Gordon Brown looks to Barack Obama to rescue demoralised Lab

[KREBB]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/p ... 890902.ece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Tom Baldwin
Gordon Brown is preparing to tell his demoralised and impoverished party that Labour may need to reinvent itself as a modern progressive movement modelled on Barack Obama’s campaign.

The Prime Minister is examining proposals that could see Labour’s rule book being ripped up and the party turned into a looser federation of supporters similar to the US Democrats.

On his flight home from Washington last week, the Prime Minister wrote a foreword to a Fabian Society publication entitled The Change We Need: What Britain Can Learn From Obama’s Victory.

The book, being published later this month, will call on Labour to replace its rigid command-and-control structure with a system that allows more dissent, removes “barriers to participation”, including membership fees, and grants greater autonomy for activists.

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Although Labour sources stress that there is no formal backing for such radical reforms, Mr Brown’s decision to write a foreword for the book will be seen as putting his personal stamp on a full debate about the future shape of the party.

If the most radical changes were adopted, they would reverse many of the measures forced through by leaders such as Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair to erode the influence of the far Left in the party. Labour officials also acknowledge that proposals to scrap membership fees would encounter stiff resistance from organisations, possibly including unions, who have a stake in preserving traditional structures.

Senior officials have already held secret talks with David Plouffe and David Axelrod, the political strategists behind Mr Obama’s victory, on how the internet-driven electoral machine that crashed through Republican ranks in the United States last year can help to save Labour from defeat.

Both have had extensive private meetings with David Muir, Downing Street’s director of political strategy, at which Mr Axelrod and Mr Plouffe are said to have “opened the books” and promised to do what they can to assist the Democrats’ sister party in Britain.

At a conference in Washington this week for centre-Left parties from around the world, including Labour, Mr Plouffe stressed that Mr Obama’s success in generating an e-mail list of 13 million supporters and raising more than $700 million (£500 million) —mostly online — was not based merely on technological sophistication.

Instead, the campaign recognised seismic shifts in America’s culture by which traditional communities were increasingly fragmented while new forms of organisation such as Facebook — where people have come to expect a two-way flow of information — were growing exponentially. Mr Plouffe said that technology should be regarded as a tool by which a strong candidate, message and strategy could reach more people.

At a meeting with one of the editors of the new book, Nick Anstead, shortly before the US election last year, the Prime Minister is understood to have expressed admiration for the “people-powered politics” of Mr Obama’s campaign, which he compared to Labour’s own origins as a “bottom-up” party built from friendly societies and unions.

Advocates of the reforms, however, do not believe that Labour would return to the bitter internal divisions that characterised the 1970s and 1980s. They point out that Mr Obama’s campaign maintained a high level of discipline that was reinforced through the participation of millions of activists in on-line forums.

Even more importantly for a party laden with debt, Mr Obama raised significantly higher sums from his four million donors than Labour receives from members, the numbers of which have more than halved in the past dozen years. One well-placed Labour source said: “Nearly 500 people from the party went out to the United States to work for Obama. They have all come back enthused by the way the campaign trusted volunteers and voters as grown-ups. We need a different model of organising and fundraising.”

Will Straw, editor of the book with Mr Anstead, is urging a “cultural glasnost within the Labour Party” that enables — rather than suppresses — internal debate. "Learning the lessons from Obama’s victory isn’t easy, but failing to do so could result in Labour becoming increasingly irrelevant to the ordinary lives of Brits,” he said.

Other veterans from Mr Obama’s team taking part in discussions organised by the Centre for American Progress included Karen Kornbluh, a senior Democratic policy adviser; Stephen Geer, an expert on new technology; Joel Benenson, a key pollster who may work for Labour next year; and Paul Tewes, who masterminded the breakthrough victory at the Iowa caucuses last year.

John McTernan, formerly Mr Blair’s political secretary and a special adviser for the Government, was among those taking copious notes at the event. Although his own speech was upbeat about how the Government was “winning the battle of ideas”,he recognised that its relationship with many Labour voters had been broken by the Iraq war.

“There is an arc in the life of a government and I would not be telling you the truth if I said that we anticipated that winning a fourth term will be an easy task,” he said.




Have your say

So Gordon Brown wants to reinvent Labour. He sounds just like the kind of failed cowboy builder we regularly see on the television. He takes all our money then goes bankrupt, only to open up for business again under a new name!

