"We Can Win". Photo: Dan Firth. All rights reserved.I've organised with communities from London to Yorkshire to win on issues that matter to ordinary people: from good jobs to living wages to better housing. I've also trained Labour party politicians and activists in community organising. In the course of my work I’ve met hundreds of ordinary people hungry to make a change. Whether the mum at the local primary school afraid about the health of her child as air pollution rockets, or the cabbie worried about losing his job to the march of automation. They are potential leaders, and they have been locked out of progressive politics.
The problem is progressive parties haven’t got a clue how to find, nurture or develop talent. Most Labour Party meetings up and down the country are so dreary they would kill the passion of even the most ardent corbynista. Equally door knocking, and leafleting will only deliver fatigue, not win elections. Of course, being out of power is a problem - as Sadiq Khan reminded us 38 times in his speech to the Labour Party conference. But being in power is not enough.
Progressives have failed to grasp that more than anything, ordinary people share a sense of powerlessness. That’s why ‘take back control’ resonated with so many people.In fact, too often, progressives have been guilty of taking people’s power away. From the bureaucratic Labour council ignoring thousands of complaints about damp housing; to a Prime Minister rushing the country to war, to policy wonks being parachuted into safe seats, progressives in power have too often treated people as a barrier to progress or simply as election fodder. And people feel it. That’s why community organising matters to the future of the progressive movement.
