Two pints of Fabiansim and a packet of crisps

It has been an interesting few months for the Fabian Society. Since Ed Miliband’s speech at New Year Conference and Maurice Glasman’s challenging contribution to the Young Fabian lunchtime session at the same event, Blue Labour has entered the Labour thinker’s lexicon for 2011, and often inaccurately set up Fabianism as its polar opposite. The debate continues over on Next Left today.

It was amusing then to see Labour’s leader use an old friend as a shield for questions about his plans for departure from bachelorhood – his stag party “won’t be two Fabian Society lectures and half a pint of beer”. Is Fabianism really the worst thing imaginable in the Westminster bubble and beyond?

If so, perhaps it is time to inject some dynamism into the society?

The second half of the year will see a new general secretary appointed to lead the organisation – and a great opportunity to show Ed Miliband why he needs an active and exciting Fabian Society. Naturally, there is plenty to build on: the leadership of the Fabians will be handed over with record levels of membership; a fantastic body of thinkers and doers in its youth wing (but as Chair of the Young Fabians I would say that wouldn’t I?); some tremendous local groups; and a history of significant interventions. Packed out events like this weekend’s Progressive Fightback conference (final few tickets here) show that the wider left wants the sort of discussion and debate that the Fabians facilitate. This is an organisation with a lot of potential for someone to take on.

So what’s the dynamism needed then?

The two things I took on board most strongly from the delegation I led to the Obama campaign in 2008 were the importance of people, and the holy grail of strategy. These principles make a good start.

The Fabian Society holds a unique position as both a think tank and membership organisation with democracy at its heart. The membership is a strength. The society can grow in size and influence by capitalising on its members talents. A small, hardworking staff with smaller than desired budgets could be supported by the people who sign up year after year and call themselves Fabians. These people are already contributing to the Fabian Women’s Network, numerous local societies, and of course the Young Fabians – but I’m sure even more members have even more to offer if empowered to contribute. Be it to greater policy debate as the critical friend of Labour, or having those difficult conversations the party steers clear of. Be it with abilities from their professional lives, as web designers, writers, industry experts, and fundraisers. Or be it liaising with local Labour parties and progressive campaigns. We should seek to grow the membership in numbers, but grow them also as individuals, developing their contribution to the movement.

The new leader of the Fabians will have new ideas. But they must bring the people on the journey with them. How? Tell them what you’re trying to achieve and facilitate their involvement in it. Get your strategy right, and stick to it. (David Plouffe’s The Audacity to Win is the key read here.) The Young Fabian executive committee has four strategic priorities (to increase membership, member involvement, funds and influence). This is public. The difficult decisions we make as a voluntary executive are taken through this gauge. And members are helping us – the Membership Ambassadors identified and supported by my colleague Anna-Joy Rickard, for example.

If the Fabian goal is to provide Ed with the ideas he needs to win a general election and improve the lives being damaged by this government’s actions, then a strategy in place to achieve that will be a crucial part of the new general secretary’s role. If the membership is contributing its maximum to this, I have every reason to think we can be successful.

If not, there’s always a night in with Ed and Justine …

• Submit your thoughts on the Future of the Fabians by clicking here.

Adrian Prandle is Chair of the Young Fabians.

Amidst uncertainty, Young Fabian success

Whilst we wait and see what arrangement emerges to govern the country, it’s worth reflecting on the impact of Young Fabians during (the first?) general election of 2010.

Over the short campaign, we led YF members to a series of campaign days – and we can see some excellent results and a 100% record:

In Walthamstow, after mid-campaign concern of a post-debate Clegg effect, Labour-Coop candidate Stella Creasy won with a swing in her favour.

Jeremy Corbyn held the safe seat of Islington North – I’ll report later on how the Young Fabian council candidates we supported that day in marginal wards got on.

Our driver for the Hope Not Hate day of action in east London, Jon Cruddas, saw off the threat of the BNP and Conservatives to be elected MP for Dagenham and Rainham.

In one of the worst results of the night for David Cameron’s Conservatives and Michael Ashcroft’s wallet, Karen Buck held on to her Westminster North seat from a much-flouted Cameroon despite difficult boundary changes.

