In Conversation with the Mayor on Civil Disobedience
I’m writing this article partly to request help. I’m hoping the collective wisdom of the community can help to advance the conversation, which may help to defend against austerity and lead to an economy based on compassion.
A few weeks ago I went down to a march against austerity that had been called by Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol. The austerity-driven government of Theresa May has cut the money it gives to cities in the UK, forcing cities to cut services that are essential to the health of individuals and the city as a whole. For many, this makes the future look terrifyingly bleak.
So I went down to the march with some banners and fliers to try to encourage my fellow protesters to become/stay active beyond the march, and to raise awareness about the critical role civil disobedience has played in struggles for justice historically — and that we’ll need it now too!
I ran ahead of the march and hung my banners in a place that would be visible to the thousands of people as they walked past. I then waited, and started handing out my fliers as the march passed by. I even handed a flier to mayor Marvin himself, though he was deep in conversation with someone else.
A minute later I was surprised when Marvin approached me saying, “so civil disobedience? Tell me, what do you want me to do?” Having had a discussion that morning with a friend who is doing their masters in economics, I told him he could “pass an illegal budget. Don’t do the cuts that Theresa May’s government and the neoliberal fundamentalists want to force you to make.” His response (paraphrased) stumped me:
OK, so if I pass an illegal budget, what happens when May is on TV with Corbyn and she gets to say “Corbyn, how can the British people trust you with the economy? Your Labour mayor of the rich city of Bristol can’t even balance a budget, so how on earth can you be trusted with the finances of the entire country?” It’ll allow her to perpetuate the oft-spoken, yet ill-founded mantra that Labour are reckless with spending. If I pass an illegal budget, that could be used to keep May in power, and what we desperately need is to get the neoliberals out.
Good point. I didn’t have a ready response. So I just muttered that perhaps that idea wasn’t as strategic as I’d thought, and affirmed the need for civil disobedience: “You’ve called a march, great, but at some point, in order to win against May’s austerity, you’ll need to call for civil disobedience, and when you do, the city of Bristol will be there to back you.” Marvin thanked me, and moved on.
A couple of days later I wrote a letter to him, wanting to continue the conversation. I wanted to point out that although there could be a cost to passing an illegal budget, “there is [also] a broad political cost if you choose to be obedient to the Tories’ aggressive ideology of austerity.” This would come in the form of people becoming cynical about their ‘socialist’ mayor, the resultant loss of hope, and the blow-back that would come when “the working class [don’t] have the services they need to get by, which in some cases could be life or death.” You can read the full letter here.
A few weeks later I received a personal response from Marvin, the bulk of which goes as follows:
Appealing to civil disobedience in my role as the elected Mayor of Bristol doesn’t make much sense, as walking away from the challenge of setting a legal budget would be a total abdication of responsibility.
We are required to balance the budget by ensuring we do not spend more money than we have come in. While government retains the power to take local control over all budget decisions through the appointment of external commissioners, passing an illegal budget would be possible but meaningless. A balanced budget would be forced on the city. So not only would locally elected politicians lose control and not lead on the priorities we choose but the no cuts budget would never be implemented. Also, the city would incur reputational damage that would undermine its ability to secure the inward investment needed to build the homes and provide the decent jobs Bristolians need.
To Marvin’s credit I believe he’s got a good point. The situation is different than it was in 1983. Thatcher’s response was to introduce a rate-capping law, a mechanism intended to undermine democracy in the UK. If an illegal budget was now passed, parliament would likely wrest the power of setting the budget from the city, brazenly undermining any locally elected government that tries to refuse to live by the brutal rules of austerity. In new times, new tactics are needed.
So what can he do? And what can we do to support him, in this life-and-death struggle against the austerity-driven agenda of the neoliberal fundamentalists? Where might civil disobedience play a role, and how could the people take action to advance an economy based in compassion? Where might the mayor benefit from our support? And what could I write to Marvin now to continue the conversation?
