I’ve been reading some of the critics of the past few weeks’ events in the climate movement and found myself in agreement with Peter Rugh and David Swanson. Predictable civil disobedience and feel-good rallies alone aren’t enough. Climate justice needs radical demands backed up with mass nonviolent direct action. The question, though, is: How do we get to that point?
I remember a strategy workshop where we explored obstacles to people taking risks and doing edgy actions. Palestinian exile Mubarak Awad reflected on his own experience under the Israeli occupation and his conversations with others living under dictatorship. “Use every opportunity,” Mubarak said, “to get people moving in the streets. Religious processions, funeral marches, whatever,” he said. “Help people get the experience of crowds moving together. They need the tactile experience of solidarity.”
In this country it’s not only fear that freezes us; it’s despair. The rhetoric about how climate change will destroy us has done its work all too well, especially when reinforced by descriptions of the might of the fossil fuels industry and its bought politicians. An obstacle to the kind of movement we need is psychological, and Mubarak’s advice is useful, adjusted to our circumstances: We need to get people out of their isolation and into tactile contact with the many who, together, can generate power.
From that point of view what mattered at the rally on February 17 in Washington, D.C., wasn’t the rhetoric from the platform but the “break-out” that people experienced who were there. “Everyone expected it to be small because of the cold and it was, like, wow, 40,000 people stood out in the cold, freezing,” one first-time rally attender, Swarthmore College student Elaine Zhou, told the Swarthmore Phoenix.
“I think rallies are just a great experience, especially because Swarthmore students can sometimes get trapped in the bubble here,” student Patrick Ammerman said in the same article. “Having conversations with people who might be living on the front lines or might be organizing in a completely different community and seeing the diversity of groups represented really helps you bring something back to Swarthmore.”
The most direct action-oriented civil rights strategists in the civil rights movement knew both fear and despair intimately. Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph organized events of tens of thousands in Washington in the late 1950s so that young African Americans could march close to each other. The marchers then went home to form action groups and create the 1960s sit-in campaigns across the South.
As Dick Cluster put it in the title of his book, “They should have served that cup of coffee!” “They” were the Southern 1 percent, and the “coffee” was what those at the sit-ins ordered. The civil rights movement roused white college students, senior citizens, Chicano farm workers in California, Puerto Ricans in New York, mental health consumers and other groups to turn the 1960s into a nightmare for the national 1 percent.
Who would have guessed that such tame marches in late 1950s Washington, with moderate-sounding rhetoric at rallies, could open the door to the explosive 1960s? I was there in 1958, and I didn’t guess. When I met Bayard Rustin, though, I learned their secret: Building a mass direct action movement is not so much logical as psychological.
Getting out of the bubble
The “bubble” that the Swarthmore student referred to is what traps action groups, which is one big reason why it’s smart to alternate the differentiation that defines a good action group with the joining that helps build the mass movement. Eileen Flanagan has explained how the Earth Quaker Action Team negotiated that choice in recent weeks, and after contributing to the mass movement side of things EQAT — pronounced “equate” — is now returning to its focus: demanding that PNC “Bank Like Appalachia Matters!” (BLAM!)
EQAT’s 200-mile march last year concluded at the towering PNC headquarters in Pittsburgh. Organizer Zach Hershman invited the 150 people present on the wide sidewalk to role-play civil disobedience right on the spot. He said that if PNC refused our demand to give up funding mountaintop removal coal mining, the next time EQAT came to Pittsburgh it would have to escalate, and now was the time to practice.
Surrounded by media, police, pedestrians and noon-time traffic, the crowd divided into “protesters” and “police” and practiced a sit-down with arrests.
Afterward, during the debriefing, Zach asked people to raise their hands if they had ever really risked arrest. Few hands went up. After some final cheer-leading the event concluded. I turned to my neighbor — a perfect stranger to me — and remarked, “You didn’t have your hand up.”
“Right,” she said. “I remember the civil rights movement, and I thought they were doing the right thing and I should join, but I was too scared. And then later came the anti-Vietnam War protests, and I thought they were right too, and that I should join, but I was too scared.”
“What about now?” I asked.
She smiled. “I’m not scared any more.”
