Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Anti-corporate sentiment sparking renewed social activism Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 00:27:46 -0600 (CST) From: Michael Eisenscher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: ? To: undisclosed-recipients:; Anti-corporate sentiment sparking renewed social activism By JAMES A. FUSSELL - The Kansas City Star Date: 12/10/99 22:15 For several days last week, the trendy Seattle of the '90s resembled the angry America of the '60s. Thousands of people in the streets. Tear gas clouding the air. National Guard troops advancing in full riot gear. It's enough to make some want to stick a flower in the barrel of a rifle and sing the old Buffalo Springfield anthem: Everybody stop: Hey, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. Just what is going down? Protests and social activism. Lots of it. Even though there is disagreement about the significance of the Seattle protests. Some say it's an aberration. The World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings, they argue, simply afforded disparate groups a one-time opportunity to make a united stand on issues ranging from workers' rights to trade laws affecting the environment. "Whether or not this will have a long-term impact depends on whether these core people are willing to keep on being arrested and beaten and harassed long enough to get their point across," said Paul Johnson, associate professor of political science at the University of Kansas. "In the case of the World Trade Organization, I doubt it. (There was) a special focal point in Seattle. It gave people a target. But after this, there will not be an accessible target over which you can have repeated protests." Others disagree. They see the potential for a real rise in social activism in America -- the kind of take-it-to-the-streets protests that pushed through civil rights reforms and helped end the Vietnam War. "There has clearly been an upsurge, particularly in the areas of economic justice," said Randy Shaw, a longtime California activist and author of a recent book on activism, Reclaiming America: Nike, Clean Air and the New National Activism. "A lot of this (activism) was going on before, but it took Seattle to bring it into the public spotlight all in one place. There has been a growing anti-corporate wave in America that finds expression in issues ranging from attacks on logging to (boycotts) of big box stores. This sentiment is particularly present on campuses, and explains the large student turnout from throughout the nation." One thing is clear: As issues of economic justice, human rights and environmental concerns merged with fears of advancing globalism and corporate control, the passions and social conscience many figured had been lost more than a quarter-century ago resurfaced on the streets of Seattle. "At first I was sort of disturbed just looking at the chaos in an American city," said Kansas City civil rights attorney Fred Slough. "But then I realized that these people truly have an international consciousness. And they care about the whole ecosystem and all things in it, and I say `Right on! " Whether the protests portend a rebirth in social activism or not, it does seem to signal a sea change in the way protests are organized, because the World Trade Organization demonstration reportedly was organized over the Internet. "A huge part of it is the Internet," said Cathy Connealy, a Kansas City lawyer and activist who works with Slough. "Eleven months before (the protests) was when I got my first e-mail about going to Seattle." The Rev. Robert J. Mahoney, chairman of the sociology department at Rockhurst University, agreed. "We have the potential today for considerably stronger street action and public social action than we did in the '50s and '60s," he said. "One reason is the Internet. And another is cell phones. You can orchestrate things very quickly, and move people and react much more quickly." Mahoney said that and other factors pointed to at least "the potential for an increase in social activism" in America. "I don't think we're there yet," he said. "But there are a couple of things I see. "One, there is a real parallel here with the '50s and the '60s in that in the '50s, we were going though a very affluent period as we are now. And it seemed to develop in the '60s into a kind of guilt on the part of many of the children of the affluent. It's a pretty key pattern, and I think we are beginning to move in that direction again. "I don't think we have reached a critical point as we did there. But it doesn't mean that we won't." Slough credited the seeming rise in activism to other factors. "You have people who are developing an international kind of consciousness," he said. "More of a global kind of consciousness. Because they are worried about the working people of this country, but also about the working people of the rest of the world. And at the same time, they are worried about the environment, and they see all these issues as interconnected." According to Slough, one needs look no farther than multinational corporations to understand why this activism is surfacing. "You have tremendous concentration of power in these global corporations over which people don't have any control," he said. "But they are having tremendous impact on our lives. The message (the protesters) were trying to (send) was that the people and the Earth are not here just to serve the bottom line of these global corporations.... "We can't go to the polls and talk to these big conglomerates. So they had to take to the streets and talk to them." Connealy said: "It warms my heart. It just seemed like for a long time people didn't care about social-justice issues." Now there is evidence that many do, and that their concern -- and in some cases their anger -- is aimed at corporations. A few examples. In the movie "Fight Club," the enigmatic Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, embodies Generation X's anger at what the character sees as the increasingly soul-deadening and life-controlling influence wielded by corporate America. According to the November Billboard 200 album chart, the most popular rock band in the country is Rage Against the Machine. In its third week in stores, the group's third album, "The Battle of Los Angeles," sold more than 400,000 copies. But the group didn't rocket to number one on the back of vacuous love ballads. One of Rage's songs demands justice for Mumia Abu Jamal, a black journalist on death row convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981. Rage's lead guitarist Tom Morello does more than just perform activist rock. He was arrested and jailed once in California for civil disobedience in a march against sweatshop labor. In addition, rap and hip-hop music from artists such as Chuck D and the late Tupac Shakur has strong political overtones. And country rocker Steve Earle is against the death penalty, and has been involved in campaigns against hunger and poverty in the United States. Last year a St. John's University graduate assistant soccer coach quit instead of agreeing to wear the Nike swoosh as part of an endorsement deal. He subsequently hit the Jamaica, N.Y., college and Nike with an $11 million lawsuit accusing them of forcing his resignation. "It's a violation of free speech," Jim Keady, 28, has said in published interviews. "I could not allow myself to become a billboard for a company that has consistently chosen profit over human dignity." Patricia Forkan, executive vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, protested on the streets of Seattle. And she says she knows why all this is happening. "People respond when the situation or their lives are affected in a serious way," she said. "This is the most broad coalition I have seen since the '60s, and I was in the '60s. It is starting to dawn on people that corporation are replacing duly elected government in making decisions about our life." Howard Brick, professor of U.S. history at Washington University in St. Louis, said the Seattle protests were significant for two reasons. For one, he said, they come after a lull of at least 10 years. Second, "It's the first time there's been any challenge to the idea that utterly unregulated markets are the best policy....They (protesters) are saying that unregulated markets have destructive results on workers' livelihoods, on the integrity of neighborhoods and communities and on the sustainability of the environment." Mark Lichbach, a political science professor from the University of California-Riverside, said such global issues were harder to stick with than those in the '60s. "It's one thing if you are in the U.S. and are protesting civil rights abuses," he said. "You can take your complaints to Congress or your mayor. But when you protest the WTO, who exactly do you expect to redress your grievances?" But in the end, said Brick, the protesters accomplished their mission of forcing issues onto the public agenda and compelling public figures to address them. "I hope it would also accomplish the other impact of such demonstrations," he said, "which is to show the power of people in numbers, and encourage further and growing campaigns of protest and demands for social change. But only time will tell." To reach James Fussell, call (816) 234-4460 or send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] All content 1999 The Kansas City Star Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<> Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ <><<<<<>>>>><><<<<>
