Will
they become just like the 60s radicals or will they
become a genuine and formidable political and
cultural force?
There's
been much written about the protests against the WTO,
NAFTA, the FTAA, IMF and the World Bank in such
places as Seattle, Philadelphia, Seattle, DC, Los
Angeles, Quebec City, Genoa and others. The violence
always seems to get the attention from both
mainstream press and the alternative press. The
mainstream focuses on the "violence"
directed against private property while the
alternative press publishes reports of violence
against people in the streets and in the jails.
This
is so typical that it is no longer surprising. It all
happened before and before that. The 60s witnessed
the same thing: mainstream press focusing on the
alleged violence against private property, deluding
themselves into imagining that they were objectively
reporting news. They could not see their own
complicity in a different yet more insidious form of
violence while the alternative press (mostly in print
form, at that time) tried its best to cover the
unreported and underreported stories of an inherently
flawed system.
Today
the movement challenging globalization includes a
much wider diversity of people. Environmentalists,
social justice advocates, students, working people,
older people and indigenous peoples are all taking to
the streets. And the antiglobalists are taking the
media into their own hands with web sites, video
streaming, public access television, radio stations
via the web, satellite TV, micro-powered radio
stations as well as print media.
The
purpose of this brief essay is to beg the question:
how will young people sustain the protests; what will
they do when they return home, and will they become
any different than their 60s radical predecessors?
The
protests have been exhilarating, without a doubt.
There are numerous 60s protesters who have been
awakened as if in a comatose state for 20-30 years.
Let's hope the same thing will not happen to the
young radicals, idealists, hopeful social-change
agents who are now waking up to our vast problems.
The
60s radicals presented a portrait of America that
stunned "normal" ordinary citizens. These
radicals wanted a halt to the exportation of
Americana, to the homogenizing of the third world;
wanted to stop the US as global policeman; wanted an
end to the ecological devastation that was occurring
on a massive scale with air, water and soil
pollution; wanted a more equitable money exchange for
minorities and women; we wanted an end to historical
lies in our educational system; wanted to create more
humane and creative schools. But somehow all these
social issues which were at the front of young
people's minds back then simply petered out...
fizzled out....
Why
did it happen? Do falling in love, getting married,
getting a job, buying a house somehow become
prerequisites for falling to sleep over the needs of
social change and activism? Where did all that
youthful vigor go? To rock concerts, to discovering
computers, to creating sprawl, to settling into the
American dream, to swimming in the vast ocean of
consumer accumulation so that no time is left to
spend on social change, let alone personal reflection
on the purpose of life. I have yet to read how the
new activists will not repeat their predecessors'
acculturation.
What
will happen to your enthusiasm and vigor and anger
and love and deeply felt grief at what's happening to
the world? The protests are great. They organize,
they publicize concern; they radically educate and
reeducate the people who have never heard of
imperialism, globalization, IMF conditionalities that
rape third world countries, subscription farming,
sustainable agriculture, organic food, local
currencies, shamanic interpretations of the desolate
white man's world.... They excite the old-time
activists who have become armchair revolutionaries at
best.
What
will happen when young global activists return home?
to rent a house or an apartment; to get that needed
job in order to pay for the next major
antiglobalization protest or simply to buy food and
pay the rent. And what jobs are there? Will all that
incredible technical knowledge of web video-streaming
the streets of Genoa during the various steet
protests come in handy when applying for the dot.com
career?
One
force that did occur during the 60s is that a large
amount of environmental activists turned to Law. They
saw that laws needed to be changed; new laws that
protected the environment needed to be created and
implemented. Many enviro activists moved to DC to
work with the top ten environmental organizations.
According to Mark Dowie (author of Losing Ground:
American Environmentalism at the Close of the 20th
Century), those folks made up the third wave of
environmentalism, and to a large degree have failed.
With all that vigor, all that idealistic enthusiasm,
they went to DC to lobby for the benefit of the
earth, and time after time they got brutally
dismembered or totally coopted where many of the
important environmental laws on the books are being
stripped away. It's painful to witness.
Fortunately
Mark Dowie goes on to speak about the fourth wave of
environmentalism (which is in its early stages) that
is LOCAL, that is grassroots, that is collaborative
with various types of people: housewives, minorities,
workers, students, teachers, and religious folks all
coming together to work locally, to fight the global
fight in their own bioregions.
