I spent yesterday at Battersea Arts Centre in South London, taking part in an open space with the invitation "What action can we take, as the arts sector in response to the proroguing of Parliament?"
For readers not up to date with British politics, this refers to the recent action by our Prime Minister to dissolve (or prorogue) Parliament, ostensibly to be able to introduce new policies and legislation but widely interpreted as an attempt to reduce the amount of time Parliament has to discuss and make decisions on our exit from the EU. The move is seen by many as anti-democratic - at the point when we want our elected representatives to be in their place of work, either enacting or stopping Brexit (depending on your point of view), there will be extra time when the legislature will be closed down and time taken up with the State Opening of Parliament and the approval (or otherwise) of a new Queen's Speech.
Just reading that last paragraph back reminds me that this is complicated and not obvious to anyone. Most people in this country probably couldn't express it that clearly. And this is not me blowing my own trumpet - I pay more attention than most and I'm better practiced at expressing things clearly than most - I have other areas where I'm not as strong. But this is complex stuff and lots of meaning is wrapped up and hidden in terms like "legislature", "Parliament" and "Queen's Speech".
Anyway, a bunch of theatre folk got together yesterday to chat about it all and what we might do. There were people there who have been deeply involved in protest movements since the appointment of Mr Johnson to his office as well as other current protest movements, notably Extinction Rebellion. There were sessions called on incorporating artistic and creative approaches into protest as well as making our artistic and creative works more protestful. I think I was surprised by how helpless most people feel. The most popular session of the day was entitled "I don't know what the fuck to do!"
Much experience was shared around previous protest work. I've been around this scene for a long time, even if I don't take part so much these days. One of literally my first memories is of being in a pushchair on a march against the war in Biafra (late 1960s). From 1981 I was active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, for example and as a Labour Party member in the 1980s and 90s I was involved in supporting print workers and the miners as well as protesting the Poll Tax. I say this not in order to gain some authority, but simply to say that I have experience of being on the streets and facing the police and I'm not convinced that the same tactics we've been using for the last hundred years are going to continue to be effective. I think some people are going to get hurt soon and I don't like that idea.
I ran a session in the afternoon on "Cleaning up our information ecosystem - taking responsibility for the mess we're in" in which we talked about what can be done if we recognise that the news and information systems we have are polluted and polluting and try to act more responsibly. This is something I'm going to work some more on and I will write a better report on the session soon.
All in all, I was less hopeful walking out of there than when I walked in. I've regained a little optimism after reflection, but still a long way from being out of the woods and much more work needs to be done helping people understand what's going on and being able to talk to each other in a useful, practical and productive way.