Tim Jackins at the Unified Goal Workshop, August 2023


What are effective actions in this circumstance with the climate? Effective does not always mean big. Effective does not mean immediate resolution of the problem. Effective to me means reaching more minds as we head for a critical mass that can make a change. 


THE WORKING CLASS


All that we are doing for change, and the new things we can think of doing, are important. However, change is not going to happen until those who make things work in society are involved. Actual change is not about talk. Actual change is about changing what is done in practice, in the present. Demonstrations, protests, and even civil disobedience are important in creating the conditions for change. But they don’t actually change things. 


Things change when the people who do the work to make society run are involved—and that’s the working class. When enough of the working class decides things need to change, they can make things change.


All of us—those of us who did not grow up in the working class, and those of us who grew up in the working class but are confused by our new class standing—need to remember that actual change happens where actual work is done. 


During the pandemic there was a brief glimpse of the importance of actual work. And there was a mass media round of applause for the working class, for the frontline workers. It was just applause. Nothing changed. But it was revealing. Things worked during the pandemic because the working class worked. It follows that things that need to stop working will stop when the working class stops working on them. 


WHAT TO DO


It is important to challenge the lines drawn between classes in our societies. In particular, we need to challenge the line that separates many of us from the working class. 


We need to build connections with the people who do the work. We need to think about the working-class people we have contact with but have not yet built connections with. We need to have sessions on what separates us. It is possible to overcome our confusions, be connected, learn what we need to learn, and together do what will change the situation.