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Bioneers to the Rescue

Bioneers to the Rescue
By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Environment Editor
Monday 29 October 2007

Inventor Jay Harman's water tank mixer, based on the natural spirals found in seashells and flower blossoms.
(Photo: Pax Scientific)

The annual Bioneers conference has a reputation for creative and deep thinking about sustainability and the environment, but during all my years as an environmental activist, I never managed to attend. On October 19-21, I finally made it to the conference in San Rafael, California. It was an opportunity to feel the pulse of the environmental movement today and reflect on how it has grown and changed since Bioneers began in 1990, the same year that I became a full-time environmental activist.

In 1990, I was working as a signature-gathering coordinator for a California forestry initiative that would have ended clear-cutting in California forests. I organized volunteers to hit the streets with petitions throughout the East Bay, and not just the street corners in Berkeley where signatures were as easy to gather as apples on the ground. Looking toward the election in the fall, I recruited the two housewives in working-class Freemont who would staff a table at the mall on Saturday, and the lone environmentalist in conservative Concord. But one day, at my table in Oakland, I was approached by an elderly black man with anger in his eyes.

"What are you doing, worrying about trees," he said, "when black people are still dying on the streets." The civil rights movement wasn't finished, he told me, and he couldn't understand why liberal whites had given up and turned their attention to frivolous things like trees. I had no idea how to respond, but later, a middle-aged black woman came by my table and told me how important it was to save forests. She shared her memories of her Louisiana home and the forests she had known there. A few weeks later, on Earth Day, we were invited to bring our petition to a church in the refinery town of Richmond, where the Rev. Jesse Jackson would speak.

Jackson's beautiful sermon wove together concern for the Earth, civil rights and justice. Afterwards, young black children came up to my table, where I had a picture of the redwoods, and asked me where that was. "Is that in Africa? Are there monkeys? Can I go there?" These children had never seen a redwood, even though the nearest grove stood barely a dozen miles away, just over the bridge, in Marin County. I wanted to do something about that, but I never did.

At the Bioneers conference, I heard from courageous people who have moved mountains to make the connection between environmentalism and civil rights. Van Jones, of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, is spearheading what he calls "social uplift" environmentalism. His Green for All campaign promotes training of inner city workers for green collar environmental jobs. One program, based in that same low-income town wedged in around giant petroleum refinery tanks where I saw Jesse Jackson speak 17 years ago, is called Solar Richmond. Solar Richmond just graduated its first class of underprivileged youth trained to be solar electric installers.

Van Jones wants to connect "the people who most need saving with the jobs that most need doing." But when he testified about green jobs before Congress recently, he was told that because it can cost up to $10,000 to get an inner city youth "job ready," his ideas were not cost effective. Van Jones wants us to think about how much it costs to deal with the social disruption of unemployment that leads to violence, drugs and prison. Green jobs are the future, he says, and we can't afford to leave anyone behind. We can no longer accept "throwaway" species like the polar bear, "throwaway" people like poor blacks, Latinos and Native Americans, or "throwaway" communities like Richmond, California.

Speaker Majora Carter grew up in the South Bronx, another "throwaway" community. She described the difficulties of growing up in a community abandoned to garbage dumps, prisons and asphalt. But she did not abandon her community. She started Sustainable South Bronx, and has raised $30,000,000 to build the South Bronx Greenway and other green projects in her neighborhood. "My folks are from down South," she said; "they always used to talk about the crick - that means the creek - and how nice it was. That connection to nature is our birthright, but we have less access to green spaces than any other part of the city."

Carter is fighting plans for another prison in her neighborhood. She wonders why government can't invest in green jobs instead: "Why are we still building monuments to our failure when we could be building monuments to hope and possibility?"

While these two speakers were highlights, Bioneers had much more to offer. The Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers was present, along with many other indigenous speakers. And there were women. Alice Walker, Eve Ensler and Joanna Macy were high on my list of admired women. This was one of the few conferences I have attended where I did not leave thinking that women didn't get equal time at the podium. To the contrary, there was a strong acknowledgement everywhere that a revival of the feminine principle in politics and life is essential for building a new culture that can live with the earth without destroying it.

Bioneers makes connections between culture and environment. It also encourages a new approach to technology, using a concept called "biomimicry." Biomimicry is technical innovation inspired by nature's designs. One example is new tough materials that are created with a low-temperature process inspired by abalone shell. Another is identifying new medicines by observing what plants a sick chimp or monkey chooses to eat from the forest. Still another example of biomimicry is designing gardens that mimic natural ecosystems for improved productivity in a small space.

Inventor Jay Harman presented a family of designs for fans and impellers based on the natural spirals found in seashells and blossoms. My favorite was a mixer for giant municipal water tanks. When water is stored for long periods, it can stagnate and become unhealthy. Harman's mixer is tiny, barely bigger than my fist. Turning in the middle of the tank, nothing much happens at first, but over time it sets up a natural vortex in the tank that keeps the water circulating and fresh. Harman said even if you stop the mixer, the vortex will keep on spinning for days.

While ideas and inspiration abounded at Bioneers, the gathering could have used more attention to grassroots activism. I was disappointed that there was no visible information about the energy bill that Democrats are getting ready to bring to a vote. Both House and Senate versions have money designated for green job-training programs that could begin to move the Green for All vision to reality. Right now is a critical moment for this bill as Republicans are maneuvering hard to hold up a conference committee and block the bill. There should have been letter-writing tables scattered throughout the venue.

Another disconcerting fact about Bioneers is the cost of attending. While there were many scholarships for youth and some for activists, the $300 to $400 cost for registration and meals is too much for most working class people. Fortunately, you can hear many former Bioneers speakers at the network of Green Festivals that are staged in several major cities. A three-day pass to the San Francisco Green Festival on November 9-11 is only $25.

Still, it was a treat to hear all of the dedicated and inspirational eco-pioneers who shared the podium at Bioneers 2007. The final plenary was most outstanding. Burmese activist Ka Hsaw Wa, founder of EarthRights International, told the story of his tribal people tortured and abused by the military in the service of a US oil company, Unocal, which was building a gas pipeline through their territory. EarthRights International became the first group to successfully sue a US corporation for human rights abuses committed abroad. Today they are asking for public pressure on Chevron, Unocal's parent company, to use its influence with the Burmese junta to stop the violence in that country.

Ka Hsaw Wa called for a new view of globalization where "there is no 'mine' in this house." He said: "We know the companies and their military partners have lots of money, guns, power and influence. But they do not have what we have. We have truth, we have justice, we have courage, and most importantly, we have each other to protect this house where there is no 'mine.' We will win."

As I left this final, emotionally stirring session of the Bioneers conference, I found myself in a line for the women's room where a young woman grabbed my arm and said, "Can you believe all the love that is here?" She had tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. Her name was TBird Luv (she has a website, search it out) and she is an artist. "It's the oneness that I feel here, Mother Earth telling us we are all one."

I asked TBird Luv why she came to Bioneers and she told me that she had spent years working on her art and her spirituality but it was now time to "come out and do something for the earth." As a child of many races - African, European and Native American - she told me that she could feel the oneness integrating in her own body.

As the planetary environmental crisis grows more threatening and impacts more people, the environmental movement will continue to evolve. The idea that we are all one people on a small planet has, like Jay Harman's water tank mixer, been stirring the heart of humanity for some time. This, more than any particular technical innovation, is what will solve our ecological crisis.

If we feel a quickening now of this idea of oneness, it is no surprise. Perhaps, before we know it, individuals, families, companies, states and nations will align in a galaxy of highly functional networks and spin us into a green future.

One can always hope.

Bush Gets Dinner While Protesters Fast

Bush Gets Dinner While Protesters Fast
By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 26 September 2007

More than 80 heads of state met at the UN on Monday to discuss the launch of post-Kyoto climate negotiations. Although this was the most high-level UN meeting yet held on the global climate emergency, President Bush refused to attend. He did, however, assent to an invitation from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to attend a private dinner afterward.

Ban opened the UN meeting by showing a short film about the rising seas, more intense storms, and droughts that will result from global warming. The film warned there is no time to waste in crafting solutions. But President Bush did not see the film nor contribute to the discussion. He would only agree to dinner.

Ironically, who eats and who does not eat is very much what the climate crisis is about. Scientists with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predict global warming is likely to cut African crop production by half in the next dozen years.

On Tuesday, film stars and celebrities from Bollywood and Nollywood (the Nigerian film industry) rallied near the UN with a "Mayday Message" on behalf of Africans and Asians. They said: "Please help save us from climate change. We are the ones who have done the least to cause it, but we are suffering from climate change now. If you don't come to our help today, tomorrow it will be all of you."

Bollywood actress Shabana Azmi said, "There are 854 million hungry people in the world today - 54 million more than when the world leaders pledged to halve hunger 11 years ago." As global warming saps food production in poor countries around the world, the Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger by 2015 recedes into impossibility.

While Bush was eating his dinner with Ban ki-Moon, a half-dozen American climate change activists continued a weeks-long fast to protest American inaction on climate, "so that others might eat." The fast began with participation from more than 1,200 people on September 4, the day Congress came back in session.