Rushanara Ali took back Bethnal Green and Bow for Labour with a 5 figure majority that helped push Respect into third place.

And our final campaign day – in Harrow West – saw another Conservative disappointment and the return of Gareth Thomas.

Congratulations to all the candidates, and to all the Young Fabians who joined our campaign days over the last month or so for an immense amount of hard work and enthusiasm – it made a difference. Other good news comes from Airdrie and Shotts where Young Fabian executive committee member, Pamela Nash was elected, winning more votes than John Reid had in that seat in 2005 – well done Pamela! As the first ever current Young Fabian executive member to sit in parliament, we are sure Pamela will bring something special to her role of Parliamentary Officer. Elsewhere on our executive committee, in one of the last results to be announced, James Green put in a good showing in the Lib Dem-Tory marginal of Cheltenham – the seat saw a considerable swing to the Lib Dems, suggesting many of James’ supporters opted to vote tactically. And Rebecca Rennison, standing in South West Wiltshire did well to keep the Labour to Tory swing below the national average in this Conservative stronghold.

It’s particularly pleasing for me personally to see members of the Young Fabian delegation to Obama’s presidential campaign, which I organised, go from strength to strength. Both Pamela and James were there as were others who have stood for election and re-election to local government. No doubt they put to use some of the ideas and inspiration from Ohio in their own campaigns. I’m sure we’ll hear more from many of these people soon.

Congratulations again and thanks to all. It is beginning to look as though we will know quicker than I had expected how the new government will be formed. Let’s hope that the values we hold firm as Fabians are central to whatever programme emerges, and are carried forward by a Labour-led government.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that ahead of each of the telephone debates we undertook telephone canvassing. For the first two debates this was to Tooting, and for the final event, Hammersmith. More success! Sadiq Khan and Andy Slaughter held off high profile Tory challengers.

UPDATE 2: News from Islington as promised. Congratulations to former Young Fabian chairs, Kate Groucutt (who finished top of the ballot in Mildmay ward where Joe Calouri was also elected for Labour) and Jessica Asato (who was elected as a councillor for St George’s ward) and commiserations to another former chair, Conor McGinn and friend of the Young Fabians, Alex Smith of LabourList, and his fellow candidate Gary Heather, who missed out in the two wards we visited last month. It was a good might in Islington though with Labour regaining control of the council with just shy of three quarters of the seats. And congratulations also to Mark Rusling, another former Young Fabian chair, who was elected to Waltham Forest council – it was Mark’s ward we campaigned in when we visited Walthamstow right at the start of the short campaign.

This is where you should campaign tonight and tomorrow

Good luck for the final 28 hours for those of you hitting the campaign trail for Labour, especially those who are candidates themselves.

We’ve listed the seats that need your help on the Young Fabian website. There are key seats nationwide. If none of those listed are within easy travelling distance then you can enter your phone number on the Labour Party website, and someone will give you a call to help you out.

Offering even a short amount of your time will be appreciated by the local campaign teams, whether it is your first time or you have been campaigning for all of the last few weeks.

Do let us know how you get on …

Hope, Heat, and challenging Hate with 3000 leaflets – next up fighting Tory Cash

The biggest Young Fabian turnout yet last Saturday for our weekend campaign days – this time as we headed out to Transport House, Dagenham and the home of the Hope Not Hate campaign.

Turnout for the day was so high that the Valence ward pre-assigned to the Young Fabians had been delivered to already by the time we arrived

This was far and away the single most impressive campaign day I’ve seen in the UK – and ultimately the most reminiscent of the various campaigns I’ve taken part in in the US. It wasn’t so much about sophistication as style, scale and very good organisation.

The scale spoke for itself – over 540 volunteers and over 90,000 HNH newspapers delivered across the whole of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and into neighbouring Havering. And Young Fabian members more than played their part, forming part of the small group that stayed out in the unseasonal heat into the afternoon, and delivering almost 3,000 copies of the literature to households facing the hate-fuelled and hate-fuelling onslaught of the BNP.

