yes! P owerful I deas , P ractical A ctions
summer
Dar Williams: Songs That Change the World
2013
Don’t Wait for the Revolution. Live It. What to Say When You Hear “It’s Impossible” Gandhi’s 4 Gifts: Wisdom For Revolutionaries
Melina LaboucanMassimo, challenging oil companies on Lubicon Cree land
Why Radical Is the New Normal
“I DON’T PERSONALLY TRUST ANY REVOLUTION WHERE LOVE IS NOT ALLOWED.” Maya Angelou
FROM THE EDITOR
How to Act Powerfully
I
s YES! Magazine going all apocalyptic? No, we haven’t run out of hope, and we aren’t giving up on transformation. To the contrary, the precariousness of our future is inspiring us to get radical—to look for change that goes to the roots of our culture. We humans are in an untenable moment. The window we have to take on the climate crisis is small. The poor and middle class are getting poorer. Species around the world are dying, and along with them the web of life. And many of the change strategies of the past are stymied; marches on Washington get ignored, and the federal government is largely captured by big-money interests. So for this issue of YES! we asked how change can happen—and how it is happening now. What strategies are imaginative and powerful enough to meet the opportunities and the dangers of this moment? We didn’t find any one-size-fits-all answers. But we did find approaches to change that blend the best of new and old, and we found shifts in attitude that suggest new openings: • Many are questioning old stories of progress born of technology and economic growth. Robert Jensen recommends (page 25) that we acknowledge the apocalyptic nature of our times, freeing ourselves to create new stories. • Indigenous people worldwide are on the front lines of the battle against climate change. They are blockading tar sands pipelines, protesting oil drilling and fracking, and protecting land they are determined to leave intact for future generations (see page 28). Many others, including ranchers and other red state land owners, young people, and urban environmental justice activists, are also taking action. • There is growing willingness to name corporate rule and global capitalism as key problems, and to look to decentralized, place-based economies as the answer. While
capitalism is viewed more favorably among all Americans than socialism, the reverse is true among those under 29, African Americans and Hispanics, and those making less than $30,000 a year, according to a Pew poll. And more Americans have a favorable view of socialism than of the Tea Party. • Old divides between issues—like environment versus jobs—are coming down. Young leaders we spoke to (page 18) are committed to social justice and environmental resilience, to inner transformation and to transformation of the world, to active resistance to practices that harm people and the planet and to building the world we want to see now. • Answers are coming from unexpected places. Young people and those at the margins of society see through the fresh eyes of those who never experienced the ersatz security of corporate capitalism, and many are sharing insights through the arts, activism, digital media, and in other ways. • A new wave of leaders is moving beyond confronting “bad guys.” To navigate chaotic times, we need each other, and love may turn out to be the most important thing. Sally Kohn tells the stories of organizers of lowwage workers who are putting love at the core of their strategy (page 44). So don’t let the Apocalypse get you down. Let the radical uncertainty of this moment enlarge your sense of possibility. Yes, there are dangers; there are no guarantees that the next decades will turn out well for people or for the living systems of Mother Earth. But if one way of life is ending, we can build a new one. When the status quo is unstable, we have the best shot at replacing it. Since a system built on greed is dying, let’s create one built on love.
Sarah van Gelder Co-founder and Executive Editor yesmagazine . org
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ISSUE 66
Dar Williams
Defender of the Protest Song Why we need the independent voices that define political music
I
Madeline Ostrander
t’s become fashionable to say that political music is either dead or irrelevant. “Because of the ’60s, part and parcel of being a ‘serious music fan’ is lamenting that music isn’t political enough,” wrote communications scholar Michael Barthel in Salon last year, in an article called “Protest Songs Are Pointless.” The pop sound that’s churned out these days by top-grossing industry producers, even when it’s edgy or raging, is rarely political. But some of us secretly long for the solidarity that comes from belting out an old anthem together, without embarrassment. We wish it were possible for such a small act to foment revolutions. It’s never been quite that simple. Protest songs tend to grow from existing social movements, not the other way around. They nourish and reinforce the emotional strength necessary to confront political problems. And they remind us that we aren’t alone in our convictions—this is how I felt when I first heard Dar Williams’ music in 12
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1998, when I was still a student. She reached into my Gen X angst, not with a political rant but with something far more personal. “I’m so glad that you finally made it here. You thought nobody cared, but I did; I could tell,” she sang in “You’re Aging Well,” a song that seems to call, much in the way Gloria Steinem did, for a revolution based on self-esteem.
