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We live in tumultuous times:

• Ferguson and other non-indictments of white police who murdered people of colour
• ISIL and other extremism
• Stephen Harper’s continued assault on democracy and embrace of soft fascism [has he had CRA audit YOUR favourite progressive group yet?]
• Accusations against Jian Ghomeshi
• Accusations against Bill Cosby
• The epidemic of campus rape, and necessary reflection about why it has taken this long to take this seriously
• Victoria’s Times-Colonist newspaper’s racist editorial cartoons, and necessary reflection about why it has taken this long to take this seriously
• Pipelines, fracking, dirty energy, tankers
• The destructive Site-C dam in BC going ahead instead of spending that $8 billion on greener, more responsible energy infrastructure like solar and wind power
• Radio hosts joking about asking whether Justin Trudeau would fuck, kill or marry Rona Ambrose, the prime minister’s wife and a former governor general

But 2014 has been a time of boldness:

• The legacy of Arab Spring, Manning, Wikileaks and Snowden earlier in the decade
• The legacy of the Occupy Movement and 2014’s Wave of Action
• Idle No More continuing in Canada from 2013
• Bold global protests: #BlackLiveMatter, #ICantBreathe and other objection to white police officers’ race murders, and a new version of the classic Take the “A” Train, on the actual “A” Train
• Bold global rejection of normalized sexual assault challenging Ghomeshi and Cosby and calling out misogyny, like at Dalhousie dentistry’s Gentleman’s Club
• People can say/write Rehtaeh Parsons’ name again without fear of a contempt of court charge
• Bold protests on Burnaby Mountain against yet another carbon energy company, this time using the courts to keep people from impeding their drilling in a public park

There is a bold civil revolution happening so far this decade.

There is a convergence of issues that revolve around equality and justice. Social movements come when many different demands coalesce. This has been a decade of coalescence.

Our job, everyone’s job, is to make 2015 the year when enough of these roads join together to rebuild a world that respect dignity, peace, equality and justice.

We have #ClimateHope, #BlackLivesMatter, #NoPipelines, #IdleNoMore, #StopHarper, #VAW, #MMIW and every other movement.

Our job is to help each other on every different road, to realize how all our roads are the same roads.

That’s what solidarity looks like. And together we build society. Separate, the 1% tears it down, rapes it and plunders the wealth of the commons.

Enough.

Roll up your sleeves. But, don’t forget to dance!

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Stephen Elliott-Buckley

Post-partisan eco-socialist. at Politics, Re-Spun

Stephen Elliott-Buckley is a husband, father, professor, speaker, consultant, former suburban Vancouver high school English and Social Studies teacher who changed careers because the BC Liberal Party has been working hard to ruin public education. He has various English and Political Science degrees and has been writing political, social and economic editorials since November 2002. Stephen is in Twitter, Miro and iTunes, and the email thing, and at his website, dgiVista.org.

Latest posts by Stephen Elliott-Buckley (see all)

• Goodbye, Politics, Re-Spun! Hello, WePivot.net! - October 21, 2016
• Fixing the Cleveland I*****s Racist Team Name - October 19, 2016
• What the BC Premier’s Reconciliation Smells Like - October 18, 2016