Tag Archives: activism

The Question of Celebrity Obligation

Posted on
4

The Argument is legendary amongst a circle of friends I’ve been lucky enough to know since grade school. We’re all from New Jersey, where arguing is a pastime rather than a friendship-threatening conflict, we’re all very passionate about music, the arts in general, politically several shades of liberal, from far-left to center-left, and The Argument has resurfaced many times over nearly 30 years.

But the instance of The Argument that I remember most vividly took place sometime in the late 1980s, in our favorite pizzeria, Taverna Della Pizzeria in Spotswood, NJ, and it started when someone asserted the opinion that Bob Dylan, over the course of his long, illustrious career, should have leveraged his celebrity more to support important social causes; that he abandoned his activist roots and the legacy of his hero Woody Guthrie to be just another vain rock star celebrity.

This position was strenuously attacked by another from the group, who argued that it is actually oppressive to musicians, actors, dancers, painters, etc., to demand that they have any obligation to anything other than the pursuit of their art; that once you impose any “shoulds” on them you are interfering with the free flow of their creative expression.

Over the years, The Argument expanded beyond Dylan, to include pretty much every other form of celebrity, but when I read this morning that Dylan has authorized the use of his music for a just-released 4-CD set of covers, by 80 artists of 75 of his songs, with proceeds going to Amnesty International, memories of The Argument came rushing back, and I found myself jumping to Bob’s defense.

While it certainly is true that Dylan abruptly abandoned his activism roughly around the time he abandoned purist folk music in the mid 1960s, it is not at all accurate to argue that he abandoned it entirely or forever.

After his famed 1966 motorcycle accident, which I wrote about back in November, and which seemed to wake him up from an intoxicating celebrity binge, the first live appearance he made in twenty months was for a Woody Guthrie memorial concert, clear proof that he still valued the protest tradition. The photo I include here is from three years later, at the 1971 Concert For Bangladesh, later that year he recorded a song mourning the death of Black Panther George Jackson, and four years later he recorded the song Hurricane, a passionate defense of boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, whom he felt was wrongly imprisoned on murder charges.

In the years since, Dylan has appeared at other benefit concerts, lent his songs to benefit albums, and now we have the Amnesty International collection, which will raise thousands and thousands of badly needed dollars for an essential civil rights advocacy organization.

As for the broader topic, whether or not celebrities have an obligation to use their fame for good, I’m inclined to see valid points from both sides of The Argument. The idea that they need to “give something back” is overly simplistic, and it really doesn’t work, as they’ve already given of themselves via the production of their work. Personally, I treasure the work of artists, much of which has meant so much to me over the years that I can’t imagine a world without it. These are true gifts, regardless of the financial rewards earned by their creators.

Additionally, I do believe that it’s important for creative freedom and development to not put artists into confining boxes, demanding specifics from them, but I do admire artists who do add their voices to worthy causes.

Occupy Bellingham Getting Evicted

Posted on
Reply

As I type this, the Occupy Bellingham encampment in our Maritime Heritage Park is preparing for a forced eviction scheduled for 9am, a few minutes from now. Bellingham, Washington, a city of only 80,000, might not be a mighty metropolis and media hub, but our hearty occupiers have been camped out since October.

It is with deep regret that, for a variety of reasons, I am unable to join my fellow 99%ers this morning in person. And so, I offer up this blog post of solidarity, my humble effort to spread the word of this injustice, knowing, as I do from visitor stats and such, that I’m fortunate enough to have readers from all over the world, from the west coast of the U.S. to the east, from the west coast of Canada to the east, from England to The Netherlands, and all the way to India.

Lame Duck Mayor Dan Pike, whom I praised so highly for his stance against the coal terminal project, has ordered the eviction on the grounds that there have been complaints from neighboring businesses and reports of damage to park property, namely the grass where the tents are pitched.

I did stop by the camp before I went to work this morning, and was told by the brave souls there that they’ve been doing near constant outreach to nearby businesses, checking in with them to make sure that they aren’t disturbing anyone, and the occupiers have been planning on repairing any damage to grass or other park property, though they insist that the damage is minimal.

Meanwhile, Occupy Bellingham’s lawyer insists that the eviction is a clear violation of First Amendment rights, and he plans to take legal action against the city on behalf of the occupiers.

For anyone interested, you can follow today’s events via Ustream and on Twitter via #OccupyBellingham.

What’s Next For The Occupy Movement?

Posted on
4

I came across a great and inspiring article at Good.is about these folks:

I’m sitting with an Afghan, a Bangladeshi, a Senegalese, a Bulgarian, some Italians, and a Turk on a bench in an abandoned lot in Rome. Last year, this lot was filled with half a dozen vats of marmalade made from wild oranges collected by Roman citizens for a fundraising effort to support a group of Malian immigrants. The decaying edifice that looms behind us was once a textile factory under Mussolini and now hosts several immigrant families who fled Rosarno, where they had been the victims of hate crimes. It also hosts kick-ass dance parties on weekends.

In front of us, an African man, who just taught us Bambara (the primary language of Mali), transcribes words on a whiteboard to help an illiterate Afghan teach us Pashtun via an Italian interpreter. It’s just a typical day at the Centro Sociale Occupato Autogestito Ex Snia Viscosa, fondly known as Ex Snia. In English, CSOA translates to Occupied and Self-Managed Social Center. “Occupied” because it’s run by squatters who took a government-owned space and turned it into a variety show of community ventures.

