December Community Organising Event

On the evening of Tuesday, 4th December, the day the government was plunged into shame and defeat, the people of South Swindon came together in hope and unity.

Swindon revealed its plan to start winning #ForTheMany. It’s a plan which Jeremy Corbyn thinks will win us the next general election and Labour Party chair Ian Lavery came straight from Westminster to launch it. It’s community organising and this is how it works…

We know that the government is failing us. We have stagnant wages, up to 1 million on zero hours contracts, a 169% increase in homelessness over the last 7 years, Universal Credit devastating families and over 500,000 people using foodbanks.

In Swindon, we have 3500 people claiming in-work benefits due to low pay, we’ve seen a 60% rise in rough sleeping in the last year and five children have died in children’s services in five years. These are shocking statistics in a country that is the sixth richest in the world.

Labour does not have the Big Money to stand up to the government, but what we do have is the incredible power that comes from ordinary people who want to live in a better world coming together to fight for what is right.

Tonight we launched community organising in South Swindon. Community organising is a tool which unlocks the power that lies in ordinary people when we come together to fight on an issue that affects us.

It may not always feel like we have power against the forces that do not have our interests at heart but community organising has proven time and time again that when we come together, the power that we have is transformational.

Up and down the country, people are coming together in meetings like ours this evening to identify what issues are most pressing in their local areas and how we will begin to tackle them #ForTheMany.

Community organising is not like regular politics. It puts ordinary people at its centre so that our campaigns are not just #ForTheMany but also done #ByTheMany. It’s what won us the NHS in 1948 and it’s what will win for Swindon today.

Last night, community members from all over South Swindon came together to build the people power we need to start improving life in Swindon now. Many attendees were not involved in politics, they are simply fed up with the decisions being made on their behalf.

South Swindon residents shared stories of the effects that Tory austerity and policies have had on their lives. And we began to talk about the big issues in Swindon and how together we can win #ForTheMany #ByTheMany

There is a lot to be done, but we are ready.

We need to build this movement as big as possible. To get involved, email louie_herbert@labour.org.uk

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