Vigilante Man

Woody Guthrie "Vigilante Man"

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Woody Guthrie "Vigilante Man." From the 1975 documentary: "Brother Can You Spare a Dime." Footage from Bonus Riots of 1932, San Francisko General Strike 193...

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Barbarity or Civiliation

I have no choice but to be agitated.  I have to agitate.  I am troubled.

My dad often used to say that we (his children) would have much more leisure time then people of his generation.  He believed that technological developments would take the strain, so to speak.  He also had the reasonable expectation that the life chances of working class people would continue to flourish, as he had noted from the end of the second world war.

Like most people who grew up in the East End of London he voted Labour.  He was a rank and file Union man in common with his fellow Dockworkers and he could measure and illustrate how his quality of life, working conditions and access to leisure was way ahead of that of his own father.

My dad was in his sixties when Thatcher came to power.  The London Docks had had their day and the baby boomers (including my elder siblings) were established in white collar professions – the first generation of working class people to reach these lofty heights.  Many of these baby boomers saw Thatcherism as an opportunity to advance further upwards, alas.  Now in their sixties themselves with mortgages paid for and pensions matured, the insular among them (far too many) are closeted from the nightmare that many others are having to cope with.

Of course, many others were forced from manufacturing, mining, agriculture and fisheries and never worked again or had part time or yellow pack work.

Still and all, my dad remained somewhat optimistic that things would get better.  After all, he could remember the 1930’s and had come through a terrible war, seen how non-union labour was dealt with in the Docks and seen the effects of poverty on the health of family, friends and neighbours.

He was even happy to see Tony Blair elected in 1997, though his optimism was sorely tested and then crushed by the jettisoning of all semblence of socialism from Labour in the following decade.  Still he had seen people fight for better conditions and win.

I want to be able to impart that kind of optimism to my children.  I want to be able to say that their lives will be free from conflict and stress and that the future will be civilised and not barbaric.

Its been hard to build up the optimism these past 20 years, dominated by the self interest and individualism  of Thatcherism and the erosion of all that was gained by ordinary working people.

With the current crisis in capitalism, there is a glimmer of hope.  If enough people are agitated and agitate (in whatever way they can) then we can get back onto the collective track of moving forward. That begins with a mindset of course.

It requires that we are of a mind to invisage a future free from the barbarism of untrammelled market controlled capitalism.  It means that we stand with those who are under threat from the agents of the privilaged - the 1% in the current lexicon - That we either join with or use (and I know that we understand that 'use' is a positive here) the various occupations that are mushrooming, to demand a shift from the political and economic paradigm that has set back the hopes and dreams of those who struggled for us.

Its not a time to sit on the fence.  Its a time to tell stories, to inform or remind people of all that those who came before us had achieved and hoped to achieve.  Its a time to understand that many people have been conditioned to see no alternative. Indeed, for many of these people, the language that us lefties use is strange and our sometimes sectarian behavior is a barrier to understanding, let alone participation. 

I wish that I could get on with lots of other things, but I am agitated and I have to do something. 

A Key Moment

A concerted effort is being made to close down the Occupations in the US. No doubt this has given reactionary forces the green light to start the process wherever they can. Expect more stories of local business's trade being adversely effected or random criminal acts. After the initial first few weeks when there was little media attention, the growth in understanding and support for this overt challange to neoliberalism has made an impact. This is the reaction.

Above all else the Occupy movement has given progressive political activists and supporters an opportunity to move beyond simple oppostion to the existing political and economic system towards advocating a complete change - not a tweak to stabilise capitalism so we can move on in much the same way.

It would be a criminal waste if the progressive left could not share some of the burden currently carried by the occupiers, work together in a broad non-sectarian way and act to consign Thatcherism to the dustbin of history. Inside the Dail, Assembly and council chambers lay a space that can be occupied by progressive politicians standing (sitting or camping) causing disruption, walking out, whatever it takes to draw attention to the denial of basic democracy that has blighted us for many years.

This is a time for radicalism. A time to create a crisis to meet the crisis. Proceedure and protocal are not the answer. Putting forward parliamentary motions to address this or that issue within the existing paradigm seems meagre and not a little daft in the face of such an opportunity to challange injustice and put forward an alternative based on what brought all of us activists into politics in the first place.

Leading With The Chin

The progressive political parties represented in the Dáil, Assembly and Council chambers around the country have been slow to understand the potential opened up by the Occupy movement.

