Taking Back Control

Author: Alicia Hull

There is no shortage of ideas. As lawlessness, war, ethnic cleansing, barbarity and extreme weather spread, and failed domestic services and the cost-of-living crisis show the failure of governments’ policies, a cacophony of voices offers solutions – experts, think tanks, influencers, individual politicians. Some ideas are helpful, others damaging, but many focus on single incremental issues like proportional voting, which take many years to bring larger changes.

The World Inequality Lab (WIL) and Global Justice claim the ‘long road to planetary survival’ can be achieved by a combination of policies. They specify wealth taxes on billionaires, fewer working hours, less manufacturing, a change of diet, more jobs in education, health and renewables and the use of citizens' assemblies, to bring ‘sufficiency’. Their ideas are similar to those already developed by thousands of citizens across the world in grassroots groups, but don’t go nearly as far and have two serious weaknesses. First, they ask for cooperation from leaders when there is no evidence they wish to abandon their neoliberal policies of top-down control and quick profits for the favoured few, austerity for the rest. 

We are as far away as possible from the cooperation, fairness, transparency and legality of democracy as neoliberal policies put military and economic power in control, resurrecting ‘Might is Right’. The policies stem from a double lie - first that ‘market forces’ provide the best government. Absurd when markets only provide profits from surplus production, avoid the essential work of planning and monitoring and undermine the voluntary care in families and communities, which had been the basic organising system in society. Secondly, market forces are not used. Instead, patronage between the military-scientific-industrial-banking-media complex and governments uses secretive negotiations to steal resources and money from the public to amass the fortunes and assets of the super-rich while also using untested hi-tech science, which has led to massive pollution and the degradation of nature and society.

Such malign policies could only be sold by lies. All the tricks of advertising that appeal to our animal habits are used to divide and rule. spreading hate, envy and fear. Some groups are favoured and their actions justified; others, such as migrants, are vilified and blamed for policy failures that have nothing to do with them. Unfortunately, people and democracy are vulnerable to lies.

The more often we hear a view, the more likely we are to believe it, however absurd. Language controls our behaviour so strongly that people will die or kill to support an idea. It cuts us off from reality and allows grandiose, fantastic ideas to dominate, as shown by the countless different, often opposing creeds and cultures that exist. It has also enabled huge advances in science and technology that damage nature and society.  

Lies and corruption are now at the heart of government. Other animal habits, like our herd and tribal habits, which see people in terms of ‘them’ or ‘us’; our tendency to fight, compete and blame, and our pursuit of immediate pleasure, make us easy to manipulate. Many of the public are influenced by propaganda, so that governments then claim public support.

But comprehensive failure and incoherence are now all too obvious to a large proportion of the public. Failed services at home, endless wars and ethnic cleansing, controlled by fascist war criminals abroad. The insane, ever-changing, contradictory and illegal views of Trump are treated seriously by other European leaders, which involves them in his madness and normalises violence, lies and illegality in public debate. In the UK, citizens upholding humanitarian law are branded terrorists and subject to show trials, while our government supports illegal wars, state slavery and the inhumane treatment of refugees. Dependence on computers and algorithms in a global market makes us vulnerable to criminals, extreme weather, or any malfunction, while the cost-of-living crisis makes life impossible for many. Widespread protests and criticism are endemic. 

The second risk is time. WIL assumes the cumulative changes will take years. But the Doomsday Clock report puts us at 85 seconds to disaster and, critically, names government policies as the risks: nuclear weapons, fossil-fuelled ‘growth’, the promotion of disruptive intrusive science and AI, all Kier Starmer’s priorities. In addition, a recent report from global scientists and the University of Exeter states that we have already passed 16 tipping points to irreversible climate change. Even if we cut carbon levels later, this may not help. 

We must act now for a comprehensive transition.

Only the grassroots groups ‘La Via Campesina’, Diem25 (Democracy in Europe Movement) and the Citizen Network embrace the urgency, using cooperation, transparency and consensus in holistic policies that recognise how interactive situations are. We are all one. Justice for one group has to be part of justice for all. Countless informed face-to-face conversations and deliberations in citizens' assemblies have been used. The basic framework exists; immediate support for everyone in an economy that obeys the laws of nature and humanity, where decisions are taken as locally as possible to give power back to people and local communities.  

Only grassroots policies recognise that the central involvement of normal people to find consensus is the fairest, safest system of government, because leaders are prone to greed, unrealistic ideas, even insanity, and anyway have insufficient knowledge to develop acceptable policies. ONLY the public as a whole has the detailed local knowledge, the will, the imagination, the moral values and the authority to tackle the multiple crises we face. This is particularly true today, when we do not know how others live, and modern science can destroy or disrupt nature and society very quickly. So ALL ideas have to give way to assessment by an informed public.  

Only by talking directly to each other at local, national and global levels can we access enough knowledge, avoid the distractions and misinformation of the media and learn to listen to others and appreciate their points of view. As the transition will affect all our lives, we must agree and trust the process. To do this, we must control it. Some things will take time, but the public must decide the priorities. 

While the basic plan exists, much more detail is needed across all policy areas to fit the different situations in different countries. Many more thousands, if not millions, need to develop policy in their areas of expertise, including protestors of all kinds and those working to counter neoliberal policies. We can push back against this false ideology. Cut carbon use and restore human rights on a small scale, but policies are essential for global change. The public needs to hear the hopeful information that grassroots policies exist. They will not get this from the media. Once a large proportion agrees with the policies and the Manifesto, governments in nominally democratic countries cannot stand against us. We can demand a National Government of Unity controlled by Citizens' Assemblies. 

In the UK, the simplest way of showing support for grassroots policies in general and the existing Grassroots Manifesto for Sustainability is to join Citizen Network, which is free. It is a work in progress, with a lot left to do. Membership allows you to follow its progress and contribute. 

Taking back control is possible. We have the knowledge. Whether we survive or not is the unique choice of adults living today.

The publisher is Citizen Network. The Public Must Control Decisions in Today’s Scientific World  © Alicia Hull 2026.