Earlier this month a local People’s Assembly march ended in the squatting of a disused Barclay’s bank. The sense of purpose and action at the end of the march served to interrupt what had become the dull A to B style of protest that traditional marches suffer from. Instead of a rally, with speeches from the great and the good, those in attendance were greeted with a chance to engage in a contentious and creative piece of politics. Since then, the bank has been transformed into a bright and lively food bank (inspired in part by the local Love Activists) and political meeting space. Decisions are made through a general assembly which usually meets every few days (everyone is welcome to join in), with specific tasks being carried out by working groups who then report back to the assembly.
Those taking part in the Radical Bank come from multiple different political traditions and social backgrounds: there are anarchists and socialists, students and workers, migrants and street homeless people, and a healthy number of people who don’t come from any ‘established’ left identity. The bank provides a space for people inhabiting divergent social and political positions to both work collectively together on the dull mundanities of everyday living (cooking, cleaning, washing up, painting, keeping watch etc.) and to discuss theoretical, tactical, and strategic questions, but in a non-academic and organic manner.
To my mind, there are three inter-related aspects of the Radical Bank that I think Left Unity should take note of and work into its political practice. In squatting the bank, the otherwise genteel People’s Assembly march changed from being a purely formal act of politics into being a contentious act of politics. The aim wasn’t to ‘send a clear message’, or to ‘have our voices heard’. The aim was to violate something sacrosanct to the capitalist system, the law of property, and by extension, to create a social space outside of the market and the state. In this sense, the Radical Bank is, by necessity, a prefigurative political act. That is to say, the everyday functioning of the squatted bank provides a vague model for the organisation of future social relations. At a very basic level, decisions are decided collectively, work is done collectively, and food/ shelter is distributed upon the basis of need. The collective nature of the activity undertaken in the bank provides a chance to build local networks amongst people who, for whatever reason, would not normally interact with each other for long periods of time on a day to day basis. This allows for a space where ideas can be discussed and (perhaps more importantly), a space where experiences and grievances can be vocalised, shared, and articulated. This sharing of politics, skills, and experience can lay the basis for future activity and for a stronger, more coherent and conscious left.
Contentious political action, prefigurative organisation, and network building are three key tactics that members of Left Unity can learn from initiatives like the Radical Bank. Concretely, this means undertaking inventive direct action (like the sit in at the Department of Education by Left Unity members, in protest against Gove’s education policies), organising whenever you can on a collective and communal basis (if you live in shared accommodation, maybe just eating communally), and building ties with those outside of your everyday political and social setting. In the Radical Bank, this has meant collaboration between what are ostensibly disparate sections of society (homeless, student, migrant, worker), but are in reality all members of one class.
https://www.facebook.com/Radicalbankbrighton
http://radicalbank.wordpress.com/
This article expresses the views of the author and does not necessarily represent all members of the collective or Left Unity Youth/students.
leftunityyouthandstudents.wordpress.com 