I am just writing to make you aware of our project, and what somebody called, ‘the quiet revolution’.
We are Radical Thinkers, Practical Doers Cooperative(RTPD), and we have set our minds to the problem of how we transition from a post capitalist, neo-liberal, world to one that is more equitable in opportunity and in reward.
We believe that the last forty years have seen a significant change in the dynamic between the rich and the poor. What was once unthinkable is now unspeakably ingrained in the hierarchy of our societies. Within Western nations the difference between the lives of the poorest and those of the richest is so vast that they could almost be on different planets. The poorest are seen by some of the richest as vermin to be eradicated, and policies in the US and UK, for example, are being used to do just that.
So, if the richest are now so powerful that there is no way they could be unseated, if our Governments are now unable to control these vast global behemoths, why are we trying to change our Governments? All that that does is tickle the underbelly of the beast and this is one of the reasons why so many people are becoming disenfranchised with mainstream politics.
I liken it to a game of Monopoly, only, as a working class player you don’t get to join the game until all the property has been sold. You then get a fraction of the money that the other players have and are expected to be in with a chance of winning, because, after all, it’s all down to hard graft and genius. So if you don’t win it’s because you’re lazy and not intelligent enough to do so. It is never because the game wasn’t fair to begin with.
Every working class player who is born joins this game, and the game is one where you can pass your playing piece onto your child. But what good is that if your child still has no property and just keeps paying out rent every turn? What good is that if the other players, with all the property, keep accruing more and more wealth, and passing that on to their children? With each generation you are getting further and further behind. You can NEVER win this game.
Again I ask; why are we trying to change this game when there is no chance of any change that would make a significant enough difference? It is time now to leave their game and set up our own.
A New Game
Imagine if some of us took our pieces off the board and went to another table. We don’t have much, just a few pound notes from the old game, and our pieces. We may have to work hard to imagine the kind of game we want, but as others join us and we give them the same benefits as we have we might find more people want to join our game rather than the old one being played across the room.
As our game becomes more popular, it is only when it is established that the players on the other table realise they are not getting as much rent from the smaller players any more. It is only then that they will see their purse strings tighten, as our game doesn’t involve interaction with them and their game.
To bring this back to our project, people will not rise up and affect a bloody revolution, and generally speaking that isn’t what most people want. So how do you get them engaging in revolutionary tactics without feeling like they are doing something that could threaten the safety of them and their kids?
Well, most households, from a UK perspective, now feel threatened. They cannot afford the ever rising rent. Food is getting more and more expensive. Parents starve so their kids can eat. Working families are no better off for both parents working. People work longer and longer hours in order to just survive. There has to be another way.
The problem is that it is very difficult to engage with someone who is under constant stress and has very little time spare. All they want to do is recover from work and you’re asking them to deliver a leaflet to save the NHS, for a political party, or to save endangered animals, all of which seem vastly unattainable and unlikely to succeed, in their eyes.
Here at RTPD, because of this almost ‘catch-22’ scenario we think that the first step is to free up the worker. We have a trading arm, Battye’s Bazaar, which is currently taking people on. The idea is that by paying people a decent wage, getting them involved in more rewarding work, and having them work in a supportive and community based environment, this will help to free up their mind to get them thinking about the wider world around them.
But that’s only the first step. For us there is a four-step approach to the problem:
1 Create Secure Work
2 With Guaranteed Income
3 Create Secure Housing
4 With Access to Renewable Energy
So, once we have created the work place and the positions, with everybody working together for better pay and less working hours, this will begin to alleviate the stress and pressure on the workers. In an environment where they are getting a slice of the profit, and it is also supportive of their personal situation, they can think more about their community.
With all the excess profit going towards securing land so everyone can have affordable housing, at less than market rate, when we have reached this point we can seriously begin to decrease the number of working hours so individuals can focus on personal growth and enhancing their community.
And once the housing is in place it will be powered by renewable energy on site. The workspaces will be moved to our own land too.
What all this does is slowly remove those involved from interactions with the global corporations. Because our initial business is based on selling second hand goods, some of which we can use ourselves, it means we can begin to step away from constant consumerism. As we step through each stage we give less and less money to the big players. We start to play a game that they can get no benefit from.
All of it is based on a more stable economic model than that used by the big corporations, so, over time it will become more profitable as we remove the need for those involved to take higher wages.
If the people involved are bartering, growing their own, reusing second hand and vintage items, living in less expensive housing, getting free electricity, and more, then they won’t need as much to live on. This means that when we move into making things too we can have significantly less overheads than the competing big company.
So, whatever we decide to manufacture we can compete with the big corporations. This makes our business model much more sustainable. Add to this that we will be working a lot less hours and our way of life, which is still a comfortable 21st Century life, looks a lot more attractive to those stress burdened workers pressing their faces to the grindstone.
As we take more people on board we can do more things, which then generates more profit for the whole community.
Currently, we have a business that has been going four years and is now ready to take on the first workers, but we need a little help from like-minded people around the world. We can do everything we want to do without any help, but it will happen slowly. The whole business literally was started from nothing. But if we get some help with our funding appeal then we can get off to a flying start and have ten people on board very soon.
Can you help? Here is the link to our appeal: https://www.gofundme.com/helping-others-get-on-their-feet
Would you like to know more and follow us? You can do so here: https://radicalthinkerspracticaldoers.wordpress.com/
Or here: https://www.facebook.com/radicalthinkerspracticaldoers/
Or you can follow our trading arm, Battye’s Bazaar here: https://www.facebook.com/Battyesbazaar/
Or here: https://www.facebook.com/battyesbooks/