D4net Netwerk voor Dromers, Denkers, Durvers en Doeners

By: Paul Chatterton and Alice Cutler from the Trapese Collective (following the link you get the complete PDF-file including photo's)

Part four

SO WHAT’S THE WAY FORWARD?
This is not a call for a blueprint for change or a purist critique of TT.
Instead it is a call to consider transition towns not as existing in their
own bubble, however appealing this prospect may be. TTs are
ultimately subject to the same order of oppression, class structure,
entrenched power, and vested interests as everything else in the UK.
Each place and locality is woven together by networks of power, which
have been formed over centuries. But if this structural reality is
incorporated in to our plans then we can begin to recognise this and
use our diversity for strength. TTs are based on the idea that
communities can create different systems, but this is only possible if the
malignant forces and entrenched power that people have been
struggling against for hundreds of years are recognised, challenged and
TTs become a political force for change. Putting things in their
historical and political context reminds us that transition will be an
inherently political and social movement. To make any real policy
changes, communities need room for manoeuvre at a local level – they
need power and resources. The nature of the relationship with the local
council and the position on local economy and business will determine
what these kinds of initiatives can achieve. They must not become an
appendix to the local state or preserving pockets of sustainability for a
privileged few or they will simply be dead in the water.
The state is part of the problem and clearly does not have all the
answers nor can it co-ordinate all the responses. Relying on one
institution is not a resilient way to adapt to the changes that are
needed. At the recent December 2007 UN meeting on Climate Change
in Bali leaders showed their lack of political will and ability to deal with
and implement the level of change that is needed. The raft of
international legislation from Kyoto targets to market-based
mechanisms such as carbon trading and offsetting is poorly conceived,
inadequate and not extensive enough to deal with the challenges we
have only begun to outline here. More relevant is the Durban Group for
Climate Justice, an international network of independent organisations,
individuals and people's movements who reject free market approaches
to dealing with climate change. They are committed to help building a
global grassroots movement for climate justice, mobilising communities
around the world and acting in solidarity with people opposing carbon
trading on the ground. (See climatejustice.blogspot.com)
One of the main obstacles to change is that Britain is one of the most
politically centralised countries in Europe. Parliament and Whitehall
are extremely powerful. Only as genuinely popular power emerges at a
local level can each place have a mature debate about what we are up
against, what a transition might mean and how best to govern itself.
Although Transition Towns have the potential to build momentum and
excitement for this to happen, it may only do so if this long-term goal is
kept clearly in focus. And this popular power needs to find ways to
challenge centralised seats of power. What this would look like or how
it would happen is difficult to say but power is not often gained
without a struggle. But if groups can become connected, develop
strategy, are prepared to win arguments and are not afraid to fight for
and defend their gains then a meaningful transition is entirely possible.
If numerous enough, these initiatives could begin to weaken capitalism
and provide workable alternative models for the way we organise
society. A sure fire way of creating a movement with little impact or
potential to be co-opted is to ignore the bigger challenges, what we are
trying to transition away from, and to think that it will all be easy and
can be left to others to do it for us. This just gets people’s hopes up,
and blinds us to the tasks at hand.
Throughout the centuries many alternative experiments and
communities have existed to show ways of building this popular power.
There are countless examples here of groups taking back power to
make the decisions that effect them. To give a few examples, the
Kenyan People’s Parliament, where for fifteen years people have held
meetings, as equals and co-operated to change their material and social
conditions, from the grassroots up, “without selling out, and without
giving up’. Ujaama villages in Tanzania, who are experimenting with a
new model for settlements and who argue that, ‘What we need to
develop is people, not things, and that people can only develop
themselves.’ Venezuelan Land Committees, which are about reclaiming
land but also people debating, agreeing, and taking action collectively
about things that directly affect every aspect of their daily lives. The
unemployed workers movement and occupied factories in Argentina,
landless peasant movements from around the world, the list goes on.
The Putney Debates that took place in St Mary’s Church in London
around Cromwell’s New Model Army during the seventeenth century
English Civil war should also inspire us. This is a great example of how
a broad popular movement in England once challenged the established
elite when ordinary soldiers debated about the need for equality and
freedom and to turn the unequal social order literally on its head.
Things could go in many different directions and it’s important to be
aware of likely changes to come. In this unknown territory of climate
change, despite all our scientific knowledge, there are many
uncertainties. What is clear though is that we don’t want to find
ourselves sleepwalking into a green police state as we all rush to find
ways to protect the environment. Here we might find a kind of
ecological version of the future depicted in the recent film ‘Children of
Men’ - strict government controlled carbon rationing, fortress Europe to
keep out ‘foreigners’ who might put too many extra stresses on our
environment and resources, tight centrally planned forms of production
and consumption. This is a familiar vision – people can’t be trusted so
we need even more discipline and regulation to run Britain. Big
