'March in March' doesn't offer credible alternatives

[icyfroth]

Instead of licking its wounds and working on new ideas, the Australian left has focused on tearing the government down. This won’t work

This weekend, protesters will be heading to the streets to participate in March in March across the country. Organisers have said the weekend of protest “signifies the people’s vote of no confidence in policies of the government that go against common principles of humanity, decency, fairness social justice and equity, democratic governance, responsible global citizenship and conserving our natural heritage.”

With the election of Tony Abbott to the lodge, the left seems to have adopted many of the right’s oppositional tactics. There is the same heavy focus on  “lies”, “broken promises” and “secrecy” – a focus on Abbott’s character and not much in the way of presenting new policies. These are linked to similar destabilisation tactics – highlighted by a recent petition which has gained over 60,000 signatures – calling on the governor general to sack the government.

All of this is based on an ongoing claim, yelled very loudly, that the Abbott government is illegitimate due to his apparent reliance on the Murdoch media to get elected. This argument, whilst as weak as Abbott’s claims that the Gillard government was illegitimate, but seem to be just a fervently believed.

Instead of licking our wounds and creating an alternative approach, we have focused on tearing the government down, and using whatever arguments and tactics we can find to do so. After years of hammering Abbott for this brand of politicking, one could ask why the left is following suit – it seems like a rather hypocritical move.

Investigate further though, and you can see that the use of these tactics is a worrying symptom of  a fundamental crisis in politics. Over the past decades the left has lost its social base, leaving it weak as it faces the Abbott government. Union membership is at an all time low, a drop in numbers that is being met with a significant drop in influence. The environment and climate movement is facing similar problems, struggling heavily to deal with recent political realities.

The neoliberal agenda is slowly crushing progressive politics, leaving us stuck with these sorts of attack-based campaigns to beat our opponents.

The crisis represents an overarching general dissatisfaction with politics and politicians, and a strong dislike of our political system and processes. A recent Newspoll survey highlights this really well: on nearly every issue both major parties have gone backwards in recent months, signifying a shift away from any trust of our political leaders. And the left has been just as culpable.

And this is where adopting Abbott’s tactics becomes problematic. In the short term, it seems like a good strategy, but the long term damage will be real. In using this strategy, the left have failed to understand this anti-politics sentiment. We have in fact bought into it - playing an insider game focusing on broken promises, parliamentary tactics and media games, whilst effectively ignoring any real and substantive issues.

A new approach needs to be found. We need to recognise that this dislike of politics is actually a good thing: the rejection of a system that now largely serves the interests of the upper classes. The left now needs to tap directly into this sentiment.

There are plenty of successful examples of this. Russel Brand’s comments last year, for example, struck a chord largely because of his anti-establishment or anti-politics tone. The same can be said for the success of the Occupy movement. A bit closer to home and the climate movement has managed to gain significant momentum recently through going around standard political channels and directly taking on the power of the fossil fuel industry. The asylum seeker movement is also shifting its course - with the successful boycott campaign over the Sydney Biennale growing new energy for the campaign.

These tactics are about tackling the system from a different angle. They’re about challenging the power systems that are stacked up against us, and building a sustainable social base to do so. They are about doing the hard work of rebuilding our social movements, and rebuilding them to take on the systems that underpin our political system.

March in March doesn’t do this. Neither does attacking Abbott’s broken promises, calling for him to be sacked, or claiming his government is illegitimate. We have to do better than this.

From Here

Nothing like a good C&P to sink your teeth into, is there?

BBL

[boris1gary]

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@**meep** wrote:

For Boris

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Thanks meep, do you remember the old Trade Union Club in Surrey Hills? I was lucky enough to see him there, many years ago.

[freakiness]

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@**meep** wrote:

That is pricesely the point LOL  

You asked earlier:

Why is it impossible for you to accept the truth about this event?

