A Canadian academic contends organizers of the Idle No More movement are at a critical crossroads and faced with some key decisions.
Max Cameron teaches at the University of British Columbia and also heads up the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
He says Idle No More organizers will likely have to figure out how they intend to mesh their efforts with those of the established First Nations leadership.
Cameron adds social movements that fail to develop resources and organizational capacity can sometimes run out of steam.
“I think that the movement itself has to figure out does it work through the existing structures of First Nations governance or at the margins of that,” he says. “What kind do elected rulers have, what kind of role do self-appointed leaders have, what kind of connections with non-aboriginal communities as well.”
At the same time, the UBC professor says he expects joining ranks with the chiefs could be tricky for grassroots organizers because the initial movement started over frustrations with the current system.
“On the other hand, I think there’s sort of a sense that the elected leadership of First Nations can be fairly conservative” Cameron says. “They have an ongoing relationship with the government and I think part of what this Idle No More protest movement captures is a sense of frustration with the inaction at the level of the patterns of negotiation between First Nations and the government.”
Cameron compares the Idle No More movement to the Occupy protests last year that began near Wall Street.