by Marianne CerilliAs part of the May Works Celebration of Labour and Arts a session led by Hamilton based politics and community development academic, Kevin MacKay explored concepts from his book Radical Transformation – Oligarchy, Collapse and the Crisis of Civilization. Concepts like macro-intersectionality and an organizers mindset as well as a viable framework for just transition. A PDF of his slide presentation for this framework and webinar is available here.
The framework begins with making sense of the interconnecting crisis we face in areas of politics, economy, ecology, as well as culture and society. Then it looks at theories of change and a model for strategy development around 4 main tasks: building solidarity across movements, building public awareness, building alternatives, and disrupting/stopping more harm.
In the discussion we talked about closing the gap between where we need to be for a sustainable, and humane future, with building our capacity to embrace complexity and not be overwhelmed by the enormity of the compounding challenges we face. The slides outline the framework in more detail which acts like a mind-map or mental picture that helps us feel capable of meeting the challenge. The approach aligns well with the focus of the recent On to Ottawa Peace Caravan theme – Demilitarize, Decarbonize, Decolonize. The root of the problems of poverty and inequity, climate change, mass extinction, militarism and war, MMIWG and loss of Indigenous culture, is the same, late-stage growth economics and collapse.