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GUERRILLA GARDENING - RTS MAYDAY ACTION - THIS IS NOT A PROTEST!
"Guerrilla gardening is a way to reclaim open space, protect biodiversity,
enhance food security and challenge capitalism."
from ALLSORTS
22nd March 2000
Editor's note: this report has been reposted from the ALLSORTS mailing list and is - naturally enough -
reproduced for information purposes only.
- 1) What is Guerilla Gardening?
- 2) Mayday RTS action flier text
- 3) What do we need to make this action happen?
- 4) Rumors of it happening elsewhere.
- 5) Guerrilla Gardening (aka Community Gardening)
a) Background on taken from "Avant Gardening - Ecological struggle in the city
and the world." details on how to get a copy below.
b) Recent press release from recent demonstration against garden closures and
police brutality in New York City
- 6) Further info
- 7) If you are NOT into the idea of Guerrilla Gardening after all that...
- 8) And don't forget the Mayday conference itself that is taking place the
whole
weekend before.
1) This article first appeared in Green Anarchist Autumn ‘89 The Green and
Black economy edition and appears in a booklet entitled Land and Liberty by
Graham Burnett. The first part has been edited down a little from the
original!
This is also a reminder that although the RTS Guerrilla garden may turn out to
be short lived, Guerrilla Gardening should be a long term 'occupation'.
GUERRILLA GARDENING
Learning to produce our own food is both essential if we are to ever truly
take
control over our own lives, and is implicitly a threat to capitalism as it
makes a start towards breaking free of the cycle of supply and demand,
liberating us from the role of passive consumers alienated from a real
understanding of the nature of the world around us and the most important
aspects of our day to day survival.
Of course the first prerequisite for growing food is land, the acquisition of
which is financially beyond the means of most of us, something the Ruling
class
have had sewn up for centuries, even long before the Enclosures Acts of the
1600’s. But there are always holes-spaces, in which we can move, call it the
black economy, call it the green economy. [okay lets call it the red, green
and
black economy.]
Guerilla Gardening:
Apply a little vision to the land around you; railway embankments, back
gardens, golf courses, car parks, overgrown bits of land at work-place and so
on. Then give a little thought to clandestine cultivation, the only limits are
those of your imagination; herbs that thrive on poor soils could be grown
amongst the thistles, rose bay willow herbs and boodle on 'desolate'
bomb-sites; a little known hole in a fence well remembered from childhood
explorations could give access to your local rich bastard’s grounds, sew your
seeds here amongst the undergrowth or venture further and indulge in some
scrumping from his [or her] orchard.
Even if squatting empty property in your
area is not an option (hello Neighborhood Watch…) maybe the back garden can
still be put to use with a bit of cunning and stealth, or maybe seldom visited
corners of local parks and gardens or even churchyards? How about the flower
beds that adorn your town centre if they’re not too well looked after, you
could be growing your crops right in the heart of the consumer landscape of
the
burger bars, chain stores and supermarkets.
Such secret gardens could be maintained with the minimum of effort small
amounts of compost could be carried in bags and weeds could be largely left
alone except where they threaten to engulf your crop as they provide
camouflage
for your activities.
Nor would you have to bother with orderly, tidy rows. A
mornings cycle tour of a few favourite spots could supply you with a weeks
supplies, especially if you take advantage of all the free food that grows
wild
nettles, ransoms [what are they?], dandelions, chickweed, nuts, berries, and
some mushrooms and fungi.
Clandestine farmers are out there now. Why not join them in digging for
revolution.
2) Flier text for RTS action
MAYDAY 2000
THIS IS NOT A PROTEST!
RECLAIM THE STREETS
MEET 11am 1/5/00
PARLIAMENT SQUARE
This action is just one of many taking place in London, around the UK and
across the planet. Other London events include a three day anti-capitalist
conference, City wide autonomous actions and a very big surprise for the
Millennium Dome!
0171 281 4621
http://www.reclaimthestreets.net/
Peoples Global Action
Our resistance is as
transnational as capital http://www.agp.org/
London: at the heart of Global Capitalism for hundreds of years dedicated to
the reckless pursuit of profit for the few at the expense of people and
ecosystems everywhere...
