Rushcliffe CLP- Community Networking Strategy

Consultation Paper

Note: this is not intended to be the only community action strategy, but a way to help facilitate logistics when it comes to action.

Background

During the 2019 election, Rushcliffe CLP members worked tirelessly towards the goal of electing a Labour representative. We were by far the most active party in Rushcliffe and were able to mobilise large amounts of members to spread the good word of the Labour Manifesto. Unfortunately despite our best efforts we did not win the election and it appeared that national issues, (trust in the leadership, brexit, etc) overshadowed the message we wanted to spread locally, whether those national issues were accurate or not. With that said, the strength of our local activism and our brilliant candidate Cheryl Pidgeon does appear to have prevented heavy Labour losses in Rushcliffe. While the Lib Dems gained, they did not gain enough to market themselves as a credible challenger in the next election. Rushcliffe Labour votes did not dramatically drop away and stayed around 20,000 in total.

Yet following the electoral defeat in Rushcliffe, and the installation of a national conservative government, many members have expressed the desire and the need to build up more solid links within our communities. There is almost a feeling of urgency and quite palpable feelings of dread at what the next five years will bring. The Rushcliffe Labour party has never been solely an electoral party, and we have mobilised well this year for community issues such as Lutteral Hall. However, it may be possible to further develop our local networks, especially with members, supporters and voters who might not normally want to attend branch or CLP meetings, but would like to contribute in some other way. In doing so we may encourage the organic formation of community networks that in time would lead to a stronger local culture in support of Labour here in Rushcliffe

Community Action

There are many forms of community action with differing levels of skill, finance, technical knowledge and mobilisation needed. From collecting donations for a local charity to full council adoption of the “Preston Model” of a local council committing to procure services locally, there are a wealth of initiatives, petitions and possible actions. This paper makes no claim to provide any definite list, as these need to be decided in communities based on our needs and abilities.

Network Proposal

Ward Points

Each ward in Rushcliffe will assign itself a number of people to act as Ward Points. This will be a small group in the Ward who will take responsibility for connecting members in their ward during community action periods. There is no need to be overly formal in selection or numbers. Anyone who wishes to be a ward point can be one. Community action will sometimes be ad hoc and/or time sensitive and thus a flexible group will enable things to run smoothly.

These position would suit people who are local councillors or who may wish to be councillors in the future, or anyone willing to help bridge the gaps between members in wards. In practice we may find that the position of Ward Point will be a flexible one and members may “hop on” to more organising roles depending on the activity in questions and their skill set.

The main responsibility of the Ward Point is keeping a list of active members and supporters within their ward and knowing their level of commitment. Some members may only be interested in helping out with certain mobilisations and not other. We do not want to get in a situation where we are knocking on doors without warning asking for monetary donations, so the Ward Point needs to be aware of local member’s participation levels.

Ward Group

Each Ward will have a platform or network that enables members to connect with each other. This could be a social media network, or even just the knowledge of everyone’s contact details. This will be mostly facilitated by the Ward points.

Constituency Group

This will be a social media group that Ward Points will participate in to help relay messages from the ward and co-ordinate across the constituency. The Ward Point will act as a bridge between members in their ward and also as a bridge between wards. This can be done in a variety of ways, through social media, face to face meetups, etc.

This does not mean a top down level of organisation. Suggestions for community action can still come from regular members and Ward Points will relay that information on.

Why not just have one big Rushcliffe group for community action?

Different members and supporters have different levels of wanting to participate in the party. Some may be happy to donate money to a cause, but not wish to participate any further. Some will not keep up with social media or email but may respond better to face to face contact.

Having a big social media group is fine, but organising locally will require some real world contact. To go along with that. Having Ward Points means that action doesn’t get bogged down in (too many) logistical back and forths about who will be responsible for collecting, for meeting, for leafleting etc.

Laconic Summary of Proposal

Social media networks at the Ward and constituency level

Example mobilisation 1

A local charity puts out a call for donations. A member of the Abbey Ward sees this and posts to their local Ward Group. People in the group feel it is a large enough issue for everyone to see. The Abbey Ward Point relays the information on to the Rushcliffe Constituency Group, who in turn relay it on to their wards.

At this point each of the Ward Points in the group assign themselves the role of donation collector and liaise with members in their ward to collect donations. This may also stretch to letting supporters and neighbours know and collecting donations from them too.

Finally the Constituency group agree upon a representative who will be responsible for aggregating all the donations. The Ward Points meet with that person to hand over the donations.

The money is donated to the charity by the constituency representative on behalf of the Local Party and Supporters.

Example Mobilisation 2

A local school is about to cut funding for SEN teachers. The CLP decides to take action in the form of a petition and scheduled protests. The Ward Points reach out to members in their ward asking if they would like to sign the petition and whether they can participate in the protest.

Members are also asked if they can distribute the petition among neighbours/non members on their street/neighbourhood. During these mobilisations, members let it be known (organically) that this is a Labour protest/action and if asked, explain more about the party’s ideology, work in the community. This way, we not only take action against the school cuts, but we build up awareness in the community of Labour.

Eventually the Ward Points collect the petitions and aggregate them to the CLP.

Conclusion

Overall these examples are not the most radical of community mobilisations, but they show how the network might work logistically. And early community work may lay the ground for more wide reaching and in depth work in the future. Overall, the network has the potential to help mobilise quickly and to make Labour more visible in community, either literally or through word of mouth.