Category: Adventures in Permaculture

Planting Change: Guerrilla Gardening & the Occupy Movement [update]

[via OccupyWallSt and our friends at Seismologik.com]

Guerrilla gardening is the occupation of ill-used land to support the communities and ecosystems to which that land rightfully belongs. As the Occupy movement “puts down roots” in public and private spaces across the world, guerrilla gardening is essential to growing a sustainable movement free from dependence on corporate systems.

Over the coming months, One Pack Productions and Seismologik Media will showcase some of the amazing people who are creating actions which can inspire people to practice being the change they wish to see in the world. For more information on guerrilla gardening, check out guerrillagardening.org.

 

GUERRILLA GARDENING AT OWS from ONE PACK PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.
Meet the Guerrilla Gardeners.

Students from Sterling College in Vermont came down to Occupy Wall Street and showed us how to plant and sow seeds anywhere where there is soil. In this short film, they demonstrate how easy it is to grow winter greens and beets right in the parks flower beds, and then speak earnestly and passionately about the importance of farming, and understanding where our food comes from.

Occupy Together. Grow Together.

UPDATE : This story was picked up by 350.org – congrats to Seismologik!

First Collective Statement Of Occupy Wall Street

Please share, repost, G+ and tweet for democracy!
Follow #occupywallstreet #OWS #ourwallstreet #sept17
and get out and occupy your city!
WE THE PEOPLE.
EXPECT US.
Official Collective Statement :
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!

Value Change For Survival ~ Chief Oren Lyons [video]

Please note that Chief Lyons is a chief of the Onondaga Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy in upstate New York and eastern Canada.  Not Lakota.  He does mention being in Lakota country when he had the conversation around a campfire.  But he is identified clearly at the beginning.
 
For all the research and analysis that happens in my camp on a weekly basis – Chief Lyons sums up everything you and your family really need to know in 10 minutes. 
 
Deep respect to Chief Lyons.
“Get ready for it.”

Are you prepared?

For all the cracked pots

A Water Bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a hole which she carried across her neck.  One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.  For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to her house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made.  But, the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it was meant to do.  After years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, the cracked pot spoke to the Water Bearer one day by the stream.

“I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you.  I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.  Because of my flaws, you have more work to do and you don’t get full value from your efforts.”

The bearer smiled and said to the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?  That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path.

Every day as we walk back, you have watered them.

For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.”