“Change is a campaign, not a decision”
When the issue of change is discussed in this country, 3 main arguments arise. Below are these and my own counter arguments:
- “Brighten the corner where you are” and change will happen
It is true that we ought to brighten the corner where we are, but within the context of the mess we have in this country, this quote is anemic to catalyze a transformational change. We need a force that is either commensurate or powerful than the prevailing crisis, rather than a candle light procession (pun intended). We have to deliberately plan for that force to emerge. Its only 2 years more to reaching the target year for achieving the MDGs and we have failed woefully brightening the corner where we are.
2. “We need to change the mindset of people first to see change”
This is a feel-good saying; it pats warm water on the skin waiting for the cold weather to disappear. I’m not saying it’s not true but the fact is that we already have enough people with a mindset to catalyze the transformational change we are looking for. We can’t change the mindset of everyone and we don’t need to do that our entire lifetime. What we need is for the critical mass to drive the rest along in an ocean’s way. We have to be infectious. So far the critical mass is plagued with the deadliest disease in history- lethargy; simply put, we are lazy to stand up and fight for change. We are still on a journey to la la lands.
3. “Be the change you want to see in the world”
This quote has been one of my personal best since I became an activist as a high school graduate. But the question is would the status quo ever be the change we want to see it be? Would politicians be disciples to this mantra? I represent the naysayer in this context. “Change is a campaign, not a decision”. In short, every transformational change that has ever taken place in the history of this world was campaigned for. It goes beyond making a personal decision and committing to one’s own targets, it is about building a community to persistently demand the change from the status quo.
The above points already made, it is very important for any change maker to note that every transformational change would be a political one, but that change cannot come from politics unless the masses lead politicians to make it. Politicians and businesses are the best of friends; they are both ‘active opponents and passive recipients’ of any fundamental change. They know what to do to bring change but wouldn’t do it because they benefit from the crisis and a transition towards change is very expensive to them. However they are the ones who will also benefit the most when the change finally occurs.
That said, what will change this country would not be the latest sophisticated revolution in the ICT industry or an immaculate and unrehearsed analysis of government policy. What would catalyze a transformational change in Ghana would be organized dissent, the mother of all social reforms. ‘The inertia of the status quo requires the inertia of dissent’. We can talk about cohort replacement, argue about the fossil fuel industry internalizing the externalities and discuss how extreme air pollution affects maternal heath and infant mortality. But we all know very well that it took the Occupy Movement to expose the deep cracks of neo-liberal capitalism and ‘subject it to proper scrutiny and challenge, within the context of their own local circumstances’, from Zuccoti Park to the City of London.
Having made the point above, historically, violence has failed utterly in delivering any fundamental change, the reason the Arab rising wasn’t successful though it got rid of some tyrants. The greatest tools to drive any campaign for change are ‘non violence, love, persistence and faith’. We have a conscience and that makes us very powerful.
“In market-driven societies, the philosopher Herbert Marcuse once said, protest is often treated like any other commodity that’s consumed and disposed of. His advice? Make sure your action can’t readily be devoured, digested and discredited. Instead, be sure that those you’re trying to reach have to deal with what you’re driving at”.
We need to build the movements, we need to run the campaigns, and we need to shift power. The summits, seminars, workshops and conferences are good for capacity building, but to make a transformational change is to win campaigns on the streets. We are doing extremely well with several social action and entrepreneurial initiatives but every transformational change results in a power shift and we haven’t shifted power yet.
Fifteen years ago, Julia Butterfly Hill embarked on a tree-sit, ‘rooted in her acute vision of a wounded world longing for nonviolent healing’, a powerful campaign for change. We read Mahatma Gandhi’s long walk to the sea full of suspense, the Civil Rights Movement’s freedom rides, the Divestment Movement that brought apartheid to its knees and became a model against the tobacco industry.
Currently, campaigns have put on the same hat with the same philosophy and we have the opportunity to learn from them no matter where we live to drive change. Many people argue that ‘clicktivism is the marketization of social change’, we also counter argue that ‘we have found logic at the market place’.
At the Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (http://gyemgh.wordpress.com/), our theme for this year is our ‘Year of Environmental Power Shift’. We don’t know when change will come but one thing we do know is the fact that robust and innovative campaigns will deliver it someday. And with hope on our side, though the future remains unknown, the wind continues to blow in the direction of human progress.
“First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”.