Getting ready for heavy-duty confrontation
I agree with critics of the February 17 rally who say that more confrontational tactics are needed for climate justice. The Pittsburgh woman reflects a modest growth of readiness. But the critics indulge in wishful thinking if they believe that tens of thousands of people are ready or even motivated to do that at the moment. I even wonder if we have right now enough radical activists who are sufficiently skilled with crowd interventions to ensure that the confrontations go well.
I believe that it’s our job, as self-identified activists, to train ourselves for the unpredictable dynamics of mass actions so we can help out when people do shake off their fear and despair. The training we need includes practice in operating together in crowds.
An example of the pay-off of such training comes from the 1986 historic sit-down at the U.S. Supreme Court. The LGBT movement was furious with the court for deciding that Georgia police were right to enter the bedroom of a gay man’s house and arrest him and his partner for having sex. They began to mobilize for the largest civil disobedience in the history of the Supreme Court.
Members of Movement for a New Society decided to join in the planning and execution. We were an action network with a lot of experience with confrontation. So when the day came, instead of sticking together, members of Movement for a New Society fanned out in pairs or threes to join a number of the affinity groups that had been formed during the trainings.
My affinity group had a dozen people. Just before the action started, a lost-looking guy came looking for a group. We had only a few minutes to include him before the signal came to move out and sit down.
The hundreds of glove-wearing police were nervous; AIDS had everybody scared back then. We tried to lighten the atmosphere by chanting, “Your shoes don’t match your gloves.” They were not amused. They made the arrests group by affinity group, and as the police got closer to my group our newcomer freaked out. He turned beet red; the whites of his eyes were shining with fright. He began to hoot loudly: “Hoot! Hoot! Hoot!”
The MNS members in our affinity group saw he was in danger of being beaten to a pulp by the police — there’s nothing like fear meeting fear. Several of us protected him with our bodies while talking to him as reassuringly as we could, while others explained loudly and firmly to the police that we were taking care of him and that he would be okay if they would let us do our job.
Our guy kept hooting, but at least he wasn’t flailing, and he accepted our body-to-body shielding operation. The police backed off a minute to decide what to do. They then carefully arrested us in a way that enabled our shield to stay intact around our guy, and together we moved into the waiting police bus. Once on the bus with the police outside guarding, our guy relaxed and re-entered his right mind in time for the processing.
I realized later that the day was a win/win/win/win: protect someone from severe injury, reinforce the affinity group model, get respect as radicals who serve the movement and build credibility for the LGBT cause.
I see the incident’s relevance for today: we showed the utility of trained activists in confrontational crowd situations. Extreme weather may bring the crowds soon to overcome their despair and do direct action for climate justice. Let’s practice joining so we can be ready.
Great piece, George! I totally agree–we need bolder action, and most people aren’t ready for it. The challenge for me personally is to accept the urgency that scientists are urging us to face, while keeping the spiritual grounding and trust that is part of our faith. Maybe our slogan should be, “Rally globally, but act radically locally!”
Thanks, George, for another clear-eyed assessment of what we are doing that can bring about success, and what we need to do more of. I don’t have training or education in civilization’s long history of resistance movements, so I won’t weigh in on a global analysis. I can however speak from my own “continuing revelation,” as we Quakers like to say.
I am living proof that Mubarak Awad’s advice is correct. I joined in the founding of EQAT as an antidote to despair, not knowing whether I was on a fool’s errand or was actually going to do some good and make real change. The former may be true, but in spite of that possibility, I know through direct experience that the latter is also the case. Through EQAT, I have had the “tactile experience of solidarity” and it has carried me through 3+ years of both crushing doubt (or worse, bouts of cynicism) and well as increasing devotion to ecojustice activism. Do I still despair? You bet. Do I have the means to fight on, with a clear goal in mind and courage in my heart? Yes.
Now multiply Amy times tens or hundreds of thousands, and you’ll see what gets me up in the morning. I am not exceptional. I am an average U.S. citizen and a typical human being enmeshed in this web of life we call the biosphere (and beyond). My life’s trajectory has been one of learning to love myself unconditionally and, at least, stop mindlessly harming myself. That shift in consciousness is, on a macro level, what I see us changing, every time we band together.
