What you have to do is get bodies to move together in close proximity, meaning, in everyday language, people have to do stuff, actually real stuff, together.
The ecology of human connection is in part ideas, part emotional communication, part bodily movement. In ecology no part leads. It is never a matter of linear sequence – sort all this first and then sort all that.
Ecological systems go in spirals either upwards or downwards. To get it to go upwards you do a bit of ideas, a bit of small talk, a bit of out on the street stuff, and then spiral round and start again, and don’t stop because you lose momentum.
You design the bike while cycling it. There is no easy English word for all this which is a big part of the problem. But this is how it works.
Connections
Which brings us onto the designing of our social movements, in the era of the Reform Party and the collapse of the biosphere.
Yes, we all know the default outcome. I have gone on about it in past articles – it is clear as day. We do our anaemic neoliberal networking thing – the bad guys get to power and pick us off one by one.
The recent repression of Just Stop Oil is just the beginning of what is coming down the line for everyone else. So how can a truly rich conception of ecology help us? What I call a close ecology.
First we have to stop thinking about ‘things’, and focus on the connections. Not events but the before and after of events. And then put into a plan a sequence of iterative spirals – and not stop.
The point is we already have the resources: the people, the money, the desire. The problem, as always, is connection and getting these connections to start moving. It’s the “just connect” thing.
Collective
So let’s get concrete. Praxis please. Here is a module. We invite people to come together, via monthly meet ups, say 30-50 groups, 10 at a time: cultural, media, campaigning, political groups, all of whom are broadly open, democratic and realise we need system change or we are done for.
In other words the present weak ecology of what we might call ‘the movement’. Then we don’t battle over ideas or principles, we tell our stories, the highs and lows, where we are up to, and how we feel about it.
We then have a vital pathway to action – the joint moving of bodies. We organise a national, and then regional, open format, urban festivals – everyone is welcome.
No one is in charge, you have open programmes, a bunch of venues – community centres, churches, parks. And people and groups do their events.
Out of this comes connection, and only then comes the development of the trust that can lead to collective actions – shared templates for mobilisation, locally regionally and nationally.
Process
And only then do we come up with shared aims and demands for standing in elections, doing street demos, and the things we get arrested for conspiracy for talking about.
And then we repeat the spiral, more meet-ups, more festivals, more collective actions and variations on the theme. The connections thicken with joint fundraising, training, and outreach.
No one is being asked about their fundamental bottom line beliefs. It’s about, “here are the leaflets for the event on Saturday – is that okay”. All that unglamorous sociability that never gets written about, but is what makes the world go round.
Ecology, by definition, cannot be abstract and theoretical – it’s about the here and now. It cannot just be a design, it has to be a process that is actually happening.
And so monthly meetings are starting, there is already a sense a new big movement is about to take shape, a national event is set for October. And no one is pretending that this is ‘it’, meaning ‘us’ and so not ‘you’.
Stampede
As – and if and when – this event creation process knocks into other event projects in the wider network, then it will be a chance for more connectivity, a growing close ecology of joint concrete projects.
And then it goes international. It is already international: the idea of having set dates for coordinated global mass events – a new Earth Day but bottom up, and with teeth.
All this is happening. because it has to happen.
This part of the ecology is called ‘We Decide’. The start of a journey begins with a single step, but soon it becomes a stampede. After all, the alternative is prime minister Farage and 2C. Let’s get to it!
This Author
Roger Hallam is a founding member of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil and an activist with Umbrella. He is currently serving a five year prison sentence for participating in a online call discussing a climate action on the M25.
