Labour values is beginning to fill up with informative campaign case studies from Labour Party branches around the country, and the first eight appear to have lessons for all of us.

In our Copeland case study, read about the legendary Egremont Today, a Labour Party newspaper delivered by volunteers to 10,500 homes in central Copeland every month. The newspaper contains pieces from the local MP and MEP, items of community news, and carries advertising from local businesses. It puts the Labour Party at the heart of the community on a regular basis. In the same case study you can read about local councillors that are so well known in their areas that they’re on first name terms with most of the ward residents they meet.

For an account of how one former Labour MP used a 1,000 word weekly e-mail to recruit 400 campaign volunteers, raise over £5,000 in campaign donations, and even stimulate a ‘Conservative for Labour’ campaign run alongside his own re-election campaign, take a look at our Broxtowe case study. It might have lessons for what you’re doing or not doing in your own area.

The activist recruitment and training campaign started in 2008 in Birmingham Edgbaston, which tripled the activist base and helped deliver a stunning victory in the general election in May 2010, is described here. It explains how the campaign looked to use whatever skills people had in a productive way and encouraged anyone with a good idea to take the lead responsibility for implementing it. In one of the best results of the night for Labour, knowledge and responsibility were in the hands of the many, not the few.

For an account of the use of non-political residents meetings to engage citizens all year round, read our Blackburn case study. This describes how, over a number of years, groups of up to 1600 residents in the constituency were invited to sessions to discuss local issues with key officials and elected representatives. Led by the Labour MP, the sessions were also attended by the local Council Leader, the Council Chief Executive, local Chief Constable and often a representative of a local housing agency. They always included mechanisms for follow up on the issues discussed. Also in this case study, you can read about ‘Shoutabouts’ in which the MP has given short speeches and taken questions directly from voters in Blackburn town centre on a regular basis for years. You can’t get much more direct voter contact than that!

The running of an aggressive voter identification and turnout campaign modelled on best practice in US politics, with a core of full-time activists leading a decentralised team of ‘ward captains’ to victory over Respect is described in the Bethnal Green and Bow case study. This takes the old art of voter ID and turns it into a science.

A two-year campaign to regularly contact and mobilise members and supporters, and to drive up voter contact rates is also described in our Islington South and Finsbury case study. This effort, coupled with the building of a strong local brand identity through campaigns for Free School Meals for all primary school children, for more and better social housing, and for keeping open post-offices and a local hospital, helped ensure victory with an increased majority in this marginal seat.

In Dagenham and Rainham, the party used what it called ‘tight-loose’ campaigning in which all the messaging, branding and target pools of voters were dealt with in the campaign HQ (tight) but all the canvassing and identifying of local issues was done by Councillors and their teams, including trade union activists, at ward level (loose). This helped the party to wipe out the BNP while winning a parliamentary seat made difficult by boundary changes.

Finally, to read about how at least one candidate and her campaign team built relationships with community groups over a long period of time, and in doing so built a broad volunteer base, over half of which came from outside the party, read our Walthamstow case study.

This first batch of published case studies all demonstrate the principles at the heart of Labour Values in one way or another. They show local parties reaching out beyond their own membership to become part of a broader movement for change. In several cases they talk about training new volunteers to get the job done and in virtually all there is a story of respecting and empowering individuals to play whatever role their time and skills allow.

If you’re in a position to provide us with a case study from your area, please write to us at action@labourvalues.org. If you believe in what we’re doing and have not yet signed the Labour Values petition, please go to the Who page, sign now, and pass on details of this site and petition to any others that you think might share our goals. To change our country we have to change our party. Labour Values is one way we can come together to do that.

by Ian Kearns, Lewisham and Deptford CLP