As you may have noticed I haven't been blogging much over the last couple of weeks. (Largely this is because I have been immersed in fighting the privatization of the local sewage treatment system.) But in part it is the result of having some doubts about what the point is. I often say to people that the left -- whatever that is these days -- has to offer people hope, not despair, if we are to motivate and engage people in social change action. And yet I still feel like an expert at telling people how bad things are -- alerting people to outrages they may not have noticed, predicting economic Armageddon, warning of what Stephen Harper has in mind for the country.
It's difficult not to respond to these negative developments and try to inform people about them. But informed individuals can only do so much in the immediate political sense. If there are not organizations that fully grasp the catastrophes we are facing in the next few years, then individuals truly are ineffective in spite of their analysis and commitment to change.
Right now I have to say that there are few organizations in Canada -- social, political, environmental, cultural -- that demonstrate an awareness of the incredible urgency for action on all these fronts. I may be suffering from some sort of apocalypse syndrome but I find it distressing that the day to day world of social justice politics has not changed even though the situation has altered fundamentally.
I think there are good things happening at the micro level -- in communities, neighbourhoods, smaller towns and cities. The turn-out for the G20 was impressive. And there is a growing understanding of the need for what I think is really a cultural revolution: a determined commitment to challenge capitalism at the individual level by refusing to engage in the consumer madness on which it is based. The idea of prosperity without growth is attracting more and more adherents.
But this kind of cultural change takes place slowly while the threats to the planet and to our social democratic way of life are enormous and immediate. Those threats are almost certain develop quickly and to sweep over us even as we attempt to prepare for them.
Without organizations committed to challenging these enormously powerful forces we are certain to suffer huge setbacks before cultural change begins to reflect itself in the political and economic world.
Does that mean completely new organizations? A huge change in the ones that already exist? Is the answer coalitions of groups that can together come to grips with the fight that is ahead of us? A concerted effort to transform the NDP into a real party of change?
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That's what I will be thinking about over the summer -- between long visits to my hammock looking out at the lake in Northern Saskatchewan where I will be spending a month regenerating.
Which reminds me that it is a good time to remember that life, despite all its challenges, is a miracle. I'll be thinking about that, too.
See you in August.
I wish more people would read this excellent blog. I would also ask that the Left be able to talk about anger. Only a small portion of the Left, like the Black Bloc, relate to anger in any real way but they only vent it to themselves. The Left ought to be able to address the anger of a defeated working class but currently only the Tea Party types can do that. Interestingly enough the Canadian Dimension version of this same article had disabled its links to comment on this article.
We desperately need to confront the unions and the environmental groups about why they have not successfully developed a meaningful alliance to push for new renewable forms of power as well as the retrofitting of both public and private buildings. This would address both the coming depression and help lessen the destruction of our environment. Yet this seems to daunting of a task for much of the Left, especially Canadian Dimension.
First time reader, but will be looking forward to the August piece.
Hey Murray, keep on keepin on Bro, I read ya all the time and spread the word as well. And no people are not aware of just how badly Harper is has set us up for a good screwing. Maybe we have to many Mercedes Marxists in the academy who all got even bigger bucks in McGinnty's last budget....Maybe when Harper or McGinty end tenure, In other words it seems that people don't act until their direct interests are in jeopardy they will start to march again. That time is just about here given that last budget and plans to raid every source of capital available and shift it even further upwards. Stupid people it is harder to protest from your knees than from a position of security....but that also breeds complacency I suppose. Anyway don't give up Murray, we all need you whether we know it or not!
Cheers,
RR