Community groups like Sunday Blessings show us that social progress is only made with people, not for people, or as they say, ‘less talk, more do’
Opinion: I don’t know if anyone else was struck by James Shaw using the term “comrades” to refer to members of the Labour caucus at Parliament’s closing event last week. I was.
Many of us who are on what is often loosely called the left of politics would love to be working together in something that justified that terminology between us. The term does not mean “we are all communists”. None of us may be. It means we are all working together for a common cause.
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It carries the connotation that we are not in whatever activity it refers to simply for our own self-interest. That we are aligned with the communities of which we are part. We are sisters and brothers in that cause.
The way to recover this spirit is not in drafting reports, charters and policies. It lies in working together. But critically, not just together but with the communities we serve. Note those words.
Not “represented” or “consulted”. But “with” and “serve”.
I have been fortunate to have met and been welcomed by and worked with many social activists. Some communists. Some feminists. Others with a cause – disability, gender, climate, sustainability – as their core driver. The best of them saw others seeking social justice as a commonality, a comradeship, which was the welcome driver of change.
It seems we have lost something of that in recent times. Divided by what others have derided as identity politics which amounted to “split and divide”. And politics has become professionalised or managerialised, distanced from many of our communities.
I am given to rock'n'roll analogies. Humour me, younglings. In 1974 the rock critic Jon Landau went to a concert and wrote it up saying “I saw rock and roll flash before my eyes … I saw rock and roll’s future and its name is Bruce Springsteen”. He was right, at least for a while.
I had something like that experience when I linked up with Dave Letele and his BBM fitness movement. Still do. Social activism that stepped outside old models.
I feel the same way about the Sunday Blessings team, which inspired this column.
The great thing is there are many of these people in communities all over Aotearoa. How do they link up with wider social movements for change? They become comrades.
Well I saw a glimpse on Sunday in central Auckland. Sunday Blessings has the slogan “Less Talk, More Do” (which would have made a better election slogan than any I have seen).
I got invited to their regular Sunday event which provides a free good meal to the un-homed and other food-poor people of the central city. This service was started by three families who connected with other community agencies to meet a gap (one of many) in the services available. This has sparked a range of other supports for this community and provided opportunities for other families, including children, to contribute. It is a service which is growing into a social movement of inclusion.
This particular event was special because it included Electoral Commission people helping with enrolments (yes, the un-homed have a right and many reasons not to be excluded, just like the Mongrel Mob), and had Green and Labour politicians participating together. I'm proud that AUT staff and students are regular participants and supporters.
I spoke to Danielle Le Gallais, one of the founders, and she drew the links together for me. “Sunday Blessings only works as a community. We do not assume that we are trusted, to really serve we have to be part of the community we serve, to build trust. But we are not here just to fill a gap, this gets its real meaning from involving others and from creating change. So together we are not afraid to agitate for the right to food, personal hygiene, housing, voting. We need to involve politicians who share our objectives. This is where real politics happens. It's not about tax breaks but about getting any sort of even break in life.”
The politicians were there to learn and contribute, not pontificate. That is a Sunday Blessing in itself. One of the regular participants I spoke with told me: “It's not just that you don’t have anything. It's that everyone disrespects you. These people don’t do that, they are part of us, we are part of them. Belonging.”
Many young people contributing their energy and time were openly driven by tight connection between community service and their political beliefs. They all see themselves as building something important together, and that is very inspiring.
Imagine a political movement that people felt like that about. You would not have leaders wondering what they should do.
I think very many of us are disappointed that after initially drawing together in responding to the pandemic, this community feeling dissipated and broke up as it wore on. (Incidentally, Sunday Blessings were a key part of inner city response on this too.) Division displaced connection. Many of us hoped that other commonly held interests such as the climate crisis, child poverty, health or housing crises might bring us together. That has not happened.
The lesson we should learn is that social progress is only made with people, not for people. It is not something done “for” but “with” those in need of the change. To make real progress the answers are within those communities, showing practical support and sharing whatever the particular daily difficulties might be.
It requires breaking the old mould of politics as some distant career profession of experts, and spouting slogans written in the offices of ad agencies. “Less Talk. More Do”.