T o d ay , D a r W i l l i a m s is the torchbearer for a set of musical sensibilities that have deep roots in America’s history of dissent—from the abolition songs of the 19th century and the labor anthems of the early and mid-20th to the folk revival of the 1960s. The small-framed, 46-yearold guitar player, vocalist, and mother of two has, for the past two decades, established herself as “one of America’s very best singer-songwriters,” in the words of the New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg. I recently talked to Williams, several hours before she performed at a show in downtown Seattle, about the shape of today’s folk music and how her political life intersects with her songwriting. In conversation, she is warm and unpretentious—her blond hair was swept up casually on top of her head, and she wore purple fleece and blue jeans. And also probing—she asked me about cycling, vegetarianism, renewable energy, and Seattle
PHOTO FROM RAZOR & TIE MEDIA
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ISSUE 66
Don’t Wait for the
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Revolution.
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FOR YOUNG LEADERS, IT’S PERSONAL
Henia Belalia
Pancho Ramos-Stierle
Adrienne Maree Brown
Clayton Thomas-Muller
Carlos Jimenez
Change is coming fast. The brief window we have to turn around the climate crisis, the growing gap between rich and poor, the violence at home and abroad, debt and austerity politics—these are among the most pressing issues facing all of us, especially young people. We asked a group of leaders, all under 40, to talk to us about how they see their lives, their leadership, and their future. Moderated by Sarah van Gelder
Sarah van Gelder: How do the challenges facing your generation (people under 40) compare with those faced by leaders of the civil rights, women’s, and labor movements? What’s at stake now? Adrienne Maree Brown: I would say the biggest difference is we’ve increased our exposure to all the suffering and struggle in the world without increasing our capacity to handle it. The speed of knowledge has increased—now it’s a nearly instantaneous flow of crisis, tragedy, and need, sprinkled with glimpses of triumph, resilience, humanity. And we are supposed to have a coherent
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opinion on all of it and stay focused on those things we can impact. We need mindfulness practice to come with our smartphones! Henia Belalia: We’re looking at the frequency and impact of climate-related “natural disasters,” and it’s daunting—how do we take our foot off the gas pedal when we have very few years before we hit a point of no return and it’s game over for the planet? Clayton Thomas-Muller: I think of our aunties and uncles who were in the American Indian movement, the Black Panthers movement. Back in the day, there was a lot of responsibility on a very small group of leaders, and it was
relatively easy for agents of oppression to target those individuals. Whereas today, through social media and digital technologies that can transfer popular education materials to vast audiences, we have a more level playing field. Carlos Jimenez: Power is becoming more concentrated and more removed from our daily experience. I assume it never was cool to question capitalism or ask hard questions about systems of oppression. But these days, it feels like we have to stretch in ridiculous ways to question the structures of our society without being seen as radicals or crazy people. Pancho Ramos-Stierle: In fact, sister
ISSUE 66
“ I T H O U G H T I WA S S A C R I F I C I NG MY F R E E D O M, B U T INSTEAD I WA S G RA B B IN G O NT O MY F R E E D O M A N D R E F U S I NG TO L E T GO O F I T F O R T HE F I R S T T I ME . � T I M D EC H RI S T OP H ER
PHOTO BY DAVID NEWKIRK
Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in prison for his actions, but his boldness stopped the sale of 22,000 acres of scenic wilderness and highlighted government misconduct. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar scrapped a rescheduled auction because the Bureau of Land Management had skimped on its environmental analysis and inadequately consulted with the National Park Service. In January 2013, a federal court denied an energy industry appeal to reinstate the leases. DeChristopher was released from prison in April.
