By Adrian Prandle
Stronger together. Big tent. Opportunity for all.
Three phrases we’ve all heard within the broad spectrum of the lLabour movement. If we are to take one thing from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, particularly noting where we stand politically right now, it is absolutely imperative that we start living and breathing such mantras in all we do as thinkers and campaigners on the Left.
Unlike much of the Young Fabians’ excellent work over the years, the three publications we are presenting on our website today are not about policy. They are about people, relationships, our values, and the way we on the Left organise and campaign. What the 80 members of the Young Fabian and Labour Staff Network delegation to Ohio last October/November saw was not a campaign impossible to emulate, nor one which formed on a radically different basis to any other successful campaign. But they did take part in an organisation that succeeded in spreading its best practice nationwide, which was coherent, attractive and approachable. It was a campaign that recognised the value of individuals and the strength of their collective endeavours. And it gave them a reason to take part in what Gordon Brown has called "people-powered politics".
Respect meant taking seriously the experiences, knowledge, skills and resources that were brought to the table by anyone and everyone. "Include" meant incorporating that offer when making decisions. And "Empower" meant the establishment of a structure that didn’t just assign tasks but allowed well-trained and supported volunteers to take real ownership.
In the neighbourhood in Columbus I campaigned in, the canvassing teams were run by volunteer Cecil Webster, a retired colonel from Texas. His military experience was recognised and utilised. And it made him perfect for this role: his skills of motivation kept canvassers plugging away to cover the patch; his sense of discipline ensured the tidiest campaign office you’ll ever see with everything in its place and no panic searches for GOTV sheets as volunteers line up waiting; his sense of humour helped people through the tougher times when they’d had a bad knock or were beginning to tire; and his self-styled ‘after action reports’ which allowed time and space for a proper group debrief, allowing volunteers to learn – semi-formally – from each other.
Internally and externally the campaign understood people and sought to build strong relationships. Relationships that it could then request something of. Alongside the mantra of Respect, Empower, Include, the campaign was frank in its assessment that ‘we build relationships because they are the only way to win’ and it didn’t seek to limit these relationships to its stalwarts. Everyone was not just welcome, but actively pursued to join the fold and trained in what they were doing.
Some Labour supporters will have been active in one seat all their lives; others will have campaigned in different areas of the country. Falling into the latter camp, I know there is some excellent campaigning going on in the Labour Party. But I also know, sadly, that (and not always without reason) the spread of our best campaigning ideas and methods is patchy.
The launch of three publications today will hopefully go some way to addressing this. They chronicle the experience of over 100 Young Fabian and Labour Staff Network members and others who took part in Obama’s campaign and offer ideas for Labour and union campaigns in the UK.
From Ohio to Oxford East presents the collective thoughts of the delegation and subsequent workshops and roundtables to offer practical suggestions for your campaigns.
Lessons from the Obama campaign is a collection of individual articles written by grassroots participants from the UK.
Lessons from the US union campaign for Obama brings together the methods of union campaigning in the US and presents a case for the Labour Party and trade unions to reassess the ways they work together in UK elections. No one is pretending that replication of Obama’s campaign is the golden egg we’ve been reaching out for. But these papers present some ideas that can make a difference.
What is exciting about the present is that it is the left in America who offer the ideas about organising campaigns for Labour to seize. The approach the Obama campaign took fits much better with the values of our movement than it does with our opponents.
We must consider how we interact with voters and each other, alter our attitude to trust, invest in people’s talents and develop them as individuals within our movement. In providing opportunity for all, within our big tent, we can be stronger together. As a party and as a nation.
Please click here for more information on the delegation and to download the publications. Let us know what you think - please comment below.
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To tackle a couple of the points made, I think I should be clear that this post and the publications are not a prescription for government and that whilst some degree of regional/national party support in implementation may be useful, broadly speaking, this is aimed at local parties and volunteers. Volunteers who don't think in soundbites but are just passionate for the cause and doing what they believe. I am not putting a case for the government's empowerment of the general public (though I think it can be made) but suggesting there are ways to empower Labour supporters for mutual benefit.
St Emillion - forgive the lack of clarity in my post. The definitions I gave paraphrased those of the campaign. Their success was not in the language or the mantra/slogan aspect but in actually fulfilling what they intended to and maximising the potential of the campaign's support. My opinion is that wherever one may be in the polls, maximising activity and its effect is essential. I’ll be interested what you make of the publications if you’ve had chance to read them. There is some reference to language but on the whole, it is internal language and courtesy that is praised rather than how a party/politician/government talks in public, and also the simplistic use of conversational language at a grassroots level.
Yes, we've only had 12 years of meaningless platitudes being proffered as a substitute for government, let's take the lesson that the Americans are about to learn from appointing a charming but unprincipled climber of the slippery pole (just like, um, Tony Blair was) and ignore it, because 12 years of vacuous soundbite politics was definitely not enough. Bring on the mantras!
Human rights act,
Political correctness
Stupid minor health and safety laws.
Cctv everywhere.
Nanny state knows best.
A sterile parliament,
I could go on but where will that lead me no where ,just as this present administration has donr to this once great country.
It is that a popular charismatic new face who offers genuine change will win.
Sorry, but New Labour led by stale Brown is in cloud cuckoo land to get any hope whatsoever from Obama.
Compare an Obama address to the nation with Brown's recent youtube broadcast. The smile isn't quite as convincing to say the least.
