Nerve 22 - Welcome Allies!

Welcome Allies!

Oskar Schindler, Ruth First, Wolfe Tone - three activists who dedicated their lives to struggles whose aim was the abolition of the privilege into which they had been born. Schindler was a Nazi party member and industrialist who saved the lives of over 1,000 Jews who worked for him. Immortalised in Thomas Keneally’s novel, “Schindler’s Ark” and Spielberg’s film, “Schindler’s List”, he was a contradictory character who nonetheless has been honoured by Jews as a “righteous gentile”. Ruth First, a white South African and member of the South African Communist Party, was a dedicated anti-apartheid activist. As a result she suffered solitary confinement in prison, exile from her country and was finally killed in Mozambique by a letter bomb authorised by the South African police. Wolfe Tone, born into the protestant Church of Ireland, founded the Society of United Irishmen, committed to uniting the Irish in overthrowing British rule. He was court-martialled and would have been hanged but ended his life by cutting his own throat.

What makes people like these, who could have lived comfortable lives, join in struggle with those who are targetted by oppression? What drives them to become allies and risk their position, privileges and often their own lives? The ability to step outside of their own self-interest and forge a common bond of humanity with those over whom they were born to wield power is, I believe, one of the greatest sources of hope for our world.

And it’s not just individuals. Many allies, whether leaders like Tone, or participants like First, were certainly part of movements much greater than themselves. Those who provided safe houses for the Underground Railroad in the US to ensure safe passage for those fleeing slavery; the economic & cultural boycott campaign which was a major factor in defeating apartheid in South Africa; the animal rights movement which consists entirely of allies. All have been crucial in educating, supporting and contributing to the success of movements for liberation. Many of us on the Left have been involved in such international solidarity movements, from the Anti-Apartheid Movement to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, from sending building brigades to Nicaragua to the Troops Out Movement & campaign against strip searching in Northern Ireland. In fact nonviolent activist George Lakey, on a recent visit to Liverpool, asserted that from his extensive knowledge of movements for change, one of the indicators of success is how supported a movement is by allies.

Of course solidarity comes not only from the privileged but very often from those who have in turn experienced the sharp end of oppression. One inspiring example is that of the First Nation Choctaw tribe who on hearing of the Irish Famine in the mid-19th century, collected $170 and sent it to help starving Irish men, women & children. It had been just 16 years since the Choctaw people had experienced the Trail of Tears, where they had faced starvation themselves.

And then there are movements like Men Against Sexism, a small but significant network of avowedly feminist men’s groups which supported the rebirth of feminism in the 1970s and 80s by examining their role as men within patriarchy, doing educational work with boys in schools alongside Rape Crisis’ work with girls, and running creches for women’s meetings. Rock Against Racism and other anti-racist campaigns have been crucial in involving white people who have subsequently learnt from and grown in understanding of the complexities and consequences of remaining silent on the subject of racism. And not a Pride march goes by without a contingent of Parents & Friends of LGBTs.

If every movement for change, for liberation or in defence of the rights of a constituency under attack, needs allies, then no more so than the working class, disabled and poor of the UK at the present time. For not a day goes by without the announcement of a new and inventive way to attack those at the poorest end of the economic scale. As the author David Almond said on Desert Island Discs recently: “the poorest are once again being forced to pay for the wickedness of the rich.”

I was brought up as a Quaker, and the lasting legacy of that kind of upbringing is that when you see an injustice your instinct is not to turn away but to seek to put it right. My parents were socialists and although not from well-off backgrounds themselves, gave me a comfortable middle-class upbringing. I was surrounded by comfortably-off middle-class family friends, the constituency which would be referred to now as the “squeezed middle”. And what strikes me is that these people are continually being appealed to by the coalition government, and indeed all political parties, the media and the establishment generally, purely on the basis of individualised self-interest. As if none of them can see beyond their own tax bills, how immigration might be adversely affecting them, or whether “their” taxes should be paying for state benefits/education/libraries/other people’s “gilt-edged” pensions etc etc. We know the tactic is one of divide and rule: employed v unemployed, public sector v private sector, disabled v temporarily-able-bodied. But I think that the vast majority of people who are not at the sharp end of the current attacks have much bigger hearts than we are led to believe.

Most people want a safe, stable, fair society. Most people are happy to pay their National Insurance and taxes to contribute to society so that they themselves and others can draw on state support when they need it. And if they never need to, all well and good. Indeed if progressive taxation worked as it should, then the anarchist ideal of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need” would prevail. In fact the book, “The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better” by Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett, argues convincingly that if self-interest is viewed in a collective rather than an individualised sense, it is in all our interests to have a more equal society. The vicious attack on the authors on the basis of their research methodology shows that the super-rich were desperate to contradict this common sense because if the better-off in society could be convinced that their interests lay in reducing the gap between rich and poor, heaven knows what might result.

So while the Schindlers, Firsts and Tones of this world seemed to be stepping outside their own interests maybe they were just ahead of the game in recognising that their long-term interests lied with those in struggle. A fantastic resource for those, having come to this recognition themselves and wanting to build on it, is Anne Bishop’s book, “Becoming an Ally: Breaking the Cycle of Oppression in People”. Practical, challenging and hopeful, her insights from teaching “unlearning racism” workshops are invaluable.

Mark Haddon, author of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, recently wrote to his MP arguing that he and other wealthy people should pay more tax to save others being hit by government spending cuts. Imagine a march on Whitehall of the wealthy, based on this demand! I think it would be popular. Just as the Right has appealed to the middle-classes’ fearful self-interest, the Left needs to appeal to their heart.

I believe the Campaign against the Bedroom Tax will prove to be the Coalition’s Poll Tax moment. I believe it’s a winnable campaign, not only because for so many reasons it is unfair, cruel & wicked to attack the most vulnerable in their very homes, but also because those who are not affected are for the most part appalled at the despicable depths this government is prepared to go to falsely apportion blame for the economic crisis and force through their privatisation agenda.

The “middle-class” are of course those through whom the owning-class rules. They have traditionally been separated by means of education, privilege and job choice, in order to control the rest of the working-class. For if “working-class” means those who earn a living through their labour, as opposed to the owning-class who inherit wealth, then the only class with a future is the working-class and us middle-class had best ally ourselves on the right side of the fence. It is of course vital that liberation struggles are led by those who are oppressed. Allies need to be in a supportive role and not attempt to take over, but if we can find ways for those with privilege to overcome their guilt and fear, if we can harness this natural solidarity of the middle-class towards the working-class we truly will have “more of us than of them” and the strength of a movement of the oppressed with its allies alongside can only triumph.

Printer friendly page

Comments are closed on this article