Local Labour MP, and former candidate for deputy leader of the party, Jon Cruddas was driver for the day for part of the Young Fabian campaign team

Style-wise, this day of action was about solidarity, about feeling part of something big, and about being inspired. Inspired by the cause, but inspired by the hundreds of other people who’d given up their Saturday for it. Instantly upon arrival we felt part of something big and important and were driven to get out and contribute to the mammoth efforts of the day. It was exciting in the extreme and reminded me very much of the feelings of many of the Young Fabian members who took part in the delegation I led to Obama’s campaign in Ohio in 2008. But also, the style was one of supporting volunteers, making them feel welcome, helping them to do what they came to do, and thanking them for their efforts. I’ve written much about the importance of people-focused campaign organisation and the little things on Saturday – the one page of briefing and tips handed to volunteers – and the big things – providing lunchtime curry for 500 to accompany a set by activist musician Billy Bragg – really did make a difference to the experience, and therefore the collective achievements of the day.

Next up we’re hitting Westminster North to help Karen Buck in her central London fight against well-connected Tory Joanne Cash and her temperamental local Conservative Association. Hope you feel inspired to join us whether you’ve been out already or not.

Do you remember the first time? Why it’s important to visit, return and know your constituency.

Labour is making this election a “word of mouth” election. Here Claire Spencer /@thedancingflea, Chair of Birmingham’s Fabian Society, tackles the idea that political campaigns start and end with “who are you going to vote for?”

I am an active member of a number of local volunteer groups, and as such, I am always a little bothered when I hear the phrase “we only ever see you at election time.” It suggests that, to that individual and their household, politics is a grasping, intrusive element that only makes itself felt when it wants something – not, as it is (or should be), the thriving relationship between citizen and public servant, the thread that runs through all our lives. Is it really the case that we are only concerned with the wellbeing of this individual when it is time for them to vote?

Of course, when it comes to voter ID (or, as we call it, #labourdoorstep), there is a certain detached practicality to the whole process, necessarily so, but it can (and must) have other value. And in my experience, in good campaigns with dedicated activists, it often does – the listening, the bit where we ask “are there any issues you would like to raise?” can often reveal seams of concern and discontent, issues that need to be resolved, by us. I’ve been on the doorstep with Kerry McCarthy’s team in Bristol East on two occasions, and both times, I was really glad to see how dedicated her team were to following up these issues – recorded, and initial actions (even if it’s just a letter or a second visit) laid out then and there. In Gisela Stuart’s campaign in Birmingham Edgbaston, they have been doing likewise – several people I know in the constituency have remarked on the fact that, if you raise issues with Gisela, you always get a response, a dialogue, solutions.

They recognise, as I like to think I do, that it’s all about that relationship – if it the person on the doorstep feels let down by their public servant and their neighbourhood, then the onus is on you to change that. It’s also about consistency – if someone raises an issue on the doorstep, note it, make sure it gets to the right people, and keep them in the loop. You don’t have to have all the answers – indeed, you may have to come back and give them an answer that they don’t much like. What is important is that you come back, and keep coming back. Hopefully there are numerous examples of this in your constituencies that you have been carried out and/or been inspired by.

However, the manner of your response is as important as the fact you are doing it, and for that, you need to get to know your constituency, its people, and their commonalities and tensions. In the my constituency, the new Birmingham Hall Green,  a number of wards, with very different personalities, cultures and levels of civic-mindedness have been thrown together. Look at the graph below, (produced by Chamberlain Forum, the think tank I am working with), which plots the position of all Birmingham’s Priority Neighbourhoods, the most deprived neighbourhoods in the city. Note NI4, which represents the percentage of people that feel they can influence local decisions. Balsall Heath and Sparkbrook are both part of my constituency, but as you can see, their residents feel very differently about how much influence they have over their neighbourhoods. Add to these the much wealthier areas of Hall Green, Moseley and Kings Heath, all of which score quite highly on both NI4 and NI5, and you get an impression of the diversity of wealth, perception of influence, and general satisfaction with where they live.

