Can we have some more "wins" for the people, please?

When I initially understood that some things about the world needed changing, I was young. The minute I realised it was not “fair” I was very young, and I think it is obvious,  if you are paying attention, that it extends into the wider world. So, people are poor because that's how it is. . . It takes a while, however,  to realise that some things are caused and are not just "natural".  Not natural that some people have so much and others barely enough to survive. 

I was always bold and not afraid – a compliment to my immigrant parents who provided a supportive, nurturing family.  I always thought it unfair if anyone had less than me. It took me a long time to realise that the poor kids at school, and people being beat up by cops and the military ( I was watching civil rights actions in the southern U.S. at 10 and 12 years old) was not just life unfolding as it should but was about changing things to make them fair - that children could go to schools that were not segregated and that were in good repair with excellent teachers etc.  That this was created. . .  inequity and desegregation . . . was a "good thing", they can be changed. But my thoughts were oppressive and patriarchal - I thought of saving people, not liberating them.  And kids dying, literally dying of hunger and preventable disease, in other parts of the world. I bought the “happy noble savage” thing, or thought that they chose to live without running water etc. – til I was in my late teens.

However, I never stopped asking questions.  My proudly devout Catholic father created a monster (In his eyes) when he sang this to me as my lullaby every night (well just the chorus)

Goodbye Little yellow bird I'd rather face the cold 

on a leafless tree than a prisoner be in a cage of gold. 

Goodbye Little yellow bird  I'd gladly wait with you. 
I love you little yellow bird but I love my freedom too.

And the yellow bird is a "boy" and the sparrow a "girl" - so it was the woman refusing to stay locked up for a man. I think I had taken it all to heart by the time I was 4. The rich were not be trusted and I should look after keeping my own freedom regardless of the attractions on the "rich" side. LOL 

It is from Portrait of Dorian Gray. . . Movies (esp black and white)  I remember watching with my father - that one (eventually. . .  he was singing this long before I saw it or we had a TV) and Great Expectations, Treasure Island etc.  

One of the other things it did - and I was pretty old before I realized it is that it made me think of "freedom and personal liberty/independence" as a very  important and laudable goal.  I was shocked later when I discovered that safety and staus quo that made people feel safe were higher desires for most people. 

By 16, though, it was pretty clear to me that racism and sexism were ruining the world. By 20 I understood that capitalism was a problem. But through the years from 1970-2000 I worked on a number of social change (commonly not socialist just reforms) projects that were won.  Social attitudes changed enormously. Many were good - women more equal (at least in law) same with racist laws - but clearly it was not enough. 

THAT is one of the big differences between myself and millennials. I was thinking about it, because a while back, a millennial mentioned to me that I had seen “wins” that they had never seen. That all they had known was capitalism. True, I thought, that's all I have known but I saw neo-liberalism and global capitalism take over in my lifetime. 

 I kept seeing "wins", though, in small ways,  because I worked as a union organizer and saw people organize their work place, join a union, massively increase their power and usually incomes, too. Some were dramatic income changes, and eventually most got benefits and pensions too.  So I keep experiencing "wins", even in the last 20 years but it is very local, not social change.  It came up again because in the last couple of months,through COVID, here in NS and Halifax, we have in fact had some wins. We have had terrible tragedies, however, there are some bright spots. Not huge but they all add up and they give one a sense of momentum that fuels itself.  We could change things if we wanted to, as a people. 

So first 6000 people showed up for a BLM protest/March in downtown Halifax – not a win in itself but a pretty good showing! Again momentum! Then we had the tank purchase by the city, rescinded. Then we had a “secret review” turned into a full up inquiry – which everyone wanted. These are not huge wins but they are wins and they do demonstrate the power of organizing people and having them respond.

When I was young we felt that protesting won the pull out from Vietnam. It felt like protests stopped Canada from entering Iraq with the U.S. I was around for protesting South African Apartheid – the days when knocking over a case of south African wine in the liquor store was an “oops”. . . and then we fought for and got some sanctions, and then – we won. S.A. was no longer an apartheid state.



When I was young, abortion was illegal – I was 16 before birth control was legal. I was part of a group planning for the start of abortion clinics in Vancouver and Toronto and lived through days of having to take women through a gamut of protesters to enter clinics. Now abortion feels normalised though there still are groups trying to take it away,  and access is not guaranteed across the country (esp in NB and PEI) Lots of work to do - still compared to 1969 -  I count it as a win.  Women fought but full credit to Dr. Morgentaler who set up clinics - not secretly but out in the open and defied the gov't to stop him -- which it did - in fact sending him to jail but he never waivered that women should be able to control when and if they wanted to reproduce. This choice was not available to me until I was in my twenties and even then - it was not very available. 

When I had my kids, at home with midwives, it was not “legal”, but only “illegal” if something went wrong. But now midwifery is legal and provided as part of the publicly funded health care system across most provinces in Canada. It is a support and gives women control over what can be a non-medicalized process. (With a system that provides lots of medical support when required.) I fought hard for midwifery (including being the bureaucrat in the gov't of Ontario tasked with making it happen) and getting regulated, funded midwifery seems like a win.  (Although I have had to - over 25 years later -  give evidence for the midwives about their pay as the gov't has never really increased it and they have fallen badly behind other health professions in Ontario. )

There are a myriad of other things that I was involved in that either got organized (daycares/after school care/women’s shelters/housing co-ops/Credit union/  etc. ) and all felt like “wins”. . . not the individual service but the IDEA of having it available, public  and funded at all!!  So, demonstrated!  It is not impossible that we can make demands and have them met. But for the last 30+ years it has felt bleak – until now. . .

Just wanted to say – Hey thanks Millennials!!! I have some optimism that you can make it happen, where there were eventually too few of us to make it happen!~ 

Postscript – It is not all good – we protested and demanded an end to violence against women and it has got worse not better (or at least more of it is public)