How Do We Get There?
A Great Transition awaits the awakening of a holistic social change agent to drive system transformation.
The leading actors on the global stage continue to fall short of the challenge. Intergovernmental organizations have produced critical global compacts on a wide array of issues, but enforcement has been hamstrung by the continued hold of myopic national interests and the power of domestic and international capital. Transnational corporations, with the rise of corporate social responsibility, sometimes sing a more enlightened tune, but true enlightenment is rare—and most decisions remain governed by cold calculations of profit. Reformist NGOs have been able to draw attention to global issues and put pressure on governments and corporations, but they remain fragmented and constrained by desire for access.
Looking around, one can see signs of hope in the flowering of popular movements and civil society organizations active throughout the world across a broad spectrum of issues. Still, lacking an overarching vision and strategy, these efforts have remained fragmented and fall short. Victories won here and there are overwhelmed by systemic deterioration.
A system crisis calls for a systemic actor.
The time is ripe for a global citizens movement (GCM). Such a movement would be active on all fronts, linking diverse movements as facets of a common project. Rather than a single organization, the GCM would be a polycentric ecology of innumerable movements, organizations, and associations gathered under a broad umbrella of inclusive solidarity and shared vision.
A GCM would be a network of networks connecting the full spectrum of issues within a shared strategic and intellectual framework, experimenting with organizational forms and communications technologies, honoring diversity and pluralism within common purpose, and adapting in the face of new global challenges.
The emergence and durability of social movements depends on three factors: system vulnerability, organizational capability, and cultural solidarity. It is no different for a GCM.
The prevailing global system is increasingly vulnerable as its failure to cope with the spiraling polycrisis becomes more apparent. The global political system—the interstate order—lacks the coordinated political authority to address major threats or build public trust. The global economic system—corporate capitalism—despoils nature, promotes an ethos of consumerism, and generates extreme inequality. Too many people are being left behind as systems get rigged for the benefit of the few.
System vulnerability is generating a plethora of oppositional movements, but not yet a coherent overarching movement for system change. Mobilization is channeled around specific issues without a grounding in the interconnectivity among struggles or a broader vision of a better world.
Thus, our most urgent need is to cultivate the global solidarity that must be the lifeblood of a new global movement. We benefit from a rich legacy articulating universal ethical principles. The COVID-19 pandemic, financial meltdowns, and climate crises underscore the need for heightened cooperation, while new communications technologies are bringing down walls that once made such connectivity seem impossible.
Multiple crises set the historic conditions for the crystallization of new social forces for another world. But there’s no guarantee. The global movement could well remain just a latent possibility and lost opportunity. Bringing it to life will take ambitious efforts to foster shared consciousness, common purpose, and mass mobilization.
