Author: Stir to Action

How a national crisis of family-owned farms presents an opportunity for a new generation of community owners

Across the UK around 120,000 family-owned businesses are planning to retire or transfer ownership over the next few years (ONS), but two-thirds of these owners still do not have a succession plan. With commercial and policy pressure on UK land use and food production at an unprecedented level, there is a significant threat to current land use, and it is already undermining local and national food resilience through pushing our economy towards higher imports and lower employment.

New Models for Family Farm Succession, a new project from a consortium led by Stir to Action and Shared Assets, will tackle this by working with family farm owners and community food initiatives to explore how family farmland can be part of long-term efforts to create more food security in the UK, through selling or transferring to local co-operatives.

The pilot will support a new approach to succession planning by focusing on the social, cultural, and financial considerations for both family farmers and community food initiatives through a series of workshops, options reports, and new financial models for land transfer.

The pilot is an effort to transform the current financial marketplace and build more cultural awareness within the family farm market, and to also follow pioneers such as Fordhall in Shropshire and Stockwood in Worcestershire, where family farmland has been saved through thousands of community investors.

The value of family farms is clear within our national economy and food supply, and this project will focus on ensuring financial security for retiring farmers and long-term access to farm land for community food initiatives. With a new rush to acquire land for non-farming initiatives – such as carbon offsetting and private rewilding – this pilot will support the farming community to secure a future for food production in the UK.

Olivia Oldham, of project funder Farming the Future, said “It is increasingly clear that land is at the heart of the crises we face—from industrial food production and environmental degradation, to social injustice and even ill-health and wellbeing. But, if we can collectively reimagine our relationship with it, land can also be the solution. This project is an exciting exploration of what the future of our rural landscape might look like, and practical mechanisms for getting there that take care of retiring family farmers and provide new opportunities for communities to access farmland for the common good.”

We’re currently engaging family farm owners who are interested in retaining farmland in food production, open to a patient process of selling to a community buyer, and are ready to start succession planning over the next year.

Additionally, as part of this project we are planning to engage community groups and organisations who either: (a) have begun farming / growing food, and have been through the process of acquiring land; or (b) are interested to explore the potential of buying family farm land, in order to begin farming / growing food.

For more information or to express interest in joining the project, please visit www.stirtoaction.com/family-farm-succession or email farming@stirtoaction.com

Author: Drew Sandelands, Glasgow Times

TRADERS who had been working together to improve Possilpark before the coronavirus pandemic have turned their focus to helping the vulnerable during the crisis.

Throughout last year, businesses in North Glasgow had been drawing up plans for a Possilpark Business Improvement District (BID), which would see them invest in local regeneration work.

Now they are providing food parcels, hot meals and glasses repairs to the elderly and vulnerable and protective equipment and vehicle repairs to key workers.

A steering group had been formed for the BID bid, which secured city council funding for improvements to shop fronts in Possilpark.

During the pandemic the group has been meeting via Zoom video calls to discuss how they can help residents.

Gary Walker Butchers and Shopsmart Convenience Store and Post Office, on Saracen Street, have been providing food as part of ng homes’ partnership with local organisations, which gives food parcels and hot meals to the elderly, those in isolation or with underlying health conditions.

Voluntary organisation Possobilities is providing free hot meals to the elderly and vulnerable for those referred by housing staff or other agencies.

Eye Pad Opticians, also on Saracen Street, is offering a free spectacle repair service for older people and Allied Vehicles Ltd has donated money towards community support, bought visors for key workers and continues to operate a repair service for emergency vehicles.

John Thorburn, chairman of ng homes said: “It became clear at the outset that this crisis was going to have a significant impact on our community as many would be in a situation of having to socially isolate and for others maintaining social distancing whilst out shopping.

“Therefore, the concept of working with local traders and businesses which would provide more accessibility for the community and support the local economy was vital.”

Gerry Facenna, owner of Allied Vehicles Group, said: “There are amazing people trying to thrive here and improving Possilpark can only be a positive thing. During this period we have many challenges to face as a community and as businesses but we will be stronger working together.”

