On 23 September, the words “EVICT THE LORDS” and “POWER TO A HOUSE OF THE PEOPLE” were projected onto parliament. This rounded off a day in which Assemble, a group with roots in the modern climate movement, highlighted “five urgent political priorities” that people around the country had decided on.
Assemble: evict the Lords!
Assemble spokesperson Maddison Wheeldon delivered the statement in front of the Emmeline Pankhurst statue outside parliament, “standing in front of a replica of the throne seen in the House of the Lords — typical of the extreme luxury and aristocratic trappings seen in the chamber”:
In August, the Canary attended the launch of the House of the People, which brought together representatives from local assemblies in different parts of the country. Assemble had helped to set up dozens of assemblies before the 2024 general election.
Anyone could attend and deliberate on important local, national, and international issues, and on the potential solutions to them. The group also backed a number of independent candidates in the election, including many whom the Canary interviewed.
“We have the right to contribute to the decisions which affect people like us”
The House of the People launch concentrated the outputs from local assemblies down to five key priorities. As Wheeldon announced on 23 September, they were:
End Support for Genocide and Unjust War
Tackle Climate Breakdown
Tax The Rich and Address Economic Inequality
Expand Participatory democracy / Expand our democracy to enable people to participate
End political corruption
She also explained:
The way we make decisions is ancient and it needs upgrading. Half of those in Parliament are unelected Aristocrats, and the other half appear to be careerist politicians who work only for themselves. They sweep up lavish gifts in exchange for favours, and virtue signal to the public when it suits them.
People like us don’t get a look in.
There are solutions to the problems we’re facing, and our communities can deliver them. We can do right by us – we have the right to contribute to the decisions which affect people like us.
She added:
Last month Assemble launched the House of People, which is a genuinely democratic alternative to the House of Lords. It will be a place where regular people will be selected by sortition – like a poll- to serve at random, like a Jury. They will take all the input from local Assemblies and turn them into a concise mandate.
Finally, she said:
This is the start of a new kind of politics, where democracy is a process we all take part in. Voting a few times a decade isn’t effective enough, and it is not a true democracy. We need change; let’s make it happen.
The next steps
Assemble belongs to the Umbrella movement, along with Just Stop Oil and Youth Demand. And as the press release stated, Assemble is “fundraising to host an official House of the People event in 2025, which will see participants (selected by a democratic lottery) who proportionately represent the UK population spend several days deliberating on issues that will have been raised in local Assemblies between now and then. They will be paid for their time and informed by subject matter experts to create another five concrete proposals”.
Featured image and additional images via Assemble
