Nerve 16 - Preparing for the Storm

Preparing for the Storm

With the economic disaster train building up speed, and with no large-scale organisations to protect our interests, we need to think about how we can build something new. And it really has got to be new.

There are thousands of people working, or doing voluntary work, or doing not a lot at the moment in Liverpool, who want their communities, their world to be different. There are hundreds of people working in communities for free, trying to build something new. I meet and work with people every day who are also worried about the future, who also believe we need to live in a different, fairer world.

But we need to think up new ways of doing things; we need to seriously learn from the mistakes of the past. After thirty years of Thatcherite values pushed from every angle, it is difficult to regain the hope that people once had for change. But if people living under some of the most repressive and brutal regimes can muster up that strength, then we really have no excuse. We have no choice; we have only our lives, our communities to win back.

We need to remember that it is only when people come together that they have economic clout; alone we are alone, together we really can change our communities. We must begin to develop a culture of resistance - against greed and selfishness driven by money, for community and solidarity. Possibly the first stage of this is to start with the things that we are good at, that excite us. We must unite existing organisations, in the belief that not one leader or organisation has the answer. There are many ways to do things; there are many ways to build something.

Nerve can produce magazines, but what about radio stations, what about other forms of media: theatre, art, music, film, discussions? And that's just the start. I have met dozens of community workers, youth workers, people who work in offices, who want youth clubs for the young, community centres for the rest of us. They want to play a part in changing their community, they want brown field land turned to green land. They care about their communities and their environments. It's got to start somewhere.

The very idea that ordinary people should be made to suffer for a crisis caused by financial speculation and the relentless drive to profit is completely unacceptable. Since the beginning of the international economic crisis, the very rich have manoeuvred to make themselves even wealthier. In Britain, the collective wealth of the richest 1,000 people has grown by a third in just one year, an increase of £77 billion. Many people in Greece, Spain and other countries have decided to resist these measures. We must begin to do this. But not just resist; come together and offer alternatives.

If you are reading this and have ideas, you can send them in to us at Nerve, but more importantly start discussing them with the people around you. It's not rocket science. It's about discussing real concerns and viable options. I do this every chance I get, to the person behind the counter of the corner shop, to my work colleagues, to people at the bus stop. Raise your voice before we lose our souls.

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