The Future of Action

The future needs to be constructed differently. It needs new systems that won’t lead to the same outcomes (climate, genocide, poverty, racism). That means, if the future’s going to work at all, we need new decision-making systems. Not just a change of party in government, but a completely new system of how we govern ourselves.

I’ve been thinking deeply about this; about what is the most effective thing we can do in this all-system crisis, that’s already past multiple deadlines and into borrowed time. Yet in recent years all the efforts we’ve made about what is the most effective thing to do in a democracy have been countered by anti-democratic people and networks, and they have got strategies too! The crackdown on our civil liberties is part of that counter playbook rolled out by so called liberals, conservatives, think tanks, and framed as the ‘opposition’ to activists. 

It is these bad actors who deface the principles of democracy, because they don’t know how else to cling to a system that is collapsing under climate destruction and economic decline. They’re desperate to keep things the same and cannot admit that things can’t and won’t, no matter what they do. 

That’s why we’re witnessing what’s going on in the courts: people arrested for holding up signs that state what the law is and defendants banged up for explaining to a jury why they took action. We’re past 1.5 degrees of average warning, our commitments are in the bin and an emergency halt is impossible – within the existing systems of governing. We’re on course for collapse. What could be more serious? 

If routes to participation in the things that should work in a democracy – the right to protest, the right to a fair trial – are closed down, then we don’t live in a democracy any more. Britain is authoritarian. A lot of us have been able to see this coming; only now they don’t want us to be able to call it out.

But everyone wants change. Twice as many people stayed at home than voted for this government. The majority of us polled are up for systemic change in politics. 

So what do we do?

When we can see our democracy being derelicted from the inside out; when we can see the tactics of civil disobedience we’ve used over many years get diminishing returns… then we need a change of system. It’s not by holding a sign that says “system change”; we’ve got to show people what the new system looks like – safe, robust, and better than what we’ve got – by building it. 

The people organising local assemblies about food or mental health or youth violence, cost of living summits, whatever it is, are creating the knowledge, tools, wisdom, experience, potential and belief, for this new system to be born.

To give birth takes stamina, love and hard work. It doesn’t need a perfect strategy. It takes the dark of the womb not the dark of the tomb, nor the blinding light of the tower. It’s a feminine energy that creates spaces in which we can be strong and vulnerable. I don’t have all the answers. None of us do. But what I know is we have to create it. 

Humanityproject.uk is one group that I am supporting. The length and breadth of the UK people are organising and building new structures and systems for inclusion, to have their voices heard and to build the people power needed to affect change. It's time for a new wave of constructive efforts to build a new world so we can imagine something that isn’t just business as usual and the same loud voices. 

Join a group that’s self-organising in your local community to bring people together. Look after each other. Give birth to something new with care, freedom, uncertainty, and love. Create a new politic for the 21st century, nobody will give it to us on a plate. 

(This piece was originally published as part of Massive Attack’s Act 1.5 in August 2024, a large-scale climate action accelerator event that aimed to be the lowest carbon show of its size ever staged.)