But change is fuelled by the diversity and dynamism of cities. They are places
where our future will be lost or won and where everyone can grab a piece of
the
action...
MAYDAY 2000
a global day of action against capitalism.
MAYDAY is RED for international workers day, GREEN for Beltane the ancient
fire
and fertility festival that signals transformation and rebirth, and BLACK for
the anarchists
executed for their part in trying to bring about a shorter working day with
enormous strikes on Mayday 1886.
MAYDAY is a time when RED, GREEN and BLACK converge a catalyst for hope and
possibility...
MAYDAY is our day
a day to celebrate the reality of our desires...
Less than a year ago, on June the 18th, financial centres on every continent
were rocked by people resisting the devastation of their lives by a bankrupt
economic system.
Five months later on November the 30th, as the legislators of Global
Capitalism
the WTO (World Trade Organisation) tried to meet in Seattle, tens of thousands
shut down the meeting, and once again simultaneous actions erupted across the
planet.
This was just the beginning. Diverse groups and movements across the planet
are
converging to overthrow their common enemy: capitalism.
The seeds of an unprecedented
global revolution
have been sown...
Reclaim The Streets contribution to MayDay in London is a mass Guerrilla
Gardening action !
Armed with trowels, seeds, and imagination, the idea is to garden everywhere
and anywhere.
An urban adventure at the threshold of nature and culture, Guerrilla Gardening
is about taking back
our own time and space from capital. Guerrilla Gardening is creative
autonomous
work, work that
is about LIVING, not "working" to "make a living".
Picture thousands of Guerrilla Gardeners, they have come to take back what was
once theirs, to transform a symbol of capitalism,
to return urban land to its real usefulness - as provider of food,
as public space where people meet face to face, discuss and
participate directly in the remaking of their own city.
Resistance is fertile
* GUERRILLA GARDENING IS NOT A STREET PARTY*
It is an action demanding everyones participation and preparation.
An adventure beyond spectating!
Come prepared, and ready to get your hands dirty.
Bring with you everything you need to make a Guerrilla Garden:
a sapling, vegetable seedlings, flowers, herbs, subvert the
packaging of capital: turn designer trainers into plant pots,
traffic cones into hanging baskets... Start planting now ...
Direct action is about taking control of every aspect of our own lives, the
homes we build, the food we eat the way we travel, the culture we enjoy, the
games we play - its not just about the occasional protest but about taking
power away from the politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats, and
participating
immediately and directly in radical social and ecological change.
COME PREPARED! START SOWING THE SEEDS NOW!
For top Guerrilla Gardening tips go to
http://www.primalseeds.org/
3) Prepare NOW for Mayday!
http://www.primalseeds.org/
a) Seedlings - essential for everyone to take part if this action is to work.
You need to plant seeds NOW if they are to be a decent size by Mayday.
Never done it before?
Beginners guide to getting seedlings ready (and if we can do this anyone can):
Pop the seeds in some seed compost, water a little, give them as much light as
possible, inside home on a warm window sill preferably - and wait for them to
germinate. With some of them it helps to pop a piece of plastic over them with
an elastic band to secure. Once they have germinated take the plastic off!
If
they are in tiny containers you need to transfer them into bigger pots. Almost
anything can be used as long as you make drainage holes. Specific seeds like
specific conditions and there should be details from the back of your seed
packet. Then you need to water a little more, watch them grow and make sure
that they don’t die before May 1st.
You also need more seeds to give out before the action and on the day.
Seeds are especially easy to liberate from places such as B & Q, Homebase,
Woolworth’s and even some supermarkets.
Compost: seeds do germinate much more successfully in special seed compost but
it is certainly not essential. Most good soil will do the job with most seeds.
Containers are even easier to get hold of and don’t forget to bring them along
on the day in your subverted and transformed ex-image of capitalism.
Oh yes and save some for yourself too so that you actually get to harvest some
in your own guerrilla gardens.
