Pražské náměstí Míru se v sobotu dopoledne proměnilo v první bleší trh v moderní historii Prahy. Přímo na ploše před kostelem svaté Ludmily rozložili své stolky důchodci, sběratelé i klasičtí vetešníci.
pondělí 27. července 2009
Bleší trh ovládl o víkendu náměstí Míru
Varovanie: Manželstvo zabíja?
Aňa Ostrihoňová 
Mýtus osamelosti je vyvrátený a individualistické časy prajú tým, ktorí vedia oceniť a vychutnať si vlastnú nezávislosť. Singles dnes netrú núdzu ani o priateľov, ani o spoločenský život. A navyše sú zdravší.
Kučeravá Single (37) príde večer domov, ohreje si jedlo, ktoré jej pripravila pani, ktorá sa jej stará o domácnosť, zapne si dobrý film alebo poskypuje s nejakou kamarátkou v USA a to, že svetlo v spálni zhasína sama, jej vôbec neprekáža. V dnešnej situácii sa má dokonca lepšie ako jej priatelia s rodinami. Hypotéku už dávno splatila, nemá deti, ktoré by nepredvídateľne zvyšovali výdavky. Ako sama tvrdí, má bohatý vnútorný život, stabilnú sieť známych a pohodové hodiny Pilatesa či juhoindického tanca v sobotu ráno, keď sa nemusí ponáhľať na veľké rodinné nákupy do natrieskaných supermarketov.
Nuž, zjavne je predstava osamelej, zdeprimovanej, pesimistickej, zatrpknutej starej dievky, ktorú susedia nájdu až tri mesiace po jej smrti obžutú mačkami, a to len preto, že nezaplatila nájomné, passé. Mýtus osamelosti je vyvrátený a individualistické časy prajú tým, ktorí vedia oceniť a vychutnať si vlastnú nezávislosť. Šport, party, výlety s priateľmi alebo cestovanie veľa priestoru na partnerstvo, v ktorom by bolo nutné prispôsobovať sa, nenechávajú. Singles majú podľa najnovších výskumov sociálnu sieť rovnako dobre vybudovanú ako ľudia, ktorí žijú s partnermi.
O osamelosti a samote
Všetky výskumy sú založené na porovnávaní života a osobnej spokojnosti s ním. New York Magazine sa na konci minulého roku prostredníctvom viacerých štúdií snažil vyvrátiť mýtus o osamelosti mestského života. Manhattan je hlavným mestom singles, keďže každý druhý byt je obývaný len jednou osobou. Výskumy však vyvracajú predstavy osamelosti, ktoré upevnili filmy ako Taxi Driver či Polnočný kovboj. Veľké mestá nie sú izolujúce, anonymné a teda osamelé, práve naopak, život ulice a neustále nové podnety podporujú život komunít. Osamelosť nie je faktom, ale pocitom, a tak aj človek, ktorý nežije sám, môže byť osamelý. Výskumy dokazujú, že manželstvo život predlžuje, ale rovnako aj priateľstvo. Dokonca je mnoho prípadov ľudí, ktorí všetky sociálne kontakty, z rôznych dôvodov, po tom čo si založili rodinu, prerušili. Zo zdravotného hľadiska ide o väčšiu izoláciu, než bývanie osamote. Trávenie času s nemluvňatami je pravdepodobne spoločenskou aktivitou s koeficientom rovným osamelému pozeraniu teleshoppingu.
Mnohí politici a sociológovia zvyknú z času na čas oprášiť argument o prospešnosti manželstva pre dobré zdravie a dlhovekosť. Podľa štúdie dvoch amerických sociologičiek, ktorú v septembri uverejnil Journal of Health and Social Behaviour sa však zdá, že aj tomuto tvrdeniu odzvonilo. V predchádzajúcich výskumoch o vplyve rodinného stavu na zdravie sa totiž do jedného vreca s nezadanými hádzali ľudia rozvedení, žijúci oddelene či ovdovení. Časy sa menia, ako hovorí názov tejto štúdie, a tak skutočnosť, že spoločnosť akceptuje a hlavne nestigmatizuje slobodných a rozvedených ľudí, prispela aj k zlepšeniu ich fyzického aj psychického zdravia.
Manželstvo sa obyčajne považuje za sociálnu, psychologickú a najmä ekonomickú oporu. Za uplynulých tridsať rokov sa však prístup k materiálnemu bohatstvu rozšíril natoľko, že manželstvo napríklad pre ženy nie je jediným spôsobom prežitia ako tomu bolo v minulosti. Rovnako je to aj v prípade spomínanej psychologickej podpory, poväčšine (opäť) ženy nie sú odkázané na okruh manželových známych a príbuzných. Manželstvo navyše v sebe ukrýva možnosť rozvodu, ktorý je veľmi stresujúcou skúsenosťou, ktorá fyzickému zdraviu rozhodne neprospieva. Časy sa naozaj menia a zdravie mužov, ktorí nikdy neboli ženatí sa v porovnaní s tými ženatými, zlepšuje oveľa rýchlejšie.
...a bez záväzkov
Niektorí sociológovia však s týmito názormi nesúhlasia a namietajú, že len preto, že život osamote respektíve vo voľnom zväzku je spoločnosťou uznaný, nie je automaticky atraktívnejší, pretože ani tí najlepší priatelia nenahradia partnerskú blízkosť. Keby netúžili po nejakej forme vzťahu, určite by v priemere 50 percent nezadaných ľudí aktívne nehľadalo partnera. Podľa nemeckej zoznamovacej stránky ElitePartner, ktorá robila prieskum medzi približne ôsmimi tisícmi singles, je to dokonca až 85 percent. Prečo teda tento trend nie je na ústupe?
Presne z rovnakých dôvodov, z akých sa zdravie ľudí žijúcich osamote zlepšuje. Užívajú si svoju nezávislosť, nezaťažujú sa kompromismi a toleranciou nálad a potrieb druhého človeka. V sobotu ránom môžu ísť na hodinu Pilatesa bez toho, aby sa dvakrát zamysleli nad tým, či je chladnička dosť plná na večeru pre dvoch. Napriek tomu, že bývanie osamote je podľa psychológov dôležitou fázou dospievania a osamostatňovania sa, viac ako päťnásť rokov solitérstva môže byť pri zosúlaďovaní života s inou osobou dosť na obtiaž.
Podľa spomínaného nemeckého prieskumu sa singlovia necítia dobre v situáciách, keď sú pozvaní niekam, kde treba doviesť partnera, počas osamelých večerov a Vianoc, v prípade, keď stretnú svojho alebo svoju ex s novým priateľom či dokonca celou rodinou a na nervy im lezú čerstvo zamilovaní kamaráti a priatelia, ktorí sa stali rodičmi. Na druhej strane – manželské šťastie tiež pozná svoje osamelé večery a keďže sociológovia tvrdia, že vzťahy dnes trvajú v priemere sedem rokov, za touto hranicou môže na dvoch ľudí čakať veľa neopravených porúch.
Antiekologie finančního sektoru John Michael Greer
KD│ Poslední esej vycházel z rozlišení E.F. Schumachera, který ve studii Small is Beautiful rozdělil statky na primární produkované přírodními procesy a na sekundární vyráběné lidskou prací. Poukázal přitom na fakt, že sekundární statky nemohou být vyrobeny, pokud nemáte po ruce nezbytné statky primární.
To je pravda, kterou současní ekonomové často přehlížejí. A existuje přinejmenším stejně důležitý rozdíl mezi oběma zmíněnými typy statků a zbožím neprodukovaným ani přírodou, ani prací. Jde o terciární, nebo přesněji finanční statky; v dnešním světě tvoří zmíněný typ statku (v dolarovém vyjádření) největší jednotlivou třídu zboží, a trhy, na nichž je nakupováno a prodáváno, ovládají ekonomiky průmyslových států. Nazvat tento stav poněkud nešťastným přitom znamená drasticky jej podcenit, protože systematická chyba způsobovaná našim společnostem dominancí finančního zboží patří k nejmocnějším faktorům, které náš svět ničí.
Představte si korporátní obligaci s nominální hodnotou 1 000 dolarů. V ekonomickém smyslu jde o zboží – může být koupeno nebo prodáno, existují lidé, kteří si je přejí koupit, stejně jako lidé schopní je vyprodukovat a prodat. Ale když tuto obligaci porovnáte s jinou, hmatatelnější věcí, zjistíte, že obligace je poněkud podivným typem zboží. Neobsahuje totiž nic jiného než příslib jisté korporace vyplatit k nějakému budoucímu datu 1 000 dolarů. Tento slib může, nebo nemusí být splněn – špatné obligace jsou například nakupovány a prodávány s plným vědomím toho, že šance nabyvatele nejsou dobré – ale i s touto šancí se zachází jako s hodnotou.
Rozdíly mezi terciálním statkem na jedné a primárním nebo sekundárním na druhé tím ale nekončí. Hmatatelné statky produkované přírodními cykly nebo lidskou prací jsou dostupné v objemech omezených nabídkou. Pokud v řece teče určité množství vody, fakt, že si jí lidé přejí více, nevyprodukuje o nic více zdroje, než kolik je už nyní výsledkem hydrologického cyklu. Stejně tak když pracovní síla, produktivní kapitál a zdrojová základna jsou plně vytíženy výrobou určitého množství sekundárních statků, znamená to, že vyrobit ještě více vyžaduje víc než jen dohodu o tom, že to uděláme; země musí navýšit nabídku pracovní síly, produktivního kapitálu a získat přístup k novým zdrojům.
