Top Memes of 2011!

As movements around the planet mobilize to counter the effects of climate destabilization on their communities, cultures, and ecosystems, a framing battle of global significance is underway.

In the climate fight, as with so many other struggles, the heart of the framing battle is naming the problem, since how we define the problem determines what solutions are possible. To varying degrees, governments and multinational corporations around the world have acknowledged the crisis and they claim they are working to address it. However, they present the climate crisis through a reductionist lens as merely a problem of too much carbon in the atmosphere while ignoring the underlying issues of justice, equity, and humanity’s relationship with the Earth. This framing allows exploitation of the crisis to justify escalating the very policies and practices that have pushed the planet to the brink. Essentially the world’s richest countries and companies are co-opting environmental rhetoric to put a PR friendly “green” face on the same old politics of unlimited economic growth, resource thefts and corporate exploitation.

Meanwhile the ‘official’ climate movement has been dominated by a loyal opposition of largely northern, policy, and access-oriented NGOs who, although (mostly) well intentioned, have failed to reframe the debate or address the root causes of the crisis. But increasingly as more global movements begin to unite under the banner of climate justice, there is a different story to tell. The terms of the debate are being reframed from seeing the climate crisis as an isolated issue, to understanding the disruption of the climate as merely the most visible symptom of a much larger problem: our global system of growth-addicted, fossil fuel-driven, corporate capitalism that is undermining all the life support systems of the planet.

When this deeper framing of the problem is accepted it becomes clear that we will never re-stabilize the climate without addressing the roots of the problem. This means acknowledging the Global North’s historic responsibility for the problem (“climate debt”) as the first step towards fundamental shifts to our economy, political systems, and cultural assumptions. This is why one of the over-arching and unifying messages coming out of global movements fighting for a just response to the climate crisis is “system change NOT climate change”.

However, as people’s movements around the world ramp up their organizing in the lead up to the next round of United Nations negotiations in Cancun there are a number of dangerous frames––control myths––that must be challenged.

Control Myth #1 Only The Market Can Save Us!

In this case a global carbon market that effectively privatizes the atmosphere, justifies massive land grabs and further commodification of forests, soils, and grasslands. Two hundred years of ideology have bestowed the “invisible hand” of the market with debate-shaping qualities of alleged efficiency, fairness and power. This is a familiar narrative to many of our movements fighting privatization and displacement but we still need better, shared strategies to reframe the myth of the market.

Control Myth #2 Technology Will Save Us!

Hand in hand with the story of the all-powerful market is the obsession with techno-fixes. Techno-fixes masquerade as solutions but just distract us from making the fundamental changes that are needed. The assumption that some benign “experts” will provide new, innovative technology to solve the problem justifies continuing unsustainable policies while removing people’s agency from the frame. More and more climate techno-fixes are being proposed: from overt lies like “clean coal” and “climate ready” genetically engineered crops to terrifyingly disruptive, untested new technologies like synthetic biology and geoengineering.[i] Beware!

Control Myth #3 Climate Is Too Big An Issue: Only Governments Can Save Us!

The debate has been overly focused on global and national policy while social movements and community-based responses are left out of the frame. Many mainstream environmentalists have even argued that any global emission reduction agreement (regardless of how weak or unfair) is better than no deal. Variations of this narrative have been used (particularly by the U.S.) to evade historic responsibility and blame China, India and other developing economies for blocking an international deal. Certainly a global agreement is important, but the reality of the scale of the climate crisis is that we need transformative action in all sectors of society.

Given the wide-ranging implications of the debate, climate is an essential arena for our movements to develop more holistic narratives and shared frames that mutually reinforce efforts across different sectors and struggles. At the heart of this framing battle is the emerging climate justice movement led by frontline impacted communities, indigenous movements and environmental justice organizers.

Climate justice framing is challenging the control myths above (and many more) by refocusing the issue on the core problems of fossil fuel addiction, the ongoing legacy of historic inequities and the need for systemic change. At the center of the evolving narrative is the role of community-based solutions in stewarding a just transition towards a society that is both sustainable and just. As different movements like migrants rights, reproductive justice and organized labor articulate the connections between their struggles and the climate crisis there are many opportunities to experiment with applying and broadening climate justice framing.

With the historic adoption of the Cochabamba People’s Agreement on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in April there is now a powerful new narrative emerging that unites ecology, justice and social movement action. This platform offers a potent counterpoint to the corporate driven, false solutions of the United Nations process. Most importantly it offers an invitation to organizers everywhere to connect their issues with this multi-faceted struggle to transform our world. In the words of one of the key slogans uniting movements in the lead up to the COP-16 meeting and beyond: “grassroots organizing cools the planet!”

[i] For a good summary of “false solutions” to the climate crisis check out Rising Tide North America’s Hoodwinked in the Hothouse: False Solutions to Climate Change. Other resources for tracking the rebranding of failed GMO seeds as “climate ready” can be found by following the ongoing work of Food First!/Institute for Food and Development Policy and the Organic Consumers Association. To learn more about the latest developments in the emerging fields of synthetic biology and geoengineering check out two recent reports by global technology watchdog ETC Group Geopiracy: The Case Against Geoengineering (Oct 2010) and The New Biomassters: Synthetic Biology and the Next Assault on Biodiversity and Livelihoods (Nov 2010) both of which are available at www.etcgroup.org. For updates on the ongoing resistance to geoengineering check out the international H.O.M.E. campaign.

