The Movement for Cultural Democracy exists to collectively create and collaboratively campaign for the realisation of a radical and transformative cultural programme in the UK.
We believe the dominant neoliberal culture is in crisis. Our culture is in crisis. We must respond to this crisis and we must develop alternatives. We are committed to a participatory and collective approach that seeks to build alliances between all those already actively generating and working to realise radical alternatives across all forms of culture.
The Movement therefore seeks to cooperate with the many and varied groups working at the grassroots who are interested in this process of democratic dialogue, collaboration and policy development. It is not enough for the radical transformation of our cultural lives to be led by the narrowly defined and unrepresentative fields currently defined as UK arts and culture. We will therefore also work to overcome attempts to appropriate the idea of cultural democracy, especially those made by conservative organisations and initiatives.
The idea of cultural democracy emerges from a history of activism and enquiry on British, European, American and global new left and from many kinds of radical practice. Our movement looks to build on this long history by collectively generating a manifesto for cultural democracy that responds to the collective needs and transformative aspirations of today.
The Movement for Cultural Democracy is therefore proudly located on the transformative cultural left and will engage vigorously in debates over the meaning and future shape of this term. We believe that we are currently without a democratic cultural policy on and of the left that truly articulates a transformative agenda for culture today.
Our immediate priority is to continue to build the Movement for Cultural Democracy and to collectively produce a radically transformative cultural policy that renovates how we think about cultural production and that articulates proposals for radical reforms.
To this end, we will be asking individuals, groups and organisations to self-organise discussions, debates and events around several emerging themes during 2018 with the intention of launching our manifesto at this year’s The World Transformed festival in Liverpool in September 2018. We will also be organising a series of participatory events around the UK through the summer. The emerging themes are: Democratising our institutions; (Re)funding culture; Decolonising UK culture; Rethinking regeneration and renovating our public realm; Cultural democracy and class; Life-long learning for cultural democracy; Design and cultural democracy; Marginalised forms of cultural production.
We call on everyone who subscribes to these positions to join us and help develop our agenda!
JOIN US. BE PART OF THE MOVEMENT FOR CULTURAL DEMOCRACY.
Click the FIND OUT MORE link for more detail about the movement.
Read about what cultural democracy means to some of our members here.