Gordon Brown says Labour must embrace new forms of participation to build greater links with the people it serves
WHEN I joined the Labour Party it was because I wanted to play my part in creating the good society. But we have to face the difficult truth that too many people feel that politics has nothing to do with them. Too many seem disinterested, disengaged, too often disillusioned.
There are those who suggest this is inevitable and irreversible. Fifty years ago,10 per cent of the adult population joined political parties and now it is just 1 per cent. They say we should resign ourselves to lower and lower political participation.
I disagree. I was moved by the commitment shown by the one third of all young people who campaigned to Make Poverty History. They showed that politics motivates – as it did for us. The same is true for environmental activism and community campaigns.
So I believe we can encourage more people to become engaged and involved – but we can only do so through new forms of participation. I want us to help renew politics in Britain – but we have to renew ourselves as well.
We need to become more open and more democratic. We must find new ways of building links with millions of people in every community. The most successful campaigning movements today are the ones that give everyone a chance to make a difference.
This means more ways to get involved and help us shape the policies that will meet the great challenges of our time. Not more of the same. We must take advantage of new technology to make sure we open up every route to participation – not as a substitute for debate, but to deepen and widen it.
We also need to give every party member an equal say. For many of us, this is at the core of our values. We want every citizen to have an equal chance, no matter where they live. It’s why we fight poverty at home, why we fought apartheid in South Africa.
I want every party member to have an equal say from the start of the policy process to the end. This way we can show our members – and future members – that what they say counts – that what they contribute matters. We campaign for equality – we must practice it as well.
Stronger democracy, treating people equally are the ways we – the Labour Party – can drive new politics in Britain. But this isn’t just about creating a healthy political process. It is core to meeting the great challenges we face as a country.
The old ways – top down politics, policy-making by a show of hands, horse-trading over words not ideas – will simply not work any more. Ensuring security, meeting global competition, tackling climate change, and building stronger communities as we respond to rising aspirations. We can address them – but with new ways, not old.
Take climate change. It’s obvious that it cannot be overcome without people themselves accepting responsibility and changing the way they live their lives. And that requires people to be involved directly in the decisions that are made.
But equally we can never win in the fight against global terrorism without also winning the battle of hearts and minds – and for that men and women need to be engaged themselves in changing the way we do things.
This renewal is why I am putting forward new proposals for change within our party. Each is driven by my vision of greater democracy and greater equality. And there are three essential elements.
First, we need to reach out to our local communities. There are hundreds of local voluntary organisations who are everyday enacting the vision of a good society and we need to build the networks that keeps us in touch with them and their views.
I want every local constituency party to have a strengthened mandate – to reach out beyond the monthly meeting and engage on a regular basis with all sections of the community. At all times the party of the people should hear all the people’s voices. This is the first step to strengthening our grassroots presence.
Second, we need to show why it’s worthwhile for supporters and people who share Labour’s values to go beyond passive support to active participation.
That’s why we propose to create local policy forums that will discuss and formulate ideas on the issues of the day.
But a third change is to show that party democracy is about involving and engaging members in finding real answers to real problems.
That’s why the current annual conference system needs to change. Instead of the annual yes-no battle over policy declarations, we will only get to the best progressive policies for the future with a continuous and intensive examination of the real issues that are worrying people.
And that means we need a process at a national as well as local level that is more participatory than ever before – and less focused on declarations of intent, more focused on finding real answers.
Instead of resolutions without solutions, which is barren, we will have a continuous policy discussion involving the whole party.
It is also right that every member – those who go to conference and those who don’t – have an equal say in the final decision.
I want every member to know that their involvement will count – that it doesn’t depend on a show of hands during a week by the seaside.
So renewal offers the chance of a new politics of vigorous debate and discussion from the start of policy making in local policy forums to its conclusion in a one-member one-vote decision of the entire party membership.
This is the way to start bridging the gap between the high levels of public interest in issues and the low levels of formal participation in political organisations. Vigorous debate in an open democracy can make us the mass party we aspire to be.