I wonder too, George, if we have enough people like me or that woman in Pittsburgh to bring about the changes we need in time to avoid catastrophe. Or more catastrophe, I should say. For climate change is not something to be avoided, but something to be slowed or mitigated. It is not “looming”, as so many people are saying. It’s here. It’s a great opportunity to open up rather than close down, to wake up rather than go back to sleep. Whether or not the movement can be successful in changing the monolithic system that produces, supports, and relies on climate injustice remains to be seen. But like you, I see that it will certainly not happen unless we cultivate and train people like me to trust that direct action is the antidote to despair.
Thanks George for another clear call for strong support groups and bolder nonviolent action and confrontation.
What I miss in the article is the factor success. The word despair is used but I should replace that by disappointment. People have seen a lot of actions in the last 50 years but after 1985 no new big movements came into existence (Occupy lasted too short). In the article actions of the past are repeated that were not too successful. We have to do something different, not (only) awareness actions or confrontations with the police but direct actions that disturb the life of the people who decide (while avoiding contact with the police). See my blog article Demonstrations have hardly success
http://downwithelite.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/demonstrations-have-hardly-success/
It’s so refreshing to read an article that goes beyond the rhetorical content issues of what we “must” do, “should” do, “need” to do and deals with the practical “how” of process issues.
ENVIRO-DAY…..
CHILL-OUT AND FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING
I have to confess to feeling some trepidation about sharing this article because of my apprehension that this notion might seem to be too radical or too drastic to implement. With the ever increasing concerns about climate change and the urgency that our current situation has now taken on, this idea no longer seems quite so radical. In fact, I am beginning to feel that the enormity of our current precarious situation, vis-à-vis climate change, absolutely demands the need for drastic approaches.
That being said I am convinced that we all now need to think ‘outside the box’ if we are to bring about the kind of change that is needed to halt the possibley cataclysmic outcome of an environment increasingly and dangerously pushed out of balance by greenhouse gas emissions.
My proposal is that we establish one day a week when we are effectively “closed for business”. That is to say that on this one day, the only people working and the only businesses operating are those which are deemed to be essential. Apart from this small sector, no one else is working and no other businesses or services are operating. I would like to use the remainder of this article to outline what this might look like and to argue that while such a virtual ‘shut-down’ would have significant benefits to the environment, it would also offer a positive spin-off for our society as a whole.
I would suggest that the best day for this undertaking would be Wednesday, as it falls midweek and works nicely with this plan. Perhaps we could label it “Enviro-Wednesday” as a way of referring to this special day. As stated earlier, on ‘Enviro-Wednesday’, the only services operating are those that are essential and the only people going to work are the ones required to provide this basic level of service. So yes, we would need to have hospitals, fire stations, police departments, institutions, group homes, ambulance services, infrastructure (water, electricity, etc.), motels/hotels, correctional services, shelters and so on, open.
I have no doubt that further reflection would yield additional services which, by necessity of public safety and security, would have to function at some minimal standards but I would hazard to guess that perhaps only 15% of the work force would be required to ensure that this level of essential service is maintained on that day.
So, what is everyone else doing on this day? Nothing! That is to say, no one else is going to work and no one else is driving anywhere because there is nowhere to go. There is nothing open. No stores, no theatres, no restaurants, no recreational facilities, no businesses, nothing. In fact, apart from those workers who are required to travel to work, because they are employed in an essential component of the service industry, no one is permitted to drive anywhere. I know that upon first hearing this it seems impossible but please bear with me as I continue to elaborate on the plan.
The only people allowed to be out on the roads are those that are going to and from their jobs in the essential service sector. All other vehicle traffic is prohibited on ‘Enviro-Wednesday’. How will the police know that only authorized drivers are on the road? This could be dealt with in a number of ways. Perhaps these people would have special license plates or stickers on their vehicles which would identify them as essential service workers. People out driving without this special identification would be stopped and fined for this infraction.
Of course, there might be times when people experience a health crisis necessitating a trip to the hospital or emergency clinic. If warranted and dictated by the severity of the illness/accident, ambulances could of course be called to transport these individuals just as is currently done. For situations not quite so critical, perhaps a fleet of hybrid taxis could be available to transport people who are in need of medical attention but not at immediate critical risk.
Instituting a day such as ‘Enviro-Wednesday’ would have an enormous impact on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions coming from vehicles as well as the millions of businesses fueled by carbon-based resources each day. When, as a Canadian or even as a member of the human race for that matter, I am faced with having to make some pretty radical changes to my lifestyle in order to significantly reduce my energy consumption, an initiative like ‘Enviro-Wednesday’ has tremendous appeal.
