This past year was trying in different ways than the first two of this new decade, but no less keenly felt for that. The pandemic – not over, not yet, probably not for a long time – has whittled down everyone’s immune systems, patience, well-being and welfare. It has also been exploited as a means to pass more authoritarian policies into effect, in the UK and elsewhere.

In our country alone, as our co-editor Rowan Gavin wrote in July, “unelected and corrupt powers continue to wield violence in the name of policing, and continue to roam our streets [as they] regurgitate bigotries that were once only voiced in public by fundamentalists and neo-fascists.” The cost of living, coupled with inflation and profit-mongering, has meant a cold, hungry winter for many.

And yet, Rowan pointed out, we “return every time to the communities of people that resist these cruel forces, today and the next day and the day after.” We return to organise where we can, find reasons to celebrate when we can, and endeavour to have as much fun as we can along the way.

It may seem to have become a refrain, one at risk of being emptied of meaning by its repetition. But like every great lyric there is truth in it, a palpable truth that bears returning to every time: we are better, and we are stronger, when we are united. Be it unions, chosen families, bubbles, polycules, social circles, tribes of two or more; together, we are a force to be reckoned with. Together, we can resist against the solipsism of this age of the fall of capitalism.

A younger generation of activists, of political movers, of speakers and writers and thinkers are rising up through the haze of biased media and party back-patting. Local activism and mutual aid remain a patch to a collapsed infrastructure, and it is one we apply with joy, with anger, and with energy. We keep ourselves safe, and happy, and healthy, together. Each according to their needs, each according to their means, as was and is and will be. Together.

The myth of individual responsibility – for the environment, for politics, for societal change – was cooked up by corporations and administrative powers. United is how we stand a chance, so united we shall stand, and hold accountable those truly responsible for these dark days, these unique times, this constant, debilitating crisis.

They have names and addresses, as a great singer once said. And we are many.