The party needs a General Secretary who’s serious about Refounding Labour

By Andy Hull

What a momentous few weeks for the Labour Party. No, not another post on Ed’s (bold and brilliant) leadership over recent days, hacks hacking or cops copping it; I’m talking about the thousands of responses submitted to Peter Hain’s Refounding Labour consultation, and this week’s important election of a new General Secretary for our party.

Whether Iain McNicol or Chris Lennie is chosen to succeed Ray Collins, they will take the organisational helm of a party united in its determination to reconnect with its lost voters, and with a leadership equally determined to plug itself back in with Labour members, trade unions and affiliate organisations. The contrast with 1979, and even 1997, is stark. As Ed said last month:

“Old Labour forgot about the public. New Labour forgot about the party.”

Amid the excitement of watching the emergence of ‘new improved Ed’, and as we await the results of the policy review, it is essential the party takes Refounding Labour seriously. The expertise, ideas, energy and commitment of those organisations, CLPs and individuals who responded is a unique resource. A good start would be to make the consultation responses public.

When a few other London-based activists and I set up Labour Values last year, it was because we had seen how Labour activism and well-run local campaigns could connect with people and buck national trends. We believe in a Labour Party that becomes a mass-participation progressive movement, that empowers members, activists, and supporters with the tools and resources to transform their communities, and that invests authority in the people and groups that deliver this change.

Our submission to Refounding Labour reflects these principles and the lessons from the case studies of good practice we have collected since the general election. To succeed, the party must devolve power and responsibility, giving local party units the tools to do the job:

• The party should employ paid local organisers to offer support, training, resources and expertise to local party units in order to promote effective community organising, campaigning and recruitment.

• Party structures and culture need to be based around a network model, rather than command and control. We need to flatten party hierarchies, move the leader’s office to party HQ when in opposition, establish a new membership unit at HQ, and (save for coordination during elections) disband the regional offices.

• Greater power and autonomy should be devolved to CLPs. We should embrace supporters as well as members by allowing maximum attendance and participation at party meetings, short of voting. And let’s allow the party to organise at the workplace, not just where people live.

• If we really are to become a broad-based movement, the party’s approach to fundraising must change. We should exploit online tools for small donations, as 38 Degrees has done.

• World-class Get Out The Vote is necessary for the Party to win. Contact Creator should have a more intuitive front-end and be deployable on smart phones.

• We should be in permanent campaigning mode, with a healthy blend of listening exercises, activism for local change and issue-based coalitions with other community organisations. Community organising vs winning elections is a false choice.

None of this is rocket science, and little of it is original: best practice is out there already, we just need to share what works, and let local parties choose what’s right for them. Refounding Labour is an historic opportunity. We need a General Secretary who will help us seize it.

Andy Hull is a Labour Councillor in the London Borough of Islington and a co-founder of Labour Values