"The starting date was deliberate," said Ted Glick, one of the ongoing fasters and an activist with the Climate Emergency Council. "Congress needs to act," he said, despite veto threats from the White House. Feeling physically weak from his fast, Glick made the effort to go to Capitol Hill last Friday to talk to key legislators about climate change and energy bills before Congress. "The main thing I learned," he said, "is that the chances of climate legislation even getting to the floor of one of the houses of Congress this fall don't look good right now. Barring either a major climate disaster in the US or what this fast is calling for, a grassroots political uprising, which galvanizes our elected officials into an urgency mode, the odds look good that the best we can hope for is floor debate sometime in the winter of 2008."

Glick and others are doing their best to organize the grassroots revolution. On Thursday, Glick will join a non-violent civil blockade of the second climate meeting this week, President Bush's "Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change," also known as the "Major Emitters Meeting." This is the meeting Bush announced at the G-8 summit in June when he blocked the G-8 from adopting binding emissions targets. This is the meeting where Bush will try to steer the world away from any mandates or caps on emissions and substitute vague "aspirations" for clear goals, and voluntary action for legal obligations.

To Africans facing famine in the next dozen years, will Bush say, "Let them eat aspirations"?

It is the moral dimension of global warming that keeps Glick committed to his fast. He says the deaths of 35,000 people in the European heat wave of 2003 are what first made him realize he had to put body and soul into this effort. "We only have one life," he said. "What will we do with it?"

Glick describes fasting as a form of prayer and says that religious people of all stripes have joined in the climate fast at various times. A Muslim man fasted in addition to his Ramadan fast, and 39 members of a church in Montana fasted. But Glick does not want to limit climate action to fasting and passive resistance. He also calls for more "ruckus."

"We need more people out in the streets," said Glick. "A Tiananmen Square-type action down in front of Congress would be timely and called for."

In August, climate activists camped out at Heathrow Airport in London to protest aviation's contribution to climate change; and, earlier this month, Australian activists locked down a coal-fired power plant and then a facility loading coal onto ships at the world's biggest coal export port. They were trying to send a message to the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) discussions on climate, another meeting where Bush's "aspirational" climate goals prevailed.

In addition to the civil resistance planned on Thursday, the Climate Emergency Council is holding a rally protesting Bush's "Major Emitters Meeting" at noon on Friday, September 28 near the State Department building where the meeting is being held.

On October 22, peace, justice and climate activists are sponsoring a "No War No Warming intervention" in Washington to pressure the government to stop the war in Iraq, shift funding to rebuild communities, and go green with new jobs in a clean energy economy.

On November 3, Step It Up 2007 is organizing coast to coast actions to demand leadership on global warming. Part of the action is to invite politicians to join the rallies and tell communities what they will do about climate change. Then, says the group's web site, "We'll see who rises to the occasion and who has a real plan to tackle the defining challenge of our time. One year before the election, let's make sure the world witnesses our national call to action."

Glick endorses all these actions and more. "When you have everything from letter writing to riskier actions that push the envelope, you have a powerful movement that can't be ignored."

A powerful movement to save the planet would certainly be worth missing a few meals for.

Climate Change Despair and Empowerment

Climate Change Despair and Empowerment
By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Interview
Friday 18 May 2007

An interview with Australian climate change and rainforest protection activist Ruth Rosenhek.

In Australia a few weeks ago I had hoped to connect with my old friend John Seed, but learned that he would be traveling in the US doing a road show on climate change despair and empowerment until May 20. His tour schedule is here.

I first met John in the 1980s when he was touring around the US doing a road show on rainforest destruction and species extinction. I would miss seeing John at his home, but he connected me with his partner, Ruth Rosenhek, who was doing their workshop tour in Australia. Ruth met me at a café in the small town of Nimbin in the beautiful hinterlands of northeast New South Wales where we were surrounded by rainforests, macadamia nut orchards and permaculture gardens. What follows is my interview with Ruth about her climate change workshop.

Q: I was thinking about John's first road show in the US. John Seed was one of the first to bring a more spiritual element into the wilderness protection movement and it was very important.

A: Yes. Someone was asking me the other day about where we got the idea for the road show and I told them about John's US road show in 1984 and how that led to founding of the Rainforest Action Network.

Q: The movement seems to go through these cycles. There's a wakeup cycle and then a bunch of people get recruited. They get committed and then hopefully they start to do things. Although I've seen people kind of wake up and then go back to sleep again.

A: Yeah, but not with climate change.

Q: You don't think so?

A: No. There will be too many reminders.

Q: So what got you started on doing climate change empowerment workshops?

A: I'm not sure what exactly sparked us. The term "despair and empowerment" is one we've been using for years based on Joanna Macy's work. We realized that people would have to deal with climate change emotionally and we wanted to support people as they move from denial to the possibility that they might feel despair and the shield of apathy that might arise after that. There's a line in Al Gore's film where he says too often people are moving straight from denial to despair without stopping in between and the problem with that is that is it lets you off the hook. With denial you don't have to do anything and with despair you don't have to do anything. So the idea of the road show is how do you intervene in there and if they have gone to despair, to use some of the despair and empowerment workshop principles.

Q: I think people have to go through that stage don't they? I don't know about you, but I know that I personally have gone through despair. And I go through it every day a little bit.

A: Yeah. I haven't personally been in despair for a number of years because climate change isn't new for me as I'm sure it's not new for you. Years ago I had more despair.

Q: But how do you deal with hearing how the news gets worse every day? It has been so bad in just the last year. So yeah, sure, we've known about climate change for a long time but I don't think we've realized how quickly it is coming and how little time we have to act.

A: For me it has been more like I am excited that it is front page news and finally I can have my favorite conversation with the average person standing in a queue. It hasn't really surprised me that it's here now. My feeling is more one of excitement that, wow, I'm alive now when the shift is happening and I get to see what I can do to help make the transition away from the industrial growth society. I've been expecting things to crumble at any time just based on my understanding of what's happening to ecosystems.

Q: Are you able to convey that excitement to other people and get them to feel it too? Is that what you're aiming for?

A: Not really. Most people don't have that point of view, although the people who are becoming active are really excited. Instead of endless debating we can finally move forward with solutions.

Q: So what are you finding out there? How did your last tour go?

A: From the time in January when we began until now there's been quite a lot of shifting. People are that much more knowledgeable and that much more ready to get involved and that much more ready to take action. You hear a lot more emphasis on action. People are saying we are not here to discuss, we are here to take action, whereas when we formed our climate group last year, we called it a climate study group and spent the first few months studying the issue. But people are pretty savvy at this point about what's going on and are ready to do something about it. What used to be a presentation where I'd stand up there and deliver all these things has become largely a meeting and there is a whole discussion about real vs. false solutions. But I still do presentations on despair and empowerment and on deep ecology because that's new material.

Q: What else is new to people?

A: One thing that is always left out of the mainstream conversation is deforestation. Forests are always left out. People don't know that deforestation is causing 20 plus percent of greenhouse emissions. So they aren't thinking in their solutions that we also have to protect forests and so I always have to point out that Tazzie's [Tasmania's] forests are being woodchipped at 10 dollars a ton and exported to Japan where they become toilet paper and you can almost hear a gasp in the audience. Previously if I'd been giving a presentation on forests and said that kind of thing I'd have either been preaching to the choir or talking to people who would just dismiss it as a concern of tree huggers and instead you can see people taking it in and realizing we have to protect our forests because of climate change. The other solution they don't know about is the fact we are pumping subsidies into the fossil fuel industry. There's between 6.5 and 9 billion dollars every year.

Q: Is that mostly to the coal industry?

A: It would be coal and also some oil; so one of the things we're espousing is that some of those subsidies be halted and then shifted to renewables and also to a just transition for coal mining communities. So what used to be a presentation on solutions has become a meeting about what the real solutions are.

Q: And is this true in all the communities you're going to?

A: Pretty much. I think the only thing I've found is that some places have attracted mostly burned out activists, people who've been involved for a long time. There were a few places where it wasn't that great of a meeting because people were tired out already. So the really good meetings are when there are all new people in the room.

Q: How long is the presentation? Is it a day-long workshop?

A: No, it's an hour and a half. I talk for about 20 minutes and there are some video clips and then a discussion and at the end of the time we form a climate action group if there's not one in the town already and set a date for the next meeting.

Q: Is there a whole range of actions people talk about doing? You say action but that can mean a lot of different things.

A: Climate action groups in Australia are working on things like food networks to localize where they get their food. Ridesharing seems to be a big one. Lobbying. All kinds of stuff around lobbying like writing letters.

Q: So it's not just about reducing your personal carbon footprint.

A: No not at all. It's more about what we can do as a community. First, how can we support each other in personal changes like shifting to green power in our homes, and next how can we work in our community to shift our community. At a recent meeting here in Nimbin, we talked about how can we get our own decentralized power plant here that's grid interactive so we can pull our own power off of a suite of green power sources like solar and wind before getting it from the main grid and then feed into that grid as a community. Some are working at the council level to get councils to ratify the Kyoto protocol, and some are working with an international project called ICLEI where the councils assess the emissions of the different sectors of the community and set forth a strategic plan to lower those. And they're also working on the state and federal level. If you look at what climate action groups are doing it is amazing. Ordinary people getting together. Some are trying to get every business in their town to turn to green power and every citizen to turn to green power. The last group I did was sponsored by the city council and that's what their climate action group is doing. That's their sole mission.

