What is ‘activism’?
Below is an old post, from a previous blog, which has been gathering dust in the archives for some time now. Reading through it, I felt that it was still relevant so, with a few minor edits for the sake of context, I recently republished it on our sister blog, At the grassroots. As part of a bit of a project to get Stirrings from below focusing more on solutions rather than ranting on about what’s wrong with the world, I’m re-posting it here on this blog. I hope the regular readers of this blog appreciate what I’m trying to do with these re-postings from At the grassroots:)
As self defined activists, we read this piece with great interest: ‘Activism should be part of everyone’s lives’ - James Ward | B24/7 | 1.3.23. What follows are some brief, quite probably subjective thoughts on what constitutes ‘activism’. I've put quote marks around the word ‘activism’ because it means different things to different people and as such, has acquired some negative connotations. The negativity comes from the mistaken perception some people have of activism as being little more than taking to the streets to protest, causing disruption in the process. Reading the piece by James Ward, it's pretty clear by the way he writes about grassroots projects that he thinks there's a lot more to activism in Bristol than taking to the streets.
The two of us behind the At the grassroots project have been living in Keynsham for almost two and a half years. While there have been a number of protests taking place in the region we cover, a few of which we've attended, to say that these events are what activism is about where we are is way, way off the mark. Since we relocated to Keynsham from Essex in 2022, we've been steadily building up a directory of local groups across the Avon region making a difference in their communities. There's a heck of a lot going on at the grassroots which we're only too happy to support and promote. What's going in is listed here: The Directory. There's only so much that can be achieved by taking to the streets to protest. An activity that's becoming increasingly constrained by tougher legislation regarding what is and isn't permissible on a protest. A situation exacerbated by policing strategy and tactics intentionally designed to deter people from taking to the streets in the first place. Obviously there are situations where there's no alternative but to take to the streets, albeit with the caveat that everyone on the protest looks out for each other to ensure there are no arrests or situations where people are getting hurt as a result of police violence.
Pretty much the whole point of At the grassroots is to promote grassroots action that makes a real difference to where people live and which empowers them in the process. Supporting action at the neighbourhood level is not a cop out from taking to the streets. It's all about building the kind of world we want in the here and now. It's about experimenting with ways of doing things we want to take into the new world we're building to see what does and doesn't work. Regular readers will be aware that we've published a fair few posts looking at various aspects of grassroots, community action. This piece hopefully summarises the thinking underpinning these posts: Prefigurative action 23.10.24.
It seems to us that a fair amount of protest is about asking the powers that be to do something about a situation, or to not do something about a situation, depending on what the situation is. Regardless of how noisy and passionate a protest may get, at the end of the day, all too often they're about making demands on others. Direct action on the other hand is people getting together to resolve a situation themselves. Here's one example... The protest in London on Saturday 31 March 1990 against the Poll Tax was massive, passionate, noisy and ended up in a massive riot. That didn't stop the Poll Tax. What stopped it was the sustained campaign of non-payment organised at neighbourhood level which made it increasingly unworkable.
That was an example of direct action being deployed to resolve a negative situation. What's more interesting is community action that's intended to make life where people live better, bring what power can be brought down to neighbourhood level, empower those taking part in it, offer some hints of what could be a better future and last but by no means least, undermine the dysfunctional system we're currently obliged to endure. From community food growing and resident run parks through to skill shares and mutual caring arrangements, it's about starting to build parallel systems and networks. It's about people and communities taking control of their own lives and how they grow and develop.
In many ways, it's the quiet start to the revolution... It's flying under the radar of a state that is making street protest harder and harder. Obviously, there's only so much that can be achieved by prefigurative action at the grassroots before we hit the constraints the system imposes upon upon us. The hope is that when that happens, what has been built in the way of parallel systems will be enough to sustain and see us through when the push against the system has to be made. Which is why, as I've written a few times before, At the grassroots is not a fluffy project.
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.
Activism could be defined in contrast to passivism as working to change the things that bother you rather than accepting them.
However, in modern times, activism is really just commercialised token rebellion, a public relations campaign or a pointless distraction that goes nowhere and achieves nothing for the sake of making money from drama and attention.