Discussion continues in wake of Vancouver Olympic protests

Following the debate and community discussion hosted by rabble.ca [2] last month on the topic of the Vancouver Olympic protests, I was asked to write a short commentary piece. You can read the piece here [3]. For those who have been following this from other parts of the country, it's worth stressing the achievements of all those activists who put in years of work, which include:

"...pushing back hard against attempts to restrict free assembly and speech, exposing the 'greenwashing' of the Games, and raising awareness of homelessness and indigenous rights issues. The IOC brand was successfully dented and the longer-term impact of the Games illuminated. Over the course of the Games, a host of creative direct actions and protests pushed demands for social justice."

For my part in the discussion, I've been subjected to some really infantile insults, and even some hatemail calling me a "liberal" (a give-away that the sender is both from the U.S. and doesn't know me at all). I've been slandered for denouncing the disturbing attack against David Eby -- a pie delivered by in an aggressive manner -- which happened on Feb. 17 at a public forum billed as a "Safe Assembly Space". Nobody should let any of this nonsense deter them from expressing their opinion openly; if you think I am wrong or if I think you are wrong, let's talk, not insult and threaten.

The post-Olympic budget has been accurately dubbed the 'hangover budget' [4], and working and poor people in B.C. are going to face big attacks in the months and years ahead. To fight against this effectively, we are going to need a mature, sober movement that can foster the type of free and respectful discussion that leads to broader participation and unity in action. A good friend and elder, a life-long revolutionary still very much in the thick of things, put it to me this way, "The movement is supposed to be working for a better society, which means it must seek to reflect the moral norms of that future society. If this reckless infantilism is a pretaste of future society, many progressive people will justifiably prefer to take their chances with capitalism."

There are many times when I have gotten too worked up over some disagreement, or taken a tone in a heated discussion which I later regretted. This was especially so when I was new to activism; I think it's a tendency latent in our youth-obsessed consumer culture that we go from knowing next to nothing to thinking we know everything very quickly. So I hope to keep learning from and emulating especially those veteran activists and other elders who model the solidarity and human decency that prefigure the world we wish to leave for future generations.

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