Is Transition just a new name for the same old thing?
What has prompted me to write this was receiving an email announcing "Just Do it", a new climate change film, and recommending it to my Transition initiative. This is the blurb:
Just Do It lifts the lid on climate activism and the daring troublemakers who have crossed the line to become modern day outlaws. Emily James spent over a year embedded in activist groups such as Climate Camp and Plane Stupid to document their clandestine activities. With unprecedented access, Just Do It introduces you to a powerful cast of mischievous and inspiring characters who put their bodies in the way; they blockade factories, attack coal power stations and glue themselves to the trading floors of international banks despite the very real threat of arrest.
This is the classical climate change activism: highly political, essentially international rather than local, and heavily focused on protest. But I can't say I'm surprised to see it in advertised for Transition initiatives, or that many Transition initiatives are showing this film and others that have the same focus.
Because the truth is, the Transition movement was taken over from the start by the old guard of greenies. I have spoken with a couple of researchers that did studies on the Transition movement, and they all reached the conclusion that it hadn't generally attracted new people to climate change activism, it was the same old people wearing a new hat and developing a bit of an interest in the local side of things. But all the signs point to everything reverting to form, with Transition initiatives being no different to any other green groups.
Doly,
Being a former resident of London and SE England who grew up in the 1990s I understand much of what you say, but feel its important to look at a wider picture too - things are clearly different outside these areas with a lot more practical projects being delivered, as well as a the "dissent as a fashion statement" culture I remember during the 90s (particularly linked in with Britpop and raves) - but of course these don't attract the younger trendier filmmakers, due to the relative lack of conflict and "excitement"!
Also what I noticed with "struggling" Transition initiatives is this seemed to happen in areas where there already are a large number of perhaps competing environmental campaign groups - such as Oxford in SE England and Brighton. Elsewhere, though progress is clearly slower than many have hoped for, they seem to be working and with a much more diverse crowd than traditional "Green" campaigning groups. There is still much work to be done, particularly to engage the younger folk seeking more excitement, but I do feel there is a subtle difference between Transition and the old style eco-warriors - if only because there seem to be a lot more mature/retired people in Transition in some areas (though this may also be a matter of demographics).
However, one lesson though we can learn from the "eco-warriors" is how successfully they were infiltrated by the Police, including Mark Stone/Kennedy, who quite frankly looked like he could have walked straight off the set of "Ashes to Ashes" (or perhaps a sequel set in the 1990s rave days). Metpol stopped sending cops like him into raves as they looked too blatantly obvious, and were a poor return on investment as drug users who hold noisy parties aren't exactly hard to locate and identify simply by following the call patterns of annoyed neighbours!
However, he was tolerated and welcomed in the activist groups and given access to "privileged info" because he was prepared to do the boring/nerdy stuff like admin work, to turn up to places on time, to drive activists to their various actions. It is this practice of neglecting boring tasks and cherry picking fun ones that can drag down any volunteer group, whatever their motives may be! Sadly, this is also why the political Right often seem to be "doing better" as they often seem more prepared to put in the boring work/deferred gratification..
>It is this practice of neglecting boring tasks and cherry picking fun ones that can drag down any volunteer group, whatever their motives may be!
This is absolutely true, and in the case of Transition Brighton & Hove, there were clearly a lot of people, including some of the most influential ones, that believed that it was part of Transition principles to be always positive and that meant that any task that didn't feel positive and instead felt like a chore must be wrong. For example, if a meeting was boring, then the meeting was wrong and maybe that kind of information sharing or discussion shouldn't be had at all. Never mind that it's important that at least some people have an idea of what's going on exactly.
I was talking the other day with a friend from Africa and another from Eastern Europe, and we were saying that the big problem with solving climate change is that the things that need to be done aren't much fun, aren't very visible, and won't make you cool, and that most of the people that have to do them have had fairly easy lives, take a lot for granted, and find it hard to do something that doesn't fall into those categories, because they just don't get that sometimes you have to do dull stuff simply to survive. Children in Africa, Eastern Europe and Mediterranean countries (like myself) were indoctrinated on how important is the dull stuff, but in the rich West it didn't happen. And that's why there isn't really a lot of hope.
I understand this perspective Doly, but a real joy in the Transition movement is that there is a genuine attempt in most places to celebrate diversity and a willingness to explore new perspectives. I thoroughly enjoy developing Transition projects alongside ex-Socialist Workers, ex-arch-Conservatives, refugees from big corporations, artists, council officials and a huge variety of people who are recognising that left/right 19th and 20th Century political and economic thinking won't work in the 21st Century.One of the most exciting positive manifestations is seeing such disparate people working together (avoiding unhelpful labels about "greens" or "usual suspects") on practical projects and forming new ethical local enterprises with livelihoods and resilience as key drivers. Thus creating something - and far from merely "protesting greens" .
The different nature of different Transition groups is also to be celebrated. Many put a lot of thought and effort into the way they work as a group. Such efforts invariably help deliver successful resilience-building projects.