The BID work has been supported by Scotland’s Towns Partnerships and hosted by ng homes.

Jackie Shearer, the consultant for Possilpark BID, has been meeting traders, carrying out consultation events, working with architects on designs for shop fronts and on environmental projects.

There are plans to hold digital consultation events to update traders and members of the community on the progress.

BIDs can only be formed if they get support from a majority of local businesses in a vote.

Bob Doris MSP said: “The steering group are doing all we can to ensure lockdown has minimal impact on our ambitious plans.

“My thanks to Jackie Shearer for her drive in pushing these plans forward, and for the unflinching commitment of local businesses who are committed to the area and want to invest in Possilpark’s future”.

And Phil Prentice, chief officer of Scotland’s Towns Partnership and a national programme director for Scotland’s Improvement Districts, said: “If this project continues to gather momentum and ultimately is successful, then this exciting Community Business Improvement District will provide us all with a fantastic blueprint for neighbourhoods and communities across Scotland, which perhaps up until now has felt left behind.

“The local Businesses, NG Homes, NHS, Police, Community Groups and the City Council are all collaborating on a future vision for Possilpark.”

Author: SCCS

The Climate Fringe Festival is a community-led and community-organised series of events taking place across the whole of Scotland, showcasing the diversity of the Scottish Climate Movement.

It’s Scotland’s call for action on climate change, and will take place throughout September 2022.

Last year, over 200 events took place during Climate Fringe Week with thousands of people showing their support – both in their community and online – for urgent action on climate change. We want to make the Climate Fringe Festival even bigger, with a diverse range of events taking place across the whole of Scotland.

This year’s Climate Fringe Festival will be a fantastic opportunity to build momentum following COP26 in Glasgow. Together, we will show decision makers that the movement is stronger than ever and people from all walks of life are committed to take action on climate change.

We particularly welcome events from grassroots and underrepresented groups within the Climate Movement and strongly encourage collaborations between groups from different backgrounds.

Join us in making the Climate Fringe Festival the largest community-led event for climate that Scotland has seen!

Please note the Climate Fringe Festival is aimed at groups and organisations based in Scotland. If you are organising an event somewhere else in the UK check out the Great Big Green Week.

Author: Insider

The south of Scotland’s largest community buyout is set to double in size, having defied the odds and hit its community fundraising campaign target.

A historic agreement for 5,300 acres of land and three properties between The Langholm Initiative charity and Buccleuch will now go ahead, after the Dumfriesshire town of Langholm successfully reached its goal of £2.2m by the 31 July deadline.

This will double the size of the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve, created last year after the buyout’s first stage raised £3.8m to purchase an initial 5,200 acres and six residential properties from Buccleuch.

The reserve aims to help tackle the nature and climate crises, while boosting community regeneration.

Success for the buyout’s second stage was only confirmed as the deadline was reached. In the closing days, thousands of pounds continued to pour into the public crowdfunder.

There were significant donations of £300,000 from Alex Gerko, founder of algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets, £100,000 from Anne Reece of the Reece Foundation, and £50,000 from the John Muir Trust.

Tarras Valley Nature Reserve’s estate manager Jenny Barlow said: “We are so grateful to every single person who has backed this beacon of hope for people and planet – together we have achieved the impossible.

“This is about a grassroots fightback against the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis, and helping to create a better future.”

Benny Higgins, executive chair of Buccleuch, said: “We are absolutely delighted for The Langholm Initiative and have been pleased to work with them and support their project every step of the way.

“When Buccleuch launched its community consultation on the proposed sale of 25,000 acres of land on Langholm Moor, we couldn’t know what the community’s aspirations would be.

“To see The Langholm Initiative grow the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve from the initial 5,200 acres to almost double that is fantastic, and we look forward to seeing the evolution of the project over the coming years.”

On the reserve, peatlands and ancient woods are to be restored, native woodlands expanded, and a haven ensured for wildlife including rare hen harriers.

