Liam Barrington-Bush.
Recently, as a participant in the Sweets Way Resists campaign, I took part in the 4th Radical Assembly, a series of participatory events initially called by the Brick Lane Debates crew, after the Tories won the national elections earlier this year. I reckon at least 100 people from across London came along and shared ideas about where we’re at, and what we need, as a broad progressive movement in the city. It was good to see a lot of friendly faces, particularly having been submerged in some pretty challenging stuff at Sweets Way in recent times. But I’m not totally sure of its approach…
The Radical Assembly builds on the global assembly movement, in which neighbourhoods, communities and cities around the globe have been organising around a range of intersecting issues, using directly democratic means in particular geographic areas. The assembly movement is an attempt to make democracy a fundamental part of local life, and to link up people and groups in a particular area. At their best, assemblies can draw together the common themes between housing justice, hospital closures, police racism, fossil fuel extraction, immigration raids, and so many other interrelated struggles, to build a stronger network of social movements.