I have no doubt that businesses and corporations would take great exception to the suggestion that they should shut down for one day each week. In response to that I would like to propose that we continue to use a 40 hour work week as a standard but rather than the customary five 8 hour work days, we look instead at businesses operating for four 10 hour days. In that way there should be minimal impact to productivity. They would not have to worry about losing business to the competition as every other organization would be closed on that day as well. As an aside I would like to point out that any relatives or acquaintances of mine who have been given the choice of putting in a 40 hour week over four days rather than five have always opted for the four day work week.
Earlier in this article I had mentioned that having a designated day each week when no one is working would have a positive spin-off for society. I would like to elaborate a bit on this now. Just as we have come to think of the 3R’s as they relate to taking better care of the Earth’s resources, I believe that we can also designate a large number of ‘R’s’ that would relate to having a day off to take better care of ourselves, our families and our planet.
I believe that many people would see this day as a gift, as an oasis in which they could temporarily remove themselves from the ‘rat race’. Our 21st century lives are moving at an incredibly alarming pace and this multi-tasking, never-ending busyness is taking its toll on all of us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
‘Enviro-Wednesday’ would give us the opportunity to just relax and catch our breath in the midst of all of life’s crazy hustle and bustle and to reawaken ourselves to the priorities in life. I believe that it would present us with a wonderful chance to reconnect with family in a realistic way, removed from the harried schedules which now seem to dominate the landscape for so many families. As a teacher, I often see young children as the victims of well-intentioned parents who have bought into the notion that having their child enrolled in multiple after school and weekend programs, which result in family time being spent commuting, equates to good parenting. I believe that ‘Enviro-Wednesday’ would give parents and children a chance to get reacquainted with each other and renew their relationship in a much more relevant and nurturing way.
‘Enviro-Wednesday’ would not mean that people would be held captive in their own homes (although there are many winter days when being told to stay home would be the best directive anyone could give me). It only means that travel by motorized vehicle is prohibited and that there are no businesses operating. Individuals and families could still get out for a walk or run, hike, bike ride and so on. This day could be spent engaged in activities such as snowshoeing, cross country skiing, skating at outdoor rinks and ponds. It would be a great day for playing road hockey, having block parties, coffeeing with neighbours, badminton in someone’s backyard, etc., etc. The potential for positively impacting physical fitness and health is enormous.
For those who enjoy being homebodies, ‘Enviro-Wednesday’ would be embraced as an opportunity to engage in activities that currently there is seldom enough time for, the many household chores and projects which have become increasingly more difficult to attend to. The craft activities and home improvement ideas that have been sitting on the back burner while more and more time is consumed by busy careers and other commitments. What a wonderful thing it would be to have a day just to attend to the menial chores like housework, laundry, yard work and so on. Or perhaps just to spend time playing board games with your kids, doing jigsaw puzzles or getting into that novel that’s been waiting to be read. The day could also allow for many of those self-improvement pursuits which often get put off for a less busy time.
So in closing I would like to illustrate how ‘Enviro-Wednesday’ would play a huge role not just in meeting the 3R’s of our stewardship of this planet but also by providing time to examine and live the 40+R’s inherent in reconnecting with ourselves, our planet and with one another.
40R’s for Creating a More Meaningful Life
Reacquaint yourself with your family and friends.
Reacquire your childhood curiosity and delight in the small miracles around you.
Readapt to and cherish life at a slower pace.
Readjust your priorities to reflect what it is you know to be right.
Reaffirm the importance of our planet and the role you play as an Earth keeper.
Re-allot your time to discovering what makes you happy.
Reapply your efforts to creating a home life that nurtures the self and others.
Reassert the need to take time out from the busyness of life.
Reassess priorities for you and your family and how these can be further developed.
Reassign meaning to those things in life which are most important.
Reawaken your joy at being fully alive, contributing to the well-being of the planet.
Rebuild your sense of what is important in your life.
Recharge your batteries by relaxing and taking time to unwind.
Reconfirm your commitment to doing all that you can to reduce energy consumption.
Re-cultivate enjoyment in hobbies and pastimes there hasn’t been time for.
Redefine your values and what you give your attention to.
Redesign your goals.
Redevelop skills that you have always wanted to work on.
