Rising Tide Boston

On Sunday Emily and I attended the monthly open meeting of Rising Tide Boston, whose Points of Unity are so salient to our own efforts that I think they are worth quoting here in full: “We recognize … that combating climate change is not solely a matter of addressing carbon emissions, but also confronting the institutions that attack our communities and our cultures as well as our earth.” But I wouldn’t have expected any less of an organization that creatively urged Bostonians to “break up” with Bank of America on Valentine’s Day in order to protest that corporation’s funding of mountaintop removal coal mining. Environmental sustainability? Check. Social justice? Check.

Ironically, Emily and I were the only ones not to arrive by bike (we took the subway). The meeting kicked off with a documentary about the decades-long movement to democratize Mexican teachers’ unions, whose leadership has long been riddled with corruption at the highest levels. However, despite some notable victories in the eighties and nineties, the teachers’ campaign has lost momentum in recent years. The film identifies the crux of the problem as overpoliticization: Teachers have become so focused on their own crusade that they have lost touch with the communities in which they are rooted. After all, why did thousands of people – many of whom did not have school-age children – turn out in support of teachers when they staged direct action in the first place? Because historically, Mexican schoolteachers have been community leaders. It’s no accident that the movement is most active in Oaxaca, a province which boasts a sizeable indigenous population. These were the people most directly impacted by the state’s education policies (or lack thereof). These were the people who knew better than anybody that something needed to be done, and decided the teachers were the ones to do it.

It is a lesson that applies to the organization of grassroots movements in general. Despite all the valuable guidance we received from experienced organizers during our training, it is easy, when confronted at the door with apathetic residents, to fall back on your rap; to take charge and tell them exactly what to do. Here, sign this petition, come to a symposium, throw a Christmas in July party, have a good day. Even if I do end up having an in-depth conversation with someone, bubbling just beneath my subconscious is the desire to get them to do something for us, when really it should be the other way around. I don’t know if anyone else has had the same experience. Maybe I’m a worse-than-average canvasser. But as I recall now the woman who spoke of her town’s (ultimately unsuccessful) scheme to put solar panels on the high school, and the man who hosts a struggling environmental talk show on public radio, I realize that these are the people who need us. These are the people we are supporting in the endeavors, and calling and emailing and blogging about. We are the catalysts for the changes they want to see. Though we are the ones who are at present devoting our lives to the cause of combating climate change, our job is to ensure that it remains their cause as much as ours.

Cheers, Lesley