Notice at the top of the Labour Party website, it invites you to "Join Labour." And when you click, it asks you to pay monthly dues. And then they send you a membership pack with a membership card — and you're added to a local party that will be in touch with you.

Compare to our Democratic Party where there is no explicit ask to join, no reference to joining a local group, no invitation to pay dues. I had to click 5 tiny links to get to the Virginia Dems page, at which point the "Get Involved" link was to sign up for an email list.

We need to transition, as Theda Skocpol writes, from being a management party to being a membership party. We can either be a party of isolated individuals managed through email list databases or we can be a federated party of local groups—with membership cards and meeting halls.

(h/t @_SunshineRising for tipping me off to Labour's membership practices)