The labels may be lopsided – but look at the difference we can make

By Cameron Miller

Over the last few months you’ve probably heard lots of stories surrounding Barack Obama’s election victory, with lots of members of the party having gone over and helped out on the campaign.

My election experience, coming out of university, differs somewhat from the first billion dollar campaign fight. But perhaps not as much has it may at first appear.

I saw the Prime Minister of New Zealand speak in the House of Commons at the start of 2008 and knew immediately that she was an exceptional Prime Minister. As many of my friends who had seen Obama speak had been driven by his agenda and the sense of history being created, I too knew that I wanted to go and help.

I expected things to be on a small scale when I arrived, I wasn’t prepared for just how small. The head office in Wellington was staffed by 6 people plus the general secretary and that was it for the whole party organisation.

The differences between British politics and New Zealand politics pretty much start and end here, in scale.

This problem is not one to be under estimated. As you scale back the size of the country, you scale back the finances and you scale back the people power. I met two of the most talented organisers I have ever come across while I was over there and what they did with the resources was incredible. As oppose to sending out direct mail every quarter or several times during the run up to the election date, they had one chance every three years. They sent one direct mail out a month before an election and that was it. It would go to every household in the country and this information had to be right.

The way they did this was to open up an old factory room for three weeks and get all the addresses of this mail out stuck on the envelopes by volunteers. It opened at 7am and closed at midnight. The majority of people were retired and they would sit there and for 6 hours (the time they could use the free bus pass introduced by this Labour Government!) and stick solidly. People were coming in at lunch for an hour, staying late. Admittedly the party also provided food and wine so the labels may have been a little lopsided after around 10pm, but still people were there and surviving on little or no sleep.

Other than being a little shell shocked at the idea I had flown for 23 hours to help get a person elected in a country of 4 million people and 40 million sheep I was still greeted with an exceptional welcome and this whole experience really did show just how similar parties on the left are around the world. Driven by no matter what else is going on around you it becomes vitally important during the top end of an election cycle to get a progressive government elected. Having spoken to friends who helped out in US last year the same was true, they knew a Democratic, and a Barack Obama, White House was vitally important for creating a more progressive America.

The devotion and dedication of the volunteers, something that I have always loved about British politics, is replicated universally. A belief that when united we are far stronger to beat the right, something that no matter how petit politics gets we should always remember.