Hull's new groove: From arrests to rallies

People in Hull are open, funny and disillusioned, and the city is not just in a basin, but on the brink of crisis. We are the second most flood-prone city in the country after London, our boroughs are the worst affected by fuel poverty and we consistently have the lowest voter turnout in national statistics. People here know what's going on better than most. So in spring 2023 I moved here with three others to start an experiment called Cooperation Hull, which shows what's possible.

Inspired by Cooperation Jackson, Rojava and many others, and based on our experiences with Extinction Rebellion, we set out to create new democratic structures and replace today's outdated politics with new economic structures that put equality and the health of the planet above profit. And to achieve this goal, we have swapped arrests for assemblies.

We believe that taking back decision-making power from ordinary people is the key to wide-ranging action and the spark that will spark lasting change. We envision a network of autonomous people's assemblies stretching across the British Isles, open to all but guided by fundamental ideas of equality, solidarity and duty to people across seven generations*. Local decisions will be made for themselves, and regional or national decisions will be made collectively by accountable and recallable delegates.

The first catalysts for this project met during the heyday of Extinction Rebellion (XR) and in total we have been arrested more than 50 times since 2018. We value protest, but we now realise that it must be just one tool among many, one element of a wider movement for change.

The hope that one of the power-hungry, short-term-thinking political parties will grant citizens' assemblies in a meaningful way and within a meaningful timeframe (XR's most radical demand) seems increasingly fanciful. And as time went on and fires raged, crops failed and dinghies sank just off our shores, we also asked what the impact of such concessions would be. The government invites 200 “demographically representative” people into a room… What about everyone else?

XR has shown thousands of cynical nobodies like me the power of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, and I am grateful to Just Stop Oil for remaining uncompromising in their tactics. But after years of testing the arrest-based theory of change and the ultimate failure to meet our demands, and the unignorable absence of 3.5% of the population standing alongside us**, we recognised the need for a longer-term strategy, a systemic approach to thinking that reflected the complexity of the issues, and a plan to engage everyone else.

Include everyone else

We had to confront how some of the arguments of the left are not resonating with people here. People whose wages are shrinking, whose bread prices are soaring, whose community centres, libraries and pubs are closing forever. People who voted for Brexit, who have lived on the same street for 50 years, and who have seen the languages, shops and culture around them change radically in the last 15 years without them.

We have resisted labels like “ecosocialism,” “communism,” or “socialism,” which, without extremely careful communication and re-education, would alienate many of the people we are trying to reach. Most people, especially during the never-ending cost-of-living crisis, can see the point of putting justice over endless profit without mentioning communism or capitalism. And although I have met people with a wide range of political views, I have yet to meet anyone who has answered the question “Do you trust politicians?” with anything other than a sarcastic and resounding “No.”

Of course, things get more detailed in the resolution and implementation phase of an assembly; informed debate may require a more ideological foundation over time. But for now, we agree with Beat poet Diane di Prima: “Marx must go and Lenin with him / let us stop looking around all the time.” Moreover, in this age of conspiracy and the rise of the far right, it would be suicidal to close our ideas to people who balk at being called socialists, or to shut our doors to people who are beginning to see sense in the “stop the boats” rhetoric. It’s not about having one right answer and hammering it into everyone else’s head. It’s about reaching as many people as possible and relearning the forgotten skill of conversation, the lost act of participation, and the civic art of listening and being heard. Remembering democracy takes practice; we are way behind on our lessons.

The practice

Although democratic practice has been lost, the instinct remains. A 23% turnout (13% in some places) might suggest a lack of interest, but conversations on the street reveal something more nuanced. George, an army veteran, doesn't bother to vote but has plenty of stories to tell about local corruption, ideas about what he would do if he were prime minister and makes a convincing case for just letting people sit outside Downing Street “until they negotiate”. Helen has voted all her life but now considers it hopeless, having felt “betrayed” when her retirement age was raised without warning or support. For many people it feels like politics is something that is done to us and it seems pointless to even try to take part.

In our short time here, we have had climate deniers interrupt a class on climate science, a confrontation between a young trans person and someone who was convinced that children are manipulated to achieve gender reassignment, a passionate Trump supporter speaking to a black person about racism, and countless people on the street telling us the cause of [insert issue here] is “too many people coming here.” These are not easy moments, and we are far from having perfected the art. But in these cases, the conversation was allowed to continue, and all parties stayed to see it through. That is the beginning of the practice.

We are laying the groundwork for the people's wisdom to be expressed in the gatherings – with all participants bound by a set of ground rules agreed at the outset. This means that all opinions are welcome, but not all behavior and language (we commit to respecting each other, the facilitator and the process, focusing on the “problem not the person”, making our contributions constructive and helpful even when there is disagreement, and more). We are laying the groundwork for what is possible: shared decision-making in our communities on the greatest challenges of our time.

What is possible

Since April, Cooperation Hull's core team has grown encouragingly. We have organised five neighbourhood assemblies (people's assemblies at postcode level) and held hundreds of conversations on doorsteps and in the streets. We are aiming for two neighbourhood assemblies per postcode from HU1 to HU9, with a view to launching the Hull People's Assembly*** next spring, a city-wide consultative process that can respond to and build on the outcomes of the neighbourhood assemblies, ratify an ongoing strategy for Hull, support initiatives in line with that strategy, advise on big issues like flooding or food prices and, crucially, stay the course. In the words of Kali Akuno, founder of Cooperation Jackson, the Hull People's Assembly needs to become “an institution”, “an ongoing process and a permanent power base”.

Over time, the Hull People's Assembly must organise itself. To do this, our work will be reviewed against a strategy with five pillars: democracy, economics, education, ecology and action. People's assemblies are the most important element, but they do not work in a vacuum. We must also consolidate a local solidarity economy that spans the entire supply chain, develop an education programme with peer-to-peer teach-ins that teaches basic livelihood skills for decades to come, redefine humanity's place in the larger ecology and prepare our communities to engage in civil disobedience if necessary to protect our ideas from interference.

There are numerous grassroots initiatives in Hull. We Are Not Takeaway rescues and delivers food waste. The Timebank and Library of Stuff help people to be less reliant on money (and things). All this and more is already flourishing: a burgeoning solidarity economy. We see our role as connecting these groups to the will of the people, forming a coherent strategy and alternative power base. The skills and resources within the organisations can help implement the decisions of the Assembly, and the Assembly can increase the reach and capacity of the organisations.

A common refrain heard on the doorstep is, “Great, that'll never work.” We know it will take some convincing to convince the disillusioned people of Hull, and that's no bad thing. But it's up to all of us to prove to each other that it can be done. That we, the people, are capable of change and are worth the effort. It's up to all of us to look hard at what's possible (and yes, it will be hard), to take up useful ideas and try them out, to be wrong and keep going anyway, and to push all the windows of opportunity so wide that they may never close again.

~Gully, cooperation hull
Instagram: @cooperation.hull

* A principle borrowed from Iroquois philosophy

** A reference to XR's claim that success will come when 3.5% of the public actively stand together to bring about change

*** Not to be confused with the anti-cuts group that sometimes organizes demonstrations in London

This article first appeared in the Winter 2023-4 issue of Freedom Anarchist Journal