FEARLESS CITIES

Across the world cities have growing influence on modes of economic and cultural development. The Neoliberal City model seeks to gentrify, commodify and commercialise public space and services. Cities become zones of financial speculation; land and other assets are passed from public to private ownership and housing is seen predominantly as a source of profit rather than a community necessity and right.

Countering this is the Fearless Cities Movement which is a global municipalist movement. “In a world in which fear and inequalities are being twisted into hate, “Fearless” towns and cities are standing up to defend human rights, democracy and the common good.” The book Fearless Cities is a key text for anyone interested in knowing more about the Global Municipalist Movement and cities of inspiration around the world. The People’s Plan aims to build on municipalist thinking for a fearless Glasgow.

LIVERPOOL:

Beacon Liverpool is a platform aimed at advancing the cause of socialism within the city of Liverpool, taking a non-party political approach, aimed rather at “Bringing together left wing activists, trade unionists and community campaigners ; promoting working class unity, grass roots activism and community action, generating policies and stimulating actions and campaigns for the collective good in the Liverpool City Region.” Learn more here: https://beaconliverpool.co.uk/

SEATTLE:

Kshama Sawant has served on the City of Seattle Council since 2014 as the sole publicly elected member of the Socialist Alternative Party, and describes her seat as a ‘tool for Seattle’s working class in it’s fight against big business, racism and the political establishment.” Read her account of navigating political adversity here: Kshama Sawant: Why I Signed the Petition for My Own Recall

BARCELONA:

Barcelona is moving towards a feminised politics based on consensus, public assemblies and participation. It has also created a municipally owned green energy company and is clamping down on extractive landlords – amongst many achievements as one of the earliest newly emerging muncipalist cities. Barcelona en Comu (Barcelona in common) has been successful in standing candidates in local elections and influencing the political landscape of the city.

The process of challenging the structures of the status quo at a local, national or global level are hugely complex and face many challenges in both rethinking and unthinking previously unchallenged assumptions about the nature of power, democracy and collective endeavour. Barcelona en Comu continue to face these issues and actively share their learning, their successes and setbacks with other municiplist and grassroots democracy movements. Here is an example of some of what they have achieved to date https://barcelonaencomu.cat/es/batalla/ciudad-valiente

THE PRESTON MODEL:

In Preston, a former industrial centre, the people have “embarked on a remarkable community wealth building program, which aimed to ensure that the large amounts of money leaking out of the local economy were instead invested in local businesses and, in particular, cooperatives.” The idea emerged from the realisation that large sums were leaking out of Preston’s local economy, particularly because procurement (public contracts for private-sector service delivery like food for schools) were mainly going to big businesses. Just 14% of procurement spending stayed in Preston. ”Traditional city growth models, based on attracting inward investment for big infrastructure projects, could no longer be relied upon.” This led to the development of a public-sector led investment plan, aimed at maintaining the wealth generated through development in Preston by anchoring it in the community.

JACKSON:

Jackson, Mississippi is one of the poorest cities in the United States. Following the significant impact of Hurricane Katrina, it has nevertheless become a beacon for sustainable community development, democracy and community ownership. Cooperation Jackson’s long term vision is to create a cooperative network of four interconnected and interdependent institutions: a federation of local worker cooperatives, a cooperative incubator, a cooperative education and training centre and a cooperative bank or financial institution. Their basic theory of change is centred on the position that organising and empowering the structurally under and unemployed sectors of the working class, particularly from Black and Latino communities, to build worker organised and owned cooperatives will be a catalyst for the democratisation of our economy and society overall.

Cooperation Jackson believes that the current socio-economic system of exploitation, exclusion and the destruction of the environment can be replaced with a proven democratic alternative – an alternative built on equity, cooperation, worker democracy, and environmental sustainability – to provide meaningful living wage jobs, reduce racial inequities, and build community wealth. Its position and experience is that when marginalised and excluded workers and communities are organised in democratic organisations and social movements, they become a force capable of making transformative social advances.

LINKS AND RESOURCES:

The Cities for Change Forum is an online program over two months, showcasing “world-changing ideas in digital and interactive events for building a just, sustainable and equal society from the ground up, pushing boundaries and organising our cities to become the main drivers of transformative change.” You can view the programme and learn more here: https://citiesforchange.org/

The Future is Public book examines ‘(Re)municipalisation – referring to the reclaiming of public ownership of services as well as the creation of new public services. It explores research which has identified more than 1,400 successful (re)municipalisation cases in recent years involving more than 2,400 cities in 58 countries around the world. You can read about it here: https://www.tni.org/en/futureispublic

The European Municipalist Network offers free online courses (MOOCs). Learn more about the course on the feminisation of politics, and sign up for it here: https://municipalisteurope-mooc.commonspolis.org/cours-courses/mooc-fop/course-feministisation-of-politics/

The Transnational Institute is a fantastic organisation with a huge amount of accessible information relevant to the fight for social and ecological justice, check them out here: https://www.tni.org/en/transnational-institute

The TI supports the Atlas of Utopias Project, an online resource which tracks municipalist activity in cities across the globe – take a look here: https://transformativecities.org/atlas-of-utopias/