Not Just for Christmas

Advent Calendar Mark Restall

"There are many ways to have an ethical, green, or sustainable Christmas. If there was one thing you would want people to do every day as well, what would it be?"

"There are many ways to have an ethical, green, or sustainable Christmas. If there was one thing you would want people to do every day as well, what would it be?"

Mark Restall is a freelance trainer, consultant and writer, specialising in volunteer management issues. He was formerly Head of Information at Volunteering England. He has written several publications and numerous articles, including Volunteers and the Law and The Good Practice Guide, the leading volunteer manager’s handbook. He has dealt with, written about, or trained on just about any topic around volunteering - volunteer policies and procedures, recruitment, retention, health and safety, CRB checks and client protection, and in more recent years has become known for a firm understanding of the legal position of volunteers. Back to the NJfC Advent Calendar	"This is a difficult question for me to answer, in that I don't agree with its basic premise. Although to a certain degree I am an ethical consumer - I am vegan, I don't drive, I try to buy food from no further away than Europe, I have a gut reaction that will forever stop me from buying Nestlé products and so on - I am very suspicious of the politics of consumption. Focussing on consumption is problematic for several reasons. It individualises the problems - rather than being social/collective issues they come down to whether or not we are being 'good' people. It is not my fault that the rainforest is being cut down. It is not my fault that production has been shifted to areas with low wages and poor conditions. It is not my fault that production is for profit not need. It leads to a moralising of politics, rather than material understanding of social relations. Lifestyle becomes more important than concrete action, with the one up(wo)manship of the holier than thou shopper. Not everyone can afford organic, and they shouldn't feel bad about this. Moralising in politics leads you down the path of boring asceticism or the swivel eyed animal rights type who sees nothing wrong with digging up someone's granny because it's for 'the cause'. Do you really want to sound like Bono or Chris Martin at parties? It allows companies to 'greenwash' with claims of sustainability that are generally little more than skin deep. This also leads to fake solutions such as carbon trading or biofuels. The most ethical company is still making money from the exploitation of its workers - it has to, as it would not make profit without doing so. It still perpetuates commodity production (whether the commodity is a thing or a service), and the commodification of the lives of its workers. Plus both Body Shop and Ben and Jerry's ended up selling out to the 'bad guys'. Even co-ops are subject to the market - if they cannot compete they will go out of business, therefore the members end up in effect exploiting themselves. It leads to the anti-corporation politics so prevalent over the last 10 years, where specific organisations are seen as 'bad', leaving systemic issues ignored. Most protest, not matter how 'radical' it presents itself, is based on the premise that bad things happen because bad people do them, rather than question the underlying logic of greed and growth than underpins our economic system. We need to take a look at the roots of these problems (which is where the word radical comes from), which are in an economy and a sociopolitical system that are profoundly anti-democratic. Otherwise you're just giving a mugger a make-over and telling them that a 'please' costs nothing. Consumption is not irrelevant, but it does not and cannot in itself lead to an ethical society. We need to look at the relations of production and of power. Most of us work as order takers. Some of us may give orders to others, but still take orders ourselves. We are in effect renting ourselves out five days a week. Our lives are governed by this relationship. Things are made on the basis of the ability to make profit, not whether they meet genuine human needs. So, what do I want people to do each day? There are no easy answers. Agitate, (self) educate, organise as the old slogan says I suppose. But the actions should be as much for yourself as for the environment or people in the developing world. For a democratic control over your own life and work, unmediated by politicians, leftist parties, bosses, managers or media moguls. Most importantly, try and do stuff without becoming boring or guilt-tripping your friends."

Mark Restall is a freelance trainer, consultant and writer, specialising in volunteer management issues. He was formerly Head of Information at Volunteering England. He has written several publications and numerous articles, including Volunteers and the Law and The Good Practice Guide, the leading volunteer manager’s handbook. He has dealt with, written about, or trained on just about any topic around volunteering - volunteer policies and procedures, recruitment, retention, health and safety, CRB checks and client protection, and in more recent years has become known for a firm understanding of the legal position of volunteers.

Back to the NJfC Advent
Calendar

"This is a difficult question for me to answer, in that I don't agree with its basic premise.

Although to a certain degree I am an ethical consumer - I am vegan, I don't drive, I try to buy food from no further away than Europe, I have a gut reaction that will forever stop me from buying Nestlé products and so on - I am very suspicious of the politics of consumption.

Focussing on consumption is problematic for several reasons. It individualises the problems - rather than being social/collective issues they come down to whether or not we are being 'good' people. It is not my fault that the rainforest is being cut down. It is not my fault that production has been shifted to areas with low wages and poor conditions. It is not my fault that production is for profit not need.

It leads to a moralising of politics, rather than material understanding of social relations. Lifestyle becomes more important than concrete action, with the one up(wo)manship of the holier than thou shopper. Not everyone can afford organic, and they shouldn't feel bad about this. Moralising in politics leads you down the path of boring asceticism or the swivel eyed animal rights type who sees nothing wrong with digging up someone's granny because it's for 'the cause'. Do you really want to sound like Bono or Chris Martin at parties?

It allows companies to 'greenwash' with claims of sustainability that are generally little more than skin deep. This also leads to fake solutions such as carbon trading or biofuels. The most ethical company is still making money from the exploitation of its workers - it has to, as it would not make profit without doing so. It still perpetuates commodity production (whether the commodity is a thing or a service), and the commodification of the lives of its workers. Plus both Body Shop and Ben and Jerry's ended up selling out to the 'bad guys'. Even co-ops are subject to the market - if they cannot compete they will go out of business, therefore the members end up in effect exploiting themselves.

It leads to the anti-corporation politics so prevalent over the last 10 years, where specific organisations are seen as 'bad', leaving systemic issues ignored. Most protest, not matter how 'radical' it presents itself, is based on the premise that bad things happen because bad people do them, rather than question the underlying logic of greed and growth than underpins our economic system.

We need to take a look at the roots of these problems (which is where the word radical comes from), which are in an economy and a sociopolitical system that are profoundly anti-democratic. Otherwise you're just giving a mugger a make-over and telling them that a 'please' costs nothing.

Consumption is not irrelevant, but it does not and cannot in itself lead to an ethical society. We need to look at the relations of production and of power. Most of us work as order takers. Some of us may give orders to others, but still take orders ourselves. We are in effect renting ourselves out five days a week. Our lives are governed by this relationship. Things are made on the basis of the ability to make profit, not whether they meet genuine human needs.

So, what do I want people to do each day? There are no easy answers. Agitate, (self) educate, organise as the old slogan says I suppose. But the actions should be as much for yourself as for the environment or people in the developing world. For a democratic control over your own life and work, unmediated by politicians, leftist parties, bosses, managers or media moguls.

Most importantly, try and do stuff without becoming boring or guilt-tripping your friends."

DamianSutton	Latest page update: made by DamianSutton , Dec 19 2008, 5:35 AM EST (about this update About This Update Edited by DamianSutton 6 words added 1 image added view changes - complete history)
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Prince_Philip

Co-operatives

Dec 18 2008, 5:32 AM EST by Prince_Philip

Thread started: Dec 17 2008, 7:46 AM EST Watch

Yes, co-ops are subject to the market, but they operate with higher ethical principles than for-profit corporates. If co-ops don't make a trading surplus they go bust, but they share that surplus with the members of the co-operative (which can be: consumers or employees or both) and do NOT have to answer to external share-holders. Co-operatives are mutual societies and run entirely democratically, they do not exploit themselves!

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