POST EIGHT : «Solidarity is stronger then fear» (1)

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SOLIDARITY, TENSIONS AND VALUES

I started sharing on this, on class discussion forum, in response to Kieran's post where he reflected saying: «there must be opportunities to connect cross values and norms to engage a wider audience» (1).  After attending talks last week, where speakers were heard on a common panel (2) entitled “After the Quebec spring: Merging the struggles” and Hervé Kempf's afternoon conference «How the rich are destroying the planet and how social movements save it» (3), I was a plunged and reminded of many issues we have been discussing and are concerned here, in our courses.

In order to share the context of this post, I will repeat the general idea of my paragraph to Kieran a little. Whether these speakers, multiple groups or citizens each focused more directly on either struggle for education, workers, climate/pollution, environmentalism, sharing frontiers, defending human rights, Rio+20, urban agriculture, or Palestine etc (or all of the above), an interconnexion or common space for dialogue was felt and the title of the event itself depicted it well : Solidarity festival 2012 (organized by Alternatives, which also publishes an interesting magazine.) We could safely say everyone there believed in mobilizing for social or environmental changes, acting to stop inequities and engaging in building a viable future. Although defending different causes with various skills and abilities, everyone was similarly concerned with the deep changes our society needs, and each group was trying to find ways to do so, through concrete and pursued collective actions.

Berlin exhibition

The fact people are sharing and collectively fostering solidarity, felt part of the solution for engaging in the dialogue Kieran was mentioning.  But although the overall energy was intensively positive, still, some tensions could be felt in the microphones now and then. Per example, Bill C-38 being much more important then Law 78, the workers’ union who though environmental issues or the education cause could not find consensus among workers and so on.  So, Kieran wondering how do we reach « the wider audience » (4) when even among a close group we find all these tensions, I could only think that all of these solutions should be embraced. Solidarity in fighting for education, protecting environment, trusting each other, owning responsibility and opening a dialogue. All aimed inviting one to engage somewhere, somehow in the needed sustainable/ethical world.

Berlin wall tag

As we have also seen with the Kony campaign example in our previous course, media coverage and its role must be questioned all along in order to lead to meaningful international Solidarity. As Philip Gourevitch (5) was warning us in his article, humanitarian aid or solidarity do hold their share of tensions, often for economical reasons.  Even similarly framed or close populations can be polarized, as Johanna shared with us and as we are experiencing here now.  I felt the festival's context echoed fairly well the tensions Laura invited us to consider throughout the course reflections (6), and the «values-based approach» found both in the Wolf and O’Brien’s paper (7), as well as in Johanna’s Labrador presentation. Solidarity had it’s tensions, but (since it felt it could be applied to anything else not solely climate I agree with Liz Beattie (8), a value-based approach could guide us to meaningful Solidarity. I felt Solidarity could also be seen being part of Ostrom’s polycentric approach (9).

Planting trees with kids and cow in Indonesia

1972’s United Nations Conference on the Human Environment recalls the major issue of «the protection and improvement of the human environment (…) is the urgent desire of the peoples of the whole world and the duty of all Governments» (10), and whether we look at the Earth Charter, the Bruntland commission’s message, Rio Summits or every project reminder that we must aim looking for «common principles to inspire and guide the peoples of the world in the preservation and enhancement of the human environment» (11), -since we are not succeeding so well with our politics, economics, legislations and anthropocentric worldviews-, other approaches need to be valued in order to succeed in this dialogue. I believe Solidarity expressed through and within collective movements, even with some tensions, gives hope that changing things is (perhaps) still possible.

I felt strong hope in Brigitte DePape’s experience sharing that «Solidarity is stronger then fear» (12), as well as energetically leaving the events with a reiterated Solidarity Rendez-vous to march together on June 22nd. 

Berlin Poster on wall

(1, 12) Brigtte dePape, Saturday 12th, Solidarity Festival.
(2, 4) Kieran Dowling's RRU forumpost - Tuesday, 12 June 2012, 09:33 AM
(3) Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Quebec student spokesperson,  Louis Roy, President of the CSN, Patrick Bonin, organizing committee “April 22”, Brigitte DePape of “Power Shift” Ottawa, Raul Burbano from “Common Frontiers” in Toronto;
(5) Philip Gourevitch. (2010, October). Alms Dealers. The New Yorker.
(6)  Louks, L., & Wolf, J. (2012). The Biosphere and Ecological Sustainability Unit 1-9  Retrieved from http://learner.royalroads.ca/moodle/mod/resource/
(7) )'Brien, K. and Wolf, J. (2010). A values-based approach to vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change 1(2): 232-242.
(8) Liz BeattieRRU forum post - Friday, 8 June 2012, 02:00 PM
(9) Ostrom, E. (2009). A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems. Science, 325(5939), 419-422.
(10)  UN Documents: Timeline Events. Un Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm. International Institute for Sustainable Development. (1997).
(11) UN Documents: Gathering a body of global agreements. (1987). Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future
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