At the very moment that Hull was awarded the UK City of Culture 2015, it was revealed by the BBC that Hull has the highest levels of personal indebtedness anyway in this dis-United Kingdom of ours. This cruel juxtaposition of images, one of life enhancing cultural pursuit, the other of debilitating personal indebtedness, is the reality not just for Hull, but for cities and towns up and down the country, including of course, the capital city itself. And on closer inspection, these two accolades, the one a cause for celebration, the other for sober commiseration, are inextricably linked. Culture, as one wily old German professor from the nineteenth century once observed, is nothing but a reflection of the economic base. True today as it was a hundred and fifty years ago.

What precisely is the culture that Hull is expected to celebrate? As well as being top of the league for indebtedness, we learn that Hull also scores highly when it comes to obesity, smoking levels, unemployment and poor GCSE exam results. Not a particularly edifying picture you might agree. In short, Hull reflects the culture of decaying capitalism. Its citizens, like so many of our fellow citizens across the nation, are now surplus to requirements when it comes to global capitalism. Simply thrown on the scrap-heap of post-industrial Britain. There is of course work to do aplenty in our decaying towns and cities but finance capital is not the slightest bit interested in long term investment. Global capital parasitically moves across the planet looking for the quickest and most profitable return. Investments in cities like Hull are simply not on its agenda.

Are the good citizens of Hull in any way culpable for their own malaise? It is very easy to blame them for their dire predicament, as the Bullington free-marketeers who currently dominate the Tory Party are want to do. The corporate owners of our toxic tabloid press pursue the same theme. But this simplistic pointing of the finger turns the victims into the culprits. Yes, like many of us, people in Hull make poor choices – they eat too much of the wrong food, they smoke too much, and they exercise too little. And they may well squander the few useful opportunities that might come their way. But when your personal self-esteem has been bashed and battered by the inhuman juggernaut that is global capitalism, and you have been force- fed a cultural diet of mindless consumerism all your life, little wonder cultural choices are often self-defeating and escapist. If culture reflects economics, and global capital is all about short term self-interest, little wonder its victims also opt for immediate gratification. Why study and stay healthy when there are bugger all jobs at the end of it.

Hull has a real opportunity over the next few years. Rather than paper over the economic and cultural war zone that they have been forced to live in, the citizens of Hull might instead come together and collectively demand a new deal. Demand it through song and drama, and film and literature. But also demand it on the streets, and in the pubs, and on the terraces, in the trades unions and in the political parties. Turn the 2015 City of Culture into a city of protest. Set up citizens committees everywhere. Create a Hull Soviet if I may dare use that term. If the 2015 City of Culture is to be anything more than a slick tourist gimmick, the citizens of Hull should have just one thing on their minds: Occupy Hull! Occupy the banks, occupy the payday loan sharks, occupy the junk food outlets, occupy the supermarkets and occupy City Hall. And they just might like to invite the rest of the country to join them.