I know how tempting it is to hate on the peoples climate march. You know people were paid to make it happen, it had corporate endorsers, it was not a spontaneous eruption of people being moved by caring about global warming or resource extraction, but a planned and calculated effort of community organizers, environmentalists, labor unions and amazing artists across the world busting their butts to make this happen in a matter of two weeks (a lot of folks were away in August). And then, surely enough, (though often not so surely) the people came on board. However, every once in a while we get thrown a bone and we have to seize and bite it. Occupy was all the lovely things of a movement moment, a rise up against austerity and capitalism, a call to change everything, a moment to say Obama is not the truth. It created the narrative rift between the 99% and the 1%. It made the capitalist system the the clear antagonist/ the villain of the show. This PCM, has also created a similar important narrative conflict- the more radical and POC groups and Naomi Klein were telling people to choose between Nuesta Madre, Pochamama, the whole world, or the dig, and dump dirty economy of capitalism. That is what got many of us in the streets. This is what makes this different than fighting for any of our many issues. Like the 99 to 1, it is saying that our choice is to continue with a wacky system that is destroying us on many levels or to end several species, including us. As George Carlin once said, we aint saving the Earth, we need to save ourselves, the Earth will be fine without us! To do that we have to fight for generations to come. We are saying that the wealthy will always get protection from climate crisis and the poor will suffer the burden. We are saying that colonialism, imperialism, gentrification, war exacerbate the climate crisis. There is no Planet B, the Earth is everything. That is deep shit. We can get mad and say this will not do anything, or we can keep pushing people to see why this matters and connect it to wars for oil, to communities that need recovery, to police violence in defending this resource draining system, to make sure Gaza, Detroit, Iraq get their land and water and resources back, to make sure Jackson gets a socialist mayor again and can be a model for peoples development without displacement. I also saw many more families participating in this march than I have seen in a great long time. Is it because families want to survive? Because they have a forward vision? Is it because it was more inviting and accessible than most protests where art and culture is the last thing prioritized instead of the first? Art and culture were given a lot of play and it made a huge difference. I just want to see more people building and imagining and creating and sharing real analysis rather than complaining or waiting for the eruption. Dont worry the time will come. It always does. But, it is important to seize on the work and the opportunity to push more, to birth more. I want to see a left movement that breathes, that lives, that feels fun and joyful. What will that take?
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 13:03:37 +0000
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