Getting on with it...
The post below was first published on our sister blog, Stirrings from below. Amongst other issues, it addresses the need to build community solidarity. A task that is becoming increasingly difficult thanks to the divide and rule merchants, and those they serve, doing everything they can to get us at each others throats. A situation not helped by contrarians, wanting to do some intellectual posturing and grandstanding, being only too happy to publish material that will only serve to confer a degree of credibility to those who seek to divide us. We’re reposting this piece here on At the grassroots because we feel that our readers should know what we’re up against when it comes to dealing with the divide and rule merchants.
The purpose of this Stirrings from below blog is to call truth to power. That can take many forms from supporting opposition to the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood that Bristol City Council want to impose - Agendas behind the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood 15.12.24 - through to calling out discrimination against those suffering with mental health issues - Is mental health now an acceptable target for demonisation? 15.1.25. Calling truth to power has a vital role to play in that it shows people that the only way forward to a genuinely decent life is radical change from the grassroots upwards. However, it’s all very well having a sharp critique of the world as it is but, the point is that we need to change it, sooner rather than later.
To play a small part in achieving that end, we have this sister project - At the grassroots. I make no apologies for yet again, reproducing the mission statement from At the grassroots in full:
It’s easy to know what you’re against in a dysfunctional, unsustainable and increasingly dystopian world. Railing against the world we have to endure may make you feel better but…does it lead to positive change? We know that the political, economic and social system we inhabit is rapidly heading towards its use by date and that we have to bring about radical change if we’re going to survive. There are many ways of bringing about the change that’s needed. What this project is about is what can be done in the here and now to boost sustainability, community cohesion and neighbourhood resilience in an increasingly volatile world. It’s about building the new world we need and want in the decaying shell of the old one we currently endure.
Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that I’ve started to cross post from At the grassroots where I think it’s appropriate. These are where these posts can be found on Stirrings from Below - At the grassroots. One of the aims of reposting is to hopefully get readers on here to understand that we really need to start building the world we want in the here and now. That would be from the grassroots upwards, in the neighbourhoods, towns, cities, suburbs and villages where we live. True radical change can only come from an organic movement right at the base. It can never come from the top down. It can never come from self styled protest ‘leaders’, a.k.a. grifters. If top down change puts on radical clothing, be aware that it’s merely a costume and sooner or later, the authoritarian reality will be revealed. That’s something that the so called ‘truthers’ who voted for Trump are going to learn the hard way as he hands over power and influence to people who are essentially techno-fascists. All of this and more is dealt with in this piece - Getting away from the fear porn merchants, rage baiters, pedants and grifters 30.12.24.
A significant minority of the ‘truth movement’ never really got the hang of rejecting all authority, false idols and grifters. The inability to do this was the reason for what I would describe as their fall from grace. Particularly with the way some of them are looking to Trump to be some kind of saviour. Seriously? For f**k sake!
For over two decades since I was in the Independent Working Class Association, I’ve been banging on about the need to build and strengthen community solidarity and cohesion. Over these two decades, I’ve tackled these issues in a number of ways, as have many other like minded people. I’d like to say we’ve had some degree of success but, when you look at the grifters, rage baiters and assorted divide and rule merchants doing the bidding of those who presume to rule over us by getting us at each others throats, to date, we have failed. This is just one of many posts, both on this blog and also on At the grassroots where the issue of needing to defeat the divide and rule merchants and building community solidarity is addressed - Don't let them divide us 25.11.24.
What we absolutely have to bear in mind is that the bastards who presume to rule over us do not want their power diluted by successful neighbourhood projects that offer the possibility of bringing power right down to the grassroots. They want us atomised, even fearful of each other and reliant on their governance to frame our lives. The last thing they want is for us to be offering any challenge to their malign desire to totally control as many aspects of our lives as they can get away with. Which is why they and their compliant mates in the media foster a toxic climate of division in a bid to set us at each others throats.
I make no apologies for the amount of posts I put up addressing this. If we can’t get community solidarity and cohesion right, then there’s no point in building anything else because, without strong foundations at the grassroots, any attempts at radical change will simply collapse. As for what constitutes a community, there are plenty of opinions on what that is. Quite a few times those opinions will be in conflict with each other. Some will argue that community solidarity can only come about when the demographic is pretty much homogeneous. Others, myself included, will argue that a heterogeneous demographic is equally as capable of building community solidarity as, regardless of where people might have originally come from, if they’re facing the same problems, it makes sense to unite. This, amongst others, is one of the issues I addressed in this piece - A sense of belonging 27.10.24.
When we talk about building a strong sense of community and belonging, we're not talking about a homogenous one where nothing ever changes. We're talking about a sense of community that recognises the variety of people that make it up. Regardless of where someone may have originally come from, if they live in a neighbourhood for any length of time, they're a part of that community, with the benefits and attendant responsibilities and obligations that go along with it. What we have to be alert to are the efforts of the divide and rule merchants on all sides who are sowing the seeds of division for their own nefarious purposes.
