Good words from Hugh Evans' February 2016 Ted Talk talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/hugh_evans_what_does_it_mean_to_be_a_citizen_o...

I haven’t written a word on-line since the U.S. election. The calendar says it’s time to rip off that scab or at least write something. Here goes ...

I love Hugh Evans’ words about being first and foremost a member of the human race. Evans may not want to acknowledge it, but Karl Marx (as well as other socialists such as Jesus) said some things that were similar but in ways that were much more meaningful because he honestly grappled with capital accumulation and wealth distribution, and specifically, the hegemonic system that prevents our common destiny as species beings from manifesting in society.

In truth, first and foremost, to make the vision a reality, workers of the world must unite. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch0... True democracy represents the potential for the workers of the world to unite peacefully. In part because I value peace and non-violence, I love democracy but demand a lot from it. I demand that it be deep, encompassing the economy, and provide liberty and justice to all people, everywhere, just like presumably Evans and other nice members of the (“jet-setting”?) liberal elite presumably want.

I am many persons politically. By preference, I am a multi-tendency radical international anti-capitalist democratic socialist. But I am also a dedicated Sanders supporter in a vital swing state who then worked hard in humble ways as a volunteer for Clinton right up through the close of polls on Election Day--at 6:59 pm, as a poll watcher, I insisted that an African American couple just showing up with a newborn not be denied their right to vote, which would have happened had I not spoken to the Clerk, who was going by the vote counting machine, which wrongly said it was 7:02 pm.

I was in truth shocked (although many on the left were not) and devastated (most acutely at the potential deportation of Latin American friends and the loss of Constitutional interpretation to the right wing for a generation) at Trump’s election (by a minority of U.S. voters, BTW). We saw once again that in the U.S. the workers too often do not unite but are divided and ruled.

I tried to meditate about things a few days. I am going to try to take better care of myself so as to be a better, more mindful comrade in however much longer I have on this beautiful planet.

Feeling a little better, and hopefully a little more kind and cool-headed, I was tempted to write a serious democratic leftist’s intersectional post-election piece on where we go from here. But there are quite a few good ones of those going around already. I will instead till some, to use Turgenev’s ever-apt title to my favorite book, Virgin Soil. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1977/03/17/turgenev-and-virgin-soil/

This is more or less the piece I meant to write a month ago until Donald Trump’s infamous misogynistic videotape for a time took over the public consciousness. However, I do think that some of this critique may translate into efforts to build a winning democratic left coalition in the U.S.

From the title to this piece, one might assume this will be a one-sided negative piece. I am not going to do that. For one thing, from a personal standpoint, the organization I am critiquing channels and promotes in a generally good way feelings I had growing up in the Deep South in the 60s and 70s. As the half-Hispanic oldest child of a conflicted, unsuccessful, brown Southern Baptist minister father and a mentally-ill, religiously-fixated white mother, I had a semi-rebellious mind full of cognitive dissonance.

I wanted to take phrases such as “God is love” seriously but did not know how. I was repelled by the close-minded, politically-conservative, crypto-racist, fundamentalist religious milieu forced upon me but saw no paths to the loving light. I would have seen this type of organization as a path to the loving light, and to some extent, I still do.

More importantly, I want to acknowledge the potential benefits of a major international charity effort, including ways it possibly can be used to enhance what it says it supports. But critique in this context is an obligation that also involves examining what is not threatened by the charity effort and why this lack of threat ultimately detracts from its goals. Only by this honest foundation can the serious left determine the basis for moral interaction.

First, what is Global Citizen®? It is the social media platform of Global Poverty Project, “an education and advocacy organization working to increase the number and effectiveness of people taking action to see an end to extreme poverty.” https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/partners/global-poverty-project/ It is also a first world organization “headquartered in New York, with offices in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. The organization was co-founded by Hugh Evans, Simon Moss, Wei Soo in 2008.” https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/about/who-we-are/

Evans is the dashing CEO:

In 2001, Evans was one of sixteen Australian representatives to participate in The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) held in The Hague, Netherlands; and in 2003, he was awarded the Young Victorian of the Year.[10] The following year, Evans was named as the Young Australian of the Year for his contribution in promoting youth advocacy through the founding of The Oaktree Foundation.[11][12][13][14] In 2004 Evans was also awarded the title of an Outstanding Young Persons of the World, one of ten young people recognised annually by the Junior Chamber International. Evans award for humanitarianism and/or voluntary leadership in that year was shared with Queen Rania of Jordan and Ch'ng Joo Beng of Malaysia.[2]

In 2008, Evans, together with the federal Minister for Youth, Kate Ellis MP, served as co-chair of the 2020 Youth Summit, a precursor to the 2020 Summit.[2]

