Activism

I attended a panel session today on "Responses of local food activists to climate change". There was a lady from the US, another from Uganda and a third one from Brazil. They made nice presentations about the work of their NGOs, especially in Brazil where sugar cane workers live in quasi slavery. Then someone asked whether they believe that their work will really change the way things are done, or whether activism was just a series of token gestures that merely scratched the surface. A general discussion followed, but the question was not answered. My feeling was that the answer was: "no", but no one had the courage to say it. My position is that in the absence of a comprehensive political ideology that goes beyond single issue campaigning, and in the absence of a global network capable of focusing on simultaneous actions in order to create critical mass, it is going to be very difficult to do more than scratch the surface.