- by Adela Bezemer-Cleverley
All politicians need to be held accountable no matter what party they represent.
A lot of my American friends are breathing a little easier now, sleeping a bit sounder, knowing that they no longer have a literal fascist wannabe-dictator in charge. I feel for them, and celebrate with them.
A lot of my American friends are still angry and hurt and have no reason to trust yet another rich old white man and a party that’s still dead centre on the political spectrum. Friends who can hardly put food on the table and can’t leave their houses even if there wasn’t a pandemic, because the streets are not safe for people who look like them. I feel for them too.
Joe Biden will do good, I’m sure. If he lives up to even half of what his inauguration speech said, he will hopefully bring some stability to the country. If he takes the sentiments of Amanda Gorman’s incredible poem to heart, maybe he will be able to create real change for the better.
But let’s not forget that North America’s idea of “liberal” is not actually progressive. North America’s idea of liberal (and yes, I’m including the Liberal party of Canada in this) is centre at best. It’s the bare minimum of adequacy. It’s making promises to try to pander to both sides, to look good and maintain support, and ultimately uphold and protect and value the capitalist colonial state above the lives and well-being of all people who live here.
Right-wing conservatives call Biden a leftist and a communist, but in European countries where free health care and free university are the norm, Biden’s policies are more in line with what they consider conservative. It’s a perspective thing: America is far behind other first world countries when it comes to basic human rights and equality.
And Canada is just as bad. We’re just less populated and better at hiding our ugliness. Remember how relieved some were when Trudeau took over from Harper? Remember how many promises the Liberals made about education funding, environmental policies, indigenous reconciliation? Broken promises.
It is naive to blindly trust that people in power have our best interests at heart, and it is a privilege to be able to. Political apathy is a privilege, period. If you open your eyes to the thousands of Canadians who are disabled, starving, Black, Indigenous, people of colour, religious minorities, homeless, unjustly incarcerated; if you see them and actually care, then you can’t just sit back and let things continue the way they are. If you actually care, you have to recognize the ways in which our country and our government fails, then stand up and demand that they do better.
Not to mention, Canada is full of fascists too. The Proud Boys started in Canada. Violent white supremacy is allowed to prevail against indigenous communities while the RCMP just stand by and watch it happen (see: Nova Scotia). The Premier of Ontario is associated with known white supremacists and Proud Boys members, and supported Trump. There were Canadians in the Capitol riot two weeks ago. If you know a hardcore conservative or anyone who actually likes Doug Ford and thinks he’s a good leader, or supported Harper back in the day, you might want to take a long hard look at how they talk about and treat people different than themselves.
(Casual reminder that antifa is not some mysterious and dangerous hate group against white people: it’s just a short form of anti-fascist. And if you are not actively anti-fascist, you are fascist. Likewise if you are not actively anti-racist, you are racist. Period.)
How can we stand up and fight during a global pandemic when we all have to stay at home? I’ve struggled with that too. Here are some suggestions:
- stay informed. follow activist organizations on social media, especially local ones. know what’s happening so that you know when and how to help.
- share information, and share your thoughts and beliefs so that others have to reflect on their own. Example: this post.
- if you can, donate to organizations and charities supporting human rights, indigenous land protection and reclamation, victims of police brutality, homeless and disabled people, and individual gofundme campaigns for struggling people and families. if you can’t afford to donate, share their information and encourage others to. contact the organizations and ask how you can help in other ways.
- when you see someone saying or doing something harmful, online or in person. SAY SOMETHING. make them check themselves. if they are impossible to deal with, as many right-wing conservatives and similarly minded people are, block them and cut them out of your life. sometimes that is what it takes for someone to realize they are wrong, and if that doesn’t change their mind, there’s nothing you could have done for them anyway.
- if you see something wrong in your community, your province or your country (harassment of homeless people, fascist/colonial symbolism, police brutality, etc.), contact your representatives and tell them, and share the information and encourage others to do the same. City Hall, MPs and MPPs, whoever makes sense in the situation. it’s literally their job to hear and act upon the needs and concerns of the people.
- go to protests for the causes you believe in. put your body there in support. protests are a necessary part of society: they are proven to be the most effective way to show politicians what the people want, and create actual change. I know this is kind of a moot point while we’re in lockdown, but you can bet once this is over I’ll be out there. Heck even before then, if there is another local march for Black lives, or Land Back, or education, or anti-capitalism, or climate advocacy, I’ll be there, masked and ready.
- if you have other ideas, please share them as well. Being in a small rural town and having a lot of anxiety and no money makes me feel really useless in regards to activism a lot of the time, so I always want to know if I could be doing more.
I’ve rambled so long I’ve probably lost anyone reading this and got a bit away from my original point. My point is: it’s okay to celebrate and feel relieved that Joe Biden is now the president of the United States. It’s okay to appreciate incremental change. But then we need to take a deep breath and plunge back into the work of making this world better, and holding our leaders accountable if they’re not doing that work themselves.
And in case it isn’t abundantly clear: I am an anti-racist, anti-fascist, anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, young white settler who believes in the power of community, in socialism, free education, free healthcare, affordable housing, abolishing the police and the RCMP and defunding the military/returning them to the peacekeeping mission we claim they stand for, universal base income, women’s rights, trans rights, disability rights, and children’s rights.
And before you say “but that’s fantasy, our country could never afford—“ please consider: billionaires should not exist. If our country’s billionaires wanted to stop hoarding wealth, or if the government decided to properly tax the top 1%, they could solve *all* of these things and still be wealthy. If every billionaire in the world turned socialist and worked with countries to built infrastructure and fund education and healthcare? World hunger = solved. It’s the distribution of wealth that’s the problem, not the lack of money or resources.
I know I am on the right side of history in this: it’s just a matter of whether the world can catch up with the radical left before climate change and capitalism destroy us all. That’s what truly scares me.
image: Fridays for Future rally at Parliament, 2019, Photo: Chris Kurys
