As the parties revealed their manifestos last week, there was an unseemly battle over who first introduced the living wage. David Cameron (wrongly) claimed that the living wage was a Conservative policy brought in by Mayor Boris Johnson. This prompted former Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone to remind Mr. Cameron that it was his administration that first introduced the living wage in 2004.

But both parties missed the point. It was a letter to the Guardian from two dozen academics, trade unionists and campaigners that came closest to the truth. “No political party”, they said, “should claim all of the credit – it was thousands of grassroots activists organised through London Citizens that made the London living wage campaign impossible to ignore.”

In the febrile weeks before an election it is easy to get lost in sound-bites and poll numbers, slogans, gaffes and coups. But the debate about who can claim credit for the living wage tells an important story about where political change really comes from – organised people.

When the living wage campaign was launched less than a decade ago by London Citizens, with support from trade union UNISON, no political party or major employer dared go near it, much less claim credit for introducing it. What shifted the political landscape was the slow, painstaking work done in organising low-paid workers seeking a decent living standard. It meant building community support for their campaign and hammering on the doors of employers and politicians over and again, using powerful stories and imaginative actions. Not only did this get across the message that this was the right thing to do, it showed that there was power – diverse, vocal and well organised – behind the demand for a living wage.

Whichever party wins the next election will have made a manifesto-load of commitments, promising more of some things and fewer of others. And if they change their minds in the wake of some unfavourable poll numbers or a cautionary word from the Treasury, how will the voters hold them to account? The hastily assembled organisations that go into high gear at election time often unravel in the weeks that follow. Politicians go back to business as usual as soon as the media spotlight is off (with ‘business’ being the operative word, since it is those with economic power that wield the most influence). Organising is the only way to keep politics focused on the needs of ordinary people, not corporate lobbyists.

It is one of the ironies of the economic crisis that people have come to see that the exposure of all sectors of society to market principles, turning us all from citizens into customers, has eroded the glue that held communities together. While the old neoliberal orthodoxies held sway, the fragmentation of once integrated institutions – workplace, school, faith group, social club, residents’ association, mutual society – was seen as the inevitable price for prosperity. But as the economic crisis hit, people realised how vulnerable they had been left by their lack of social integration. In “Behind the Balance Sheet”, an interesting study of family budgeting, the Resolution Society notes that the ability of families to cope depends on the support networks they can call on.

Community organising is about building – or re-building – these essential bonds between individuals and communities. It’s what gives them the resilience to survive adversity and the strength to fight the next political battle – whether or not it’s election time.