Creating a better culture in Labour 🌹🤝

Hannah O’Rourke,Labour Together

Why is culture a problem?

“We need to change the culture, until we do that, we can’t win… It shouldn’t be the case that the most stressful meeting for anyone who is elected is their own CLP meeting. It’s a toxic environment. We have to sort that out. While so much energy is being drained into fighting, it’s impossible to be outward facing… Also there’s a fundamental hypocrisy, people think we treat people fairly and decently, but that’s not mirrored in our behaviour to each other.”

- Anonymous submission to Labour Together Election Review

“People stopped going to CLP meetings. I used to love them, ended up being a place I dreaded”

- Anonymous submission

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“Bore them into submission tactics” are required to get access to digital tools”

- CLP Officer

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Factionalism itself isn’t bad…

Healthy debate and exchange of ideas are important

But….

It becomes unhealthy when it’s the only thing we do and people can’t change their minds or work together beyond it.

Pluralism has to be at the heart of what we do and every faction needs to be working on this problem.

How do we change it?

1. Setting expectations
2. How we create spaces
3. Storytelling
4. Shared Purpose
5. Focus on action
6. Transparency

Setting expectations

• Facilitation training from Yvonne Murphy- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BehsnZH6I0
• Setting expectations for the space
• Modelling good behaviour

Setting up spaces

• Disrupt the questions to avoid pre-written answers
• Reduce motions which are binaries
• Smaller groups mean people have the space to speak and feel heard
• New mediums - in the Labour Together Review, we co-edited a google document together
• Food, sweets, cake helps! :)
• Labour Together Roundtables - Start with an identity question - who are you outside these meetings? Remember we are all humans! https://www.labourtogether.uk/bringing-labour-together

At our selection meeting we gave people a little packet of Haribo to say “sorry this will be long please be kind to each other”...

Storytelling

• This will change from the bottom up, we can change this in our CLPs and we have some agency in this
• Use the metaphor of a journey - going on a political journey… share your story or journey - I’m sure your mind has changed?
• Stories of difference and the history of the Labour movement - reconciling difference and coalition building is what the early Labour movement did!

Create a Shared purpose

• CLP Development plans - this can set your purpose and if you do a session you can get buy in for your plans from the whole CLP!
• Co-creation sessions
• Setting shared concrete goals you can achieve together locally...
• Labour Together Review Process - we had a shared goal to understand the 2019 election.

Focus on action and doing things

• LSOC - all about campaigning not policy https://labourcampaigners.co.uk/
• Broxtowe CLP runs a foodbank - they have interesting meetings and disagreements but still come together to do something!
• Campaign Lab and Labour Party Graphic Designers - communities which focus on doing things!
• Forums are easier to manage when we focus on action

Transparency

• Explaining processes matter!
• Example - tweeting how we voted at conference
• A membership handbook; made by members for the members: https://www.labourtogether.uk/labour-members-handbook

Breakout Room

Groups of 4 - 15 minutes

• What can you as a CLP achieve together in the next year to help win back the seat from the Tories?
• How are you going to achieve this? What will you need? How are you going to organise this?