Evans was named by Who magazine as one of the most beautiful people of 2009.[5]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Evans_(humanitarian)

According to Global Citizen®’s website (I have enlarged the registered trademark symbol because the font at the website is microscopic yet profound):

We are a social action platform for a global generation that wants to solve the world’s biggest challenges.
On our platform you can learn about issues, take action on what matters most and join a community committed to social change. We believe we can end extreme poverty by 2030, because of the collective actions of Global Citizens across the world.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/about/who-we-are/

Global Citizen® is best known for the last several years putting on a Central Park popular music concert coinciding with the opening session of the United Nations. The right to attend the Global Citizen® Festival is secured by an attendee doing in advance one or more largely on-line charitable acts, such as tweeting world leaders. https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/festival/2016/outcomes/ “Global Citizen Rewards is your chance to win tickets to some of the best concerts, shows, and events in the world.” https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/rewards/ (Note to check: An aged socialist living under capitalist conditions wonders if by participating his senior discount will get him any special privileges at the local Burger King.)

The website lists:

1.3 million actions leading to 47 commitments and announcements worth $1.9 billion that are set to reach 199 million people.

Ahead of the Global Citizen Festival 2016, Global Citizens around the world took more than 1.3 million actions over three months to:

Secure 20 new commitments 9 announcements and 14 calls to action to achieve the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
Ensure accountability and delivery of 4 commitments made in the past on Global Citizen platforms.
Push forward 5 campaigns on which further action is needed to ensure that world leaders keep their promises to citizens.
Together, these commitments and announcements are worth $1.9 billion, and are set to reach 199 million people.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/festival/2016/outcomes/

The content at the website, and similarly on the Roku-driven web TV channel Global Citizen®, is largely worthwhile, as are the festivals. Celebrities sing, dance, and make speeches, and we watch, and if the mood strikes, sing and dance too, after tweeting of course or even, for the more serious, fasting in sympathy with those suffering from hunger.

So, skies the limit, right? (Here is where my innate cynicism and socialist theory overcomes my post-election meditation practice.) [To use a few more metaphors] hunger is surely quaking in its boots? It is global ass-kicking time, finally?

Not exactly. I was drawn to the Board Members and Chairman’s Council:

Board Members
Michael Anders, Founder Iconiq Capital

Chris Anderson, CEO/Curator TED

Nicole Bates, Deputy Director, Global Policy & Advocacy Gates Foundation

Hugh Evans, CEO Global Citizen

Martha Fray, UK Board Chairperson Global Citizen

Paul Hurley, Entrepreneur/Advisor Shaklee Corporation

Tom Jones, COO Women’s World Banking

Randall Lane, Editor Forbes

Peter Murphy, Executive Chairman Pan Group Australia
Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief The Huffington Post Media Group

Chairman’s Council
Marco Bizzarri, President & CEO Gucci

Jennifer Breithaupt, SVP Entertainment/Marketing Citi

Andrew Marks, Partner Freemark Partners

Michael Rapino, CEO and Director Live Nation Entertainment

Rebekah Neumann, Founding Partner WeWork

If I were a Manhattan real estate agent, I would love to go apartment hunting for Evans, the Richard Wolffe (Chief Marketing and Chief Digital Officer), and the rest of the leadership team. https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/about/who-we-are/our-leadership/ I particularly got a big kick out of the General Counsel job supervising surly poverty-busting international law firms:

In his capacity as General Counsel, Wei oversees the legal affairs of the organisation globally, working with a network of pro-bono legal firms including Aitken Partners; Allen & Overy; Baker & McKenzie; Beame & Mencher; Clifford Chance; Herbert Smith Freehills; Kirkland & Ellis; RNA IP Attorneys; Seyfarth Shaw; Skadden and White & Case.
Actually, I sensed something was amiss when I heard Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist giddy with anticipation of the 2016 Festival as I was driving to work listening to the quintessentially establishment Morning Joe for a few minutes before vomit starting coming up. I switched the Sirius in my (jet-setting) liberal elite 2004 Prius back to my regular radio channel (CNN en Español).

Brzezinski promoting teaching women their value (http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/mika-brzezinski-want-to-teach-women-the...) is an unequivocally good thing. And there is nothing inherently wrong with MSNBC partnering up to spread this and other good news.