It has taken me far too long to post this, but I feel strongly that smartMeme community will enjoy this important conversation.

On Febuary 25th, the Boston Chapter of the Progressive Communicators Network convened a panel discussion called “Talking About Racial & Economic Justice in Obama’s America.” After some fairly crude sound editing, I managed to upload the recordings of the panelists for your listening enjoyment!

Amaad Rivera [LISTEN] is the director of the racial wealth divide program at United for a Fair Economy, and lead author on their 2009 State of the Dream Report: The Silent Depression. He discusses Racism without Racists, patterns of school segregation in Boston, and building racial justice frameworks.

Tarso Luís Ramos [LISTEN] is the director of research at the right-wing watchdog group Political Research Associates. He discusses the work of Ian F. Haney Lopez’s on “colorblind white dominance,” Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s work on White Supremacy and Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era, and the “Color Blind Ideology.”

Color-Blindness:

“views racism at the individual level (e.g. Lines of reasoning such as “I don’t own slaves” or “I have very close black friends” to defend oneself) without looking at the larger social mechanisms in which racism operates.”

Ramos presents a facsinating discussion of Bonilla-Silva’s frames of color blind ideology, and how these play out in affirmative action fights: Minimization (“Yes, there is some racism but its no big deal”); Cultural Failings (“Mexicans have too many babies; Blacks don’t value education,” etc.); Naturalization (“Its natural for people to flock together. Its not segregation.”); and Meritocracy (“Its unfair for government to advance one race over another; treaty rights/civil rights are special rights.”)

Ramos says that these four frames reinforce each other and hold racism in place, and he points to the work of the Center for Social Inclusion to suggest that audiences need an alternative frame of “Structural Racism” to buck the colorblind mythology.

Doyle Canning [LISTEN] (that’s me), discusses some of the stories in the popular culture on racism and “post racism,” and how story-based strategies can work to challenge some of the underlying assumptions of white supremacy in the dominant culture.

The most potent meme of the moment was the “Nation of Cowards” from Eric Holder’s speech on systemic racism.

I strongly recommend watching this amazing roundtable on the topic on Laura Flander’s GRITtv:

Manning Marable’s comments (10 minutes into the video) are particularly powerful in terms of thinking about the power of narrative and history. He speaks about the stories we carry in our head as we’re walking through the world depending on our history: Marable sees lower Manhattan as a slave trading port, while others (whites) see Wall Street’s glittering façade.

This gets to the heart of the internalization of racism. The Peoples’ Institute for Survival and Beyond discusses the interconnected principles of learning from history and addressing the inter-generational processes of internalized racial superiority and inferiority.

I believe that story-based strategies can help us build movements for racial justice, but it really is about movement building. If only it were as easy as coming up with a pat sound-byte to address these deep seeded cultural currents! It still takes struggle, as it always has.

One piece of work I want to point to specifically is work on unmasking and undoing White Privilege, such as the first annual White Privilege Awareness Week!

Also, in terms of racial justice communications specifically, check out the guide “Talking The Walk,” edited by Hunter Cutting and Makani Themba-Nixon (download the toolkit!); and the Center for Media Justice toolkit, Communicate Justice 101. See also: A Three-Ring Circus On Race This Week by Paul Rosenburg.

And one more thing…

Maureen Dowd wrote in her NY Times OP-Ed on Holder’s speech,

“In the middle of all the Heimlich maneuvers required now — for the economy, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, health care, the environment and education — we don’t need a Jackson/Sharpton-style lecture on race. Barack Obama’s election was supposed to get us past that.”

My observation is that this is the line of reasoning often used in white-led liberal organizations (“We’ve got a crisis and so much work to do…we can’t deal with this now…and besides, we have some people of color involved.”) about why we can’t talk honestly about racism and work to address racism within our movements…Just a thought.

I always thought that science museums were supposed to be educational, but where is the line between educating, and promoting a risky new technology?

Welcome to NanoDays!

According to its organizers the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network, NanoDays is “a nationwide celebration of nanoscale science and technology” that just last week happened at over 200 museums and other educational institutions around the United States. SmartMeme has tracked the issue of nanoscale technologies for several years and worked with a number of environmental and social justice groups to ignite popular debate about this rapidly growing industry. So I thought I’d do a little cultural reconnaissance and check out the now annual NanoDays at my local children’s science museum San Francisco’s famous Exploratorium.

Our kids are learning about nanotechnology but how much do the rest of us know? Most media coverage of emerging technology is either business press about investment possibilities or an uncritical, “gee-whiz isn’t this neat?” story. The political, social, ecological and ethical implications of powerful new technologies like nanotech are largely unaddressed in the mainstream media.

Nano: a Quick Primer

Nanoscale refers to the mysterious world of atoms and molecules that are smaller than 100 nanometers. A nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter (for reference sake a human hair is about 80,000 nanometer wide and the head of a pin is comparatively gigantic at 1 million nanometers across) so we’re talking about things that are almost unimaginably small.

