The Power of Activism Ben Osborn, who worked on the 2011 HOPE not hate campaign against racist groups including the BNP and EDL and who now works for the trade union UCU, discusses the roots of activism and what activism means today. I would argue that activism is a defining feature of our time. It shows an awareness of what the systems around you are, a sense that aspects of them are unstable, and a will to change them. It’s telling that one of the most potent descriptions of modern society is the Communist Manifesto. Its clarity is striking (whether or not you are a Marxist). Marx showed that the economics and culture of capitalism meant that people now lived in a time of constant change, and that they had, for the first time, the potential to recognise their own power. Marx said ‘you have nothing to lose but your chains’ by gaining this new awareness.
In the 2010 General Election, Conservative leader David Cameron’s buzzword was the ‘Big Society.’ He wanted to change the image of his party, who will be forever associated with Thatcher’s claim that ‘there is no such thing as society.’ But in practice, for the Coalition government he would lead, it meant cutting government spending and increasing privatisation in services, from healthcare and education to policing and roads.
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HIV has a long relationship with activism. Writing for AIDSmap last year, Keith Alcorn said that ‘the responses of the communities affected, and of the medical professionals who cared for the first people diagnosed with AIDS, set the tone for the global response to AIDS for the next 30 years... emphasising human rights, compassion, solidarity, activism and generosity.’ Alcorn gave the example of New York activists writing the first safer sex advice, ‘How to Have Sex in an Epidemic’, in 1983. Activism has a long and diverse history, taking many forms and addressing many issues. Its role today should not be overlooked.
Positively UK Autumn 2012
Henry David Thoreau was writing around the same time as Marx (though in a very different context). His essay ‘Civil Disobedience’ – an important term in activism – explained that he would not pay taxes because his government was complicit in slavery. His overall point, that conscience is more important than law, and that people should defy and protest against laws that go against their morality, is central to modern activism: ‘Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them… or shall we transgress them at once?’ Thoreau defined one aspect of activism: refusing to take part in something you disagree with, and demanding a change. A great example of civil disobedience, when an individual was brave enough to stand up against an unjust society, is the famous case of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1955. Following Parks’ arrest, the AfricanImage copyright HOPE not hate www.hopenothate.org.u
Politicians rarely use the term in 2012; opinion polls show that people are still uncertain about what it actually means. But it seems a different kind of big society does exist in the UK in 2012: every time a library is threatened with closure, every time racist groups plan to march, every time an environmentdestroying powerplant is opened, every time a corporation is revealed to be dodging taxes, every time a policy is proposed that threatens the welfare state, communities stand up and make themselves known. This big society is made up of activists: people taking action, protesting against some ideas, promoting others.
His idea was considered ‘revolutionary’ and ‘radical’, but activism itself – which isn’t necessarily either of those things – relies on the same notion: that society isn’t stuck in one way of being, and that it can and should be changed by better ideas.