social justice – Pike & Hurricane

Action beyond protest: “A different world is possible”

Merle Emrich — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 15:46:30 +0000

Much like any other polytheistic society, the Ancient Greeks had a god.dess for just about any important aspect of their lives. One of them was Adrestia, the goddess of revolt, just retribution and balance between good and evil. Her name translates to “the inescapable”, and if we look at history social conflict and revolts are indeed a recurring theme – from the French Revolution and Gandhi’s Salt March to the Monday Demonstrations that helped bring down the Berlin Wall. More recent waves of protests, including Occupy Wall Street, the growing environmental movement and social justice movements from Lebanon over France to Chile, demonstrate that revolt and protests are still as inescapable as a means to bring about social and political change as it seemed to be in Ancient Greece.

Cathartic protest

First and foremost, protests are a form of opposition against an actual, planned or feared course of action. As such it can be “an end in itself”, a form of catharsis that resolves social tensions, and citizens’ frustration and discontent. Protest marches, rallies and vigils have a function as sign of objection, they are a means of communicating to the authorities the discontent or wish for change of the population, or at least a part of it. As such they also offer a platform to blow off steam, to voice anger, fear and hope, to start a conversation with people who share the same opinion, or who oppose it. Catharsis in protest can come through songs and shouts, to chance encounters with fellow protesters, or merely the knowledge to have been part of it, to have done something about the issue at hand.

Especially when protest alone does not lead to change, however, it becomes necessary to channel its cathartic energy into the development of new strategies and finding solutions and alternatives to the present condition. As philosopher Auguste Comte put it, “nothing really essential and enduring can be accomplished in the practical fold when its theoretical implications are not clearly worked out, or are at least well on the way to solution.”

“We must be able to […] propose alternatives”

In France, the organisers of the Vrai Débat are trying to capture the energy and ideas of the Gilets jaunes movement. As a reaction to Macron’s grand débat, they collected ideas and comments online on issues people consider important, followed by a series of deliberative assemblies in several cities throughout the country starting in mid-June 2019. “They allow us to combine democracy with social movement”, says participant Anthony Brault. “You prioritise and think together, we will create a political programme that will not replace the Gilets jaunes but can be useful for them.” During the assemblies between 15 and 40 people work on the most popular propositions for two days. They are divided by topic and small working groups analyse them to sum up the most frequent ideas and arguments in a concise document. “We must be able to exchange ideas”, explains another participant, Daniel, “to propose alternatives.”

In a similar manner climate camps aim at providing a platform for discussion, networking and exploring alternatives. One of these climate camps takes place every year in the Rhineland, Germany where there are three coal pits and five power plants that together are responsible for a third of Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions. The Klimacamp im Rheinland combines Ende Gelände’s civil disobedience actions against coal mining with trying out “tomorrow’s society – social, ecological and based on grassroots democracy”. Cultural programmes as well as courses, workshops, panel discussions on topics “from theoretical analysis of climate change to practical stuff like building a windmill” are organised, and the camp is structured based on anti-authoritarian self-organisation.

Climate of change

In the same region the Hambach Forest is located, an ancient forest that was supposed to be cut down to expand a coal mine, and even though the forest is now supposed to remain it’s future is still not guaranteed as water that sustains the trees needs to be pumped out of the ground to prevent the flooding of the coal pits. There, environmental activists are combining protest with the development of alternative ways of living and organising society in a similar, yet more permanent, way as the climate camps. To prevent the destruction of the forest, the activists began to occupy the forest in 2012. They built tree houses to make eviction more difficult, and on a meadow nearby a communal kitchen, a building for assemblies, a library and a museum was set up.

780 kilometres away, the ZAD (zone to defend) of Notre-Dame-des-Landes (ZAD NDDL) that began as an occupation to prevent the destruction of 1650 hector of agricultural land and wetland for the construction of an airport has become a social project of an alternative form of structuring collective life, a vision of what society could look like. This shift of the ZAD as a means of protest and resistance to an end in itself has resulted in the Zadists’ refusal to leave the area even when the airport project was abandoned by the government in 2018. Over the course of its existence since 2000, the ZAD NDDL has become a political space “in which social and ecological experiments take place” within a framework of “self-governance, egalitarian sharing of tasks, hospitality, gratuity, and work without hierarchical subordination”.

“A different world is possible”

In an interview published on mediapart’s participative blog, activist and Gilet jaune Geneviève Legay said: “We must think of utopia as something attainable. Otherwise I would not continue to fight, if I thought it wasn’t possible. And if people hadn’t fought for utopias, we wouldn’t have the rights we have today. […] a different world is possible, it is necessary to build it together.” The same is emphasised by writer, director and environmental activist Cyril Dion. To bring about change we need NGOs and Zadists, civil disobedience and guerilla gardening as well as social entrepreneurs and novelists.