The only truth I am interested in, is the information issued by the organisers.   When I looked for the information, I was more interested in what was posted by the organisers, not others who were posting in "their own name"

I am not discouraging anyone from attending the event but yes, I found it funny when I saw some  trying to convince people here of what the event is not LOL

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There are dozens of facebook groups and they all have different organizers.

There was a link to a website on another thread here about a month ago. It had the main organizers names included.  I posted a link to it.  

I am not discouraging anyone from attending the event but yes, I found it funny when I saw some  trying to convince people here of what the event is not LOL

And yet you call it an event when clearly it is mutliple events.  What is so funny about people explaining what the events are not after some posters come in ranting about the events being a product of Labor or unions or some other phantom left groups.  Snigger all you like, it fits well.

http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2146397/disenchanted-citizens-to-march-in-march/?cs=298

[**meep**]

No, I don't actually.   I came here in '82 and spent the next few years in high school and didn't really start getting to know the 'scene' until about 86/87......I still have his vinyls but unfortunately, never got to see him live.

[just_me_karen]

Meep, obviously you will have to go marching in Sydney so you can see him 😄

[freakiness]

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/march-in-march-grows-from-genuine-grassroots-20140203-31xgy.html

by Jenna Price

March in March 2014 is not a Labor Party thing. I know because I asked Nick Martin, the assistant national secretary of the Australian Labor Party.

It's not a unions thing. I know because Ged Kearney, the president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, said so, although you can tell she'd love it to work: ''If people want to have a say because they are angry about the way the country is run by this government, by all means take this opportunity to get out there and do it.''

It's not a Greens thing. I asked Christine Milne's office and they confirmed it wasn't them.

Illustration: Pat Campbell

Sam Mclean, national director of GetUp!, says it's not them either. Plus, there would have been a thousand ''Dear Jenna'' emails in my inbox by now - not that there's anything wrong with that.

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I feel fairly confident I don't have to ask the Prime Minister's office if March in March is organised by the Liberals or the Nationals.

What is it? It's what looks like an authentic public reaction to the Abbott government's way of running Australia - which means it's not only about asylum seekers; or climate change; or education funding; or union bashing; or attacks on universal healthcare coverage.

Here's what MiM says about itself on Facebook: ''March in March Australia 2014 will be three days of peaceful assemblies, non-partisan citizens' marches and rallies at Federal Parliament and around Australia to protest against government decisions that are against the common good of our nation.''

Those kinds of events are usually run by existing groups - political parties and single issue groups with experienced organisers and huge email lists they can milk for support. The people running MiM have none of this - but in some respects, organising has become easier because of the glories of social media. I'm yet to be persuaded that the organising that happens on social media is somehow less effective than walking for hours in the sun and listening to speeches on a borrowed PA.

Yes, MiM smells like grassroots, looks like grassroots, sounds like grassroots, strangely, in a country which has been overrun by top-down political organising.

Ariadne Vromen, associate professor in politics at the University of Sydney, says it's a dilemma of contemporary activism.

''Formal organisations are increasingly being criticised for making top-down decisions for participants … [but] those organisations bring scale, resources and experience to a campaign.''

Still, she's reminded of the Not Happy, John! movement of 2004, which developed momentum through stunts and slogans. It marked the beginning of the great unravelling of Howard's authority.

Only 15 per cent of Australians have ever been on a protest march, says Vromen: ''But protest attendance is still problematically held up as the gold standard for participation by most activists and scholars.''

Yet the MiM organisers are convinced Australians will rally.

MiM has a national admin panel of eight, none of whom appear to be bigwigs (or even medium-sized ones) in any political party.

Craig Batty, an educational designer who lives in regional NSW, is the spokesman and says he's never been a party member. He's never been an activist before. But he's had enough.

He will be marching in Canberra on Monday, March 17 from 10am. It's a strange time of day for a protest, to be honest; and it smacks a little of the pathetic Convoy of No Consequence, organised around the campaign of radio announcer Alan Jones. Batty says it's important to do this on a sitting day at the seat of government.

