Labour Together Online Workshops
In the summer and autumn of 2020 we held a programme of online events looking at how we can implement different parts of our review. We had speakers from across the movement sharing their thoughts and experiences.
- Week 1: A mountain to climb…
Date: 3/8/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
It's clear from the review that Labour has a mountain to climb to win the next election. We face deep problems that have been years in the making. To win Labour must build a long term political strategy which is understood and implemented at every level of our party with clear lines of accountability. What might this political strategy look like? How can we bring all our movement in line with it? How can local parties contribute to its implementation?
- Week 2: Culture eats strategy for breakfast
Date: 10/8/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
Over the last few years our party culture has deteriorated. Toxic meetings, institutional racism and discrimination, harassment and bullying are endemic. Labour must do better. How can we build a better culture? How can our party HQ better interact with CLPs and what’s going on at the grassroots level? How can we be more inclusive and move past some of the problems of the last few years?
- Week 3: Opening up Labour
Date: 17/8/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
Many of our local parties and activities continue to face inwards rather than outwards as our relationships with communities decline. How can we better use our local structures and the power of our movement to create local parties that are more outward facing? How can we build up our relationships with communities? What does this look like? How can we measure the impact of this work?
- Week 4: Rebuilding our presence across the country
Date: 24/8/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
If we are going to win, Labour must rebuild its presence across the whole country. How can we rebuild campaigning capacity in many of our lost seats? How can we work together to make better use of our resources? What does good twinning look like? How can future candidates build support in their communities over the long term?
- Week 5: Deliberative Policy-Making
Date: 31/8/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
Labour’s policies should be connected to the communities we seek to serve. We should be exploring new methods of democratic and deliberative policy making that engage the public. What would this kind of deliberative policy making look like? How do we bring the public into this conversation? Why is this important?
- Week 6: Movement Remaking
Date: 7/9/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
Our review found that we need to do more to make the most of the skills, talents and energies of the wider Labour movement. How can our movement work together to rebuild our support in places we’ve lost? How might new methods like community organising help us to build long term foundations? How can the Trade Union movement help us? How can we modernise our approach to doorstep campaigning?
- Week 7: Campaign Innovation
Date: 14/9/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
What is campaign innovation and where is it taking place? How can we do more of this as a movement? How can we empower campaigners to try things and measure there success? How can we share best practice about what works and what doesn’t?
Week 8: Supporting our campaigners & candidates
Date: 26/10/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
Our review found that we need to do more to upskill our movement and support our candidates to succeed. It also found that we need to move away from a one-size fits all approach and instead conduct and audit to work out what each seat’s local needs are. How might this audit work? What tools, training and resources would help support local campaigners better? How can we create more usable digital tools and useful central support for our grassroots campaigners? How can we start to create more bespoke
- Week 9: Unlocking the potential of our members
Date: 28/9/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
Our review concluded that our members are our strongest asset. How can we do more to unleash their potential? How can we work better with volunteer communities and utilise member’s valuable skills?
- Week 10: Digital Transformation
Date: 5/10/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
Our review concluded that our party needs a complete digital transformation. What might this transformation look like? How can we achieve this? What kind of changes in working practices would support this? How can we make Labour tools more usable and what are the advantages to open sourcing them?
- Week 11: Doing more with our Data
Date: 12/10/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
Our review concluded that our party needs a more sophisticated approach to data. What can data tell us and what are its limits? How can it drive institutional learning and change? How can we increase data literacy throughout the party? What would a data ethics policy for Labour look like?
- Week 12: Campaigning in 2021
Date: 19/10/2020 Time: 19:00 - 21:00 Location: Zoom
In the context of Coronavirus, how can we update our campaigning methods for 2021? How can we think creatively to achieve more in a limited campaigning context? What are the small wins we can make and how might we use 2021 to implement some of our recommendations? What can we do to support local government in these elections? How can we make sure Labour does well?