One character, who sadly passed away last year, was Ken Dolan, a class fighter to the end, and I’ll bet that he was a class fighter from the moment he was brought in to this world. Although he was never a member of the Socialist Party he did attend a handful of our meetings. Although he wasn’t afraid to voice his opinions and give comment no matter the subject, it was one comment that has stuck with me for years. Ken said something, although it seems ridiculously simple; he said that to win over the hearts and minds, and to fight a successful fight, you need to be part of the community.
Most us are part of a community in some part, may that be party of the LBGTQ community or part of a local sports team. Back when Ken said this I had immersed myself in a local community called The Big Local, a community led group that had been set up to decide how to spend one million pounds over ten years, although the money wasn’t the focal point, the sense of community was. The Big Local was very apolitical on the surface but the problems in the community that Big Local were trying to fix were political; well, in my eyes anyway.
As with many community led consultations, one of the biggest complaints is always litter, though it may sound trivial, the solution towhich, amongst community groups, is always volunteer litter picks. This may sound like a fair and good idea, but just prior to this Rotherham Council had just viciously swung their axe and cut in to their StreetPride budgets, resulting in staff cuts. Hence, we were suggesting volunteers, sometimes children, would collect litter where only a matter of months prior this was a paid job for someone. To be volunteer litter picks, is glorified scabbing. How would you feel if you lost your job collecting litter then weeks later you saw charities and community groups encouraging volunteers to do it?
During one meeting of Big Local the subject of food banks came up, someone said they’re a fantastic idea. I shot it down. They are a good idea but they’re not the solution, they are simply a sticky plaster of the failings of capitalism, how can it be like this in twenty-first century Britain?
Working with the community can be an eye opener, it can highlight real world effects of privatisation and greed. I remember as a child, my six week summer holidays off school were sun filled days out to the park, to the big park in town, or visiting grandparents, generally just being out and about. But one conversation I had from a young member of the community stood out; a child said to me that they hadn’t left the village all summer. A fellow volunteer stood by me, explained to me at the time explained that this is more common than you think, it’s a knock on effect of the ever increasing bus fares and the poor service in general. It makes sense really, as now a single child’s one way ticket is £1. So if a family of two want to go an attraction in Sheffield, firstly it’s a £1 each per child in to Rotherham, then another £1 each towards Sheffield, and the same return, that is £8 on the children’s bus fares before you even add the adult’s bus fares then any cost of any activity, it all adds up and quickly eating in to a family’s budget.
Being part of the community can help apply our politics to the world around us, hopefully it’s a two way street too, where we see the community and the community sees our politics.
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