19
Jul
In the month of May Kiama Kaara introduced discourse on the concept of the commons. From this interaction the fellows were able to learn that Social Justice advocates for the Common goods of life. The fellows also appreciated the fact that the commons of the world are being unjustly held in the hands of a few at the expense of the many.
Such is the case as exhibited by issues to do with water and housing for instance. Activists and social movements are the agents that challenge the power relations when it comes to access, equity and equality of the commons in our society.
Serving as an apt follow up to this conversation, the fellowship played host to Leigh Brownhill, a researcher with McGill University. She began by looking back into history in 1215 with the writing of the Magna Carta, wherein it contained the Charter of the forests which outlined the rights of the ordinary people to the products of the forests – wood for fuel, honey, wild herbs and plants. The charter was recognition of the rights of the commoners. This was a basis for the rights of the people to have a livelihood specifically in the ‘commons’.
The fellows got to learn that before private property existed, people lived in commons. They were the commoners as was the case in the 1200s. However this would change with time. Arguably it is in the enclosure of the commons that people were then divided or alienated from their capacity and rights to an independent livelihood and political rights.
In the English case of the enclosure of the commons, people were removed from their lands and denied their rights of an independent livelihood. Literally trees were logged down and used to make fences around the forest land. This was taking place in the 1500s coincident with the rise of capitalism. It was through the enclosure of the commons that private owners were able to accumulate property enough to launch capitalism. The capitalist literally cut down all the trees in England and Ireland and they would now build ships that they would send to other parts of the world for trees, resources and labour.
Comparing places like North American and say with Kenya, the social norms and practices of the people in Kenya are much more connected to this period before colonization, that of common-ing, which is only a little over a hundred years ago. Whilst in Europe, common-ing is far removed having been last practiced over five hundred years ago. Generations of peoples in Europe have been alienated from the commons and the culture thereof. Unlike Europe and the likes, there is a huge population which is still tied to the land and other commons here in Kenya.
Division amongst the exploited people of the world was and continues to be achieved by the creation of differential attributes that consequently create hostilities amongst the exploited; these keep the disfranchised from uniting.
The fellows got to further appreciate their role in social movements as activists. There have been social movements of sorts since the introduction of the enclosure system that fought to defend the commons. Activism efforts today are geared towards a ‘re-common-ing’. The future of social movements is in the removing of any sorts of enclosure, physical or otherwise, around our life needs ensuring everyone has everything they need for life. The earth has a common treasury for all and this is the ethic and philosophy of re-common-ing.
Cooperation and solidarity was the default position of humanity before the advent of capitalism. The hierarchical and unequal capitalistic society has distorted a lot of things. We have been made to believe that competition is the natural order of human relations. According to the Marxist tradition, while capital dispossess and divides people it also puts the people in larger conglomerations. In this unity, a kin to our common-ing histories, and in that unity and connection to one another, the people gain another power united by the process of exploitation. Hence the capitalistic ruling class is always on the run because whatever means of exploitation they employ is in turn used by the people to catch up with the capitalists. This is the power of Social Movements and Activism.
Social movements are sort of the stage of formal and political organizing where people come together for their own purposes and organizational strength.