Avšak terciální statky jsou k dispozici v množství omezeném pouze poptávkou. Kolik obligací může korporace vydat? Tolik, kolik jich jsou lidé ochotni koupit. Velká část nedávno zkrachovalých podniků měla možnost pochopit rozdíl mezi dočasnou bublinou a permanentní prosperitou, když vydala obligace výrazně překračující schopnost splácet a byla pak konfrontována se svými závazky. V ještě gargantuovštějším měřítku se nyní vláda Spojených států snaží restartovat ekonomiku utrácením peněz, které nemá, prodejem obligací k pokrytí schodku, a hromaděním dluhu v měřítku, ve srovnání s nímž extravagantní kleptokracie Třetího světa vypadá jako banda skrblíků. Je těžké představit si jiné než nepěkné výsledky této absurdní extravagance, ale přesto zákazníci po celém světě dosud nakupují americké státní obligace a myslí si, že existuje jiskra naděje, že se jim jejich peníze vrátí.
Rozdíl mezi zbožím omezeným nabídkou a zbožím omezeným poptávkou je tedy mimo jiné rozdílem v typu zpětné vazby. Představte si termostat: Pokud teplota v domě poklesne pod určitou hodnotu, topení se zapne a teplota se vrátí na vyšší hodnotu; pokud teplota překročí horní hranici, topení se vypne a teplota opět klesá. To je negativní zpětná vazba.
V tržní ekonomice je veškeré sekundární zboží podřízeno negativní zpětné vazbě. To je tajemství neviditelné ruky Adama Smithe: Pokud je nabídka zboží omezena dostupnými přírodními vstupy, pracovní silou a zásobou kapitálu, zvýšená poptávka tlačí cenu zboží nahoru a vytlačuje některé potenciální kupce z trhu; snížená poptávka naopak způsobuje, že zboží zlevní a dovolí většímu množství zákazníků, aby se vrátili na trh. Rostoucí cena zboží motivuje výrobce k alokaci většího množství zdrojů, práce a kapitálu do výroby žádaného produktu a uspokojení dodatečné poptávky, zatímco pokles cen způsobuje, že jsou výrobní faktory využívány jiným, lukrativnějším způsobem.
Velmi podobná smyčka negativní zpětné vazby kontroluje produkci primárních statků v planetárních přírodních systémech. Každý primární statek, od vody v řece a úrodnosti konkrétního kusu půdy až po opylování zemědělských plodin včelami, je regulován delikátně vyváženými procesy negativní zpětné vazby v dané oblasti planetární biosféry. Paralely jsou dost zjevné na to, aby ekologové na svém výzkumném poli používali ekonomických metafor, a je docela možné, že ekologická ekonomie využívající přírodních systémů jako metafor pro sekundární ekonomiku může vytvořit ekonomii, jež by ve skutečném světě dávala smysl.
Věci se však mění v terciární ekonomice finančního zboží, protože zpětná vazba zde není negativní, ale pozitivní. Představte si termostat navržený sadistou. V létě, když se teplota vyšplhá nad určitou úroveň, sadotermostat způsobí, že v domě bude ještě tepleji; a v zimě naopak, když teplota klesne pod předem stanovený bod, topení se vypne a trubky zamrznou. To je pozitivní zpětná vazba, a terciální ekonomika je ovládána právě jí, pokud není omezována limity v oblasti ekonomiky primární a sekundární.
To je přesně případ nedávné hypotéční bubliny. Domy vytvořené lidskou prací tvoří samozřejmě součást sekundární ekonomiky, ale byly nakrátko a s katastrofálními důsledky změněny v terciální statek, jehož hodnota spočívala primárně v příslibu budoucích zisků z rostoucí prodejní ceny. Když cena sekundárního zboží stoupá, poptávka se sníží, ale v případě hypotéční bubliny se tak nestalo; namísto toho poptávka dále rostla.
Limity ležely spíše na straně poptávky, jako v případě všech spekulativních bublin: Když každý, kdo se chtěl připojit, už tak učinil, ceny se začnou hroutit a opět zafunguje pozitivní zpětná vazba. Proces se uzavírá, když každý, kdo byl vůbec schopen prodat, již tak učinil.
Je důležité všimnout si, že pozitivní zpětná vazba terciální ekonomiky vyřadila ze hry ekonomiku sekundární. Dávno před tím, než hypotéční bublina splaskla, už existoval masivní nadbytek domů – jen v arizonském Phoenixu je jich zrovna teď volných na 50 000. Za normálních okolností by souhra nabídky a poptávky další výstavbu domů zastavila. Místo toho došlo v drastickém rozsahu ke špatné alokaci zdrojů sekundární ekonomiky a k masívní recesi.
Je populární srovnávat terciální ekonomiku s hazardní hrou, ale pozitivní zpětná vazba přináší jeden důležitý rozdíl. Když čtyři hráči pokeru sedí u stolu a karty dojdou, hra má negativní zpětnou vazbu. Množství bohatství na počátku a na konci hry je přesně stejné, dochází pouze k redistribuci. Jinak řečeno, jde o hru s nulovým součtem – na každého vítěze připadá jeden poražený.
Terciální ekonomika však takto nefunguje. Pokud trhy stoupají, všichni investují do zisků; pokud klesají, všichni investují do ztrát. Rozdíl mezi tímto systémem a negativní zpětnou vazbou přírodních cyklů nemůže být výraznější. V tomto smyslu nebude bez důvodu, pokud terciální ekonomiku nazveme ekonomikou antiekologickou – jakožto systém, v němž jsou ekologické zákony postaveny na hlavu až dotud, dokud nenarazí na tvrdé hranice ekoligické reality.
Není příliš kontroverzní popisovat finanční bubliny tímto způsobem, ačkoliv se můžete vsadit, že i v době nafukování bubliny velké množství vzdělanců a ekonomů bude trvat na tom, že o žádnou bublinu nejde a rostoucí ceny jsou perfektně odůvodnitelné vyhlídkami na budoucí zisky. Na druhé straně je však velmi kontroverzní tvrdit, že celá terciální ekonomika je ovládána pozitivní zpětnou vazbou. Přesto trvám na to, že jde o správný závěr ohledně finanční ekonomiky průmyslového světa, a jediný důvod pro kontroverzi představuje skutečnost, že my i naši prapředkové jsme žili během vzestupné fáze pramatky všech spekulativních bublin.
Zdrojem této prabubliny nebyly akcie, obligace, reality, deriváty, ani cokoliv jiného na co si vzpomenete, ale samotný industrialismus: Celý projekt zvyšování výroby zboží a služeb na historicky bezprecedentní úroveň prostřednictvím amplifikace lidské práce energií přírodního světa, zpočátku větrnou a vodní, později stále rostoucím množstvím energie fosilní. Lidé investovali do industrialismu kvůli příslibu vysokých budoucích zisků.
Podobně jako každá jiná bublina, také industrialismus během vzestupné fáze přinášel spektakulární zisky. Je ale nepřesné říkat, že na něm všichni vydělali; jedním z důsledků byla masivní distorze vzorců obchodní výměny ve prospěch hlavních industriálních ekonomik a masivní úpadek zbytku planety. (Chudoba Třetího světa je z větší části moderním fenoménem.) Přesto alespoň v průmyslových zemích životní standard třista let rostl do té míry, že průměrně bohatí lidé v Americe nebo Evropě měli přístup ke zboží a službám, jaké si ve staletích před nimi nemohli dovolit ani imperátoři.
Za fasádou industrialismu však leží závislost terciální ekonomiky na zdrojích z ekonomiky primární. Pozitivní zpětná vazba nedokáže vyrobit zdroje z ničeho – to je občas možné jen v případě peněz – nicméně ukázalo se, že dokáže zabránit industriálním ekonomikám v odpovědi na vyčerpávání zásob fosilních paliv před tím, než bublina industrialismu splaskne.
Tajný důkaz globálního oteplování, který Bush potlačil
Americká armáda zveřejnila výmluvné fotografie, které dokazují zdrcující dopad globálního oteplování na Arktidu. Tyto fotografie, které pořídily špionážní satelity za poslední desetiletí, potvrzují, že v posledních letech jsou obrovské oblasti moří daleko na severu úplně bez ledu.
Tyto fotografie byly za vlády George Bushe utajovány a odtajněny byly teprve minulý týden. Prezident Barack Obama se snaží galvanizovat Kongres a americkou veřejnost k rázné podpoře akcí směřujících k zastavení katastrofálních podnebných změn, způsobených zvýšením koncentrace kysličníku uhličitého v atmosféře.
Fotografie ve větším zvětšení ZDE
Jedna dvojice zvlášť šokujících fotografií, vybraných ze souboru 1000 odtajněných snímků - je pohledem na aljašský přístav Barrow One. Na první fotografii, pořízené v červenci 2006, je led ještě blízko k pobřeží. Z druhé fotografie je zjevné, že následujícího července byly pobřežní vody už úplně bez ledu.
Tyto fotografie drsně dokazují, jak se Arktida mění v důsledku globálního oteplování. V létě 2007 ve srovnání s létem 2006 zmizelo více než milion čtverečních metrů ledu. A situace byla stále stejně špatná v roce 2008 a je stejně špatná i v roce 2009.
Toto jsou fotografie s rozlišovací schopností jednoho metru, takže nám to dává obrovské množství informací o letní Arktidě, konstatoval Thorsten markus z Goddard Space Flight Centre společnosti NASA.
