organizing for effective social change (in N.B.) is relational
Hugh Williams
Adam King in today's issue of "The Maple" wrote something
that in my view may have some high relevance for both theory and practice in N.B. going forward ...
the full piece, I believe, is accessible at this link -
The article was analyzing the question why 'the Left has failed to confront Canada's resurgent right' ...
and towards the end this was the exchange:
"AK: A number of contributors to the book grapple with how to mount a resistance to the resurgent right, from protest politics in the streets to building community coalitions that reshape politics more broadly.
Can you give readers a sense of how the book sees building an alternative politics that both resists the right’s influence and speaks to peoples’ real material needs?
ME: Several of the authors speak to the need for a fundamental change in how we ‘do’ politics. For instance, Marshall Ganz, the renowned American professor and organizer, maintains that organizing is ‘relational.’ Our authors allude to this point in outlining the need to work across difference.
What does this mean? It means listening to others, even those with opposing views. It means making space for different viewpoints in building a coalition. We may agree on some key values, but we also need to make room for other viewpoints. A viable political program can be fashioned out of these exchanges. I would go so far as to say this is a reaction to typical left politics, where leadership believed it held the truth and this informed strategy and tactics. The politics envisaged by several of the authors in this volume is less rigid, less hierarchical.
This alternate way of doing politics is not less effective, but it may take a little longer to achieve our objectives. But hopefully we get there together, with fewer of the soul-crushing fractious debates of the past.
In many communities at the present time, the cost of groceries and gas is causing undue hardship among a broad swathe of the population. Electoral politics is one means of expressing discontent, but gathering together to protest big grocery firms’ inhumane jacking up of prices, for example, is also an effective means of organizing against the right. Similarly, finding means to support the call for public grocery stores constitutes an act of resistance that may bear fruit.
I believe that a new politics that engages in work across difference as well as presenting a cohesive and sustainable political program may hold promise."
happy victoria day
Hugh