Q: How are young people getting involved and how are they dealing with despair around global warming?

A: I had one group from a high school where 200 thirteen year olds came to one of my presentations. They were so onto it. They were all in a climate change class. The school actually has a year-long class in climate change. They knew all the solutions and they had some funny ones too that made them laugh. So they seemed to be coping. There were a few sad faces though in the audience.

Q: What are the steps that you go through in the workshop presentation?

A: First we talk about why we're here and that we are not in the delusion of reprieve, and then move on to despair and empowerment, the discussion Joanna Macy pioneered about how there's a taboo in this society against expressing feelings and that actually feelings contain intelligence and wisdom and can be transformed from despair to inspiration and innovation and that if we stopped pushing them down and instead allowed them to come forth, we would not have lost the energy involved in suppressing them. Feelings are a much older part of our intelligence along with our intuition. So we talk about that and then a little bit about deep ecology. I introduce them to the idea of anthropocentrism or human centeredness and how it's important to have a larger perspective and to dispel the illusion of separation between ourselves and nature. It's more important than ever before. For anyone who is involved in this work I advise them to go out into nature to help heal the despair and the grief and to seek wisdom, because we really need it right now!

Q: You don't get people accusing you of foisting a religious belief on them?

A: No, it's not. It's a philosophy, not a religion.

Q: Because we've gotten that a lot in the States. We get told that deep ecology is a religion.

A: No, it's a philosophy and it's compatible with whatever religion people practice. This is not about having to believe that nature is a this or a that. I keep it pretty pragmatic.

Q: Good. So what else?

A: Well, at the very beginning I talk about Exxon's climate change cover up scheme where they paid off scientists and we lost ten years in the fight. The other day I saw a woman's eyes go wide with horror and shock when I said we lost ten years to this cover up and that these were the same scientists involved with the tobacco industry. Her jaw just dropped. She'd never heard about it till that moment. And then we discuss the false solutions.

Q: What are those?

A: Clean coal and nukes. Clean coal - the technology is not here and won't be for ten years. The cost will be high and where are they going to store all that CO2? Nuclear - I point to the fact that beside the concerns over weapons proliferation, uranium mining and waste disposal, it would take at least ten years to put in place power plants and again, they will be very costly. So neither of these address the window of the next ten years and the IPCC is saying we need an aggressive plan for the next ten years. But our prime minister, John Howard, all he talks about is that nuclear power is the solution to climate change.

Q: But Australia doesn't even have one nuke plant, does it?

A: No, but we have a few reactors that are used for health technology and maybe to produce weapons, and we have Pine Gap out in the desert and who knows what's there. And then we talk about biofuels like palm oil and that by the time palm oil gets to your vehicle it's ten times more polluting than diesel. Then I talk about emissions trading, a very complex and confusing issue, and then we move on to real solutions and have a go at what people think the real solutions are.

Q: Do people come up with good ideas?

A: Yeah they do. Someone at the last meeting had something I had never thought about. If you have a dishwasher, then run it after 11 pm at off peak hours because these coal plants actually have to burn a certain amount of fuel to keep running so you not only save money but you don't create extra demand for coal.

Q: The kind of things that in a different era people paid attention to because they were trying to save money. I remember growing up hearing: Turn out the lights when you leave the room! It was about the electric bill, not the environment.

A: Right. So from there we go on to the grassroots and we talk about the Bradley method - that's a bush regeneration method that says if you are trying to regenerate native bush, instead of taking the weeds out of the weediest place first, go to place where the bush is the healthiest and take the weeds out of there, so you strengthen it. You keep doing that until the only areas left are really weedy but they are surrounded at that point by healthy areas. So here we're using weeds to represent consciousness and the weeds are those who are prohibiting the growth of a healthy future.

Q: So that's the program. Tell me a bit about the longer despair and empowerment workshops you do.

A: After we do 8 or 10 workshops in an area, we offer a one-day despair and empowerment workshop and we do a Truth Mandala.

Q: What is a Truth Mandala?

A: It's a process for people to express strong feelings of anger, grief, despair. You sit in a circle and there are four objects in the center. As a person feels moved, they come into the center and pick up one or more of them. There is a stick for anger, and a rock for fear, and leaves for sadness and grief, and an empty bowl for despair or not knowing what to do. Or you can just come in and be freaked out if your feelings don't fit into those. Basically people go in there and they cry or they get angry and express what's in their heart and everyone says I hear you when they go and sit down. That witnessing of ourselves and our feelings creates the potential of the transformation.

Q: Into a strength rather than a drain.

A: Right, because each one of them has an opposite or a flip side. Our grief and sadness is a measure of our caring and our love. The stick for anger is a measure of our desire for freedom and justice. The rock shows it takes courage to express our feelings because until we can feel despair we can't feel empowerment.

Q: Beautiful.

A: And we do more empowering exercises to connect with nature and remove obstacles that might be keeping us from being as effective as we can in our work. The Truth Mandala has been really what we call "going off." They are consistently strong and from a group of people who are not hippies or some kind of New Agers used to catharting.

Q: Catharting?

A: Right, we are not getting any professional "catharters." [laughs] These are regular people who don't do catharsis everyday

Q: So in all the list of actions that people are doing is there any discussion of more hardcore political pressure tactics like hunger strikes or mass protest marches?

A: No, not yet. We do have a march against global warming every year and there were 40,000 people out in Sydney for that last year, but a lot of people got disillusioned because they protested about the Iraq war and we went to war anyway. But that was not during an election year. This year we've got an election in the fall.

Q: So there may be a shift at that point.

A: Right, but what we don't have here is what they have in the UK where the different parties are vying against each other to produce good policies. That's not happening here because John Howard is steering to the right and Kevin Rudd [the labor opposition leader] can move as he would like.

Q: It's the same in the US where the democratic candidates are not coming forward with really strong policies as of yet. And of course Bush and Howard are the two famous Kyoto holdouts.

A: We just have to keep the pressure on. As Al Gore says, we need to do that to give the politicians the courage they need to make the changes. Until they see that the people want this to happen, they won't make those changes. I don't feel too pessimistic about what changes we might see in the political situation. We are just at the beginning of this trajectory.

Q: So what's on for the next six months?

A: Check it out at our website. I've got one more tour and then I'd like to synthesize and integrate and maybe write up more of what we've done and think about what is needed as we move closer to the elections.

The Good News Is Local - Interview With Jason Bradford

The Good News Is Local
Kelpie Wilson Interviews Jason Bradford
t r u t h o u t | Interview
Wednesday 13 September 2006

Jason Bradford is a PhD evolutionary biologist who studied the effects of climate change on cloud forests in the Andes under the auspices of the Missouri Botanical Garden and other institutions. But in 2004 he switched his focus from study to action by initiating a remarkable community organizing effort in his new home town of Willits, California, called Willits Economic LocaLization (WELL).

In a world where the global political, economic, and environmental trends are so negative and frightening, efforts like WELL really stand out. Jason is no slouch at spreading the word about WELL - he hosts a radio show called The Reality Report, is a correspondent for Global Public Media, and periodically contributes to his local newspaper - so I asked him to answer a few questions about the project for Truthout readers.

Kelpie Wilson: Jason, in a nutshell, what is the mission of WELL?

Jason Bradford: The official WELL mission is to foster the creation of a local, sustainable economy in the Willits area by partnering with other organizations to watch for opportunities and vulnerabilities, incubate and coordinate projects, and facilitate dialogue, action and education within our community.

The greatest challenge we, as a species, face right now is to create a way of life based on the energy flow of sunlight, not fossil or nuclear energy, to do so without destroying our soils, and to enroll others in this transition. We are under no illusion that Willits can tackle this alone, but hope that Willits can be an inspiration to others. If we can do it here, it is possible elsewhere.

KW: How did you make the decision to switch from a career in climate change and biodiversity research to this hands-on engagement with sustainable living?

Jason Bradford: I became really frustrated and disillusioned as a researcher. I would sit in my office and read the flood of data about the climate system, habitat loss and extinction, soil and fresh water depletion, and the impending peak of global oil production. Then I would listen to the radio or look at the newspaper and these issues were basically ignored, meaning my work was being ignored. Why would people train and fund scientists to do this work and then not pay any attention to them?

The institutions I was associated with didn't appear to want to examine the root causes of these problems either. The fact that our financial system is designed to liquidate our life support system, rewarding current returns over any hope for our descendants is hard to factor into the day-to-day decisions a university makes, especially when more and more funding is coming from corporations and endowments tied to the growth of investments. People didn't want to hear what I had to say, and I felt that.

My wife is a physician, and so I could afford to drop out and make a switch. We strategically moved to a place that was relatively small. We felt that social capital would be easier to build here, and the area had a history of thinking about renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. It was a bet that paid off.

