C H O I C E S

Living Consciously

Published on Wednesday, November 3, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
"Revisiting our Successes"
by Sanat Mohanty

The last couple of years seems to have rejuvenated many movements - what with 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq, Patriots Act, civil liberty Issues, and the attempt to change the administration this election. Many - almost all - of you have been involved with this last effort and possibly now feel disheartened and enervated.

I think that this is a time when one should perhaps reflect a little, and re-energize - a time for a short break. But I do not think that the events that have unfolded should be seen as our failure, as a loss.

The movements that all of us have been involved with, our efforts at rebuilding communities, establishing peace, opening up the media, have achieved much that we should be proud of - here in the US and around the world. While the movement against the war in Iraq did not stop the war, it ensured that the war was being fought under immense scrutiny. The administration had to justify every bomb that exploded in a market place, in a hospital or school. The government had to justify its actions from day one of the war. I am sure that there were fewer random bombings and attacks. It had to justify killings of Iraqis, not just of the coalition forces. When was the last time the prison atrocities saw so much focus. And it told the world that a significant population within the US was against the war.

The success of a movement is not always in the binary - whether war was averted or not. The ranges, the extent of deployment, the rate of action, all make a difference. It means that fewer people were killed than if you had not participated. And that is your success. That is the success that the next set of movments will begin from.

Zia Mian has a PhD in Physics from Oxbridge and is an anti-nuclear activist fighting the Pakistani attempt to develop nuclear weapons. What kept him going during the years when they were fighting a die-hard dictator, I once asked him. He said that we continue to work so that the next generation has a better chance to renegotiate.

Two years ago, during the senate races, the Democratic party was unwilling to criticize this president and his actions on any front. His war decisions were not questioned nor were his homeland security policies. Your efforts over the last two years have changed that. The Democrats found a base to question these decisions during this election. And owing to your past efforts, the next round of efforts do not have to begin by first questioning the uprightness of this administration - that has already been proven questionable. Your efforts allow the future a better chance to renegotiate.

You have to remember that your stamina, your continued efforts become even more significant from a global perspective - a picture that you may or may not see. Numerous transnational forces threaten people around the world, threaten their ability to access resources that are necessary to live. For numerous reasons, many of these transnational forces have their bases here in the US. Your bravery, and your commitment to engage them here allows for more time for people around the world to develop alternatives or to devise strategies to keep access to their resources.

Your efforts to confront Dow helps people in Bhopal continue to force their claims that Dow must clean up the responsibilties of the gas disaster that it bought when it bought Union Carbide. Your efforts in Miami help South American activists to find strategies to protect their rights. It also ensures that these forces recognize that they are under scrutiny in the US and Europe for their actions in the third world. Your efforts with the Indypendent Media affort has allowed for greater access to news, and increased scrutiny of these forces.

While they may not end the havoc that these forces affect in the lives of common people around the world, they stymie it, they limit their effectivenes. That is important.

You form an important part in the global effort for peace, justice and non-violence. See your successes in the light of the incremental changes that your efforts continue to bring - dont underestimate your role. Your - our - successes do not come in $ values, in regions won or regimes overthrown. They come in tiny, unmeasurable increments - increments of lives that may be saved in a war zone, conversations that may have begun in a hostile environment, or dignity that may have been conserved for a small community. We begin our future efforts from these successes.

With a conviction that other worlds are possible, I wish that while you rest your feet and soothe your hearts, may that commitment to cause change within and without be not extinguished.

I urge that we rest a bit, and then we begin. And we begin on three fronts - none of them new.

On the domestic front, we demand from the democrats that they ensure that every decision by the administration be scritinized and questioned, that nothing be taken for granted and no benefit of doubt given to a leadership that has been divisive and untruthful. We ourselves continue with such efforts through our own movements and efforts.

Within our own selves and movements, we need to reconnect, and build bridges. Hopefully, we have learnt that it makes little sense for over a dozen 'progressive' groups to exist within the University of Minnesota if they cannot talk to each other. Hopefully we have learnt that it is counterproductive to our work if we let our personal egos and minor ideological differences to prevent collaborations and conversations. It is time to begin processes of collaboration between our own movements and efforts so that we are more effective, our successes are consolicated and we can reach out more effectively. And in beginning this process of collaboration, we need to connect outside our own choirs.

Finally, we need to connect with international groups and begin to build strategies and implement efforts on numerous issues - on water, on globalization, on energy, on human rights, on information and many others.

Here is to rebuilding a more revitalized world, a more thoughtful world, a more just world, a more sustainable world.

Sanat Mohanty (sanat.mohanty@gmail.com) was born in India, is a scientist and works with communities in the Twin Cities of Minnesota and with movements in India.

Copyright © 2004, Sanat Mohanty. All rights reserved.