During the recent Presidential election, with all the coverage it was bound to receive, none of the candidates representing progressive politics in Ireland – Higgins, McGuinness and I am going to includes David Norris (although, I understand that not everybody will see him in this category) referenced the Occupy movement. 

I found this strange.  Not only because it was clear, even at that stage, that there was occupation activity across the globe, but it was also strange because the occupiers were making the case that the system – a system opposed by progressive political activists – was clearly failing.

We all realise that the occupy movement has deliberately not been prescriptive in putting policy positions forward.  I may have issues with some within those structures not defining themselves as ‘left’, but I am an old fashioned leftie and acknowledge that this is as much my problem as anything else.  What cannot be denied however, is that this global protest has begun to focus minds in a way that we haven’t seen for years.

What the occupy movement has done is to create the space for political parties to move beyond mere opposition to policies framed within the existing political paradigm, holding conservative parties to account and trying to reform a system that is inherently corrupted.   It has enabled progressive politicians to talk about the ‘V’ word – Vision.

It has to be said that progressive politicians on the way up, so to speak, advancing electorally and gaining increased access to the media tend to fall into the trap of framing discourse within the existing paradigm.   The need to illustrate their ability to understand the Realpolitik stifles bravery.  The bravery required to put up with ‘experts’ in the media and in the conservative political establishment rubbishing any idea that doesn’t sit somewhere between the centre right and the centre left.  Even in the face of the abject failure of these political and economic positions to deal with the mess that they have placed us – or 99% of us – in.

Any advance made for and by ordinary people over the centuries and particularly over the last century has been made by people brave enough to shift the paradigm – to lead with the chin, to use that boxing analogy.  Ideas that have become mainstream began life as ideas ridiculed and dismissed as unworkable or naive.

Thousands of ordinary people camping out this winter in the middle of all sorts of places around the world are leading with their chins.  In some places, the authorities are itching to knock them out.  We should support these people and thank them for giving our mainstream political leaders a chance – should they choose to take it – to do something really interesting; to work together on a broad platform to work our way out of the failure of untrammelled capitalism; to challenge the consensus and cast aside Realpolitik; to lead with the chin.

The (Long) Now

There is an organisation called the Long Now Foundation that is well worth people looking into. The name comes from an observation by the music innovator, Brian Eno that the term 'now' can be interpreted in different ways. He uses the example of conversations that he has had in the USA where 'now', he believes invariably means this instant. He claims that in England and elsewhere, 'now' can also mean 'in this time, era, year. In other words, there is a 'short now and a 'long now'.

Why am I blabbering on about this now? (short) Because of my concern about what is happening now (long)    Decisions taken by governments adhering to the proscribed remedies to stabilise capitalism are reacting in the way they do because of the belief that the have to do this now (short) They will worry about the longer now when? - well, not now.

At the end of World War 2, when we were in far more volatile situation, there were politicians and economists prepared to take the long view. They knew that it would take decades to get onto a firm economic and political footing. They also realised that it was vital to invest in people - in society.

I know that there were other agendas at play. There was a geopolitical conflict shaping up (when isn't there one) The fear of radical change was forcing conservative forces to implement social welfarism, but in among all of that there were serious attempts to move us in towards a 21st century that would be an advance for humanity.

And all of that came to a shuddering halt when Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan rode into world domination in the late 70's.

That this Irish Government, which contains a Labour Party - a Labour Party mind - can still be in awe of this short-term and anti-democratic unchecked capitalism, given all that we have witnessed in these past couple of years, is deeply worrying.

Surely we are in a period when long term thinking is more important than ever. As mainstream politics seems incapable of such thinking, the pressure will have to come from the rest of us - organised or otherwise. If that entails presenting the established order with additional headaches, then so be it.

The Greeks are holding a referendum that is causing such a headache and maybe that will force a positive rethink. That is the way we have to behave. The failure of an Irish government to pay bondholders, for example, would be a headache for the capitalist world order, but they would just have to think again. With enough pressure, eventually we might get some thinking that was beneficial to building a 21st century political and social order that just might be acceptable to the greater number of us - the 99% if you prefer. That's the theory! But its not a bad theory.

There will have to be plenty more marching, camping and campaigning to try and change all of this. It needs to happen now (short) and be happening now (long). get it?