Harnessing the Power Behind Social Movements

January 28th finally saw the return of MP’s to Ottawa to begin the parliamentary session of the New Year. Coinciding with this date was a Global Day of Action, organized by Common Causes, which strives to bring together social justice, environmental, human rights and other progressive movements within Canada. There were rallies and demonstrations planned in over 20 cities across the country with the largest one being held in Ottawa. The events in Canada were also meant to express solidarity with the Idle No More movement.

One week into February, some might say it’s a little too late to be talking about the milestones of 2012. But now that the New Year buzz has cooled off, it’s important for us to look back at what really happened over the previous year. 2012 was a year of massive social movements in Canada. The year began with the Quebec student strike, the successful campaign by the student population of Quebec against a planned tuition hike. They managed to have an election called and forced the Province’s Premier to resign. The year ended with Idle No More, a movement of Canada’s Indigenous People to speak out against proposed funding cuts and treaty violations. The movement has drawn out hundreds of thousands of people and has gained international attention. Those were the most notable but there were also the protests in B.C. against the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline, the ongoing struggle of the Ontario Teachers against the violation of their collective bargaining rights, and the demonstrations against the budget bill in the spring. That is an impressive list. Factor in that all of these movements were wholly Canadian – organized by Canadians against the actions of their own governments and the list becomes even more awe-inspiring. As a populace best known for general apathy, it’s hard to believe everything all this happened in the same year.

But what was actually accomplished? People took to the streets in droves to protest government actions and make their voices heard, but comparing the numbers with the results: one can see that there is no correlation. In Quebec a new party was elected and the tuition hike was delayed. But the greater cause behind the strike, the fight for accessible education and a push back against the corporatization of universities was mostly ignored. The results are even more disappointing for Idle No More. The Prime Minister and the Governor General separately met with First Nations Chiefs to discuss the movement but no final decisions or a plan for improvement was reached. Although Ontario has a new Premier, there has been no mention of repealing Bill 115. The Omnibus Bill was passed with no amendments and no final decision on the Northern Gateway pipeline has been reached.

So the question remains: why isn’t the massive energy of the streets being translated into change? According to the media, the main problem of social movements today seems to be that they have no concrete demands. When people turn out to the streets in recent years, they are not necessarily protesting a government action or demanding the overturning of a law, they are often trying to counter a conservative right wing agenda in Canada and internationally as well. But while this does not necessarily mean that these movements are less likely to succeed, it does mean that they have to change the way they function. No protest, no matter how massive, will ever convince the Harper government, for example, that they need to completely change the platform that has given them their mandate. And in a sense that is what Idle No More was trying to accomplish. Activists, then must realized that they have to change the way they approach this situation. How can we harness the energy of hundreds and thousands of protestors and turn it into real progressive change? Enter the world of organized politics.

Activists have traditionally shied away from organizations for a multitude of reasons, many of which are valid even today. The most important one of course is that political agendas are built on a platform of maximizing short-term economic growth with other concerns such as social services, environmental issues and human rights occasionally factored in. The level that a group chooses to factor these concerns into their agendas will dictate where they fall on the political spectrum. Most activists on the other hand see this entire system as problematic and do not believe that real social change is possible when it’s only dealt with as a sidebar to the main concern of economic growth. And thus, activists do not enter organized politics based on principle. But as EWB’ers love to point out, you cannot change a system without entering it. During the provincial election in Quebec, CLASSE, one of the main groups organizing the strike refused to acknowledge the election and thus students were unable to coalesce around any single party. Unfortunately, there actually was a political party that truly represented the interests of the student strikers. Quebec Solidaire, the party whose spokesperson was arrested as part of the protests and whose platform promised free education for Quebec’s students. By refusing to show their support for the party, the student cause was actually hurt, as vote splitting and the FPTP electoral system resulted in them winning only 2 seats.

The situation in Quebec though, was unique. There is rarely ever a well established political party that truly represents the interests of the activists and progressive voices in the streets. This is why activists must take it upon themselves to form such parties or join existing ones. One of the major problems in our world is that power is mostly concentrated and restricted to a few political insiders. As protestors on the street we are asking them to acknowledge our concerns and use their power to change the system. But if we as activists, entered the world of organized politics, we stop asking to be acknowledged by those in power, we start trying to seize that power away from them. And that would be the first step to changing current power structures.

The pitfalls of organized politics are clear. It would involve activists entering a system which many of us see as corrupt and perhaps irreparable. It may involve a violation of principles for many of us. But while social movements are still useful, and even necessary, to hold governments accountable and express our discontent to the general public, they cannot be our only venue for creating change. One of main tenets of democracy is that if the people in power are not on the side of the majority, they should be replaced. But somebody needs to do the replacing: and it’s time for activists to step up and change the system.