Labour must seize the moment

Hearing from Harriet Harman this week that 30,000 people have taken the step to join the Labour party is heartening for any activist, an antidote to the pain of watching this government from opposition. But signing up members is not enough. To keep them, use them effectively and, crucially, attract more, our message to the party should be, as John Prescott recently said, echoing Joe Hill : "Don't mourn, organise." There was talk during the campaign of a Labour "movement", rather than the hierarchical, undemocratic party we have seen as over the past 10 years. A welcome change, though to suggest we had been reborn, suddenly, during the election, was unconvincing. Our new recruits joined Labour to oppose this government's crippling, ideologically driven agenda. Our urgent task is to organise to facilitate such action, through strong leadership and effective, essential grassroots investment. For Labour to be the credible, genuine political movement we once were, our new members should have a voice, one we listen to and hear. Annual conference must be a genuine arena for members to debate and affect policy. Gone must be the days when to be a Labour party member was to be a glorified leaflet deliverer. Our base is our link to voters and to ignore them is not only undemocratic and wrong, but naive. Politics, not process, should be debated at local Labour party meetings. Our CLPs should be social, dynamic and exciting places to be, as attractive to the young, enthusiastic student member as they are to the dyed-in-the-wool former miner. So the top down Labour party model must be reformed, but a culture change goes beyond organisation. One of the most striking failures of New Labour was to neglect the trade union link. For trade unionists to not see Labour as their natural home should be a source of shame, and a focus of our renewal. Ed Balls has suggested an extension of the £1 youth membership rate to members of affiliated unions who want to join the party, which would send a strong message to the millions of trade unionists in this country that Labour are actively welcoming them, that we are strengthened, not weakened by the affiliation. In 1900, the party was created, united in a common cause, to be a political voice for the voiceless. Never should we forget that raison d'etre, and never can we fail to see that we are stronger united than apart. Harman is right: a political movement is growing. Labour can seize this moment and become a formidable campaign force again. We can regain the members we lost and those on the left who seek a progressive home. But to do so we, as a party, must trust and invest in our membership, old and new.