Separations Between Social Issues only Exist in our Minds
Every time a social change group says, “we only focus on our issue,” all movements become a bit weaker
There is nothing wrong with having a focus. Focus is good, it allows us to dive deeply into one area that needs care and attention. To not have any focus would be damaging. However, it is also damaging to insist that the linguistic divisions between “issues” should also become divisions between the people and groups working on those issues.
Below are some examples of how nominally “separate issues” are, in reality, anything but, and how manifesting these separations in our organizing amounts to shooting ourselves in the foot.
“Your issue can wait”
A friend of mine who happens to be of African descent once shared their need for a proudly anti-racist environmental movement on Twitter. They got dog-piled by non-Black environmentalists telling them that actually racism can wait, and the fight against climate breakdown is too urgent to have to also deal with racism. Obviously, my friend found this incredibly disheartening.
The incident took place within the Extinction Rebellion Twitter sphere.
There is an unspoken assumption for many “activists” on all “issues” that “their issue” comes first, and others need to just accept that. This sense of entitlement is particularly present among more light-skinned climate activists.
For a person to be told that “your issue can wait,” is first and foremost, not just about that one person, but really about the whole community affected by that issue. For a whole community to be told that “their issue” “can wait” not only damages current efforts, but also makes that community feel more alone and less trusting of those deemed “outsiders.” Such erosion of trust can only weaken movements for freedom and equality.
“but these things really aren’t related!”
All social issues are related because they are all being constantly re-created by the same oppressive institutions and social structures.
From a wide historical perspective, climate destabilization is just the most recent outcome of centuries of imperialism, genocide and plunder. Unfortunately, a lot of people still look at it from a more narrow historical lens.
Why?
The answer lies in our generally insufficient, politically fraught way of teaching history in schools. If we were allowed to lead freer lives as children and young adults, the needs of future generations would not be so neglected. Children would be more free if their schools weren’t heavily policed. Calls for more police power would lessen if there weren’t mass shootings. There wouldn’t be mass shootings if access to mental healthcare were less stigmatized and also universally accessible.
Mental healthcare could be more accessible if we also made higher education more accessible. If students and educators held all power in the education system, and if patients and care-givers held power in all matters of healthcare, the quality of both healthcare and education would improve greatly. If we centered our lives more around the ecosystem, we wouldn’t need as much healthcare to be physically well.
If we had more time to ourselves, outside of work, we would be more able to connect with our ecosystems. If had a high level of trust and solidarity with one another, we could organize on the job and win higher pay and shorter working times, which would give us more time to try to achieve all sorts of other improvements in both ourselves and our society.
Unity is the only way to win
It’s common for people trying to make positive change in the world to operate with a scarcity mindset regarding people’s willingness to engage. Of course, all our time is limited. However, when we can see that all our issues are stemming from the same fundamental causes, that helps us build deep power within and between communities and tackle them all at the source.
By confronting patriarchy and machismo, we can help solve mass incarceration and abuse against women and girls at once.
By confronting racism, we can challenge modern day segregation, police brutality, mass incarceration, mistreatment of migrants, generational dispossession and climate injustice all at once.
When we truly challenge racism and patriarchy together, that will also mean challenging militarism and imperialism.
By creating housing for all, we can address unemployment and homelessness.
By creating reliable local food systems, we can help solve hunger, poor health, poor farm worker conditions and climate all at once.
By rebuilding a strong labor movement, we can solve inequality, racism, other forms of discrimination, human trafficking, and bad environmental practices.
Conclusion
We have only about 7 years to adequately address climate damage before breakdown becomes nearly impossible to stop. Does this mean climate is more important than “other issues?”
No, because social issues are not really separate. Imperfect terms we use to categorize are doing more harm than good when we decide some issues must come first, because this elitist assumption alienates whole communities.
Organizing for power can allow us to take on the institutions, corporations and individuals causing harm. Appeals to the moral decency of the powerful will not work. They are benefiting from our subjugation. We need to build trust, organize, grow our own power, and take control of our lives and our future.
