This post was first published on our sister blog, Stirrings from below. It was written with the aim of giving our readers over on Substack an opportunity to understand how and why we operate, and also, why there are issues we don’t comment upon. We’re republishing it here, with some minor amends for context, to give you an insight into what drives us to do what we do…

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The title of this piece could be taken by some people as us throwing in the towel and just chugging along with a neighbourhood level project or two and a couple of blogs. This particularly to those elements who demand that you show support and issue statements on the causes they’re passionate about. While I’ve not been directly on the receiving end of any such demands for a few years now, I’ve seen fellow activists and bloggers come under some pretty heavy pressure to say something or act in support of an issue or cause they don’t have a lot of knowledge about or experience in. I’ve seen instances of people refusing to do this, for the perfectly legitimate reason that feel they don’t enough knowledge about an issue to comment upon it, coming in for some pretty heavy duty flak. It’s not nice to see that happening, particularly when it’s between people who on other issues, have displayed a lot of unity with each other. This is something I wrote about in this piece: Trying to clarify a few issues around masks… 13.5.24.

Looking at the dystopian shitshow that’s the world we live in, it’s all too easy to get overwhelmed. What I’m finding as I get older and need to conserve my mental energy, is that focusing down on the issues and activity I know something about and feel confident about doing, is an approach that can help deal with burnout and keep me going for as long as possible. With the Stirrings from below blog, hopefully you’ll have noticed that I tend to focus on a number of core issues which take in transport (I’m a non-driver so I have a lot to say about this!) and decentralising and localising food production. I have occasionally published compilations of readings plus some limited commentary on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and also, the situation in Gaza and the wider Middle East but, I don’t pretend to be an expert on either of those situations.

Given the seriousness of both situations, some people may say that I should be writing about those issues but, if I’m not an expert and, given my other commitments, don’t have the time to be an expert and have anything meaningful to say that hasn’t already been said by those far better qualified than me. However, with something like the war drums beating ever louder for WW3, if there’s an angle I can on that from something I’m passionate about such as localising food production, I will write posts like this: Digging for victory? 18.5.24.

Focusing on what we know and can make a positive contribution is one reason why we’ve revived this At the Grassroots project. Compiling The Directory which is a growing list of mostly neighbourhood level, grassroots projects operating in Bath, Bristol and the surrounding settlements is our modest contribution to showing people what’s out there and encouraging them to take part.

In the circles I move in, online and in real life, there’s genuine interest in building a decentralised alternative to the current shitshow we have to endure. There’s a recognition that with the number of community focused projects run by volunteers, the foundations for that, to a certain extent, are already in place. It could be argued that a fair number of these volunteers are anarchists or have anarchist tendencies, but don’t yet realise it. Bearing all of this in mind, The Directory can be seen as our very modest contribution towards building this alternative. So, it seemed to be the right thing to do to revive At the Grassroots and The Directory, and to accept that while it will be a long slog to get it going, in the end, it potentially has a contribution to make.

Going back to our Alternative Estuary days back in Essex, the aim was to make what was then the equivalent of The Directory a collaborative project. With the current incarnation of The Directory, the long term aim is still to make it a collaborative project. All we have to do is find people we can trust who would be willing to participate in this endeavour.

Is focusing on compiling a list of grassroots projects across Bath, Bristol and the surrounding settlements a cop out? Is putting in regular shifts at the Keynsham Community Veg Plot in the Park a cop out? Is doing litter picking with the Keynsham Wombles a cop out? The answer to those three questions is, as far as I’m concerned, a resounding no! It shows that we care about linking up grassroots groups across the region we cover and encouraging them to work more collaboratively as and when there’s a need to do so. It shows that when it comes to localising food production, we’re not just talking the talk, we’re walking the walk. It shows that we care about where we live and want to work cooperatively with other people to make it a better place to live.

To create genuine social change, you have to build from the grassroots upwards. That’s something that over the last ten years, we’ve endeavoured to do to the best of our ability. A key part of that is doing what we can to empower people where they live to start taking action for their community. The more confident people become in working at the grassroots in their communities, the more they’ll come to see that running things at the neighbourhood level is a way of starting to prise power away from those who presume to rule over us. This is something we’ve written a lot about over the years. From our Alternative Estuary days back in Essex, here are a few examples of this:

Don’t buy it, grow it! 9.10.21

We got digging (and sweeping) 1.5.21

Getting back into action:) 27.6.0

Staying grounded… 21.6.19

Plugging the gaps 15.4.19

Community projects that build community cohesion 6.3.19

Bringing things up to date, here are some more generic posts from this blog, looking at decentralising and localising food production:

Food self sufficiency in action

Food deserts, food supply and taking back control

Keeping it local and under our control

Lastly, but my no means least, there’s this:

Principles…

You’ll see from the above, the efforts we’ve put in over the years to make a difference at the grassroots. This is what we consider our area of expertise and the reason why we intend to carry on focusing on what we know about operating at the level of the neighbourhood with our writing. It’s also why we intend to carry on with the practical projects we’re involved with. Hopefully you’ll understand why focusing on what we know about and have experience of is the best way of utilising our experience and knowledge. Also, we hope you’ll understand that it’s a strategy for moving our activism forwards without suffering from burnout:)