The Authority of the Streets

A few weeks ago I gave the opening speech at the Outdoor Arts UK conference at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge. This is what I said.

I helped to co-found Extinction Rebellion, and I’m a designer and a creative. So it will be no surprise to many that I view my work as resistance. 

I am now a campaigner for real democracy – because I don’t think we’ve ever experienced one, but we need to now, more desperately than ever. 

The good thing is, we can make one. A new democracy that works for people to live lives of dignity and freedom. A new world.

It won’t be easy to do, because there’s a whole world of bad actors lined up against us, who keep hoarding all the wealth and power in the hands of the Epstein class, made up of billionaires, tech bros and their political frontmen.

Organised love

But even though the job won’t be easy, it is simple to describe: we have to build organised love at scale.

For ourselves – and our children – we must build organised love at scale. That means solidarity: practically and socially. And to do so with utter determination. 

And I want artists to lead in the constructive resistance of building this organised love.

Why artists? Why, perhaps especially, outdoor artists?

The authority of the streets

Because in order to reach people, it’s important to find where they are and go to them. That’s building organised love with the authority of the streets.

The Zeitgeist, I think, is with us. People are seeing power for what it is. People are collectively feeling a desperate need for change. The movement to get people off screens (for instance), into real life and back into their bodies is only going to grow.

The question is, how can we help people get back into their bodies? Back into the streets? We’re not an island of strangers but a nation of neighbours, right?

So let the resistance begin on the streets, with your neighbours.

It isn't winning that matters

Below is the video of my speech. If you asked me to give you its essence, what I want to ask you to remember is this, and it is the most difficult thing I say:

It isn’t whether or not our collective resistance to the shitshow, in fighting the onset of 21st century fascism and climate collapse, or pushing against the status quo, will succeed… Many of the existing systems we’ve grown up with are going to collapse anyway.

So we can worry less about whether or not we will win, because I don’t think that matters anymore. 

What matters is whether or not you’re working hard to make the most beautiful world that we can possibly create.

So my call to arms to all artists is this: I want you to lead in the constructive resistance.

Because constructive resistance is love. And organised love at scale is how we take back our world from the people destroying it.

The Fête of Barking! Saturday 11 April, midday-5pm, Couleur Cafe, Barking Town Square

We’re super excited to announce the date and venue for the Fête of Barking – Couleur Cafe on Barking Town Square, Saturday 11 April. The Fête will be an occasion for local people, artists, organisers, and everyone else to come together to celebrate what’s great about where we live, and to have fun in building agency and new ways of making decisions. More details soon. Follow our socials for updates.

Elsewhere in Absurdity…

⁨Tracey joined the Kinfolk Network for Experiments in Cosmic Dreaming, a wonderful afternoon of liberatory practice for Black activists, thinkers and doers. Tracey felt real joy to be in the room with friends old and new as they explored Maroon Herbalism and a harp-filled rest practice.

Charlie went to the Pull The Plug demo, the world’s largest anti-AI demonstration – so far.

Sophie was at a kitchen table conversation in Barking to hear about the lives of mothers in the London borough.

Alanna and Charlie went to see Speak Up speaker Gregg Deal's band, Dead Pioneers, at Camden Underworld.

⁨Diya went to MOTH Club to see a series put on by Deeper Movies called SHORTCUTS, screening eight short films from up-and-coming international filmmakers.