Martin Saiz, Colchester, Essex

[norbert]

Loosely translated , the one eyed Idiot has realized that he's lost the next general election and he's trying to avoid the civil war in the party that the Tories had over Europe before they could regroup .

Also he knows Harriet Harperson is looking out for his job ? Jack Dromey is very ambitious for her .

[k979aaa]

I hear Stevie Wonder is on hand too give him some vision he may even empart some soul on Gordy but as usual Gordy could not give a funk!. The latest is gordon is looking for three blind mice too see him through to the next election and then only issue Braille ballot papers!.

[Yahoorsur]

My take on this?
I recognise many of the ideas that Brown looks like supporting, in fact many years ago The Fabian Society,brought up some of these, basically abolishing the structure of the Labour Party,no branches,rather there would be points of contacts,who would diseminate information,organise political campaigns,fundraise etc
The big difference between then and now is that we have much more instantaneous means of communication text,internet etc that were not available when the original proposals were brought forward.
I was very dubious about them then to be honest and I see nothing to change my mind now,it seems to me more a power grab ,emasculating the membership,and turning the party into little more than a set of on line cheerleaders.I always thought that membership of an organization provides you with a say in how that oraganization is run,whether thats a Social Club ,union,allotment society or a political party,and these proposals do nothing to provide that say
However im quite prepared to be proved wrong,there is a great website from the states thats probably the template for political activism and bringing people together in common goals and that is http://www.dailykos.com/,we" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; have the tools at our disposal for activism http://www.unionbook.org.uk/dashboard/latest.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is another one,and dare I say it but Facebook has it's uses
Indeed the recent occupation of Prisme in Dundee,was brought to the attention of the wider Labour movement by postings on Facebook and Unionbook,the support group for the Prisme workers has now reached 800+,but is that just 'armchair activism'? http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... 437&ref=mf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
However Im no longer a member of New Labour so what the hell do I know about it
'Labour may need to reinvent itself as a modern progressive movement '..........if only!!!!!!

[k979aaa]

My take on this?
I recognise many of the ideas that Brown looks like supporting, in fact many years ago The Fabian Society,brought up some of these, basically abolishing the structure of the Labour Party,no branches,rather there would be points of contacts,who would diseminate information,organise political campaigns,fundraise etc
The big difference between then and now is that we have much more instantaneous means of communication text,internet etc that were not available when the original proposals were brought forward.
I was very dubious about them then to be honest and I see nothing to change my mind now,it seems to me more a power grab ,emasculating the membership,and turning the party into little more than a set of on line cheerleaders.I always thought that membership of an organization provides you with a say in how that oraganization is run,whether thats a Social Club ,union,allotment society or a political party,and these proposals do nothing to provide that say
However im quite prepared to be proved wrong,there is a great website from the states thats probably the template for political activism and bringing people together in common goals and that is http://www.dailykos.com/,we" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; have the tools at our disposal for activism http://www.unionbook.org.uk/dashboard/latest.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is another one,and dare I say it but Facebook has it's uses
Indeed the recent occupation of Prisme in Dundee,was brought to the attention of the wider Labour movement by postings on Facebook and Unionbook,the support group for the Prisme workers has now reached 800+,but is that just 'armchair activism'? http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... 437&ref=mf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
However Im no longer a member of New Labour so what the hell do I know about it
'Labour may need to reinvent itself as a modern progressive movement '..........if only!!!!!!

Labour used to represent the workers of our nation it does not now infact it throws a deaf one too us all it has been taken over by the rich aristocracy and it's bourgeoisie puppy dogs :mfo New labour is a party of the rich and puppy dogs :mfo and we cannot change this only the governance of this nation!.

[norbert]

I saw the writing on the wall in the " things can only get better " days when Labour won in 97 . It's ironic that Dave Snooty and his pals decided to copy the Tony project for the Tories .

It will be the Democrats Mk . 2 - problem is the Blue Sky thinking and cock ups + failures that New Liebour is prone to having

[k979aaa]

I saw the writing on the wall in the " things can only get better " days when Labour won in 97 . It's ironic that Dave Snooty and his pals decided to copy the Tony project for the Tories .

It will be the Democrats Mk . 2

I was still naive and young then but life and the way this NEW LABOUR government has treated the real workers have taught me a lesson i will not forget ever!.

[savo]

deckchairs the rearranging titanic on....

I would have more respect for that shower if they were a real Labour party reflecting their long-held principles.


The fact is that labour governments ALWAYS run out of money, check the history books its there in black & white.