Ahead of our intensive training weekend in Barnsley tomorrow, Pat Wiggins of Community Union shares his experience of building action through Community Organising techniques following work with Movement for Change on the Isle of Sheppey:

My name is Pat Wiggins and I’m a union representative for Community Union at the Thamesteel steelworks on the Isle of Sheppey, where I have worked and represented workers for the past 3 decades.

Last year, our employer took the decision to close the steelworks with the threatened loss of some 400 jobs. Many of the lads with whom I work were born and raised on the Isle of Sheppey and had worked in the plant for their entire working lives. It was a devastating blow for us all.  Through this experience, and the anger and frustrations which followed, we came to believe that only with stronger links across the entire community could we build a stronger voice for jobs and growth in our area. We wanted to let people know what was happening, but we also wanted to get organised and bring about a change in Sheppey.

It felt like a daunting challenge. In my experience, many people on Sheppey are tired. We’re proud of our community but often feel overlooked. Locals sometimes joke that the bridge across to our island is a “bridge to nowhere”, but it’s only half a joke. There is a deep-rooted anger that Sheppey is a forgotten island and we are a forgotten community.

In recent months, Community Union has been working with Movement for Change to help people to get organised across the country. The aim is to forge stronger links between our Union members and local Party activists.  In Sheppey, we received an introductory training from a Movement for Change organiser that gave us new confidence in going out into our community and building new links as we take our work on ‘local jobs’ forward.  As a result, we are now planning small actions to target the far bigger challenge of how to attract sustainable growth to the island.

The approach will be positive. We’re going to focus on “Pride in Sheppey” and how we work together improve our own streets and public spaces, rather than on the negative messages that leave only feelings of hopelessness and apathy.  It’s a new challenge for us, but one which we’ll meet with Movement for Change’s support.

Sandra Bracegirdle of Manchester Labour Party describes a ‘call to action’ from Movement for Change’s Chair, Mike Kane, at the weekend’s North West Labour Party Conference:

Community organising took centre stage at the North West Regional Labour Party Conference in Blackpool. National Chair of Movement for Change, Mike Kane, chaired a full session of Conference on community organising and how this can help Labour connect better with their communities. The session started with Iain McNicol, Labour’s General Secretary, speaking to the conference about the importance of the North West to the Labour Party. He emphasised the need of the Labour Party to be a broad campaigning movement – a movement for change – where community activists could change the world by starting with our own streets and estates. He saw the challenge facing us as a binary choice between standing like a monument or bending with and embracing change. Quoting Martin Luther King he challenged us to be “faced with the fierce urgency of now”

Before the traditional Q&A session the delegates were asked to have a quick 1-2-1 with someone sat near them who they didn’t know. After the initial surprise the hall became a buzz of conversation which was hard for the Chair to pull to a close. Some of stories shared included a man who had recently left the Conservatives to join Labour and a woman who had become a socialist at the age of 5 when she realised she had shoes but her friend didn’t.

The Q&A of a panel containing Mike Kane, Iain McNicol, Cllr Kieran Quinn, the Leader of Tameside Council, Penny Martin of Wyre in Lancashire and Jay McKenna of the NW TUC and Spirit of Shankly campaign. Delegates brought up a range of topics including  examples of engagement with voters using non-traditional methods, the importance of listening and connecting to communities, the role and significance of trade unions and examples of harnessing passion and even anger in communities.

Finally Iain McNicol was asked for a commitment from a delegate from the floor – George McNamara “doorstepped” him about the importance of Lancashire to the national party. Without winning Lancashire Labour won’t win Britain – George asked Iain to commit to supporting Lancashire’s campaign and was pleased with a response that not only would Iain himself support the campaign he would bring Ed Miliband and other shadow cabinet members as well. A successful session all round.

Last week, more than 100 activists from across Lancashire came together to discuss Community Organising and agree actions for the months ahead. The event was hosted by Movement for Change’s Chair Mike Kane, and is a prelude to a series of training sessions Movement for Change will be running in Lancashire over the coming months.

Here, activist Jack Fellows describes the experience and explains the potential of Community Organising to effect a culture change in politics.

JACK: On Friday 13^th July 2012, more than 100 activists came from across Lancashire to discuss and be trained in Community Organising.

The event was chaired by Mike Kane, Chair of Movement for Change with guest speakers including John Trickett MP from the Shadow Cabinet, Lindsey Hoyle MP for Chorley, and Arnie Graf a Community Organiser from the USA.

What change would you like to see?

Rather than the speakers being the main attractions, members were. The room was divided into groups of ten and we were asked to present two key changes we wanted to see in our local communities. Regeneration of town and city centres; and personal debt were the two clear issues coming from the table discussions.

The way the audience for the evening was ‘built’ was different to what I have experienced before. Instead of a generic email asking people to attend, team leaders were encouraged to have a series one-to-one meetings in order to build relationships and drive attendance. The difference this made was extraordinary. People I had been been canvassing with only weeks before really opened up about to why they joined the Labour Party and what motivated them to be on the doorstep. This type of relational politics showed me a new and successful approach to engaging members.

Those who attended the event believed (and rightly so) that they had ownership over what would happen next. This is important, as it will allow us to create true bottom-up campaigns decided by members on issues that affect ordinary people, leading to real results for real people.

The action points were agreed and a promise made by the key participants to provide training to members on how to tackle these problems. The guest speakers also undertook to bring the issues raised to the Shadow Cabinet and to Iain McNicol, General Secretary of the Labour Party.

Why all this though, and what is the point?

At the Fabian Society Conference, Iain McNicol revealed that more then one million Labour conversations had taken place from January 2012 to local the local Election Day in May 2012. He said: “Imagine if all those conversations tweeted as #LabourDoorstep were about more than just voting intentions”.