However, nanoscale technology is not just about making things really small. Its more about creating a different paradigm where our reality of Newtonian mechanics is replaced with the unexpected dynamics of quantum mechanics. Thus, nanoscale materials are fundamentally different than the same materials in larger scales and have different properties such as different colors, conductivity, strength or magnetism.

This has made nanoscale materials very exciting to industrialists but it also means that nanomaterials present unique risks to human health and the environment. Since they are so small, the human (or animal) organism’s natural defenses are largely useless in preventing potential toxic nanoparticles from entering our bodies. The fact is that there is no significant testing, regulation or even labeling currently required of nanomaterials, even though they are in hundreds of everyday consumer products such as sunscreen, make up, clothing and computers. The Woodrow Wilson Center’s Nanotechnology Project has compiled a Consumer Product’s Inventory with over 800 consumer products containing nanoscale materials.
But beyond health and safety concerns, nanoscale technologies represent incredible new power to take apart and reconstruct nature at the molecular level. The critical questions are, “How will this power be used? By who? And to do what?”

The “Techno-Fix” Myth

Some of the world’s largest corporations (DuPont, Microsoft, major defense contractors, etc.), governments and militaries are already heavily investing in nanoscale technologies that have the potential to unleash massive changes in medicine, manufacturing, and energy production-as well as warfare, surveillance and social control. All of this is happening without any broader public discussion or democratic decision making.

Based on what I experienced at NanoDays, I don’t expect much critical discussion to emerge from the nation’s science museums. I picked up “Small Talk” a kids activity pamphlet created by PBS’s Dragonfly TV that promises “BIG nanofun.” It encourages you to make you’re own buckeyball (a well known nanoparticle) but fails to mention that studies have found them to cause brain damage to fish, kill water fleas and to be toxic to human liver cells.

I saw enthusiastic exhibits on how nanotechnology give us stain free pants and LED screens, but no mention of the extensive research into military applications. The most dramatic evangelism came at the special feature presentation on how nanotechnology and energy. According to NanoDays, it turns out that nanotechnology will provide the solution to all of our energy and global warming problems!

Does the hype sound familiar? Kind of like nuclear power or genetically engineered crops? To many people this is a familiar story. The common denominator is the larger TECHNO-FIX narrative that assumes that technological developments are inherently “neutral,” always beneficial and can magically solve our most pressing social and environmental problems. One of the most dangerous aspects of this pervasive cultural narrative is that is masks the reality that technological developments are shaped by social forces and are inevitably political. The direction of technological developments are not pre-ordained. Rather, they are shaped by the specific perspectives and agendas of those people and institutions driving them. We should always ask who is funding any new technology; Who will own and control it? Who will benefit from its use and who will lose? What unexpected (or under-publicized) consequences might it have?

Since profit-driven multinational corporations and the military are the main institutions driving technological development, from a social justice perspective, I believe its essential to look critically at new technologies.

The techno-fix narrative draws many of its operating assumptions from the ideology that humanity is separate from the natural world, and that we can and should dominate and manipulate nature to fufill human desires. This ideology is at odds with the wisdom of countless cultures, religious teachings (and increasingly, modern science) that point to the fundamental interconnectedness of all life. Likewise, its good to remember our humility when we’re assessing the degree to which modern science understands the incredible complexities of the life sustaining systems of our planet. After all, isn’t it blind faith in so-called “technological progress” and arrogant assumptions about humanity’s ability to remake the natural world that helped created the ecological crisis in the first place?

As Albert Einstein famously said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” This is not to say that technology may not offer some important solutions. Nanotechnology, for instance, could have useful applications in creating a new generation of solar panels, more efficient electrical transmission, and who knows what else. But we can’t let hype or hysteria rush us into ignoring either the short term risks or long term implications of nanoscale technologies. That is why many environmental and social justice organizations, as well as governments-and even some multinational corporations-are promoting the Preacautionary Principle as a framework for addressing the questions raised by new technologies. Put simply, precautionary approaches remind us that it’s much better to have the foresight to prevent a disaster than to try to clean it up after its too late.

Techno-Fix Memes = Double Danger in the Climate Crisis

Perhaps the biggest battleground for challenging the techno-fix narrative is the debate around how to solve global warming. The sweeping actions that are needed to transition our society off fossil fuels and re-stabilize the atmosphere pose a challenge to powerful, profitable interests like oil and coal. They are increasingly dangling the carrot of easy techno-fixes to distract and derail proposals that would actually challenge the status quo.

From the propaganda on how carbon capture and sequestration technology will make coal “clean,” to Agribiz corporations promoting so-called “biofuels” as a way to keep us in our cars. Obama’s science advisor John Holdren (pictured at the left) is talking about geoengineering the planet by shooting sulphate nanoparticles into the atmosphere in order to reflect some of the sun’s light. (Um, scary…!) See Corporate Watch’s new Techno-fixes report for a more thorough analysis of various proposed techo-fixes for the climate crisis.)

The stakes are high and our movements to stop global warming have to also innoculate the public against the techno-fix narrative. Sophisticated PR and big marketing budgets are already selling the stories of techno-fix that require little sacrifice or transition. These memes could co-opt the growing cultural momentum to address the climate crisis into dead ends and false solutions. Not only could we lose valuable time to address the crisis, but these technologies could backfire. In the sheeps clothing of stopping climate change, untested, powerful new technologies deployed on a wide scale could potentially create major new threats to our environment, human health and the democratic process.