KW: In his Labor Day speech, President Bush addressed our "oil addiction" and said that the problem is that "dependence on foreign oil jeopardizes our capacity to grow." In your view, is the energy crisis mostly about our dependence on foreign oil from "people who don't like us," as the president said? Or is there a deeper problem?

Jason Bradford: It is extremely important right now to give people heartfelt honesty. The lies of Bush and Cheney make them bigger threats than those swarthy people they like to scare us with. Cheney said the American way of life is non-negotiable. In a bizarre sense that is true. The laws of physics and ecology won't negotiate and can't be unilaterally ignored. And those laws are telling us we need to change how we inhabit this planet very quickly or we may not be around that much longer.

I have an idea. Let's stop blaming others for our problems. The deeper issue is our addiction to growth. Oil has permitted astounding economic growth, and we have become dependent, both structurally and psychologically, upon not just the oil but the growth process itself. Instead of questioning our assumptions, we are going to war for oil and we are looking for substitutes that are very dirty, like coal, tar sands, and nuclear. And while I am in complete favor of developing renewable energy systems as quickly as possible, I don't believe it is either possible or wise to grow our economy using renewable energy.

The problems with growth are easy to understand, but the implications are hard to face. For example, I have two children, twin boys who are seven years old. For now and over the next dozen years or so I'll be happy if they grow. During certain phases of development growth is perfectly good. But our economy is now beyond any reasonable limits, and we are making ourselves sick with more growth - as a society we have obesity and cancer, and the vital organs are starting to fail. Suburban sprawl, highway expansion, military build-up, air pollution, climate change, and mass extinction of species - these all stem from our drive to grow the economy.

Ironically, there exists a counter movement to slow down in life. Enjoy quality rather than quantity. Many are finding that the pleasures of a beautiful home, neighborhood and community are rewarding enough. Spend time building relationships where you are instead of traveling afar and spending money on things. Less is more. Now that is truly economical.

KW: Obviously the Bush administration is not going to tackle the twin problems of peak fossil fuels and climate change in an effective manner. But with the new climate change legislation in California, it looks like action to address energy and climate change at the state level is possible. Why should people spend their time on economic relocalization as you are doing in Willits rather than work for change at the state level, for instance?

Jason Bradford: I wouldn't say it is an either or proposition. If you have a zone of control or influence at the state level, then by all means work there. But for most people, they can only reasonably feel connected at the local level. I can attend city council meetings, but I am not going to drive to Sacramento for a session of the legislature.

However, what happens at the local level has a big influence on what happens at the state, and vice versa. State representatives will more likely listen to the consensus of the local elected officials than to what an individual citizen might tell them. And cautious local officials will be more open to change if the state is behind it too.

There are just over 2000 homes in Willits. A well-organized group of people can go out in a day and knock on every door. The post office does it! Making personal, face-to-face connections is much more powerful than any other form of communication. It will trump phone calls, emails, newspapers and TV news.

And guess what. As soon as the media and the politicians realize they have an informed and passionate constituency, they will begin copying those messages. It will become a positive feedback with the potential for rapid social change.

KW: From what I have read about WELL, I am amazed at the boldness and scope of what you are doing. Can you give us short descriptions of the half dozen or so most important accomplishments of the group so far?

Jason Bradford: First, I want to make it clear that WELL always works in partnership. None of these accomplishments are ours alone, but involve dialogue and cooperation with others. In fact, it is difficult to know what is WELL versus some other group. We have overlapping roles and are all in this together. This is about all of Willits.

For example, the WELL Energy Group did an inventory of how much energy is consumed in the Willits area. A local city councilman took notice and asked what the city could do. He created an official ad hoc energy group that eventually recommended that the city install photovoltaic panels to run the city water systems, both treatment and sewage. The city council agreed to this, and soon the city will be requesting proposals from contractors to build this.

An amazing group sprang out of the WELL Food Group called the Grateful Gleaners. They go get fruit and vegetables that would otherwise rot, share with the land owner, each other, local food banks, and after-school snack programs. The Gleaners are harvesting literally tons of fruit and giving it away.

For the past 18 months, WELL has organized and co-sponsored dozens of public forums that have raised awareness among the population. At these events and following them, people talk about what really matters and have a social network in which to organize action. The successful ingredients for social change are: providing compelling, relevant information, a place to build relationships, and an organizational structure for continuity and administration of tasks.

Ideally, what WELL wants is for our mission to be taken up by individuals and other institutions. This is starting to happen. On the individual level, many people are evaluating their own habits and consumption patterns.

More collectively, neighborhood gardens are going in. One house may have a big yard, so groups of families are sharing the space and chores. The business community is being enrolled through the Chamber of Commerce, which joined the Business Alliance for Local, Living Economies (BALLE) and is developing a Local First campaign to highlight the benefits of local production, retail and ownership. The Community Development Director for the city has used portions of his budget to co-sponsor events with WELL, and is open to re-evaluating city plans, codes and practices. The school district has allocated an acre of land at an elementary school for an organic community farm. The local county social services center has set aside half an acre for a community garden. The city is sponsoring the Home Energy Link Program of the Renewable Energy Development Institute to do energy audits and then energy efficiency makeovers in Willits homes. The Bank of Willits has approved the Economic Localization Fund in which local savings dollars are used to finance energy conservation projects. WELL participants are becoming mentors of high school students for clubs and independent study projects. Our newsletter is now a column in the local paper.

I think we have done a great job raising community spirits. So many positive changes are occurring, and each time one of these projects gets going it makes it more likely someone will become motivated to follow their own passion and become a leader of something else.

KW: The community spirit is key, it seems to me. Tell us a little about how the group recruits new members and sustains that spirit.

Jason Bradford: Initially, we set up regular screenings of "The End of Suburbia" and introduced people to WELL. Hundreds of folks around town came to those over several months. The numbers coming to the film dwindled and we were left with many core activists. We spent some time formalizing how we operate, define membership, and elect a council. Soon, we will be doing a significant outreach to the community.

This outreach is important because many people are very supportive but can't regularly attend our meetings or events. They want to be on our mailing list, give us donations, and sort out their support role. Maybe they own a business and give us free services, for example. Or they are going to shift their business practices to be more sustainable. We want to support and promote any family, organization, or business that is willing to make changes towards a sustainable, local economy.

The various subgroups of WELL have split off into projects based on the interests of involved community leaders. Some have felt a dispersion of energy because of this, and so we encourage project groups to report back to the broader WELL group periodically to review the status of their work. By working closely with the WELL office, these community projects get promotion through our web site and newsletter, and announcements at our public events. We also are trying to fundraise for community projects, such as a paid coordinator for a community garden or farm, or equipment for the gleaning club.

Doing anything together has its joys and perils. We can't avoid personality conflicts and miscommunication. I have been amazed, however, at how well people negotiate interpersonal dynamics and come to relationships with compassion and the ability to forgive. For the most part, WELL participants are mature, caring people who have a passion for social change and a sense of urgency. That passion and urgency can be a blessing and a curse, but overall it is the fuel that has kept us going.

KW: What advice do you have for people who would like to start similar groups in their own communities?

Jason Bradford: Leadership is needed from all sorts of people. Have courage and resolve. I ask that those of you worried about the future and upset by the direction of our country, get up and do something about it right where you live. Go beyond angry protests. Begin creating something tangible that realizes your dreams and draws out the aspirations of others.

The first rule is to know your own strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you are a great organizer or strategic thinker, but a terrible public speaker. Next, find some people to work with you to get started and sort out what roles you are good at. The initial goal is to create a team with internal cohesion.

Start planning a strategy. What makes sense in your community, and specifically among your social network? Is disaster preparedness a lead-in topic? Has climate change attracted attention recently? How about high energy prices or the unpopularity of the war? Is the local economy stagnant and/or weighted towards a single, vulnerable industry? Can you connect the dots from any of these topics to the need to relocalize the economy, building a more secure and vibrant home? What projects can you begin that bridge the gap between the current reality and your desired future?

Then build bridges to other groups within the community. Since we are dealing with issues that cut across different kinds of formal and informal social organizations, be flexible enough to go down any paths that show the least resistance. Maybe you will find success with a church group, a school, local government or the business community.

Most importantly of all, get started! You will have troubles and failures. Things will come up that you didn't expect and aren't prepared for. Go easy on yourself; don't get caught up in hindsight. Be honest and persistent and you will earn respect and a following. Cultivate others to follow their own passions. Each of us has the opportunity to rise to some occasion.

Now get moving!

A Layer Cake for Mother's Day

By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 12 May 2006

In time for Mother's Day this year, Joan Blades of MoveOn and her colleague Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner have published a Motherhood Manifesto. The demands of the manifesto seem modest: paid leave for parents, equal pay for women and mothers, affordable, quality childcare, health care, and a few other things that most modern democracies already have.

What is most compelling about the Manifesto is not its modest demands but the picture it paints of mothers at the breaking point. One story describes a single mother's attempt to find a job. The potential employer tells her point blank that he won't hire her because he does not want to pay the insurance premiums for her and her children.

