Since the launch of our London-wide voter registration drive, Movement for Change Organisers have worked with activists across the capital, whether it’s simply adding unregistered properties to a canvassing route or running a voter registration drive with a local community centre. Below are just a couple of examples of the work we’ve been doing.

Walthamstow – Teaming up with Hope Not Hate

In Walthamstow leaders have been working with nearly a dozen community institutions including churches, schools & community groups. On 14^th April we teamed up with Hope Not Hate and local Labour Party members in Walthamstow town centre for a day of action and registered over 50 people. Click here to hear from Ellie Lowe from Hope Not Hate on why she joined together with Movement for Change to register voters.

Greenwich & Woolwich – Myth busting

On Walpole housing estate in Woolwich members focussed on breaking down the many myths surrounding voter registration by putting together information packs and posting these to local residents. They then followed up by knocking on doors and collecting voter registration forms. This has proven to be a popular campaign with local members who want to continue to work on voter registration as a way of stimulating continued engagement with local residents on this estate and the wider community.

Inactive Members & Community Engagement

At the outset the primary aim of this campaign was to register as many voters as possible and speak to people about the damaging reforms to voter registration proposed by the coalition Government. Whilst these aims are still paramount we’ve had overwhelming feedback from our leaders that it’s been a fantastic way of engaging inactive members and building relationships with local organisations.

Inactive members have found the Missing Millions campaign both inspiring and a great way to build their confidence. Members who have previously been too nervous to speak to people on the doorstep, or found it difficult to approach their local church, college or community centre in a party political context, have found that voter registration is a great way of starting conversations and building these relationships.

What’s Next?

The deadline for registering to vote for the elections on 3^rd May has now passed but we want this to be a permanent campaign, not only bringing people closer to politics but confronting local Labour parties with the reasons why people are disinterested in politics. For more information on the campaign or for ideas on running a voter registration drive in your area please get in touch.

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

Local Walthamstow Labour activist and former councillor Harriet Panting describes the process by which she’s been working with local community groups to register their members to vote.

Movement for Change exists to help Labour Party members regenerate their party from the grassroots up. Currently I am a volunteer seeking to achieve this aim in a particular way in Walthamstow, north-east London.

The current Government is planning to change the election system, making it necessary for each individual to apply individually to join the electoral register in the place where s/he lives. Prior to the introduction of these proposals, the system is that one individual can apply on behalf of all the residents at one address, to register them together. The near-certain result of this change of policy will be that fewer people join the electoral register. These are the so-called ‘Missing Millions’.

The likely impact of this change will be particularly pronounced in Walthamstow which has an unusually varied, mobile multicultural population.

How do I take action to help community groups register their members?

Local Labour activists use existing relationships, and build new relationships, with various community groups in order to work with them to register their members. I call on a variety of existing social groupings (such as churches, or youth groups) by appointment, taking with me small robust cardboard ballot boxes, a pile of registration forms and a request for the boxes to be prominently displayed.

The boxes are attractively decorated with a display of human hands in red, orange, purple and blue and there is no party bias displayed. We are in the early stages but so far no group has declined to help and the response has generally been very positive. When we speak with local community leaders, we’ve found that they understand the urgency of the situation and agree that it’s important for local residents to have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. All agree that for our democracy to flourish it is very important that as many adults as possible register to vote.

Together with others, I am helping to arrange for more local Party members to volunteer to be linked to a group near where they live or work. Their job will be to collect completed forms for delivery to the Council, and to encourage the group to start to engage in informal political discussion in the broadest sense. In other words, we’re using the Missing Millions campaign as a way to start conversations and build stronger relationships with other groups within our community.

Why do I think it’s needed?

There is currently no strong tradition of this kind of focussed relationship-building discussion in British politics. It suits those in power, of whatever Party, to have it so. A group will happily grumble about potholes in roads or deficiencies in the way rubbish is collected for recycling without ever considering that these things are the stuff of politics and that it may be possible to learn how to influence Council or indeed Westminster policies over time.

I believe that it will be a good thing for links to be made between the small group of current activists and a broader section of the population in this way. As our nation and indeed our whole world faces an uncertain future, our decision making processes need to include as many voices as possible.

The formation of Movement for Change is long overdue. I am proud to be able to play a small part.

Harriet Panting, Walthamstow Labour activist

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us for more details.

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us for more details.

On 8th February we’re hosting an interactive two hour training session on planning and organising a voter registration campaign. The session will focus on how to deliver voter registration training and how to form a strategy to suit your area.

Due to the upcoming Mayoral and GLA elections this campaign is currently London focussed but if you are from outside London and you are interested in joining us the content will be transferable. Our aim is to launch a national campaign in the coming months.

This session is open to all Labour members and trade union members referred by their union.

If you would like to come to the session you can sign up here

Contact
us for more details.

One of the questions we have been asked during our Missing Millions voter registration drive is which nationalities can register to vote. The graphic below has been designed for use as flash-card in working to register diaspora communities.  For more information on our Missing Millions campaign click here.

On 8th February we’re hosting an interactive two hour training session on planning and organising a voter registration campaign. The session will focus on how to deliver voter registration training and how to form a strategy to suit your area.

Due to the upcoming Mayoral and GLA elections this campaign is currently London focussed but if you are from outside London and you are interested in joining us the content will be transferable. Our aim is to launch a national campaign in the coming months.

This session is open to all Labour members and trade union members referred by their union.

If you would like to come to the session you can sign up here

This is the third in a series of graphics examining voting rights and voter registration as part of the Missing Millions campaign.

This graphic compares Boris’s majority in the 2008 mayoral election with the number of unregistered voters in London. The figure is based on the current number of unregistered households in London (139,312) multiplied by the average number of adults per household which is 1.9. The number of unregistered voters in London is therefore likely to be much higher!