On Defeat

Something reformists spend little time discussing is the effect defeated campaigns have on movement momentum. We can go a long way back, but let's just start with "single payer healthcare", now morphed into "medicare for all". All that effort come to naught. Massive donations and volunteer hours poured into a failed campaign that sends a message to young, progressive reformers. Moving forward we saw the Dream Act, the Paycheck Protection Act, the For the People Act, the PRO Act and now the Voting Rights Advancment Act all heading down the same toilet I call capitalist "democracy". Spectacular un-politics dressed up to look like popular participation. But thoroughly circumscribed by the economy. We can pretty much predict this is where the Green New Deal is headed as well. Anyway, along with this legislation and these aspirational proposals we can include environmental campaigns that were defeated: Enbridge pipelines in B.C., expansion of tar sands in Alberta, new oil and gas leases here in the west, not to mention day to day struggles over timber sales and habitat loss and water quality, fisheries, predator protection etc. etc. The Enbridge Line 3 will soon be filled with tar sands oil despite all those lockdowns and arrests. Others will be discouraged by this blow. Many will point to the cancelling of the Keystone XL and Standing Rock as victories proving the effectiveness of the movement. Yes, some proposed coal export terminals have been cancelled. But for the most part polluting activities have just been exported overseas and campaigns for reform end up in litigation for years or just get wore down by corporate power and wealth. Standing Rock, just forced a technical delay, it did not stop oil from moving through the Dakota Access pipe. Mainstream progressive organizers believe these campaigns build empowerment but when a campaign goes down in defeat, the exact opposite occurs and we don't hear much about that effect. I am not saying the struggle is over or that it is doomed; only that organizers need to think long and hard about how to build campaigns and not use the same, tired playbook. They need to see the sham of regulation and legislation for what it is.