David Milband is right – we must open up and modernise the party

By Shane Mann

David Miliband made some interesting points in his John Smith memorial lecture. Most importantly, he is right to say that political parties need to reinvent themselves for the 21st Century. David describes a “democratic pessimism” that has taken hold in which people think all parties are the same, nothing changes, all politicians are self serving or corrupt. We have all heard that on the doorstep. To counter this, Labour needs both a radical policy agenda, but also a radical agenda for party reform. Our membership is falling while the Tories’ is rising and, while there is much innovation to boost membership within individual constituencies, if we are to compete at the next election we need a national drive to become a new sort of party.

To persuade people that they can trust Labour and that Labour will deliver a ‘new’ politics based on transparency and accountability, we must ensure our party is itself the embodiment of those principles. To modernise, David Miliband is right to say that we need to look at how we engage people without making full, paid-up membership the be all and end all. There remains a huge amount of energy and activism within communities, whether concerning climate change or rubbish collection, but this is too irregularly channelled through political parties – Labour needs to find creative ways to tap into this and reach beyond our traditional borders to engage supporters. The Supporters Network has been an important first step, but we need to move forward.

This could begin, as David suggests, with more meaningful engagement with union levy-payers. Trade unions are Labour’s major trump card over the Conservatives since they are the gateway to factory floor, frontline services, those at the forefront of the recession’s impact. Barack Obama won, in part, by mobilising trade unions. Political levy-payers indicate sympathy with Labour, but at present do not participate in local decision-making processes. We should explore how individual members can be given a role to help shape our future direction, for example through their being invited to all member meetings. We could expand this to encourage others – charities or businesses with a stake in local communities, for example – to also take part.

The idea of giving non members rights within the party is radical and controversial, but also potentially more revolutionary than One Member One Vote. In his speech David Miliband cites the Greek Socialist Party PASOK, the only European Socialist Party to have success in the European elections, which has given 900,000 non members equal rights as members. By engaging with social groups outside the party’s immediate membership, PASOK brought into the body politic a new group of people who seemed to reinvigorate the political system, in turn giving PASOK’s central decisions a new democratic legitimacy. Such a move would be condemned as diluting members’ rights and a sign of distrust in the membership, but rather this is just the sort of radical thinking and the beginnings of a debate that may enable Labour to really be open, transparent and consultative.

Labour’s organisational structures should ultimately reflect the principles underpinning our policy agenda – equality and fairness. Ideas such as education for party members and officers in engagement and ethics; and primaries for the election of local candidates are therefore welcome points for discussion.

Whatever the specific structures employed, I am glad that there is a recognition of the need for change within the party and I hope that we can have a national debate, which respects and invites all voices, on our way forward.