Pamela Boyce Simms

"Old and cherished ideas and ways of life die; new experiences arise and require a new vocabulary, a new grammar, a new vision." —Charles Johnson

Cooperative culture done well, is pivotal in building the critical mass needed to reach a societal tipping point in this era of existential crisis. Is it time for co-op activists to look in the mirror?

Worker cooperative members paused to take stock of where 20th century activism has landed progressive movements in 2017. This was a "parenthesis in time" for the co-op community to step away from the day-to-day of cooperative management, share, and be renewed by the powerful - WHY- of our involvement in the movement. Gathered in the morning pre-session of last weekend's Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy (ECWD), co-op members thought about what needs to change if activists are to effectively engage with complex, interconnected 21st century challenges.

Successful 21st century social change agents are those brave enough to let go of practices that may have worked in yesteryear, but are no longer up to speed. Worthwhile engagement with the degree of uncertainty and ever-increasing complexity of today's crises calls for nothing short of an evolutionary leap in collective self-awareness.

The co-op activists in the ECWD room included millennials as well as seasoned veterans of the Civil Rights movement and were members of cooperatives from around the country. So, i was curious to witness how the group would respond to the morning's premise of, "letting go" of familiar movement tactics which no longer make the grade in an era of complex adaptive problems that metastasize spontaneously.

We began by listing the typical 20th century activism tools:

Lobbying to effect policy and legislation,

Supporting legislative candidates and policy makers,

Voter registration,

Information and public awareness campaigns,

Theatrical direct actions, demonstrations, and protests,

Petitions,

Divestiture: withdrawal of resources, work energy, patronage, support,

Marches,

Sit-ins, teach-ins,

Hunger strikes

We followed 20th century strategies used in a couple of movements to their 2017 conclusion. The environmental movement was first up on deck. The group noted how with one stroke of an executive order pen and a Cheshire Cat Grin, the current administration is dismantling 30 years of environmental protection regulations —hard-earned through lobbying, strategically targeted direct actions, demonstrations, and marches.

"These approaches are what eco-Buddhist activist Joanna Macy calls 'holding actions' —important in the short run, but insufficient for creating transformative change. They invite activists to deconstruct, analyze, strategize and thrive in the seductive energy of the problem. The problem is externally objectified, and the solution is mistakenly perceived to lie in external action." ─Pamela Boyce Simms GEO blog, June 2017─

After decades of policy work, petitions, and educational campaigns which built a foundation of environmental safeguards, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget has been slashed by 31%. 3,200 EPA jobs have evaporated just as Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry is poised to close the International Office of Climate Technology. The defunded EPA Office of Environmental Justice, which had always protected the rights of the most marginalized on a shoestring, has gone dark along with 50 other EPA programs.

ECWD participants lamented the dramatic erosion of Civil Rights legislation built on decades of life and death civil disobedience sacrifices made by millions. The Voting Rights Act is case in point. In 2013 (Shelby vs. Holder) the Supreme Court upheld the right of states to double down on campaigns to suppress the minority vote by eliminating early voting and same-day registration, disqualifying ballots filed from outside home voting districts and, inventing a host of new voter ID requirements. Gerrymandering is rampant.

What then is the wisdom of allocating the lion's share of our time to 20th century "system reform" activism? 21st century, existential problems require evolved activism which has little to do with crowd rousing, feel-good theatrics.

The ECWD group was more than ready to suspend allegiance to the "old ways," at least for the sake of exploring fresh possibilities. There was general agreement that longstanding "old-school" activism is easily erased in a blink of an eye since it is contingent upon a specific [type of] person being in office, the prevailing political climate, —and most especially, it doesn't shift unconscious beliefs and behaviors.

Fresh from addressing millennial environmentalists on college campuses i suggested one holding action caveat: "In-the-streets" civil disobedience is understandably the primarily contribution young activists have to offer. Young people are transient and live away at college. They are focused on exams, life after college, grad school, paying back student loans, raising small children and trying to stabilize their lives. Long term, grounded environmental resilience-building or consciousness raising in anticipation of a post-carbon world most often isn't possible for this demographic.

Direct actions galvanize hundreds of thousands of the like-minded, and feel great. As one ECWD participant quipped, "At least it feels like we're doing something." That in and of itself is valuable in the short term. Holding actions do indeed alleviate some short term suffering .However, flash in the pan demonstrations and strong-arm tactics will not prepare society to navigate the straits of climate change or make even the smallest dent in the agenda of the oligarchs holding government reigns.

The 21st century will likely witness hundreds of millions of people caught up in cascading systemic collapse and transformation. This, even though the vast majority of Americans are, —or live as if they are oblivious. Global society has crossed a threshold, and the archaic system riddled with end-stage capitalism will cannibalize itself in time. Reform of a system which will inexorably meet the fate it has designed for itself therefore isn't a wise use of time.

So, if, 1) the answer doesn't lie in reform of a predatory system from within, AND, 2) control of that system by mega-billionaire oligarchs renders the it impervious to populist battering rams from without, where do we turn?

The group in the room was invited to turn toward the most deeply challenging and unsettling pathway - the internal landscape. In short, societal change that results in healthy evolution is first, and completely contingent upon individual, personal transformation in service to the whole.

i suggested that the framework problem that underlies economic, political, social, and ecological, systems collapse is the warped Western perception of division and disconnectedness. The group was invited to see with fresh eyes.