How do we get there?
I opened the latest issue, with its teasing headline How we stop Big Oil (NI 537), with a sense of trepidation and weariness. I feared it would follow a format I’ve seen many times before. I would be told, in great detail, about the sins of the oil companies. There would be some mention of various policies that might help clip their claws, followed by a brief rousing exhortation to ‘grassroots movements’.
And so it came to pass. This is not a reflection on the authors’ skills or intentions, but I have had enough. I have been on this planet over half a century, politically conscious for over three decades and I rarely see any reflection by those working for a better world on why ‘we’ are failing, at a granular level.
Why do we fail to build sustainable organizations that can welcome new people, and – crucially – keep a good percentage of them for the long haul? Why do we go through boom-and-busts of mobilization and attention and what can we do about that? Why do we never seem to learn anything, but instead exist in a kind of Groundhog Day of placards and marches?
How can we ‘stop Big Oil’ (or pharma, or weaponry, or torture or whatever) if we persist in the above-mentioned format, and take the existence of a strong citizenry, capable of forcing decent policies through legislatures, as a given?
From a sponsor
I pay the school fees for an orphan child in Tanzania who is one of a group whose parents died of AIDS. The school has no public support and has to charge fees. The school itself nominates whom I sponsor. I also contribute to their funds, so that they can buy more books and equipment. Yes, I usually receive a thank-you letter, an end-of-year report on the pupil I have sponsored and sometimes a group photo. I value this connection with the country, however tenuous.
Nothing in Kathleen Nolan’s article (NI 537) has persuaded me that I should withdraw from this arrangement. That would not advance the development of Tanzania or help to improve the terms of world trade – but it would deprive someone of a chance to receive education. Participating in this way does not in the least prevent me from taking what Ms Nolan calls ‘actions based on global justice’.
Sometimes it seems ideology can stand in the way of common sense.
Capital points
Peter Somerville (Letters, NI 537) makes some good points about ‘The politics of futility’ (Long Read, NI 536), but then goes wrong himself.
Capitalism does not provide people with work. It forces them, when they can find a job, to work for the profit of an employer, part of a small group who have taken control of the planet’s resources and so can say, ‘You have to work for us if you want to work’.
And labour is not ‘a form of capital’. Capital is a means of production used to employ workers at a profit. Workers have to sell their labour power (not their labour) in order to live. The capital belongs to the employers, the capitalist class.
Learning for change
Really enjoyed your edition on Abolition (NI 536) and found my view enlightened. At the same time, I received a summons from the police for speeding on an empty ‘smart’ motorway with a 50 limit. I have 3 choices: accept a fine and licence penalty points; go to court; attend a driver awareness course.
The police letter says they prefer education to prosecution. I shall pay to attend a course so the punishment is self-funding and considerably cheaper for everyone and effective.
Why can’t this principle be applied across the justice system?
Why I...
...don’t fly.
Ten years ago I chose to stop flying for the sake of the climate. Since then I have been determined to show that not using planes doesn’t mean you have to give up travelling, and my many adventures include cycling 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometres) around the coast of Britain – a true adventure of a lifetime! Three years ago I set up Flight Free UK to encourage others to break the flight habit, starting with pledging to take one year off flying. Changing the way we see travel is as good for ourselves as it is for the planet.
