Ann Fisher of Walthamstow Labour Party

Ann Fisher, a longstanding member of Walthamstow Labour Party, describes how Movement for Change has given her (and a larger group of previously inactive members) a way to engage both with the Party and their local community.

I am a recently retired London primary school teacher and have long been a Labour Party member. I have never been confident enough to attend Labour Party meetings nor to talking to people on doorsteps during elections. However I am keen to play my part as a Labour Party member. So when our Movement for Change (M4C) organiser Kathryn Perera asked me to join a small group of similar members locally, I was very happy to attend.

Through meeting with each of us individually (1-2-1), Kathryn had identified us as all being interested in education. Since the initial meeting six of us plus Kathryn have met several times at my husband John’s and my house.

We began to hold 1-2-1 meetings with other members of the group in order to learn more about each other and find out where we have shared interests and concerns.  Through that process, we discovered that education would not necessarily be the subject of our action. Through further discussions, it was suggested that our group should attend a Job Fair at the local college. We did this and combined talking to some local business people, listening to the issues of local residents and registering young people to vote as part of The Missing Millions voter registration campaign. Lots of people were happy to register to vote and we learned more about our local community in the process.

I felt, at last, I was doing something positive and linking with people I otherwise would not have met. It felt like we’d achieved a small step towards becoming more engaged in the political process. Everybody we approached responded eagerly and in a friendly manner. We hope to continue to work for The Missing Millions Campaign in the months ahead.

At first, our group was a little unsure as to where M4C was taking us as we were not asked to focus on activity straight away. But we stayed with it because we liked the idea of working within the local community, building up networks, so that people could identify and share their worries, which then might lead to joint action.  A lot of people, in my experience, seem to feel alienated from party politics, thinking it has nothing to do with them. My experience with M4C has proven my belief that working with the local community on local issues which they have identified, can lead them to take part in political action and achieve change.

Next we are planning a listening campaign along our street, initially, to ask residents how they think our street can be improved e.g. less litter, more trees, less congestion, improved lighting and find out any other issues they have and want to act on with us.  It is a gradual process, but one to which I am committed. There have also been other off-shoot actions from our group. For example, one of our initial members was a young man who had two degrees, but was unemployed. He felt there was a big issue around businesses not providing work experience to the unemployed. He is now working with Kathryn to link local businesses with local young people seeking work experience.

Before Movement for Change, I felt I couldn’t participate in the traditional role of a Labour Party member joining in meetings and electioneering. Being able to meet local people in 1-2-1s and small groups, in order to build towards community actions, has given me the opportunity to develop from an inactive party member to an active one.

Ann Fisher

Kathryn Perera on the use of community organising techniques in Battersea Labour Party:

I recently attended an extraordinary meeting of Labour Party members in Battersea, which gave me cause for quiet optimism.  In a seat which only recently lost its Labour MP, and in which a number of dedicated Labour councillors work hard to hold the Tory administration to account, levels of activism among Labour members had become worryingly low.  Some months ago I spoke with the (now former) local organiser Andy Fearn, who described how matters came to a head when he arranged a canvassing session and only three people attended, himself included.

Yet the constituency membership has grown by 130 since the General Election.  And it was hardly the case that members lacked local issues on which to campaign: libraries were being threatened with closure, and the Council had just put forward plans to charge children £2.50 for using its playgrounds.

Mark Rowney was one of the two local Labour members who showed up for that day’s canvassing.  As he later recalled, they retired to the pub to discuss where things were going wrong.

“My colleague turn to me and asked, ‘why don’t people want to come out’?” he said. “But as we talked, I realised that was the wrong question. What we needed to ask was: ‘Why would people want to come out?’”

With this question in mind (and advised by Caroline Badley (Birmingham Edgbaston) and Arnie Graf, Ed Miliband’s community organising advisor), they began to focus on building relationships rather than centring their activism around tasks.  Over the following weeks, a small team of Battersea Labour activists systematically contacted new members to set up individual face-to-face meetings with them.  These meetings focused on two things: first, finding out more about what had motivated members to join the Party in the first place and, second, inviting them to attend a bigger gathering to meet informally with other local members.

So what made the recent Battersea meeting extraordinary? First, turnout.  The turnout of 60+ local members, in a seat whose membership is dwarfed by many other London CLPs, brought a bulk of the membership together in a way that rarely happens in our local parties anymore.  The atmosphere was buzzing as a result – a number of previously inactive members with whom I spoke talked with excitement about what they could achieve within their local Party.

Second, the emphasis on relationships.  The meeting was relational in tone and form – it centred around people sharing food, drink and stories, to build individual relationships which made us all feel part of something bigger than ourselves.  This focus on what motivates people to act (i.e. identifying their self-interest) has transformed the way Battersea activists approach their organising.  In turn, it has also laid the groundwork not just for more people joining the CLP; crucially, it has provided a means for more people joining in.

Of course, the real test of this work is still to come.  Will massively increased turnout at one event convert into more action on the ground? I suspect that an important element of keeping the momentum and converting it into action will be for the Battersea organisers to heed their own advice: ask not why people didn’t come to you. Rather, start with their self-interest and build the relationship from there.

Emily recently undertook work experience with Movement for Change. Here she reflects here on the power of stories to create social change.

Once upon a time, as a literature studying undergrad, I believed passionately in the compelling power of stories. Many of life’s dilemmas have been solved for me by seeking advice from the pages of my favourite novels. Example. Deciding what to wear for a recent event I attended in Bath, could easily be sorted by a quick flick through Jane Austen, the natural ‘go to’ for any questions pertaining to social etiquette in that beautiful Georgian city. More meaningfully, the force and energy of words and characters, cadence and clause, can evoke compassion for others, induce reflective internal dialogue and conjure imaginings about a different kind of world. Stories deliver a sensation unparalleled. They are a potent catalyst.

