All Hands On Deck is the new pamphlet from activist and former journalist Jan Goodey (Politics and Philosophy, 1988). As climate breakdown continues unabated, he proposes a way forward for climate activism that focuses on community building.
In this interview, Jan tells us about his time as a student at Hull, late night conversations on Cranbrook Avenue, the work he is doing with communities in council estates, and how a life of activism started with a childhood donation to Oxfam.
Could you tell us what attracted you to come and study at the University of Hull back in 1985?
If I’m honest it was the sole place I could consider going having missed out on Oxford. I did pass their entrance exams but managed to ruin my Economics interview by being tripped up by a crack Harvard professor over the Miners’ strike. However, this did leave me open to going to one of the best universities in the country at the time, and, I’m sure, now. Both my departments, that is Politics and Philosophy, were top drawer.
How did your experiences at the University of Hull help shape the person you would become?
On the one hand I was with a superb group of students: Christophe De Landtseer, Ortwin de Graeff, Andrew Hawley, Neil Cunningham, Ivan Marshall, Sohayl Quereshi and Stephen Lousley. On the flip side, studying unfortunately played second fiddle to discussions in our various houses on De Grey Street, Cranbrook Avenue and back again to De Grey Street. As for the person I am now, well I’m certainly schooled in the art of logical argument, ethical dilemmas and epistemological questioning.
Climate activism and an interest in the environment is a really important part of your life. When did you start to become interested and to get involved in this, and how has this shaped your approach to life and your career?
I first started being active at 12 when I donated pocket money to Oxfam. At the time living on a council estate in Harlow new town, Essex I briefly joined the Young Socialists. My big foray into environmental activism was at the M11 Link Road protests in the 1990s. This was seminal as, due to our actions, two-thirds of John Major’s (UK Prime Minister 1990-1997) Roads to Prosperity plans, which incidentally we labelled Roads to Nowhere, were shelved.
As for my career: I became a journalist and worked for local and national media including a short spell on the Sunday Mirror, for my sins. I later taught journalism at further education colleges and universities. The downside, of course, was after a later Just Stop Oil direct action I lost my job at Kingston University and a promising PhD in environmental activism. There are always silver linings and mine was more time to be active and bring to the fore the dangers that climate breakdown brings and how we can organise to avoid the worst-case scenarios.
A big part of your current work is on community orchards in council estates around Brighton. Could you tell us a bit about this work and why it makes a big difference?
I work on council estates with local residents, planting and nurturing fruit tree orchards and nutteries, which are nut tree groupings. The work is rewarding as you’re engaging with people who at times haven’t the slightest interest in fruit trees – and why would they in a cost of living crisis? – however once they do engage they love it, especially when it comes to making apple juice, jams and cider. Another benefit is of course, that children and teenagers get stuck in too.
Your new book ‘All Hands on Deck’ is both a reflection on the successes you’ve had as an activist over the years, but also a recognition that something else is required to tackle the even bigger challenges ahead. Could you tell us a bit about why you wrote the book and what you want to say?
I wrote the book initially to join together anarchists and the soft left, i.e. Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace, etc. however this morphed into a more forward-thinking pamphlet which deals with my jail time, as well as the exciting challenges ahead. I am really optimistic that Zack Polanski, the Greens and Your Party can do something big on climate come the General Election in 2029 and that that can snowball throughout Europe, America, and China. The third edition of my pamphlet All Hands on Deck will go deeper into the strategies and organization of people like Roger Hallam, Claire Farrell and Dr Gail Bradbrook the founders of the new type of environmentalism typified by Extinction Rebellion.
What advice would you have for young people who are passionate about the environment and making change in the world?
What I would say to younger people engaged in direct action or protesting is: be sure that what you’re doing is effective. In other words, make sure you put your eggs in the basket of the most probable outcome you want to see. For me, that meant moving away from direct action anarchism and towards community building, assemblies and mobilization of thousands upon thousands of people in all Europe as well as further afield. By the way that’s not to say I am against direct action anarchism I am most certainly for it, however I do believe non-violent direct action has a greater likelihood of succeeding in the current geopolitical mess we find ourselves in thanks to self-interested, corrupt, power elites.
University of Hull Alumni Association 