To increase the likelihood that “the inescapable” revolt results in the envisaged change and does not end with its first cathartic infant steps, a common effective strategy is necessary. Thus, in the beginning, according to Dion, is a set of questions that need to be answered: “Can we hope to find solutions within our democracies or not? Must the strategy to stop the destruction and the warming [of the planet] be political, citizen-based or both? Can it be done without using violence?”

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

Ende Gelaende 20119, Besetzung nder RWE Strukturen im rheinischen Braunkohlerevier: Der Goldene Finger bricht aus der Fridays for Future Demonstration bei Hochneukirch aus und stürmt über die Kante in den Tagebau Garzweiler. Alle Bagger werden abgeschalte, David Klammer, CC BY-NC 2.0

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Rap music as a political message

Pauline Zaragoza — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 15:43:56 +0000

Rap music which is mostly considered as a scandalous art can be the subject of curiosity. Actually, by nature rap constitutes a tool for contestation and can carry out a political message.

Origin and characteristics of rap

Rap music can be defined as a cultural movement born in the seventies in American black and Latino ghettos. It is rooted in the Hip hop movement and has been influenced by various music such as reggae, blues, or rock. This music incorporates “rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular“ and it is composed of content (what is being said), flow (rhythm, rhyme), and delivery (cadence, tone). Etymologically, the word “rap” comes from the verb “to rap” which means to “to strike, especially with a quick, smart, or light blow” and is also slang for “to talk or discuss, especially freely, openly, or volubly; chat”.

A political DNA

In the field of music, rap holds an original place. It is considering as the first music “without professional musician”. Rap music is intrinsically politics. Rap’s politicization can be explained by the fact that it’s a way to express the concrete effects of pauperization in ghettos and by the politicized interpretation of rap music by the media. According to Arsenik’s statement, “No one can pretend to rap without taking a position”. In the nineties, this sentence was particularly true with some groups such as the Public Group in the US or Assassin and IAM in France.

Political rap music exploded in the eighties. At this time, it has been a way to express a malaise and claims of the ghettos’ inhabitants. During this Golden Age, what we call “gangsta rap” was born; N.W.A group in California composed by Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella are the standard-bearer of this style. They were inspired by their daily life with police brutalities and gang wars.

In 1988, they signed the hit “Fuck tha police”, a classic song in which they denounce police violence against young black American. Before, in 1982, the group Grandmaster Flash had written the famous song “The Message” in which they criticized power symbols, police and justice.

Rap music can be pictured as the incarnation of oppressed revolt: the representation of an anti-establishment discourse based on identity and claims of urban life’s problems. According to some sociologists, such as Boucher, rap must be studied as a movement which inform us about values conveyed in urban areas and by young people. Hence, rap music is a new political enunciation.

The birth of mainstream rap

With time, rap has become one predominant aspect of world pop culture. Next to the birth of a political rap in the eighties and nineties, we can see a broadening of the genre. There was also a development of a “provocative” mainstream rap with its symbols such as luxury cars, guns or even women.

But compared to this “non-engaged” rap, we can also see the mainstreaming of a more political rap style. Indeed, engaged rap is popular because there are representing certain youth from ghettos. As explained by the French rapper Youssoupha, the success of rappers in society is a “militant act” in itself rather than its militancy being bound to the art-form or the lyrics.

As engaged rap is spread, it carries with it a message. As an example, in the nineties, famous French rappers such as Kery James, IAM, Minister AMER, Assasin, NTM and many others used their popularity for the hit “11’30 against racists laws”.

Also, at the international scale, we are witnessing the coming of popular engaged rappers who wake people up to listen. One of the most famous is Jay-Z who talked about racism and the black experience in America in his Grammy-nominated album, “4:44.”. We can also cite Eminem or Kendrick Lamar with his Grammy-nominated album “Damn” and his 2015 album “To Pimp a Butterfly”. In this last one, we can listen featuring lyrics such as: “Donald Trump’s in office/ We lost Barack and promised to never doubt him again/ But is America honest, or do we bask in sin?”.

Originally, rap, by tackling topics such as money, delinquency or insecurity, was born from pain and contestation. And even if today we are witnessing a mainstreaming of rap which implies the arrival of white middle-class rappers, this engaged DNA is not dead.

A style still alive: political rap during social crisis

Political rap is especially prominent while a society faces an important crisis, whether it’s a political or historical one, or one concerning identity. In France, the day following the access of the presidential election second round by Jean-Marie Le Pen had led famous rappers to gather and incite youth to block far-right accession with the song “La lutte est en marche”. The French rappers Kery James who is considered as the king of French engaged rap had made the hit “Letter to the French Republic” (“Lettre à la République”) where he tackles the demonization of Muslim people in France and inhabitants of French ghettos who comes from a France that has forgotten its colonial past and its discrimination.

