Transforming Labour – we want your views

By Gavin Hayes / @CompassOnline

Whilst as activists we should all feel rightly buoyed and enthused by recent opinion polls showing Labour closing in on Cutter Cameron’s Conservatives, and whilst we should all hope, expect and campaign for an historic 4th term victory, it seems to me that after the election the Party will need to think very carefully about how it renews and transforms itself in the years ahead.

So, with that in mind, this week Compass has launched a new project called Transforming Labour, with a wide-ranging survey to gauge the views of all Labour stakeholders on the future shape and direction of the party. I hope you’ll take part in this – it will literally only take 10 mins of your time.

The fact is, since 1997, Labour has lost over half of its members. How could it be that a political party which in the late 1990s boasted over 400,000 members now has barely more than 150,000? Something has gone wrong. In the months and years ahead we must urgently address the root causes of disaffection and disengagement. At this point, doing nothing is simply not an option – we have to raise our game in renewing the party.

Central to the problem is that many of the grassroots members and activists I have spoken to recently at meetings across the country simply don’t feel listened to, don’t feel engaged with or believe they do not have a big enough stake in decision-making or autonomy over their own activities. This must change. Grassroots members are and have always been the heart of the Labour Party. Indeed, if the last 13 years in government has taught us anything, it is that we need a strong and vibrant Labour Party in order to ensure we have a bold, radical and successful Labour government. This is why we are turning to you to answer some fundamental questions:

Why do people join the party? Why do people leave the party? What would encourage people to come back to the party?

Furthermore, we need to look at a wide range of solutions that could radically transform the party and reconnect it with the grassroots:

Should party members be given a one-member one-vote ballot on their top policy ideas for the manifesto? Do we need a formal process to both debate and restate Labour’s aims and values after every general election? Do we need a mechanism for members to instigate internal referendums on major constitutional or policy issues? And should we abolish the standard membership fee and let people set their own rate?

We know that Labour can fight and win the next election, but we must look beyond that to the future of the party. Labour urgently needs to revert to being not simply a political machine with the purpose of just electioneering, but rather a political movement for enduring progressive change in the country at both a local and national level.

In learning the lessons on how to do this, there is much we could learn from the United States and how Barack Obama’s campaign involved and engaged millions of ordinary American citizens and indeed has continued to engage them through Organising for America, as well as taking guidance from action-focussed pressure groups such as US Action and MoveOn.org. Here in the UK there’s much that could be learnt from dynamic campaigning organisations such as London Citizens that brought about the first-ever Living Wage in the capital – something not even Boris Johnson has dared challenge.

However, it is perhaps the Labour tradition which could provide us with the most useful instruction on how to move forward. The Labour Party was born at the beginning of the last century from a vibrant Labour movement that formed the belief that political representation should not just be the privilege of the affluent, but a right afforded to all. Their endorsement of the welfare state, the NHS, the rights of minorities and the minimum wage is just a very small part of their extensive legacy. This is a party whose most radical and bold ideas have been born out of discussion and the counsel of its members and from drawing on the energies, talents and ideas of a wider movement; we would be doing both Labour and ourselves a disservice if we were to refrain from taking the opportunity which is now before us to radically renew and restate our selves as a vibrant movement.

Ultimately in Transforming Labour the Party needs to become a radically different type of organisation – one with a much clearer sense of direction, one that is far more internally democratic, outwardly pluralistic and puts far more trust in its grassroots.

In the coming months Compass will seek to come up with a way forward for Transforming Labour – including the publication of a blueprint for the party’s organisational renewal. We hope you will get involved in the process, share with us your ideas, complete our survey and join the debate on our website.

2010 is a potential historic turning-point for the Labour Party; a time when we can make it even more accountable, representative, electorally successful and ensure we become a modern political movement.