As I write, Bill McKibben is being interviewed left and right, Tom Ashbrook is interviewing Naomi Klein and pushing her to outline a vision that isn’t capitalism-as-we-know-it, Time magazine is saying this could be the largest march of its kind — which raises the question of what kind it is — and the People’s Climate March is propelling reactions by politicians, oil tycoon heirs, churches and academic organizations, and others in advance of the UN Climate Summit.
The questions now are:
- What is this movement (of movements) that is taking shape, and how will it grow? Is it the Climate Justice movement, or the People’s Climate movement, or something else? Or will it just be branded as environmentalism redux, with all the attendant limitations of that terminology and tradition?
- Will the centrality of social justice concerns and its critique of neoliberal capitalism get diluted as the movement goes mainstream (if it does that)?
- Will it build the momentum that’s needed to spill over into effectiveness the way environmentalism did 40-some years ago, launching a decade of legislation that helped respond to the most serious ecological problems of the time?
- Will it become truly global, not just in its inclusion of solidarity events in 166 countries, but in activating and effectively politicizing the billions of people whose future is at stake as deregulated carbon capitalism pushes us all off a global climate cliff?
Time to watch, act, think and rethink, define our terms carefully, and shape the images that will motivate change.
trying again to rally the troops here in Omaha but so far it’s lefty business as usual, hope someone else comes up with a better mode of organizing that we can all tap into but so far it’s all too familiar. thanks for the updates
Well, I suspect that aside from the pre-committed (enviros and lefties), it will come from people whose lives are already being affected — Pacific islanders, polar people, victims of coastal flooding, and the like. Some in the U.S. don’t realize yet that their lives are affected, so organizing is a bit premature among them. But I suspect that those who care — like church groups — might just be needing more information. I also think that marches are a little old-school, but we haven’t come up with a more effective new-school yet (except for marches/street parties/occupations doubling as online campaigns).
I think that Jodi Dean (http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/) is right that the size/scope of the problems require something like a national (international?) party (in this case socialist-green at least) to respond in ways which match the destructive powers/resources in play or people need to organize many versions of strikes/monkey-wrenching/etc and jam up the existing systems/machines but short of either of those it just seems like too little too late, no? as to how to organize and sustain either in a timely matter I don’t know, does anyone out there?
Isn’t “too little too late” another way of saying we’re doomed? A new national party seems a non-starter in this country; and international parties don’t really exist (beyond the loose organizational alliances, like the Socialist International, et al.). Sometimes even Democrats (in the U.S., Labor in the U.K., et al.) have done some good things when pressured. I think that modeling a movement on methods that have worked in the past — like the environmentalism of the early 1970s, Gandhian methods, et al. — is a better starting point, but updated with contemporary tools.
yes I think the science is clear enough radical change soon or mass-deaths just escalate.
I too think the party solution is a non-starter (http://syntheticzero.net/2013/11/07/jodi-dean-wants-a-party/) but the movements you mentioned only had any meaningful bite/effect when they could gear into willing and able political-bodies/parties and there isn’t anything like that now in the US federal govt. or anywhere else that I can see. So perhaps it’s widespread local resistance movements or else.
by the way I couldn’t even get thru that NPR interview where the host had to keep dragging N.Klein to talk economics/politics, if our leading voices are so resistant (even mealy-mouthed at times) to being frank we might as well pack it in, very disappointing I’m going to stop putting her on my blog.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-29334128
http://theartofannihilation.com/keystone-xl-the-art-of-ngo-discourse-part-1v-buffett-acquires-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/