Principles of excellence are universal. Nobody owns them. You didn't invent them.
Just *be* excellent, sweetie.
Respect, empower, include; you gave us your definitions of these words but simple, understandable and "inclusive" words or phrases should need no such definition. The electorate understand what words mean. I would also argue that whilst you believe in your definitions, the effect of using such words on the intended audience will be disinterest, irritation and anger.
Talk to people. Use words that don't require definition, do not rely on phrases simply because you believe them to be punchy or, worse catchy.
To ensure fairness to you I will go off and read your publications but I will be surprised if anywhere within these pamphlets is advice to stop hiding behind the language you use and instead use it to find out what needs to be done.
We should not be carried away by Obama. That was then, this is now.
We need the appropriate people in place at the top to present and defend policy that is going to attract voters. Quite clearly, as we have seen over the past couple of months, Gordon Brown is not the man for the job.
Really? I can't imagine anything more different, looking at the Obama campaign has no relevance to Labour. What's a young, charismatic visionary got to do with Mr Bean Counter?
The author is not trying to say that Gordon Brown is the spitting image of Barack Obama. Rather that the positive approach to people and their nature that the Obama campaign took is a much better fit with Labour Party values than it is with the Conservative ideology which states that man is inherently bad.
Britain is very different politically from the USA, we all know that. However if something is successfull, as the Obama campaign was, it would be foolish to not at least try and learn something from it.
I do not see this labour movement as being one that engenders a positive approach to people and their nature...
I see the politics of envy and a continuous dumbing down rather than a raising up... I see the almost forced
entrenchment of policies which appear designed to disengage the voting public...
Conservate ideology does not state that man is inherently bad - what a ridiculous thing to say... Conservatism is about self empowerment
not state empowerment...
I am a floating voter but have always been more attracted to conservatism. Principally because I believe that the answers to my
problems lie in my personal effort - empowered by me.
Just as you feel it is ridiculous to say that conservative ideology assumes people are inherently bad, so I feel it is silly to ignore the concern for social justice that runs through the labour movement. Was the cancellation of debt owed by poor countries motivated by envy? The creation of the National Health Service? Paternity leave for fathers? Universal pensions? The Open University? Banning sexual and racial discrimination? These are things that have changed the lives of millions of people, and most if not all were opposed or ridiculed by the Conservatives at the time of their inauguration.
I would concede that the current Goverment has rather lost sight of this tradition.
- Edmund Burke (1790), one of the founders of British Conservative tradition. Get your facts right Alan M.
"Without condemning or disliking man, a conservative believes that man is predominantly selfish and
cannot be trusted always to do good"
That doesnt make someone bad - that makes them human.
That EVERYONE suffers from... One aspect is to protect yourself from others - the other is take from others because they have and you don't.
Was it morally acceptable to force a pension tax raid on people who had prudently saved - no it wasn't
I believe that the politics of the Labour Movement are less about social justice than they are about equality - they are not the same thing
The concept only works when looked at from the perspective of society. If one does not fit in with the primary need of society then that person is seen as selfish.
i.e he/she is putting his/her needs above that of society.
it is a contro1 mechanism. and long may that continue.
I shall make some predictions for you, let's take one thing - Obama's telephone campaign as done by Labour:
Its April 2010 and Labour buy some wonky and hugely over-priced IT from a relative of someone in the Cabinet, it turns out that it was paid for with public money, there is a slow climbdown and not-really-bothered apology, someone junior no-one has ever heard of promises to 'repay every penny', lines are drawn under things and its time to move on.
The new software doesn't work, little old ladies up and down the country are scared out of their wits by silent phone calls, a national newspaper investigates and its Labopur's wonky software. Its not really worth apologising this time, haven't those old ladies seen the crime stats, there's no crime anymore.
MkIII, after a new launch, each telephone call begins with a message from our dear leader, you can hear him gurning and straining to sound sincere and at least half human, telephones are thrown across living rooms up and down the country.
MkIV, Gordon is replaced by a disinterested party, he/she reads from his/her script:
Party Worker: Do you remeber how bad things were under the Tories?
Voter: What are Labour's policies?
PW: Do you remeber how bad things were under the Tories? That Mrs Thatcher was awful.
V: What are Labour's policies?
PW: Do you remeber how bad things were under the Tories? That Mrs Thatcher was awful. It rained every day in the 80s.
V: (CLICK)
People who are signed up to the TPS are annoyed they are being contacted. No-one at Labour HQ knows what the TPS is or what it does. Promises are made to 'move on', 'lines drawn' etc etc etc.
No-one at HQ understands the DPA either and the telephone number, address and voting habits of everyone in the country are left on a train, then a bus and then emailed to everyone on the planet by the wonky software, 'no harm has been done' and it's more proof if it were needed that ID Cards are a marvellous idea.
When telephone bills arrive it turns out that Labour HQ have made 1.4 Billion phone-calls on a reverse charge premium rate line and it all ended up in Jacqui Smith's bank account. She has 'done nothing wrong' and 'not broken any rules'.
There will be many 'lessons learned', 'lines drawn under' and 'moving on' done at various stages of this fiasco.
Go on, tell me I'm wrong!
And if proof were needed of life imitating art, Blunkett was on Today this morning saying....."we need to draw a line under this"! One wonders what lessons will be learnt?