🎉 But we love a good party, don't we?

Results from the 4th July confirm that ANTIPARTY knows how to party

A turnout better than the General Election, without a single person turned away at the door and guests travelling in from across the globe, the ANTIPARTY LAUNCH PARTY was a demonstration of collective willpower towards a brighter future.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” - African Proverb.

Having announced the event before even having a venue secured, there is a lot to say about heading towards your vision, no matter how fantastical, and the rest will fall into place. I am immensely grateful for everyone who showed up and wished us well - some of the feedback we’ve received so far can be found below:

Meanwhile, Labour took over government with a ‘landslide majority’ on just 34% of the vote - with both Labour and the Conservatives achieving only 58%, the lowest combined share of the vote in over 100 years. Nonetheless we were kept entertained by comedy troupe Bar Gregoire’s ‘Out of Office’ Election Special. In keeping with our core value of Creativity, punters were encouraged to contribute to a montage of heck using brushstrokes of black paint - the collective expression that emerged from the evening can be seen here:

As inspired by Picasso’s Guernica. If you are interested in the silent auction for this rare and exclusive piece, please get in touch.

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Alternative forms of Democracy

Amidst a voting system that saw smaller parties take nearly 43% of the popular vote but gained just less than 18% of the seats, we ooh’d and aah’d at the inspiring displays of alternative forms of democracy by members of the ANTIPARTY Collective whom you are welcome to follow up with here:

• The Wellbeing Protocol - improving community wellbeing through participatory grant-making. Check out their full presentation here.

• ​London Voice - a democratic AI experiment using blockchain technology. Join their community WhatsApp group and test out the app yourself here.

• ​The Humanity Project - supporting People’s Assemblies and looking to redraw the system to incorporate a permanent House of Citizens. Check out their latest National Listening Campaign here.

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Sweet symphonies

And if all of this wasn’t enough of a sensory delight, we were also graced with the melodies of talented musicians Harry Hutchinson, Cookie Lanes and George aka DJ FreshLov3 - p.s. did you know mics were gendered?

I learned so much about sound equipment that day, but something I’ve always been acutely aware of is the artist’s plight. All of these musicians work hard to make a living to prop up pursuing their passions, so whilst they all showed up for the ANTIPARTY cause without expectation of payment, I would encourage us to show appreciation by at least covering their travel expenses to bring their guitars and CDJs all the way to the venue and back.

You can kindly donate here - think of it as paying for a live music performance, without the markups for agents and booking fees!

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As above, so below - so why did I choose to present the quote “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone”, by French philosopher Blaise Pascal in the 1600s?

It relates closely to the realisation that “Systems change starts from within”, in that any effective change in the outer world starts from our inner world. Often when we see people being intolerable and cruel to another, this is due to their own inner demons projecting outwards. But if we have yet to conquer our own demons, and understand our own biases or why we believe in what we believe, there is little hope in truly connecting with one another. Those who have not done the required inner work will continue to carry judgement, stereotypes and bigotry. Thus the separations and divides in society will persist and deepen before its too late.

Power with the People

This is why Citizens’ Assembly-style forums are so powerful. I’ll always remember the stories from the deliberations in Ireland on marriage equality that led to the referendum legalising same-sex marriage. An elderly man entered the discussion with firmly-held homophobic views, stemming from childhood trauma, yet changed his perspective and opened his mind to the concept of same-sex marriage, after hearing first-hand the experience of a gay man.

This is why I am so passionate about the work of ​The People Speak and interviewed its founder Mikey Weinkove as part of my Masters dissertation. Through ‘Talkaoke’ sessions on street corners around their infamous donut table, you sit opposite people you may never have otherwise had the opportunity to speak with. People from all walks of life, perhaps very different to yours, perhaps from a subculture you had subconscious biases towards. You hear their story, you empathise, and feel compassion towards one another.

We at ANTIPARTY will never forget the magic of bringing real people around the table. So for us, the LAUNCH PARTY was a success in embodying our core values of Connection and Community in real life.

After all that, I’ll be signing off for now from my Mongolian Yurt where I’ll be based for the next few weeks - sitting quietly in a room alone, with the music of the ANTIPARTY Collective ringing through my ears.

I’ll come around to sing the next verse with you soon.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next issue where more details about what the various forms ANTIPARTY membership looks like, will be revealed 👀

With love and light,

ANTIPARTY

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➡️ Any thoughts or reflections on this issue, feel free to share in the comments below. If you really want your hands on that General Election Guernica, get in touch with the team at antipartyuk@gmail.com.

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Quick bite

Finally before you go, a quick point to distinguish between debate and dialogue - which are two very different things but have started to be used synonymously.

• Debate describes the style of opposing viewpoints competing to overpower one another as seen in Oxford and Cambridge Student Unions, that has translated to the style of discourse seen across benches of the two-party system in Parliament. Likewise, we are presented with TV debates representing the two party leaders during election time.

• This is distinct to dialogue, which is a more conversational exchange that can be structured and facilitated towards a shared understanding. We will be focusing more on the latter in future sessions.