Mizící letní mořský led znamená velké nebezpečí, varují vědci. Ledové šelfy používají zvířata, jako jsou lední medvědi, k lovu tuleňů a dalších mořských živočichů. Bez nich vyhynou. Kromě toho led odráží sluneční teplo. Tmavé moře ho naopak absorbuje a bez ledu se tedy zřejmě bude moře v Arktidě dále oteplovat. To hrozí vyvolat nezastavitelné oteplování planety, varují klimatologové.
Tyto nejnovější fotografie vyvolaly varování od vědců, že už nemají finanční prostředky na to, aby systematicky zaznamenávali klimatické změny. Minulý týden varovala profesorka Jane Lubchenco, šéfka americké National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), že shromážďování satelitních dat je ohroženo, protože se neplánuje nahrazení stárnoucí flotily amerických satelitů.
Už předtím vědci varovali, že Amerika se doslova oslepuje vůči globálnímu oteplování, protože omezuje financování ekologických satelitních programů. Obamova vláda se snaží situaci napravit. Součástí plánu na hospodářské oživení prezidenta Obamy byl grant 170 milionů dolarů na obnovení modelování klimat. NOAA však potřebuje dalších 390 milionů dolarů pro rozpočet na rok 2010 na modernizaci ekologických satelitů a pro zpřístupnění dat výzkumníkům a vládním úřadům.
Zlatá miliarda a miliarda hladujúcich
Kríza uvrhla do chudoby ešte 90 miliónov obyvateľov Zeme. Počet hladujúcich môže skoro presiahnuť jednu miliardu. Tieto údaje obsahuje záverečný dokument konferencie MMF a Svetovej banky, ktorá sa zavŕšila v nedeľu. Zaznel ešte jeden znepokojujúci úder na poplach. Aké rozhodnutia sa prijali v oblasti zníženia ľudského utrpenia? Túto tému komentuje Sergej Guk.Zaznela výzva ku krajinám dvadsiatky, čo najrýchlejšie vydeliť čo najviac peňazí. Na nedávnej konferencii v Londýne štedro prisľúbila vydeliť v prospech krajín najviac postihnutých krízou, bilión dolárov. Ale pevne fixovaný termín transakcie sa nenazval. A mnohé krajiny EÚ sa snažia tento termín oddialiť.
Okrem toho môže byť medzi ich nadobúdateľmi nielen hladujúce obyvateľstvo Afriky alebo Ázie. Brusel zahŕňa do kategórie postihnutých aj také krajiny, ako je Lotyšsko alebo Maďarsko. Vyplýva z toho, že štedrosť patrí aj im? Ľudstvo utešili svetoví bankári iba svojou optimistickou predpoveďou. Na rozdiel od väčšiny finančných expertov mysliacich si, že pád svetovej ekonomiky nedosiahol ešte dno, padlo na nich „svetlo na konci tunelu“.
Ani slovo sa nepovedalo o kontrole vydelených prostriedkov. Je to smutná prax, keď si miestni predstavitelia moci nehanebne privlastňujú miliardové prostriedky a žijú v prepychu na pozadí veľkej chudoby, negramotnosti a epidémií. A trvá do dneška. Preto bude v mnohých prípadoch efekt z charitatívnych akcií porovnateľný s procesom čerpania vody rešetom.
Na stránkach európskych médií sa znovu objavila téza, ktorú kedysi vyslovil rad vedcov a expertov OSN. Hrubo povedané, veľmi veľa sa nás rozplodilo. Vtedy, keď je dobrý život na planéte možný iba pre jednu miliardu obyvateľov, nazvanú ako zlatá miliarda – čo je metafora na vyznačenie najbohatších a najvyspelejších krajín.
Jacques Attali, bývalý poradca francúzskeho prezidenta Mitterana predpovedá, že obyvateľstvo planéty sa k roku 2050 zvýši na osem miliárd, z ktorých bude dve tretiny žiť v 20 najchudobnejších krajinách. „Ocitnú sa za ohradou, budú sa dusiť od otrávenej atmosféry a nik si ich nebude v súvislosti s ľahostajnosťou ani všímať. Všetky hrozby XX. storočia v porovnaní s týmto vyblednú.
Jeden z členov Rímskeho klubu doplňuje, že Západ sa stále viac mení na nejaké geto obkolesené pobúrenými a pripravenými na povstanie hordami hladujúcich, negramotných a nezamestnaných. Európa už teraz s ťažkosťami zdržuje nátlak stovky tisíc ľudí čiernej a žltej pleti snažiacich sa všemocne prebiť k zdrojom blahobytu. Dlho vydržia zátarasy?
Ak sa pozrieť pravde do očí, práve európske veľmoci si kedysi tvorili svoj blahobyt na úkor bývalých kolónií. Nie je divné, že tieto dnes vyhlasujú pohľadávky k Západu. A sú iba dve východiská. Alebo spoločný pochod za dôstojný život bez akéhokoľvek delenia na vyvolených a druhoradých. Alebo, ako písal ruský politológ Sergej Kara Murza, „zjednotenie zlatej miliardy ako novej globálnej rasy pánov proti revolúcii chudobných“.
Freeganism in Practice:
Strategies for Cooperative, Sustainable Living Beyond Capitalism.
by Adam Weissman
1- Visit http://freegan.info and learn about freegan philosophies, facts,
and practices.
2- Join the Freeganworld email list at http://freeganworld.freegan.info
3- Start a local community of people committed to resisting capitalism by
creating a sustainable, local, cooperative economic model as an alternative.
4- Read books on the injustice of capitalism, the unsustainability of
industrialism, and on practical strategies for sustainable living. Start a
book discussion group! Recommended books can be found at
http://reading.freegan.info Familiarize yourself with concepts like mutual
aid, the notion of a society based on voluntary cooperation, and gift
economics, an economic model where everything is shared freely. Learn about
why the threat of human extinction within the century as a result of climate
change makes ending our current economic model an absolute necessity. Visit
http://climate.freegan.info for details.
5- Grow your own food-- even if you live in the city! Urban dwellers are
growing food in abandoned lots, on rooftops, and terraces. To learn more,
visit http://gardens.freegan.info
6- Eat wild! Edible and medicinal wild plants grow all around us. Learn
about your local plants and forage them from parks and yards. For more
information, visit http://foraging.freegan.info. Share what you learn with
others!
7- Start a Really, Really Free Market at a local community center, school,
or place of worship. Really, Really Free Markets are fairs celebrating gift
economics and mutual aid. People bring food, clothing, books, and all
manner of goods cluttering their homes to give away to others free of
charge. People also freely share services, education, and entertainment--
musical performance, massage, lessons on practical skills like crocheting
and bicycle repair, free films and lectures on political affairs and current
events. Learn more at http://markets.freegan.info
8- Freely share and receive useful goods with others in your community via
http://freecycle.org
9- Live rent-free! With your community, occupy abandoned buildings and
restore them into "squats" - rent free housing and community centers with
arts and educational programs for low-income communities. More info at
http://squat.freegan.info.
10- Start a bike program to wean your community from petroleum addiction.
Set up a "bike library" -- a free bike sharing program. Establish a free
bike repair workshop, where people can build and keep working bikes out of
donated and discarded bike parts or fix their own bikes with the help of
experienced volunteer instructors. Learn more at http://bikes.freegan.info.
11- Set up free repair workshops for furniture, clothing, computers, and
other goods. Fixing the goods we already have divers resources from the
landfills and incinerators while helping people avoid buying more stuff.
12- Tap the waste stream! Recover wasted goods from the garbage of
supermarkets and other retail stores, college dorms, houses and apartment
buildings, factories and distribution centers, and offices and schools.
You'll easily find food, books, clothing, office supplies, furniture,
computers, construction materials, musical instruments, appliances and other
items, often in brand new condition. Food retailers discard enormous
quantities of fresh, clean usable food in great variety-- 50% of all food is
wasted worldwide! "Urban foraging" (also called "dumpster diving" can easily
reduce your food costs to zero! Visit college dorms around the end of the
semester-- homebound college students toss a treasure trove of usable goods
to avoid the cost and difficulty of moving them home. If you find things
you don't need, instead of leaving them in the trash or selling them, share
them for free with others on Freecycle or at a Really, Really Free Market.
Learn more at http://picktrash.freegan.info.
13- Share food with your community. Food Not Bombs groups in over 200
cities recover food that would otherwise go to waste and use it to prepare
warm meals on the street to promote and ethic of sharing and feed hungry
people, challenging a society that can always pay for war, but never seems
able to ensure that all are fed. Learn more at http://foodnotbombs.net.
14- Organize skillshares to disseminate practical Do It Yourself knowledge
on living sustainably and money-free-- teach people how to make clothing
soap, or ecologically friendly household cleaners; how to create set up
passive solar food dehydrators, ovens and heating system, or terrace
planters using materials found in dumpsters, rainwater collection or how to
convert cars to run on straight vegetable oil. Search the internet and DIY
manuals for info on how to make soap and all manner of practical goods for
free using waste mateirals
15- Embrace carlessness. Use bikes, feet, foot scooters, skates, or
skateboards. Get a free bike from a bike collective in your area. Try
hitchhiking (http://hitchwiki.org) or finding a ride from someone already
going your way on a rideshare board (http://rideshare.freegan.info) Hop
freight trains to travel long distances. If none of those are options, use
public transportation. Acquire a heavy-duty bike trailer or cargo tricycle
for moving groceries or other supplies. For multi-passenger trips, consider
a four wheel, four-seat quadracycle (http://quad.freegan.info).