We need better story-based strategies that can frame the debate and direct collective action towards addressing the root causes of our climate crisis: rampant consumerism, alienation from nature, fossil fuel addiction, a profit-driven globalized economy and the outdated story of unlimited economic growth.

Sure some technological advances may play a role in helping solve our problems. But only if they don’t distract us from the real work: shifting our culture, economy and political system from trying to dominate and re-engineer nature, to operating in balance with the planet’s natural systems.

Let’s try teaching that to our kids at the science museums.

Further Resources on Social, Ecological and Ethical Implications of Nanotechnology from some of the groups that smartMeme has worked with on the issue:

International Center for Technology Assessment’s NanoAction Project
International civil society technology watchdog The ETC Group
Friends of the Earth USA and Friends of the Earth Australia

Also check out a great overview article of different technology contraversies and battle grounds that ETC Group’s Jim Thomas wrote for the Ecologist magazine

Organizers and movement builders have always helped ordinary people realize their own power-–both individually and collectively––and supported them in taking action to make their communities better. Although the lead-from-behind nature of organizing is at odds with the way our celebrity-obsessed culture has constructed heroism, social justice work is full of unsung, everyday heroes. Telling the stories of this type of heroism can not only inspire others to action but can also help redefine what it means to be a hero.

It was in this spirit that I had the pleasure of attending a fascinating and unique conference this past weekend at the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavorial Sciences in Palo Alto, California. The conference was convening by the newly formed Heroic Imagination Project and was bringing together experts in different fields to examine the issue of heroism and promoting moral courage.

It was a small but very eclectic gathering of social scientists (including one who had travelled all the way from Italy to attend), entrepreneurs, educators, media industry professionals (representing a gamut from start-ups to an editor from TIME magazine) and of course yours truly from the social justice sector. The common denominator among the participants was a willingness to see heroism as a meme in the culture which could be demystified and democratized to promote the concept of everyday heroes and broader action to promote the greater good. (“Sociocentric behavior” as I learned the psychologists like to call it).

The project is the brain child of Dr. Philip Zimbardo a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University. Dr. Zimbardo is a world famous lecturer, best selling author of countless books and among the world’s most famous living social psychologists. His ground breaking work––including the controversial 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment––helped laid the foundations of the field. He was also an expert witness in the Abu Ghraib trials who challenged the U.S. government myth of “a few bad apples” and put the whole system on trial in his best selling book about the psychology of evil called The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil.

At the core of Dr. Zimbardo’s work is an examination of how, when and why people stand up to illegitimate authority. The Heroic Imagination Project is taking the research on the psychology of evil and flipping it around to ask how can we teach our children and shift our culture to be more heroic about resisting immoral behavior. You can see his talk on the subject at the TED conference.

Dr. Zimbardo reached out to SmartMeme and asked us to come share our work around building broader social movements and discuss how taking action for social change is heroic. Although its a different starting point for discussing social justice work than we normally use it was an intriguing lens. One key concept that emerged from my presentation was that we need to shift the definition of heroism from the current focus on individual action to one of collective action. How can our communities be heroic? How can we shift our culture to embrace a heroism that has moved beyond its often militaristic origins to incorporate broader types of collective action? (I learned that in Germany the traditional word for “hero” was so connected to the Nazis that post-WW II the term is no longer used.) What would it take to make the idea of a “peace hero” as well known and applauded as a “war hero”?

These are big questions and ones that organizers and social justice advocates are addressing all the time. It’s exciting to know that smart people in other fields are tackling the issue as well because in a era of runaway crisis––from climate destabilization to the pathologies of the financial system–––we’re going to need all the heroes we can get. Stay tuned to see if the Heroic Imagination Project and collaborators can expand the definition of heroism and push the new meme into popular culture.

Professor Zimbardo speaking at an anti-war rally in 2003.

But Climate Justice is Coming to the Capitol!

On February 16th the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their latest reports. They basically said, ‘Well, its even worse than we thought…’

“The world is warming far more quickly than scientists forecast just two years ago..[because of] the unexpectedly rapid increase in the burning of fossil fuels, especially coal, since 2000. “We are looking now at a future climate that’s beyond anything we’ve considered seriously in climate model simulations,’”
- The Financial Times, February 17th 2009

We know the climate is in crisis, and we know we must act. We know that the next 50 generations are counting on us. And we know that clean coal is an industry-crafted control meme - a myth we must dispel if we are to make any progress towards climate justice.

That’s why we invite you to join us on March 2, 2009 for the historic Mass Nonviolent Civil Disobedience at the coal-fired capitol power plant in Washington, DC.

On March 2, join smartMeme and thousands more in a multi-generational act of civil disobedience at the Capitol Power Plant - a plant that powers Congress with dirty energy and symbolizes a past that cannot be our future. Let’s use this action as a rallying cry for a clean energy economy that will protect the health of our families, our climate, and our future.

This will be the largest nonviolent direct action to stop global warming ever. It will be a peaceful demonstration, carried out in a spirit of hope, in keeping with the spirit of this political moment. We will be there lookin’ fly in our dress clothes, and ask the same of you.