Within the remit of community organising, employing the power of stories is useful in primarily two ways. Firstly, stories create empathy, a fruitful and proven campaign technique. Attempting to take action on holistic concerns like poverty, or nebulous concepts like inequality, can seem daunting and unachievable. Instead, stories enable a macro issue to be made relevant at a micro level. Rather than speaking in general terms, discussing the hundreds of thousands affected by the current climate of economic recession – which often makes the listener feel overwhelmed and disempowered to help – a story humanises statistics. It can draw on people’s own day-to-day experiences and reference points. More poignant, is learning about a particular Sure Start centre that has been forced to close in a local community. Or hearing about Marian, a single mother, aged twenty seven, who lives on a nearby estate and can no longer afford childcare for her eighteen month old toddler. The sequence of an identifiable character faced with a challenge is a digestible formula which the listener can empathise with. This type of relational story telling drives collaboration, which in turn leads to action. By facilitating community leaders through training rooted in narrative, Movement for Change has successfully achieved a number of positive outcomes from founding Residents Associations through to installing safer road crossings for children.

Secondly, stories allow us to get to know each other better. Telling stories about ourselves – an oral tradition that pre-dates the written word – can enable us to find common ground with others, which in turn creates stronger grassroots networks, mobilised and willing to become involved with people they feel connected to. Much of the philosophy employed by Movement for Change in their community organising strategy draws on the idea of a personal meeting between community leader and community organiser, known as the 1-2-1. These sessions are used to push beyond the name, address and occupation of an individual – to reach past their socio economic credentials – in order to explore what drives them, what makes them tick. Employing stories to share details of our past – the moment when you became politically active or a juncture that awakened you to try and make change – forges stronger connections and a deeper understanding of people’s political and social reasoning. Example. Rather than turning up to a meeting at her local branch and vaguely muttering about wanting to help others, Elizabeth Bennet could tell a personal story about how a turbulent relationship with a wealthy man activated her political conscience when she realised that income inequality – a prolific social injustice – can act as a barrier to happiness. It is a truth universally acknowledged after all, that the British public cannot help but be enthralled by a best seller.

A few chapters later in my own life, having now studied politics as a postgrad, I am thrilled at the exciting prospect of uncovering the venn diagram lozenge where my two disciplines overlap. Community organising is a fertile ground, achieving tangible results on issues that really make a difference, where stories and politics can harmoniously exist. Putting people’s stories back into politics, returns politics to the people.

I first came across Movement for Change (M4C) when I went along to a community clean-up organised by the team. Our local MP Stephen Twigg and Knotty Ash Councillor Hayley Todd had been working with M4C and mentioned the fantastic work they were doing in communities up and down the country. I along with some other CLP members decided to go along get involved and learn a little more about what M4C was all about.

On the day it was great to see party members taking pride in their community alongside local residents, business owners and elected members. It’s the type of practical politics that just simply works. A problem was identified, a team put together to sort it out and in the process links were made with people in the surrounding community.

The success of the day meant that as a CLP we were keen to receive further M4C training. We wanted to learn how to forge lasting relationships with those outside of our membership and make a real difference in our neighbourhoods along the way.

The training itself was taken by community organiser Ben Maloney and attracted a group of enthusiastic members including our CLP chair, City Councillors, Candidates, Young Labour activists and new members.  The exercises throughout the day were tremendously useful. We were encouraged to look back on campaigns we had been involved in and evaluate how successful they had been. Listening to each other’s experiences and strategising as a group meant we were able to get a clearer sense of what works in a campaign. Going through this reflective process was constructive. As a membership that loves to campaign it was valuable for us to pause, look back and realise the importance of campaigning week in week out and the undeniable impact it has on election results.

Liverpool West Derby CLP is one which has been transformed in the past few years. Since Stephen Twigg has become the MP the life of the CLP has been revived, interesting speakers at meetings, political discussion and regular social events are all part of the deal. This winning approach to CLP life means that we are always looking for ways to build on this success and find new ideas to engage our membership and make links with the wider community.

The M4C approach to building CLP power is fresh and interesting. Advice to organise 1-2-1 meetings with new members was something that interested us all. Taking time to discover why someone has joined our party, what motivates them and discussing ways they can get involved in CLP life can be hugely beneficial. Meeting with members in an informal setting and starting up a conversation means we have a greater chance of engaging our new members from the outset. Actions like this can take away the daunting task of walking into a CLP meeting where everyone knows each other. No-one wants to feel like the new kid at school, baffled by Labour Party jargon and the minutes of the last meeting. The face-to-face meetings advocated by M4C take away the fear factor and encourage members to become active on their own terms, they decide how they want to become involved and CLP members can then support them in this. Some may want to campaign, others may want to attend meetings and policy discussion; a few may want to get involved in the social aspect of Party life. It’s our job as members to make newcomers feel comfortable enough to choose what type of members they want to be and how they want to contribute.

Another aspect of the training took us away from our comfort zone and challenged us to think about how we engage with those outside of our membership. Members are hugely important and we always want to attract more but it’s important that we’re not engaging with members and no-one else. If we want to make change in our areas and win future elections we should be making a considered effort to engage with those who aren’t Party members but do fantastic work in our local communities.

During the session we were encouraged to think about people in the community who we should be in dialogue with, including faith leaders, community activists, tenants and residents associations and local organisations to name but a few. Mapping out who we should be talking to and recognition that it’s something that all members should be doing was hugely worthwhile. We didn’t only think about who we should be engaging with but how. Hearing about M4C’s emphasis on voter registration and how this can be incorporated into all campaigns definitely gave us food for thought! I’m sure we’ll all be signing up for further training in 2012!

Lana Orr, Liverpool West Derby CLP