16- If you must use a car, acquire a used diesel vehicle and convert its
engine to run on straight vegetable oil (http://svo.freegan.info ) .
Consider a shared community car or truck for heavy moving jobs or
passenger-dense road trips rather than owning a private car. If you are
making a road trip and have extra car space, pick up hitchhikers or post
details on your trip to rideshare boards. (http://rideshare.freegan.info)
Arrange carpools for regular frequent trips.
17- Once you've read a book, pass it on! Visit http://www.bookcrossing.com/
for suggestions. Or, create a lending library in your apartment building or
community center.
18- Develop free, independent, non-corporate media. Start a free newspaper
or news website or get involved with your local Independent Media Center
(http://indymedia.org). Launch a pirate radio station. (pirate radio link)
Get your information about the world from independent, free media, rather
than listening to the capitalist propaganda of the corporate media.
19- Keep a free box inside you home by your door of items you don't want or
need, but that are too useful to end up in the trash. Encourage friends,
relatives, and neighbors, to help themselves.
20- Set up a permanent "free store" at a local place of worship, community
center, or in a common space of your apartment building. Encourage
community members to donate items they don't need and freely take ones they
do. More info at http://freestore.freegan.info.
21 - As your monetary needs diminish, consider quitting your job, and
changing careers to work for a non-profit charitable or environmental,
social justice, or animal rights activist organization. Or cut back on your
work hours or quit your job altogether, devoting your time instead to
volunteering in your community. Freeing up countless hours from waged labor,
you'll also find more time for appreciating friends and family, communing
with nature, pursuing artistic interests and hobbies, and learning more
practical skills for freegan living. Learn more at http://work.freegan.info.
22- Avoid disposable goods. -The goods we use should be designed to last
and preserved for longevity. Use rags over paper towels, handkerchiefs over
paper tissues, and carry mugs rather than use disposable cups. In the
process you'll reduce your need to continually buy replacements and conserve
natural resources.
23- Appreciate and create free culture. Attend and share information about
free events parties, educational forums, free schools, nature hikes,
walking tours, workshops that teach practical skills, concerts, discussion
group and other activities where people can learn and have a great time
without spending a dime. Find events and activities on email lists, free
calendars, and websites like http://freenyc.net. Consider creating a print
and / or online free events calendar for your community. Organize free
movie screenings, lectures, and discussions on environmental and social
justice issues.
24- Welcome travelers and others who need a place to crash, and replace the
absurd, oxymoronic concept of the "hospitality industry" with genuine
hospitality. You can list the availability of your home as a crashpad for
travelers on couchsurfing sites. And when you need a place to stay on your
own travels, you can visit these same sites for a welcoming home happy to
invite you to crash. Learn more at http://couchsurfing.freegan.info.
25- Stop shopping! Resist manipulative advertisements that tell you that you
can find happiness and self-worth on retail store shelves. Research the
social and ecological consequences of every product you consider buying. For
a starting point, visit http://dontbuy.freegan.info. Before buying, ask
yourself‹do I really need this? Can I fix something I already have? Can I
acquire what I need by a means other than buying? If you must buy, purchase
second-hand items to avoid directly financing the production of new
commodities---and save money in the process! Craigslist
(http://craigslist.org) is a good place to look for 2nd hand items for fee
or for sale by individuals, not corporations. Local thrift stores are also
an option.
26- Celebrate Buy Nothing Day‹the international day of protest against
consumerism. Organize a creative protest or street theater event In your
community to tell people to stop shopping on the traditional busiest
shopping day of the year. Learn more at http://bnd.freegan.info
27- Establish a community healthcare collective. Develop a network of
healthcare practitioners who are willing to provide free or low-cost
healthcare, provide healthcare on a sliding scale, or to exchange healthcare
for goods or services. Hold free workshops on health and wellness.
Distribute publications on healing with wild herbs. Collect and redistribute
vitamin bottles discarded by vitamin shops. Hold free yoga classes. Set
up a free community health clinic for uninsured people. If you live in a
city with a healthcare collective, take advantage of the services they
provide! Learn more at http://healthcare.freegan.info.
28- Use passive solar (http://passivesolar.freegan.info) and passive cooling
(http://solarcook.freegan.info) instead of fossil fuel consumptive heat and
air conditioning. Make a solar cooker (http://solarcook.freegan.info) and a
solar food dehydrator (http://dehydrate.freegan.info) out of found objects.
29- Make candles and oil lamps using waste oil or grease. Learn how at
http://candles.freegan.info
30- Establish or volunteer with a mutual aid childcare collective. It takes
a village to raise a child, but under capitalism child care has become yet
another salable commodity. Childcare collectives share the childcare
responsibility, making childcare accessible to those who could not otherwise
afford it and making childcare a community function. Learn more at
http://childcare.freegan.info.
30 Start a free school. Free schools provide learning opportunities outside
of the money economy while rejecting the rigidity, coercion, competition,
and authoritarian hierarchal structure of conventional schools. Learn more
at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_school
31- Compost organic waste to create new soul for your garden. Learn how at
http://vegweb.com/composting/.
32- - For additional practical tips that go beyond the three Rs (reduce,
reuse , recycle), visit http://3rs.freegan.info
33 Bring it all together. Freegan practices are not intended to be
practiced in isolation, but rather are intended to be components of an
overall cooperative, decentralized, egalitarian social structure and
economic system based on ensuring that the needs of all people are met while
respecting the planet and the creatures we share it with. No one has time
to do everything, but everyone can do something. Maybe your focus will be
childcare or rooftop gardening or helping others create passive solar
heating systems. Maybe you'll rotate between a few tasks. Others will work
on the projects you don't have time for. The critical thing is for the all
these projects to network and coordinate the resources they offer. We need
all of these things. We need childcare and healthcare. We need food and
shelter. In isolation, living without participating in capitalism is
overwhelmingly difficult. However, as more and more projects come together
to offer alternatives to more and more needs normally served under
capitalism, living mostly or entirely within the freegan gift economy and
the capitalist economy will be a viable alternative. The freegan economy
will offers a better quality of life, more freedom, and a deeper sense of
community than people can find under capitalism. Organize meetings and
social events like freegan dinners to bring together representatives of
various mutual aid projects to build relationships and encourage
collaboration. Make sure the people of your community know the full range
of mutual aid resources and services available to them by publishing and
freely distributing community mutual aid directories in print and online.
Freegan.info is happy to host these directories, so email them to us at
ask@freegan.info
34 -Recognize that freeganism is primarily a social project, and avoid
"lifestylism." Lifestylists believe that all we need to do to protect the
environment, advocate for social justice, and stop animal exploitation is to
change our personal consumption practices. This makes about as much sense
as believing that the holocaust could have been stopped by a boycott on
German products. The significance of freeganism is not primarily in the
reduced consumption impact of each individual, but rather in the
construction of a new ecologically sustainable and socially equitable
economic model. As a new economy rises to provide for people's basic needs
amidst the ongoing collapse of global capitalism, a robust freegan
counter-economy will help people realize that the expansion of the freegan
economic model and the total destruction of global capitalism represents the
best chance of ensuring that their basic needs will continue to be met.
Similarly, at a time when global warming caused by industrial civilization
threatens the survival of all life on earth, a functional freegan economy
operating simultaneously with industrial capitalism will help people
recognize the solution to global warming is not "market solutions" or
regulation, but rather the total destruction of capitalism and a shift
towards simple, local, sustainable subsistence-based gift economies.
Industrialism and capitalism will collapse inevitably as they exhaust the
resources they rely on, but if they collapse on their own, the irreparable
damage they do our planet's climate and ecosystems will guarantee the demise
of almost all life on the planet, including human life, by the early 22nd
century. As we build our new, humane, equitable, and ecologically
sustainable culture, we also need to work to bring down capitalism and
industrial society. This will involve direct action in the tradition of the
Luddites and other revolutionary groups‹the capitalists will not voluntarily
surrender the system that has created their riches.. It will involve
conflict and risk. But given the price of inaction we have no other choice.
In the words of Frederick Douglass, " This struggle may be a moral one; or
it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must
be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it
never will.""
http://freegan.info/?page_id=2
by Adam Weissman
1- Visit http://freegan.info and learn about freegan philosophies, facts,
and practices.
2- Join the Freeganworld email list at http://freeganworld.freegan.info
3- Start a local community of people committed to resisting capitalism by
creating a sustainable, local, cooperative economic model as an alternative.
4- Read books on the injustice of capitalism, the unsustainability of
industrialism, and on practical strategies for sustainable living. Start a
book discussion group! Recommended books can be found at
http://reading.freegan.info Familiarize yourself with concepts like mutual
aid, the notion of a society based on voluntary cooperation, and gift
economics, an economic model where everything is shared freely. Learn about
why the threat of human extinction within the century as a result of climate
change makes ending our current economic model an absolute necessity. Visit
http://climate.freegan.info for details.
5- Grow your own food-- even if you live in the city! Urban dwellers are
growing food in abandoned lots, on rooftops, and terraces. To learn more,
visit http://gardens.freegan.info
6- Eat wild! Edible and medicinal wild plants grow all around us. Learn
about your local plants and forage them from parks and yards. For more
information, visit http://foraging.freegan.info. Share what you learn with
others!
