SUMMER 2020 INTERVIEW COMMENT CLIMATE by Anticipations
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By Anticipations INTERVIEW COMMENT CLIMATE SUMMER James Graham, The bright future of UBI Cities post-pandemic 2020 Playwright p.2 p.14 p.5 & 8 “ NOW IS THE TIME FOR ONE FINAL PUSH TO KNOCK DOWN THE DOOR TO A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. ” JACK PARKER, P10 CONTENTS ADAM ALLNUTT IN THIS ISSUE FROM THE CHAIR elcome to the summer edition improved the culture in the Young Fabians Editor’s Column P1 Wof our new look Anticipations – creating a decentralised productive James Graham on the future of theatre P2 Magazine. environment where activists feel P4 Our reach this year has been empowered to produce brilliant pieces of The parasite and the virus phenomenal. We’ve sent several work. The Young Fabians and Fabianism New horizons P5 delegations to events across Europe and is in the ascendancy with open discussion, P6 hosted the Young European Socialist debate and thought leadership at its core. Education after lockdown Bureau. We’re launching the Young I cannot thank each and every member Our international future P7 Scottish Fabians, Young Welsh Fabians enough for the effort you have put in to P8 and regional groups across England. We create an atmosphere that people want to Forging the path will be launching a complete YF re-brand join. Beyond ‘Big Society’ P9 across the society, the networks, the As we look to an uncertain future I nations and the regions. We were early am filled with confidence that the next Pushing open the door to a green future P10 adopters of Zoom events and have hosted generation of leaders are developing their A National Care Service P11 over 100 virtual events across a wide skills here. We follow in the footsteps of range of subjects - including 30 members giants and as young members my rallying Defined Chaos P12 of the Shadow Labour Team - and we’re cry to you is step up - we need you. The future’s bright, the future’s UBI P14 planning a virtual alternative conference. Whether it’s on social justice, the climate We have nine active policy pamphlets crisis, inequality or any other wrong you or reports underway, have co-opted five see, it is on us to step up and be the new incredible committee members, and change we want to see. Maybe then we our blog is more active than ever. We are can have the utopian future we all crave. looking at establishing a patrons board Thank you for reading, I look forward to with a mentoring programme, and we’ve working with you. HENNA SHAH FROM THE EDITOR elcome to the summer special some of the brilliant writing we see here, Wedition of Anticipations. with (sometimes utopian) visions of the As we emerge, bleary eyed, from future on everything from education to lockdown, many of us within the Labour international relations, culture to care. movement are thinking about what the Politics should be about action. I am future might hold for our country and its delighted that Anticipations is a space place in the world. Comparisons to 1945 where we can have a conversation about are rife, but the truth is we might be the kind of society we want, and where standing over an even greater precipice young members in particular can share than we did then. We are not embarking their experiences, expertise, and passion on a programme of reconstruction in a with other progressives. world that’s shaped by the values we hold Of course, this happens all year round dear as a society and. In fact, it often feels in our excellent blog, and I am excited to that our polity has no unifying values at all. show you some of the best writing that’s EDITORIAL TEAM It’s not all doom and gloom, though. appeared in it over the past few months. While we have seen fractures in our Thank you to Amber Khan, who is an Henna Shah Anticipations Editor society over the past few months, we incredibly talented editor and, of course, Carolina Saludes Creative Supervisor have also seen displays of mutual to you, the Young Fabians, for being Robin Wilde Graphic Designer support and care that before seemed enthusiastic and prolific in your writing. Adam Allnutt Content Supervisor more within the realm of nostalgia than Enjoy the issue! Amber Khan Anticipations Sub-Editor social reality. This instinctive tendency towards mutual cooperation is reflected in Designed by Robin Wilde Design & Creative robinwilde.me 1 INTERVIEW CAROLINA SALUDES JAMES GRAHAM ON THE FUTURE OF THEATRE ames Graham isn’t just a very ing towns, the ways for people to laugh, liamentary proceedings that inadvertently Jaccomplished playwright. The cry, and just feel together, seem to be cul- teaches us about