Future Leader Stories: Kathryn Perera

The Movement for Change: starting from scratch in a non-Labour constituency

I decided to train with the Movement for Change during the Labour leadership contest. I was interested in the idea of reforming the culture of the Labour Party – of creating a living, breathing movement that once again sat at the heart of our communities. That idea still excites me. I believe that Ed Miliband’s intention to weave community organising into the fabric of Labour politics has the potential to shift our culture radically.

I saw the beginnings of that shift in Aylesbury, where I worked as a Labour Party activist. The local Party is a rump of people who are desperate for an alternative voice in an area dominated by cosy Lib Dem-Conservative alliances. The town itself is crying out for organised leadership to oppose the ‘business as usual’ model which has become entrenched. Yet we realised that before Aylesbury Labour Party could begin the task of engaging with the community in a meaningful way, first we needed to forge a common identity – a shared purpose – within our CLP. Some of our members attended the Movement for Change training. Others started to organise one-to-ones and meet each other on a more meaningful basis. Soon a series of house meetings will start, to give smaller groups a space to build the relationships which underpin a thriving CLP. Through that process, I’ve learned about what motivates my fellow activists as individuals and why we believe the Labour Party has a role to play in bringing about local change.

The change in Aylesbury Labour Party is nascent and we are still feeling our way. But slowly, steadily, a different sort of local Party is revealing itself. It is a Party which devotes more time to local issues than it does to bureaucracy, which sets aside time at meetings for discussions of policy that are revealing and honest. I recognise that the process is a long one, yet with increased membership and new voices emerging I believe that we have the beginnings of a local Party which is of the people in our community, rather than simply for them. A quiet but fundamental shift.

The wider question for the Labour Party is how to harness the teachings a movement which is not focused narrowly on quick electoral scores. While voter ID runs the risk of creating relationships which are a mile wide and an inch deep, the Movement for Change flips that method on its head. Its principles challenge Labour activists to discover that true electoral strength will only arise out of meaningful relationships which bind us to our communities. In Aylesbury, we are only just beginning to feel that change.

Kathryn Perera