The election of Movement for Change activist (and now County Councillor for Clenchwarton and Lynn South) Alexandra Kemp moved Labour from 4^th to 1^st place in a traditionally Conservative area last month.  Here, Alexandra outlines how she used relational politics as the basis of her campaign:

On 28 September 2012, Labour came first from fourth place in the safe Tory seat of Clenchwarton and Lynn South in Norfolk at the County Council election.  It was a Labour landslide in a seat we had not held or even fully contested for 7 years.  We turned a 700 Tory majority into a 400 Labour majority. There was a 25% swing to Labour. How did we do it?

We won through using relational politics to build a groundswell of support based on action we’d taken before the election was even called.  We won by playing a leading part in a high profile community campaign throughout the county division. We won by building a social consensus in a division spanning as large a distance as some constituencies, across a hugely varying demographic.  People told us they were breaking the habit of a lifetime to vote Labour for the first time. Yet in pledging their support, they affirmed a belief in local democracy, and in a community united by a shared love of place and neighbourhood. To me, it felt like a David and Goliath struggle where community action won out.

Local issue, local voice

Labour’s unique offer to our community was to stand up and challenge the age-old practice of siting the most polluting industries within breathing distance of our poorest areas. We spent time listening within our community and then helping to make the case for  the green option of locally-based recycling. In doing so, we were on the side of local residents in resisting Tory plans to make King’s Lynn the Norfolk capital for waste.

Having been pro-active in learning about the local sentiment and framing our narrative, Labour was therefore the first to write to local residents alerting them to the proposed development and exposing the sham Tory consultation that had taken place.  We used this momentum to lodge planning objections; we recorded our own song of protest on a CD with other campaigners; and meanwhile Labour Councillors put pressure on the Tories to reverse their decision.  It was a relational campaign organised through 121 conversations with people of all ages and backgrounds; through meetings with community groups; and (in the final week) a hustings recorded live in a local community centre under the eagle eye of the regional press and media.  Our message throughout was a positive one based on action Labour had taken locally. We showed that Labour will act in the interest of the whole community. As a result, the electorate took the plunge and voted for a Labour woman who looks very different from the usual Tory man in a suit. I now know that in other parts of Norfolk, Tories actually told Labour members that they wanted “the girl in the West to win”.

To all those who made this possible, I want to say a huge thanks. We used relational politics to build momentum with local residents, but I also relied on a fantastic team around me to make that happen, from my agent (Lawrence Wikinson) to the local Labour Group Council Leader Councillor Charles Joyce.  There was Jessica Asato the PPC from Norwich North and Jo Rust from the Trades Council. There was Harry Clarke from the regional board, Peter Smith from South-West Norfolk and Terry Jermy from Thetford. There was George Nobbs the Labour County Leader, County Councillor Bert Bremner and Labour PCC Steve Morphew. Youth Officer Ashley Collop, former County Councillor Bill Davison and Jenny Davison, and Councillor Laurence Scott. And so many others.  Thank you to all of you.

The achievement of first place from fourth is a definitive answer to all those who accept that politics can only be a certain way; to those who would abandon rural or non-traditional areas as “hopeless”; to those who don’t see the relevance of community-based action to our work as Labour activists.

Alexandra Kemp, Vice Chair of North-West Norfolk Labour Party, explains the rural context that led local Labour activists to build a strong local party through community organising – and win practical change in the process.

Norfolk Labour activists after a Movement for Change taster session

We wanted to create a new democratic space for Labour, more fluid, relational, intergenerational and inclusive, more family-friendly and racially diverse. We wanted to bring more power back to members and break a few unwritten rules. Firstly, we wanted to send out the message that you don’t have to be elected before you can campaign. That you can bring along children to Labour events too so there is real accessibility for parents and grandparents. That you are equally important however old you are and wherever you live. That your ideas are valued and you have the freedom to express them.

We wanted to take interactive political debate out to the remoter rural areas of the constituency where it didn’t exist and to make it fun to take part in and feel relevant and responsive. Every member in an isolated village can be a powerful ambassador for Labour in their own community. 80 year-old Labour members run local village halls but Labour invisibility leads to an assumed Tory hegemony. So we had to increase the involvement of Labour members beyond the usual core of public and party office holders in the main town and open out to Labour sympathisers and supporters. We were Refounding Labour in one of the toughest Tory safe seats in England, North-West Norfolk.

So last Summer we launched Political Discussion Events with a Free Lunch, or Meet, Greet and Eat Events. Welfare, the Economy and Fair Pay formed some of the debates. In November we were recognised with Labour’s East of England Best Practice Award. People decided to set up a Living Wage Campaign which had its first success within the first week. Kathryn Perera from Movement to Change came to speak.

From the start, we designed in new structures to encourage political engagement. Out went tables, pieces of printed paper and formalities of address in favour of seating in the round and less hierachy. Everyone speaks, there is always food and no visible agenda. The result is more eye contact and social interaction, people feel empowered to speak, there is a more relaxed feel. From Plato’s Symposium onwards, creative political discussion and food have always gone together.

We encourage the presence of lifelong members with a rich tradition of Labour involvement spanning most of Labour’s history who hold the key to village networks. Evening Labour meetings in the main town were out of bounds for most members in rural areas, particularly older members so we meet in the villages late on Saturday mornings for a two-hour meeting over lunch time and we offer lifts as public transport is usually out of the question. Events are free to encourage people to come whatever their means and venues are usually members’ homes to keep costs down. As lots of older members do not have e-mail or use it rarely, invitations are made over the telephone.

There has been a transition from towncentric to more village-focused member involvement, a new springboard for campaigning round the year not just at election-time and a wider age spread at meetings.

The Living Wage success came after a conversation with the Minister at the local Methodist Church after the Living Wage Launch and the new cleaner is now paid the Living Wage.

This is just the start of a new political voyage into awareness-raising and empowerment, a reinvention.

The countryside is the natural home for Labour. With low pay and low expectations in ex-farming areas, concentrations of older people increasingly reliant on social services, the NHS and public transport, children in poverty, young people looking for work, there is everything to gain.