It is a clear summer day and the university courtyard is buzzing with activists, flyers, and posters calling for action; along the edges are tables strewn with pamphlets, magazines and books. All around them are long haired men wielding papier mache puppets, young women playing drums and dancing, old friends surprised to find each other again, high school kids delighting in the discovery of the progressive community, old socialists marveling at the size of the crowd. Poets shout to no one in particular through microphones, and musicians march by to herald the coming plenary.
Inside the buildings, people fill the corridors, pushing past each other headed to seminars on everything: racism in the public schools, the history of women’s struggle, the privatization of water in the Third World, how to avoid becoming a burnt out activist, the need for unity and common vision, the wall being built by Israel, reintroducing spirituality to the Left, repealing regressive tax cuts, the list goes on and on. Typically one can find two workshops on the same subject at the same time hosted by different organizations.
It’s the Boston Social Forum – the first social forum to be held in the United States following the principles and model of the World Social Forum. Welcome to the ‘movement of movements.’ The diversity of activity is at once invigorating and overwhelming, leaving me feeling like sailor in an ocean storm—thrilled at the might and majesty of the waves, humbled by my insignificance.
The Boston Social Forum – piggy-backing on the Democratic National Convention of 2004 – got national media attention and was in practice the first nation-wide social forum, attracting participants throughout the country. However the first US Social Forum – just completed from June 27th to July 1st in Atlanta, GA – attracting twice the number of participants as the Boston Social Forum, appears to have largely flown under the radar of the national media.
I was attending the US Social Forum curious to see what progress has been made in the organizing efforts of progressive groups who believe, as the World Social Forum proclaims, “another world is possible.” The US Social Forum website states that:
The USSF will provide space to build relationships, learn from each other’s experiences, share our analysis of the problems our communities face, and bring renewed insight and inspiration. It will help develop leadership and develop consciousness, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world.
On two levels the US Social Forum was impressive. Logistically, workshops happened in suitable locations as scheduled – if you’ve ever been to a Social Forum, this is an impressive feat given the vast number of workshops. And in terms of diversity, age, race, gender, the US Social Forum was vibrantly alive with all types of people. The energy and excitement of attendees was palpable – it was invigorating to be among so many people passionately committed to struggles for social justice, democracy, and improving our world.
The vast majority of workshops were hosted by organizations or issue-specific coalitions informing and educating participants about their efforts. For example, the Earth Charter USA presented about its work and invited people to get involved. In this sense, many groups used the US Social Forum as an opportunity for outreach. Unfortunately there were very few intentional spaces of dialogue across groups and sectors, and most of this type of conversation happened informally as people met in hallways, courtyards, and hotel rooms.
And this personally was a huge disappointment, because it meant there was very little sophisticated discussion about movement building strategy and vision. Currently, public intellectuals like Paul Hawken (who proclaims “the largest social movement the world has ever known is upon us”), laud the chaotic jumble of poorly funded advocacy groups and issue campaigns as a powerful new social movement. However, this observation is not new, it has been made since the Battle of Seattle in 1999, which shut down the World Trade Organization talks. 8 years later, and the movement looks largely the same: fragmented.
What is worrisome is the degree to which this fragmentation is celebrated rather than recognized as a significant obstacle to success. Authors, like Hardt and Negri in their book Multitude, seem to imply that a critical mass of social change activism is a self-organizing phenomenon and will succeed without any intentional leadership or collective strategic sophistication. Today’s zeitgeist currently celebrates “self-organizing” phenomena as they are seen throughout nature, through simple rules mass action is organized, as pointed out in this National Geographic article on swarm theory.
Ironically, this is similar to the perspective that neoliberal economists have about the economy – they believe the selfish actions of individuals will miraculously create a society in which everyone prospers. The invisible hand of the market is, of course, a deeply flawed concept, and there are many examples where the market fails to provide social benefits and government intervention is needed (our current Health Care crisis in the US might be a good example, see SICKO if you haven’t already).
So it is sad to see that so much faith is still being put into the invisible hand of the social movement. It is amazing how similar this discourse sounds to the discussions Alan Watts, Timothy Leary, Gary Snyder and Alan Ginsburg were having in 1967:
That the Western world has labored for many, many centuries under a monarchical conception of the universe where God is the boss, and political systems and all kinds of law have been based on this model of the universe…that nature is run by a boss. Whereas, if you take the Chinese view of the world, which is organic..They would say, for example, that the human body is an organization in which there is no boss. It is a situation of order resulting from mutual interrelationship of all the parts. And what we need to realize is that there can be, shall we say, a movement…a stirring among people…which can be ORGANICALLY designed instead of POLITICALLY designed.
