Convening across difference – two months to go

In two months, on 11th Sept, we will host our Convention on the fate of Britain at Conway Hall, in London. We’ll welcome 300+ amazing people, individuals and organisations, all ready to do the joined-up, collaborative work needed to build a better world.

If you think you should be there, get in touch. The first tickets will be released on Monday.

As we prepare for the Convention, we wanted to share how we’re organising things. There are elements we’ll be inviting participants to co-create with us, as we try to live up to our promise that this will be a collaborative transcendent moment, and not one of those boring conferences. So, we thought it useful to share some workings out:

1. How stories drive the convening
2. Design for radical stupidity
3. It’s all about belonging
4. Our gift economy ticketing

I’m not a number, I’m a story!

Of course you are. We are all storied beings. And our Convention will be built on the stories of everyone in the room. 

That’s in part because we know diverse perspectives lead to better outcomes, especially when creative, transcendent, paradigm-busting thinking is needed.

It’s also in part because we know there is a dominant national narrative right now of a Britain in decline, which is being weaponized by some to put the blame on immigrants. Some do this as a means to distract from their hoarding of wealth and power through extraction, the multiple crises that extraction has caused, and how these crises of extraction threaten to destroy our country and the planet that is our home.

The best way to move beyond and replace that narrative of decline, is to collectively remind ourselves there is another story of Britain, there always has been, and that when we work together we find ourselves with the power to tell it.

So we’re trying to make the invite list diverse in lived experience, thought, and practice.

We’re planning to hear as many of those stories as possible within the frame of one day; and to make telling such stories of who we are and why we do what we do, central to the vision of the better Britain we want. 

That calls on us to foreground the history that’s important to us. The stories of love, care, freedom, compassion, respect, dignity and humour that makes us, us.

As an example, the story of the community at Marsh Farm in Luton, and the rave that stopped a riot. Or the stories from the Hood Commons in Birmingham. Or the stories from Haringey’s Community Food Network. There are so many to hear.

Designing for radical stupidity

Err, what?! Yes, radical stupidity. It’s a practice. We’ve been inspired by the idea from the thinker of beautiful thoughts Karim Asry in a conversation with our good friend and collaborator John Fass. Karim was explaining his ethos of working, which we love:

We pump love into the system towards people we feel need the support and help, who are trying to do something noble or values-based with their lives. And these acts of collective bootstrapping, sometimes you feel stupid doing them, but I practice radical stupidity, and sometimes when you get to this point where you feel stupid, that’s the place where you need to go the extra mile, and that’s how you get to the place where impossible things happen.

Isn’t it amazing to think of our work as pumping love into a system, to support people doing noble work when they need the help, and to do it in an ego-less way? It’s doing this which brings us to what we at first thought impossible to achieve. That’s the intent for this Convention. As John Fass explains:

If we put aside what we think we know and who we think is important and enter the room with an attitude of radical stupidity it means we access the side of our brains where anything is possible, where alpha states rule, where plausibility and probability collide in the dream of a thriving future for all.

What does that practically translate into? So far: choirs, poetry, stories, connection, honesty, vulnerability, and doing the work. Doing this intentionally. As Karim continues: 

Know what kind of community you want to build, and think of that in a broad sense. People might not be exactly like you. How do you build this network? Through actions, not words. Focus on what you control. Stop trying to make people do what you want them to do if you don’t find a fruitful place for collaboration. Find a way to create a network that has different layers, at the neighbourhood layer, at public governance level, at the global level.

You can hear all of John’s conversation with Karim and Tyler Fox here:

It’s about belonging

Our friend Roger is in prison for trying to bring appropriate action and attention to the climate crisis. He recently shared his list of Top 10 prison reads, the last of which, The Culture Code by Dan Coyle, I picked up and read. The summary of that book is:

Effective cultures – whether workplace, social, national – are based on trust and belonging, on people being vulnerable and human with each other.

How do people come together, in ways that encourage energy, enthusiasm, connection, and trust? It’s a design challenge to create this belonging. Things move slowly. Silos are particularly hard to break down, and now of course we have the algorithmic bubble, which has turned us all into filtered replicas of ourselves. But it is the work that needs to be done – to move through a journey together. Here’s how we’re planning that:

One way to find out how we collaborate is to throw a party, a really good one, where everyone feels welcome and has a great time, meets their neighbours, and wants to get on and look after each other. Simple, right? So, we think the ingredients might be:

• A good party: we need people from culture – musicians, artists, performers
• Working together: we need people who know how to collaborate
• Having each other’s backs: we need people who know how to defend people
• Taking power: we need grassroots organisers and democracy experts
• Inspiring others: we need media people, influencers, campaigners
• Lived experience: we need people who know about the cost of living, who experience racism and poverty, who know the real threat of the climate crisis
• Someone to pay for it: funders, your time has come!