Happy planting.
b) We have a whole list of things that are needed for the action and various
ways that you can get involved in the organising including: networking, prop
making, collecting all the things that we need for the garden transformation -
plant donations and saplings especially useful. Why not come along to an RTS
meeting to find out more.
If you are coming along for the first time then
please introduce yourself and stay for a chat afterwards as the meetings
themselves don't give us a chance to get to know everyone.
They take place at the Cock Tavern, Phoenix Road, behind Euston Station
Tuesday
nights at 7pm. Check RTS answering machine for changes 0171 281 4621.
Quick wish list: People should bring these things to RTS meetings each week as
well as storing as much as possible at their own homes until the week before.
It will be obvious which things we need as soon as possible.
- Containers of all types especially those that had a previous life linked to
obvious capitalistic companies eg Oil drums, nike trainers, washing powder
boxes. Subvert them, plant in them and bring them along.
- Free seeds to give out - lots - please bag up all your unused seed from this
and previous years, with just a few seeds in each pack and bring them along on
the day. Or give out along with fliers.
- Garden trowels
- Information and boards: we have the permaculture ones but would need more
general boards about Guerrilla Gardening, self build, permaculture, forest
gardening, LETS schemes, allotments, how to grow your own food cheaply or
free,
genetic engineering and general agri-business, sustainable cities, saving
seeds. We need people to take on making these.
- Old carpets - lots
- Plastic sheeting for cloches and mini greenhouses
- Paint (oil based) and brushes for signs and possibly tyres
- Pallets
- Plastic bottles
- Plants, seedlings as mature and as many as possible everyone should start
planting now!
- Rags
- Raspberry canes etc
- Regular tools hammers, nails, etc.
- Sand - lying around everywhere after builders have finished.
- Sawdust - free from timber merchants and great for mulch and paths
- Straw
- Toilet rolls!
- Toys for kids areas, face paints etc
- Top soil
- Timber not so essential unless building - but wood for signs and cloches
would be good
- Trees/saplings as many and as varied as possible
- Trestle tables
- Volleyball, football, beach balls, hammocks, badminton etc
- Willow (and Hazel poles) live if possible for willow artwork
- Woodchips great for mulching as well as pathways
MATERIALS NEEDED FOR PROP MAKING:
- · Net curtains
- · Aluminium hollow poles
- · Steel wire (5mm)
- · Old estate agents For Sale signs - they are strewn everywhere paint and fabric
4) There are rumours abounding that Guerrilla Gardening actions are being
planned in various cities around the UK for Mayday 2000. If you find out that
there is one happening in your city then let us know. Similarly if you are now
hoping to get one going in your town/city then let us know if you want us to
let others know!
5) Guerrilla Gardening (aka Community Gardening) in New York City
a) Background on taken from "Avant Gardening: Ecological struggle in the city
and the world." details on how to get a copy below.
b) Recent press release from recent demonstration against garden closures and
police brutality
Chapter entitled "Clearcutting the East Village" - this is only a small
part of
the chapter.
In the past year, the East Village, along with the rest of New York City, has
witnessed scenes one would expect from the Amazon rainforest of Soviet Russia;
bulldozers flattening trees and artwork, backed by armies of police holding an
outraged populace at bay, as the city destroys their neighborhood gardens.
New York's community gardens were built up from the rubble of city-owned
vacant
lots, back in the day when the city was told to Drop Dead and its low income
neighborhoods were considered no go zones, triaged out of the social contract.
Thousands of buildings were destroyed, the result of landlord neglect, arson
and government "planned shrinkage" politics designed to reduce low income
housing stock. In spite of these assaults, neighbors cleaned up the garbage
and
began to plant gardens atop basements filled up with rubble. No one asked
permission: they just cut holes in the fences and started digging. [Guerrilla
Gardening!]
The city eventually began a recuperation action, offering "Green Thumb" leases
on lots that gardeners had already reclaimed. However, in the spring of 1998,
all 741 Green Thumb leases were handed over to the Dept of Housing,
Preservation and Development, an errand boy agency for real estate
speculators.