7- Start a Really, Really Free Market at a local community center, school,
or place of worship. Really, Really Free Markets are fairs celebrating gift
economics and mutual aid. People bring food, clothing, books, and all
manner of goods cluttering their homes to give away to others free of
charge. People also freely share services, education, and entertainment--
musical performance, massage, lessons on practical skills like crocheting
and bicycle repair, free films and lectures on political affairs and current
events. Learn more at http://markets.freegan.info
8- Freely share and receive useful goods with others in your community via
http://freecycle.org
9- Live rent-free! With your community, occupy abandoned buildings and
restore them into "squats" - rent free housing and community centers with
arts and educational programs for low-income communities. More info at
http://squat.freegan.info.
10- Start a bike program to wean your community from petroleum addiction.
Set up a "bike library" -- a free bike sharing program. Establish a free
bike repair workshop, where people can build and keep working bikes out of
donated and discarded bike parts or fix their own bikes with the help of
experienced volunteer instructors. Learn more at http://bikes.freegan.info.
11- Set up free repair workshops for furniture, clothing, computers, and
other goods. Fixing the goods we already have divers resources from the
landfills and incinerators while helping people avoid buying more stuff.
12- Tap the waste stream! Recover wasted goods from the garbage of
supermarkets and other retail stores, college dorms, houses and apartment
buildings, factories and distribution centers, and offices and schools.
You'll easily find food, books, clothing, office supplies, furniture,
computers, construction materials, musical instruments, appliances and other
items, often in brand new condition. Food retailers discard enormous
quantities of fresh, clean usable food in great variety-- 50% of all food is
wasted worldwide! "Urban foraging" (also called "dumpster diving" can easily
reduce your food costs to zero! Visit college dorms around the end of the
semester-- homebound college students toss a treasure trove of usable goods
to avoid the cost and difficulty of moving them home. If you find things
you don't need, instead of leaving them in the trash or selling them, share
them for free with others on Freecycle or at a Really, Really Free Market.
Learn more at http://picktrash.freegan.info.
13- Share food with your community. Food Not Bombs groups in over 200
cities recover food that would otherwise go to waste and use it to prepare
warm meals on the street to promote and ethic of sharing and feed hungry
people, challenging a society that can always pay for war, but never seems
able to ensure that all are fed. Learn more at http://foodnotbombs.net.
14- Organize skillshares to disseminate practical Do It Yourself knowledge
on living sustainably and money-free-- teach people how to make clothing
soap, or ecologically friendly household cleaners; how to create set up
passive solar food dehydrators, ovens and heating system, or terrace
planters using materials found in dumpsters, rainwater collection or how to
convert cars to run on straight vegetable oil. Search the internet and DIY
manuals for info on how to make soap and all manner of practical goods for
free using waste mateirals
15- Embrace carlessness. Use bikes, feet, foot scooters, skates, or
skateboards. Get a free bike from a bike collective in your area. Try
hitchhiking (http://hitchwiki.org) or finding a ride from someone already
going your way on a rideshare board (http://rideshare.freegan.info) Hop
freight trains to travel long distances. If none of those are options, use
public transportation. Acquire a heavy-duty bike trailer or cargo tricycle
for moving groceries or other supplies. For multi-passenger trips, consider
a four wheel, four-seat quadracycle (http://quad.freegan.info).
16- If you must use a car, acquire a used diesel vehicle and convert its
engine to run on straight vegetable oil (http://svo.freegan.info ) .
Consider a shared community car or truck for heavy moving jobs or
passenger-dense road trips rather than owning a private car. If you are
making a road trip and have extra car space, pick up hitchhikers or post
details on your trip to rideshare boards. (http://rideshare.freegan.info)
Arrange carpools for regular frequent trips.
17- Once you've read a book, pass it on! Visit http://www.bookcrossing.com/
for suggestions. Or, create a lending library in your apartment building or
community center.
18- Develop free, independent, non-corporate media. Start a free newspaper
or news website or get involved with your local Independent Media Center
(http://indymedia.org). Launch a pirate radio station. (pirate radio link)
Get your information about the world from independent, free media, rather
than listening to the capitalist propaganda of the corporate media.
19- Keep a free box inside you home by your door of items you don't want or
need, but that are too useful to end up in the trash. Encourage friends,
relatives, and neighbors, to help themselves.
20- Set up a permanent "free store" at a local place of worship, community
center, or in a common space of your apartment building. Encourage
community members to donate items they don't need and freely take ones they
do. More info at http://freestore.freegan.info.
21 - As your monetary needs diminish, consider quitting your job, and
changing careers to work for a non-profit charitable or environmental,
social justice, or animal rights activist organization. Or cut back on your
work hours or quit your job altogether, devoting your time instead to
volunteering in your community. Freeing up countless hours from waged labor,
you'll also find more time for appreciating friends and family, communing
with nature, pursuing artistic interests and hobbies, and learning more
practical skills for freegan living. Learn more at http://work.freegan.info.
22- Avoid disposable goods. -The goods we use should be designed to last
and preserved for longevity. Use rags over paper towels, handkerchiefs over
paper tissues, and carry mugs rather than use disposable cups. In the
process you'll reduce your need to continually buy replacements and conserve
natural resources.
23- Appreciate and create free culture. Attend and share information about
free events parties, educational forums, free schools, nature hikes,
walking tours, workshops that teach practical skills, concerts, discussion
group and other activities where people can learn and have a great time
without spending a dime. Find events and activities on email lists, free
calendars, and websites like http://freenyc.net. Consider creating a print
and / or online free events calendar for your community. Organize free
movie screenings, lectures, and discussions on environmental and social
justice issues.
24- Welcome travelers and others who need a place to crash, and replace the
absurd, oxymoronic concept of the "hospitality industry" with genuine
hospitality. You can list the availability of your home as a crashpad for
travelers on couchsurfing sites. And when you need a place to stay on your
own travels, you can visit these same sites for a welcoming home happy to
invite you to crash. Learn more at http://couchsurfing.freegan.info.
25- Stop shopping! Resist manipulative advertisements that tell you that you
can find happiness and self-worth on retail store shelves. Research the
social and ecological consequences of every product you consider buying. For
a starting point, visit http://dontbuy.freegan.info. Before buying, ask
yourself‹do I really need this? Can I fix something I already have? Can I
acquire what I need by a means other than buying? If you must buy, purchase
second-hand items to avoid directly financing the production of new
commodities---and save money in the process! Craigslist
(http://craigslist.org) is a good place to look for 2nd hand items for fee
or for sale by individuals, not corporations. Local thrift stores are also
an option.
26- Celebrate Buy Nothing Day‹the international day of protest against
consumerism. Organize a creative protest or street theater event In your
community to tell people to stop shopping on the traditional busiest
shopping day of the year. Learn more at http://bnd.freegan.info
27- Establish a community healthcare collective. Develop a network of
healthcare practitioners who are willing to provide free or low-cost
healthcare, provide healthcare on a sliding scale, or to exchange healthcare
for goods or services. Hold free workshops on health and wellness.
Distribute publications on healing with wild herbs. Collect and redistribute
vitamin bottles discarded by vitamin shops. Hold free yoga classes. Set
up a free community health clinic for uninsured people. If you live in a
city with a healthcare collective, take advantage of the services they
provide! Learn more at http://healthcare.freegan.info.
28- Use passive solar (http://passivesolar.freegan.info) and passive cooling
(http://solarcook.freegan.info) instead of fossil fuel consumptive heat and
air conditioning. Make a solar cooker (http://solarcook.freegan.info) and a
solar food dehydrator (http://dehydrate.freegan.info) out of found objects.
29- Make candles and oil lamps using waste oil or grease. Learn how at
http://candles.freegan.info
30- Establish or volunteer with a mutual aid childcare collective. It takes
a village to raise a child, but under capitalism child care has become yet
another salable commodity. Childcare collectives share the childcare
responsibility, making childcare accessible to those who could not otherwise
afford it and making childcare a community function. Learn more at
http://childcare.freegan.info.
30 Start a free school. Free schools provide learning opportunities outside
of the money economy while rejecting the rigidity, coercion, competition,
and authoritarian hierarchal structure of conventional schools. Learn more
at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_school
31- Compost organic waste to create new soul for your garden. Learn how at
http://vegweb.com/composting/.
32- - For additional practical tips that go beyond the three Rs (reduce,
reuse , recycle), visit http://3rs.freegan.info
33 Bring it all together. Freegan practices are not intended to be
practiced in isolation, but rather are intended to be components of an
overall cooperative, decentralized, egalitarian social structure and
economic system based on ensuring that the needs of all people are met while
respecting the planet and the creatures we share it with. No one has time
to do everything, but everyone can do something. Maybe your focus will be
childcare or rooftop gardening or helping others create passive solar
heating systems. Maybe you'll rotate between a few tasks. Others will work
on the projects you don't have time for. The critical thing is for the all
these projects to network and coordinate the resources they offer. We need
all of these things. We need childcare and healthcare. We need food and
shelter. In isolation, living without participating in capitalism is
overwhelmingly difficult. However, as more and more projects come together
to offer alternatives to more and more needs normally served under
capitalism, living mostly or entirely within the freegan gift economy and
the capitalist economy will be a viable alternative. The freegan economy
will offers a better quality of life, more freedom, and a deeper sense of
community than people can find under capitalism. Organize meetings and
social events like freegan dinners to bring together representatives of
various mutual aid projects to build relationships and encourage
collaboration. Make sure the people of your community know the full range
of mutual aid resources and services available to them by publishing and
freely distributing community mutual aid directories in print and online.