We can talk about Donald Trump’s access to the White House, which has created a wave of engaged rap song. We can cite Eminem with his explosive freestyle rap which he unleashed on the President. About the same target, Childish Gambino with his brilliant and brutal music video “This is America” criticized US modern society; the video clip had more than 1 million views in less than 24 hours. With this song, he raised awareness about the fact that guns have more value than human life and the banalization of violence especially against Black American. In addition, in the United Kingdom, the rapper Stormzy with his song “Vossip Bop” included a gem on Brexit and Boris Johnson: “Rule number 2 don’t make the promise/ If you can’t keep the deal then just be honest/ I can never die I’m Chuck Norris/ Fuck the government and fuck Boris.”

As described by the journalist Karim Madani, rap involves provocation. According to him, “politics and rap are a bad melange. We are in a censured period with the politically correct but Rap Music by its nature is inherently politically incorrect”.

by Pauline Zaragoza

Photo Credits

Eminem-04, Mika Väisänen, CC BY-SA 4.0,

Tupac graffiti New York, JJ & Special K, CC BY-SA 2.0,

Jay-Z concert, i am guilty, CC BY-SA 2.0,

Festival des Vieilles Charrues 2017 – Kery James – 170, Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Vantage Point Europe: A Revolution of Priorities

Merle Emrich — Thu, 16 May 2019 11:14:25 +0000

On Monday, 15th April 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris burned. While the incident is undoubtedly deplorable, calling it a ‘tragedy for the whole world’ is not only incredibly West-centric but reactions like these shine a spotlight on the hypocrisy of our society.

In a time span of not even four days, large corporations and several wealthy individuals donated a total of €850 million without hesitation. However, what we need is not a symbolic gesture of the 1% or shedding tears for a damaged church certain to be rebuilt, as it should be, no matter how magnificent. What we need is a revolution of priorities, a revolution of compassion and solidarity, which sparks awareness and leads to action.

Let’s start at home

While a handful of people possesses the wealth to be able to liberally pledge up to €200 million each, almost 9 million people in France have less than €1026 each month and thus 14% of the population live in poverty, mostly single parent families, unemployed and young people but also farmers and artisans. Many in France have at least heard of people who have to sleep in their cars because they cannot afford rent despite a job. And often the Gilets jaunes, who are taking to the street every week since November 17, 2018, name being out of money by the middle of the month due to the wage-living cost difference as one of the reasons why change is necessary. While, according to an EU statistic cited by Le Figaro, France has one of the lowest poverty (risk) rates in the EU (with the poverty line at 60% of the median income), beating Sweden by 0.9 percent points in 2015, Germany by 3.1 and Spain by 8.5, the statistics do not necessarily represent lived every day experiences.

“The real violence is: 9 million poor, 80 billion tax evasion, Google isn’t paying taxes, the loss of our schools and hospitals, the BAC [brigade anti-criminalité]. Not the three broken shop windows.”

In France’s neighbouring country to the north, the UK, policies have been implemented to reduce poverty of the elderly. And while this is undoubtedly an important step, another age group has been neglected: children. Due to stagnating incomes and benefit cuts relative child poverty might rise to 37% in 2023/24 exceeding the last high of the early 1990s. The Resolution Foundation states that a wage growth of only 1% could improve the situation, but it is up to the government to take such measures, or if they fail to do so it is up to the people to demand change.

Even further north, in Sweden, overall living standards have risen. However, this mostly applies to the wealthiest 10% while relative poverty is increasing fast. Sweden once had a considerably higher standard of social justice than other industrialised countries but in the last decade the income gap in Sweden was the fastest growing one of 34 OECD countries. It does not mean that the situation is now worse in Sweden than in other industrialised countries but it indicates that Sweden is moving from a poster child of social justice closer towards the rest of the industrialised world. And this trend is further supported by recent tax cuts for the wealthy which have left experts warning that, with many Swedes being increasingly unhappy with public services such as policing and schools, tax cuts might fuel xenophobia and populism.

Democracy and Journalism

Populism is not the only current threat to democracy. In April, Reporters Without Borders published the 2019 World Press Freedom Index. In their report, the organisation states that the situation for journalists has generally worsened, also in Europe – despite it still being the safest continent – due to journalists increasingly having to work in a ‘climate of fear’ and the rising number of attacks on journalists. It is not only politicians who seek to discredit the media, in France several journalists report to have been specifically targeted by police officers during the Gilets jaunes protests.

