Connecting to win

By Jonathan Slater

When I was the Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Aldershot at the last general election, I worked alongside local Labour councillors who practiced community politics. One example was when we jointly campaigned for the regeneration of Aldershot Town Centre, asking local residents how they wanted the town centre regenerated by Conservative-run Rushmoor District Council. I also worked very closely with Aldershot Labour Councillor Alex Crawford in campaigning for the local Gurkha community, fighting for their right to settle in the UK and to have equal pensions.

From my own experiences of community politics, and seeing celebrated examples like Birmingham Edgbaston, Tooting and Westminster North, I felt – and feel – that this should be the norm for the party as a whole. With this in mind, I decided to get involved in Labour Values.

That is why I’ll be attending ‘Connecting to Win’ at Labour Party Annual Conference, an event being organised by Labour Values in collaboration with Movement for Change. Building on the excellent work led by Peter Hain during the first phase of Refounding Labour, the event will bring together organisers, campaigners and leaders throughout the party to share, learn and help build a future team that can win again. By winning we mean: winning with our members and communities to change our local areas, develop people and return a Labour government to power for generations to come.

In our submission to the Refounding Labour consultation, Labour Values stated that for the party to have a clear, positive vision for the future, major cultural change is required to build and support the membership, supporters and activists who are our most valuable asset. Other suggestions in our submission included:

– The party should employ local organisers who offer support, training, resources and expertise to local party units in order to promote effective community organising, campaigning and recruitment. These paid officials would also be responsible for helping develop local leaders who can then take on the role of training others.

– The party structures need to adjust to this new set of priorities – a membership unit should be established and the party ought to pursue a network based’ model in preference to command and control.

– Greater power should be devolved to local party units, as and when merited, once new skills and competencies have been developed – the party should offer greater autonomy.

– The party’s approach to fundraising must change: it has to become an integral part of being a member.

– Policy formulation should be restructured in order to draw on the wealth of expertise contained in the party membership. World class ‘Get out the Vote’ strategies are essential if the party is to win.

But we don’t, of course, have a monopoly on the answers: there were over 5,000 submissions, demonstrating the health and energy of the party. We need to involve, harness and energise further.

Our Conference event will have three main aims. Firstly, to invite key campaign organisers from individual CLPs to come together and share good practice. Secondly, to represent some of the proposals that Labour Values and Movement for Change submitted to the Refounding Labour consultation. Finally, to identify some leaders who will take forward and implement the changes needed within their local CLPs.

If you are interested and would like to attend our event in Liverpool, please email [email protected]

Jonathan Slater was Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Aldershot in 2010