Freegan.info is happy to host these directories, so email them to us at
ask@freegan.info
34 -Recognize that freeganism is primarily a social project, and avoid
"lifestylism." Lifestylists believe that all we need to do to protect the
environment, advocate for social justice, and stop animal exploitation is to
change our personal consumption practices. This makes about as much sense
as believing that the holocaust could have been stopped by a boycott on
German products. The significance of freeganism is not primarily in the
reduced consumption impact of each individual, but rather in the
construction of a new ecologically sustainable and socially equitable
economic model. As a new economy rises to provide for people's basic needs
amidst the ongoing collapse of global capitalism, a robust freegan
counter-economy will help people realize that the expansion of the freegan
economic model and the total destruction of global capitalism represents the
best chance of ensuring that their basic needs will continue to be met.
Similarly, at a time when global warming caused by industrial civilization
threatens the survival of all life on earth, a functional freegan economy
operating simultaneously with industrial capitalism will help people
recognize the solution to global warming is not "market solutions" or
regulation, but rather the total destruction of capitalism and a shift
towards simple, local, sustainable subsistence-based gift economies.
Industrialism and capitalism will collapse inevitably as they exhaust the
resources they rely on, but if they collapse on their own, the irreparable
damage they do our planet's climate and ecosystems will guarantee the demise
of almost all life on the planet, including human life, by the early 22nd
century. As we build our new, humane, equitable, and ecologically
sustainable culture, we also need to work to bring down capitalism and
industrial society. This will involve direct action in the tradition of the
Luddites and other revolutionary groups‹the capitalists will not voluntarily
surrender the system that has created their riches.. It will involve
conflict and risk. But given the price of inaction we have no other choice.
In the words of Frederick Douglass, " This struggle may be a moral one; or
it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must
be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it
never will.""
http://freegan.info/?page_id=2
Everyday Revolutions: Practices and Institutions for Living Beyond Capitalism in Everyday Life
By Adam Weissman
http://freegan.info/?page_id=174
Overthrowing capitalism? Smashing the state? These phrases may inspire true believers, but to just about anyone else, they sound silly, sinister or even insane. Most people in the United States see industrial capitalist civilization as a basic fact of life and as absolutely necessary for their survival. If revolutionaries in this country ever hope to expand our resistance beyond a tiny fringe, then we must do more than campaign against socially irresponsible corporations and governments while spouting revolutionary rhetoric. We must demonstrate that our lives do not depend on playing by “the rules” as obedient and passive workers and consumers by demonstrating new and better ways to survive and thrive.
In this regard, we have one real advantage: many people in the US aren’t very happy[1]. In 2004, the unemployment rate was over 8 million[2], roughly the population of New York City[3]. Middle and working class families are sinking into debt[4], while the richest one percent continually grows richer[5], aided by corporate welfare[6], tax cuts to the rich[7], pro-corporate trade policies[8], government-supported union busting[9], and rollbacks of vital environmental legislation[10].
Even those who manage to stay employed in a society where working is deemed necessary for survival toil constantly just to make ends meet. They are too stressed out and exhausted to enjoy their free time as a result, and are limited in the time they can devote to their families and communities.
Nor are we healthy: a polluted environment[11], work-related stress[12], sedentary lifestyles[13] from using TV[14] and video games[15] as recreation and jobs behind a desk or steering wheel, and a poisonous diet[16] pushed by corporations[17] and their government shills[18] have compromised the health of the nation. Health care costs are spiraling out of control[19], with no realistic expectation of meaningful healthcare reform in the foreseeable future[20].
At a time when getting a decent paying job without a college education is becoming ever harder[21], access to education is becoming more limited[22]. Cuts to funding for public universities[23] and college loan programs[24], and attacks on affirmative action programs[25], have forced thousands of low-income students to drop out of college or never even start. This has allowed the military, which continues to absorb roughly 50% of the federal tax base as social programs are slashed, to institute an “economic draft” by dangling the carrot of job training and tuition assistance in the face of teenagers with few other options[26].
Even many of those who do manage to achieve some economic success often find that this provides no real happiness[27]. In a society where our sense of community has severely eroded[28], and where we are profoundly disconnected from the nonhuman world, multitudes of even the materially-comfortable experience a profound loneliness and alienation[29]. Corporations offer a consumerist “fix” for this by selling the idea that people can find happiness and fulfillment in purchasing, ownership, and consumption- a house in the suburbs, trendy sneakers, a fur coat, the fastest laptop, or a sexy sportsca. Television, drugs, religious dogma, and jingoistic, and patriotic notions pollute minds searching for substance in an empty culture.
But what if we could build an alternative culture that allowed us to embrace the values that matter to us most in all aspects of our daily lives, one that promoted mutual aid over competition, adventure over monotony, conservation over consumptive excess, sharing over private property, joy over toil, egalitarianism over hierarchy, social concern over self-centeredness, simplicity and freedom over desire for material acquisition, and self-acceptance over social status-seeking? What if we could illustrate the spiritual bankruptcy of capitalist-industrialist society by creating a counterculture that is practical, ethical, truly cares about people’s real needs, and offers people the opportunity to feel a true sense of community rooted in a commitment to building a better world for all?
Waste Recovery
Known as dumpster diving[30], curb crawling, trash trolling[31] urban scavenging[32] , or just plain old garbage picking[33], practitioners of the art of recovering useable resources from the waste of a hyperconsumptive society are able to dramatically curtail or altogether eliminate their need to purchase commodities[34]. Whether finding couches on the curbside[35], recovering fresh, clean food from the dumpsters of food retailers[36], building libraries from discarded books[37], supplying kitchens with appliances[38], plates and silverware[39], creating wardrobes out of discarded clothing[40], or recovering computer equipment[41], foragers find that they rarely have to use money to acquire the items they need[42]. They also reduce waste, limit their personal environmental impact[43], curtail their economic complicity with the socially and ecologically destructive multinational corporations responsible for the creation of most consumer goods[44], relieve the pressure to work two or three jobs to make ends meet[45], and limit their contribution to a corrupt government by limiting their contribution to sales and income taxes. In rural areas, gleaners harvest fruits and vegetables spilled and left behind by inefficient industrial farming practices.[46]
Urban scavenging is more than individualistic, self-righteous lifestyle puritanism—-it is a key component in renewing community around the principle of mutual aid[47]. Many urban foragers recover goods in groups. Some use recovered food for communal meals[48], sometimes in communal living spaces. Scavengers frequently point each other to reliable sites to recover useable goods. The website http://freegan.info offers an online directory of favorite scavenging sites in different areas and similar guides are distributed in print form. The creators of Freegan.info run tours where groups are introduced to reliable trash-picking sites. Directory creators and tour organizers hope that their readers and tour participants will then be inspired to seek out other promising locations on their own, which can be added to the future tours and directories.
Food Not Bombs
Food Not Bombs is a global grassroots movement founded to challenge the waste of massive military spending in a world where millions go without the basic necessity of food.[49] Over 200 FNB chapters in cities on six continents recover food that would otherwise go to waste- either foraged or donated by retailers who would otherwise discard it- and prepare hot, wholesome, vegetarian meals to share on streets and in parks. Rather than “serving the poor,” FNB shares food with ANYONE who wants to eat, shucking the paternalistic notion of charity for the unfortunate, and instead promoting the idea that we can share and help one another as equals without a profit incentive. While our society for the most part accepts that giving to the destitute and desperate is admirable, challenging the assumption that we should expect payment from those who can afford to pay for that which we give them is nothing short of subversive. Visit FNB’s webste at http://foodnotbombs.net/
Wild Foraging
Humans began as a species of plant foragers. In anthropological terms, we have only recently adopting hunting and agriculture as means to provide food[50]. Seeking to recapture this ancient and sustainable means of sustenance, some are rediscovering traditional wild foods and medicinal herbs. In the New York City area, naturalist Steve Brill leads tours in local parks introducing urbanites and suburbanites to edible and medicinal wild plants and mushrooms[51]. Books like Brill’s The Wild Vegetarian Cookbook, his “Foraging with the ‘Wildman’,” video series[52], and zines like Wildroots’ Feral Forager: A Guide to Living off of Nature’s Bounty[53] are helping to widely disseminate this information, germinating a new culture of wild foraging, even in heavily urbanized areas. For more information on foraging, check out http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com.
Rewilding
While some practice wild foraging in the contexts of fairly urbanized lives, others go further, adopting a primal, wilderness-based existence—living in birch bark lodges, building stone tools, cooking on an open fire, and living in an interdependent community, healing with traditional medicine and wild herbs. Many rewilders are anarcho-primitivists, believing that civilization and “progress” have been disasters for the earth and its human and nonhuman inhabitants, and that the most egalitarian and ecologically sustainable human lifestyle can be found in primitive cultures[54]. Anarcho-primitivists seek to return humanity to a way of living closer to a primitive existence, and view rewilders as pioneers[55]. Sadly, many rewilders have embraced the killing of animals for food and clothing through hunting fishing and trapping.” Advocates of this position would do well to read Jim Mason’s An Unnatural Order, which offers a devastating critique of hunting as the social institution that began the culture of domination that grew into our current global malaise. Mason draws sharp distinction between hunter-gatherers and the non-hunter gathers that preceded them[56].
Freecycle, Freemarkets and Free Stores.
Freecycle is a network of regional email lists where people who would rather share than waste post items they wish to give away, and individuals seeking to acquire items without purchasing post the items they are looking for. Giver and receiver make contact over email and arrange to meet to transfer the item with no expectation of reciprocity beyond gratitude. Freecycle.org’s Freemeets resemble flea markets where all available items are offered free of charge. People donate items they wish to share and acquire items they can use.
