Last month, protesters from Extinction Rebellion dug up a lawn outside Trinity College, Cambridge. The action, which now seems to belong in another world, was in response to plans by the college, alma mater of luminaries such as Isaac Newton, to develop land for commercial use.
As a bid to harvest headlines and attention, the stunt succeeded. There was outrage that the protesters had come close to Newton’s apple tree, with one climate change activist chaining themself to the arboreal tribute to the inspiration for his most famous scientific discovery.
How much it will have changed anything is another matter. Even before coronavirus halted the trains, closed the schools and emptied the streets, the effectiveness — not to mention popularity — of disrupting transport, bunking off school or chaining yourself to some handy monument was open to question.
Yet, perhaps the present crisis brings with it an opportunity for would-be change agents. With the state back in the driving seat — and set to expand — what better time for protesters to head for the corridors of power and effect real shifts? Might embracing your inner bureaucrat and applying for a job in local government prove the truly radical step?
“Getting into the bureaucracy to change things is as important as it ever was,” says Charles Armstrong, a London-based social entrepreneur who runs The Trampery, which provides workspaces for start-ups. “We will see this over the next few months as the state becomes more powerful.” A shift towards the public realm — “civic entrepreneurship”, he calls it — has been under way for a while as sometime activists and disrupters move into areas such as social care, bringing with them skills honed in grassroots political movements, such as the Occupy movement or Howard Dean’s radical pitch for the 2004 Democratic nomination. Covid-19 has accelerated all this, he adds. Bureaucrats “will have a moment”.
Storming the bureaucracy is also a path that has been described by earlier generations of radicals. In the 1970s German leftists, who had found their political voice in the mass protests of the 1960s, embarked on a “long march through the institutions” of the state. On one level, Maoism-by-memo made perfect sense: if you wanted to alter a repressive, leaden state then best take it over yourself (especially, if in the case of postwar Germany, many saw officialdom as a haven of unreformed Nazi-era penpushers). On another, it chimed with a cultural respect for ordered administration, giving credence to Lenin’s quip about how German revolutionaries intent on storming a train station would be sure first to purchase a platform ticket.
The idea of infiltrating the bureaucracy to effect revolutionary change is not the exclusive preserve of the left. Dominic Cummings, chief adviser to UK prime minister Boris Johnson, this year invited “wild cards” and “weirdos” into government as a means of injecting fresh thinking and new energy into stodgy bureaucracy — though since coronavirus, enthusiasm for such a disruptive approach to public administration has waned. Sane experts are back.
Mariana Mazzucato, founder of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London, sees an opportunity for officialdom now to show that it can be an engine for progressive change. Yet, she adds that for this to happen you also need to change the “remit” for institutions. The reality is also that while activists might warm to the notion of grabbing the levers, the organisational structure, hierarchies of government and lack of flexibility “doesn’t make it attractive”. The answer: “We need to make bureaucracy a positive word,” she says. She cites Scandinavia, where governments have set themselves goals to become carbon-free states. “That will bring people in.”
Extinction Rebellion appears to recognise the opportunity presented by the crisis. “Everything now has changed. The Conservatives have just nationalised the economy,” says Sarah Lunnon, a spokesperson. “What we do now is very interesting.” When we all return to offices don’t be surprised if you see a few new, unusual faces at the local government office. And that would leave Newton’s tree in peace.