He is not troubled by the fact that it's a work day: ''I have rock solid certainty that we will beat Alan Jones by at least 1000 people … people are really frustrated about broken promises and lies.''

Says Vromen: ''No matter how strongly people feel, the threshold for engagement is very high to get ordinary people on the streets to protest - and for a weekday it may be even harder.

''A movement needs a lot of time, encouragement, and organising to develop and build critical mass.''

Are Australians really that frustrated with the federal government?

William Bowe thinks so - but that a lot of the anger is directed at Tony Abbott: ''He is doing remarkably badly for a newly elected prime minister.''

The leeway the electorate grants to those who've just won an election is already gone - and Abbott is 10 to 30 per cent behind all the other prime ministers.

Bowe is an election analyst and blogger for Crikey. He says in every piece of polling and research he has seen, Australians are far closer to the positions of the Labor Party than they are to the positions of the Liberal Party.

Bowe says Australians are now thinking: ''This is not the government we were promised.''

But can the sentiment that underpins March in March have an impact? Shouldn't we just stay at home and wait to utilise the site where we can really demonstrate our power: the ballot box?

Kirsty McLaren, an associate researcher in politics at the Australian National University, says rallies alone would never be enough. But when they are used to demonstrate public anger, that can have a serious impact.

''It can have an agenda-setting effect, and that is with the broader population, with politicians and also with journalists.

''Protests often contribute to the success of other actions,'' she says.

So far, at least in Australia, it hasn't worked for our foreign aid involvement, for single parents. It's been reasonably successful on reproductive rights. And an absolute and tragic failure on the serious matter of climate change and the environment, with the Franklin Dam as the notable exception.

McLaren says sometimes these movements are about developing a social movement.

''Gay pride marches are a way of creating and presenting a collective identity and that's a way of pressuring for policy changes.''

March in March plans to spring up everywhere.

Nicola Bell lives in Newcastle with her husband, who is a nurse, and their two-year-old, Gabriel.

She says she's never been much of a protester, nor are her friends.

''I'm an ordinary wife and mother; and we go to church … when I was younger, I was in the army reserve.

''I'm marching because I want to show the Prime Minister that this is not just an inner-city elite thing.''

Bell, 34, says she wants Abbott to take a more compassionate view on asylum seekers, on Medicare, on education.

She says: ''The government works at the behest of the people, not the other way around.

''I'm not going to give the government my silent consent … you are not doing it in my name.''

Me? I'll probably end up going to see what turns up. I'm all for grassroots. But I love them to sprout up through the ballot box.

[boris1gary]

My city is pretty small and as far as "political activists" go, we all kind of know each other, (not personally). I had lunch with a friend the other day who is a Trade Union official and left activist - neither of us had heard of any of the organisers of the March in March, it is what it says it is. 

[**meep**]

And yet you call it an event when clearly it is mutliple events.

Event:
A significant occurrence or happening.

That significant occurrence which I was obviously referring to, was a series of marches.

To the best to my knowledge 'series' is singular but please correct me if I'm wrong. 

I am not discouraging anyone from attending the series of March In March marches.

[just_me_karen]

It's a single event staged in multiple locations.

Just like the Olympic Games is a single event, with multiple locations over several days.

I wish I had more arms. If I had four arms I'd make another placard that says "worst government EVER!". Maybe I could put that on the back and flip it around periodically. I hope I don't get tired. I hope the speeches aren't too boring, they look like they might be..,they go for an hour,,,and there's a picnic in the park, ugh,,,with more speeches...erk...

[**meep**]

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@just_me_karen wrote:
Meep, obviously you will have to go marching in Sydney so you can see him 😄

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yeah....i was thinking about it but its only 2 songs.......not worth the hassle of cancelling a family bbq

Bragg – who has arguably written some of the best protest songs in contemporary music – has signed on to perform two songs at the event.

[just_me_karen]

The protesters will chant and riot, until he sings more.

I'm too old for riots. I hope they don't riot at the marches I'm going to.