But even the routine, day to day stories of families that seem well off but are stressed in a thousand ways, stories that all of us know either first hand or as the stories of our friends and relative's lives, are horrifying when you stop to think about them. The bottom line is this: as women spend more and more of their time in the paid workforce, there is less and less time for the caring work traditionally done by women: care of the sick, the elderly and the young. This is the real work that keeps body, soul, family and community together.

Journalist Ruth Rosen writes: "It's as though Americans are trapped in a time warp, certain that women will still do all this caring, even though they can't, because more than half are outside their homes working in the paid workplace. And so, we have the mounting Care Crisis."

The basic demands of the Motherhood Manifesto have been articulated for years by the feminist movement, but they have fallen on deaf ears, as women's priorities are continually relegated to the status of a "special interest." Such denigration is also familiar to environmentalists who advocate for "Mother" Earth. Women and the Earth seem to occupy a similar position in modern society's hierarchy of importance as expressed in that most authoritative of institutions: The Economy.

This recognition, that women's work and the Earth's resources are exploited in similar ways, was pioneered by one of our greatest and most overlooked thinkers, self-described "housewife economist" Hazel Henderson.

Hazel Henderson's book "The Politics of the Solar Age" taught me everything worth knowing about economics as encapsulated in her famous quote, "economics is a form of brain damage."

Henderson reached that conclusion after years of studying economic theory, but her quest for understanding began with her experience as an activist mother working for clean air. In the 1960s, not wanting her daughter to have to breathe New York City's sooty air, she wrote letters to politicians asking for their help and was repeatedly told that it would "cost too much" to clean up the air. She went on to found Citizens for Clean Air and helped to pass the Clean Air Act, but that was not enough for her. She wanted to understand why the economy did not value her child's health. With no formal college education, she taught herself economics, engaged in dialogue with economists, and eventually earned three honorary doctorates.

When she first started on her quest, Henderson was often told that economic theory was "too complicated" for a mere housewife to understand. But she made short work of that and created a metaphor to explain the economy that is easily understood by anyone: the layer cake.

The economy is like a layer cake where only the top two layers count. Those are the monetized layers: the various enterprises that make up the private sector, and the government expenditures on infrastructure and defense that make up the public sector. But these two layers are only a small part of the whole cake. There are two other layers that the monetarized layers rest on, and are supported by.

Just below the public sector is what Henderson calls the "Social-Cooperative Counter-Economy," which includes the traditional women's work of caring as well as subsistence production and do-it-yourself home labor. Then, below that is what she calls "Nature's Layer," which is all the resources we take free of charge from the Earth.

Traditionally in economics, the bottom two layers are called "externalities," and are not accounted for. That, according to Henderson, makes economics not a science at all but something more like a political theory or a religion that serves to justify the winners and keep the losers in their place. There is no better illustration of this than the $70 billion in tax cuts that Congress just passed. A family earning $1 million a year will save about $42,700, while families earning $40,000 to $50,000 a year will save about $47.

Republicans call this a "pro-growth" tax policy and insist it is rational, yet their language betrays them. Conservative columnist R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. blasted Democrats for their opposition to the tax cuts and accused them of "bigotry" against supply side economics in a recent column titled: "The Supply-Side Miracle Continues."

In a time when global oil and gas supplies are peaking and energy prices are rising, the idea that we can achieve economic health by increasing the supply of capital is absurd. Look at Exxon - all the capital in the world won't help them pump non-existent oil out of the ground.

The deficit is another reason that the "supply side miracle" won't continue much longer. The New York Times calls the rationale for the tax cuts "delusional," pointing out that, "when a nation must borrow to pay for tax breaks, as is the case in the United States today, any ability of tax cuts for investors to spur growth is severely diminished."

Left out in the cold land of "externalities" are things like tax deductions for college tuition and for supplies that teachers buy to use in their classrooms. Every teacher I know spends a significant amount of money, sometimes hundreds of dollars, to supplement minuscule supply funds and try to provide a quality experience for students in this time of shrinking educational budgets.

Women, children, families and the Earth are all at the breaking point, but the only response from our leaders is to intensify the exploitation, to keep mining the resources of the Earth and of our ailing social networks.

In the 1980s, when the first edition of "Politics of the Solar Age" was published, Hazel Henderson thought that the end of the irrational growth economy would soon be at hand. That economy, based on limited stocks of fossil fuels, could not continue. But thanks to the "miracle" of supply side economics, it did not die in the '80s. It stoked its fires and roared on into the '90s. Now it has begun to seriously sputter.

This is the moment, Henderson says, where "everything can change in the twinkling of an eye."
Hazel Henderson had an epiphany of sorts back in 1978 while taking part in Buckminster Fuller's futurist exercise, the World Game. For the first time, she said, a Pentagon official in charge of war games participated. He was asked whether the Pentagon ever considered things like climate change, species extinction or overpopulation in its scenarios. With confident "command and control" mentality, he answered "no." At that moment, Henderson said:

Suddenly, I saw in a new light the task for all of us involved in citizen movements for social change ... We now must help create greater understanding of the fact that today's "leaders" and "decision makers" are no longer in charge of events, even though they still imagine themselves the "rational actors" of their decision models, firmly in command from their "war rooms," as they once believed in simpler, slower times. They are like ancient kings who commanded ocean tides to come in, or the early priests and priestesses whose incantations "caused" the sun to rise. They, like all of us, are also puppets of all these larger forces. Thus the "spontaneous devolution" of their institutions has begun.

She then describes what's next:

The task for all of us committed to these social-change movements is to see that we are one coalition in the larger politics of reconceptualization. Together we must demystify today's counterfeit priesthood of "puppet" leaders, and map and align our own energies with these larger-field forces and the energies that, in reality, drive our planet: the daily solar flux, which in turn drives our planetary weather system, the cycles of oxygen, of nitrogen, and of hydrogen, and plant photosynthesis that is our primary economic system.

In practical terms, this may mean that we should monetize more of the economy - as Kyoto signatories are already doing with carbon credits. Perhaps we should pay mothers. A recent study found that a full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, and a mother who works outside the home would earn an extra $85,876 annually on top of her actual wages for the work she does at home.

Or, in many cases, it might be better to recognize that in society, as in nature, life is not just about competition and dominance; it is also about cooperation, caring and sharing. We can find ways to protect those values, just as we set aside wild lands and use regulations to protect endangered species and clean air and water.

If we don't make a change, if we keep on single-mindedly devouring the bottom layers of the cake, the top will soon cave in and we'll have nothing left but an unsightly mess. As any good mother will tell you: if you eat up all your cake, you won't have it any more.

Diane Wilson - An American Hero

An Interview with Diane Wilson
By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Interview

Tuesday 28 March 2006

Diane Wilson is the author of An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas (Chelsea Green, 2005). It is a remarkable book, telling the story of Wilson's life as female shrimp boat captain and an environmental activist fighting devastating toxic pollution from chemical and plastics manufacturers on the Texas Gulf Coast.

But I have to confess, when the book was first recommended to me, I hesitated to read it. As an environmental activist, I have my own personal history of endless hours of research, boring meetings, scary confrontations, nasty intimidation and the infighting that goes along with these struggles, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to hear all the gritty details of someone else's pains and triumphs. Lois Gibbs, the courageous activist mother of Love Canal, said the same thing in her review of An Unreasonable Woman in Orion Magazine. But like Gibbs, I was hooked after the first page. For one thing, the Texas Gulf Coast seems to be unlike any other place on the planet.

Molly Ivins and others have called An Unreasonable Woman a masterpiece of American literature, and I agree. First, there is the poetry of Wilson's language. I can only compare her to fiction writers like Cormac McCarthy and Annie Proulx. She wraps her tender descriptions of her beloved Lavaca Bay around poignant inner reflections, while rendering the home-grown dialogue and emotionally tense social ecology of her community with complete authenticity.

Then there is the excitement and exhilaration of working-class feminism that permeates Wilson's life. The first-person feminist voices we usually hear are those of academic or professional women speaking of their battles in the bedroom, the boardroom and the halls of power. We don't hear much about a lone woman, the first woman in her community to run a shrimp boat, relying on herself for both aid and comfort, fixing a broken engine with bailing wire and tape, satisfied with her own company through the long night, trawling for shrimp under the stars.

Finally, the best thing for me about Diane's book was getting to share her spiritual journey to a deeper humanity. So many things can tear you apart as an activist and it's a delicate balance you must maintain between your own passion and your compassion for your opponents, your victories and your failures. Diane has used the living sea itself as her spiritual role model:

"Risking one's life can be strangely liberating. That's what the sea counsels me. She still talks even though she's got a mercury Superfund on her left breast and vinyl chloride and phthalates on her right breast. She's a forgiving grandmother. Not unduly angry about the mix-ups and mess ups and the confounding fact of healing taking so long. She knows it is complicated. My intent will keep her, she says."

Diane was recently released from jail in Texas after serving time for an act of civil disobedience. She is back home in Seadrift now, living in a tiny trailer she says she "paid no more than $500 for." She agreed to answer a few questions for TruthOut readers.

Kelpie Wilson: Diane, you just got out of jail. What were you in there for?