In our guts, we know the fight for climate justice is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and that is going to take tremendous courage and political risk. It’s time to take a stand on global warming. We can’t wait any longer for the changes we know we can, and must, make today.

With a new administration and a new Congress, we have a window of opportunity. But we have to open it - together.

• RSVP for the Action
• Attend a nonviolence training in your area
• Join us on Facebook

See you in the streets!

P.S: Why are we inspired to be part of this action? Read our discussion of the ecological crisis in the “Afterword - A Call to Innovation,” which invites activists to reimagine our strategies in the face of a rapidly changing, warming world.

“There are moments in a nation’s-and a planet’s-history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, and push for its correction. We think such a time has arrived…The industry claim that there is something called “clean coal” is, put simply, a lie. But it’s a lie told with tens of millions of dollars, which we do not have. We have our bodies, and we are willing to use them to make our point.”

~ Bill McKibben & Wendell Berry’s invitation to the Capitol Climate Action

The NY Times is reporting an interesting shift in the Democrat’s messaging around the economic crisis. Apparently “stimulus” is out and “recovery” is the new meme of choice. Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is quoted as saying “Stimulus is Washington talk and ‘economic recovery’ is how the American people think of it.” Nancy Pelosi apparently even clarified at a press conference that “We’re not using the word ‘stimulus’.”

It’s always worth paying attention to coordinated efforts to shift the framing of a critical issue but particularly in this case what does it mean? Will the Democrats start getting to the real roots of the problem or is it just new language for the same polices of denial and distraction?

The financial crisis provides us a unique opportunity to fundamentally change the way we conceptualize our economy and what makes an “economic recovery”. We are long overdue to recognize that the economy is merely a sub-system of an even more important and threatened system — the planet’s ecological operating system. Just as our economic system is sagging under the weight of toxic debt, our global environment is suffering from the debt industrialized nations have run up on the planet’s life sustaining natural systems. This uncalculated natural debt stems from the destruction of ecosystems, over-consumption by the wealthy, over extraction of limited resources and the dumping of massive amounts of pollution into the air, water and bodies of all living things. By continuing to ignore the true ecological foundation of our economy we are jeopardizing not only our economic well being but our entire global civilization.

Collectively, we must be very clear that whatever the Democrats mean by “economic recovery” it can not be the same-old, unfettered and indiscriminate “economic growth” that has created so many of our problems. It’s time to let our values and our common sense guide our economic policy. What do we want to grow? More billionaires or more organic vegetables? More strip malls selling disposable plastic crap or more just, resilient communities? More coal fired power plants or more local, renewable energy solutions? It’s time to change our thinking and change the story about what defines a healthy economy. Our movements need to demand that this economic recovery is part of a broader transformation of our economic system away from unlimited economic growth based on extraction, destruction and exploitation and towards a steady state economy based on ecological restoration, justice and equality.

There are lots of great resources out there for folks looking for the roots of this crisis and for real solutions. One of the best compilations has been put together by YES! magazine. You can also check out the new report from the Institute for Policy Studies Skewed Priorities: How the Bailouts Dwarf Other Crises which documents how that the U.S. and European governments are spending over 40 times on bailing out the financial system than they are on fighting global warming or poverty. Another resource is Break the Bailout an emerging “transpartisan coalition” that is challenging the massive taxpayer hand out to Wall Street and proposing alternatives.

Movements are the world are rising to the challenge of not only reframing the policy debates around the bail out of the financial industry but also questioning the underlying assumptions that are driving our current pathological economic system. At the recent G-20 meetings, hundreds of civil society organizations from around the planet produced a statement outlining an agenda to create an economic system that works for both people and planet. But this is just the beginning — there’s lots more work to do to make sure that the power of money works in the service of life. What are you doing to change the story around unlimited growth and create a more just, ecologically sane economy? Leave us a comment or drop us a line and let us know.

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling like this economic meltdown moment is a game-changer. The recent firestorm over the “bailout” is the beginning of a whole new conversation about our economic system, the role of the state, and extreme wealth and inequality. It is also clearly not the end of our economic woes, and things are likely going to get worse before they get better.

The recent revelations of economic trouble have produced a barrage of memes in the media and popular culture: meltdown, bailout, rescue package, and Wall Street vs. Main Street. Now, leaders tell us that we are in the midst a new economic reality – a credit crunch, foreclosure crisis, a recession, or another Great Depression.

Even as lawmakers struggle to reframe the $700 billion package as a “Rescue,” the “Bailout” meme remains more potent. The story of free market fundamentalism is unraveling, and the story has changed – but to what?

What does all of this mean for progressive strategy, and what are the stories we can tell about the real impacts and alternatives?