During Act 23 of the Gilets jaunes in Paris on April 20, journalist Gaspard Glanz was arrested and taken into custody for 48 hours. After having been hit by splinters of a tear gas grenade also containing 25g explosives which according to Glanz landed in the proximity of a group solely composed of journalists, he demanded to speak to the commissioner in order to receive an explanation for the incident. One of the police officers thus pushed the journalist back to which he reacted with a rude gesture. It followed the arrest and a, now revoked, ban on being in Paris on the first of May as well as on every Saturday until the trial in October. In an interview with Le Média, Glanz commented that it was not normal that journalists represented 10% of the injured (according to journalist David Dufresne’s count on his twitter account 10.2% by March 30, having increased to 12.9% by May 14) while making up only 1 or 2% of all people present and, in most cases, not having their protective gear confiscated by the police.

But the issue is not contained to France alone. It is a general European, and global, trend that shows itself through incidents such as the killing of Jamal Khashoggi as well as those of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta and Ján Kuciak and his fiancée in Slovakia, and the excessive and arbitrary imprisonment of journalists in countries such as Turkey. It is also visible in more low-key developments such as the increased verbal abuse and discrediting of the media. It is a trend that, for instance, saw the UK fall on place 40 out of 180, behind Uruguay, Chile and Samoa in Reporter Without Borders’ ranking.

Across the Sea

Increasing social inequalities and worsening conditions for journalist stand in a contrast to the European Union’s (EU) values such as equality, human dignity, freedom and democracy. But even more so does its policy concerning refugees. Article 2(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights states: “Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally […]” following article 1 that declares the EU’s commitment to respect human rights which according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights also includes the “right to life, liberty and security of person” (article 3) “without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” (article 2).

And yet, the EU has abandoned its efforts to save drowning refugees in the Mediterranean and has even gone so far as to criminalise NGOs and civil society groups rescuing refugees and to deny their vessels access to European ports. Iverna McGowan (Amnesty International) commented this development by saying that “EU leaders have chosen to pander to xenophobic governments who are hellbent on keeping Europe closed, and to push even more responsibility onto countries outside the EU.” Meanwhile, French interior minister Castaner is siding with Italian right-wing Deputy PM Matteo Salvini as he accused NGOs of being accomplices of human smugglers. It is an accusation that is not based on facts so much as on La République en Marche’s fight against immigration, counters the director of Médecins sans Frontières, Michaël Neuman.

It becomes blindingly obvious, that it is not eras of carefreeness that show our true nation. On the contrary, it is times marked by challenges, inconveniences and crises that reveal the true value we place on human life, dignity, compassion and kindness – and to whom we apply that value and to whom we don’t.

A New Hope

To a certain extent it is understandable that Notre Dame evokes stronger emotions than international – if not global – problems, be it poverty and social injustice, infringements of democratic principles that we so want to belief in, or the death of strangers due to wars that we, by means of arms exports, profit from. It is closer to home, more relatable, easier to process and easier to fix. However, the hypocrisy of painting the accidental burning of a church as a global catastrophe while closing one’s eyes from the real catastrophes calls for a revolution of priorities, a kindling of compassion and solidarity.

There is one thing each of us needs to reflect on – student, politician, bartender, banker, arms producer, accountant, police officer: what can the Notre-Dame incident symbolise? To me the fire of something so old and seemingly eternal, in a world that too often appears to be meant the way it is, shows that a structure thought to last for all infinity can be broken up. There lies chaos and confusion in this destructive force. And yet, it is a creative power because who knows what will happen after. Who knows how we can shift and remodel the debris. Who knows if we cannot construct something even more magnificent. And we have it in our power to do so.

The strongest example of this power at the moment are perhaps environmental movements such as Fridays for Future and Extinction Rebellion. They speak – with urgency but also with hope – of an awakening to challenges superseding the individual in the here and now but applying to all of global society, present and future. At the same time the people of Algeria and Sudan are fighting for their democratic rights, Europe-wide protests against the EU’s refugee policy take place and the Gilets jaunes movement unites concerns for social justice with demands for more inclusion of the people in democratic processes and for more environmental justice. And even the arrest of Gaspard Glanz had positive effects since it resulted in a wave of solidarity expressed by various media channels and journalists and raised awareness on the often precarious situation of independent and young reporters who might not even have a press card.

At times the injustices and horrors of our society might seem overwhelming, and thus mentioned in this article are only a few and very much focused on Europe. Simultaneously, Venezuela is shaken by conflict, the war in Yemen is still ongoing, the suffering of the Rohingya has not ceased, … But amidst all this, it is more important than ever to not walk through this world with an averted view but to meet all tragedy and challenges with compassion and kindness, with courage and solidarity, and to take hope from every positive development, however small, and from the knowledge that we are not alone as we decide to walk this path.

by Merle Emrich

Photo Credits

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