THERE’S a problem with conventional wisdom. Convention can be daft, and popular wisdom isn’t always wise. The latest convention is that 2016 has been a disaster year.
Sure, there are rational causes for fear. Brexit. Trump. Syria. Yemen. Climate change. The backlash against refugees. Even the firmest of optimists have given way to the temptation for nihilistic despair.
But I’ve started to find this one-sided story of the year a bit grating.
While those giant political tragedies cannot be washed away, they don’t mean bigotry, war, and destruction are inevitable. This hasn’t been as awful a year, especially here in Scotland, as many would suggest. There are many stories – victories – that should never be forgotten.
Kurdish fighters continue to defend a rare oasis of Middle Eastern democracy. Poland’s feminist movement led a mass strike that defeated government plans to ban abortions. Activists united at Standing Rock, North Dakota, to preserve the rivers from pipelines.
Austria’s far-right were defeated. The Iran peace-deal came into force. More than 150 million Indian workers stood together in the biggest strike in human history.
My favourite image was at Aird Uig, Isle of Lewis, of locals removing British military signage. The land is now owned by the people. That community land movement stepped forward this year from East Lochaber and Laggan, to Keose Glebe, to Loch Arkaig pine forest, to the land around Helmsdale in East Sutherland, to the village of Wanlockhead.
Buyout progress in Portobello, Helensburgh, and Barmulloch, Glasgow, showed signs of land reform also spreading to urban Scotland.
Every month had similar victories.
In January, MSPs backed a review of public funding to big corporations. Kelvin Meadow community won a reprieve to protect their Glasgow green space, while London UCL students launched a successful rent strike.
After a petty smear attempt, supporters rallied around SNP MP Philippa Whitford over her Christmas break work in a local NHS hospital. Campaigners welcomed progress on strengthening laws on Scottish Parliament lobbying. That was all in one month!
Then in February, campaigners triumphed at Glasgow University, as its investment wing pledged to ditch “conflict minerals”. The much-criticised conditions at Cornton Vale Prison moved towards the history pages, as closure plans took a step forward. Revenue Scotland confirmed that Scotland’s first new tax laws in more than 300 years were bedding in.
In one of my favourite joke stories of the year, Scottish MPs ditched the cringy Clean for the Queen celebrations at Westminster. Meanwhile, disability rights group One in Five celebrated as grant-funding was awarded to improve access to politics.
In March, students and staff welcomed the Higher Education Governance Bill passing at Holyrood, which included measures to democratise education leadership. In another sign that campaigns can win, SNP conference backed a “national system of rent controls” in a unanimous vote – an issue which has soared up the agenda due to the Living Rent organisation.
The Land Reform Bill was passed following the latest wave of demand for justice, transparency and fair taxation of land. Because of determination across the country, that fight continues.
Lord Apetsi, a Glaswegian father-of-two, was facing deportation. Then his friends, student leaders and politicians rallied to his aid. He won a reprieve.
In April, the world witnessed one of the greatest examples of investigative journalism and whistleblowing with the publication of the Panama Papers. The rich and powerful were exposed, and across the globe, there was a backlash against inequality, tax evasion and secrecy.
Meanwhile in Glasgow’s George Square, a homeless camp set up, refusing to be shepherded from one short-term solution to another. It was brave and defiant.
Then in May, a pro-independence majority was re-elected to Holyrood for only the second time in history. While the Tories grew at Labour’s expense, the rabid British nationalists of Ukip were also thrashed – despite some giddy predictions.
June wasn’t all about Brexit. Highlands and Islands Enterprise announced an expansion to support community land ownership. Health experts backed an end to the war on drugs. Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins, gave a warm address to MSPs in Edinburgh, calling for closer links between the two European nations.
That’s just a selection of some good news from half the year!
By September, Scotland was welcoming its 1000th refugee from Syria.
The women’s national football team qualified for Euro 2017 – Scotland’s first major tournament in the sport since 1998. Statisticians found that the number of children exposed to second-hand smoke had halved in a year.
Unconventional Coal Gasification was banned. TTIP began to disintegrate. Even the makers of video game Football Manager put Scottish independence into its storyline.
These are only a selection of the stories I’ve followed in our own small part of the world. There are thousands more out there.
We shouldn’t give in to a defeatist storyline. We are only defeated if we wallow in the cliché and group-think of “disaster 2016” rather than realise our power to write the history of each year ahead of us.
Let that give us confidence in 2017.
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