business gets what it wants while ordinary people’s freedoms and
liberties are curtailed even more and gross global inequality is
increased. This is a ‘khaki green state’, the ‘invisible hand’ of the market
with the ‘iron fist’ of the state, a kind of ecological version of Thomas
Hobbes’ Leviathan. On the other side, there is a ‘transformatory green
society’ – a radical, locally accountable and participatory democracy
where people are trusted, empowered and active, based around strong
notions of equity, autonomy, lower production, participatory localised
economies that meet basic needs, with good co-ordination and without
a strong centralised, disciplining state.
So what does this mean in practice? How can these ideas be
incorporated into the Transition movement in a way that does not
alienate, confuse or cause friction and factions? A first step could be
the simple recognition that to make a real transition, there will be both
creation and resistance. All the local endeavours such as community
food projects need to be accompanied by powerful movements, which
both defend the gains that these projects can make and also take direct
action against whatever problems people identify in their locality, for
example the monopoly of supermarkets or the return of GM crops to
the UK. Secondly, the ‘great re-skilling’ that can address practical issues
such as how to grow our own food, could be made more powerful if
combined with popular education and dialogue about the current
economic and political system. Continuing the example of food, we
should look at the way that the industrial agricultural model has been
developed from a particular worldview that excludes many others.
Through such activities, the uniting force of common ground we can
find together as a basis to act against symptoms that we identify, reject
the false solutions that are being proposed, and act in solidarity with
people wherever they are who are also struggling to make a real
transition. One reason why transition is so urgent here is to address the
fact that rich industrialised societies such as Britain are historically
responsible for the vast majority of global emissions. The global wealth
gap was built on this ‘ecological debt’ and the world’s poorest are now
paying both dubious foreign financial debts and already suffering from
the rapidly changing climate. Let’s not retreat to a purely localised
sphere of action but recognise that not only the Earth’s ecosystems but
also the majority of its people have been damaged by the structures
that have created this imbalance. This is an opportunity to share our
global wealth and technological resources and to challenge the
underlying economic and political structures that drive the fossil fuel
economy.
TT argues that communities can shape things as they like and we
support this ethic of doing it ourselves. But this is only realistic if
people are also prepared to take on the vested interests in the media,
government and business. Rejecting systems of control that only
benefit a minority and defending our right to self-organisation are the
bedrock of a real transition. There is an enormous amount to do, but
the knowledge, resources and commitment do exist and there are
countless examples of grass roots movements that are on this path to
learn from and strategise with. We are not suggesting that any of this
will be easily achieved - it will be a rocky road. But, we believe this
could lead to a real transition that isn’t afraid to challenge power. The
threats of climate change and peak oil provide opportunities for us to
challenge some of the basic assumptions about how our society is
organised, ask who are the winners and the losers, and rejuvenate our
political processes and communities. There is a lot at stake, and many
obstacles along the way but being both ambitious and clear about
where we want to go is the first, most important step. And this is the
least we owe to ourselves.
April 2008
This booklet was written by Paul Chatterton and Alice Cutler
from the Trapese Collective with thanks to all those who have
contributed ideas and comments on the text.
Trapese is a popular education collective that produce
resources and facilitate workshops that aim to look at big
issues of our times and encourage realistic and effective action.
More resources can be found at www.trapese.org and in our
book, Do It Yourself, A Handbook for Changing Our World,
www.handbookforchange.org.
Paul Chatterton is the director of MA in Activism and Social
Change at Leeds University, www.activismsocialchange.org.uk
For more copies or comments email us: trapese@riseup.net
Original artwork by Steve Stuffit. Designed using 100% FLOSS
(Free / Libre / Open Source Software) tools. For additional
resources on the concepts behind the illustrations and to
download this book in PDF format see:
www.stuffit.org/trapese/
Copyleft. Please copy, distribute and let us know where you
have used or any other comments:
trapese@riseup.net
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RESOURCES AND REFERENCES
CARBON TRADE WATCH WWW.CARBONTRADEWATCH.ORG
Contraction and convergence http://www.gci.org.uk/contconv/cc.html
Corporate Watch, arguments against CSR
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=2688
Durban Group for Climate Justice
http://www.carbontradewatch.org/durban/
Green Party http://www.greenparty.org.uk
Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change http://www.ipcc.ch/
No Borders UK
http://noborders.org.uk/Articles/EnvironmentalRefugees
ParEcon www.zmag.org/parecon/
Permaculture Association http://www.permaculture.org.uk/
Richard Heinberg’s website http://www.richardheinberg.com/ Author
of The Party’s Over: Oil, War and The Fate of Industrial Societies
Rising Tide, taking action on the root causes of climate change
http://risingtide.org.uk/
The Camp for Climate Action www.climatecamp.org.uk
Transition culture http://transitionculture.org/ Rob Hopkins website
Transition Town website http://www.transitiontowns.org/
http://transitionnetwork.org/Primer/TransitionInitiativesPrimer.pdf
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/
UK Climate Impact Programme http://www.ukcip.org.uk/
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Bali)
http://unfccc.int/2860.php
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