Our next leader can engage our membership to fight for a common cause

By Rob Chesworth / @RobChesworth

I spent part of last night at the Fabian Society’s Labour leader hustings, and I observed a far more collegiate atmosphere between candidates than at the New Statesman debate I attended last week. The remainder of my evening was spent reading the Fabian pamphlet I picked up at the event, The Change We Need: What Britain can learn from Obama’s victory.

There is a typically eloquent Obama quote in the first few pages:

“We perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes”.

This goes right to the heart of the collegiate spirit I alluded to earlier, one which was referred to last night by most of the candidates – Andy Burnham and David Miliband in particular: the importance of reinvigorating and reconnecting with the Labour movement. An audience member made an insightful point to this end: true engagement goes beyond listening solely to the PLP. Constituency and branch Labour parties must also be involved if we are to develop and sustain the movement we hope for and need to succeed.

I was in Washington DC for 6 months during 2008 and was struck by the commitment of the what was then Obama for America – and is now Organizing for America – campaign volunteers. Thousands of people were engaged by the OfA cause, and travelled the length and breadth of the country (even, in fact, large numbers from abroad) to be part of a movement with a set of values they shared. You don’t have to be David Plouffe to understand that two key facets, member engagement and commitment, are inextricably linked to this success. Commitment will follow naturally and more easily from those with whom we engage, from those who feel an affinity to the cause. So we need to ask our members what they want from the party and provide the tools and the freedom to acieve that. Our candidates may differ on policy, but they at least agree that connecting with, and enabling, our members is the key to winning again.

Whoever is your personal choice of candidate for the Labour leadership, the commonality of our movement’s goals was laid bare last night. I have never been more proud to be Labour and I have never been more energised to act as a Labour member. With the right leadership and right direction we can revitalise our movement. If we do it right – if we engage our members on their own terms, so they commit on their own terms – the ConDems are in for one hell of a fight.