Books With Benefits
Stephen Miller of Northampton Left Unity reports on a new way of getting the left’s message out
Left Unity Northampton took to Abington Street on a lovely sunny day, the gods themselves happy with our small measure of kindness we were about to bring to the streets. We were there carrying out our BooksWithBenefits project, the premise of which is we collect unwanted books off people then in turn hand them out for free – a concept some people just could not get their head around, as we were greeted with “why would you do this?” “what’s the catch?” “that’s strange?” as they eagerly poured over the treasure trove of books in front of them. All the while political discussions were taking place and stories were being shared.
LU Northampton wanted a way to engage with the public and highlight political issues, so we formulated a way to do something nice for people while doing just that. We wanted to do something positive to highlight cuts to public services, sanctions on benefits and even the prison book ban.
We were never going to sell papers, and saw no point in just having a stall that does nothing, so the idea was born. Book donations flooded in and within each book we placed a Left Unity flier publicising a political discussion around cuts and sanctions, while at the same time giving out broadsheets to people who were genuinely interested to know who these strange nice people were giving away free books.
Every single person we engaged with on a political level had not heard of us either locally or nationally, and this was their first ever experience of Left Unity. They can now look back on that and see that we are nice people that want to do something good for our community, as we were not after anything off them personally, we were giving something back. All in all the event was a great success, we engaged with people we would not have otherwise, and overwhelmingly people wanted to have books which could teach them something and give them knowledge. One of the books we gave out was the first English book the person had ever owned, a memory which is likely to stay with her.
While we were greeted with a lot of “no thanks” after asking people if they wanted a free book, our success can be measured, we gave away quite a few books, formed new relationships with people and let people know what Left Unity is about. New people will be turning up to our discussion on cuts and sanctions next week and now LU Northampton is (until we run out of books) going to have regular engagement with the public. You can’t build a new kind of politics on old foundations, and that is why we are laying new foundations for Left Unity in our town, that can be inclusive. Far more important though than doing something nice were the political discussions and engagement we had, which were all positive.
This wouldn’t have been possible without the kind people of Northampton who donated books to the project in their hundreds, so a big thank you to them and to everyone in LU Northampton who made it possible. Even while we were handing out free books people were offering to donate more books. Afterwards, when we reflected on the event, we decided a couple of things: first and foremost to have a big sign that states we are giving away free books, and secondly to hold it on a regular basis.
11 comments
11 responses to “Books With Benefits”
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Wow what a wonderful idea!
Indeed.. We in Worcester were discussing ideas at our recent branch meeting. Nicking this one!
What a brilliant idea. Maybe a good opportunity to join up with any local library campaigns as well – books should be free, save our libraries!
Similar to Book Crossing. Setting a book free in the wild to spread its message or giving a book to a fellow Book Crosser etc. Check out the Book Crossing website, join in and set a book free today :)
Brilliant. Just purely brilliant. In a world where doing something for nothing is perceived to be abnormal, this comes along and blows that thinking out of the water! Well done to everyone involved.
When you’ve finished congratulating yourselves perhaps you’d better look again at what you wrote:
‘Every single person we engaged with on a political level had not heard of us either locally or nationally, and this was their first ever experience of Left Unity’
Thern you should be ashamed of yourselves. You should make an effort to reach people, not expect them to come to you. Then again, TUSC in most places has the same mentality. Here’s a crazy idea – why not go out and leaflet and/or talk to people where they live!
Hi Doug
Your suggestion that we should be ashamed of ourselves in Northampton, is both insulting and an unnecessary comment.
Let me explain why…
You state, that we should make an effort to reach people and not expect them to come to us. – that is a fair point, but isn’t that exactly what this campaign has done.
We haven’t sat in branch meetings, wondering why the same people attend each meeting, we have been proactive in a) raising awareness of the local branch within the local community, we know this has been successful as 80% of the books donated came from non members b) the books given out were to people who had not heard of us before. We did not wait for them to come the branch to get given a book we were in the town centre – reaching out to the local community. Therefore doing exactly what you suggest.
Your crazy idea of leafleting and talking is what we did and what we do, you will be shocked to know that each book had a leaflet inside…
Following on from that activity, which we now do monthly we hosted a debate on cuts and sanctions, which saw new people attend and sign up as members.
You don’t have to do things traditionally and left unity is about a new kind of politics and in Northampton we are committed to trying new approaches to get people talking politics and engaging in political activity.
You might be interested to know that in addition to this, we are actively involved in local campaigns, we are the lead for the NHS march in september when it comes through Northampton, we are hosting a birthday party for the NHS, we lead the peoples assembly locally.
So whilst your comments are always welcomed, let us reassure you that in Northampton, we are working hard, to grow with our principles in tact.
Doug, doorstepping is not the only political strategy! Doing community engagement work like this is very effective if it becomes a regular thing. It gives the party community roots and an image of activism, instead of only being seen to care about getting bums on seats in Westminster.
Another comment to Doug, they HAVE heard of Left Unity now!
Let’s build rather than knocking down initiatives – Northants should be congratulated for their engagement, sitting in Branch meetings doesn’t bring in votes.
Really surprised with the comment from Doug, i would like to know what you do to engage with your community?
The books with benefits was a great success i really enjoyed meeting people from my local community, we do action in our local town center every month more often than once for example we did our on anti spikes campaign and our own local boot out boots with a unique edge. We are all well received and we try new things all the time. Our local branch grows every week with diversity.
I am proud to say i was apart of this action, i am from the Northampton branch, and i can’t wait to see what we do next because we are fun!
Peace Out,
Jade Hope