Community regeneration through a nature-based approach is a central aim, with six new jobs already created. Langholm was once a thriving textile centre, but the industry has declined in recent years.

In June, the Scottish Land Fund awarded The Langholm Initiative £1m towards the buyout, while an anonymous private donor made a donation of £500,000 at the appeal’s launch last October.

Nearly 3,000 people have donated to the crowdfunder since it launched nine months ago, taking it past its £200,000 stretch target to reach over £242,000. Tens of thousands of pounds poured in during the final weeks alone.

Margaret Pool, trustee of The Langholm Initiative, said: “Every single pound donated to the crowdfunder counted – each donation kept this impossible dream alive, while major donors could see from the outpouring of support that this was an inspiring, serious project of hope.

“We also hope our story will inspire other community-led nature recovery projects across Scotland and beyond. We know that communities can be powerful forces for positive change.”

Buccleuch has supported the community bid, agreeing with The Langholm Initiative a fixed purchase price in 2019 and extending purchase deadlines to give more time for fundraising. The purchase will be legally finalised between the community and Buccleuch over the coming months.

Author: Scottish Food Coalition

Stage 3 of the Good Food Nation Bill comes to a close – just waiting on a signature from the Queen and the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill becomes the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act. And we’re pretty pleased with the result.

If you’ve read our previous blog, What happened to the Good Food Nation ambition?, you will know that there have been a few hairy moments in the development of the Bill. It has certainly not been smooth sailing throughout – not least because the Bill was very thin when it was first introduced. 

It included a duty on local authorities, Ministers and health boards to produce food plans, with minimal detail of what needed to be in these plans, what the plans were aiming to achieve and who was going to be responsible for checking to see the plans were making a difference.

Over a number of months, Scottish Parliament worked hard to interrogate the Bill – with the Rural Affairs Committee leading this work. The Committee sought evidence from a broad range of stakeholders during Stage 1. Evidence from organisations who focus on health, food insecurity, nature and climate change (the majority of which were Scottish Food Coalition members)  as well as the voices of local authorities and industry. 

Carving out this parliamentary time for evidence from a broad range of stakeholders helped to ensure that this Bill, which is intended to ensure a cross-cutting approach to food policy, was informed by a broad range of views. Many of these views, certainly those from Coalition partners, spoke with a united voice calling for the same five asks.* This is no accident, the members of the Scottish Food Coalition agreed on our five asks for the Bill over 5 years ago, and we’ve made sure to keep them front and centre throughout the campaign – this consistent messaging was key in securing a stronger Bill. It meant that whilst everyone else was scrambling to flush out what a framework law on food should look like, we were ready with the answer. 

Coalition partners also showed up in force, just before Stage 2 was due to kick off, we had an event outside of parliament where over 25 MSPs attended, and about 100 campaigners from across Scotland. In the past 2 weeks alone, we’ve had over 850 letters sent from campaigners calling for a stronger Bill – an incredible feat. 

Finally – I wanted to point towards MSPs who worked across party lines, firstly to make sure the Bill was introduced in the first instance (which was a years-long challenge) and secondly to prioritise good policy making ahead of political goal scoring. The Bill is much better for it.  

It has truly been a joint effort and a shared win. 

So how did we do – Click here​

Influencing policy is an imperfect science, with so many influencing factors that are out of our control – we were never going to get a perfect score. But there is a lot to be proud of, and a lot of people behind this success. We don’t have to look far to see a more regressive approach to food policy – have a look at the latest announcements on England’s Food Strategy. 

So, our final thanks go to the Scottish Government for coming up trumps. Food system legislation is infamously challenging. Advancements in this country will help to trailblaze a path for many others – and that’s a legacy for us all to celebrate.

Author: NatureScot

The Scottish Government 2020 Statement of Intent on Biodiversity outlined the commitment to protect at least 30% of our land and sea for nature by 2030 (30×30 Target). The 2021 Programme for Government committed to the deployment of Nature Networks. These two are key components in increasing ecological connectivity and restoration of nature more widely, helping to deliver the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.  

