We thought it would be an idea to update all of those who didn’t follow the Movement for Change’s progress during the leadership election on exactly what it is we’ve been doing this last four months!
From June until the end of September, the Movement for Change trained just over 1,200 people in the skills of community organising; skills they can now apply to the party at the grassroots level. Most of these people were members, but hopefully those who weren’t were inspired enough to join. Of those 1,200 people, just over 500 attended a full Future Leaders session, whilst the rest attended a “taster” training session.
From these sessions, we received pledges from Future Leaders on the amount of 1-2-1 meetings and House Meetings that they were going to conduct. In total, there were over 2,200 1-2-1s pledged and 513 House Meetings.
Future Leaders who attended the training sessions also went on to take action and make change in their communities. Ben Maloney, a Future Leader from Enfield, went back to his community and worked with the people on a neglected estate to get their damaged security door replaced. In Norwich, Future Leaders lead by Marion Maxwell decided to take action on cuts to street lighting. To get the Tory council to react, the community team ran a “Light Up Norwich” campaign where they took to the streets one evening equipped with masses of fairy lights. Once darkness descended, the fairy lights were turned on to demonstrate the community’s feelings towards the planned cut. This engaging and fun action got lots of people from the community involved and lead to the Tory council delaying the proposed cut by a further 6 months.
Manchester has also seen its share of activity. In Northernden, the Northern Moor Respect Covenant was formed to create an alliance between the residents and shopkeepers in a community in order to tackle anti-social behaviour.
And in Piccadilly Gardens, that iconic area of central Manchester, Future Leaders led by Kev Peel turned the so-called “ugly wall” into a living wall. To tackle the wider problem of a lack of green spaces, the community covered the wall in cardboard flowers that they had made in order to make the council consider turning the wall into a living wall covered in real flora!
And we cannot forget the Movement for Change National Assembly.
On August 30th, over 1,000 people from all over the country attended an Assembly to showcase the work that the Movement for Change had begun. We also heard stories from people who will be affected by the government's proposed cuts to demonstrate why we need a living movement to resist them. These people were a mixture of Future Leaders, people brought along by Future Leaders, and a few with a passing interest in the Movement for Change’s work. This fun and engaging event was many people’s highlight of the campaign and really showed the power of the work that Future Leaders have done.
This is what we achieved in 4 months. United behind one leader, we can now build the Movement for Change throughout the whole party. This unity is also expressed in the range of MPs who have been to our Assemblies and actions over the last 4 months. Backers of all candidates like Sadiq Khan and Hazel Blears, who backed Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham respectively, have all played an active role in the Movement for Change’s work so far. As soon as plans are afoot to take Movement for Change forward, you will be made aware of how to become a part of it. We hope that supporters of all of the leadership candidates can now respond to the need to reinvigorate our grassroots, build stronger relationships with each other and make our movement more relevant to our communities.
M4C Team.
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