Diane Wilson: I was in several jails. I was arrested December 5th in Houston for disrupting Vice President Dick Cheney's speech at the DeLay fundraiser. I was charged with possessing a fake document and spent five days in the Harris County Jail waiting on a trial that never materialized.

I was then transferred to the Victoria County Jail for an outstanding warrant. Back in 2002 I had climbed a 70-foot chemical tower at Dow Chemical in Seadrift, Texas, and chained myself to the top after dropping a twenty foot banner that read: "Dow - Responsible for Bhopal."

In October 2005, while on a book tour in the Northeast, I was told to go to jail for my 120 days, and I told the sheriff's department and DA that I wouldn't go to jail until Warren Anderson, former CEO of Union Carbide, went to jail for his outstanding warrant in India for the crime against Bhopal.When I was arrested on December 5th in Houston, I spent the five days in Harris County Jail, then was transferred to Victoria County Jail, where I spent three months.

KW: I heard that the DA called you a "dangerous woman." Is that true? Who would you be dangerous to?

Diane Wilson: The District Attorney in Calhoun County, Dan Heard, called me a "dangerous woman" during my trial and was speaking to the jury. I believe he said that because he thought my ideas were dangerous and that I had no fear of retaliation. He asked me once what they (the courts, the justice system) could do to make me stop fighting, and I told him there wasn't a thing they could do to stop me.

KW: Has anyone ever called you an eco-terrorist?

Diane Wilson: Yes, when I was fighting Formosa Plastics' illegal discharge and attempted to sink my shrimp boat on top of the illegal discharge, the Coast Guard, who apprehended me and confiscated my shrimp boat, said I was a terrorist on the high seas. Another time, when I was trying to get DuPont to recycle their waste stream into the bay and I was on a 30-day hunger strike in front of their Delaware office, they said I was an eco-terrorist.

KW: You live in a community where many of your friends and relatives have died or are dying of cancer. What happened when you started to go to public hearings and speak up about the role of pollution in that cancer?

Diane Wilson: At one meeting, a large delegation of politicians and industry leaders, the chamber of commerce, and the school system showed. They said I was a fanatic and a nut and making stuff up. Or else I was a spy hired by Louisiana officials to disrupt economic development in Texas. A woman from the school district said she'd never heard of pollution causing cancer. She said her husband, who worked at Alcoa and died of cancer, got it because he was a smoker. Also the head of the American Cancer Society came down and urged me to NOT do a study on cancer in my community. He said if I EVER contemplated doing a study I should call him first. He also showed me a copy of an Earth First! magazine and said I should bring down Earth Firsters and get them to protest (this was during the time that a bomb exploded in a car driven by Earth Firsters). He was trying to destroy my reputation in the community.

KW: I want to note that many times in your book you talk about the embryos and eggs of the shrimp and other sea life and how effluents from Formosa and Alcoa are killing them. Do you have any thoughts on the term "pro-life" that is so heavily used by Republicans and how that idea might apply to the situation where you are?

Diane Wilson: I believe if the male of the species had babies there would be universal pro-choice. I think this idea of pro-life has more to do with control over the bodies and minds of women and is so hotly defended by the religious right because they consider the bodies of women and the body of the earth inherently evil. I don't think it is a coincidence that the killings at abortion clinics have sometimes been by Assembly of God (Pentecostal) members. I was raised Pentecostal so I've been a fly on that wall.

KW: When you were in jail in Victoria County, you wrote a letter to the Sheriff about deplorable conditions. You had several examples of terrible abuse by the withholding of medical treatment. The worst was the story of Shandra Williams. Can you tell that story briefly and also tell us your thoughts on how such a thing can happen in a Republican, "pro-life" state like Texas?

Diane Wilson: I met Shandra on Christmas Eve after she had been picked up because she looked "suspicious." A year before, Shandra had been in the very same cell block after she had been picked up by the Victoria County cops for an outstanding warrant. Shandra was 6-7 months pregnant, and her file clearly stated that she was NOT to be picked up until after her delivery because she had a rare uterine condition and it was very problematic.
That mattered not a whit to the sheriff's department. The sheriff was running a re-election campaign and outstanding warrants don't look good on the campaign trail so in the cell she went. Due to the harsh conditions of cell life, Shandra's condition worsened and she started bleeding, but the guards and nurse said she was just trying to get out of jail and was a complainer and just wanted drugs, so she repeatedly had to "prove" her condition with a bloody pad. Eventually they stuck her in isolation, by herself, in a cold, cold room with nothing but a blue paper gown and a paper sheet. To keep her quiet they gave her Benedryl. Eventually she was placed back in the jail until her water broke, starting her labor. The nurse said she was hallucinating and trying to get drugs so they tried to place her back into isolation, which frightened Shandra. The guard said Shandra was going into isolation the "hard way or the easy way" and threatened to use the Taser on her. Fortunately, a startled guard gathered Shandra's belongings and got her into isolation before the guard tased her. Once in isolation again, Shandra went into labor. The baby was breeched and started coming feet first. With a baby dangling to her knees, Shandra crawled about 60 feet to a call button and pressed it three times and yelled that she was in labor. Finally the guards and nurse arrived and they rushed her to the ambulance, but Shandra said her baby died en route.

In a state like Texas, unfortunately, there is no incongruence between stopping abortions and lack of health care for inmates. It's part of their disdain for all things that are "soft on crime." During the state Republican convention, the Attorney General and US Senate candidate John Cornyn joked about the differences between Republicans and Democrats. "If you've used the phrase 'protecting prisoners' rights,'" Cornyn said, "you might be a Democrat." Another Texas Attorney General noted Texas had big bad jails because they had big bad prisoners.

KW: What has been the effect of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Gulf environment and the shrimpers and other fishermen?

Diane Wilson: When Hurricane Katrina rolled in, the immediate impact was the Gulf of Mexico fisheries, and in fact the entire Gulf of Mexico was declared an official disaster. The Gulf of Mexico fisheries, especially the bays, were in dire straights before the hurricane, and now many are totally decimated. Another issue that will probably not be understood for a long time is the toll that pollution has taken on our gulf waters. Many, many chemical sites and waste sites were flooded. A man from my home town was working on a dredge boat that was doing salvage work near Beaumont and he dredged something up that triggered a heart attack. That's local knowledge but nothing the media knew about.

KW: Do you think the EPA is covering up the true extent of toxic contamination after the hurricanes?

Diane Wilson: I have been involved in environmental issues for 17 years and in my opinion, the EPA and the chemical industry have been co-conspirators in their attempt to keep the extent of the pollution unknown. I had two investigators from the Texas state environmental agency give me internal documents about contamination, asking me to do something with it because they couldn't do anything with it. There was a political bottleneck and nothing went higher up, they said.

KW: Turning back to your book, what made you think you wanted to write about it all?

Diane Wilson: I am a closet writer. Always have been. I had a lot of anguish over my fight with Formosa and writing the story was the way I released it. I wasn't really thinking about publishing until I finished.

KW: Everyone who reads your story is overwhelmed by your courage and boldness. For instance, it must not have been easy being the first woman to run a shrimp boat by yourself. Was it the feminist movement that gave you the idea that you could do that?

Diane Wilson: The feminist movement has not made it to the Gulf of Mexico. Never seen that movement. I became a boat captain because I loved the water and had been on a boat since I was eight. I captained the boat by myself because I liked being alone. Probably if I had a male deckhand on the boat he would have tried to gain control over the wheel. Running a boat isn't that hard. Just takes doing. Most or all women I ever knew were discouraged from running boats, but it was too late with me.

KW: Your father took you out shrimping as a youngster. Did he have a more liberated attitude? Did he encourage you to do a man's work?

Diane Wilson: My daddy thought women were basically stupid, but he didn't mean that in a mean way. I was on the boat because I was good and I was a big help and I could patch nets and I could steer the boat without crying. It was a practical decision on my daddy's part.

KW: So what is it that gives you your strength?

Diane Wilson: I am a mystic and am directed by an internal compass. I am not outer-directed.

KW: Tell me, what kind of dreams are you having these days?

Diane Wilson: I was dreaming about my dead daddy. He was alive, he said, and couldn't I tell? He was making COFFEE - stupid!!!

Note: this interview with Diane Wilson was re-published in Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland, AK Press, 2008.

Free Speech TV - Enemies of the Environment

Enemies of the Environment
Free Speech TV - SourceCode
t r u t h o u t | Programming Note

    SourceCode Airdates: Sundays at 9am and noon; Mondays at 9am, 1pm, 8pm, and 11pm; Tuesdays at 1am, 4am, 11am and 6pm; Wednesdays at 5am and 3pm. All times EST

    Free Speech TV partners with t r u t h o u t to bring you this story. Read Kelpie Wilson's past coverage of Congressman Richard Pombo and other environmental issues here.

    On Sunday, March 5, SourceCode Episode 3 takes a look at legislative attempts to do away with protections for species, ecosystems and people. Three pro-enterprise men - a politician, a crooked businessman, and a radical right-winger, are waging the most damaging war against the environment in US history. Meet Richard Pombo, the author of the worst anti-environmental legislation; and Charles Hurwitz, who is trying to make a quick buck on the last of the ancient redwoods, and who used profits from the S & L scandal to buy up the trees; and Ron Arnold, father of the Wise Use movement, who thinks that property is a civil right.