our country’s political soft-spoken author of This House, Labour turally split. ‘Metropolitan elites’ pay £10 for history. of Love and the somewhat controversial, a glass of wine at a swish West End foyer, For the price of a single Marvel film, Brexit: The Uncivil War, is everything a pro- and everyone else is much more comforta- the Government (although Graham is also gressive could want in a political writer. ble with a football match and a pint. Except open for enforcing contributions from He’s working class, didn’t go to Oxbridge, this doesn’t fully reflect our reality, espe- Netflix and other media conglomerates) and learned about theatre through panto cially that of theatre. could guarantee the survival of the Arts, and school plays. Yet he’s had multiple Today, polarisation dictates our lives. one that ‘creates £5 in value for every £1 plays on Broadway and is currently work- Sometimes bubbles are pierced, and un- invested’. It would be, he says, ‘econom- ing on a project with a certain Elton John. lawful trips to Durham or the plight of black ically illiterate to decide that the majority But that’s not why he’s here. James is on communities burst through, demanding of theatres should be mothballed and left a mission to save theatre - both from this that we all pay attention. But we’ve not to die for what is such a small amount of catastrophic pandemic, and from itself. The been given the tools, especially emotion- money to them. There is a direct link be- UK Arts sector now has a £600m hole to tween the theatre above a pub and Star fill. Since losing some 40% of public subsi- Wars films, and it makes no sense to let dies in the last decade, it has become very THEATRES SHOULD it go.’ He’s signed a plea for theatres to, exposed to further ticket and catering sales BE DEFENDED amongst other things, postpone rather losses. Arts Council England has replaced AND CHAMPIONED than cancel plays, to pay fair royalties to its usual Arts grants with a welcome, but writers for plays now streaming online, and insufficient, £160m Covid-19 fund. Per- AS CREATORS OF to improve protections for freelance crew. formance spaces, which were the first to COMMUNITY. These aren’t just nice-to-haves, they’re life- close, will be the last to open. They need lines for many. an Emergency Relief Fund and logistical We also know, however, that theatre has guidance, and they need it now, James al, to process this flurry of data, to make become elitist, some of it for financial rea- says. But that’s not enough: ‘we also need us less angry and more understanding. As sons. No business rate relief (prior to the a reset’, a change in how the sector has we have painfully realised through a lock- pandemic anyway), no contractual con- operated. down that has kept us apart, no online ex- tributions from streaming companies that To chart this new direction (and in keep- perience can replace a hug, a busy pub, benefit from the theatre talent pool, and ing with the theme of this special edition), the communal laughter at a comedy gig. insufficient revenue from digital distribu- we need to understand what theatre is for. Graham’s point is that artists and creative tion, translate into wafer-thin margins that If it seems counterintuitive to defend Arts spaces don’t just exist in the slot between lead to unfair practices. Underpaid stage spending during a public health crisis, Gra- the curtain rising and falling, they’re a key actors, precarious freelance contracts, and ham offers a compelling argument. Thea- part of their communities and of British life. a dearth of grants and apprenticeships tres are a vehicle for community-building They may be the theatre company that follow, requiring young starters to have a where other forms of collective socialisa- has partnered with local schools to pro- family to house them for free or the bank tion have disappeared. vide educational resources, or the writing of mum and dad to support them. All this Just like the debate in Labour of Love grant scheme for young creatives or the also exacerbates ‘risk-aversion’, and hence over winning University towns vs. ex-min- streamed play about the minutiae of Par- a lack of any push towards gender and 2 INTERVIEW ethnic diversity in the development and ble characters in empathetic ways (even his deliciously funny ITV drama Quiz, about programming of plays. Graham points out the likes of Dominic Cummings or Rupert the Charles Ingram scandal) but they can that Natasha Gordon’s ‘Nine night’ play last Murdoch), a humanistic approach that has feel ‘disposable’. ‘TikTok is great’, but ‘be- year was the first-ever (!) West End hit writ- much to teach our current political class.