I’ve seen this potential for tension in microcosm in one road in the constituency, where a mosque has been established in a terraced, residential street. Its use has expanded greatly in recent years, the street flooded with cars at times of worship and learning, and this is where tension has arisen between the people who use the space for living, and those who use it for worship. Long since abandoned by the local councillors, the relationship has been left to fester, with all parties feeling as though their road is a worse place to be. When we spoke to residents about this on the doorstep, myself and the Labour council candidate decided to act, but in a particular way. This couldn’t be an “us” and “them”, both groups use and value the space, and the solution must be collaborative, not combative. So we’re going to organise a small meeting, with both sides able to express their perceptions, and us present as mediators, to facilitate the flow of practical, inexpensive and mutually agreeable solutions.

I really think we can succeed, and I hope that we do – but even if we fail, we’re not going to slink off, never to be seen again. We’re going back to explain why we failed, to try again, and to maintain the relationship between us (as activists and public servants) and the people we hope to represent.

If you’ve got a campaign story you want to share let us know! Contact Vincenzo Rampulla at vramapulla@youngfabians.org.uk

Not all campaigns are created equally

Continuing our look into the experiences of Young Fabian campaigners on the ground during this election, Manchester-based Sam Bacon looks at what makes a campaign popular and keeps volunteers coming back for more…

Now that we’re all firmly in campaign mode, like other activists across the country over the next few weeks I’ll be trying to determine where to spend my precious hours pounding the pavements.  Whilst the candidates will be equally worthy to campaign for, the experience of campaigning for each will vary massively.  I’d like to share two contrasting approaches that I’ve seen in the over the past few weeks during the pre-election campaign, and hopefully point towards the more successful of the two.

Campaign A.  On an especially cold and windy Saturday, I met a group of other activists from across the region.  We stood outside in the biting wind whilst the organizer grabbed leaflets, clipboards and contact sheets.  No one was asked what experience (if any) they had, and no one was introduced to anyone else, or made aware of who was coordinating/organizing the campaign.  We never had opportunity to speak to the candidate, and certainly received no thanks from them or anyone else.

Contact sheets and clipboards were given to ‘old hands’ already known to the organizer, and they immediately marched off in a seemingly random direction.  The rest of us new activists (literally) ran behind them trying to keep up. We didn’t know where we were going, for how long, what the local issues were or even what exactly we were supposed to be doing.

Unsurprisingly, I have rarely seen a more dispirited group of volunteers.  Gradually over the next two hours more and more people slipped away, cold and dejected and likely never to return.  No one on the campaign ever asked for volunteer names let alone their contact details, and to date, no one ever expressed any thanks or provided follow up as to what difference our contribution made that day.

Campaign B. Volunteers were told to meet at a central venue, where in the confines of a warm, comfortable room, we were fully briefed on what we would be doing, where, for how long and how it impacted on the wider campaign, and thus why it was important. The candidate mingled with the gathered group, and all sorts of food, drinks and snacks were offered.  Finally, a sign-in sheet was passed around asking for our name, phone number and email address.

Before setting off we were divided into teams with a clear leader, and given the opportunity to ask questions.  When we did hit the streets, people were fired up and enthused and they were clear in their role and how to perform it.  No one left before the end of the session.

All volunteers were invited to meet again after finishing to share their experiences and yet more refreshments.  Problems or questions were raised immediately, helping debrief everyone and refine the process for next time.  This social interaction along with subsequent thank you emails helped turn a group of individual volunteers into a genuine campaign team.

Simply put: Campaign B does not struggle to find volunteers each week…

Young Fabian Campaign Day with Mark Rusling and Stella Creasy in Walthamstow

A hardy group of Young Fabian campaigners headed up to Walthamstow this weekend to canvass for Labour local government candidate Mark Rusling and Parliamentary candidate Stella Creasy in Walthamstow and Hoe Street ward.

Mark is a former Young Fabian chair and wrote a great pamphlet on beating the BNP which still acts as a useful campaigning guide for activists today. Thankfully, we didn’t encounter any BNP activity in Walthamstow, but we did see reams and reams of glossy colour-filled Lib Dem campaign literature.

The local Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Farid Ahemd has clearly spent thousands of pounds on printing this literature. But we didn’t see a single Lib Dem canvasser, poster, or supporter.

