Keep the Resistance Force Alive
Fatalistic ideas connote as something where all the injustices and oppression by the power class seem inevitable and something to be taken as natural. However, the way to protest at injustices is keep going, rather than expecting instant result. Nasir Uz Zaman takes a poem by Bretolt Brecht and dissects it to show keeping the resistance force alive is the only way to rise against oppression.
EVERYTHING
CHANGES
Bertolt
Brecht
Everything
changes. You can make
A fresh
start with your final breath.
But what
has happened has happened. And the water
You once
poured into the wine cannot be
Drained
off again.
What has
happened has happened. The water
You once
poured into the wine cannot be
Drained
off again, but
Everything
changes. You can make
A fresh start with your final breath.
—
Translated by John Willett
‘When
the world the sun shines on is always new, how could everyday life be forever
unchangeable…?’
—
Henri Lefebvre
BLACK,
lesbian, feminist, poet, and activist Audre Lorde repeatedly points out, ‘A
poet is by definition a teacher. Making a real poem is teaching’. Undoubtedly
and rightly, it is truth for Marxist poet-playwright Bertolt Brecht and his
poems. His poems teach us to recognise radical elements of struggle, to conquer
and overcome the dynasty of fear, to have strong faith for revolutionary
changes and not to become fatalistic.
Brecht’s
poem, Everything Changes, translated by John Willett in English from
German, represents his political ideology and the urge and necessity of
fundamental and radical changes. Brecht points the way to freedom and its
possibility by ensuring changes which require political consciousness, hope
and commitment. The belief that everything changes leads to the strong hope
that I/we can change. In the same way, my/our changes can exist in something
that has not come to exist yet, as the world is in the process of being.
Oppression, repression and exploitation of mass, class struggle, social domination,
unequal development and distribution of wealth do not just come down from
heaven but are implicated and nurtured on this land. A fatalistic view, as
Paulo Freire gives example in Pedagogy of the heart, ‘Things are the way
they are because they cannot be different’. Criticising this fatalistic view,
he continues, ‘They cannot be different because if they were, they would be in
conflict with the interests of the ruling class’. One need not think such to
fulfil the interests of the ruling class. Things can be different,
possibilities are there for fundamental changes. Future is there and this
future lies in the transformation of the present political and economic system
which will be for and by the mass people. In a way, the present system tries to
make people ideologically fatalistic by raising fear to fulfil the ruling
class’ greedy agendas. But what is there to be afraid of? What does there still
remain to lose for mass people? The exact answer has already been given by none
other than Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The Communist Manifesto,
‘The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to
win’.
Breaking
the chains is a radical and revolutionary step towards freedom. In this
capitalist society, only the power or money holders can enjoy freedom,
depriving the masses. As Paulo Freire emphasised, having hope for freedom is a
necessary portion for having freedom, in his Pedagogy of Commitment. He
rightly points out that without the hope for arriving at freedom, it is not
possible to move towards freedom which can lead one to the point of
hopelessness where one may stop with ‘there is nothing to be done’, a
fatalistic hopeless view. But the truth is, there are many things to be done.
This fatalistic hopeless view dominates ideologically only when one stops
searching the path, stops trying to do something and stops having hope. From
the experiences gained from history, it will not a bit of lie if it is said
that there was never fixity, there is no fixity and there will never be fixity
in human history. History is the history of changes. Capitalism, as an example,
from where it came? It came from ‘nothing’. In feudal time, it did not exist
but historical changes gave birth to it. To add, the birth of capitalism or the
existence of capitalism does not mean that it will exist forever. Some or many
sealed the idea of communism with the tag of utopia but they forget,
non-existence does not exist forever and history has already demonstrated the
possibilities of it where there is the possibility to enjoy freedom
individually and collectively through and in community, not only individually.
The masses may have freedom but all the opportunities are restricted by and for
either individual or individuals or their freedom. Recognising and overcoming
these restrictions become a foremost step as we know that life is not
unchangeable. If a system fails to meet the people’s need, people always stand
against the system and protest to change it.
The
presence of Fulgencio Batista means the presence of Che Guevara and the
presence of Fidel Castro to overthrow injustice for revolutionary change. Resistance becomes
necessary and mandatory for human existence as history proves. Recent student
movement for road safety is current evidence of the significance of protest
or resistance. There was a slogan in the movement, ‘You will
perish, if you are
afraid, if you resist then you are Bangladesh’. We have seen protesters being
represented as a nation, maybe the first time we have observed. This slogan
demonstrates the political consciousness of the school and college students.
They had rightly recognised the enigmas and crises of the present political
system with the knowledge that it is not easy to resist and protest but for
survival, there is no alternative. The present is not something that we have to
or need to take for granted. What is needed is to have a better future which
can only be ensured by changing the present situation. In a seminar in
Argentina, Paulo Freire was asked to suggest ways to organise the resistance.
His answer was an example of what can be done. The gist of his example is that
we need to value democracy and reinvent the forms of political action. Many
people even forget who they have voted for and not only they need to recognise
who they have voted for but also recognise what the elected one is doing or
did. People need to recognise the statements and promises made by the
candidates during political campaigning and denounce them in the following
election if they did not work accordingly to their statements and promises. To
add here relevantly, an image circulated in social media, where Anu Muhammad
and Rahnuma Ahmed holding a placard with the words, ‘First, do justice of
murders and rapes, then ask for votes’, demonstrates the seriousness of Paulo
Freire’s words. It is the duty and commitment of the government to provide
protection to the people. But, people cannot but engage and protest critically
and politically to change the gruesome system if the government or system fails
to meet its duty and commitment.
Hoping
and starting something for radical change does not mean that this change has
come already. For a radical change, it is necessary to fight for it. Indeed, if
we have faith, hope, courage and commitment for it, there is a possibility. But
if we don’t have those, it is sure that nothing will change. The history of
radical change shows that it requires ‘favourable conditions’ and this raises a
question as obvious. Should we wait for those favourable conditions? The answer
is NO, we have to start from this moment to create those favourable conditions.
Last but not least thing to say, we cannot change our past, what has done is
done, but can change our future. If we faced failure in past, that does not
mean we will necessarily face failure in future. We have to change, we have to
resist and this is the high time to start.
Nasir Uz Zaman is a former student of University of Liberal Arts
Bangladesh.
Published: Sep 09, 2018 (New Age Youth)
Links:
http://www.newagebd.net/article/50143/keep-the-resistance-force-alive
http://epaper.newagebd.net/09-09-2018/21
