two way and that both parties in it are doing something. It is more than just a list of people.

To make this work at a local level – relationships which involve action cannot be developed centrally from cyberspace – constituency parties or groups of parties need the following:

– Local sign-up mechanisms in addition to the Labour party’s central portal;
– People trained to use those mechanisms, who then contact the people who sign up in an effective way; with processes for them to follow which reflect local constraints and realities;
– A way of storing details of interactions and any activity that follows;
– An easy way of integrating – and separating – the data into the main membership list;
– A vibrant party with which they can work and activities to get involved in.

A good local party will be doing these things for its members anyway and so should, with some investment in training and technology, be able to integrate the supporters’ network into its existing structures. Conversely, the weaker local parties that cannot do this for their membership (the ones where activism is most required) are going to be the ones who find this the most difficult to implement.

The birth of the Labour Supporters’ Network is therefore a salient reminder of first principles: work with what you have got. Until we turn more of the members we have into activists and more activists into skilled activists then it is going to be difficult to roll this out into the areas that need it most.
The Labour party can clearly implement the Labour Party Supporters’ Network. But the real question, however, is ‘will it choose to do so’? Only time will tell.

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Caroline Badley is campaign coordinator for Birmingham Edgbaston CLP

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Photo: Dominic Campbell