Scottish Government has commissioned NatureScot to; 

• To develop and publish a National Framework and Implementation Plan for terrestrial delivery of 30×30 in Scotland 
• To develop and publish a National Framework setting a clear vision, principles, and approach for local delivery of Nature Networks in Scotland 

The 30×30 and Nature Networks frameworks will be developed over the coming year. A co-design approach will be adopted to deliver the two Frameworks including vision, key principles, and implementation plan. Find out more about how and why we are using the co-design approach.

There is close alignment and support of other area-based commitments to nature restoration including a new National Park and the Nature Restoration Fund. 

Next event

The next event will take place digitally 2pm-4.30pm on 18 August 2022. This Discovery Workshop follows on from the launch event, as we continue to explore and define the challenges we wish for 30×30 and Nature Networks to address. This is an open event for those wishing to input to the design of the 30×30 and Nature Network frameworks in Scotland and you do not need to have attended the first event to attend this workshop. Please register here. In the workshop we will be using the online workshop tool, Conceptboard. To ensure we get the most out of the workshop please get familar with the platform before attending. We have provided a practice board and guidance here.

Author: Daniel Dylan Wray, The Guardian

Just 24 hours before playing to one of the largest audiences on Earth, Paul McCartney could be found blasting out Hey Jude to a room of just 850 screaming fans in Frome, Somerset. His Glastonbury warmup show took place at the Cheese and Grain, a not-for-profit, member-owned venue.

“He gave a stonkingly wonderful performance,” says venue director Steve Macarthur. “One of his considerations for selecting us was he liked the fact that we were a community-controlled not-for-profit outfit with a commitment to training local people to fill jobs.”

The venue has had this structure for more than 20 years but recently there’s been a surge in venues looking to adopt community business models – be it charitable status social enterprises like the Cheese and Grain or the Tees Music Alliance in Stockton-on-Tees, the Community Interest Company (CIC) model of Birkenhead’s Future Yard, or a Community Benefit Society (CBS) model adopted by venues such as the Exchange in Bristol and The Hive in Cheshire. While these models vary slightly in structure, all are broadly underpinned by placing power and control in the hands of the local community.

“Something radical is happening,” says Mark Davyd, chief executive of the charity Music Venue Trust. “When we started in 2014, 3% of the venues in the country had a not-for-profit structure and it’s now 26%.” A combination of doom and gloom scenarios for venues around noise complaints, rent increases, evictions and redevelopment – plans to turn 6,000-capacity London nightclub Printworks, one of the UK’s most iconic venues, into offices have just been approved – has resulted in many being in precarious situations. More than a third of grassroots venues have closed in the last 20 years, nearly all are tenants (with the average operator only having 18 months left on their tenancy) and even though the Culture Recovery Fund helped some during the pandemic, in 67% of cases the money went to landlords.

MVT has launched Music Venue Properties as a CBS and is currently offering up community shares – members of the public can invest to become part-owners – to help raise £2.5m to buy the freeholds for nine UK grassroots music venues. “Who is the best person to own a venue in order to ensure that it becomes a permanent music space?” asks Davyd. “The community itself. We don’t want money going to private landlords, we want it in the cultural economy because that’s the way we generate more great artists and give more people the opportunity to be involved in music.”

The Ferret, an old school sticky-floor venue in Preston visited by Ed Sheeran and Idles on their way to fame, is being sold and would be a “hammer blow” loss, says Davyd. It’s been deemed an Asset of Community Value by Preston council, creating a six-month window for the community to buy it, which Music Venue Properties will do if its campaign is successful.

Nudge Community Builders, a CBS in Plymouth, has purchased the Millennium building, an old cinema and nightclub, and will turn it into a music venue, “a brilliant vehicle to lock in an asset for the community”, says co-director Wendy Hart. “Then local communities can imagine themselves getting jobs there, they can imagine their kids performing there; people are empowered to really dream differently. We want to harness people’s excitement, because it’s not our journey, it’s everyone’s journey – everyone can have a piece of it.”