Click and drag to move
Putting all my socialist cards on the table, however, I am one of those dour small d democrats who once criticized the amiable and smart Sanders and Global Citizen® supporter Jeffrey Sachs. https://gardenvarietydemocraticsocialist.com/2013/09/25/jeffrey-d-sachs-... When he wrote a piece for the NYT read my millions, I reminded the one or two people who read my stuff of his disturbing neoliberal heritage and his utter lack of credibility in promoting the mythology that capitalists will ever allow national budgets to provide economic justice nationally much less internationally. (A couple of weeks ago, annieli wrote a piece for this group blob critiquing another good liberal economist,Thomas Piketty. I highly recommend reading her piece. http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/30/1588173/-AntiCapitalist-MeetU...)

Global Citizen® simply is not targeted at the working class in the U.S. at all, nor is it, except inadvertently, targeted on behalf of the working class anywhere. It is targeted at, and in some ways empowering of, young college-educated, going-to-college, or will-be-going-to-college people who want to do good. Doing good is unequivocally a good thing.

Global Citizen® is also implicitly targeted at and on behalf of the ruling class, which makes large tax-deductible charitable contributions which can trickle down through charitable organizations to the working class living in the most distressed parts of the world. The ruling class also makes the phone calls that carry much more sway than twitters from college students--democracy inaction.

Global Citizen® does not really get to root causes. Poverty is a socio-economic choice made by the ruling class of the world, which has a high tolerance of other people’s pain. Although Global Citizen®’s discussion of extreme poverty mentions “distribution” it does not acknowledge that distribution is determined by profit.

Ultimately, Global Citizen® promotes the undemocratic neoliberal vision, with its ever dwindling, nebulous hope of middle class status for the lucky ones made possible by dreams, education, hard work, and entrepreneurial genius--with poverty, but not, God forbid, extreme poverty, for the rest. It is, I emphasize, an undemocratic vision. The workers of the world do not have democracy as such. They also do not want to live in deprivation and misery. They are forced to participate in the bread wars by the profit-driven system that runs our world, not destined for bread wars by a sovereign sadistic asshole of a creator.

It is intentionally naive and undemocratic to expect great masses of the working class suffering in isolation from poverty and near poverty to be able to muster a lot of sympathy much less cash for international funding and charity for those living in extreme poverty. While we all want to learn to be good stewards of whatever we have, however little that may be, the major effective stewards of the world are on the boards of for-profit companies and the charitable organizations that behave themselves. See also the Band memo (“the foundation donors require significant maintenance to keep them engaged and supportive of the foundation”) http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/politics/memo-from-bill-clint...

As Cohen and Ross wrote:

Sadly, the admirable social consciousness Global Citizen taps into looks like it’s going to waste. The campaign offers a hopelessly depoliticized picture of poverty—which is always a political problem above all—and fails to make serious demands of key institutions. From the perspective of the world’s poor, the Global Citizen Festival looks less like a strategic intervention on their behalf and more like a demonstration of young Americans’ support for a doomed agenda for global “development,” one that serves the interests of the rich and powerful first and foremost.

***

Ending world poverty in 15 years might sound impossible. That’s because it is—at least without a massive reordering of our world economy, which demands precisely the kind of political discussion Global Citizen avoids. Critics of the Global Goals have called them “a high school wish-list for how to save the world,” “worse than useless,” and a “betrayal of the world’s poorest people.”A study done by economist David Woodward shows that poverty eradication is impossible under our current global economic system. Even under the most ideal conditions, it would take 100 years to bring the world’s poorest above the Global Goals’ poverty line of $1.25/day, and this amount of growth, in a carbon-constrained world, would have devastating environmental consequences.

The key questions are these: How did those in extreme poverty get to be so poor? How were they impoverished, and what is it that continues to impoverish them? A discussion about poverty that avoids these questions is dishonest and unhelpful. It creates a similar paradox to the one Gary Younge has described in liberal discussions of racial inequity. “We have racism,” writes Younge, “but no racists.” What we get from the Global Goals and Global Citizen is a similar idea with regards to poverty—“a consequence that nobody caused, a system that nobody operates creating victims without perpetrators.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/you-cant-fight-poverty-with-a-concert/

Ending on a positive note, Global Citizen® is planting some good seeds. It ”does do important work in raising awareness of poverty and mobilizing an enormous amount of people….” (Id.) Some of these people will become committed for a lifetime in very positive ways.

And even through Global Citizen®’s denialism about the need for system change, it will probably lead to potentially helpful cognitive dissonance. Something is wrong with the capitalist pictures we are allowed to see on places like MSNBC. Some of the nice people attending Global Citizen® concerts may even one day become socialists and write anti-capitalist pieces with readers in the dozens.

The workers of the world do not need more cowbell, although, back in the day, that cowbell was awesome. Perhaps it could be remixed. Too late. Om.

[video:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UdEPmdEZLSY]