In Preston we are changing the conversation from simply voter ID to: “What are the issues here?” and “what can we do about them?” Constituents are taken aback. They’re surprised that political activists are asking for their views; and more so, that we plan to take action to tackle the problem.

This process can lead to the breakdown of the national stereotype of politicians: “you only turn up at election time” and: “you do nothing for us”. People will see the benefits of a Labour Party fighting for a better Britain in Westminster; and a Labour Movement changing the communities in which we live.

To find out more about our work in Lancashire and get involved, contact us here.

Walthamstow Labour activist Ushan Samson (@ooshan) sets out his vision for a youth unemployment project in Walthamstow, following his attendance at a Movement for Change training session earlier this year.

A couple of months ago an email landed in my inbox. It read Labour and I immediately assumed it was another mass email informing me how I could help the cause. At a closer look, I found that it was in fact a refreshing change. It was an offer to meet Kathryn and discuss my story, what I had done with labour and what I wanted from it. This led to an invigorating conversation where I, for the first time truly thought why it was that I was part of this movement.

Then came the opportunity to go on a training session with movement for change and sit with others who wanted to discuss their stories and get to know their fellow members, something that has been somewhat lost in the regular bureaucracy of politics. It was during these sessions that I was first introduced to the idea of “cold anger”. It is that anger, that feeling inside of you, the injustice you see which deep inside you, you know you can do something about and you want to do something about. It’s this anger that is pure fuel, looking for a spark from fellow activists, which can create a fire that can burn bright in these dark times. This is exactly what we started to discuss, with anger spewing forth concentrated on very real issues of very real community members.

I had not gone into these meetings with a particular issue in mind, I’m not sure if my fellow activists had as well. But listening to these stories made me feel comfortable enough to share my own anger, my very personal, very real issue.

That which is squarely focussed on the despair of our youth. I am part of the generation that is struggling to find employment and more frustratingly, even struggling to find work experience. Those positions that exist either ask for prior work experience, if you want to work in an established industry or there is so much red tape that eventually one must just give up. But this is a problem we can solve using the movement for change’s ethos, which is to create relationships, lasting relationships based on a common goal. That common goal is for the youth and those that are worried about the future of our country and its resources to take an active role. To create if not job opportunities, then work experience opportunities. If we can’t do that, we can certainly seek to create relationships with businesses and industry leaders to create those opportunities.

Each large industry comes with its own Corporate Social Responsibility covenant, one which seeks out such to take part in such philanthropy missions. If that does not work, we can petition the government and as a nation we can fuel the fire, we can keep the coals burning and turn this nation around. Our country is worth more, our generation is worth much more

I would like to invite you to take part in this revolution with me, to take things into our own hands and help not only ourselves but each other.

We at Walthamstow are trying to do exactly that. Taking the M4C ethos to heart, we are currently contacting young local members and listening to their problems from their point of view. The recurring theme has been unemployment, which currently stands at 1.02 million (according to Office for National Statistics) for young people. As well as listening to their grievances, we are identifying their strengths and interests for the other part of this project.

Our aim is to have a two pronged approach, whereas we are creating relationships with those that are in need, we are also creating relationships with those that can help-the businesses. Using exactly the same approach, we are contacting businesses, both small and large and trying to find out what sort of employee they are looking for and where they may be happy to take on young people. This leads us to introducing the right candidate to the right business, where they can find some work experience in the least or a job at the most, making the process beneficial for both parties.

We are at the cusp of something great, if you can see the potential in this and in yourself then contact us to get involved in however and whichever way you can.

Tom Chivers (@wronglets) of Bath Labour Party discusses the effect of a Movement for Change introductory training session on their nascent plans for community campaigning:

Although I’m a relatively new member of the Labour Party, I joined just in time to be able to help out with campaigning during the local elections in May last year. Hopes were high that with the increasing negativity towards the Government (and in particular the Liberal Democrats who are extremely popular in Bath), this election could be fought on level ground for the first time in decades.

This of course was not the case; the Liberal Democrats increased their number of seats in the council and our all-out mobilisation of candidates and leaflet drops seemed wasted. In subsequent branch meetings our solemn admissions of defeat had one thing in common; whilst our campaigns were fought on a logistical par with the Lib Dems, we lacked the strong community relationships that are vital in creating a strong campaign force. Whatever their opinions were on national issues, voters still turned to the Liberal Democrat candidates as they were seen to be ‘true locals fighting for local issues’. No matter how strong our campaign efforts were, without a strong local presence we Labour campaigners were seen as a foreign force fronting a foreign cause.

Enter Movement4Change. I attended the training because, as a community organiser for one of our target council wards, I felt that although our team was eager to begin campaigning, we lacked a clear direction. We knew all about the local concerns but couldn’t identify how best to fight for them. As part of our plans to create a consistent grass-roots campaign team, the training offered by M4C was invaluable. Not only did the session help our team to better understand one another’s motivations, but it also reminded us of the real importance of community relationships; it’s not about finding policies to fight for, but about creating bonds with the groups which are vital to the community. Not a minute had passed after the end of the session that, armed with a clear strategy, we set about planning our next steps, designating our target groups and starting to build a presence within the local community.

Movement for Change has given our campaign team a much needed push in the right direction. With a straight-forward list of tasks to complete that will begin to shape our operations within the local community, we are energised and focused, ready to bring Labour principles to the heart of Bath.

Tom Chivers is a member of Bath CLP and a ‘community organiser’ for one of their target wards. Follow him on Twitter: @wronglets

Philip Creasy, Secretary of Walthamstow Labour Party, reflects on a recent introductory training session on community organising, with Movement for Change organiser Kathryn Perera.