On Monday 23 September, Maddison Wheeldon delivered a statement in front of the Emmeline Pankhurst statue outside parliament. She was speaking on behalf of Assemble, a group with roots in the modern climate movement. And she highlighted “five urgent political priorities” that people around the country had decided on.

These were ending government support for genocide and unjust wars in general, tackling the climate emergency, taxing the rich and addressing economic inequality, expanding participatory democracy, and ending political corruption.

The event took place just as Keir Starmer’s Labour government held its first post-election conference, essentially representing the opposite of the points above with their compassionless plans for business as usual.

Assemble’s project is to set up local assemblies around Britain and bring them together in a national House of the People. By the time of the 2024 general election, Assemble had already helped to set up dozens of these assemblies.

And in August, the Canary attended the launch of the House of the People. The idea is for ordinary people to deliberate on important local, national, and international issues, and on the potential solutions to them.

We spoke to Wheeldon when she was standing as an independent candidate in Warrington North during the general election. Having lived in poverty herself, she’s committed to ordinary people deciding what their priorities are and what needs doing to deal with them, via assemblies.

And following Monday’s event outside parliament, the Canary asked her to sum up why she believes assemblies are so crucial today.

Maddison Wheeldon: Assemble is an empowering and inspirational experience

Maddison Wheeldon insisted that:

In a society that has grown quite hostile to protests and has become fatigued by the way in which progressive actions are manipulated and sensationalised, the blinders have gone up but a very real anger is growing.

She also admitted that:

We, as a people, need to find a more effective way of ensuring our voices are heard by those in power over us, whilst the rich can simply pay to have their ear.

This, she stressed:

is why I’m so excited to be working with Assemble. We are stronger together. And we can tear down the walls that divide us, to build to a strong society that works for all of us. I really hope that, by stepping out of my own comfort zone and into the world of politics, that can help others also find a legitimacy in their own voice and perspective and lean in.

Emphasising that it’s about bringing people together rather than dividing us further, she asserted that:

It’s been such an empowering and inspirational experience and I’d recommend it to anyone, left, right or in between. Leave your party at the door, and talk to your neighbours about the issues that matter most to your community.

We all have value to bring in sharing our perspectives and coming together in our communities can only make us stronger in the years to come.

Featured image via Assemble

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.