Honestly, I think the answer lies somewhere between “self-organizing” anarchy and “top-down” authoritarianism. An organized social movement needs some structure – structure that is made explicit can help enhance democratic participation precisely because leadership is formally recognized and can then be held accountable. Who holds the current leadership which organized the US Social Forum accountable? How many of those who attended the event even have a sense of who organized the event? Which organizations were invited to be be part of the organizing committee? How and why? For example, where were all the environmental groups that normally flock to such forums? How come there were so few workshops on an issue as pressing as Climate Change?
This then is symptomatic of the state of affairs among progressive groups. I wonder what you think the role of leadership is and ought to be in unifying a social movement? Do you agree with the “invisible hand” theory?
I definitely think that the invisible hand theory doeosn’t work, because there are some things the market/society just doesn’t take care of on its own. We need the government; it’s what started our country and helped it prosper. We had to have all of those monopoly laws, and you also have to consider things like the unemployment office, child support enforcement, and welfare (sometimes taken advantage of). The list goes on.
Orion
I too was attending the US Social Forum. In fact I attended one day early to witness the first ever meeting of the Backbone Campaign’s all inclusive progressive shadow cabinet which did bring together leaders of diverse groups at the Forum to discuss making an effective social tool for identifying suitable and effective replacements the current executive branch and its policies.
I think if you look into the process created by the Backbone Campaign (Bill Moyer, et. al.) you will see something much more like what you missed at the Forum.
http://www.backbonecampaign.org
Good to hear from you both!
Harvie — I’ll definitely check out the backbonecampaign. What is Bill Moyers’ involvement? I’d vote for him for President any day.
“invisible hand of the market is, of course, a deeply flawed concept, and there are many examples where the market fails”
I can not think of one real insistence where this statement is true. In the real world, not the make believe world of Sicko Moore,(come on this movie is full of falsehoods)it is government interference in health care, not the market that causes whatever the imagined problems are. For every example you can show me where you imagine the market fails, I can show you how the market was never really allowed to work, or is working differently than you think it is.
Even, if it were true that the market isn’t perfect (it hurts me to write that because it isn’t true). It is a heck of a lot better than what would come out of that mass of people protesting for or against everything in the world.
One man’s social responsibility is another man’s stupid idea. That is the problem with people declaring this or that cause to be overridingly important. Here’s One small example,out of millions.
Before the first Walmart in Vermont was build, there were many protesters. Basically if you listened to them, the world would come to an end if Walmart was built. Well it was build, and none of the things that was claimed would happened did. The vast majority of mom and pop stores did not go out of business. Walmart has never had trouble get either costumers or worker. So both groups must like it, otherwise they would not shop/work there. Who is any protester to say where anyone should shop/work.
One mom and Pop store I know of did go out of business after Walmart moved in. But it deserved to. It was a hardware store. I went in that store once and asked for a hammer. They did not have any, but they would be getting them in the next week. Another time I was looking for a screwdriver. again, not today, try next week. Any hardware store without hammers or screwdrivers deserves to go out of business. If Walmart fills that gap so be it. Not all mom and pop stores are good.
The truth is, that hardware store went out of business because, another mom and pop hardware store opened up.The new store had hammers and screwdrivers. But the antiWalmart crowd tried to blame it on Walmart, not the first store’s lack of inventory. That first store would still be there if it had decided to stock hammers and screwdrivers after the second store opened. The market takes care of stupid business practices, in a way no amount of social activism can.
Tom T,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
“Market Failure” is a term used by economists to describe when free markets, operating without government intervention, fail to deliver an optimal or efficient allocation of resources. This occurs for several well understood reasons: imperfect information, externalities, monopolies, public goods and the free-rider problem, equity concerns, and other reasons.
Imperfect information — this simply refers to the real world situation where a lot of information is unknown by economic actors. The classic “free market” model assumes perfect information, a theoretical situation that is never actually realized.
