This article by Kathryn Perera was published originally on the Progress website.

As part of his Real Change to Win tour, Ed Miliband was in Walthamstow today to see how Labour and Movement for Change activists are working within local communities to take practical action on the issue of “legal loansharking”.

As a Community Organiser at Movement for Change, most of my time (like that of my colleagues) has been spent on the ground in communities, training and developing local activists to take action on issues of real concern to them and other residents. One of the most often recurring concerns has been lack of access to affordable credit – and the devastating consequences that can result from using high-cost credit companies in desperation. One man I met in Walthamstow told me how he struggles to support a family of four and works two jobs just to make ends meet. His and other similar stories inspired the successful Living Wage actions Movement for Change ran with Labour Students last year. But his story had a more depressing detail. He told me that much of the income from those two jobs is spent on servicing debt and interest from his high-cost loans.

One of the key principles of Community Organising is that political action is developed through building relationships in order to find shared interests on which to act. As such, in each community where we work our Organisers seek to build collective power by bringing together individuals who feel deeply about an issue and share a self-interest in working to tackle it. At a large-scale community event in Preston last week, led by Movement for Change’s Chair Mike Kane, some 120 activists agreed that taking action on personal debt will be their shared focus in the coming months. Meanwhile, in north London Movement for Change activists have started organising an Action Day on debt advice for local churches, youth and community groups who share this same concern.

It is because this issue has recurred so often, and with such urgency, that Movement for Change is making a national training offer to activists who want support in kick-starting action in their own communities. The training will introduce the principles of Community Organising as a model for achieving political change; and focus on activists on mapping out a strategy for running local actions with specific ‘asks’.

While the lack of regulation of high-cost credit is a national problem that, ultimately, demands a national response, I believe that building power and acting collectively at a local level will be a catalyst to more far-reaching change. Today’s demonstration of community strength in Walthamstow is an important step in that process… so, where next?

Leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband MP will be joining Movement for Change activists and Stella Creasy MP to launch our Loansharking mini-website on Thursday 26 July 2012 at 11am in Walthamstow, as part of his Real Change to Win tour.

Stella Creasy will also be revealing the campaign’s summer campaign pack, featuring Movement for Change’s training offer to support action on the problems the high cost credit industry is causing for our country.  With mortgage companies stating they won’t lend to consumers who have used payday loans because of concerns they lead to unmanageable debt, companies directly targeting payday loans at people on benefits or their continued domination on our high streets, join us to stand up to Britain’s legal loan sharks.

Places are limited but if you would like to join us at this very special event please email campaigns@workingforwalthamstow.org.uk to sign up.

Access to sexual healthcare: a win for Movement for Change activists

Women trained by Movement for Change in Walthamstow learned today that the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) has called for an urgent review of contraception provision in Walthamstow, as a result of their activism.

The women have been co-leading a community campaign to secure better sexual healthcare provision in their borough for the past several months. The campaign included Movement for Change activists attending a session of the APPG in Parliament, in order to give testimony on the problems with sexual healthcare provision in Walthamstow and to make specific ‘asks’ for the future of provision in the borough.  Today, the APPG published its Report, Healthy Women, Healthy Lives? which made striking recommendations for urgent action in Walthamstow as a result of the activists’ testimony. Baroness Gould, Chair of the APPG, used the Report’s Foreword to give particular thanks to the women for their evidence.

Read the full Report here.

The campaign continues. The group will next be seeking a community meeting to present their experiences of sexual healthcare locally and to make specific asks of local decision makers. Interested in getting involved? Then 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

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.

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

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

Hello – and a happy new year!

This is the first monthly summary of local actions by Walthamstow Labour Party members, in partnership with Movement for Change. It is a brief update on what’s currently taking place and gives you the information you need to get involved.

If I have not met you individually about actions/ideas which interest you, and you’d like to get involved in one of the actions listed below, please email me at kathryn.perera@movementforchange.org.uk.

Introducing community organising

Are you keen to find out more about the principles which underlie community organising? Interested in meeting other local Labour members and supporters who want to take community-based action?

Movement for Change runs introductory sessions on community organising – and we’re delivering one in Walthamstow this month:

Sunday 22^nd January

11:00 to 13:30 (with tea-break)

Walthamstow Labour Party office, Orford Road, E17

Places are limited but there are currently a few spaces left. To sign up, please email me ASAP.

