On the 65th week of The Shift we’ve also hit our 200th Editorial – so let’s take stock. What has changed since that first newsletter on September 1st 2017 and how is ‘the alternative’ to our broken politics coming along?

Let’s orientate this in the present – another week of shifting power. The aftermath of the European Cup left us with a clear win for people politics. While the failure to “bring football home” led to an outburst of racism on social media, those voices were quickly drowned out by far more people rising to protect the young black targets of the attacks. When politicians leapt in to claim leadership of that position, they were quickly knocked back by the footballers themselves.

Only those politicians who pointed at the wisdom of people – not parties – were able to stay with the zeitgeist. See this article from Andy Burnham, making the case that the English football team may well have put an end to the ‘culture wars’ that the 2% have been persecuting over the past year.

Are we now seeing – in Marcus Rashford, even Gary Lineker the rise of what we might describe as ‘organic politicians’ – non-party, pro-social, personally responsible for their own views and willing to use their own cultural capital to challenge old systems of power? In what ways can they grow that power to be useful to everyone in the face of our multiple crises?

Meantime the government’s Covid strategy has lurched away from the maximum caution of the past year, to the sudden seduction of “Freedom Day”,

For the first time in 18 months, Downing Street is taking its hands off the steering wheel and asking the car to drive itself. For those who have got accustomed to sitting in the back of the car, this is more like coming out of the sauna into the plunge pool. The figures show a rapid rise in infection and hospital admissions week by week. The rest of the world looks on, heart in mouth, ready to shut us off again from global access if it doesn’t go well.

For those who never bought the need for lockdown or wearing facemasks this change of direction is well overdue - but their numbers dropped significantly between 2020 and 2021. Is Boris reading the runes wrongly – calling for a less guiding state at the very point that people are willing to be guided, in the face of a baffling virus and an escalating environmental crisis? As we have constantly reported, there is enough popular sentiment that expecting politicians to get it right is no longer the best option.

An obvious caveat: as we look at what’s happening today, our report on progress will be through an alternative lens. Back in September 2017, we invited you to step away from the mainstream media constructed by the 2% of people who are members of political parties and look at it from the perspective of the 98% - something we ourselves have been doing for almost five years now.

We have focussed on – and invested time and energy in – the creativity, innovation and imagination of people of all different kinds of agency. We have seen and mapped fractals - repeating patterns of behaviour and organising -across nations and regions, even across the globe. We have helped to build necessary infrastructure and architecture to link initiatives together to grow their impact and influence.

So is this a movement? It’s not one that we own or lead. But it’s maybe one that we serve to the best of our ability through curating, narrating and, in small ways, constituting. Over the past four and a half years, what began as an observation of many thousands of ideas and initiatives that never made the mainstream news, has slowly boiled down to identifying a small number of systemic actions. Together they are accelerating the prospect of a genuine alternative socio-economic-political system, each of which we have played a part in surfacing.

1. Building an Alternative Media System

After four years of producing The Daily Alternative, Editor Pat Kane has called for a new media system. Much more than a new publishing title, this is a new way of doing news media that would enable local communities to input and share tools, methods and agreements with others all over the world. At the same time, an AMS would connect up the best of ‘alternative media’ to get a much broader range and styles of story-telling. A/UK is currently developing a consortium of established media organisations – from magazines and newsletters to groups of creative refugees from the advertising or futuring industries. Contact us on info@thealternative.org.uk if you want to be involved.

2. Developing cosmolocal (ref) citizen action / community agency networks (CANs ref)

From the prototyping currently occurring in Plymouth, Birmingham and Stoke to the networks of CANs that have been in development for decades these are our best chance of a new socio-political structure. Check out the co-creating network known as CtrlShift here which brings those who are developing the tools and practices together. At the heart of these ‘constitutes’ is a new power axis, linking the health of the individual to the health of the planet via the health of the community. Join one or start your own.

3. Evolving democracy through friendly anarchism

Once you understand that party politics is toxic, with one half of the country fully invested in the failure of the other half, something new happens. New ways of bringing people together spring up; a commitment to understanding the other appears and a willingness to go beyond tribalism occurs. This might look like People’s Assemblies, informal Citizens Assemblies, Flatpack Democracy, Trust the People or the fully revolutionary, People’s Federation of Rojava. It could also take the form of Neighbourhood sociocracy or simple mutual-aid networks – wherever autonomous people power decides to ‘go it alone’ and not wait for local politicians to take action, typically for climate or food and energy security. These new forms of democracy are best accessed through CANs—emergent containers that keep the people participating at the heart of the new systems evolving.

4. Growing global networks that catalyse transformation

Over the Covid pandemic, Zoom has accelerated the ease with which social fractals – similar patterns of systemic human activity – have been able to connect. A number of initiatives are bringing transformation tools and methods to these mini-systems to give rise to next-level impact. Check out Bounce Beyond, LiFT European Network and Catalyst 2030 – each of which we are actively co-creating.

5. Embracing the human technology that keeps us complex and whole

Moving away from the idea of homo economicus towards a deeper understanding of the complex bio -psycho-social-spiritual human is crucial, in order to understand why we are in the mess we are in and for re-imagining socio-politics. Check out Perspectiva developing a new political sensibility through new forms of ‘bildung’, or psychosocial education. Or consider the Human Givens tools for getting emotional needs met through reclaiming our personal resources. Or Transhumanist Politics that tests the best of futuristic methods to transform politics, economics, even ageing.

6. Feminising politics

Of all the foci we invite you to share, feminisation is both the easiest and the most difficult. Easiest, because it is the most natural – inviting participation from everyone, prioritising relationship-building over efficiency strategies, prizing diversity as an energy source. Difficult, because the system we are in was designed for exclusivity, disconnection (from each other and the planet) and mono-culturism. Instead, immerse yourself in FemmeQ from 26th – 30th July or join a municipalist group, which has the feminisation of politics deeply written in. Or easier still, acknowledge the unpaid work of women in your community and give it more attention.

7. Writing, reading, sharing “The Politics of Waking Up”

For all those who have got this far with us, A/UK’s co-initiator Indra Adnan’s book The Politics of Waking Up: Power and Possibility in the Fractal Age tells the story of how the pieces are coming together, but also where it might go from here. Read and share – it’s a tool for change. For those who want to dig deeper and actively evolve the narrative, Indra will be starting a book club in September: register here.

If you’re not already doing your own thing, you’ll see that we’ve provided an entry point for each of these systemic projects, for you to participate and co-create – to grow your agency. If your hands are already full, you can support through donating, sharing and just generally talking up the truth: that there is always an Alternative.

Happy 200.

Alternative Editorial: The Ongoing Reveal