Externalities refers to the situation where a firms costs can be externalized onto other actors — for example, a factory might dump its waste into the nearby river. The costs of clean-up are paid for by society, i.e., tax-payers — unless there is some form of regulation and legal accountability enforced by the government. There are numerous examples of externalities.
One of the things I liked about the movie SICKO is that it shows private health care companies can be even more bureaucratic than government. In general, bureaucracy is a symptom of size, and many multi-national corporations are gigantic and suffer from incredible inefficiencies.
For everyone that is a Paul Hawken fan, I recommend checking out his latest book, Blessed Unrest. Which is both a description of the unprecedented number of organizations and people working towards social justice and environmental restoration and a history of the intellectuals that inform their work.
I think one of the most important analogies Paul makes is between this new type of social movement and the immune system. The success of the immune system depends on the quality of its connections and the social movement’s success depends on the same. Connections, rather than the strength of any individual organization or person, will set the stage for our success. And as a result of Paul’s research, his staff created WiserEarth, an online tool to improve the quality of the connections between the millions of organizations and people that work in social justice, the environment and indigenous rights.
It is sad to see so many duped into thinking that there are any redeeming features to communism and socialism.
If you will look at history, the wages of communism are death, poverty and misery. No matter how you package them, the results will always be the same.
If you guys want to live under totalitarian rule with no rights whatsoever, please relocate to North Korea or Cuba and leave the rest of us to our liberty (what little we have left).
Really glad people are taking the time to share their thoughts and reactions.
Michael — I’ve been to the Wiser Earth site a few times, it is a growing directory of the hodge-podge of groups out there doing important work, thanks for sharing this resource.
Benjamin — your faith in our current system appears unshakable, I wonder what you make of the immense challenges of climate change, the declining health of all ecosystems and the increasing rate of extinctions, growing inequality and number of people without adequate access to water, health care, or housing…don’t these enormous challenges require us to adapt our system and way of life?
Great to hear from you all,
Orion
Orion,
I am not happy with our present system. It is a socialist disaster already. Our environment is not in crisis and the ecosystems are just fine. Extictions are not above historical averages. Poverty is caused by the lack of personal liberty.
Hi Benjamin,
Most people believe this is an age of global capitalism and the US is a capitalist country. They are unaware of the dramatic subsidies our government gives to most major corporations and entire industries — like big Pharma. However subsidizing industry is not quite the same as socialism.
If you are interested in learning about our environmental crisis, I suggest looking at the recent Millenial Ecosystem Assessment — the first comprehensive look at the state of our ecosystems. Also, the World Resource Institute has a report called People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life, that is worth checking out: http://www.wri.org/biodiv/pubs_description.cfm?pid=3027
To learn more about the current rate of mass extinctions, here is a resource from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/2/l_032_04.html
Poverty is complex topic, but there are close to 3 Billion people living on less than $2 a day, that’s half the world’s population. Do they lack freedoms? Absolutely, what is freedom without adequate access to the basic necessities of life?
I would think that the “invisible hand of the social movement” is actually on the bad side of environmentalism. After all, the social movement wants to protect people from government regulation, and the EPA is part of the federal government. Does the social movement want to protect individual people but not individual corporations, which are regulated in part by the EPA. In that case, it would only be backed by the “invisible hand/let it be” idea for certain situations, and not for others. I think that some things DO need to be regulated more than other, such as how the EPA regulates corporations to bring down pollution and help the air quality.
I do believe a bit of the info you (Orion) gave Benjamin about the current situation of the world and it’s environment. I wish I knew what some of his sources were to lead him in opposition.
The gov’t and big business have designed a complicated “system” where “we the people” have essentially waived our god-given basic human rights by way of applications for birth certificates, social security cards, applying for gov’t benefits, “registering” our personal property, “applying” for licenses and priveleges etc etc. Don’t beleive this? Research this for yourself. Request a copy of your birth certificate application, refuse to use your social security number, try to “opt out” of social security program, tell the IRS that you’ll be happy to pay your fair share of taxes if they could simply provide you with the law/statute which authorizes them to withhold your hard-earned income etc etc. Think about this for a moment- it’s almost 2009 and the “system” still uses the SAME methods to identify us (social security, birth certificate etc) as it did 20 years ago. Why not use fingerprint scanning technology? Because WE own our finger prints while THEY own those documents/numbers (us). Finger printing doesn’t require an application, signing away your rights, voluntary servitude etc…