Venue operators feel little incentive to invest in a rented building when all that will do is increase its value and make it a more appealing selling prospect for landlords. Community business models, though, open venues up to funding and grants they wouldn’t have access to as a limited company, and because they must use their assets for the benefit of the community it can actually accelerate improvements to infrastructure.

“It revolutionised things for us,” says Matthew Otridge of Bristol’s Exchange, which adopted the CBS model in 2018 and has more than 400 community investors. “We can look at things in terms of decades whereas most venues can only look at things in terms of years.” The money raised from community shares and grants has allowed the venue to put in a second stage, new air ventilation and build accessible toilets.

When Sister Midnight had to leave Deptford location, it established a CBS and raised nearly £300,000 in community shares to take over the Ravensbourne Arms in Lewisham to create an “accessible, affordable and inclusive” venue and pub. That purchase fell through but it is currently close to finalising negotiations to take over another nearby venue, with unanimous support from those who invested in the Ravensbourne Arms purchase.

So what’s driving this shift? “People don’t know about the models, they aren’t taught,” says Sister Midnight’s co-founding director Lenny Watson. “It’s a growing movement as more people are finding out about these democratic ways of working.” In times of a spiralling cost of living crisis they are also desperately needed, Watson feels. “Building wealth in communities is vital: there is such a clear need to redistribute wealth and power and this is a business model that does exactly that.” Macarthur adds: “If you’ve got an asset, sweat it; if you’ve got something which is useful to the local community then let the local community use it.”

Independent Venue Week is also tapping into the potential of music venues as thriving community hubs, by launching a new initiative, Independent Venue Community, which will encourage hundreds of small venues around the UK to open their doors in the daytime to host community programmes.

Education, training, apprenticeships and access to an industry that may feel out of reach for people are often key priorities for these community venues, with places like Future Yard and the Cheese and Grain training young people in everything from sound engineering to marketing. “We’re trying to create jobs for local people,” says Macarthur. “Our objectives are to make life better and to improve life chances for as many people in Frome as we can.”

The hope is this creates a mutually supportive loop. “There’s a pride in ownership,” says Otridge. “Our stakeholders feel like they have a part in the success of the venue, so they get involved by coming to more gigs, or telling friends about gigs. We utilise their skills and expertise too, from accountancy advice to cheap building supplies. All this makes the running of the venue a lot more efficient.”

For Davyd though, the successful end point of all of this is when his job no longer exists. “All good charities should plan for their own extinction,” he says. “So, let’s actually sort out the problem rather than keep sticking plasters over it. This is an incredibly strong model that really could make a big difference.”

Author: Martin Williams, The Herald

Campaigners say the refusal of planning permission for development at the Mowi salmon farm in Loch Hourn, which runs inland from the Sound of Sleat opposite the island of Skye, is a “rallying call” to other coastal communities.

The Friends of Loch Hourn (FoLH) group believes its knife-edge planning committee victory represents the first time in Scotland that such a project has been quashed because of the threat to wild salmon and sea trout.

It says the David versus Goliath victory is a milestone moment in recognising the biggest threat posed by industrial scale fish farming – how parasites harm wild species.

The plans from Mow Scotland, which wanted to increase fish stocks, attracted 159 public objections and concerns.

The Friends produced a complaint dossier which said the “incremental expansion” of the farm over 22 years had changed the quiet traditional west Highland area “for the worse”.

With a combination of grant and private funding the group commissioned scientific modelling, which showed that the increased numbers of sea lice coming from the farm would not only further endanger wild salmon and trout, but also would adversely affect the vulnerable Loch Hourn population of freshwater pearl mussels which are in danger of extinction.

On top of that, the Friends said the slow flushing loch cannot quickly get rid of the chemicals used by the farm to kill lice, which are also toxic to other crustaceans and potentially to swimmers.

