Community assemblies have become more and more a part of grassroots organising in the last couple of years, with the aim of people-powering a democratic revival. And new Green Party leader Zack Polanski gave us his thoughts on events like assemblies and how to really make them count.

Zack Polanski: we need to do politics ‘with’ people, not ‘to’ people

Zack Polanski was positive about assemblies, insisting that “bringing people together and having conversations” is “really important, and I want us to do more of that”. But he also asked:

What do you do with that information next? … How do you then turn that into changes that happen in your communities so we can help turn the country around town by town, village by village, city by city, and that transforms the country?

And his perspective is clearly in favour of the way things work in the Green Party, where they:

have one member one vote, so any member can create policy, get other members to sign it, bring it to our party conference and then it’s voted on by the party membership.

If that fails, members can “find a more consensus-building way” to get support for a similar idea.

He stressed that he’s seen this system bring together “working-class communities, disabled communities, migrant communities, LGBT communities, people who often feel like they don’t have a voice” in a place where they have an equal voice, and this represents “real access to democratic grassroots power”. He added:

not only is it important, I think it is the only way we’re gonna stop fascism, because actually people feel like politics is done to them, rather than with them.

‘Don’t just notify. Consult!’

Zack Polanski gave a specific example of how failure to consult can actually empower the right further, saying:

when there’s actions that need to happen for climate – like low-traffic neighbourhoods, for instance – if people aren’t properly consulted, and if they’re not brought in from the very beginning, it’s very easy for the right to then weaponise it as ‘no one’s listening to you’

And he stressed:

Let’s make sure that we’re not falling into that mistake, and making sure from the very beginning people aren’t just notified, they’re actually consulted.

Speaking about what he’s learned from going around the country and talking to ordinary people in the street, he said:

The less you talk, the better it is. Just keep listening. And then if you’re asked a question, obviously, answer the question, but it’d be better to ask a question and just be quiet.

By Ed Sykes

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