We’ve been glued to the news and talking to friends at partner groups like the Working Group on Extreme Inequality, the Design Studio 4 Social Intervention, and the Rainforest Action Network about what’s happening and what can be done. We’ve been inspired by efforts by groups like City Life/Vida Urbana and the Greenlining Institute. Last week I gathered with members of the Progressive Communicators Network at United For a Fair Economy in Boston to analyze the battle of the bailout story. At the PCN gathering, we also discussed what may come of the bailout and efforts to sway government, and listed the following Possible Outcomes:

• Lives are repaired: Meet needs of impacted people (people in foreclosure get refinancing etc)
• Political change: Obama is elected as a result of Bush’s economic bungles
• Changes in economic systems: Regulations are put in place, rules are changed, new definitions of economic progress are adopted
• Movement Emerges: Grassroots social movement gains ground

We had widespread agreement on these as potential goals for work in this period, and specifically discussed how these goals are not incompatible. We agreed that if we get into debates about which of these should be the most important goal, we lose sight of the gravity of this moment. All of the above is on the table. Everything could change.

The following is a rough narrative analysis of the landscape around the economic crisis using the battle of the story tool. We’re obviously just scratching the surface. I have also created a PDF VERSION battle of the bailout story for easier printing. PLEASE use this work in ways that are useful, and let us know what you think!

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PART I:

Power Holder Story: Collapse vs. Rescue
* This story uses fear to motivate action, and uses the “blame the few bad apples” frame to gloss over systemic problems.

The US way of life is threatened, and so we must act immediately. Democratic capitalism is the greatest system, and America is the greatest nation, and so even though we believe in the free market, we must intervene to save our economy. We must put partisanship and electioneering aside and make this rescue deal now – or face economic collapse.

Yes, there were some greedy individuals on Wall Street and some rouge lenders who went too far. Liberals like Barney Frank and big government caused this problem. With laws like the Community Reinvestment Act and the quasi-public Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government forced banks to make risky loans to minorities and low-income people who had no business buying houses. People irresponsibly borrowed to buy big houses that they just could not afford, and were living far outside of their means. Now these mortgages are troubled assets for the nation’s major financial institutions, and this means that everyone is in danger in this financial crisis.

This is not just a bailout for Wall Street. There is a crunch in the credit market, and so we are all in the same boat now. Small businesses that borrow money for payroll or holiday inventory are having trouble getting loans they rely on each year. The Dow is dropping by the day and the trading floors are reeling. Banks are hoarding cash and we’re facing the highest inter-bank overnight loan rate ever. Markets in Asia and Europe are affected. We cannot listen to these constituents who don’t understand the complexities of the economy and are mis-interpreting this plan. We all need access to credit and if we don’t pass this rescue package, the experts say that the gears of the economy will stop turning and you could lose your job. The US could lose our standing in the world as the major economic power, and our nation could be thrust into an economic recession akin to the Great Depression. Besides, since the package is to buy these securities at a low rate, the taxpayers can even make the money back when the housing market rebounds.

Conflict –
Collapse vs. Rescue
The US way of life is threatened
Things just got out of hand, and we must act now

Characters –
A few greedy, corrupt Wall Street bankers
Irresponsible borrowers living outside their means
Ignorant, reactionary taxpayers
Expert Economists
Bush-Paulson-Bernanke
Barney Frank & Nancy Pelosi: Bipartisans = Heroic selfless politicians
Warren Buffet
Liberal Congressmen: forced lenders to lend to people who shouldn’t be borrowing

Images –
Lehman Bros offices closing – bankers with cardboard boxes of their stuff packed up
Bad Paper = Toxic Waste
Banks in Crisis – hoarding cash
“Black Box” of investments
Meltdown
Desperate chaos on the Trading floors
Graph of market going down by the hour
DC gridlock around the clock– lawmakers up all night with pizza and Thai takeout

Foreshadowing -
Great Depression
Economic Collapse
We’re all to blame, we’re all in this together, and we’re all going to benefit

Core memes –
Meltdown
Rescue (or Bailout)
Economic Collapse
Crisis
Buy in (not Bailout)

Underlying Assumptions -
We need Wall Street
It’s Now or Never!
The market will fix itself (after the $700 billion)
This is a crisis of confidence, and the rescue will reestablish confidence
It’s everyone’s problem now
It’s like a natural disaster, coming out of nowhere; no one could have predicted it
US is entitled to be a superpower and take drastic action to protect our privileges
You’re either with us or against us
A bunch of poor people/people of color/stupid people had no business buying houses and ruined everything

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PART II: Change Agents Story
Casino Capitalism (risk) vs. American Dream (security)
Greed Economy vs. Green Economy
* This story attempts to explain why the crisis came to be, and tie solutions into a larger progressive agenda. It’s a little long, and repetitive, but attempts to offer some ways to explain the situation in a larger context.

While a handful of billionaires have been getting very rich playing in the Wall Street casino, real wages for the rest of us in the real economy have stagnated, and personal debt has ballooned. The economic growth of the last several decades has been bubble/debt driven, rather than based on real increases in wages – and this has been Washington’s policy. While honest people have been borrowing to get by, Wall Street has been seeking high returns on speculative high risks, and has been biding their time in a dangerous game of game of chicken. Bear Sterns cried out first, and by the time AIG said “uncle”, Bernenke was there with a $700 billion bailout for the entire financial sector.

But our livelihood is not a game, and this crisis didn’t happen overnight: the $700 billion dollar bailout of the bankrupt banks was a predictable outcome of decades of policy driven by greed and an ideology that says “government, get out of the way.” Drastic action is needed – but we can’t throw a trillion dollars at the people who made the problem and expect them to fix it. We need to modernize our economic system and launch the next (green) new deal – a massive reinvestment in job creation, clean energy, and opportunity that can save the American dream from foreclosure.

