Unite the Activist Front, by Rick Gunderman

Back in high school I went through a series of dramatically different political, religious and philosophical persuasions in search of the one that best suited me. As things are right now, I have respectively landed on revolutionary socialist, atheist and existentialist.

By the time I had completed half of my fourth year I had grounded myself firmly, though not “radically”, on the left. I was a member of the NDP, I had participated in PETA-related activities, and was regularly receiving updates from Greenpeace.

Looking for something a little closer to home, I found my high school’s Social Justice Club. They first caught my attention with their screening of “The End of Suburbia”, but faltered soon thereafter. It appeared they had an organizational issue – I don’t really know, and frankly it’s not important.

At the beginning of my fifth year I frantically searched for a reconstituted Social Justice Club, only to find that to my dismay it appeared to be dormant. I was hence forced to settle for the next best thing – “Positive Space”.

While I was, and still am, an unfailing defender of the group, I feel no reservations about inputting this piece of criticism:

Positive Space was by far the most neo-hippie, wishy-washy, gutless, inactive, doormat, chickenhawk front I have thus far encountered.

I say this not because I have turned on the movement that Positive Space attempted to embody. I say this to get a clear message out there regarding my stance on LGBT liberation, and it is the same message I have regarding anti-racism, feminism, socialism, etc.

You cannot open up your arms to someone who wants to run you down with a car and expect them to take their foot off the gas pedal.

I believe that every activist movement must be contentious with those who stand in opposition to them. This does not mean one band of street thugs going around kicking the shit out of another band of street thugs.

Here’s an example to illustrate what I’m talking about. We would sit around often discussing things we could do – in fact, that’s all we would do. Most of these discussions were focussed on what we could do to make the school a more harmonious environment, a “positive space” if you will.

The presiding staff member was careful to call us out any time one of us would make a remark that seemed too confrontational. If any of us expressed remote frustration with homophobia in the school, the presiding staff member would remind us that our goal was to “tear down walls”, not “build new ones”.

Notwithstanding the destruction of the Berlin Wall, which suffice to say is one of history’s most memorable acts of mass demolition, it appears that whoever drafted the “tear down walls” manifesto hadn’t thought things through.

Homophobes aren’t interested in sitting in on a Positive Space love-in. They don’t care how “gay” we act (like the idea to have a screening of Rent) or how “straight” we act (like having a professional-type public debate on the subject).

As far as I could tell, the whole hippie-love thing wasn’t going to get us anywhere. And it didn’t.

I feel the need to make this incredibly clear, so much so that I will not only use bold, but italics as well:

The only way to change someone’s mind is to educate them on the subject.

Hugs won’t save the next Matthew Shepherd. Love-talk won’t stop a gang of right-wing skinheads from ambushing patrons of gay bars. The aggressors will only learn if they are reasoned with, and reason requires logic and information.

That’s just phase one of my two-phase rant about Positive Space. Onto phase two…

I commend absolutely everybody who had the courage to become involved in Positive Space. I myself am a heterosexual male, and I naturally endured ridicule for being involved with the school’s “gay club”. To those form whom involvement in Positive Space was a sort of coming-out it must have been even more difficult.

But, in a vain that seems depressingly typical in modern activism, barely more than a handful of Positive Space activists showed up for the reconstituted Social Justice Club, which appeared a few weeks after Positive Space did.

Why? My best guess is that they saw no value in being involved in activism that did not directly affect them or their lifestyle.

What a shame, considering the immeasurable power that all activists would have if we could all agree on a common program that served all of our interests.

I have met gay activists whose only interest is gay liberation; they couldn’t give a shit about the environment. I have met environmental activists whose only interest is the environment; who cares about minimum wage? I have even met anti-poverty activists who seem either unaware of or nervous about admitting to their knowledge of the inherent nature of capitalism breeding poverty.

In all honesty, it is fucking incredible. How the hell can any activist movement see itself manifesting any successes without a broader goal? If feminists, socialists, gay liberationists, anti-racists, youth advocates, seniors’ advocates, environmentalists and peace activists all united behind a common agenda, imagine their power!

That’s why I have such a hard time swallowing the thought of ever joining up with a single- or narrow-issue activist group again. What is needed here and everywhere are activist groups that are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in and who fight for each other, regardless of individual “top issues”.

Do I still consider gay rights among my top five activist issues? NO QUESTION.

Do I think Positive Space and groups like it are destined for success? Not within my foresight, that’s for sure.

Am I willing to be the one to work to unite these activists, to find a common factor that links us all and propose a program for revolutionary change that involves peace, non-violence and unity without compromising open dissent against the movement’s detractors, as well as rejecting professional politicians as a means to achieve a peoples’ society? Hell yeah!*

*Keep an eye open for when the link to the website for the international, inter-issue community socialist movement is posted.

~ by redrising on May 3, 2008.