Image: Pxfuel

Dear rabble readers,

It’s 2020, and if its shocking urgency has told us anything so far, it’s that things are not going to magically get better — as has always been the lesson of history. We have to do it ourselves. And thanks to the type of prowess that sites such as rabble.ca bring, delivering stories of activism to the masses, I think we can do it together.

We have been witness to amazing coalitions forming over the past year, as climate voices joined together to create the inaugural youth-organized climate strike, the struggle for a Green New Deal and continued decolonization efforts — most recently with the fight to support the Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders blocking construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline project on their traditional territories. This is significant.

Social movements and their representation in the media were the impetus for rabble’s formation, and why I am happy to be a contributor at this pivotal moment in their history (they are entering their 20th year this April!). Will you join me?

We have our work cut out for us this year, and we have to stay vigilant, but also careful, to not fall victim to the climate grief, nihilism and exhaustion that plagues so many people struggling for a better world.

Fortunately, at rabble you can come not only to read the stories from the frontlines of change, but also to connect with like-minded readers across the country, listen to interviews and live coverage of various views and see what kinds of events are going on to support and connect with.

It’s an online hub for people who care about alternative points of view.

So while it’s a big year ahead, I’m happy we have rabble here to hold space for the many social movements and stories that need to be told, not reflected in the mainstream media.

Can you sign up to support them?

In Solidarity,

Brent Patterson

Brent Patterson is the executive director of Peace Brigades International-Canada. 

P.S. New monthly donors of $5 or more will receive a copy of Donald Gutstein’s The Big Stall: How Big Oil and Think Tanks are Blocking Action on Climate Change in Canada. And if you can support rabble.ca at $8/month or more, you can get a copy of either Linda McQuaig’s new book, The Sport and Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich are Stealing Canada’s Public Wealth, or one of a limited number of signed copies of Libby Davies’ Outside In: A Political Memoir.

Image: Pxfuel

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Brent Patterson

Brent Patterson is a political activist, writer and the executive director of Peace Brigades International-Canada. He lives in Ottawa on the traditional, unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Algonquin...