Meeting members

I’ve been working as a community organiser for Walthamstow CLP 1 day per week for the past 6 months. In that time, I’ve meet individually with 60+ members, including new members, established members, officers and several local councillors. I’ve also met members through the GC and at the various branch meetings. In addition, I’ve met individually and collectively with dozens of community activists, from pastors to teachers, youth workers to students, who are keen to explore ways in which they can work with local Labour members on issues of common interest.

Over the next 3 months, small social meetings of members and supporters are taking place on a ward basis. The idea is to give you the chance to meet informally with people who may share common interests and who live in the same neighbourhood. This is planned initially for Hoe Street ward (where our Labour councillors are Mark Rusling, Saima Mahmud and Ahsan Khan) – to get involved there, or to express an interest in an informal meeting with other members in your ward, please get in touch.

Voter registration – the ‘Missing Millions’

Voter registration is an increasingly urgent problem. In several Waltham Forest wards, more than 10% of households (with an average of 1.9 people per household) are unregistered.

As you may know, Walthamstow CLP is leading the way in delivering a London-wide voter registration drive. The model for the project is to build relationships between Labour members and local community institutions (such as schools, churches, mosques and youth groups) to work with them to register their members. It is a non-party political campaign on which we can find common cause with other local organisations, whilst also building relationships that allow us to find (and take action on) other issues of common concern.

So far, Walthamstow Labour members are working in partnership with 5 churches. We will be starting work with 1 local school and 2 local community organisations in the next few weeks.

This is an ongoing project for us, given that the Government is changing the law on voter registration which will make the need to promote individual registration far more pressing. There is also the context of the London Mayoral election in May 2012 – when every vote will count. With some parts of Walthamstow having as many as 1 in 10 unregistered households, now is the time to act. Contact me to help the campaign!

The cost of poverty – Health

Angry about the Government’s NHS reforms and want to take local action? Keen to learn more about poverty and health through taking practical action?

A small group of local Labour members are planning to organise a series of local actions targeting  “the health costs of poverty”. The aim is to build a broad coalition of support to plan creatively what we can do together – from councillors (such as Cllr Clare Coghill in High Street ward), to allotment associations, to nurses, dieticians and other people who have a passion for health. This work is in its early stages – members who are keen to find out more should get in touch with me.

The cost of poverty – Education

Under pressure from Jamie Oliver’s brilliant national campaign, the last Labour Government put in place strict guidelines for food and nutrition standards in schools. Now central government funding to Local Authorities for school meals is under threat. Will Gove’s policy direction lead to the return of turkey twizzlers in our local schools?

I’ve met with both Labour members and other local residents who are keen to take local action, to campaign for a change to the Government’s approach. Many were involved in the local campaign for more school places which Stella Creasy MP ran in late 2011. That resulted in more than one-quarter of all responses to the national consultation coming from Walthamstow residents, putting significant pressure on Gove to deliver for our area.

A group of Labour members and other local residents plan to meet within the month, to discuss their ideas on school meals and decide on actions we will take together to mount a local campaign over the coming year. It’s in its early stages, so let me know if you want to take action, or be kept informed.

The Riots Panel – a community response

In October 2011, a group of Labour members, along with Cllrs Paul Douglas and Karen Bellamy, came together to discuss their views on the ‘civil disturbances’ which took place in London over the summer. They decided that, in order for Walthamstow’s voice to be heard, they would meet 1-2-1 with local residents from institutions with whom they had links already, in order to facilitate a community-submission to the Government’s official Riots Panel Inquiry (led by Baroness Sherlock).

Having met with local residents in their streets, in churches, schools and elsewhere, the group came back together to draft and submit their report. A video collated by our CLP Youth Officer, Qaseem Ahmed, was also submitted. Local member Agnes Hoctor, who had not previously taken action as a local Labour Party member, wrote an article about her involvement, which you can also read by hitting the “Walthamstow” tag on this website.