So, let’s show our vulnerability to each other. It’s then that we recognise each other’s humanity, and remember we already belong to one another. It’s not woo-woo. It’s just human.

That’s the dream team of people who are already rolling up their sleeves and building a better world. Not the navel gazers. Not the wafflers. Not the egos. The people from grassroots organising, movement ecologies, funders, artists and culture makers, all already working out of necessity, compassion, care and freedom. 

It is on the patch of culture that this work will succeed. Again, as Roger Hallam writes in his newsletter this week:

By being less obsessed with power and more focused on culture, we can attract [more] people into mass movements — which in turn enables us to take real political power.

The gift economy of ticketing

We’re using a gift economy model to support those from grassroots organising a long way from London to come and be part of the day.

If we were covering all our costs and paying all those who are contributing performances, banners, dressing, tech and support, the average ticket price would need to be £80. That’s unimaginable to us (an ally said to us this week, “What are you doing, most people charge £300 for this kind of thing!” Noooo!).

To cover for the venue hire and food only, the average ticket price would need to be £35.

But channelling Karim Asry’s radical stupidity and the goal of pumping love into the system to help bootstrap the amazing work that so many people are already doing, by bringing those people together, we’ve come up with what we think is the right mix:  

• £50 Gift Ticket (yours + 1 other for a grassroots organiser)
• £25 Standard Ticket
• £10 Trust Ticket
• £ Pay what you can/feel £0-£ To infinity and beyond!

If you can afford to support someone else to come, please think about gifting them a ticket. If you can chip in a bit more to help with transport and refreshments, we thank you in advance. If £25 is too much, then there are £10 tickets, or please get in touch if money is a barrier to you being with us. No one will be excluded on the issue of something as stupid as money.

Anyway, that’s it. If this sounds like the kind of Convention on the fate of Britain you need to be at, email us, please, and we can talk.

And look out for the ticket invite, coming on Monday!

A special note on music for Palestine

This week Daze attended the Everything Is Political workshop hosted by Earth Percent and Slow Factory, which focused on music for Palestine. Daze called it “such a beautiful container exploring what collective action could look like.” 

Our friend Boff Whalley was also present, and he shared this incredible piece – Call it a Genocide – from the Commoners Choir.

Sophie was at the Fontaines DC / Kneecap gig on Saturday. She writes: “It was a beautiful, politically-charged gig, with vibes in the crowd of deep love and care and solidarity. There were a few standout moments:

• When Amy from Amyl & The Sniffers said: ‘You can learn and you can join movements and you can make change, so f*ck yeah!’
• Kneecap’s Mo Chara addressed the crowd about Palestine, while Moglai Bap invited people to Mo Chara’s trial on 20th August. Wearing a keffiyeh, O hAnnaidh responded: ‘I appreciate it, the 20th of August is going to be the second time Kneecap have beat the British Government in court – in their own court, on their own terms, and we’re going to beat them for the second time. I tell you what, there is nothing like embarrassing the British Government.’ 
• And ‘In The Modern World’ the Fontaines DC song ‘bottles up the generational numbness and apathy that comes from doom scrolling atrocities sandwiched between polarised political opinions on them and some adverts in for good measure. ‘In the Modern World’, as Fontaines see it, it can be easy to feel like you’re not doing enough, or to see artists and activist groups being shut down and worry that attending a concert might now be considered political. But their Finsbury Park show strikes a balance beautifully; a show that, as Amy reassures us, can develop a cause and your own position within it without sacrificing a love for the art that brought you here in the first place.’


“Fontaines DC ended the set with the image frame: ‘Israel is committing genocide – use your voice’.”

Elsewhere in Absurdity…

I (Alex) was mainly trundling across London for acupuncture for a trapped nerve in my shoulder, but luckily the rest of the crew are/were doing more interesting things:

• This weekend (Sunday, to be precise) Daze will be at Wireless Festival, talking about The Fête of Britain with Climate Live; get down there and show your support and follow Daze here! 
• Many of our crew were at Monday’s gathering of Hard Art to hear George Marshall and others discuss ‘future-casting’ and the kinds of social-psychological reactions we will be having to the climate crisis in 2050. 
• David was at the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) to hear Professor Tim Jackson talk on the themes of his book, The Care Economy, while there were presentations on using culture to increase local participation in decisions plus modelling the effect of a transition to a post-growth economy.
• Clare returned from a week in Leiden, the Netherlands, where she and 25 others were part of an intense workshop into understanding and accelerating climate action. There was both time for taking stock and plans to move forward. More on this soon (also from Clare’s substack).
• And Alex went to Brighton to see Kae Tempest perform from their new album at Resident Music.