However, supporters pointed to the fish farm’s strong environmental record, which meets RSPCA standards. They also highlighted that the farm supports nine local jobs and diversifies the tourism-led economy.

Highland Council planners felt the difficulties could be overcome by imposing a range of safeguards at the fish farm, but members of the north planning committee disagreed.

Mow Scotland’s head of environment Stephen MacIntyre said it was disappointed with the decision of the committee given the application received no objections from all statutory science bodies and that the planning officials had recommended the application for approval.

The company is now “reviewing the proces that led to this decision and considering our options”.

Loch Hourn, considered the most fjord-like of Scotland’s west coast sea lochs enjoys a dramatic setting.

It sits between the Glenelg peninsula to the north and the inaccessible Knoydart peninsula to the south, and is often referred to as Scotland’s last wilderness.

The Creag an T’Sagairt salmon farm is owned and operated by the £2.28 billion-a-year Norwegian seafood giant, Mowi and farms 2500 tonnes of salmon in its open cages. It initially applied to Highland Council for permission to increase production by 25% to 3100 tonnes but this was cut to 2750 tonnes.

Currently, the Highland fish farm runs twelve circular pens of 100 metre circumference. These are arranged in one group of eight pens, and one group of four. Under the new planning application, Mowi Scotland wanted to reduce to eight bigger pens, arranged in one row, with a circumference of 160 metres each.

This change would have needed a larger sea-bed mooring area, though it was still within the boundary of the consented wind farm.

Mick Simpson, a local fisherman in Arnisdale praised councillors who took the time to read the FoLH dossier and added: “We owe thanks to those councillors who made an effort to see what the research says. Armed with that information it was clear their consciences would not allow them to vote for this expansion to the fish farm.

“Throughout this process we have doggedly stuck up for the truth by research and by documenting everything we could to show why this expansion would be a disaster for the area. We hope Mowi will now respect the planning decision and the feelings of the local community.“Our hope now is that we can inspire people that this can be done, even for super-remote communities like ours. As members of the Coastal Community Network, we know many similar groups will be looking at this decision very closely.”

The FoLH is now surveying the loch to assess the viability of restoring native oyster and sea grass beds, vital habitats for other marine species and important for carbon sequestration and storage and will also support ongoing research into the cause of a sharp decline of blue mussel populations.

Peter Fletcher, whose family has lived for many generations in nearby Arnisdale, said: “At least two main rivers here are now extinct as far as salmon are concerned and a third is teetering on the edge.

“Within living memory Loch Hourn was teeming with salmon and sea trout. Now wild populations have dwindled so far that they are under threat. It is an ecological catastrophe.

“While this decision is just vindication of the incredible efforts of our tiny, rural community against the might of a huge corporation, the fight to restore the loch’s habitats and species is only just beginning.”

Author: Caitlyn Dewar, Olly Dickinson - STV

The locations of all the hubs can be found on an interactive map on the council’s website.

Glasgow council have set up 62 community litter picking hubs in a bid to encourage locals to keep the city tidy.

The lockable storage units have been installed at community centres, schools, coffee shops, and parks across Glasgow and are stocked with litter pickers, disposable gloves, high-visibility vests, bag hoops, refuse bags and disinfectant wipes.

Local community groups will manage the clean-up equipment and storage units and volunteers can request access to the equipment by emailing them.

The locations of all the hubs and information on how to access the equipment can be found on an interactive map on the council’s website.

The litter picking hubs were jointly funded by Glasgow City Council, Keep Scotland Beautiful and McDonald’s. 

The council confirmed on Wednesday that the 62 hubs were now in place and equipment can be borrowed for free by anyone who is keen to do a litter pick in their area.

Councillor Ruairi Kelly, city convener for neighbourhood services and assets, told STV News: “What we are trying to do is give people the means to take a more active role in them maintenance of their communities if they so wish these are volunteers nobody has been co-opted or coerced into picking up litter – it’s just an opportunity for people to help if they want.

“The council can’t be everywhere at all times to pick up after people who refuse to use bins. If people in communities want to take an active role to address those issues we are all for it and want to support it.

