Alternative Editorial: Confused In Europe
By Indra Adnan, Co-initiator, The Alternative UK
I’m spending 4 days in Freiburg, Germany, at a politics workshop and it’s playing havoc with my head. Working with some long-standing colleagues from the integral communityI anticipated the friendliness and generosity. There is never any hesitancy around switching to English as soon as I am in earshot for example.
Yet there is a different quality about being European on the continent, and a European on the group of islands known as the United Kingdom, which I kept falling out of synch with.
One aspect was a much stronger and pervasive sense of ‘We’ amongst the Swedes, Norwegians, Swiss and even Belgian Europeans, alongside the native Germans in the room. All were competent in the local language except the British national – me – always faintly embarrassed by the notion they should prioritise mine.
I thought of each of the countries they represented as having quite distinct forms of soft power – Norway’s Nobel Peace Prize, Sweden’s Abba and Greta, German’s enterprise culture – as well as histories. Yet their gentle familiarity with each other’s politics, constitutions and problems suggested far more understanding between them and more commonality too. Possibly closer to the relationship between the different countries within the UK.
Most surprising for myself who is Dutch Indonesian by birth, was a re-awakening of my internal European heritage in that room. I could viscerally recall the gezelligheid – easy belonging – of people’s homes and neighbourhoods which I miss in London. A sense that openness is extended across infinite space: holidays meant getting in a car and driving for days without ever stopping to check your passport. Just nods of familiarity when you’re asked how far you’ve come.
The awareness of and constant call for diversity in UK politics – not just culture, age and gender – seemed to be held much more lightly amongst these Europeans. Not because those present rejected the need for inclusion, but because it wasn’t triggering the same set of complicated emotions, which embrace, though not exclusively, the legacy of the British Empire within a strong class system. In England, I feel the Asian part of myself more keenly precisely because of the discourse.
My confusion was deepened by the Europeans as they often referred to Brexit and our coming elections within our workshop. There was an insouciance with which they described me as European, always remembering only suddenly that Britain was poised to leave. Like friends of a couple who were in the middle of a divorce, they just weren’t on board with it. And were clearly sure it was a mistake.
In contrast, because of the high tension caused by our impending separation, I’m constantly rehearsing the arguments and experiencing – however reluctantly - the divide with my European friends. It’s the first time I have felt outside of the continental unity that Europeans embody: not an outcast, but more aware of our historic and cultural difference than before. And with that, I become aware of a certain island mentality that can turn inwards towards self-fetishising – Little Britain (ref). Or outwards with a longing to belong somewhere. The closer we get to the cliff, the more Scotland reaches for the Nordic nations and Europe; the more England towards the United States. Or possibly the Commonwealth or further still – where belonging might start to mean hoping to lead.
From this disoriented distance, observing the UK General Election feels more painful than ever. Instead of being wrapped up in the Westminster frame, I feel more of the European bewilderment at a beautiful nation tearing itself apart. In this room full of political actors and innovators, the challenge of climate change, cultural cohesion and improved democracy are seen as clear targets we move towards together. In the daily life of a British voter, these are goals we have to fight to be allowed to prioritise over the global competition for economic growth.
Here, for example, is the new European Commissioner, Ursula Von Der Leyen, sharing her priorities for action over the next years:
“(Climate) is an existential issue for Europe – and for the world. How can it not be existential when 85% of people in extreme poverty live in the 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change? How can it not be existential when we see Venice under water, Portugal’s forests on fire or Lithuania’s harvests cut by half because of droughts? This has happened before but never with the same frequency or intensity.”
Von der Leyen said the commission would look to robotics to move people out of occupations that she suggested should no longer be carried out by people.
She said: “We will automate work that is wearisome for us humans: carrying heavy loads, performing repetitive tasks in factories or in offices. And this will give us time. Time for what distinguishes human beings. Time for what computers can’t do: empathy and creativity.”
Meantime in Britain - despite the UK government having declared a climate emergency under Theresa May - both the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Richard Tice of the Brexit Party refuse to even take partin a specially organised election climate debate. In a stunt first tried by Denmark’s Alternativet Partyin their recent election, the broadcaster Channel 4 replaced the absent Prime Ministerial candidates with sculptured blocks of ice that slowly melted as the debate tool place.
However, while my European conversation was describing political division – both there and in the UK - as a Left and Centre versus Right and Extreme Right battleground, the broader collapse of the whole of traditional politics is more evident in the UK. Parties are divided internally and in the upcoming General Election peopleare widely reported to be voting against their life-long tendenciesfor the first time.
Whether or not there is a clear win for any party, it won’t be on the old L v R terms – despite the politicians attempts to make it so. Instead, there are a number of more subtle shifts that are breaking the mould and causing controversy. Firstly, Jeremy Corbyn’s refusal to make clear how he would vote in the event of a second referendum on Brexit is an attempt to hold his party together at a time when the old binaries are giving way to new complexities. Where does the call for autonomy, captured by the evocative ‘Take Back Control’ campaign, really sit with our political parties? How did the Conservative Party capture the notion of freedom without ever offering anything to make the lives of those living in poverty any easier?
If the old strategy of the 1% elite was to use any rhetoric to divide the 99% in order to conquer them, then Corbyn may have rumbled it. Yet his capacity for holding more complex positions are not shared by everyone in his party. And easily exploited by the press.
The vast majority of the media is still owned by the 1%. The ‘I” newspaper - one of the last centrist publications - having just been acquired by the Daily Mail. It remains to be seen if Corbyn’s message can be heard. So far ‘neutral until the reality is clear’ has been largely deridedas a laughable position for a leader to take.
A second non-manifesto issue that has the potential of shaping the outcome, is that of fake news and voter manipulation. It was a long while after the EU referendum that the operations of Cambridge Analytica - using Facebook data to directly target individuals with campaign propaganda – became visible. In this election, some of that detection is occurring almost immediately. Only today Facebook banned a Conservative ad which wrongly presented the BBC as partisan. Last week they were taken to task for launching a website called LabourManifesto which had no connection to the Labour Party.
For those determined to win at any cost, this is described as fair game in a consistently dirty war between implacable enemies. But for others this is a clear deterioration of political standards in the long-term spectacle of breakdown.
Strangely, there was some sense in my European workshop, that such a comprehensive breakdown – rather than a more direct clash between the Left and Right – might be the quicker route to a genuinely alternative politics. The climate emergency is driving the call for solutions that don’t depend upon a dysfunctional political realm to kick into action. The escalating loss of trust in politicians is giving more credence to lower levels of decision making with more emphasis on community relationship and citizen participation.
We could see a growing possibility of the ongoing political r-evolution – localism, Citizen Action Networks of all kinds, Flatpack Democracy style independent councils, municipalism, commonining (key-word search all these in the Daily Alternative) - to quickly prototype into coherent political forms that will change politics forever.
On this point, the Europeans were almost envious.