Today the Guardian proclaimed the Gaza Freedom Flotilla had been defeated. The precise word was “sunk.”

My feeling of discouragement surprised me. After all, being blocked, raided and arrested by Greece – as Flotilla reps described it, “the outsourcing of Israel’s blockade” – may have been a substantial wrench in the proverbial gears of the humanitarian-activist mission, but compared to last year’s massacre aboard the Mavi Marmara, considerably less tragic. And just because the Guardian says so, the mission is not over yet.

Several comrades of mine are aboard, including Kevin Neish, a friend from my early organizing days in Victoria BC, who was also aboard last year’s ill-fated Flotilla; and a journalist from The Media Co-op, for which I occasionally write.

Kevin Neish

Rather than a wrench, though, Israel and/or it’s supporters and/or it’s allies played dirty tricks reminiscent of a James Bond villain. And to spice it up, it then accused the activists of “ridiculous, paranoid accusations.”

“They live in a James Bond movie,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Yigal Palmo. (How’s this for James Bond: just read the history of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and see that we do, in fact, live in a James Bond world. In 1960, Mossad smuggled Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichman to Israel aboard a flight, drugged to appear drunk and dressed as a flight attendant; in 1990 they assassinated Canadian weapons researcher Gerald Bull when he answered his doorbell in Brussels; in 1972 they killed PLO representative Dr. Mahmoud Hamshari with an exploding telephone in his Paris apartment; and, most 007 of all, the 1978 assassination of Palestinian medical doctor and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Wadie Haddad – by slowly poisoning him over a month with his favourite chocolates, coated in a slow-acting and undetectable toxin.)

Spy-games aside, how could anyone survive in such an asymmetrical propaganda war – such an onslaught of non-proverbial plastic explosives into the propellers [ 1 | 2 ] of the mission (plus YouTube-hoaxes into its publicity, impersonating Twitter accounts into its Tweets, unsubstantiated terrorist allegations into its bushels of support letters, holes punched in its hull and fuel tanks…)? You get the point.

When I attended a solidarity rally in Vancouver yesterday outside the Greek Consulate, hope for the mission had already begun the flounder – but folks were anchored by the persistence and humour we saw in the Flotilla (the entire Canadian crew announcing they were all the captain, kayaks blocking the Greek Coast Guard, and announcing “power to the people” as Flotillers revved up a generator against Greek orders). Of course, the Flotilla is not a whimsical provocation, but rather a long-planned effort to bring relief supplies to the Gaza Strip, a beleaguered open-air prison under Israeli blockade.

As we marched singing old civil rights songs in picket-loops to-and-fro in front of the Consulate doors (I felt propelled into another generation of activism for sure), a delegation of activists emerged from a high-level meeting inside. Greek consular official Georgios Ayfantis claimed he supported the Flotilla personally, but that in the midst of Greece’s economic collapse the country was dependent on an oil-pipeline deal with Israel and had to toe the line.

Why the Flotilla organisers chose to dock in Greece during an economic collapse and rioting in the first place raised a few questions on my part, but I assumed it had been planned ages before the current events there, or that any other country could have been coopted by Israel’s efforts to prevent Palestinian self-determination and rights.

While the US delegation launched hunger strikes outside their embassy in Athens, calling on their government to support them, and Canadian kayakers bravely intercepted a Coast Guard boat in time for their Flotilla ship to make a full-speed sprint for international water (points for audacity), Greeks took over Athens’ Syntagma Square in solidarity and local fishermen tried to be a nuisance on the seas.

The square has been the site of months of protests, general strikes and rioting as Greeks rise up en masse against IMF-imposed clawbacks of the country’s social safety net and worker rights, as this video shows:

On Sunday, they returned to the streets to support worldwide Flotilla activists.

Canada and the USA were among the only of the dozen-or-so countries participating in the Flotilla who were not able to get a single national law-maker to join their mission. No surprise there, but what an embarrassing state of affairs when our politicians are blindly obedient to Israel, a foreign nation with a dubious and controversial human rights record to say the least, but refuse consular and diplomatic support for actual Canadian citizens.

The Greek solidarity demonstrations help illustrate the links in the chain between Israeli collusion worldwide (such as Harper’s unflagging cheerleading since his first election), and the neoliberal austerity policies that threaten to eliminate or drastically cut many of the social systems and gains we’ve taken for granted – worker rights, pensions, public health care, employment insurance, and so on. Greeks are under the axe now; in the recent past it’s been Global South places like Argentina, Egypt, Thailand, South Africa, and countless others. With Conservatives at the helm, the signs are ominous.

With this grim outlook, I’ve been accused of negativity and being unable to celebrate anything by some in my family and social circles: “You couldn’t celebrate anything,” “Look for something good out there,” et cetera.