This is also the concept behind Really, Really Freemarkets. People happily share books, magazines, clothing, records, food and artwork. Freemarkets complement free goods with services, performance, and activitities—massage, dance, comedy, music, tarot readings—anything that can be shared freely[57].
Projects such as Freecycle and Freemarkets foster community, prevent useable goods from becoming waste, provide a practical venue for an ethic of sharing, and break down the idea that the distribution and acquisition of goods must be accompanied by the exchange of money.
A smaller but more permanent version of this concept is the Free Store. At Free Stores, people can donate or freely take a plethora of useful goods any day of the year. By attaching cooperative values to a permanent community institution, freestores allow this ethic to become a part of everyday life. Sharing becomes second nature, while looking to fulfill needs in the competitive capitalist marketplaces ceases to be a necessity.
These approaches provide a realistic alternative to purchasing, foster a spirit of mutual aid, prevent the waste of useable items, and bring people together in a community that helps meet their practical needs.
For more information on Freecycle, see http://freecycle.org/.
For more information on Freemarkets, see http://freegan.info/?page_id=255.
And for more information on Free Stores, check out http://freegan.info/?page_id=85.
Squatters and Guerrilla Gardeners
Squatters and Guerilla Gardeners are challenging the idea that the property deed of an absentee owner should prevent urban communities from making use of empty, abandoned buildings and lots. Squatters take debilitated buildings and convert them into living spaces and vital community centers. Guerrilla gardeners find abandoned, often garbage-filled lots, and rehabilitate them into beautiful green spaces, oases in deserts of asphalt and concrete where city dwellers can witness the miracle of growing plants, cultivate the food they eat, breathe fresh oxygen, and develop an appreciation for the nonhuman world. For more information on squatting http://freegan.info/?page_id=172. And for more information on guerrilla gardening, see http://moregardens.org/
Sustainable Transportation
Few daily activities are more complicit in the destruction of the planet than automobile use. With every mile we drive, or gallon of gas we purchase, we not only foul the air and contribute to global warming, but support some war for oil and the destruction of habitat and indigenous cultures by exploration, drilling, and pipeline projects. Car culture also promotes suburban sprawl, a major contributor to habitat loss in the United States.
Rather than seeing bicycles, skates, foot scooters and skateboards as toys, we can recognize them as practical and efficient means of personal transportation that among able-bodied people can in many cases supplant cars for local trips, and can supplement public transit for longer trips. Organizations like New York City’s Recycle-A-Bicycle trains 10 to 18 year olds to bike repair discarded bicycles, avoiding consumption of further natural resources in the production of new bicycles while eliminating waste..
In a car-dominated society, users of human-powered transportation face road conditions designed for automobiles, aggressive motorists who honk and tailgate angrily, and the ever-present threat of collision with an automobile. In response, skaters and cyclists unite for Critical Mass, a traffic-calming exercise performed in cities and towns around the world. Autonomously organized and lacking leaders or central planners, critical masses are collective rides where hundreds, sometimes thousands, take to the streets at once using human-powered transportation. In a reversal of the norm, drivers of muscle cards and behemoth SUVs are forced to adapt to the pace of skaters and bicyclists. Critical masses are suggesting of the promise of a car free society, one where pedestrians don’t risk their lives every time they cross the street, where getting from one place to another doesn’t mean generating smog or complicity in imperialist oil wars. From critcal masses, cyclists gain a sense of solidarity and validation, and even safety for those who are terrified to bike or skates on streets filled with road raging motorists.
For long distance transit, many have adopted the old hobo tradition of hopping freight trains. And the old standby of hitchhiking, while not as easy as in more trusting times, is still an effective way to travel for those with the patience to wait for a pick-up.
Learn about the trainhopping at http://www.thespoon.com/trainhop/.
For more information on bike restoration, check out http://www.recycleabicycle.org/.
To learn more about critical mass, visit http://www.critical-mass.org.
Alternative Media
When major corporations own the mass media and corporate advertisers routinely influence and distort even “news” coverage, mainstream newspapers, magazines, television, and radio simply can’t be trusted[58]. In response to this compromised information stream, a global independent media movement has flourished with the commitment to bring people credible information without corporate bias. Alternative media makers present news and opinions in a myriad of formats??websites, pirate radio stations, free newspapers and magazines, books on topics too dangerous for corporate publishers to publish, “zines” (small print run, often highly personal, magazines, commonly reflecting a punk visual and cultural esthetic), satellite and public access television, podcasting and streaming audio and video content, subversive videos and DVDs, independent documentary films, and public speaking and presentations.
Independent Media Centers (IMCs) have sprung up in cities a round the globe, to provide venues and resources for the creation and dissemination of news and information without the distorting filter of corporate influence. These centers are managed collectively through consensus decisionmaking and without hierarchy[59]. Visit the global IMC website at http://indymedia.org.
Holistic Medicine
Holistic healthcare providers are upending the traditional medical model by shifting the focus from expensive, often dangerous, patented pharmaceuticals designed to treat diseases as isolated phenomena to a focus on prevention, overall health, and an understanding of body energy. Alternative therapies rely more on diet, exercise, stress management, procedures like acupuncture and spine adjustment, herbs and vitamin supplementation than on patented pharmaceuticals, and often achieve far better results. They offer the promise of healthcare without dependence on monopolistic, animal testing[60], polluting[61] megacorporations like Glaxo Smithkline and Merck.
Collective Healthcare
Even alternative treatments can be pricey[62], and many are not covered by insurance providers[63]. For patients, stress of illness is compounded by having to wrestle with a stingy, legalistic, inhuman, impenetrable corporate bureaucracy to be compensated for vital medical needs. 45.8 million Americans, or 15.7% of the population, lack health insurance altogether[64]. Addressing the cost and availability of health care is as important as changing the type of treatment provided.
The Ithaca Health Alliance is a non-profit, non-governmental, membership based organization dedicated to providing healthcare to all, particularly the uninsured. The annual dues of members (around $100) are pooled to fund a variety of projects designed to improve health, not generate profits for doctors and pharmaceutical companies. Members can access rebates, grants, bonuses, and loans for health exams, emergencies, and dental work. A similar approach has made health care possible for 200,000 poor people in 11 countries in Western Africa[65].
Believing in pro-active, healthy living and informed health care choices, the Alliance maintains a library of books and videos on “healing modalities, anatomy, physiology, counseling, [and] preventive care” as a resource for its members. The Alliance is opening a free health care clinic in downtown Ithaca, New York..
The Alliance’s website can be visited at http://ithacahealth.org.
Mutual First Aid
Collectives of health providers like Boston Area Liberation Medics (BALM), Medical Activists of NY (MANY) and Washington, DC Action Medical Network (DAMN) have formed to provide immediate, on-site health care to people who suffer injury or illness at rallies or demonstrations, to provide free health and safety information to activists via publications and workshops, and to run free health clinics for striking workers. These collectives are non-heirchal, all volunteer, and run by consensus decisionmaking. Members include doctors, nurses, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and other trained caregivers, as well as laypersons who monitor groups in large demonstrations for health emergencies and call over appropriately trained persons as needed[66]. More than just a function of protest culture, these collectives show the promise of trained individuals freely helping others as part of an effort to improve the state of the world, and hints to the role health care providers could play in a post-capitalist society.
For more information, visit BALM at http://www.bostoncoop.net/balm/, MANY at http://www.takethestreets.org/, and DAMN at http://damn.mahost.org/.
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
Established in the immediate aftermath of the Hurricane Katrine disaster, Algiers, New Orleans’ volunteer managed Common Ground Wellness Center has provided services to poor communities that had previously received little or or assistance from the government or bureaucratic relief agencies. Common Ground is run by a volunteer staff of locals and supporters from around the contry, “medics, doctors, cooks, communications technicians, and community organizers” (http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/09/1767321.php). Projects include “community garbage pick-up program; mobile kitchens to provide free hot meals to; a first aid clinic, and a mobile first aid station; and bicycles for volunteers and residents to transport aid around the area; and a free school for children.”
Collectively Run Community Centers
In a society where town squares have been replaced by strip malls, places for people to come together are vital. Thriving communities need places for adults and children alike to come together, learn about topics local and world affairs in ways that won’t be discussed on the evening news, exchange ideas, build affinity, work collectively on community service and advocacy projects, and appreciate artistic expression.
New York City’s venerable ABC NoRio, an entire building squatted[1] to serve as a community center bringing together activists and artists while trying to diminish the professionalization and elitism of both[67] offers a computer lab, zine library, resources for silkscreening, hardcore rock concerts, a kitchen used by NYC Food Not Bombs, and a darkroom.
Infoshops
Infoshops are another community-building institution committed to creating space in communities for expression and dialogue on radical ideas. Infoshops integrate elements of libraries, bookstores, cafes, and community centers. While some infoshops are based in squatted buildings, others operate out of rented storefronts to maximize exposure to the general public. The shelves of infoshops are filled with magazines and books by radical philosophers, exposes of injustices hidden by the corporate media, and practical guides to activism and anti-capitalist living. While most infoshops do sell books, many also have lending libraries that encourage people to both donate and borrow books. Infoshops are full of free publications pamphlets, newspapers, zines, and magazines. Alternative press publications that expose corporate hegemony and preach sedition rarely find their way into chain bookstores, so infoshops provide a critical venue for these voices to share information and ideas to people in a vast array of communities. Conversely, infoshops provide information to local communities from a vast array of sources that they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. In addition to publications, infoshops also provide space for poetry readings, music events, art exhibits, lectures, workshops, discussions with authors, slide presentations, and films.