Rediscover the pleasure of not having a schedule.
Reemphasize your commitment to what it is that you value most.
Reestablish your essential role in your family and your community.
Reevaluate how you will spend your time on the remaining 6 days of the week.
Reexamine life through the lens that depicts it as being incredibly precious and fragile.
Re-experience the luxury of time without outside pressures.
Refocus your attention on those things that hold the most importance to you.
Reformulate an approach to living that is sustainable and thoughtful.
Reignite your passion for life.
Reincorporate additional ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.
Re-inspire those around you by the example you set.
Reinvest time in yourself and your family.
Rekindle your love for nature.
Relearn some outdoor pursuits which you haven’t done in years.
Reread all those books that you enjoyed the first time and have hung on to.
Reschedule the rest of your week to include more of this quiet, peaceful time.
Resolve to take the necessary steps to become a better person.
Revisit the memories that you hold most dear.
Revitalize the parts of your life that have become mundane and unsatisfying.
Reflect on your gifts and talents and how you can share these with the world.
Realize that you have the power to make a positive difference.
It is my sincere hope that these ideas will somehow strike a chord with you and that you too might see the amazing possibilities of such a day rather than the obstacles presented by taking this radical step into uncharted waters. We are desperately in need of solutions to the environmental crisis which is now looming. I believe that
the notion of ‘Enviro-Wednesday’ has the potential to be a solution which significantly reduces emissions while at the same time strengthening the social fabric of our society. The time has come to take a leadership role and embark on an ecological solution which will set an example to be followed by others around the world.
Submitted by:
Colleen Ring
Hi George,
Thanks for responding to my last piece. Apologies for taking so long to respond to yours. A couple of things.
I think last month’s rally was a solid first step toward building a radical mass movement. I’m critical of the rally’s predominant politics because the rally itself showed we have the potential for so much more. Tens of thousands of people braved the freezing weather to deliver a message to Obama regarding our future on this earth and the prez was out golfing. The stakes are too high for the climate movement to be confused over whose on its side.
In contrast to the show on the stage where a rep for 1% spoke, my “action group”, The Eco-Socialist Contingent, raised chants that highlighted the profit motive at the root of climate devastation. We also distributed a statement (http://ecologicalsocialists.com/) that further elucidated our class politics.
Viewing climate change through the lens of class opens up the door to linking the exploitation of the environment by the slim portion of the population who controls the majority of the world’s wealth and resources to the exploitation of people, from which oppression flows. Rather than compartmentalizing climate change as one issue among many, we need to see this movement as part of a larger effort for democracy and social empowerment, a struggle that also encompasses achieving workers’, women’s and LGBTQ rights, along with racial equality.
I agree, the bubble that you write of must burst. That’s why it was great to march in a contingent with my brothers and sisters on the all-too-often polarized socialist left. I’d estimate we were about 120 strong, composed in large part of people who hadn’t planned on marching with us but were drawn to our chants. Despite it’s flaws, the mass rally gave us an opportunity to reach a broader public.
I also agree that activists trained in crowd interventions have an important role to play, yes, but activists with an understanding of the systemic causes of the ecological crisis, possessing a sense of history and possibility regarding what we can collectively achieve, they will be key moving forward. Consciousness is always playing catch-up with struggle, the best thing we can do is prepare each other.
And you’re right, the radicalization process doesn’t happen over night. Hopefully as the climate justice movement progresses there will be more of the pinnacle, transformative moments you outline above, in which we have a chance to flex their collective might, since another world is not only possible but vitally necessary.
Warm regards,
Pete
Thanks, Peter, for your good news from the ecological socialists. I couldn’t agree more that class analysis is essential to winning this struggle. One reason why my group, Earth Quaker Action Team, in allying itself with Appalachian people fighting mountain top removal coal mining, chose to target PNC Bank instead of the Environmental Protection Agency was to make it easier for our campaign to talk about class.
I have good news from the Convergence of over 70 campus groups at Swarthmore College (see report on WNV). Much of the leadership hosting the Convergence agree with you about climate change being linked with the other oppressions presided over by the 1 percent, and they were a little uncertain about how much that analysis would be appreciated by the students who came from other campuses. As it turned out, there was no substantial dissent; pretty much everyone accepted (at least at the level of plausibility) that point of view.
Hope we’ll hear more soon from your group!
George
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