By Devlin Kuyek
Briarpatch Magazine
January/February 2010
Is rights-based activism a step in the wrong direction?
It’s the end of October in Montreal. About 20 of us have stepped away from what could be the year’s last sunny autumn evening for an opportunity to hear from one of Canada’s most important elder activists and thinkers. Brewster Kneen is in town to talk about his new book, The Tyranny of Rights (Ram’s Horn, 2009).
I remember gathering not far from this room on McGill’s campus nearly a decade ago when Brewster was on a road show for his previous book, Farmageddon. That book tore a strip off the overhyped biotech industry and laid plain how our government was colluding with companies like Monsanto to dramatically alter our food system for the sake of corporate profit. The room was packed that night – testimony to the mass food movement that had been building across the country – a movement which Brewster played a critical role in shaping.
But now, 10 years later, it’s a much smaller crowd. Those who are gathered are an eclectic bunch, and probably wouldn’t identify with any single movement. The topic this time isn’t food, and the familiar following of food activists is notably absent.
This time, Brewster’s book is about rights. The connection with his previous work is not obvious. Why would Brewster leave the comfort of a blossoming movement for a lonely struggle to take on what he calls “the tyranny of rights?”