The cascading implosion of major banks is the result of decades of flawed policy based on the myth that greed on Wall Street is good for everyone. This myth has shaped the economic policies of Regan and Bush, and drove Clinton to deregulate investment banks to link mortgages to the stock market and repeal Depression Era reforms designed to protect us from the risks of financial speculation. It is tempting to blame the financial crisis on a few greedy hedge funders, or even on the millions of debtors in over their heads with sub-prime mortgages. But the culprit is an ideology that has had a death grip on our country for the last 20 years, and allowed this pyramid scheme of predatory lending to spiral out of control under the Bush Administration.

The problem is more than “no one was minding the store.” The fat cats bought off their friends and Washington and turned the store into a casino. There was so little government oversight that they could shred the rules, and make up new ones as they went along. In a capital-induced frenzy, they invented new games, new ways to bet, and gambled other people’s money to profit hand over fist. The government not only let this happen – it made it all possible and celebrated it as progress.

Now the Wall Street casino has been exposed as a house of cards atop mountains of debt. As their pyramid scheme comes crashing down it threatens to devastate the real economy that provides jobs, food and opportunity for the rest of us. Bailing out America means more than buying banks – it means keeping Americans in our homes, offering a health care system that doesn’t bankrupt our families, building thriving local economies that provide honest work, and retro-fitting our nation to deal with the energy crisis.

We face an economic crisis in the midst of two wars, global warming, and a health care system in desperate need of repair. As the proverb goes – in crisis there is opportunity. Now is the time to change course: re-regulate, re-invest, and re-finance to build a green economy that houses, insures and employs every American.

Conflict -
Casino Capitalism (risk) vs. American Dream (fairness & security)
Reckless Speculators vs. Honest everyday Americans
Greed Economy vs. Green Economy
Out-of-control/recklessness vs. stability/responsibility
Crisis vs. Opportunity
Wall Street vs. Main Street (this frame is about who gets the money, not about why the crisis is happening)
Real Economy (Life Values and Community Needs) vs. Speculative Economy (Money Values and Corporate Greed)

Characters -
Wall Street - Greedy Hedge Funders
Predatory mortgage brokers
2 million people in foreclosure
Impacted people: unemployed, uninsured, over stretched, in debt
Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II

Images -
Game of Chicken
Saying Uncle
Casino / games / gambling
Liquor cabinet of capital
Top-heavy system falling over
Implosion
Debt bubble: House as ATM machine
Families forced out of homes
Imaginary money
Foreclosure Pickets
House of cards
Mountains of debt

Foreshadowing -
Next New Deal – people working in jobs that matter: energy overhaul (windmills, weather stripping, solar, rail)
Real Economic Recovery
Turn the Countrywide office into a job training facility
Micro credit lending; tell stories about people investing in people; micro-enterprises that create good jobs in local communities

Core Memes –
Next New Deal
Green New Deal
Pyramid scheme
Casino capitalism
Predatory lending
Honest work
House of cards
Crisis = Opportunity

Underlying Assumptions-
This is a crisis of capitalism
This crisis embodies institutional racism, and the predatory sub-prime market targeted communities of color. Efforts to lay the blame on borrowers is a play on racist assumptions.
People in power always manage the economy – this was deliberate mismanagement
We share collective responsibility for the well being of all – solutions must address the needs of everyone
This is a pivotal moment that could mean opportunity to overhaul the financial system and change stories on related issues: global warming, health care, ending the occupation, economic inequality, etc.
This crisis is also an ecological wakeup call. If we don’t change the real bubble that will pop is our planet…

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Brainstorm: Possible Points of Intervention for nonviolent action

Production: Organizing workers in the financial institutions

Decision: Action in Washington, Protest at the Capitol, Birdogging on the Campaign Trail, Appearences by financial industry execs

Destruction: Picketing foreclosure proceedings

Consumption: Action at the storefronts of major banks

Point of assumption: Telling a new story on Wall Street (dramatic actions at the Bull). Transforming sub-prime lender storefronts into something more helpful for communities. Launching major people-to-people micro-credit exchanges in public spaces. Exposing the assumption that hard times are the result of individual circumstances—bringing people together to share stories and find common experiences, forming alliances of mutual aid.

?

Nearly 10 years ago in late November 1999, I was one of the over 50,000 activists from different movements around the world who converged on Seattle to confront the World Trade Organization. We had come together to challenge the slickly packaged agenda of “free trade,” and the WTO’s effort to enshrine the power and profits of multinational corporations as the organizing principle of a new global order. The mass non-violent actions which shut down the opening day of the meeting (and the subsequent collapse of the Ministerial talks) marked a major milestone in the ongoing struggles for global justice, democracy, peace and ecological sanity.

Last week I had the surreal experience of re-living the actions as I attended an advance screening of the new feature length independent docu-drama called Battle in Seattle:

Naturally, the movie is far from perfect. It contains some typical cheesy cliches (particularly around gender) and its focus on a few central characters distorts the reality that actions like Seattle grew out of mass participation, decentralized decision-making and the underlying energy of broad social movements.

