It is time re-civilise civil society. Non-government organisations have been developing pretensions to represent civil society, the broader community -- even to the extent of claiming equivalent standing to sovereign governments in international forums.
But who are these people? Who elected them? How are they accountable?
With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the relegation of the socialist project to the dust-bin of history, a lot of activists were left homeless.
Many parachuted into environmental, religious and consumer organisations. These new homes proved comfortable.
They did good social things, had a high standing in the community -- indeed some were on a "mission from God". They also often had large, docile support bases and were owned by all but controlled by none.
Not surprisingly, intrigue, infighting and takeovers followed, with the usual outcome being a victory to the politically focused paratroopers. The end result was that organisations such as the Australian Conservation Foundation became "watermelons" -- green on the outside, red in the middle.
Similar processes occurred with bodies like the Australian Consumers' Association and the Brotherhood of St Lawrence. They became institutions more interested in overthrowing capitalism than improving adding to consumer choice or seeking everlasting salvation.
Some of the former paratroopers became gentrified with age and power and rejoined the mainstream. Many, however, remained true to the cause. Joined in recent years by a new generation of true believers and organisations, they continue to dress up the failed socialist project with new green, consumerist and religious garnishes.
Such institutions are too important to be left to a radical fringe. Socialism, as history as repeatedly shown, is not a route to a cleaner environment, greater consumer choice or a moral society. Capitalism has it problems, but it leaves socialism for dead in all three areas -- 70 years of Soviet socialism produced appalling environmental mismanagement and the only industrialised society with a declining average life expectancy.
The antics of many of these radical groups do not foster a civil society or sense of community. In recent months, we have seen radical groups physically barring people for their work places, shouting down people at shareholder meetings, and despoiling property. These groups are taking-up Karl Marx's recommendation of using the system against itself.
Many organisations have begun buying shares in companies to disrupt shareholders meetings. Unlike normal shareholders, their goal is to destroy wealth by stopping profitable projects.
Well, two can play at this game. It time for the wider community to fight back. The paratroopers and old Uncle Karl have shown the way.
We should join these institutions as a paid-up members, demand a modern and democratic system of governance, turf out the ideologues and refocus the operations of the organisations on their original purposes. If people do not have the time or energy to do the hard work themselves they can always delegate it to others.
This must be done carefully and selectively or else the tactic will backfire. Some organisations are impervious to the wishes of members. Greenpeace, for example, is controlled by tightly held, off-shore interests and is takeover-proof. Other groups are simply fronts established to do the aggressive work of larger, more mainstream organisations. It is better to ignore fronts and go directly to their leader like the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Wilderness Society.
If we did this en-mass we would start to see a genuine civilising of so-called "civil society".
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