    SourceCode is Free Speech TV's weekly news magazine, focusing on social justice

Alli Chagi Starr: If I Can't Dance

 Alli Chagi Starr: If I Can't Dance
 By Kelpie Wilson
 t r u t h o u t | Interview
Sunday 14 August 2005

    Alli Chagi-Starr is a founder of Art and Revolution. An accomplished dancer, she has spent the last fifteen years on the road catalyzing creative demonstrations against war, racism, and destructive economic and environmental policies.

    I got to interview Alli when she came to visit her mother, Kayla Starr, who lives here in my town. Kayla is an amazing activist herself and has been a strong defender of forests and an outspoken peace activist. Alli got her first taste of activism watching her mother take on nuclear disarmament issues when Alli was in high school. Now Alli is deeply involved in doing her part to pass on the torch of creative, community-building activism.

    Kelpie Wilson: Alli, your first love was dance. Tell me about your dance career.

    Alli Chagi-Starr: I grew up as a ballet dancer and then as a modern dancer and worked professionally in the modern dance community in San Francisco for seven years or so, but ultimately found the dance world to not be speaking to the issues of our times enough, and I wanted to figure out how as a dancer I could have more impact in the world and be more responsive to my community and the global community.

    KW: So is that where Art and Revolution came from?

    ACS: Well, it was a bit of a progression - I started organizing arts benefit events for social justice and environmental issues starting in about 1989. The first one was a benefit for women and children living with HIV, and then a year later we did a big anti-war event around the first Gulf War. Then in 1994, I teamed up with David Solnit, and we started putting our skills together. He had a background in anti-nuclear organizing, non-violent direct action and carpentry.

    KW: So a dancer and a carpenter got together and what was the result?

    ACS: Art and Revolution! Both of us are die-hard organizers, so we were sort of a formidable team, and we were asked to go to various actions around the country to work on anti-nuclear issues, homeless issues. And I had been doing anti-racism work and learned about Mumia Abu Jamal, and I got David interested in that, so we inspired each other. We traveled all over the country in 1995 and '96, and then in '97 we held an event called Art and Revolution Convergence with some other artists.

    KW: Was that like a conference?

    ACS: It was a training, a conference, a gathering. 250 people showed up on some land just north of Seattle. We had series of workshops on dance, giant puppet building ...

    KW: The giant puppets are wonderful. You see them everywhere - is that your doing?

    ACS: Well, not exactly. Bread and Puppet from Vermont has been doing them since the Vietnam War era. And Wise Fool here on the west coast makes beautiful, elaborate puppets, but we got very good at doing them at the drop of a hat, bringing them to the front lines of critical social movements. We'd go to Kinkos and blow up an image and then put it on cardboard and paint it and make a quick costume - sort of puppets on demand, for the campaigns and actions that were cropping up. In that way, Art and Revolution revitalized political movements right before the turn of the century. We had a big role in re-inspiring people to come out to demonstrations.

    KW: Right, like all the lead-ups to the WTO meeting in Seattle. Tell me about the different actions and action trainings you did.

    ACS: Well, we did multiple trainings all over the country, and people who came to Seattle came from all over the country. We did two giant convergences in '97 and '98, not knowing that we would be in Seattle in '99, but then we did a pretty elaborate road show in October '99 - we went to cities all up and down the west coast recruiting people to come to Seattle. And everywhere we went, at first people were saying "what's the WTO?" and by the end of our 20 minute theater piece that talked about the Caribbean banana farmers that were getting screwed out of their livelihoods and talked about the dolphins getting caught in tuna nets and all these other assaults on people and the earth, people were saying, "How can we get to Seattle?"

    One of the things that's unique about our road shows is that we don't just perform, we also do hands-on training. We keep the performance short so people don't get tired and have to leave, so afterward we immediately break up into trainings - for giant puppets, non-violence, or more information on the issues, singing and dance, hip hop, anti-racism class, whatever the community needs. So the thousands of people we interacted with up and down the coast were already trained in non-violence, creative action, before they came to Seattle and could speak in good sound bites about the WTO. So there were a lot of people who got prepped in a way that was magnetic and powerful.

    KW: You could really feel that when you were there. And I was amazed at the time, at the energy around it. As the veteran of many demos, I thought, wow, there's a real buzz around this one!

    ACS: There was a real hundredth monkey feel to it, where all of a sudden arts activism caught fire. You could not look in any direction on those days in the streets of Seattle without seeing puppets or dance or amazing costumes. Of course the media didn't catch much of it.

    KW: There were many different groups involved in organizing the Seattle demonstrations, but Art and Revolution sent out a postcard calling for people to come and shut down the WTO. Why?

    ACS: We had $300 left in our bank account and we spent it on that postcard. And people wanted more, so they sent us money, and we printed thousands and thousands. Our feeling was when these boys get together, bad things happen in the world. People die. Species are threatened. People's incomes and livelihoods are destroyed. We felt strongly that we could not in good conscience allow these people to meet and make decisions that are going to have such a global reach and terrible impact. So we should do whatever was needed to make sure that meeting could not happen successfully.

    KW: What is the impact of the creativity, the dance and music, when you are in a really tense situation with the police? What changes when you have a call and response singing group or a dance routine?

    ACS: At one point in Seattle I had a steelworker to my right and a nun on my left, and there were thousands of us singing Amazing Grace, and the police put down their weaponry and backed off from a crowd that they were about to advance on. Art and performance are inherently disarming.

    One of the first protests I remember going to was about the dumping of toxic nuclear waste on Native American land in Ward Valley, and we were all holding these little signs in this designated area away from where Clinton was visiting, and I thought, no way am I going to stand in a little pig pen with my sign. So I asked my group of 12 people to form a circle. And I did some choreography where we each did our own gesture - now I call it Dances of Democracy - everyone makes up a gesture and we meld them together and it becomes a theater piece. We decided to take it out of the pen and into the streets and the police did come up to us and tell us to leave, and I said, we're almost done with our dance, and he said well finish up then, and next thing I knew we were on Channel 4, Channel 7 - so we went to the next corner and got on some more television channels, and we just kept moving and doing our dance, and we became provocative and media-worthy at that point. So that's what we saw in Seattle and what we are seeing in our movement - that we are using dance and creativity to become more magnetic, and ... it's just funner!

    KW: It's funner! Like Emma Goldman said ...

    ACS: "If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution!" Art is one of the deepest emanations of what it means to be human. It's one of the most beautiful parts of us. Violence is also part of us. We can at any moment choose one or the other, but I think art is an antidote to violence. We can create a community ritual instead of a riot by transforming the energy and the police don't have to get out their tools of violence. We create a performance spectacle and the police can step back and witness something they weren't expecting.

    KW: So that spirit of fun is something you are trying to give to other people. It's kept you going, and now you're trying to pass that on. Tell me about your Art in Action Camp.

    ACS: We have to pass on our skills and wisdom to the next generation and know that the next generation is going to improve on those. We started the camps five years ago, as an effort to take these arts activist skills and get them into the hands of young visionaries and new activists. We're generally working with low income youth from the inner city. Our commitment is to work with at least 80 percent young people of color and youth who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to go to summer camp at all. We work together for ten days and develop a theater piece together. It's very powerful, and it transforms lives - in some cases, transforming lives of violence into lives of art-making and community building. It needs to spread, and our goal is to have a budget big enough that we could do these camps in cities all over the country.

    KW: Is it challenging for you as a white woman from a privileged middle class background to be a role model for underprivileged youth of color?

    ACS: Well, I work with nine other facilitators, so I am in a racial minority within my collective. I step back a lot. I help with the fundraising and help catalyze bringing people together. But when it comes to teaching, I help teach the dance part, but I step back from a lot of the other workshops. What the youth see is a model of collective leadership where there is a majority of people of color and a majority of women. So that's how I approach my goal of passing skills on to people who have less privilege than I do. I think it's important for white people who have privilege to use it to help those who have less.

    KW: How can people get in touch with you to find out more about the action camps?

    ACS: They can check out www.cultural-links.org. And you can get an application at www.yesworld.org.

    KW: And you have a new book out?

    ACS: I'm in a new book edited by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans called Stop the Next War Now. It's full of inspiration, ideas and strategies for actions. My article is called "Lessons from the Field: Igniting the Spirit of Joy." It's an amazing group of essays they've collected.

    KW: I have to say this is an incredible book. It has a forward by Alice Walker and an introduction by Arundhati Roy. It has essays by Cindy Sheehan and Camilo Mejia.

    ACS: I was honored to be included in it.

    KW: Alli, do you have one more thought you'd like to share with t r u t h o u t readers?

    ACS: One of the things I keep coming back to, over this past fifteen years of building bridges between art and social justice movements, is that artists and visionaries need to be at the table from the start. We need visionary thinkers at the planning table when we are strategizing our campaigns. It can't be an afterthought: "Oh honey, did you remember to call the poet?" One day before the rally.

