A Way Ahead?

Each generation faces a new challenge.

Ours is a peculiar social moment when apathy and extremism are brushing shoulders in the street.

How can we be political in an age of anti-politics?

The people of Britain still care about political issues but have fallen out with political parties.

Fresh ideas and a fresh approach are needed…

Neither Old Labour nor New Labour. Sort of a ‘back to the future’ Labour.

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Paradox of Human Desires

Progress = Desire to Create Turning dreams into realities

Tradition = Desire to Preserve Respecting existing ways of living

BASIS

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So we’re getting emotional?

•  Sense of Hope – Future things that hold true promise and

need creating

•  Fear of Loss – Historical things that have real value and

need preserving

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Hopes & Fears are primal political motivators

Hopes. Fears. Tradition. Progress.

Creating. Preserving. The paradox of human desires.

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•  Built in the 1940s & 50s through progressive imagination and a sense of hope

•  Protecting what we hold dear by tapping

into respect for something valuable that we fear may be lost

Example:

“This is worth building”

“This is worth saving”

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So, let’s look both ways

•  It is evident that the history of the Labour movement is filled with great people and great achievements

•  And yet there are new, different, and difficult challenges in our nation today that require bold, radical solutions

•  ReLABOUR’s approach is to look

‘back to the future’.

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ReLABOUR Fosters Unity

•  The Labour Party has always been at its strongest when working as a united, broad-based coalition of overlapping values and interests

•  ReLabour fosters unity in the party by honouring the role of both progressives and traditionalists, refusing to see them as pitted against one another.

Haven’t we been here before?

Refounding Labour

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Bruised by defeat in 2010 the Party began a process of soul-searching expressed in the consultation papers and reports entitled ‘Refounding Labour’.

At the time Ed said:

Refounding Labour

We must repair, restore and reform our party

to meet the challenges ahead

! ! ! !He added that: !‘We must look to our own traditions as a community-based grassroots party where the voices of individual members, trade unionists were always valued. But we must also widen our horizons to our supporters and the wider public. They must have their say in the future of our party too.’ It was a very ReLabour thing to say ;-)

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Despite its aspirational subheading ‘a party for the new generation’ the final report published failed to get pulses racing out in the CLPs.

The scope however, was broad, and the consultation thorough. As an exercise in procedural and managerial reform it was no doubt useful. It did not however represent a new moment of courage and creativity because the deeper issues of Labour’s soul were left out.

In 2014 Labour began tentatively approaching some of these soul issues through a members’ survey…

Refounding Labour

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The Big Survey

The Labour party survey of May-June 2014 asked members questions relating to a whole range of issues such as:

•  Which of Labour’s achievements means most to you?

•  Which Labour-supported issues matter most to you?

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Created

NHS

Which of Labour’s achievements means most to you?

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One of the most revealing charts released from the data gathered related to the question:

What is intriguing about the chart is not what is present but what is absent. Why does Solidarity not feature at all in the responses gathered in from members? Is it possible that the chart might reflect the contemporary language of Labour’s politics in a self-reinforcing way? i.e. We’ve been talking a lot about fairness for several years now, so fairness has become what people think about when they think about what Labour stands for. But is it?

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Rediscovering…

Solidarity is likely to be just one example of something fundamental and valuable to Labour’s soul that needs rediscovering.

What other meta-themes might connect Labour’s past to its future?

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Meta-themes…

Could be… •  Dignity in work •  Reducing inequality •  Tackling powerful interests •  Nurturing cohesive communities •  Increasing democratic participation

We need to have a lot more conversation about these themes, until consensus emerges.

ReDiscovering  RePositioning ReImagining 

ReFraming ReLabour

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