“The council like any other local authorities operates within a finite budget so we have to prioritise so if we employed much more people to do one thing it results in less doing another. I don’t think anyone is saying we should have fewer classroom assistants or teachers so we can have more people picking up after people who refuse to use bins.”

Author: George Monbiot, The Guardian

The human urge to take back control, loudly promised by governments that have done the opposite, is real. To a far greater extent than has been permitted in our recorded history, we should be allowed to manage our own lives.

In other words, it may be time to rediscover Murray Bookchin. Bookchin, who died in 2006, was a US foundryman, autoworker and shop steward who became a professor in the field he helped to develop: social ecology. While he has often been associated with anarchism, by the end of his life he had broken with that tradition. He called his political philosophy communalism.

His writings on this theme were published posthumously in a book called The Next Revolution. You wouldn’t read it for pleasure. His style is stern, clunky and verbose, without warmth or humour. But his ideas are powerful.

He makes a crucial distinction between statecraft and politics. He sees the state as a force for domination and statecraft as the means by which it is sustained. Politics, by contrast, is “the active engagement of free citizens” in their own affairs. He sees the municipality (village, town or city) as the place in which we first escaped from tribalism and parochialism and began to explore our common humanity. This is the arena in which we can now evade domination and create “a truly free and ecological society”.

Unlike classical anarchists, Bookchin proposed a structured political system, built on majority voting. It begins with popular assemblies, convened in opposition to the state, open to anyone from the neighbourhood who wants to join. As more assemblies form, they create confederations whose powers are not devolved downwards but delegated upwards. The assemblies send delegates to represent them at confederal councils, but these people have no powers of their own: they may only convey, coordinate and administer the decisions handed up to them. They can be recalled by their assemblies at any time. Eventually, in his vision, these confederations dislodge the states with which they compete.

He sees the assemblies as also gradually acquiring control over crucial elements of the local economy. Civic banks would fund land purchases and enterprises owned by the community. The aim is eventually to replace not only statecraft but also economic dominion.

Bookchin’s communalism is a major inspiration in the autonomous region in north-eastern Syria widely known as Rojava. In 2014, after local people defeated Islamic State terrorists and the Syrian government withdrew its troops to fight its civil war elsewhere, the Rojavans took the chance to build their own politics. Under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, they have created a place in which people have more freedom and control than anywhere in the surrounding regions. It is by no means a perfect republic, but its people have made Bookchin’s ideas work to an extent many believed was impossible.

This seems to be a feature of deliberative, participatory democracy: it works better in practice than it does in theory. Many of the obstacles critics imagine dissolve as people are transformed by the process in which they engage. A classic example is the participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil. During its peak years (1989-2004) before it was curtailed by a more hostile local government, it transformed the life of the city. Corruption was almost eliminated, human welfare and public services greatly improved. The decisions made by the people’s assemblies were greener, fairer, wiser and more distributive than those the city government had made.

Why does it work better than we may imagine? Perhaps because the current system of domination persuades us of our own incapacity. It forces us into competition when we should be cooperating to solve our common problems. The horrible culture wars whipped up by governments and the media and fought between people with similar socio-economic interests are enabled by our exclusion from meaningful power: we have no opportunity to engage creatively with each other in building better communities. Disempowerment sets us apart. Shared, equal decision-making brings us together.

Even so, I don’t see Bookchin’s prescriptions as a panacea. I don’t believe he deals adequately with the problems of global capital, global supply chains, defence against aggressive states or the need for global action on global crises. But, at the very least, we can create enclaves of democracy in a landscape of domination. As the benefits of real, participatory democracy become apparent, more people will wonder why they can’t have it. Given the apparent drift towards full-spectrum institutional collapse in the UK, it is hard to see how we, the people, could do a worse job on many crucial issues than the state.

We are told that states and the dominion they impose, however dysfunctional and destructive they may be, are an inevitable and irreplaceable form of human organisation. Bookchin and those he has inspired help us to challenge this claim.