contribution by Marion Maxwell

I was delighted to hear the news that Movement for Change will be being continued and expanded to bring community organising back to the Labour movement. My community and I have already benefitted from some of the methods that M4C wants to equip all party members with.

One of the first actions of the government was to cancel the creation of Norwich Unitary council, one of the consequences being that we were forced into a by-election in September 2010. I was selected as Labour candidate for the Mancroft Ward, a Green Party stronghold, and deemed difficult to win by the Labour Party.

One of the first things I discovered that people wanted to tackle was the switching off of street lights during the hours from 12 midnight and 5 am throughout Norfolk. This decision was made by the Tory lead Norfolk County Council members many of whom have no knowledge of life in a city centre.

There are an unusually large number of residents in the city centre, which also has the highest rates of crime in Norwich. The most prominent offences are drug-dealing, alcohol related anti-social behaviour, and vandalism. I had few ideas in how to approach this problem, but I needed people to get involved. The answer came when I attended Movement for Change training.

My friend Cath and I went along, and both being retired thought we had been there done that, thinking we knew everything, but we were prepared listen in the hope we could get new ideas. And we did!

That started the most frantic few weeks I’ve had since I retired. We began a listening campaign; collected names for a petition and we leafleted people to attend a community walk. One Saturday we had 21 people out knocking on doors asking local people to come out on a Friday night to “highlight” the problem.

Friday the 27th August dawned bright and sunny after a week of torrential rain, we were optimistic and reckoned that we could possibly get 40 to 50 people out. Well over a 100 people had turned up!

When we walked through the local underpass in darkness the place was filled with people and together they lit up the skies with their fairy lights!

I didn’t win the election for City Council but Labour went from 4th to 2nd place and cut the Green majority from 800 to 140. All the local wards are petitioning and following our lead in using the listening techniques that Movement for Change trained us to use.

I have been selected to stand for Mancroft again and am just about to embark on fighting “Legal Loan-Sharking” in my ward, supporting Stella Creasy’s bill.

Since that election, Norfolk County Council has dropped plans to switch off the lights in Norwich City Centre in Mancroft Ward. However, the Council is continuing with plans to cut street lighting in all other wards, so Norwich Labour Party is making this a big issue in their campaign for the May Council elections.

Reader comments

1. Martha Mackenzie

   Fab post on the power of #M4C and its ability to really make change at a local level http://bit.ly/hyPofP (via @libcon)

2. sunny hundal

   'Movement for Change' helped Marion champion a local issue and increase Labour's votes in Norwich http://bit.ly/hyPofP

3. Don Paskini

   RT @sunny_hundal: 'Movement for Change' helped Marion champion a local issue and increase Labour's votes in Norwich http://bit.ly/hyPofP

4. Ben Maloney

   RT @sunny_hundal: 'Movement for Change' helped Marion champion a local issue and increase Labour's votes in Norwich http://bit.ly/hyPofP

5. Ben Maloney

   A great story from someone who really understands the benefit of Movement for Change: http://bit.ly/hyPofP @DPJHodges @anthonypainter

6. Ben Maloney

   A great story from someone who really understands the value of Movement for Change: http://bit.ly/hyPofP @DPJHodges @anthonypainter #M4C

7. Vicky Heywood

   RT @sunny_hundal: 'Movement for Change' helped Marion champion a local issue and increase Labour's votes in Norwich http://bit.ly/hyPofP

8. Stewart Owadally

   To paraphrase @DPJHodges, "Movement For Change. A perspective from a woman who has done it." http://bit.ly/hyPofP

9. liberalideals

   How Labour's Movement for Change got this retiree involved in …: My friend Cath and I went along, and both bei… http://bit.ly/etjj0B