Hey, Climate Strikers--Are People Telling You Protests "Won't Do Any Good"?
FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2019: Hi once again from Seattle, folks! Ready for the global Climate Strikes on September 20 of this year? Getting the word out, printing out signs, sending press releases to local and international media? Dealing with grumpy, cynical naysayers who scoff at your efforts, and tell you "protests won't do any good" and "you don't know what you're talking about"?
Screw 'em. You are the prophetic voices the world has been waiting (too long) for. Allow me to explain, and to provide historical context. Despair not, nor surrender!
The Climate Strike movement is epic in its scope, and almost-Biblical in its nature. The children are leading us in our age-old quest for a Peaceable Kingdom; they are the voices crying out in the Wilderness as a last-ditch effort to prevent the irreparable loss of Creation on Planet Earth, the only inhabitable world we've got within spaceship-flying distance. Earth is our home, not just a large collection of "natural resources" ripe for exploiting by corporate oligarchs and robber barons. In nearly all major religious traditions, humans are meant to be the caretakers of the Earth, and we are accountable to whichever deity/deities we believe in for its condition. Even folks with no religious belief recognize the necessity to be rational and judicious in our use of Nature, and to avoid trashing our only available home. In any case, ever since the early days of the Industrial Revolution, individuals and groups of people have been warning of the consequences of privatizing the natural world, and over-exploiting its resources for human benefit and profit-making. And right from the start, they have been mocked, dismissed, attacked--and sometimes imprisoned, institutionalized or killed.
At the various times they began, nobody believed the movements to abolish slavery, gain rights for women and workers, abolish child labor, gain equal civil rights for people of color, end the Vietnam War, protect the environment, win marriage equality and equal rights for LGBT+ people, and freeze the development of nuclear weapons would accomplish anything either. So many movements were dismissed as failures when their leaders were arrested or assassinated. When any of these movements gained ground, they were attacked (verbally, physically and legally) as threats to civilization, religious freedom, property rights, and public morals. Those of us who protested the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91, and the horrific economic sanctions on Iraq that followed, were screamed at, attacked in the press as unpatriotic, and branded as sympathetic towards Saddam Hussein. But giving up and "going along to get along" was not an option for us then, nor for justice-seeking movements in times past; and it's hardly an option for climate activists here and now.
I'm also here to assure you all that it's completely normal, and very common, for movements to suffer setbacks and temporary defeats; and for activists in a movement to become discouraged and disillusioned. It's normal for activists who were passionate to begin with to lose energy and spirit, drop out of their movement, and feel bitter and defeated--at least for a while. It's totally normal for people working together on one issue to disagree with one another on other political, legal or social issues. It's absolutely normal for activists to suffer a complete lack of support from family members, friends, classmates, coworkers, and social media followers. Be prepared to face a lot of mockery, condescension, criticism, and even losses of friends and alienation from relatives. But please, do not panic; remember what you're fighting for, hold your heads high, and DO NOT GIVE UP. Keep working, speaking out, blogging, and taking your allies where you find them, even if they don't want to sign "Unity Statements" with fellow activists.
Remember that the Civil Rights movement for African-Americans is still going on, after more than sixty-five years. Remember that the U.S. and numerous other countries legalized same-sex marriage only because thousands of people held onto a vision, kept fighting for more than three decades, and vowed that there was No Way In Hell they were going to give up, even after dozens of legal defeats in legislatures and courtrooms. Remember that labor movements around the world were once branded as communist, anarchistic, and threats to national security; they were crushed by law enforcement, governments and military intervention countless times over at least seventy years; and they just kept picking themselves up and fighting on until they got what they wanted. And today's Climate Action movement? It's gaining attention, gaining ground, and gaining victories; it simply needs to keep the momentum going, no matter the opposition that you may face. That Aussie bloke who called Greta Thunberg "deeply disturbed"? He's just running scared because she's growing movements, counseling world leaders, and otherwise getting things done on a massive scale. What the hell has HE done for environmental preservation lately?
Anyway, my overall point is: just because a movement doesn't win every time certainly does NOT mean that it "doesn't do any good." Rallies, marches and demonstrations are, first and foremost, about educating the public, and spreading awareness of a problem or crisis situation, whether or not public figures or the media are on board with you. Better still, current movements for climate action and other issues have the benefit of the global reach of social media, something similar movements even twenty years ago did not have. People today can organize a rally or media event on their phone over breakfast. So, rest assured that you and your brother and sister activists ARE doing good and making an impact by marching, meeting with elected officials, blogging, tweeting and retweeting, sharing videos, and even gluing yourselves to government buildings in multiple countries. At this point, more adults are with you than against you, and you are putting our apathy, cynicism and inaction to deep shame. You are waking up the world, and forcing it to take notice, from the halls of power to working-class communities in the middle of nowhere. As I mentioned above, you are the prophetic voices the world needs, and has been waiting for. Keep up the great work! If not us, whom? If not now, when?? TOGETHER ACROSS THE WORLD!
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