My name is Dan Edelstyn. I am a filmmaker and I am standing as an independent candidate in Walthamstow in the General Election. 

Her name is Hilary Powell and she's the Election Agent.

We set up a project called POWER STATION trying to completely reimagine the way we power ourselves across Britain. 

So far we have managed to get solar on 16 houses on our street and 5 local schools - and we've done much of this through Crowdfunders on this very platform. 

We don't want to stop here. The aim is 'Every Street a Power Station' and to do that  we need to radically reimagine our democracy and the way we own and share our infrastructure. 

We previously pulled off a ‘Bank Job’ – setting up 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 THE HELL ARE WE DOING THIS AGAIN?

Over the last 10 years working on these 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 (read 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 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..

WHAT

The decision to stand was last minute. 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. 

We don't have the capacity of a political party but we do have our methods of reaching out through vision and story to share ideas and to hold power to account showing different forms of power at play - from the civic to the imagination. 

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 have clear plans already in action to create 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 AND MUST 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. 

People don’t feel represented by politicians - and everywhere we’re looking we can see the rise of the far right, and the threat of global war feels very close at hand. 

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.

PEOPLE POWER: IMAGINATION & EDUCATION

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. 

REWARDS -

CYANOTYPES - IN SIGNED DIGITAL EDITIONS ON QUALITY

Brand new editon of our artworks available here during this crowdfunder at 50% off - Terraced Terroir Cyanotypes

Digital Edition of 10 from a series of cyanotypes made in June 2024 on our rooftop of Lynmouth Road. These images are made from plants Hilary collected from the pavement cracks and pressed. The originals are cyanotypes on Bergger Cot 320 paper but these are not for sale yet as they will be needed for use in a forthcoming Power Station publication. 

The editions will be exactly the same size as the originals (18x28cm) Giclee printed on Hahnemühle etching paper -each signed and labelled with plant name.

Common Plantain

Creeping Wood Sorrell

Herb Robert

Lady's Thumb

Low Mallow

St John's Wort

Sweet Violet

Violet

THOUGHTS / IDEAS / INFREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS & UPDATE VIDEOS

We're working on these but number 1...

Why do you need to raise money to stand as a candidate in an election?

We are using this as a way of getting critical issues out into wide public consciousness and debate. We have to be able to reach out to local and wider audiences via social media, print, film-making and we have to make the visions and scenarios that enable this to happen effectively. For us this involved digital media platforms but also low-tech making - we need to print posters and leaflets, we need to film and edit short films, we need to set up our rooftop campaign office which involved getting scaffolding and funiture and ideally we'd make a mobile office too to travel the streets...all of this costs money. We have paid a £500 candidate deposit. This is a full time job for the next few weeks for us and for our team members to do it justice. We will be full time writing, making, debating, attending hustings, editing, sending out press releases, meeting 

Who am I?

What did I do before this?

Have I stood before?

On Abundance

On Energy Democracy

On The Risk of Fascism

On Gaza

On The Green Deal

On Household Economics

The Last 10 Years - Labour and its right wing