One of the things that any neighbourhood level activist fears is a repeat of the disturbances and tensions that spread across England in the wake of the horrific murder of three young girls at a dance event in Southport last summer. I’ve written more posts than I care to remember about the resentments simmering below the surface in working class communities that feel they’ve been thrown onto the scrap heap. I’ve written about how those with nefarious agendas have exploited those resentments, not in a positive way to bring about change for all, but to further exacerbate tensions and divisions. In many of these posts, I’ve acknowledged that there are issues that need to be openly and honestly discussed, even though that may be uncomfortable for some. However, I’ve also made it clear that open and honest discussions about difficult issues in communities shouldn’t end up with reactionary elements with divisive agendas being pandered to. This is one such post where I’ve addressed this - Too much change, too much turmoil 6.9.24.
The title of this piece is Too much change, too much turmoil. I would venture to suggest that's a pretty reasonable summation of where we are now. From the increased digitisation of more and more aspects of our lives, the growing sense of mistrust of the government, and the banks and corporations they serve, through to fears about the impact of what are perceived as imposed demographic changes on already struggling communities, there's a growing anger at what's being done to us. As already mentioned, we've seen that anger manifest itself on the streets in a way that left many of my former comrades at a loss to get to grips with. For sure, they talked a lot about how to combat what they see as 'fascism' but, they have made little to no effort to understand the anger and fear behind the disturbances back in the summer.
Yes, these issues need to be discussed. However, my motivation for discussing them is not point scoring, intellectual grandstanding or plain contrarianism. It’s to tease out the truth of what’s actually being done to us from the inflammatory crap the divide and rule merchants are spreading to cause further tension and division in our communities. Bear in mind that the divide and rule merchants are often just patsies for those who wield the real power and who want us atomised, frightened and looking to their authority for some degree of stability. That’s my motivation for discussing these issues - to get to the truth and then work on ways we can bring people together and tell the divide and rule merchants to f**k off.
This is why I get more than a bit irked when people I hoped would have know better start going down the rabbit hole of the ‘Great Replacement’. These are people who know where I’m coming from politically with my emphasis on building community solidarity at the grassroots. Here’s one such post but, not the only one - The Great Replacement: Conspiracy Theory or Immigration Policy? - Nevermore Media - 13.1.25. This really does feel like the proverbial kick in the bollocks, made all the worse by the fact that a few years ago, I used to write for Nevermore Media. I can tell you one thing, that sure as heck won’t be happening again!
Fortunately, this is being countered by Rusere Shoniwa who writes the A Plague on Both Houses blog here on Substack:
The Great Replacement Consciousness Test: Part I – Some of My Best Friends Are… 21.1.25
The Great Replacement Consciousness Test: Part III – Religion and Diversity 23.1.25
The Great Replacement Consciousness Test: Part IV – The Heart of the Matter 25.1.25
I live just outside of Bristol, a city I have a love, hate relationship with if I’m being honest. Not least because of the level of social and racial polarisation there is in the city. A degree of polarisation that if not addressed, will further hamper efforts at the grassroots to build the inclusive community solidarity that’s so desperately needed to build the better world that we want. Deliberately contrarian pieces such as the ones where Nevermore extensively quoted Simon Elmer are only going to serve to hamper attempts to build genuine neighbourhood solidarity. I for one have no f**king intention of indulging such contrarianism.
The title of this post is ‘Getting on with it… That’s all we want to do, get on with the task of supporting grassroots, neighbourhood level projects that empower people and build a genuine sense of solidarity. Sometimes with the contrarians and the intellectual grandstanders wanting to hog the stage, it feels like we’re asking a bit too much. Bollocks to that - if anything, we’re not asking enough! I and many others working on neighbourhood level projects haven’t got the time or energy to follow the likes of Nevermore down their contrarian rabbit holes. Unfortunately, once these rambling become mainstream, we’re left with no choice but to engage with it, if only to stop the divide and rule merchants from spreading their bile and further dividing our communities.
‘Getting on with it’ means just that. If it means ditching allies who now appear to be engaging in contrarianism for the sake of it rather than focusing on the task of building the parallel systems we need to bring about a better world, so be it, I’m prepared to be ruthless. Working from the grassroots upwards and building genuine, inclusive community solidarity is something I’m passionate about. I’m not going to let contrarians, intellectual grandstanders and plain shit stirrers deflect me from that…
‘Getting on with it’ means the slog of supporting and encouraging what’s going on at the grassroots in the here and now. It means inspiring people in communities afflicted with problems to start working together to address them as the first step towards building a better world. This is why on our sister blog At the grassroots, we have this resource - The Directory. In The Directory there’s a list of all the grassroots community projects across Bath, Bristol and the surrounding settlements that we’re currently aware of who, each in their own way, are doing their best to make the world a better place to live in. Whether they would define what they do as prefigurative let alone anarchist is possibly open to debate. Regarding that, we’ll leave you with this quote and link:
The anarchist conclusion is that every kind of human activity should begin from what from what is local and immediate, should link in a network with no centre and no directing agency, hiving off new cells as the original grows.
As for The Directory, needless to say, it's a work in progress that is constantly being added to. Any help in doing this or suggestions as to how we can improve The Directory will be greatly appreciated:) Each of these projects has a different story and background we can all learn from. One of the aims of setting up At the Grassroots is to encourage these groups to talk to each other to exchange experiences, ideas and skills with the hope that what emerges is considerably greater than the sum of its parts. This is the direction I want to go in…
We need to get Bristol moving at this level. And there's nothing like a common adversary to bring people together, as we can see from Barton Hill, and from the council allotments nonsense last year. Let's talk about this next Friday!