Now that years of unpaid citizen labour cleaned up the neighborhoods, the
garden party is over....?
b) Gardeners and Anti-Police Brutality Activists Demand Truth and Justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 8, 2000
Sunday March 12th at 1pm community gardeners and anti-police brutality
activists unite against violence in their community! They call for release of
the truth about last Saturday's brutal events!
Last Sunday March 4th , at 2am, police arrested 8 people and brutalized at
least twenty outside the bulldozed Esperanza garden on E. 7th street.
The
crowd
of 150 people had marched to Esperanza from Union Square following a peaceful
Mardi Gras festival and spontaneously reclaimed the garden.
Although Esperanza community garden was bulldozed by the Giuliani
administration two weeks ago, the community has not lost their sense of
esperanza (hope)!
The demonstration will be a colorful display showing the outrage felt by
gardeners and residents of Loisaida, as well as their supporters and activists
from all over the city.
Highlights will include: never before seen footage of
the brutal police attacks, a street theater reenactment of last Saturdays
events, words by Alicia Torres, the founder and guiding spirit of Esperanza
Garden, statements by those brutalized and arrested, accounts by witnesses to
the violence.
The community is outraged that so much violence has been imposed on our people
and our land by the Giuliani administration. Two weeks ago, a garden was
bulldozed and 31 were arrested. Last Sunday morning, 8 were arrested, many
more
were harmed by police. One heavily bleeding man was refused medical attention
for 45 minutes, a man's nose and head was clubbed, another man's rib was
broken, the whole crowd was pepper sprayed badly burning at least one
teenager's eyes, a woman's jaw was dislocated and she was just released from
the hospital where she was handcuffed to her bed.
Since Saturday, several
gardeners and arrestees have been harassed by the police. Dried blood still
taints the street in front of the garden of hope. We will transform this!
6) Want to know more about Guerrilla Gardening then check out:
- Avant Gardening: Ecological struggle in the city and the world. Excellent
little book with different chapters from various activists, campaigners,
authors, poets and gardeners - mainly about Guerrilla Gardens in New York
City.
They do have a couple of copies at Borders bookshop though I am sure that you
can order it in any ISBN 1-57027-092-9. Definitely worth a read. Especially if
you are not convinced that Guerrilla Gardening is by its very nature, radical,
anti-capitalist and fun!
It costs published by: Autonomedia in the USA
email: info@autonomedia.org
http://www.autonomedia.org/
- Websites such as: www.primalseeds.org
- Land and Liberty' booklet by Graham Burnett - available on most radical
bookstalls at alternative events/gatherings etc.
(anybody who knows where to get more info - please let us know)
7) If you are not into the idea of Guerrilla Gardening after all that...
The idea for Mayday is that lots of autonomous actions happen all over the
country and in London there will be lots of autonomous action going on all day
elsewhere throughout the day. If you are not into the RTS Guerrilla Gardening
Action - then don't come along to it and instead why not make the most of the
other possibilities, that the tender loving care that the RTS action will be
receiving from the police, opens up elsewhere? There are numerous
possibilities
for autonomous actions, including land, housing and squatting, various
capitalist
enterprises, women’s issues, animal rights, prisons, asylum seekers & the
state
etc. etc! Get together with your mates, form an affinity group and get
planning!
****PLEASE NOTE THAT PARLIAMENT SQUARE IS THE MEETING PLACE FOR THE RTS
GUERRILLA GARDENING ACTION ONLY! The RTS action is not a protest.
8) And don't forget the Mayday conference itself that is taking place the
whole
weekend before.
This is a chance for old timers and newcomers to talk and discuss
anti-capitalist ideas and actions.
To FIND OUT ABOUT THE CONFERENCE:
Post - BM Mayday, London, WC1N 3XX
Office Tel no - 0181 374 5027 (a/machine)
Press enquiries only - 07989 451 096
E-mail discussion list - mayday2000-subscribe@egroups.com
Website - www.freespeech.org/mayday2k
Disclaimer: this information is reproduced for information purposes only. Urban75 has no connection whatsoever with any of the groups
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