What if People Knew They Could Prevent Unwanted Policies?

Today marks day 10 of my analysis of Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part One: Power and Struggle, applying it to the movement to save the world from a changing climate.

Some of the nonviolent scenarios Sharp writes about aren’t terribly relevant to our situation in trying to save the climate, others are more so.

        

One of my favorite nonviolent struggles defeated the Kapp Putsch in 1920.  A right-wing coup d’etat was defeated "principally by the general strike of the workers and the refusal of the higher civil servants to collaborate with their rebel masters".  When the bad guys took over people all over Berlin simply refused to do their work for days on end.  Even the banks refused to turn money over to the new government.  The coup collapsed within a few days.

Of course it won’t be easy to crack the internal system of Exxon-Mobil.  They’re famous for their corporate discipline and for hiring true-believers (and probably climate deniers as well).  But they’re also part of our culture at large, and, again, they are living in “drought central”.  Yes, they work in air-conditioned offices, but they watch the news and weather reports, they must have nagging doubts about climate change.

Another inspiring nonviolent struggle fought for Indian Independence.

Sharp: “Jawaharlal Nehru’s experience with noncooperation in the Indian struggle led him to conclude:  ‘Nothing is more irritating and, in the final analysis, harmful to a government than to have to deal with people who will not bend to its will, whatever the consequences.’  Gandhi wrote: ‘If we are strong, the British become powerless.’”

         A major difference between their struggle and our struggle was they basically had all the time in the world to get it done.  Climate change is rushing upon us like a tsunami, and our time to break through is very limited. 

         That said, Gandhi was a tactical genius, always testing his movement’s capacity for larger actions and working toward making it stronger and stronger.  Our movement is, at this point, small and weak.  But that can change.

Sharp: “What would happen if people…on a wide scale, knew that they could prevent the imposition on them of unwanted policies and regimes, and were skillfully able to refuse to assist, in open struggle?”

Remember, all of our futures, including the futures of the fossil fuel industry’s families, hinge upon whether we are able to this successfully.

Sharp: “Generalized obstinacy and collective stubbornness are not effective enough.  General opposition must be translated into a strategy of action, and people need to know how to wage the struggle…They will need to understand the technique based on this insight in to power, including the methods of that technique, its dynamics of change, requirements for success and principles of strategy and tactics.  The implementation must be skillful.”

         Read your Sharp, people!

CH

I’m including little snippets, but if we’re going to break the fossil fuel industry’s stranglehold on U.S. Energy Policy you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase The Politics of Nonviolent Action. You can order it HERE.

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Question for Employees of Exxon and Koch: Do you have kids?

More thoughts on Gene Sharp’s The Politics of Nonviolent Action: Power and Struggle.

Sharp: “Contributions to the ruler’s power will range…from the specialized knowledge of a technical expert, the research endeavors of a scientist, and the organizational abilities of a department head to the assistance of typists, factory workers, transportation workers, and farmers….The ruler’s power depends on the continual availability of all this assistance.”

Obviously mega-corporations like Exxon-Mobil have legions of people working for them, and I would imagine that they have been fed a line about how global warming is a hoax (the ones I’ve talked to in Colorado certainly have). But if they live in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas (as many of them do), they’re seeing firsthand the devastation of the early manifestations of this catastrophe.  And they have kids!  At what point does their current paycheck pale in comparison to their children’s entire adult lives?  There will be no refuge from climate change.  It will devastate humanity everywhere.  The employees of these corporations will not be spared.  When will they realize their work helps bring about the collapse of civilization?   

Once these employees “get” the urgency and severity of global warming, they won’t want to cooperate anymore.

(Note:  By far the scariest thing about climate change is the natural feedback loops that atmospheric warming will trigger, particularly the melting permafrost and the release of vast reservoirs of methane gas.  There’s twice as much methane waiting to be released as there is heat-trapping CO2 gas already in the atmosphere.  And methane traps 72 more effectively than carbon over the first few decades.  No one knows when it will happen, but the Arctic is heating with a rapidity that is shocking to scientists.  We could live in a world that is much, much hotter in a decade or two.)

Sharp: “No complex can carry out a superior order if it’s members…will not enable it to do so…If the multitude of ‘assistants’  reject the ruler’s authority, they may then carry out his wishes inefficiently, or take unto themselves certain decisions, or may even flatly refuse to continue their usual assistance.”