Speaking to people about their concerns and aspirations for their community is Labour’s way of engaging our supporters, from a day in Walthamstow it seems like the Lib Dem tactic is to bombard voters without really understanding them. One undecided voter I spoke to was so pleased that Labour activists had come round to her house to speak with her that she asked for a membership form on the spot.

The great thing about the day was that all the Young Fabian members who came along had never taken part in canvassing before. So we are brining some new activists into the Labour Party family. Which is a great feeling.

More details about the next Young Fabian campaign day are here: http://www.youngfabians.org.uk/content/blogcategory/21/46/

There’s no substitute for policy thinking and campaigning

As we move closer to election day and the polls begin to tighten one thing is increasingly clear. There is no substitute for good policy thinking. You can spend money on billboards, pollsters, glossy leaflets and even gimmicks, but if you haven’t done the graft and got the ideas and arguments together, you run the risk of the press tearing you apart quicker than voters put the leaflets in the shred pile.

As Labour begins to put the detail on top of the core narrative of securing the recovery, protecting frontline services and building the new industries of the future, we are already starting to see a Tory party run fast out of ideas as well as direction.

For Young Fabians, sometimes unfairly derided as being a little shy to campaign on the ground, this is a time to step in and do some scrutiny of the Tory parties policy and detail. That’s why we’re re launching, Young Fabian Policy News and have included a brand new feature ‘Opposition Policy Watch’ to look at some of the thinking coming from the Tory right and put it to the test.

If you’d like to contribute to future editions of Young Fabian Policy News please get in touch and if you’d like to receive further information from the Young Fabians, you only need to join.

The press are right to say that this election will be a big choice, a big battle of competing ideas and visions. I think Labour has done the thinking and the graft in policy terms, I don’t think that the Tories have and it’s up to all of us to expose that.

But whilst it is true to say that Labour is winning the battle of ideas, we must also win the argument on the doorstep. There is no substitute for hard graft and thinking in the policy sphere, but there is also no substitute for knocking on doors and speaking to voters to communicate those ideas and I know that Young Fabians across the country will be helping Labour campaign on the ground as well as win the battle of ideas.

GUEST POST – Yes we care

Tulip Siddiq and Sam Bacon were 2 of the 80-strong Young Fabian-Labour Staff Network delegation that headed to Ohio in late 2008 for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. In a post originally published on Labour List they argue that young people are interested in a different type of politics, and present the implications for party organisation.

“Oh, they don’t care” – a common claim made about young people. Apparently we’re all apathetic and disengaged from politics. Not true. A lot of us do care. The disconnect is not of young people from issues or from politics – if we take politics in the true sense of the word. The lack of engagement comes from apathy about party politics.

The march against student fees had a record number of young people. Recognising the importance of this to their lives, young people took direct action to make their voices heard. But our political interest stretches beyond self interest. An overwhelming number of young people marched against the Iraq War and in the recent climate change ‘wave’ march. The Million Women Rise march, a woman’s only event, had five thousand women last year – significantly bigger than anything of its kind for decades – and a high proportion of participants were young. Oxfam, Amnesty International and campaigns such as Make Poverty History have young people as their key members.

And it doesn’t stop at marching. Politics plays a part in how young people live their lives. Young people are the predominant customer base of ethical free trade shops. It’s actually quite ‘cool’ to shop and live ethically, to eat fair-trade chocolate, buy make-up that hasn’t been tested on animals, to recycle, to attend concerts that raise awareness about issues…you get the idea.

We know of a young Muslim women’s group in Camden. They meet up weekly to discuss issues such as the growing threat of terrorism, free school meals, misinterpretation of Islam in the media and the bureaucracy associated with claiming housing benefits.

These young women would never attend the Young Labour events that take place in Parliament, or party political events anywhere in the country.. And why? Frankly speaking, Party politics is often viewed as a closed shop. It’s for the elite, by the elite. Often it’s seen as a club just for white, well connected London-based men. The lack of women and BAME MPs doesn’t help to counter this view. The national tone of PMQs (a rugby match anyone?) doesn’t encourage participation from all areas of society either.

