A year on, I still feel that same excitement when I think about my time on the Obama campaign. Of course, that's partly because young people and old came together to work for an iconic candidate at what, even then, felt like an iconic moment in history.

And, yes, it's because we were working toward the election of a charismatic leader, anti-Iraq from the start and with good social democratic policies against committed neo-liberal economists with neo-conservative social instincts.

But what really stuck with me from those long, cold mornings on Bed-Stuy subway platforms and outside polling stations near Coney Island, and from across the swing states this time last year, was the diversity of organisations and opinions that coalesced around a common purpose.

Even after a tense and often divisive primary season which threatened the Democratic Party with seemingly irreparable chasms, when it came to the crunch people who disagreed on some issues but agreed in the most part united and organised around a single cause: Blue Dogs with liberals in New York; fiscal conservatives with social democrats in the Potomac states; unionists with idealistic students in San Francisco.

Across a broad church of varying organisational structures and many political differences, out of many, the Obama campaign was truly one.

Many have said it over the past year, but we in the Labour movement still have a lot to learn from that campaign that put Barack Obama in the White House - the campaign that has since seen the advancement of some of the most progressive policies in American history: the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; caps on bankers' bonuses; new tax cuts for the working classes and increases on the wealthiest; resulting expanded unemployment benefits; vast public sector and public service investment; and the largest educational investment America has ever known.

At times it took big leaps of faith to reach that powerful coalition, but the results are visible for all.

The Obama campaign was plural, it was grassroots and it was locally autonomous. Conversely, it was also a very traditional campaign, top-down and micro-managed from Chicago.

But that seeming contradiction was not a weakness; it was the campaign's greatest strength. Only as a coalition built of liberals and socialists, federalists and democrats, north and south, east and west, was Obama able to build such a powerful, election-winning movement, unparalleled in modern political history. Success was the result of a combination of innovative thinking, pragmatic solutions and genuinely joined-up campaigning.

Only that togetherness meant that when the chips were down, and when the right-wing attacks were plentiful, the broad left was able to come together like never before, on blogs, at rallies and in local campaigns.

At a time of such difficulty for the Labour party, it is imperative that we who believe in honest social democratic solutions our own social ills find a way to do the same: to find compromise where we may differ, and to work together as one.

So while we iron out the policies for the manifesto that will take Labour into the first post-recession election, discussion is crucial; differences must be debated and even celebrated - but never accentuated.

Intellectually, that means opening up new conversations and unexpected alliances that will result in the type of policy and the style of campaigning we can all be proud of.

Organisationally, it means pooling techniques and ideas, but also sharing resources. Reading Renegade, it's very clear that as soon as the primary season was over, old habits died - if not easy then at least quickly. As soon as the nomination was secured, the Obama campaign harnessed Hillary Clinton's email list to full affect and discussions and public rallies were frequently held by and between those who had previously been opponents.

We in the Labour movement must do the same, beginning now. Old disagreements must be put aside for the next six months and whatever resources and tools of connection we possess should be integrated and deployed as one.

LabourList has amassed a database of thousands of email addresses and readers, as have Compass and others. Each can now begin to campaign not as single voices competing with each other, but as a united force in order to best connect people and support each other.

And once we arrive at our manifesto document and have shared our ideas for integrated and collective campaigns, we must all in the Labour movement - unions, campaign groups, blogs, think tanks and CLPs - fight with whatever we have for that new Labour government.

Alex Smith is editor of LabourList.org