Labour Friends of Searchlight recently held a conference on how the party reconnects with communities.  Jamie Audsley, community organiser with London Citizens, reports back and suggests Labour needs to broaden its definition of purpose and redefine what successful organising looks like.

As Jon Cruddas explained at the day’s start, the Labour movement didn’t  begin as an election machine but as a place for people in unions and of faith to come together – to organise and to achieve change. A focus on common values led to the building of power and the use of this power to deliver services and to hold elites to account.  More fundamentally, the birth of the Labour movement had at its heart a politics based on relationship, reciprocity and place; with a Labour win meaning both the emergence of leaders and the development of the communities from which it was born.

Searchlight’s conference came at the start of the journey to rediscover and rebuild this movement for our times and the event brought together Labour organising (in the form of Hope not Hate, case studies of local Labour parties, and Labour Values) and community organising (London Citizens) to learn and reflect on the way forward for Labour as a campaigning and change-making party. The conference therefore had its focus on the processes for a renewed Labour politics, rather than new policies the party may require.

Speakers and sessions held on the day emphasised the practices and skills required to engage and motivate people to get involved and build a party which can campaign to effect real change.

Two stories stood out for me.  The first was from Maurice Glasman, a community leader with London Citizens, who spoke of his contrasting past experiences of getting involved in his local Labour Party and with the East London Chapter Citizens.  He found it hard to get involved in his local Labour party, but the opposite was true of London Citizens where he was welcomed and learnt how to develop a relational politics through one-to-one meetings and house groups. He argued that such practices need to be adopted by Labour to bring in new members, improve relationships and enable local parties to develop people through taking action.  Getting broken doors in local housing estates replaced or working with the local community to make streets safer are practical examples of what an active local Labour Party, whether in or out of power, might do as a starting point.

Glasman’s emphasis on building relationships to achieve local change chimed with Caroline Badley’s story of Labour organising in Birmingham Edgbaston, where Gisela Stuart unexpectedly retained her seat at the last election.  For many, a local Labour party focused on making real change happen can sit in tension with winning elections.  However, Badley’s story points to the opposite.  Learning from the Obama campaign Badley emphasised the decision to “to stop doing and start building” as she worked hard with her team to recruit and build a party before being tempted to deliver leaflets and conduct Voter ID.  As well as focusing on the recruitment of activists to win the election, Badley resolved to tackle head-on the difficult issues being heard on the door step – the expenses scandal and immigration. In addition, where activists identified local issues that needed action they were supported and given the responsibility to take action.  This had the effect of enhancing the relevance of the campaign within the local community and as local changes were made, brought in new recruits who were motivated by what they saw and heard.

With the arrival of the Labour leadership contestants at the conference my mind turned to the development of leaders in politics and how my role as a community organiser at London Citizens is different from the approach I’ve seen Labour take. As a community organiser, I’m judged not primarily on the issues we tackle or the wins we achieve, vital as they can be. I’m judged on the leaders that we develop and the new leaders who get involved from our member communities.

When Labour’s leadership candidates spoke about how to reconnect with lost supporters all the themes of giving people ownership, enabling people to make change happen locally, renewing democracy and developing a genuine movement were explored with real thought and sentiment.  However, to build a movement requires Labour to go further than reconnecting – it must revisit its notion of leadership and its core purpose for existing.

In short, it cannot simply be about winning an election campaign and becoming the party that gets to control the powers of state.  This won’t be enough.  Labour must fundamentally exist to develop people in its communities and to attract students from schools and from the youth clubs on estates to learn and progress as leaders through being involved.  If Labour is to stand up again it will have to be with foundations that sit within in a deeper, more human politics and with roots that flow into the lives and experiences of ordinary people. It will of course involve winning elections but it will also involve reimagining the notion of how we win and of how we do our politics.

If we sit down at future leadership hustings and see the modern equivalents of politicians like Bevin – a leader developed through the union and Labour movement, then we will know we have really organised to win.