Young people don’t see how voting or supporting a political party has any real connection to the issues they care about. And, frankly, we’re awful at explaining it to them. They don’t recognise that the actions they take are, in fact, political actions (to live ethically, engage in direct action, etc) and when repeating the mantra that “young people are all apathetic” we too fail to recognise this.

If we want them to engage in Party politics, we fundamentally need to change the way we ‘do’, ‘sell’ and ‘support’ politics. We need to show how politics affects individual lives. Party politics needs to be shown as a coalition of action, as working towards achieving specific outcomes and harbouring certain values. It can’t just be about ‘the Labour Party’ because a lot of young people don’t care about party loyalty. Unconditional party support is a relic of the past. We need to work harder to show people why we matter, what we can do for them, and what we will allow them to do for us.

Let’s face it – we live in an increasingly individualistic age. We need to clarify that being part of a party doesn’t mean you agree with every single policy. Being part of a flock that blindly follows the leader just doesn’t appeal to young people.

We both volunteered on the Obama campaign. And let us tell you – we need to change the culture of appreciation in British politics. We were inundated with food, drink and gushing praise the entire time. In the UK, it’s not unheard of going to campaign for a Labour MP for hours (in the bitter wind) and not even receiving a small thank you. We have to realise; the days of people doing menial tasks for little personal reward or thanks are over.

There are a lot of opportunities for young people to volunteer, and ‘make a difference’ with organisations will give them real responsibility. 3 hours of putting leaflets through letterboxes just doesn’t compare to being responsible for a shop floor at Oxfam. Time is a precious commodity, and experience is all important, so let’s think carefully about what we offer young people in return for their help.

There’s a lot of work to be done. And with declining party memberships (from all parties), it’s necessary too. But let’s start this work from the powerful realisation: yes, young people care.

Labour’s National Volunteering Taskforce – a West Midlands case study

50,000 marchers braved the rain to demand action on Climate Change as part of the Wave. But, surprising as it may seem, more exciting stuff was happening miles away in a Scout Hut in Halesowen and Rowley Regis.

That wet Saturday afternoon I travelled to the West Midlands to spend the afternoon with local Labour MP, a Government Minister, two members of the Youth Parliament and 30 local residents all eager to discuss what real difference to Climate Change they could affect locally here and now.

Best way to explain it is to watch what Mandy and Caroline, two residents who took part, and hear what they had to say about the event. This was intended to be different from the usual MP discussions that take place in constituencies across the country. The MP in this case, Sylvia Heal, said actually very little. The main point was to get local people talking about what they wanted to tackle Climate Change, what was holding them back and how the politicians in the room could help them. The difficulty is that local people are not used to being engaged with, they are used to “hearing what the Government are going to do” and being talked at. But they tend to forget that they can have an impact all of their own.

Unprompted, people were full of ideas about what they wanted to see happen in their area. Better local recycling services, more incentives for energy efficiency and microgeneration, and local businesses being more responsible about the energy they waste – these were all issues that people wanted to see action on. How we get people to take action is another challenge. In the same way that Labour’s Smarter Government initiative focuses a great deal on giving people greater control of public services, a similar focus is need to showing people how they can campaign and take action on the local issues that they care most about

One of the volunteers, Claire Spencer, has written about the event and building active communities on Labourlist. She’s right that it is just the beginning. The success will lie in getting people to take action.

Helping local MPs and candidates find new ways to engage with communities was exactly what Labour’s National Volunteers Taskforce was set up to do. Much of this has been influenced by the experience we, as Young Fabians, had when we went to Ohio last year to campaign for Obama (you can read our thoughts about the campaign here). If anything that trip showed us how powerful reaching out to communities could be, but also how difficult it is.

So was the second local discussion event in three months that we’ve helped Sylvia Heal organise. Both have been successful but now the focus will now be on building on the enthusiasm shown on that wet and windy Saturday by getting people to act in small but definite ways.

If you want to know more about the Taskforce, how you can get involved or if you are a Labour politician and want to know how the Taskforce can help you reach out to your community – then get in touch at vrampulla@youngfabians.org.uk.