You may well ask, what is The Directory? It’s a listing of a range of grassroots projects in Bristol, Bath and the surrounding area. The projects listed range from community food growing and distribution projects, through ‘friends of’ and other amenity groups and onto community groups and social spaces. Basically, projects working at the community level that make a positive difference. Alongside of this, a number of national and international resources that are useful to grassroots activists are also listed. This is not a complete listing by any stretch of the imagination. It will always be a work in progress.
Do the projects listed meet our political purity test? Given how our political analysis and outlook have evolved and continue to evolve, even if we wanted to, it would be pointless attempting to apply a political purity test on the basis of an ever developing analysis. Our baseline is that if these projects make life in their communities better, then as far as we’re concerned, they can be included in The Directory. This also applies to the national and international resources we’ve listed. If they’re of use to people working at the grassroots, then we’re not going to get overly picky about some of the views they may hold or the way they operate.
It may well be the case that some of our former anarchist comrades would have issues with some of the projects listed, particularly when it comes to some of the funding. If a project that’s making a positive difference takes some corporate donations (guilt money), then as far as we’re concerned, it’s better that they carry on making that difference rather than be forced to fold because of the source of some of the funding they get. When it comes to bringing about change at the grassroots, we’re pragmatists in that by and large, if it helps to get the job done, we’re not going to get picky. On a more cynical level, if the system can be gamed in a way that helps a grassroots project, that’s fine by us:)
I’m guessing that some of our former truther associates may well take a glance at the listings and decide that a number of the projects are too ‘woke’ for their liking. It needs to be noted that as far as we’re concerned, with the way the word ‘woke’ is flung around as an insult, it has lost any meaning it may have originally had. Accusing a project of being ‘woke’ is simply an excuse to avoid having to engage with it and settle differences by meaningful discussion. It’s another form of cancel culture, something we really do not like at all, regardless of whereabouts on the political spectrum it comes from.
The Directory was a part of the now binned At the Grassroots blog. This was the post we published after that blog had ceased to exist - We’re done... 12.6.26
We’ve been activists not just for years but decades. We’ve had a few successes and a fair number of failures. It’s bloody painful but we have to admit that the aim of making At the Grassroots a collaborative project has been an abject failure. We were thinking – do we carry on banging our heads against the proverbial brick wall distributing the latest edition of the paper in the pathetically vain hope that someone may step forward or do we simply say sod it, bin the blog and the papers and get on with the rest of our lives.
I’ll admit that when this was posted, we were both feeling pretty despondent about the lack of traction with At the Grassroots. We both felt that the best way forward was to have a clean break, rest up for a while and then see how we felt. At the Grassroots still exists as a project, with a page on this blog. That page lists articles relevant to bringing about change at the level of the community. So the project lives on, albeit it’s under the auspices of The Avon Stirrer. This is because we both believe that if radical change is going to happen, discussing and debating how that can be achieved is vital. We don’t want The Avon Stirrer to be solely about telling people what’s wrong with the world. We also want it to be about what can be done in the here and now to bring about change. Prefigurative politics in other words.
After bringing back At the Grassroots as a project, the next logical step was to see what could be done with The Directory. We have offered it out to others in the hope that someone with more time and energy, and also youth on their side, could take it on and make it their own project. To date, we’ve not received any offers to do this. If someone has downloaded the text of The Directory and is taking it in a new direction, that would be great but, it would also be nice to know. So for the foreseeable future, it’s back as a page on this blog.
As already mentioned, it’s a work in progress. It will always be a work in progress. As new projects are born and sadly, as some established ones cease to exist, keeping The Directory updated is an ongoing process. If you’re involved with or know of a suitable project in Bristol, Bath or the surrounding area and you want it included, please feel free to send us the details and it will go in. If you can find the time to help check that the listings are still valid, that would really be appreciated. Feel free to get in touch and we’ll work out how that can be done.
There’s one aspect of the At the Grassroots project that won’t be coming back and that’s the papers. As you can see from this page - Papers - over the last twenty years, we’ve developed a considerable hinterland when it comes to bringing them out in various guises. The point is that when we were operating back in Essex, we had a crew behind us to help with the distribution. While we’ve had some help with distributing papers since we’ve been living in Keynsham, it’s not enough to make regular production of them a justifiable use of our time and energy. Neither of us are exactly in the first flush of our youth and the distribution of the papers was becoming a headache. Calling it a day was overall, the best option.
We would only think about producing another paper if enough people came forward to make sure it was a genuinely collaborative effort. That would mean a certain convergence on how we see the world and what needs to be done to build a better one. Given some of the experiences we’ve had with potential contacts, there would have to be some kind of each way interview process to ensure that there’s enough common ground to make a collaborative paper project a viable proposition.
To conclude, At the Grassroots now has a new, albeit different lease of life under the auspices of The Avon Stirrer. The Directory is back with us for the foreseeable future. As ever, we’re always open to collaboration with like minded individuals and groups. So, after a rocky few months, it’s onwards and upwards from this point:)