Lets
hope that the young protesters bring their anger (not
their violence; there is a big difference),
enthusiasm, vitality, creativity, political analysis
and growing commitment to their localities, to their
cities, rural towns, neighborhoods, parks, city
councils, planning commissions, rivers, waste water
systems, agricultural zones, backyards, schools,
unions, movie theaters, radio stations, and
television networks.
If
this growing movement does not go local then it will
die a fast death. There will be no sustenance, no
sense of continuity, no sense of place, which are the
basic ingredients for creating a sustainable society.
It
is easy to travel to a distant place, mill around in
a large crowd, shout, demonstrate, argue, drum,
dance, and attend conferences where brilliant
spokespersons eloquently express a new vision, to the
clamoring and outpouring of ecstatic applause. That
is easy... and inspiring.. and a visceral sense of
solidarity is in the air and sweeps into your body
that you might not have ever felt otherwise. Yet,
it's all an initiation.
What
happens when you come back home and see your peers
getting the corporate jobs and settling down in the
suburbs with a family? What happens when you see your
friends opt for security against a backdrop of
ongoing ecological devastation, increasing cruel
inequities and a horrific somnambulistic denial that
is oh so cunning as it is desirous. What do you do?
Will
you become another victim of cyber activism...
linking with web sites and chat groups and listservs
that support your various cause(s)? Can sitting in
front of a screen ingesting information about what's
wrong with the world assuage the desperate need for
interconnectedness and the knowledge that you are
indeed making a genuine difference? How can you
guarantee that one's inevitable bout with personal
despair amidst the deluge of corporate messages won't
jade you into becoming another member of the
ever-popular and growing nihilist cult?
The
incredible popularity of the internet attests to our
need for interconnectivity, yet by itself it will
remain a counterfeit. It mirrors our need... everyday
we link to it... everyday we send another email,
another petition on-line, another request to send a
letter to our representative, another plea for social
justice. Yes, it's all fine and wonderful but we also
need to go out and work in our communities. The
immense challenge ahead of us (for both young and old
activists) is to collaborate with others in the
non-virtual physical dimension so that we not only
sustain ourselves emotionally and psychically but
socially as well.
The
following are certain activities that perhaps can
sustain the young global activists, as well as those
veteran 60ish activists who have become enamored and
invigorated by the new rebellious spirit (just
witness the older folks listening to and becoming
rejuvenated by the likes of a Julia Butterfly Hill
around the nation!).
Some
ideas to sustain radical activism so despair,
cooptation, and a weakened posturing can be dealt
with:
1.
Get access to the local media by establishing a web
site, or a listserv (which is great for alerts, pot
lucks, local demonstrations, conferences, speakers,
videos). Become a presence in the weekly
entertainment tabloid or start a zine that focuses on
keeping anti-globalization activities alive. Take
free classes at the various public access studios in
order to start making films about local concerns so
they can be aired on public access and elsewhere.
2.
Gather all the very cool documentaries that you can
from friends, producers, and independent
distributors, and house them at an independent video
store or office. We discovered that they get rented
and viewed more frequently at video stores rather
than collecting dust at enviro or peace centers. You
also have a diverse group of people browsing the
video store. [See the ad in this issue for
VideoProject!]
3.
Get a coffeehouse or bank or church or public center
to show videos to groups of people. Discussions after
viewing a documentary with coffee and treats can be
fun, not only to meet other change agents but to
actually see those folks you've been emailing
regularly, for example. These meetings are also great
for discovering who the wannabees are and who the
genuine motivators are in town (and support them!!!).
The purpose is not only to educate yourselves, but
also to strengthen your groups, your allies, and your
collaborative vision and to create more effective
activism.
4.
Start a local currency to support people who desire
to create a viable network of skills and resources.
It's a great way to say no to globalization, since
all local currencies remain 100% in the local
economy. It's also a great networking forum.
5.
Bring the protests home. See Deborah Lagutaris'
article in this issue focussing on how to collaborate
with other social justice groups for a common
purpose.
6.
Create dinners for bringing social change agents
together. After the dinners have local activists
speak about their project(s) whether it be animal
rights, cleaning up the creek, demonstrating against
the GAP. You will be blissed out when you discover
who is in your backyard doing very incredible
activism: a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)
farmer who wants to get the word out, a core group
who is working on a living wage ordinance.... And
they need the media attention and the support of
others.