When Canada Day celebrations were eloquently criticised by Indigenous comrade Susana Deranger in Briarpatch magazine in its July/August issue, the “negative professional protester” view of organisers came to the fore – “you just protest everything” and “why can’t we just celebrate something positive?”. Allowing these accusations to go unchallenged is dangerous at a time when we will need to mobilise more ordinary people to support social change amidst the coming labour strife, cutbacks and austerity measures, which will go hand-in-hand with a Conservative regime (or Liberal one for that matter).

How do we get out of the radical ghettoes imposed on us (but too often self-righteously imposed on ourselves), talk to and debate so-called “ordinary” people in a respectful way, but stick to our principles?

Bridesmaids' Annie drunkenly invades the First Class section

Tonight, a friend and I watched a piece of comedy fluff to get a needed laugh after a rough week: Bridesmaids (written by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, directed by Paul Feig). I would be too embarrassed to write a real review here (well, it has reluctantly turned into that). But what I found most interesting was how the film took for granted that viewers would recognise and empathise with economic inequality, hardship, and the recession. Watch the trailer to get the idea, and for a laugh:

To summarise: Annie (Kristen Wiig, the protagonist) is a typical American middle-class small business owner, whose Wisconsin Cake Baby bakery goes bankrupt because of the recession; she’s lost all hope in relationships, independent business and baking, and on top of that someone defaces her ex-business sign with the word ‘Cock baby’ instead of ‘cake.’ A clumsy penis is drawn. Yes, hard times in America.

She’s invited to be the maid of honour for her bi-racial, upper middle class best friend Lilian (Maya Rudolph), but the wedding preparations are hijacked by another bridesmaid, Helen (Rose Byrne) whose aristocratic family can afford valet parking, real stone chocolate fountains, and live puppies as party favours for every guest.

Capitalists like the bridal family, Sarah Palin and Stephen Harper seem to love puppies.

The rich bridesmaid Helen conquers the shower, Annie has a nervour breakdown and is pushed out of the wedding altogether, loses her job for expressing her hopeless views to customers, is evicted, crashes her beat-up car because she can’t afford minor repairs, and alienates her lover.

It is only when her crass, irreverent and uncouth working class friend Megan (Melissa McCarthy) comes over to her house that she is confronted on her self-pity. Her friend describes the bullying and violence of her childhood, and has had to learn to deal with it and get on with life.

The hidden social message I interpreted in this is that things are shitty for the plummeting middle class, but working class people have always had to deal with such realities so stop whining and stand up for yourselves (in fact, Megan physically beats Annie until the point that she strikes back and punches her in the face – the film’s turning point in which the protagonist recreates herself).

Of course, Hollywood couldn’t handle this insightful material, with which we are implicitly supposed to identify. So we are fed the message of Alcoholics Anonymous – that it’s only when you hit rock bottom that things can look up; instead of blaming others, take responsibility for your own failings; and accept the things you cannot change.

By the end of the film, even the bride’s relatively well-off father begins to doubt he can afford the extravagant wedding Helen has forced upon everybody.

The repeated references to AA are telling – Annie’s mother is in the program even though she has never had a drink (hasn’t she heard of Al-Anon, Emotions Anonymous, and Codependents Anonyous?); the auto mechanic is in AA; Annie’s jewelry store boss is her mother’s sponsee.

But the message of sucking up ones’ opinions, accepting manipulative people as friends, and expressing only positive hopeful opinions (at least in front of people’s faces, and bitching behind their backs, like “normal people”) is a complete distortion of the Twelve Steps.

Yes, self-pity and blaming others are problematic; but so is accepting abusive and manipulative behaviour from others. People love to tout, “Accept the things I cannot change,” as if it were a command, particularly when faced with perceived negative attitudes. After the Canada Day debate on my Facebook wall, it seems “negativity” is entirely related to beliefs others find uncomfortable and marginal; things I enjoy and find hopeful have the opposite effect on others, for instance blockades, uprisings, Flotillas, union strikes and May Day celebrations. As Ani Difranco sings in Pretty Girl:

“I am not an angry girl
but it seems like I’ve got everyone fooled
every time I say something they find hard to hear
they chalk it up to my anger
and never to their own fear”

But the second and third lines of the AA prayer are equally important:

“… Courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

In light of the Gaza Flotilla’s apparent demise at the hands of the wrong country (I can say with certainty that the activists aboard had considered the possibility of a 2010 repeat and prepared themselves as best they could, but not for Greece’s betrayal) and the forcing of postal workers back to their jobs at worse pay than even Canada Post had offered – even in light of these, people have found the courage to at least TRY to change the things they can.

The flotilla managed to make that effort with not only great courage, but grace and humour. As the Toronto Star reported:

“A Greek captain hired for the trip was not on the ship, fearing serious repercussions if he broke the edict. Neither was there any Greek crew. Continuing demands for answers were met with humour; all of the delegates claimed to be captain, albeit unofficially. Then they offered up a name: Mr. Northstar, which is the brand name of the autopilot system.”

Whatever happens to the Flotilla, they have reminded the world that, in this time of austerity and loss, we don’t have to simply accept that things can’t change. And some still have the courage to change the things we can.

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