This seminar was the third in a series of seminars focusing on volunteering in a fair society organised by IVR in partnership with the ESRC and Northumbria University. This event explored how individuals and communities can most effectively make their voices heard. In this presentation Dr. Gidon Cohen (senior lecturer in Politics at Durham University) discusses the place of party activism, projects on party activism and more. Past presentations from the Institute of Volunteering Research website can be found at the following location - http://www.ivr.org.uk/ivr-events/ivr-past-events

1. From The Activists Point of
View: Histories of Party and
Participation in Britain
Dr Gidon Cohen
Senior Lecturer in Politics

2. ∂
The Place of Party Activism
• Party activism –
• ‘High intensity’.
• Direct link to political system (engagement/apathy).
• Decline in membership of British parties from peak:
• Conservative: 1952 c.3 m [2010 – 177,000]
• Labour: 1952 c.1.1 m [2010 – 194,000]
• Communist: 1942: 56,000 [party ceased 1991]
• Why has this decline happened? What does it
signify?

3. ∂
Projects on Party Activism
• Aims and approaches:
• to understand the character of party membership and
activism from the activists point of view.
• develop a rigorous historical dimension to the understanding
of party activism.
• Placing politics in the context of activists life histories.
• Using a mixed methods, collective biographical approach.
• Projects:
• Communism and the British Labour Movement (ESRC – led
by Kevin Morgan, University of Manchester)
• Labour Party Activism (ESRC)
• Conservative and Labour Activism in the post-war North
East (AHRC)

4. ∂
Radical Activism: Communists
and British Society
• A view from the mainstream
– Extremist threat (... or pressure-valve?)
– The activist as moderniser... the uncomfortable voice
• A view from the inside
– Party line dictated by Moscow but still everyday life bears
imprint of British society
– A part (not the whole) of people’s lives
– Limited interest in ‘representation’: challenge to capitalism
and the state
– Trade union/education activity
– Motivated, experienced and committed campaigners
(resources: skills, techniques)

5. ∂
Labour Party Activism
• Trade unions – direct and indirect
significance.
• Importance of organisational resources (class
dimension).
• Ideology and activism (generally supportive of
leadership, deferential, focus on procedure).
• The importance of routine and procedure in
the everyday life of the activist (and its
persistence).

6. ∂
Conservative Party Activism
• Resources, effectiveness and scale of post-
war Conservative membership (significance
of class composition)
• Ideology.
• Gender and Conservative politics (why was
the grassroots party dominated by women?)
• Relationship between activism and
socialisation.

7. ∂
Reflections of the character of
activism
How should we define activism? what are its core attributes?
– Activism across political spectrum (not just progressive activism).
– Within party activism key motivations for activity: representation (direct influence),
campaigning (indirect influence), contact.
– Distinction between the activity (high profile, dramatic, symbolic) and the activist life
(organisation, preparation).
Activism and volunteering
– Activism has generic features common to volunteering and politics.
– Public/private focus of activity.
Activism and social change
– Social change requires political activism but not all activism aims at social change.
– Activism can look very different from the activists and the policy makers perspective.
Activism and effectiveness
– Skills and techniques.
– Resources.

8. ∂
Bibliography
Gidon Cohen and Lewis Mates (forthcoming) ‘Grassroots
Conservatism in Post-War Britain: A View from the Bottom-Up’,
History
Gidon Cohen, Lewis Mates and Andrew Flinn (2012) ‘Capture-
Recapture Methods and Party Activism in Britain’, Journal of
Interdisciplinary History, 43:2
Kevin Morgan, Gidon Cohen and Andrew Flinn (2007) Communists
and British Society 1920-1991, Rivers Oram Press: London