Labour Together Submission Labour Party Community Organising Unit
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Labour Together Submission Labour Party Community Organising Unit Topline Since January 2019, the Community Organising Unit has: 1. Trained 11,500 activists, members and non members in leadership and community organising before the election. Helping identify and develop leaders to build Labour power in communities. 2. 17,500 people engaged in ‘round table’ listening campaigns with communities leading to social justice campaigns including: taking on bad landlords, to reclaiming community centres, to keeping open NHS surgeries to saving recycling centres. 3. During the General Election we trained over 7500 party members and supporters in persuasive canvassing providing members with the confidence and skills to listen and talk to the electorate. The Community Organising Unit launched in June 2018 with an first cohort of 6 community organisers. This grew to 20, with 9 digital community organisers in place by 2019 - taking the team to 29 in total. During the general election, 17 community organisers and 4 digital community organisers worked across the UK (with 5 members of staff seconded to the Member Mobilisation team). Over 100 CLPs have had training to some level in community organising or persuasive canvassing since the unit was set up. Background For the Labour Party to win the next election and beyond, it has to rebuild in its heartlands: win back Scotland, swing coastal towns and hold firm in the cities - building an alliance from London to Leigh and Lanarkshre. This presents a big challenge - to achieve it community organising must be at the centre of Labour’s rebuilding strategy. The phenomenal growth in Labour party membership was recognised to be disproportionately city based and simply mobilising members was not a solution, or even an option in areas where membership and vote share had been hemorrhaging for decades, particularly across the Midlands, the North and Scotland. Knocking on doors and asking people to vote Labour one more time was simply not an option. A longer term solution was needed. Equally, with a growth in membership in metropolitan cities like London it was recognised that it was critical to invest in the membership and equip people with the skills to organise and campaign giving the Labour Party deeper roots in communities. 1 It is within this context that Community Organising Unit (COU) was set up with the ambition to rebuild the presence of the Labour Party in areas that were suffering the worst effects of austerity, low wage employment, child poverty and inequality. Over the last 12 months from Yorkshire, to the East Midlands, London and South Wales a small team of Community Organisers spent time rooted in communities, building relationships with party members, connecting the party to organisations fighting austerity and the effects of austerity, whether trade unions, food banks or faith institutions or small business owners. This was not about mobilising the converted but building relationships and often trying to weave networks of people together. People that had spent years feeling disconnected from politics and the Labour Party. Community Organisers didn’t just ask people are you voting labour they sought to build a sense of collective leadership and power in communities necessary to fight the impact of Tory Cuts and that was decades in the making. During this period the Community Organisers, also fully participated in two local election campaigns, a European Election and a General Election running campaigns and mobilising thousands of members. What are the COU’s aims? ● Build the power of the Labour Party by re-imagining and rebuilding Labour’s relationships with communities - leading to a deep, two-way relationship. ● Be relentless in the search for talent and the development of grassroots leaders - increasing the participation of people from working class and black and minority ethnic backgrounds to organise with the Labour Party. ● Provide training that equips members and non members (supporters) with the skills to build power, win campaigns and transform communities. ● Build powerful alliances between the Labour Party and Civil Society. ● Support communities to identify and build campaigns, with the Labour Party that make a tangible difference to people’s lives. ● Bring the party together to fight for the things that really matter. ● Make winning a habit. 2 Theory of Change. Communities hit by decades of austerity, low wage employment, child poverty and inequality have also been hit by a sense of powerlessness. It is why ‘take back control’ resonated in many former industrial areas. Community Organising is about transferring power from the elite to ordinary people. It is about recognising that decent housing conditions and Living Wages are achieved by getting Labour into government but people impacted by these issues have a critical role to play in fighting to win on these issues right now. Like the Miners of Tredegar organising together for universal healthcare or the Mums taking on dodgy landlords because their children are struggling to breathe because of toxic mould in their housing block or the fast food worker galvanising co-workers to fight for a £10 an hour - The Labour Party’s power comes from people. Community Organising aims to address that sense of powerlessness directly by identifying and developing the leadership skills of ordinary people to build power together to win the change they need in their lives. In Hendon from the Labour Party members organising with local residents to build the power to take on a Tory Council to address inhumane housing conditions to residents in Carmarthenshire organising together to overturn the closure of a recycling centre. Community organising is about building power, power that will - given time and resources - turn winning campaigns into winning elections. Community Organising to Election Mobilising Community Organising and Election Mobilising are traditionally viewed as mutually exclusive approaches. Electoral campaigns tend to focus on creating a temporary voter turnout machine that disappears when the election is over. These campaigns, by and large, aim to win without investing in building ordinary people’s capacity to make change. For community organisers, the focus during elections becomes mobilising the people we’ve trained and built relationships with prior to elections and to enable members to own election strategy. Ahead of the short campaign for any elections, community organisers switch to getting constituencies they work in election-ready. Organisers kickstart election campaigns with General Election Emergency Meetings (Barnstorms), to share the strategy and recruit members to take up volunteer roles for the duration of the election. During the General Election, Community Organisers ran Persuasive Conversations Training to equip members with the confidence and tools to persuade residents to vote Labour in the first two weeks of the campaign. Persuasive Conversations Training was the means by which we wanted to achieve mobilising large numbers of activists. These sessions are 3 designed to act as a ‘hook’ to non-active members through which they are motivated and energised into canvassing (barnstorm/motivation). Activists were introduced to canvassing and why we do it (direction), and then given the skills to do it well. The training took place predominantly in the first two weeks and was advertised to new activists. As a team we trained over 7500 in persuasive canvassing. This also means our canvassers are skilled and changes the depth of conversations activists can have on the doorstep - a very useful addition to Voter ID and contributed to the only Labour gain of the election, Putney. Organising and mobilising are critically different. Organising is about building depth. However, within the context of the Labour Party, through the identification and training of hundreds of leaders we were able to build big teams ready for an election, when it was called. This type of change is not going to happen overnight in a political party and it takes time and support to embed new methods of organising into our structures. Our Community Organisers had limited time - just 18 months yet in this time so much has been achieved. Before Elections: In a period in which people feel a deep cynicism about politicians, Community Organising has the potential to change the relationship between people and politics. By developing grassroots leaders, building relationships with civil society, building capacity within our own membership and winning social justice campaigns across the country. The Community Organising Unit has sought to prove that the Labour Party is not simply a political party that knocks on doors at election time but one that can reinvigorate democracy and people’s belief in the power of change from the bottom up. It has sought to build Labour as a vehicle for social justice and social change all year around. By building a strong presence in key constituencies and reimagining the relationship between the party and citizens - it would give the party a better chance of electoral success and enabling the Labour Party to mobilise a larger base of support in any given area. ● Community Organisers have held 7400 1-2-1s prior to the general election (From January 2019). 1-2-1’s are opportunities to find people with the energy, fire, and leadership skills. They are critical for identifying potential leaders; building relationships with civil society, local trade union branches, BAME and faith institutions and organisations fighting austerity. From 1-2-1s trust and relationships are built,issues are identified, people are trained, leaders are uncovered. Each organiser aims to have 15 1-2-1s per week. 4 ● Training and developing grassroots leaders - 19,000 people trained in community organising ready to train others, be skilled confident canvassers, lead community campaigns, become councillors or even future candidates. ● Identifying issues with communities and building winnable campaigns at a local and national level, see examples below & case studies in appendix Examples, to name but a few! - Housing: Housing is one of the most significant issues impacting on people’s lives.