Dinners
can be held at a public place; or have a pot luck at
someone's house or simply charge for a great meal (we
discovered there's many people who love to cook for
large groups of people) or rent out a section of a
larger restaurant and charge enough to make everyone
happy.
7.
Find a venue where you can have a larger audience in
case someone from out-of-town or a local person comes
to speak who has done something outstanding like
publishing a book, directing a film, returned from
Iraq or Cuba or from an anti-WTO demonstration in
Prague or a sustainable learning center in Costa
Rica, Baja or Occidental, California.
We
discovered that the local library has a great
community room that is inexpensive, convenient and
accessible. Having literature, tea, fair-trade
coffee, organic treats, Yerba Mate, etc. can make it
a festive community-building adventure. We've had
people speak about permaculture, seed-saving, deep
ecology, voluntary simplicity, globalization, growing
food....
8.
Start study groups: After the events in Seattle, we
started a group studying globalization issues,
learning about the issues so we could become more
effective in speaking to others about it. Most of the
globalization policies seep into local issues, like
creating a living wage, getting more coffee houses to
carry fair-trade coffee, and creating ordinances to
help city officials dialogue about how rampant
globalization is affecting the local economy.
The
above list is but a mere sketch of what local
community activists can do to keep the flame of the
global protests alive and thriving where we actually
live, the place we call home. We cannot depend solely
on the works of global activists, no matter how
exciting, sincere, passionate and inspiring they are.
To actually incorporate many of the grandiose schemes
of the new vision of a sustainable society, we need
to act in the here and now, with what are essential
and unique issues for the local community.
A
Word of Warning:
When
I heard Jello Biafro at the Seattle protests, he
commented on what people ought to do when they
returned home after Seattle. Not only did he say,
"Don't blame the media, become the Media!"
but speak about the issues of globalization to people
you wouldn't ordinarily speak to. At work, school,
parties... bringing the discussion of globalization
in a way that includes all of us. This crisis goes
way beyond the usual left/right rift. Globalization
affects all of us. In short, he wanted us to bring
the message of our protests home to our local
communities.
The
tough aspect of bringing the global protest home is
that there will be much opposition and ridicule. Or
there might not be many people to join you in viewing
the documentary on the destruction of small farms or
listening to the passionate presentation from one who
has just returned from Cuba. It is one thing to feel
the solidarity and support in large antiglobalization
demonstrations, but, when one doesn't get that type
of support it will feel like rejection for
thin-skinned and sensitive activists.
When
it comes to collaborating with other local groups for
the creation of an initiative or an ordinance or to
discuss various strategies of a protest, it takes
tolerance, patience, compassion and effective
communication skills to make it work. This was the
challenge for the 60s protesters, and I think we
failed miserably. Many of us went to college to get
the degrees to get the job to make the money to buy
the houses to sprawl out with the new car to buy the
stocks to maintain financial security for a future,
and meanwhile lost what the revolution was all about.
Some went within themselves to study meditation,
yoga, altered states, metaphysics, various other
spiritual traditions and disciplines, only to stay
obsessed flirting with their own individual psyche's
liberation at the expense of the larger body
politic's liberation.
More
suggestions:
1.
Stay put, get to know your place, your bioregion,
your water, soil, farmers, city councils, Board of
Supervisors, political parties....
2.
Learn patience and tolerance for other viewpoints.
Focus on the commonality of purpose and don't get
seduced into fighting over the small differences.
3.
Know that this is for the long haul. Short solutions
are for the simple-minded. We've had an addicting
momentum of ecological, economic and spiritual
devastation. To overturn or make a dent in this
catastrophic momentum will take immense energies,
commitment, imagination and passion. If we insist on
activism at the expense of our souls, we will wither
away. We cannot afford to burn out and fall prey to
the cult of despair and nihilism. We cannot do it
alone, and hopefully by having community-building
practices in place we will be building our grounded
beingness so that our actions, our activism, will
include the vision, peace, wisdom and sustainability
that we seek.
Bob Banner
publishes HopeDance Magazine. He can be reached at editor@hopedance.org or
through the website at www.hopedance.org.