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G l o b al Aw ak e ni ng
Melina Laboucan-Massimo stands next to logs from clearcuts at a proposed tar sands site north of Fort McMurray, northern Alberta, Canada. PHOTO BY JIRI REZAC
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ISSUE 66
What to Say When They Say It’s Impossible Andrea Brower Those
c o m m i tt e d t o b u i l d i n g a m o r e j u s t f u t u r e
must question the taken-for-
granted “truths” that support the beliefs that capitalism is the only common-sense possibility and that there is no alternative. We can’t leave this task to the pages of peer-reviewed journals and classrooms of social theory—these conversations can start with family and friends but must spread until we create a new common sense. Here are conversation starters to address some standard defenses of the status quo.
It’s either the system we have, or it’s no progress at all. Doing away with capitalism doesn’t mean resorting to
Today’s globalized world is too complex to organize things any differently.
primitivism, denying the
Freedom can only be realized through a free market.
poor their right to develop-
Capitalism is the only system that encourages innovation and progress.
ment, or abandoning all
Attaching our values of
of our washing machines.
freedom to the market is
Progress toward what? And
There are limits to the
not just dehumanizing. It
how does enclosing com-
Earth’s resources, but we
also fails to recognize how
mon knowledge through
Of course the world is
can organize a productive,
one person’s “freedom”
intellectual property rights,
Does capitalism “work”?
complex. But some things
equitable, and sustainable
of economic choice is
or excluding most of the
Even by its own indicators,
are also quite simple—we
social order that includes
another’s imprisonment in
world from quality educa-
as we’ve become more
live in a world where
many of the comforts of
a life of exploitation and
tion, or depriving half of
capitalist—deregulating
1 billion people go hungry
modern life and the ben-
deprivation. There is no
humanity of the basic life-
finance and promoting
while we dump half of all
efits of technology. In fact,
possibility for true freedom
sustaining goods needed
“free trade”—economic
food produced. The gift of
getting rid of capitalism
until we are all free, and
for health lead to greater
growth and productivity
today is that we have the
gives us the best chance
this will only come through
innovation? Just begin to
have actually declined.
ability to reflect and draw
of having time to organize
a much richer and deeper
imagine the innovative
Capitalism does work for
upon many forms, past and
a sustainable system of
conception of human
possibilities of a world
accumulating wealth and
present, of non-capitalist
consumption before it is
freedom than one that
where all people had access
power in the hands of a
social organization, and to
too late—staying hooked
consists of going to a gro-
to everything they needed
few. Is that what we want,
creatively experiment with
into capitalism may be
cery store and “choosing”
to live, to think, and to
or do we want a system
blending the best of these
the quickest route to
between 5,000 variations of
contribute to the common
that works for all?
possibilities.
primitivism.
processed corn.
good.
Alternatives could never work.
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The best we can hope for is “green” and “ethical” capitalism.
People don’t care. People may be distracted by consumerism, may not have
Things are getting better. Can we really say that
Things could be worse.
Change is slow.
things are getting better as
This belief is fundamentally
time or energy outside of
flawed because it assumes
struggling to pay their bills,
that within capitalism,
may be fearful, may lack
businesses can prioritize any-
access to good information.
thing over the bottom line.
Those things are different
But businesses that commit
from not caring. The charity
themselves first and fore-
industry is thriving pre-
most to being fully ethical
cisely because so many peo-
and green will find it difficult
ple do feel implicated in the
to stay in business in the cur-
revolting manifestations of
rent system. There are great
capitalism. But this is part
models of ethical business—
of the problem—much of
worker-owned organic farms,
our outrage is being chan-
for instance—but these
neled away from collective
cannot become the norm
political action and toward
within an economic structure
“green consumerism” and
we head toward the annihi-
Slow is not in the vocabu-
that concentrates wealth and
charitable donations, as if
lation of our own species?
lary of the corporations
power in the hands of Mon-
more capitalism could save
They could. But they
Sure, the United States may
that are stealing our com-
santo. And while we should
us from capitalism. Despair,
could also be better.