I’ll come back to this idea of a “self-managed social center” in a little bit, and shift attention to the Occupy movement here in the U.S.

As coordinated mass evictions of Occupy encampments and winter weather have combined to, at least temporarily, bump the movement out of the headlines and into a kind of hibernation, it seems a good time to take stock of what’s been accomplished, what’s left to do, and how to best go about doing it.

Accomplishments

It’s perfectly understandable, though ultimately inaccurate, to look back at the months of protests and conclude that absolutely nothing has changed. The 1% has been untouched, none of the incompetents and crooks behind the market crash have been held accountable, the Citizens United SCOTUS decision stands and continues to corrupt our electoral process, and our government is broken and gridlocked.

However, the very fact that “1%” and “99%” have become the de facto shorthand for income inequality, that the struggle made it to the headlines as long as it did, are significant and welcome accomplishments all by themselves. Change takes time, the movement is in its infancy, and the criticisms of the movement for not having clearly-defined demands, a criticism I’ve soundly rejected, is misguided and misses the forest (i.e. long-term prospects of a lasting movement that takes the time to really organize from the ground up) for the trees (i.e. knee-jerk, instant gratification desire for a ready-made platform).

Besides, there are thousands of people still occupying encampments all over the country, despite the impending cold, rain, and snow.

What’s Left To Do

Despite all the positives of the Occupy movement, in some ways I think the protests have had the unintended consequence of distracting the 99% temporarily from what might be a more effective way forward, which I’ll get to in a moment.

The expression of anger and desperation over the outrage of income inequality was inevitable, and it will continue to be welcome and necessary to speak out. I’d never advocate for letting up in this area. As I wrote back in October, the key to movements like this and the Arab Spring revolutions is staying power.

The 1% and the corrupt politicians who protect them have to know that we’re on to them and that we’re not going to let them get away with criminal greed forever. Starting with the current effort to amend the constitution in order to overturn the Citizens United decision, there’s much work to be done in the political sphere.

But, there’s something else we can do…

How To Go About Doing It

In June 2011 I wrote about a conference held here in Bellingham by The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), pointing out that when our local, state, and federal governments fail us, there’s no law against communities organizing themselves around the idea of living and banking and shopping locally, creating new markets and businesses and jobs locally, maintaining our infrastructure locally, educating our children and supporting the needy locally. And, as individual local living communities become more and more organized, they can cooperate and collaborate with other like-organized communities both on a regional and national level, which is the very work that BALLE tries to facilitate.

Of course, when peak oil and climate change really hit the fan, we probably are going to be forced the hard way to be more self-sufficient on the local level anyway, but there’s clearly so many things we could be doing now to prepare, reducing our dependency on government and imported goods and services.

Granted, there are enormous hurdles. Conducting a Buy Local campaign is a piece of cake these days, but developing a local economy that can fund its own education, health care, and infrastructure programs is a downright herculean task to say the least. And while you could say that it’s utterly impossible, I’d argue, with the help of Margaret Mead, that small groups of committed people, agreeing that local living economies are not only possible but imperative, absolutely can make it happen.

Now, Back To Italy

See, there’s something deliciously subversive about this idea. It essentially amounts to the creation of an independent, parallel society. And that’s what those folks in the self-managed social centers in Italy are doing when they occupy a space that no one else wants, when they build a community there, when they start helping one another, when they start to grow some food and teach each other languages and fix bicycles for free.

Here’s more inspiration:

“You can’t put an elephant in a little vegetable garden,” explains an impish old man who introduces himself as Signore Carciofo (Mr. Artichoke). He is one of the original founders of Ex Snia who revived the junkyard lot in 1995. Mr. Artichoke expands on his adage: When he was 14 and working for the Marshall Plan, he watched foreign dollars change his country from a sustainable society of small communities and small economies to an engorged mega-market entirely dependent on foreign finance. “The land is what gives Italy its worth,” he tells me. “To save Italy, we need to give the elephant back to the zoo and start planting to stimulate the garden’s regrowth.”

Lovely.

Celebrating Eco-Progress: Facebook

Posted on
6

On the surface, it might not seem that a web company like Facebook could be all that damaging to the environment.

After all, they don’t mine or farm or manufacture anything, right? It’s just a website, it’s so intangible, it’s just made up of millions of 0s and 1s buzzing around the globe.

Well, don’t tell that to Greenpeace, who had been rigorously protesting Facebook for their data centers, facilities that consume massive amounts of electricity, most of which had been generated in coal-burning plants.

Today’s Celebrating Eco-Progress installment, however, brings good news (via PC Magazine)

Facebook has announced a partnership with Greenpeace that will see the two organizations improve the social network’s renewable energy efforts.

Few actual details were revealed, but in a joint statement Facebook said that the company would begin enforcing a new policy that would see a shift towards “clean and renewable energy.” This includes continuous research into energy efficiency through its Open Compute Project as well promoting sustainability and efficiency practices alongside Greenpeace.

“Facebook is committed to supporting the development of clean and renewable sources of energy, and our goal is to power all of our operations with clean and renewable energy,” the statement read. “Building on our leadership in energy efficiency (through the Open Compute Project), we are working in partnership with Greenpeace and others to create a world that is highly efficient and powered by clean and renewable energy.”

Greenpeace is not known for falling for political and corporate smoke and mirrors, and so it’s highly significant that Facebook’s sustainability initiatives have met with their approval.

Keep up the good work, Facebook!