Boyte A 'We the People' Green New Deal ASU October 30 draft (original) (raw)

A 'We the People' Green New Deal -- Climate citizens and the politics of constructive nonviolence

2019

This is my speech to the "Green New Deal and the Future of Work" conference, November 1-2, at Arizona State University. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-green-new-deal-and-the-future-of-work-in-america-tickets-69209135387 I argue that we need to recover and build on the traditions and movements of "constructive nonviolent politics," which were based on a far different view of power and politics than reigning concepts of disruption and civil resistance now widespread among progressives, in the US and around the world.

Boyte A 'We the People' Green New Deal ASU November

The Green New Deal and the Future of Work in America, 2019

This is the paper version of my talk at the conference at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, The Green New Deal and the Future of Work in America. I that the climate movement, like progressive politics broadly, needs to shift from a frame of struggle against oppression to cultural transformation. The paper will be delivered on November 2, 2019. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-green-new-deal-and-the-future-of-work-in-america-tickets-69209135387

Boyte A 'We the People' Green New Deal - Nonviolence as a politics of freedom draft

2019

This is a draft of my essay/talk at the conference, The Green New Deal and the Future of Work, November 1-2, Arizona State University. I argue that progressive activists on climate and other issues are manipulated by the accelerating capacity of elites to use good versus evil narratives, in ways that result in bondage to hatred. The politics of nonviolence, understood as a philosophy not simply a tactic, is a path toward liberation, based on a generative conception of power.

15 Rethinking the Green New Deal: From War to Work

The Green New Deal and the Future of Work, ed. Craig Calhoun and Benjamin Fong, 2022

I n After Virtue, the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre observes, "I can only answer the question, 'what am I to do?' if I can answer the prior question, 'of what story or stories do I find myself a part?" 1 Societies, no less than the individuals who compose them, are both liberated and constrained by the stories they tell of their past, present, and future. 2 In recent years it has become popular to frame quests for environmental and social justice as episodes in a saga of political conflict. The congressional proposals for a Green New Deal (GND) unveiled by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on February 7, 2019, were no exception. Ocasio-Cortez described the climate crisis as "our World War II." Battle talk is invigorating. 3 It channels the human impulse to define enemies in times of crisis and to put faith in strong leaders. 4 It is also unfortunate. The recent partisan and cultural battles incited by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the history of American reform since the Progressive Era, suggest it is an unsustainable rhetorical strategy that reflects and feeds a dangerous tendency to define politics in almost purely conflictual terms. Despite the constructively democratic goals of many GND proposals, the overall framing of the GND as a campaign of highly centralized government action along the lines of a military offensive dramatically constrains and distorts the field of democratic action. It is a story of state and state actors mobilizing the people against threats and enemies, the outcome of which depends little on selforganizing and collaborative citizen initiative across differences.

Boyte speech, A We the People Green New Deal November 2, Arizona State University

The Green New Deal and the Future of Work in America, 2019

This is the spoken version of my speech to the conference, The Green New Deal and the Future of Work in America, Arizona State University, November 2, 2019. I argue we need a paradigm shift in strategy from a polarizing fight against oppression to a cultural transformation movement for a democratic renaissance, which climate action can help to catalyze.

Harry Boyte A We the People Green New Deal November 4, 2019 Arizona State University

Green New Deal and the Future of Work, 2019

This speech "A We the People Green New Deal," at the Arizona State University Conference, "A Green New Deal and the Future of Work in America," is revised after the event. I argue that earlier broad democratic movements have a great deal to contribute to our challenges today, describing constructive nonviolent politics and public work.

A 'We the People' Green New Deal September 30 draft

2019

This essay, the longer draft of a speech to be given at the conference, "The Green New Deal and the Future of Work," November 1-2, 2019, at Arizona State University, argues that we need a new paradigm of politics, power, citizenship, and democracy if we are to realize the promise and possibilities of a "Green New Deal."

Boyte and Thronveit Rethinking the Green New Deal From War to Work

The Green New Deal and the Future of Work, 2022

This chapter in the new volume The Green New Deal and the Future of Work edited by Craig Calhoun and Benjamin Fong begins with an explication of the pervasive narrative of politics as adversarial and consumerist. The "first language" of politics is focused on what government should or should not do for particular people rather than how it can work through and with diverse communities and the nation as a whole. It briefly explicates the "second language" of politics, communitarianism. Thirdly, it describes the theoretical concept of public work, or work and worksites with democracy building qualities as the third language of politics. It shows its empirical grounding in American history and contemporary life as an alternative. Finally, we draw upon public work concepts and real-life examples to sketch a plausible work-centered story of the Green New Deal and suggest how it might catalyze a broader effort to redefine democracy as the product of a people negotiating difference to create a thriving commons. Key words: citizenship, civic agency, commons-building, consumer politics, democratic renewal, public work