As a result, the Panel contacted Walthamstow CLP to state that before submitting its final report in March 2012, it intends to meet with us in Walthamstow, to hear further community evidence. I am awaiting confirmation of the date for that meeting. In order to ensure that the good work of Cllr Chris Robbins and Waltham Forest Council is reflected, I hope to work with their new Group organiser, Jack Kiffin, once a meeting date is confirmed.

If you’d like to be involved in helping other members and local residents to organise evidence for this meeting, please let me know.

Membership of Movement for Change

Movement for Change is a membership organisation. Members get access to exclusive training materials developed for Labour Party community campaigning, as well as the opportunity to attend advanced residential training in community organising. Our first residential weekend is 8-11 March 2011. To join Movement for Change and find out more about our wider training, please visit our website www.movementforchange.org.uk.

Your ideas?

Got an idea for community action in Walthamstow that you’re keen to explore? Movement for Change works with local Labour Party members to make community campaigning a reality. My role is to help you make it happen, working in relationship with other Labour members (and the wider community) on issues of shared interest. If you want to meet and talk it through, then please get in touch.

With best wishes for January,

Kathryn Perera

Movement for Change

07983 610 095

kathryn.perera@movementforchange.org.uk

Agnes Hoctor tells us about her recent experience of being part of a community campaign in Walthamstow CLP.

In September I attended a Movement for Change session in Walthamstow, it was my first Labour Party meeting for several years and I was a little apprehensive about how it would go and whether I would be somehow talked into leaving with 5,000 leaflets to deliver. What actually happened was a very professional training session, where a diverse group of participants, members old and new could express themselves and rediscover their own motivations for being part of the Party. The organiser Kathryn brought together a group who had many shared aspirations and ideals yet came from different backgrounds, some more political than others, all of whom cared deeply about Walthamstow and  wanted to do something to help the area improve.

The session gave us a chance to think about what community organising might look like in Walthamstow and how this would differ from the Party’s traditional structure of organisation. We understood that we could all play a key role in developing the Party’s links within the area and that our friends, neighbours and other local contacts could all benefit each other and the wider community by talking to each other more and taking joint action. The only frustration at the end of that first meeting was that there was no one clear issue to start building around. We wanted to go out into the community but there were so many local issues to talk about, where would we start?

The answer came very quickly via a meeting in Parliament for local residents who had taken part in the positive local response to the August riots which had sadly spread to Walthamstow. The Riots, Communities and Victims Panel had been set up to investigate why the August riots took place and what could be done in the future to prevent such scenes occurring again. Responding to the Inquiry was an obvious first step for our group to work on together, as it would be a way of us going out into the community to build relationships beyond the local Party.

Our group met again to decide how to go about responding. We had a short deadline to complete our task in order to influence the Panel’s interim report so we had to act quickly. We decided that each member of the group would talk with as many local people as possible. We were keen to talk to anyone with a view on the riots, there was a feeling that ordinary people had a lot to say about this event and we wanted to capture that. We also wanted to talk to people in positions of authority and those in contact with young people and faith groups. Our network of members meant that we were quickly able to reach out to local people, set up meetings and gather testimonials. One of the most positive aspects of this project was how responsive people were to being asked their views. The riots had really upset and angered people locally and they wanted their views to be represented. We also gathered video testimonials in the town square on a busy Saturday afternoon.

Then came the mammoth task of collating all the responses and drafting our response. Luckily we had a small but dedicated team who were prepared to wade through all the evidence and bring it together into a coherent document. There were many different views collected and we tried to represent the diversity we encountered. A number of themes did emerge, in particular a feeling that there was not enough support or activities for young people in Walthamstow, that this group needed positive intervention and that local investment was needed. However there was also a very positive feeling about the area, that it is a great place to live, that the people are good and that we will move on and improve as an area.

We submitted our response and recently have seen the Panel’s interim report being published. The Panel also plan to visit Walthamstow to talk to local people themselves.

The whole process was an excellent first project for us as a Movement for Change group. It made us work together, talk to people who do not normally work together with the local Party, and also come up with a concrete outcome which was satisfying. We received good local feedback from the wider local Party and council and some members of the group also had the opportunity to present our findings to David Miliband MP when he visited Walthamstow in November. The project gives us a sound base to build on and I hope that it is only the beginning of our new way of working.

Agnes Hoctor, Walthamstow CLP