1 Organising as building power

Figure 2 Organising can be used to build power

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Figure 2 Organising can be used to build power

Organising is defined as developing the capacity of a group to achieve goals. Think back to your considerations of power in Week 1. There, power was defined as the capacity to shape or influence the world around you. In this sense, you can think of organising as a process of building power. In the context of Black leadership, the most common kinds of organising practices are in building social movements. For this reason, the aspect of power you are dealing with is Amy Allen’s ‘power with’ or powerful solidarity. This is why organising begins with a constituency of people rather than a particular issue. Remember back to last week on campaigning – constituencies are groups of people with shared material interests or political/social outlooks. Organising, then, is a process of bringing these people together under one roof and, by doing so, building their power to shape and influence the world around them.

For some organising practices, this bringing together of people under one roof can focus on individuals who might have access to particular resources like money or assets, or authorities such as the power to enact legislation, public policy, or enforce laws. In the context of social movement or workplace organising, however, access to resources or authority might not be so readily available to your constituency. Here, the focus is on power in numbers. Put plainly: the more people organised, the greater the power.

Relationships with others in your workplace or community, then, are a source of power, and organising is a method of building power through developing relationships and channelling them into a common direction.

Activity 1 What is your organising context and constituency?

Timing: Allow around 15 minutes for this activity

Watch the video below in which Sharon Thompson, Councillor and Deputy Leader, Birmingham City Council, discusses organising context and developing relationships, and then answer the questions that follow.

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Transcript: Video 1 Sharon Thompson – Organising context and constituency

SHARON THOMPSON

Besides geographical boundaries, what makes a constituency inclusive is the people, and you have to understand your role within that. It’s about understanding the differences between communities, the cultural differences, the things that make people tick. Whether that’s based on an estate, whether it’s based on a faith, it’s how people come together.

Within my ward, I made sure that last year, we had our first Iftar that brought together the community to break bread in the middle of Ramadan, which was really important for us as political leadership to work with the community and bring people together. So it’s about celebrating the differences between cultures. But also within that, it’s also about recognising the differences and the challenges that individual communities have. So it’s really, really important that you are the advocate, and you are the voice, but you also share power across the community.

To recognise the differences some of the things that we’ve done is there was an attack in our local area, and I made sure that we pulled together the different types of agencies, whether that was the police, the police and crime commissioner, community services, so that we could bring rest into the community, so that people didn’t feel nervous, anxious, or scared within the community in which they lived. It’s really is about sometimes being the peacemaker, being the advocate, being the person that actually, really helps them to find their space in community power, and making sure that we all come together in a really equitable way. There’s lots of issues in local communities, but there’s lots of value. And inclusive communities will always start by putting the people at the heart and centre of that.

In my opinion, we’ve come a long way when it comes to representation of the Black community in politics, but it hasn’t gone far enough. When you think back to when Diane Abbott, Bernie Grant, and Paul Boateng were first actually elected, and now we have 65 Black MPs across the chamber. But I think one of the key things is that we always need more, because we need local communities to be represented well within parliament and within politics.

Now there’s a whole broad spectrum of that. It’s not just about your identity as a Black or ethnic minority in politics, it’s also taking those other nuances into account. So I’m also conscious of the fact that I’m also a woman, so I represent in terms of the gender equality. It’s also looking at those from the LGBT community, disability, also those that come from the working class. There’s a whole range of things, because our identities are very fluid. So it’s really key that we have more people coming through. We have come a long way, but are you going to be the person that puts yourself forward to step into politics and join people like me, who are sitting in chambers across the country.

The advice that I would give to Black leaders coming into politics, when it comes to championing around diversity, equality, and inclusion, my starting point would be to pick what your niche is. There are so many different areas where policy needs to be influenced and looked at through that inclusive space. So it might be housing, it might be policing, it might be education. There’s a whole raft of areas. So pick the area that you’re most familiar and passionate about. And be really clear with yourself, what is the type of change that you want to make.

I think the other thing that I would say is definitely is about allyship. It’s about making sure that you build allies around the political space. Because sometimes, there are rooms where we are not represented, as in the Black community. And we need people inside those rooms speaking up and making those changes and recommendations around those tables. So allyship is really, really important.

And finally, being unapologetic about standing up when it comes to inclusion, equality, and diversity. There’s going to be people that you come across across the way that won’t always understand our perspective, your perspective, and some of the things that we’re trying to champion for. Make sure that you deliver your message in a way that when you’re in certain rooms and in different spaces that your message may remain the same, but your delivery and the language that you use is in a way that’s palatable, that brings people together, and actually influences them to make the changes that we need to see.

And there’s not one size that fits all. There are many aspects and many different ways that we can utilise our voice to get to the change that we need to see. And it’s about understanding where you fit into that, and how you can work with others to deliver different parts of that message. Whether you’re the campaigner, the lobbier, or the one that goes into the room, or the person that holds the pen on the policy changes of recommendations.

 

End transcript: Video 1 Sharon Thompson – Organising context and constituency

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Video 1 Sharon Thompson – Organising context and constituency

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Who is a constituency that you think lacks power and struggles to represent their interests in society? Consider the following:

• What are the signs that they lack power or are underrepresented?
• Does this constituency exist in the workplace or the community?

Comment

Black British workers are a constituency that struggles to represent their interests in the workplace. This is evidenced by the ethnicity pay gap and the fact that Black employees have consistently earned less than white employees since 2012 (ONS, 2023).