Putting the social back into socialism: the Progressive case for street parties

By Stella Creasy / @stellacreasy

This article was first published at the Local Action Network.

As we head towards the next election everyone is seeking big ideas. But sometimes the micro can be as progressive as much as the macro.

The argument of this article can be summed up as social justice would be well served if we did more to support street parties. Street parties? Admittedly not in the same league as the NHS or a universal minimum wage. However, the left overlooks the importance of strengthening everyday communal life at its peril.

There are fancy terms for it – “pro-social behaviour” or “social capital”. But in layman’s language these links are the birthplace of community spirit and progressive social action; positive relationships between people who live near each other, who make a living near each other and who work together for common cause and better experience.

Over the course of the last decade, countless research studies have been devoted to understanding how these affect life chances. The best public agencies recognise that good relations at a neighbourhood level are not an added bonus but a critical resource for social change.

Consequently many have crafted well intentioned but flawed proposals to try and force social bonding, failing to see it struggles under the formality and rigidity of community councils, area panels or even Labour Party General Committees.

But to plan only to put people through a slow death of a thousand meetings and minutes can crush that which makes activism flourish. Missing from discussions of neighbourhood renewal is a recognition that committee structures rarely deliver the friendships that sustain local human contact and concern. Socialising does.

The desire to foster social capital would benefit from a simpler approach that works with the myriad of human networks that already exist in every locality. Rather than setting up more panels, to improve community relations we need to ask how people organise themselves. 60% of the UK population has volunteered in the last year, with each giving an average of eleven hours of time. In London alone there are over 500 Friends of Greenspaces groups. Whether babysitting and social care or through religious worship, protest groups, neighbourhood watch and park life, social networking in modern Britain means more than Facebook.

The events which go hand in hand with these relationships have their own dynamics – whether the music, the food on offer, the provision (or not) of activities for kids or whether indoors or outside. But at each people talk – and on a good day laugh. They find their boundaries and participants organically, being created in the spaces and places that people feel matter; their street, their park or their school. Indeed, it is this very parochialism that is key to their success – it’s hard to imagine residents putting in the same effort for something when it’s not on their doorstep or involving their child’s nursery.

As a former councillor I’m all too aware of the local feuds and petty gripes that can also define community relations. That it usually needs at least two or three fanatics who cajole and sometimes guilt trip neighbours or fellow parents into action. That events can be a lot of work and rain can ruin everything. And I don’t claim poverty, anti-social behaviour or social inequality can be overcome for any group or neighbourhood through afternoons of cake and tea alone, no matter how well sewn the bunting.

But all of us can identify the relationships we have in our lives that help us achieve our aims either as individuals or in a group. And some of those will be rooted in geographical bonds, be they our own or through our families. Thus, finding ways to strengthen these within communities is worthwhile – and surprisingly cheap.

Here’s my suggestion. Rather than spending more money on more meetings, give grants of £150 each towards five community parties every year in each ward with extra funding for those held in poorer areas. It’s not a huge sum of money but it is enough to pay for a facepainter, or food, or a canvass cover. Furthermore, such a subsidy could encourage others to contribute – whether in kind through food or stalls or in donations themselves – and so help swell the pot for the day’s activities.

Councillors may baulk at running the logistics and I agree making the town hall responsible for decisions about this would be a recipe for disaster for all concerned. Instead, success would lie in being as open to public involvement and transparency as possible – perhaps asking community councils to vote for which streets or groups get money, or offering it on a rota basis to applicants or asking local papers to judge. This simplicity should extend throughout with a light touch approach to monitoring spending; for example, just seeking photographic evidence of the day rather than detailed written reports on “outputs” achieved.

It’s not a big idea. But for many of those who work in local communities it will strike a chord. It also doesn’t diminish the value and purpose of seeking participative processes that enable greater citizen accountability for public service delivery. It does, however, recognise they’re not necessarily conducive to fun, let alone the development of social captial, and if this matters we need to take a different approach.

And it should matter to us, because getting this right isn’t just about having a lovely day out with friends. Our is a politics is rooted in the belief that we achieve more together than we do alone. In a world where the pace of change can feel overwhelming, social justice is nourished when we act to strengthen those bonds which are the fabric of everyday community life. Because good neighbours can really sometimes become good friends.

Stella Creasy is the Labour candidate for Walthamstow at the next election, a former local councillor and voluntary youth and community activist.