Spirit, will and the drive to relate

Approximately 50 years ago I was sitting in a jail cell. Along with 27 other members of  C.O.R.E.(Congress of Racial Equality), I had been arrested for an act of civil disobedience during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

I was fortunate that my first political experience was through the Civil Rights Movement.

The Movement taught me that politics was grounded in a person’s spirit, their will to act and their inherent drive to relate that we are all born with.

Politics, of course, is hopefully about the mind and about ideas, but if it does not capture the human spirit, if it does not create the invitation and the challenge to act – and if it is not organised to meet the inherent drive that resides in all of us to relate to an endeavor that is larger than ourselves – it becomes a vacuous experience practiced and controlled by the few not the many.

This understanding of politics is why I am so excited about Ed’s speech on party reform.

Yes, there are many blanks and holes to be filled in. Yes, the relationship between the Party and the Trade Unions must be worked out to meet both institutions interests. Very difficult things to do, but what I hear Ed saying is ‘let’s  redeem politics’. Let’s make it meaningful for the many.

He is saying let’s open up the party. Let’s make it transparent. Let’s issue an open invitation that offers and challenges everyone to participate.

Ed is saying quite clearly we are a political party, but we are also a Labour Movement. A Movement that stirs the spirit and invites and challenges people to act in concert with one another on behalf of the common good.

I spent 40 years with my former organisation, the Industrial Areas Foundation(I.A.F.).

The I.A.F. has assisted in the creation of 63 community organisations in the U.S. and overseas.

In that time, these organizations have accomplished some amazing things on issues related to jobs and wages, education, housing, youth related concerns, abatement of anti-social behaviour,health care etc.

The one underlying theme in all of this work; however, is that these organizations are created to Stand for the Whole.

Ed’ proposed party reform is Labour’s opportunity to create a One Nation Britain that Stands for the Whole.