This is a very interesting debate and one that also takes place 'inside'
the movement. I have a few points:
1. I wrote 'inside' this way, because it is actually very difficult to put
an exact boundary on where inside RTS (or other like dis-organisations)
begins or ends. Like Earth First! UK, People's Global Action (PGA), or
similar style groupings the name is no more than a banner under which
anyone who shares the same aims and methods can congregate at any
particular time or place. It is therefore somewhat structureless or
amorphous. There are obviously some people who are excluded, particularly
those who would use these groupings as a platform for racism, fascism,
sexism, honophobia and so on. You could describe it as broadly
left-libertarian (anarcho-socialist is perhaps too tight).
2. As far as where 'the streets' are, this is another nebulous one. I would
agree that in some ways the term is symbolic, but in some ways it is simply
a historical accident - RTS did start off largely a agroup fighting to
reclaim public space (roads) from private cars. However the agenda has
shifted to a more fundamental one, stemming from a number of factors - the
rise of the globalisation debate, the Debt issue, and increasing
polarisation of the broader 'green' movement in conventional left-right
terms (or at least a realisation amongst many groups that they could no
longer avoid the issue of where they were in left-right terms). In this
country this has largely meant the whole movement has moved more overtly
leftwards (a good thing as far as I am concerned). In others, like France,
there has been a movement of some groups to the right, and a movement of
rightist groups into green political territory. There have also been
increasing links forged between greens in the North and groups fighting
TNCs in the South (for example, the Karnakata State Farmers, Zapatistas,
and Ogoni freedom movements). This has begun to close a big gap in green
political activity and discourse, and has lead to the creation of umbrella
groups like PGA.
In short, 'the streets' have increasingly become a symbol or a metaphor for
corporate property / capital. And, groups have always reclaimed more than
just the streets anyway - office occupations (including DIY stores on
occasions) have become more common, as have occuaptions of virtual space
through fax and e-blockades of corporations and supranational
corporate-oriented bodies (WTO, IMF etc.). On June 18th far more than just
actual streets were occupied - banks, offices, corporate HQs, Stock and
Futures Exchanges to name but a few.
3. Finally, who is doing the reclaiming? Well, if you combine the two
points above, you'll see that it can be anyone opposing corporate
globalisation in favour of broadly green,liberatory alternatives. That's a
a growing number of hte world's people, more than it looks from the UK, and
includes Unions, Green, Left and Communist parties, Southern peasant
movements, Indigenous Peoples, mainstream and radical environmmental and
development NGOs etc. In practice the groups that actually go onto the
streets or into offices, and those who write letters, organise conferences
and so on, can be differentiated - clearly the people who come to RTS
events tend to the radical end of this broad grouping, IN THIS COUNTRY.
Howver you look at the huge anti-WTO, and anti-Monsanto moevments in India,
and you have a whole different picture. THe media tries to make out that
June 18th / N30 type events are totally different from 'respectable'
anti-globalisation, but anyone whose been on both ends, or who has a foot
in both parts, know that this cannot ultimately be sustained.
This is not to say everything is hunky-dory and that there is this massive
coherent opposition to global capitalism actually existing, but we're
getting there I hope.
I'll be interested to see some repsonses!
David.
____________________________________________________________________
David Wood
PhD Research Student ('Intelligence Sites in Rural North Yorkshire')
Centre for Rural Economy
Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
0191 222 5305
[log in to unmask]
____________________________________________________________________
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|