    And, I think that artists need to step up. We don't have a lot of time to play with right now. We're really on the brink here, and I think it's really critical for artists to get out of their insular worlds and start responding to the crises of our times and provide inspiration and creation and reflection. Cultural activism is the wave of the future. Creativity and addressing privilege are the two pieces that have been missing from the progressive movement, and when we finally get that, we're going to really amplify our effectiveness.

Lessons from Florida

Lessons from Florida | Kelpie Wilson Interviews Spencer Lennard
t r u t h o u t | Report
Sunday 13 February 2005

    I am interviewing environmental activist Spencer Lennard. Spencer is the founder of a group called Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center. Located in southwest Oregon, KS Wild is an innovative, grass-rootsy organization that has managed to keep a lot of old growth standing through public education campaigns and skilled legal work. Last fall, Spencer responded to a call from the League of Conservation Voters to leave his safely blue state and work on getting out the environmental vote in Florida. Spencer, first of all, please tell me why it was so important to your work on west coast forests to travel to Florida?

    Spencer Lennard: After spending the last four years fighting the Bush administration's (and the preceding eight of Clinton's) outright attacks on our wild ecosystems and species, I wanted to do everything possible to avert another four even worse years.

    Kelpie Wilson: I won't ask you to explain in detail what the Bush administration has done to wild ecosystems, but could you tell me what is the one worst thing that Bush has done that a Kerry victory might have changed for the better?

    Spencer Lennard: Kelpie, let me preface my answer by pointing out that most of the Democrats are operating from close to the same worldview as the Republicans - corporate dominance and human control of nature - and they generally are funded by many of the same corporate interests as the Republicans. That said, many of the most egregious attacks on our wild ecosystems would probably not be moving forward, due to the hoped for re-commitment to the Clinton Roadless rule. One big example is the Forest Service's implementation of their Biscuit salvage-logging project. I suspect that if John Kerry had been elected we'd be in a far less critical situation with respect to resource extraction in wildlands such as these.

    Kelpie Wilson: And that's what made the trip to Florida worthwhile for you. So tell me what it was like in Florida when you arrived there. Who did you work with and where did you stay?

    Spencer Lennard: When we arrived (17 days before the election), our group of four was given a room in an Orlando townhouse with other LCV volunteers. We immediately stashed our hiking shoes, masks, and snorkels and jumped into hours of hard canvassing with folks from all around the country.

    Kelpie Wilson: What kind of neighborhoods did you go to and what was the response?

    Spencer Lennard: The LCV strategists had focused our efforts in the so-called "swing" populations. Though Orlando has some incredible old and colorful neighborhoods, we found ourselves walking miles and miles in brand new, sterile and homogenous neighborhoods. Typically we'd get dropped off in what appeared to the same tree-less streets - surrounded by mini-malls and shopping centers - that we had canvassed almost every other day. We knew these were the places that could decide Florida's 47 electoral votes. We did get a chance to canvass some culturally diverse areas, ranging from the poorest (white and black) ghettos imaginable to beautiful century-old and racially mixed tree-lined neighborhoods.

    Kelpie Wilson: What was your basic message and how did people respond to it? Was the response different in the different kinds of neighborhoods?

    Spencer Lennard: My basic message was, "we are on a bus and quickly heading toward a cliff and we'd better slam on the brakes and change course immediately." Many people agreed with that sentiment, or were receptive to discussing it, though many others bought into the fear-based spin and opted to stick with Bush outright. Across the board, if I could get an issue-based conversation going with an undecided voter, a surprising percentage of the time they'd switch positions. Typically, undecided voters were not basing their positions on issues like the environment, corporate welfare and civil rights, but family voting histories, candidate personalities, looks and political ad sound bites (flip flop). Often in a conversation with a Bush-leaning voter as I'd go down the litany of issues we'd amazingly be in agreement. I'd ask why they were considering voting for Bush and they'd often respond that the war on terror and national security were so important, that they would have to think it over until Election Day.

    Kelpie Wilson: You used the analogy of a bus heading toward the cliff to describe our predicament with the environment to these swing voters. Did you have to elaborate on that analogy or did people instantly understand what you were talking about?

    Spencer Lennard: Like the public at large, swing voters are a diverse bunch. Some are relatively well educated about the dire condition of our biosphere, and others are absolutely not. A canvasser's angle for discussion will most effectively be designed on the spot by getting a sense of the voter's worldview and knowledge. If the voter at the door clearly does not care about species other than his own, then it makes no sense to talk about endangered species. If the swing voter says something that suggests he or she is concerned about fiscal issues, then I would discuss taxpayer subsidies of big corporations instead of the ethics of pushing wild animals toward extinction. A good canvasser can probably only utilize those issues that the voter has some basic knowledge of.

    Kelpie Wilson: It sounds like good canvassing is something of an art form. You use sensitivity, judgment and psychology to make a personalized connection with people. That is all too rare these days in our broadcast culture. The Kerry campaign had as much money for advertising as the Bush campaign, but Bush had all these churches where people get a face-to-face connection. Please tell me how you think canvassing could be used in the next four years to build opposition to the Bush regime and help win environmental victories.

    Spencer Lennard: I'm not sure that canvassing per se is the solution. In canvassing we forced voters to think about issues, which often resulted in a more progressive stance. In society at large we must develop social systems that infuse discussions about worldview and issues so we will hopefully see a more educated and progressive populace. The incredible aspect of the church is its regular presence in people's lives and the support structure it provides for what is being termed a "conservative" perspective. I'm hoping that progressive organizations like MoveOn.org and the widespread use of the internet can facilitate continued societal thought and discussion, fostering the progressive "religion."

    Kelpie Wilson: It's a start anyway. I've been to a few of the MoveOn house parties and really enjoyed the community feeling as well as some very fine guacamole. And I've met new people there, from outside of my usual activist circles. That's a good sign, I think. So what was the most effective single issue you could use to reach people?

    Spencer Lennard: Experimenting with numerous issues, I found that by far my greatest response from swing voters came when I described my own work in southwest Oregon fighting taxpayer-subsidized logging of public forests. Even Republicans would gasp "really, really, wow," as I'd explain how the administration, congress and the senate had consistently weakened every one of our environmental laws. Most folks were surprised and disturbed by images of furry critters like the Pacific fisher when I described how they are going extinct due to corporate logging of public lands. More than once a Bush voter stated that they were going to have to "think hard" about their presidential choice, as they closed their door with a KS Wild newsletter in hand.

    Kelpie Wilson: Tell me what you learned in your Florida experiences that you will take back with you to your organizing work in Oregon. How will you implement those lessons here at home?

    Spencer Lennard: Considering that we are stuck with the Bush administration for another four years, legal avenues to protect wild ecosystems and species will be further undermined as environmental laws are gutted. It's clear that we need to escalate outreach and education to change public opinion and mobilize more activism. KS Wild already utilizes a canvass to build support in our region. I suspect we'll expand our canvass and increase efforts to educate the public on our issues.

    Kelpie Wilson: What was the most outstanding experience you had knocking on doors in Orlando - either the weirdest or the most satisfying or the most dumbfounding?

    Spencer Lennard: As you can imagine, I did have some weird experiences canvassing. On Election Day we worked a very run-down ghetto near Orlando. Unfortunately, most of the folks we spoke to in that neighborhood were unable to vote because many were felons. One poor white man (a registered Democrat) told me he was voting for Bush. When I asked him if he was aware of the Bush administration's giveaways to the rich and undercutting of programs for the poor, he said he was fine with them. "I'm gonna be rich one day," he told me. In our Election Day enthusiasm to get out the vote, our team approached everyone to get them to the polls. One group of poor and probably drugged men did not take my query lightly. They basically told me that white guys from the city were not welcome here and they'd kill me if I did not "get the hell out of here now." As I turned away, one of them hurled a brick, which barely missed me as it ricocheted across the street.

    Kelpie Wilson: What kept you going from day to day - did anyone invite you in for tea and cookies?

    Spencer Lennard: Kelpie, I actually had far more positive experiences with voters than negative ones. Many folks I met canvassing invited me in for refreshment and drinks, and even many Bush voters were respectful and offered up classic southern friendliness.

    Kelpie Wilson: So what about the snorkels and hiking shoes? Did you ever get to use them?

    Spencer Lennard: As for the snorkels and hiking shoes, they never did get used. The frenetic pace of our canvassing only accelerated, leaving no time for recreation. Our only connection with the non-human world of central Florida came from barking pit bulls behind fences and affection-seeking cats wanting to be petted as we walked from house to house.

    Kelpie Wilson: Knowing you, Spencer, I am sure some nice kitties got their ears lovingly scratched. How many days did you canvass, total? Did you have any days off while you were there or did you canvass 17 days straight?

    Spencer Lennard: We canvassed most of our seventeen-day stay in Orlando with no days off. We typically worked 10-hour days. If we were not canvassing we'd be "scouting turf" by driving canvass routes and looking for impediments like canals or gated communities. We also spent a good deal of time "cutting" turf back at the office which involved mapping out the next day's canvass.

    Kelpie Wilson: Spencer, thank you so much for getting out there in the "turf" with the grass roots. I am convinced that efforts like yours are the key to winning back this country. I hope lots more dedicated people will join you out there over the next four years.