Nonetheless, the movie was so much better than I had expected it to be. The film contains over 9 minutes of archival footage that seamlessly blends into the movie and effectively recreates the look and feel of the actions. The film is a powerful depiction of the actions and is clearly anti-WTO, pro-mass action and culminates with a montage of global resistance that serves as a inspiring call to action.

Popular culture representations of social change struggles present both the opportunity to reach a wider, uninitiated audience - and the dangers of cooptation and distortion. When it comes to Seattle, the sad truth is that our movements have lost the Battle of the Story over the WTO protests. Unfortunately, the essential history and significance of Seattle and the subsequent global justice actions has largely failed to enter U.S. mass consciousness. Shoddy corporate journalism mis-labeled the WTO actions a “riot,” and despite a brief period of sensationalistic media coverage, the reporting largely ignored the underlying clash of values and ideas between global solidarity and corporate globalization. After 9-11, the U.S. corporate media delivered numerous public obituaries for the U.S. wing of a global movement of movements they had never really reported on, and the legacy of Seattle faded into the never ending onslaught of tabloidized 24 hour news cycles and reality TV shows.

So in 2008, what does this mean for us? The movie is fast paced, exciting and has a sprinkling of stars (Woody Harrelson as a violent cop, Charlize Theron as his wife, Ray Liotta as Seattle’s mayor, and Andre 3000 as one of the core activists). The anti-WTO message is clear, but the movie prioritizes being “entertaining.” All of this means the movie could succeed in reaching mass audiences inside the United States. If this movie is widely seen, it could spark broader conversation about corporate power, mass protest and the dynamics of how change is made. Although the exact social impact of a movie is difficult to gauge, it can certainly help us reclaim the legacy of Seattle and channel that energy into ongoing work for change. But only if we mobilize behind it…

Upcoming Events by Eventful

As the director (Irish actor Stuart Townsend) made clear to those of us at the screening, this movie can’t succeed on it own. The film is a small budget independent film, and after a year of disappointing experiences with distributors they are self-releasing. It does NOT have big Hollywood money behind it and it’s set to open in only 4 cities for a one week run on September 19th and then open in 10 more cities the following week. If — and ONLY if — it is commercially successful in those cities will it be released for mass distribution across the country. Essentially, in order for this movie to get widely seen it needs the support of progressive activists like you, and it needs it on those critical opening two weeks.

The film’s very small promotions crew is actually led by a Seattle WTO veteran, Harold Linde, who is one of the activists who helped hang the Rainforest Action Network’s famous WTO vs. Democracy banner (which is the opening sequence of the film.) As Harold explained, one of the best things people can do to help this movie succeed is to demand that local theaters play it.

Request a showing in your local community!

Share Your Seattle Stories!

The upcoming release of the film has also sparked another very important initiative to create a broader, multi-facted people’s history of the Battle in Seattle. This web based project has put an invitation out to all Seattle WTO veterans to post your stories and analysis of what happened at www.realbattleinseattle.org. The site has lots of great resources and links so check it out and post your story!

We may have lost the Battle of the Story around Seattle’s legacy, but it’s never too late to reclaim our stories! Between helping get the movie widely seen, and participating in projects like the people’s history website, we can hopefully reclaim some of that story and introduce new generations of activists to the joys of taking mass direct action for a better world.

More links for those unfamiliar or curious about the history and significance of the Seattle WTO protests:

• The Big Noise Films documentary This is What Democracy Looks Like
• The anthology The Battle of Seattle: the New Challenges to Capitalist Globalization edited by Eddie Yuen, George Katsiaficas and Daniel Burton Rose
• SmartMeme’s Doyle Canning’s reflections on the Seattle actions can be found in the book Letters from Young Activists

Two great books that capture the legacy of Seattle and dispatches from the global movements against corporate power and exploitation are:

• We are Everywhere: the Irresistible Rise of Global Anticapitalism edited by the Notes from Nowhere Collective
• Globalize Liberation: How to Uproots the System and Build a Better World edited by David Solnit (and including several contributions from smartMeme’s Patrick Reinsborough)

A cool contest to name the economic era of these years 2000′s…
Hey smartMeme community! If anyone can do this, you can! We are collaborating with the Working Group on Extreme Inequality to educate and mobilize around the extreme concentration of wealth and power that is strangling opportunity in our country. The top one percent of households received 22.9 percent of all pre-tax income in 2006, more than double what that figure was in the 1970s. Meanwhile, 36.5 million people were below the official poverty line in 2006. This is the greatest concentration of income since the Gilded Age of 1928, when 23.9 percent of all income went to the richest one percent.

What is happening in our country right now needs a name! What should we be calling this era of extreme inequality we’re all living through? The Second Gilded Age? The Age of Excess? The SubPrime Period? Or do you have have a better idea? Enter our new Name Our Epoch contest by July 31 — and Barbara Ehrenreich, Walter Moseley, and Howard Zinn will chose the winner!

Naming the moment is a key narrative strategy to answering the question everyone is asking - What is going on in this country right now? Gas prices through the roof, Bear-Stearns execs on the run, home foreclosures on an exponential rise…and a waiting list for custom mega yachts? In order to achieve social justice, we must both fight poverty at the bottom of the ladder, and challenge the extreme wealth and power that control the tippy top.

Enter the contest and join the conversation