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Ever thought you could do more for the Labour movement than knock on doors?

July 2, 2012 10:51 am

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Ever looked at a Labour leaflet and thought ‘I could have designed a better one than this’?

Ever spent half an hour of your life inviting all your Facebook friends to a phone-bank?

Ever thought you could do more for the Labour movement than knock on doors?

If your answer to any of the above is yes, then Labour Exchange is for you.

My friend Matt Doughty and I launched Labour Exchange yesterday after a lot of hard work. (Mostly by Matt. I don’t do coding. I just sent him a lot of emails saying things like “Ooh we need a logo!” and “Can we make it more like Fitocracy?” and “Why isn’t it finished yet?” ) NowI’d like to tell you why we made it.

The Labour Party’s members and supporters are our greatest asset. In fact, they’re – you’re – bloody awesome. I’m not exaggerating. In eleven years of membership, through by-election after by-election, conference after conference, a leadership campaign and thousands of tweets, I have met members and supporters from all over the country: people from all walks of life, with every conceivable skill, every kind of expertise.

But when all these multi-talented people come along to a branch meeting or a street stall, are the talents they bring with them put to good use? In my experience, usually not. They’re more likely to be sent off out on the doorstep and told to watch out for the dog at number 11.

Now, speaking to voters is without doubt the most important thing we do. But if it’s all we ever ask our members and supporters to do, we are missing one hell of a trick.

We created Labour Exchange because we believe Labour people have more to offer.

On Labour Exchange you can ask for help – or offer help – with everything from leafleting to organising an event. Think a sort of Labour Gumtree. When you log in you’re asked to list ways you can help Labour (and are willing to do so for free). This ranges from leafleting and door-knocking to more specialised skills: web design, speechwriting, fundraising. (Add as many tags to your profile as you like – if there’s something you can do that’s not already listed, suggest it to us over on the Feedback page and we’ll add it in.)

Other users can then search for someone with your skills – or they can create posts about a specific project. If it’s something you can help with, it will appear in your newsfeed.

What’s more, you can use Labour Exchange to create campaigns and campaigning events – and there’s no need to spend half an hour inviting all your friends, like on Facebook. The event will show up in the newsfeed of anyone in the right area who is interested in campaigning.

In Manchester we’re hoping to use Labour Exchange to help organise Lucy Powell’s campaign for Manchester Central. We’d love it if Labour comrades around the country can use it for your campaigns too (if you’ve got a #labourdoorstep session planned for this week, click here to make it a Labour Exchange event) – but don’t forget that you can do more than that. It’s called Labour Exchange for more than one reason. It’s a place to exchange skills – and to avoid the wasted potential we associate with the dole queue.

If you’re on Twitter, you can sign up with Labour Exchange right away. Click here to get started.

Related posts:

  1. Movement for Change: The future of the Labour Movement
  2. Labour needs to obsess less about winning elections – we need a renewed Labour movement, not just a Labour government
  3. The message is clear – let’s get out knocking on doors and win
  4. Quote of the Day: Cameron behind closed doors
  5. Does Labour need its own tea party movement?
  • Simon Jones

    Can’t you already do most of this with MembersNet; which may be imperfect but is already universal. Seems to me we would be better off improving an existing system rather than having many competing systems?

  • robspiller

    Simon, but does anyone work on Membersnet? I wish the people who have done the new one every success.

  • Winston_from_the_Ministry

    Taking money off the plate of hard working web designers?

  • http://twitter.com/jedkeenan Jed Keenan
  • Hilary

    Anything that gets more LP members involved and helps them realise that we need all those skills in every constituency has to be a good thing…

  • dennis

    If it helps, I could write an education policy which would free up Srephen Twigg to do a bit more for the Labour Party.

  • Amber Star

    Membersnet is kind of random & entirely events based; I don’t find it easy to use. I’m hoping Labour Exchange is better.

  • http://www.facebook.com/danjeffery26 Dan Jeffery

    It sounds alright, but I do worry there is an undercurrent in the party right now that seems to regard Voter ID and leafleting as somehow beneath them. Regardless of whatever online tech we use, if we stop knocking on doors and talking to people we will lose. It is what happened across vast swathes of the country in the 00s, and only now are we appreciating just how important that is. 

    Laudable idea, but the title suggests a snobbery towards knocking on doors, something I’d expect from the London-based Twitterati, but wouldn’t want in CLPs across the country.

  • Pingback: Introducing Labour Exchange « Grace Fletcher-Hackwood

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