Infoshops are run not only run for communities, but by them. They are staffed not by paid employees, but by local volunteers. Decisions are made not by an owner or manager but by the volunteers themselves, who participate in nonheirarchal collectives generally based on consensus decision-making policy.
Most infoshops actually encourage people to “hang out” and many have tables and cafes for this reason. Infoshops offer meeting space to activist groups, provide bulletin boards for notices on community events, and serve as points of convergence in moments of crisis, like after a violent police attack and mass arrest on a peaceful demonstration.
The infoshop concept has been adapted to the internet at http://infoshop.org.
Fighting Back
Efforts to build a more just and sustainable culture are a complement, not a replacement, to direct resistance to the destruction of ecosystems[68]. Some campaigns combine both approaches, building communities of resistance that embody principles of ecological sustainability, egalitarianism, autonomy from state or corporate power, cooperative mutual aid, collective, consensus decision-making, and opposition to all forms of oppression inside and outside our movements.
To prevent logging of the less than five percent of original old growth forests left in North America[69], communities of resistance have been forged in the tops of ancient trees in the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Tree villages are series of inhabitated, rudimentary treehouses on circular platforms, interconnected by networks of rope traverses, constructed largely of salvaged materials. Inhabitants of tree villages like Oregon’s Red Cloud Thunder pose an immediate impediment to logging operations. None of the trees connected by the village can be felled without putting everyone living in the tree village’s life at risk. Loggers, unwilling to risk murder charges, are thus forced to leave these trees standing.[70]
Supporters on the ground provide critical supplies like food, mostly recovered from dumpsters or donated by stores, which are raised into the trees by pulleys, extending the sprit of solidarity and cooperation beyond the tree tops. Tree villages are truly intradependent communities where decisions are collectively and nonheirarchally for the benefit of the community and the forests they defend.
Defending Our Communities
It should come as little surprise that the capitalist system, based on an ideology that views fierce competition as a natural imperative, has attempted to crush these new approaches to living rather than co-exist or cede ground to them. Time and again, corporations, state institutions serving their interests, and corporate front groups have undermined such projects. Retail stores deliberately damage merchandise as they discard it to prevent scavenging. Sharing food is criminalized and Food Not Bombs activists are arrested on felonies[71]. Squattersand the buildings torched[72]. Community gardens are bulldozed.[73] Respected alternative physicians are smeared as “quacks[74].”Forest service agents forcibly remove ecodefenders from tree villages[75]. Critical mass bike riders face mass arrests.
Just as we resist the destruction of biotic communities, we must also defend the communities, institutions, and practices of the new culture that we are building.(note to self: make circular and bring back to ecosystems)
The struggles to preserve our spaces and ways of life and resist their destruction powerfully dramatizes the conflict between the real needs of people trying to live decent, ethical, sustainable lives and a government more interested in defending the economic interests of landlords, car manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and wasteful retailers. People facing similar threats can build alliances to defend our communities. In New York City, the More Gardens! Coalition, a movement of community gardeners and supporters built a citywide campaign of resistance to the destruction of gardens, exposing the officials and private interests behind the destruction of the gardens, winning broad public sympathy[76]. Along with education and protest, garden defenders chaining their bodies to stationary objects in gardens to blockade these cherished spaces from bulldozers[77]. While the activists were eventually removed, these passionate defense efforts heightened public outcry against the destruction of these cherished spaces, to the point where the City was forced to agree to leave over 120 gardens unmolested.
If we are to build a revolutionary movement with the power to truly challenge the status quo, we must demonstrate that the principles we uphold offer not only planetary survival, but a better everyday life. We must recognize that for most working people, the threat of not being able to pay rent is a much more immediate than loss of biodiversity , threats to civil liberties, or nuclear war..
To build a truly revolutionary movement, we link our indictment of the horrors of the current system, things like factory farming, the Iraq war, and rainforest destruction with the sense that we offer a better way than the status quo to provide for people’s food, shelter, health, community, security, intellectual stimulation, and joy in their lives. When we build a movement that demonstrates the capacity to offer all of these things, while challenging the greed, misery, and destruction of megacorporations, their puppet government, and entire capitalist-industrialist model, then we can begin to build broad support and engagement in ecological resistance struggles, and finally have a real chance to liberate this world.
[1] The building has since become legal.
[1] http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/happy.html
[2] http://www.bls.gov/cps/home.htm
[3] http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/popcur.shtml
[4] http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/interestrates.html
[5] http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7107
[6] http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Nader/CutCorpWelfare_Nader.html
[7] http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0605-01.htm
[8] http://www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/2004/issue3/0304p34.asp
[9] http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/96legacy/releases.6/14339.html
[10] http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views03/1120-01.htm
[11] http://www.sierraclub.org/comunidades/ingles
[12] http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/stresswk.html
[13] http://www.nap.edu/books/030909142X/html/15.html
[14] http://www.csun.edu/~vceed002/health/docs/tv&health.html#influence
[15] http://www.cfah.org/hbns/news/video03-17-04.cfm
[16] http://www.nap.edu/books/030909142X/html/15.html
[17] http://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/releases/msc060203.html
[18] http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/foodpyramid050405.cfm
[19] http://www.nwlaborpress.org/2001/10-5-01HealthCare.html
[20] http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.w3.391v1/DC1
[21] http://www.monitor.net/monitor/10-9-95/angry.html
[22] http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/24016/
[23] http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/28/EDGTH39PUG1.DTL
[24] http://www.thehoya.com/news/031805/news2.cfm
[25] http://www.edbriefs.com/usa96-97/usa05.19.97.html
[26] http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/War_Peace/Economic_Draft.html
[27] http://www.newdream.org/newsletter/growth.php
[28] http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Thomas9.html This phenomenon is not limited to the most privileged, of course; urban communities of color face additional challenges to maintaining a sense of community, such as fear of police brutality keeping people off the streets. See http://www.ntic-us.org/publications/reports/Issue_92_fall_2003/safety.html
[29] http://www.allanschwartz.com/mesmo/mes_0701.htm. In Australia, even government is beginning to recognize this problem. See http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/02/1075570358124.html?from=storyrhs
[30] http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/dumpster.htm
[31] http://www.portlandphoenix.com/features/this_just_in/documents/02831864.asp
[32] http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1140523
[33] http://www.colum.edu/echo/back/spring05/features1.html
[34] http://houstonpress.com/issues/2004-11-25/news/feature.html
[35] http://www.rocklincoln.com/dumpsterdiving.htm
[36] http://tristateobserver.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3330
[37] http://www.paladin-press.com/authormo_1202.aspx
[38] http://www.cat.org.au/skippy/
[39] http://w3.tvi.edu/~cgulick/dda.htm
[40] http://www.frugalhomemaker.com/articles/02/article2006.htm
[41] http://www.streettech.com/archives_DIY/dumpsterTech.html
[42] http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3609/lib_whyfreegan.html
[43]http://www.redefiningprogress.org/media/clips/030527_sac.html
[44] http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3609/lib_whyfreegan.html
[45] ibid
[46] http://frugalliving.about.com/od/savewhenshoppingforfood/a/blgleaning.htm
[47] See for example, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=5&ItemID=1389
[48][48][48] http://www.girlrobot.com/blog/jim_casebolt_et_al.html
[49] http://foodnotbombs.net/firstindex.html
[50] http://www.primitivism.com/future-primitive.htm
[51] http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_lifestyles/urban_forager/
[52] http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/TV.Pages/VideoSeries.html
[53] http://wildroots.org/ff.php
[54] Support for this position can be found in http://www.primitivism.com/primitivist-critique.htm and http://www.primitivism.com/earth-civics.htm
[55] Anarcho-primitivist thinking is not uncommon among those practicing the more urbanized forms of anti-capitalist living described in this article, many of whom see their lifestyles as attempts to embody elements of primitive lifestyles and values in the context of our present civilization, with hope of eventually pulling all of our society in their direction.
[56] Mason, Jim, “An Unnatural Order” See http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.html?session=c126e57f9d3bc16d4a4d9ddeb50654a0&cat=16&id=1590560817 for additional details on this book.
[57] http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/06/1683917.php
[58] http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=101
[59] http://www.indymedia.org/en/static/about.shtml
[60] http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12462
[61] http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0203/et0203s18.html
[62] http://www.bpdworld.org/alternative_treatments.php
[63]http://www.hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/About_Hepatitis_pdf/1.1.1_Living_With_HepatitisC/CAM.pdf
[64] http://www.cbpp.org/8-30-05health.htm
[65] http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/28/news/africa.php
[66] http://damn.mahost.org/about.php
[67] http://abcnorio.org/about/about.html
[68] For an in-depth strategic analysis of how resistance and alternative institution building can complement each other, see Brian Dominick’s An Introduction to Dual Power Strategy at http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2002/09/2403.shtml
[69] http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/old_growth/
[70] http://www.efn.org/~redcloud/direct.html
[71] http://www.practicalanarchy.org/fnb_crass2.html
[72] Eviction of CHARAS http://www.geocities.com/zorikh/charas.html and Casa del Sol http://www.ainfos.ca/05/jan/ainfos00040.html
[73] http://www.terrain.org/essays/13/light.htm
[74] http://www.quackpotwatch.org
[75] http://www.contrast.org/treesit/archives/000011.html
[76] http://www.moregardens.org/?q=node/4
[77] http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~garten/Buch/Stoneenglisch.htm
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