have our first black presi-
mon genetic heritage, or
support these alternatives,
guilt, disempowerment—
Does the fact that we’ve
dent and be making small
financiers who are getting
we need to recognize that we
these are all symptoms
lived through bloody
gains in LGBT rights or in
rich playing virtual money
can’t shop our way to a bet-
of living within a system
dictatorships mean that
women’s representation in
games that legally rob us
ter world. We’ll only change
that rewards greed and
we should settle for a
the workforce. But let’s not
all. The enclosure of our
the structure and scale up
self-interest over our innate
representative democracy
neglect the fact that capital
commons and the concen-
existing alternatives through
desires for compassion,
where the main thing
is more concentrated, cen-
tration of capital is not
collective political struggle.
care, and cooperation.
being represented is
tralized, and in control than
happening slowly. Whether
money? Fear of change is
it has ever been. I think we
we acknowledge it or not,
a great tool to limit our
should give ourselves more
change is happening—
imagination about human
credit than to settle for this
what is up for grabs is the
possibilities.
“better.”
direction of that change.
Andrea Brower is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Auckland. Adapted from an article originally published at commondreams.org. Illustrations from LanaN/Shutterstock and YES! Magazine.
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ISSUE 66
Wisdom
for
Revolutionaries
Gandhi’s 4 Gifts
A (non) + Himsa (violence) = Ahimsa Gandhi lived Ahimsa as a daily practice, waging peace to stop war and violence. His lifelong “experiments” with truth proved that truth force is more powerful than brute force. Ahimsa reveals forms of peace that extend far beyond mere absence of war. For Gandhi, peace means walking with truth and justice, patience and compassion, courage and loving-kindness. Ahimsa actively promotes universal well-being and encourages the flourishing of all life, not just humans. It is the art of living in the present and opening our imaginations to a good life for all. Gandhi offers four sustaining pillars for Ahimsa. — Madhu Suri Prakash 42 42
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Sarvodaya
Justice for All Creatures This is Gandhi’s central pillar: the practice of economic, political, and moral justice. All creatures are included in a quest for universal well-being; all take their just share of the abundance of our Mother Earth. Sarvodaya means the end of injustice and hunger. There is enough for every being’s needs and not enough for even a single person’s greed. Sarvodaya societies and communities ensure that all enjoy the dignity of sharing their skills and talents. Sarvodaya serves to remind us, moment by moment, of our entire Earth family—interdependent, made of each other, inextricably interconnected.
Swadeshi
The Genius of the Local At the heart of Swadeshi is honoring and celebrating local economy, with people enjoying a right livelihood from the gifts of the natural resources of their own bioregions. The bread labor of each place, drawing on the genius of local knowledge and skills, generates a surplus to share with others. Swadeshi is people-centered economics—the soul of “small is beautiful.”
Swaraj
Self-Rule Gandhi’s idea of self-rule celebrates the freedoms born of the self-discipline necessary for Sarvodaya. Swaraj demands maximum power for self-organization and self-rule by people within their families, neighborhoods, villages, and bioregions, and minimal intervention by national governments. We assume full responsibility for our own behavior and for our decisions, made with others, on how to organize our communities. Swaraj celebrates personal freedom from poverty and all forms of domination. No one rules others, and no state imposes its laws without the free consent of the governed. Rather than human rights, Swaraj sees human duties: to Mother Earth and to our neighbors, both near and distant.
Satyagraha
Nonviolent Revolution Satyagraha radically transforms political or economic systems through nonviolent resistance. It does not seek to inflict upon the violent a taste of their own medicine but instead transforms foe into friend and intolerance into hospitality. Satyagraha encourages us to cultivate the same compassion for strangers that we have for kin. Satyagrahis refuse to comply with unjust laws and voluntarily accept the resulting suffering. They call for patient, continual, small actions performed by common men and women looking for a more decent life. They produce profound, radical transformation without the cataclysmic revolutions that frequently impose their own violent power structures. Satyagrahis seek to live oneness in thought, speech, and actions: They walk the talk. Actively resisting oppression, Satyagrahis recognize that there are wrongs to die for, yet not a single one to kill for.
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An evening of inspiration, connection & sustainable food YES! Magazine’s 3rd annual fundraiser and celebration
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