Teme Teme Wanga and I used to share an office building in Finsbury Park, north London. In one room was our constituency casework team, helping Islington North residents with the many problems they faced. Next door was the Congolese Community Council, which provided support for Congolese refugees. Our offices worked together to ensure people could get the help they needed. Teme is – and always has been – a pillar of the Islington community, and there are countless people in Islington who owe him a debt of gratitude. I am proud to say that I am one of them.
During the election campaign in Islington North, Teme spoke to hundreds of people to ask them to elect me as their independent MP. He didn’t sign up to our campaign’s “phone-banking” system, which asked volunteers to call up voters who had already expressed their support. He didn’t need to. He had his own contacts book, and called up his friends and neighbours one by one. Teme has dedicated his life to offering advice to his community; no wonder they listened to him when he explained why they should put a cross next to my name.
This election wasn’t about me. It was about our community, and there was only one way we could win this election: together. Teme was one of thousands of people who gave up their time to support our campaign in a variety of ways: knocking on doors to speak to voters, offering posters to residents and shops, sending messages in family or street WhatsApp groups, stewarding rallies, creating art, or making cups of tea for those entering data late into the evening.
Underneath is one common endeavour: reaching out, connecting and mobilising people to build collective power. We didn’t leaflet outside schools and train stations to take selfies for social media. We leafleted to encourage people to talk to their friends and neighbours about how we can improve our world together. We didn’t hold rallies so we could make ourselves feel better. We held rallies because we wanted people across the constituency to be excited by – and join – our grassroots campaign. And we didn’t visit places of worship and community centres to find last-minute votes. We visited them to draw on years of practical solidarity – of working together to improve each other’s lives. These bonds were far stronger than any digital advertising campaign could ever hope to replicate.
The time for celebration, however, is over. Building for the future starts now. Here in Islington, we are planting the seeds for a new way of doing politics. That starts with our first People’s Forum. It will be a monthly opportunity for residents to hold me, their elected representative, to account. It will be a chance for local people to ask me anything about the month gone by and give me instructions for the month ahead. It will be a shared, democratic space for local campaigns, trade unions, tenants’ unions, debtors’ unions and national movements to organise, together, for the kind of world we want to live in. Listening to the voices of those who elected me. Discussing the concerns and hopes of our community. Empowering each other to do something about it. That is what real democracy looks like.
The general election did not allow for the full expression of people power. Rather, we saw a rejection of the political establishment, leading to a loveless landslide; this election saw the second-lowest turnout since 1918 and the smallest combined vote share for the two main parties since 1945. Public discontent with a broken political system will only grow as the government fails to make the real change that people expect.
That energy needs somewhere to go. It needs to be channelled. It needs to be mobilised. That’s why our campaign will organise with those who have been inspired by our victory to build community power in every corner of the country. Once our grassroots model has been replicated elsewhere, this can be the genesis of a new movement capable of challenging the stale two-party system. A movement that offers a real alternative to child poverty, inequality and endless war. A movement that provides a real opposition to the far right – one that doesn’t concede ground to divisive rhetoric, but stands by its principles of anti-racism, equality and inclusion.
I have no doubt that this movement will eventually run in elections. However, to create a new, centralised party, based around the personality of one person, is to put the cart before the horse. Remember that only once strength is built from below can we challenge those at the top.
Look at where other independents challenged the main parties most effectively. They built on community power to stand up for themselves and against those who had ignored their demands for peace and humanity. It’s that sort of power that needs to be built everywhere. Make no mistake: this is just the beginning. It is the beginning of a movement that can win with – and for – communities all over the country. People in power underestimate the power of people at their peril.
The brighter future we speak of is no pipe dream. Our community in Islington North is proof that a fairer world is possible. We have proved that you can challenge party machinery with a well-organised grassroots campaign. We have proved that you cannot crush dissent without consequences. We have proved that, with people such as Teme Teme Wanga on your side, we can beat the odds, and win.
Jeremy Corbyn is the MP for Islington North
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