This not only applies to the industry’s own employees, but also to government bureaucrats, such as in the Department of the Interior, tasked with granting industry permits, leases, and cooperation. 

Sharp: “Because of dependence on other people to operate the system, the ruler is continually subject to influence and restriction by both his direct assistants and the general populace.”

These government bureaucrats can frustrate industry’s progress even within a fossil-fuel-friendly administration.

If the legions of industry employees become aware of the damage their corporations are doing to the fate of humanity, they can create real problems for the executives who have chosen to put profits over people.  Once their efficiency starts to falter and their internal “machine” slows, profits will stagger.  Then they’ll be receptive to change.

Now, the worker who on his own decides to gum up the works runs a huge risk of getting fired.  This is another form of sanction.  But what if a bunch of ‘em begin to do their jobs not quite as well?

Sharp: “The effectiveness or ineffectiveness of sanctions…depends on the the response of the subjects against whom they are threatened or applied…The greater the voluntary obedience, the greater the chances of detection and punishment of deviations….The weaker  the compliance pattern, the less effective enforcement.”

Final thought:  So far I only have a small number of daily readers, but I always imagine some of them are hired by industry to keep an eye on bloggers like us.  First, as I’ve stated before, we have no secrets.  Second, if you’re that person, do you have kids?  What if your bosses are wrong and 98% of climate scientists are right?  What if the feedback loops kick in within a decade or two?  What will your kids think then of how you’ve made your living?

CH

I’m including little snippets, but if we’re going to break Dirty Energy’s stranglehold you need to read Gene Sharp’s stuff.  Please muster up the $34.85 (plus shipping) and purchase The Politics of Nonviolent Action.  You can order it HERE.

Naomi Klein's Message to the "Do the Math" Tour

Naomi Klein couldn't attend the event at UCLA on Sunday (she has a newborn son on her hands), but she prepared a brilliant message delivered to the crowd via a video feed.  Here's a transcript of the second half of her message:

"Again and again we've seen popular movements rise up to fight climate change.  We all get fired up and we start to recycle and we start to bicycle and we work like crazy to elect politicians who promise to build an economy based on green jobs and to pass comprehensive energy reform.  And we invest our hopes in big environmental summits in Rio or Copenhagen.  Again and again, over the past two and a half decades, we have mobilized to make individual changes and demand systemic ones.  And again and again this movement has somehow lost momentum.  Petered out.  

"Why is that?  It's not because deep down in our collective unconscious we really have some sort of death wish.  The problem is that our profound desire to protect life on Earth is a direct threat to Exxon and Shell's desire to remain the most profitable companies in, as Bill (McKibben) puts it, 'the history of money'.  Their stock price is based on always having in reserve as much as they have in production.  And that means the very thing we must do to meet the climate challenge, stop digging, is the very thing they cannot contemplate without the staring in the face of their own demise.  

"And by the way, it's not just corporations.  Entire countries, the ones that heavily depend upon oil revenues, end up waging a wholesale war on truth -- attacking scientists and environmental groups -- simply because the truth challenges their economic paradigm.  Faced with such a serious threat to their bottom line, these forces fight like they mean it.  Every time the climate movement has gotten its act together, the fossil fuel interests have sent powerful lies into the culture and bankrolled their endless repetition--that climate change is a hoax, that climate action will destroy the economy, that you have to choose between good jobs and a healthy planet.  They've bought our politicians and blanketed our airwaves.  They have attacked our movement from all sides.  They have defamed us, infiltrated us, and tried to buy us off.  In short, they have behaved as if they're at war, because they are.  We really do want an end to their business model.  Not because we hate them, but because our survival depends on it.  It depends on keeping 80 percent of their proven reserves in the ground.  

"It's our side that's been kidding itself.  For a long time the environmental movement behaved as if climate change was the one cause that didn't have an enemy.  That it was just a matter of getting the information out or finding the right technical fix and then everyone would realize that we're all in this together.  But here's the thing: We do have an enemy.  We have a few of them actually.  The good news is we know exactly who they are.  And as of right now, we're going after them precisely where it hurts them most.  Remember this moment.  This is when we got serious." 

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