WHO

I am a film maker.

Together with my partner, artist Hilary Powell and a local team, we have set up a project called POWER STATION trying to completely reimagine the way we power ourselves across Britain.

We previously pulled off a ‘Bank Job’ – opening a Rebel Bank on Walthamstow’s Hoe Street in an act of economic education - printing money and cancelling £1.2 Million of local high interest debt and supporting local organisations fighting the fallout of an unjust financial system. 

As a team we are truly independent – finding ways of making impactful work that doesn’t rely on gatekeepers of mainstream media, funding or political systems. Everything we do is an act of people power.

WHY

Over the last 10 years working on ambitious projects embedded deeply in Walthamstow we witnessed and were part of the surge of hope that happened about Corbyn and McDonnell’s Labour 2017 manifesto. We got to know the economists and thinkers at the heart of the bold shift to a fairer society for people and planet - from Ann Pettifor and the case for the Green New Deal to Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics.

We saw first-hand the corruption and hatchet job done on this hope by Conservatives, mainstream media and from the right-wing faction of Labour. We were as quick to leave Labour as to join – able to do more on the outside of factional party politics. Our aim has always been to work at a hyper local level with national and international impact and reach. 

Most recently we have been appalled by the Labour leadership’s lurch to the right, going along with oppressive anti protest laws, pandering to racist right-wing policies and prescribing to the dangerous and debunked austerity narrative.

In the last months both Conservative and Labour’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza has been shocking (early statement here). As a Jewish person repeatedly slurred and estranged from former friends and family for calling out Israel’s apartheid oppression this is also a chance to say

Enough!

Stop Genocide. 

Stop the weaponisation of anti-Semitism

used against people calling for peace and justice. 

I am not a politician - I’m an independent filmmaker - I believe in equality, I know that the economic system is loaded in favour of the rich, but through the work I’ve done I also know a lot about how to make it fairer for all.

I pledge to fight for the people of Walthamstow in Westminster. And to work for a better and kinder world here and now. There’s no better technology for change than the ancient technology of story. We need to make better stories and share better visions. All the solutions to the crises we face are already here.

GET INVOLVED

what

We know we need the Tories out. We also know Labour is not offering the alternative we all need. Treating the economy like a household budget plays into the narrative of more austerity at a time when it’s the opposite that’s required.

PEOPLE POWER: ENERGY

The climate crisis is intertwined with the cost of living crisis.

Everyone should benefit from renewable energy and independence from the fossil fuel companies.

We are working on creating a people owned renewable energy Power Station across Walthamstow. Our argument is that this should happen everywhere across the UK and beyond.

It’s important that renewables are owned by everybody - not by huge companies - we do not want to repeat the monopolies of the past. This is energy democracy.

It’s also important that the adaptation to renewables doesn’t repeat colonial patterns of extraction and exploitation locally and globally.

There is no time to lose and we can afford to take action. 

This is a time for investment and bold action – it is possible to turn a time of austerity into a time of abundance where a shift away from fossil fuels creates a thriving economy, a sense of civic pride and possibility. 

We believe every street in Britain should become a power station. Every community come together and take power into their own hands.

PEOPLE POWER: DEMOCRACY

 The very fact we’re standing is democracy in action. The whole bureaucratic system is set up in favour of a two party system- but everywhere trust in democracy is completely undermined and apathy is dangerous.

With the rise of populism, the far-right and a media monopoly who refuse to speak truth to Power, of critical thought and political action - who are scared to represent perspectives on how we might organise ourselves differently, scared to show what solidarity looks like, scared to offer airtime to artists, activists, workers - people power. 

Our political system feels broken and it’s not working for people and planet. We need to take on the power of the fossil fuel lobbies and the commercial banks who are not incentivised to divest in fossil fuels, or to invest in renewable energy at scale and speed.

Years of Tory rule have seen our education system decimated by cuts, universities commodified, schools unable to pay their energy bills. We place value back in learning, we recognise knowledge as power and the need for skill sharing in a just transition. 

We see the devaluing of art and artists at a time when art and imagination have never been needed more. Artists do not have to be consigned to their corner to reflect, comment or ignore. We show and do that artists can act to imagine and make the change contagious. 

Promoted by Hilary Powell on behalf of Dan Edelstyn. Both of Optimistic Foundation cic c/o 5 Brayford Square, London, E1 0SG

Join the POWER STATION mailing list to keep in touch.

Find out more about Dan and previous work by watching our BANK JOB film for free by signing up here.

Contribute to the crowdfunder here.

Dan will be taking part in Walthamstow Climate Question Time on Thursday 27th June

We’ll as sharing regular updates and films.

We’ll be keeping an election diary here.

Download the flyer here. Check out and follow our socials.

POETRY PRECEDES POLICY