Revolutionary Gardening

People continue to ask about alternatives: how about replacing the damage structural adjustement loan conditionalities do to subsistence farming in the Global South with sustainable, local agriculture and micro-lending? Agribusiness and export-driven cash crops are the among leading causes of famine and food-security crises worldwide. One affinity group coming to the A16 protests is focused on these issues. When agribusiness and genetically-modified foodstuffs are the order of the day, planting a simple garden can be a revolutionary act.

Welcome to D.C. The A16 Guerilla Gardening Collective is proud to hand over the reigns of leadership of the agrarian revolution into your willing and capable hands. Guerilla gardens are revolutionary infrastructure. Seizing back control of our own food supply from multinational corporations is one of the first steps in eliminating our dependence on those corporations, and eliminating our dependence is the first step towards freedom.

If our embryonic revolution is to grow into a mass movement that will change the course of history it must seize the imaginations of working people. We must illustrate viable alternatives to the present madness. We must do it creatively enough that they cannot credibly label us as terrorists, and militantly enough that we cannot be ignored.

Listed below are a number of scenarios. Choose the one that appeals to you, or create your own, organize your affinity group, and do it.

1. Tree planting canvas: This action is for individuals or pairs. It involves going door to door in the neighborhoods of D.C. with saplings and flyers. When people answer the door tell them you are offering to plant them a tree for free if they agree to give it a marker stake and water it, as young trees need a lot of care to make it through the first year. Give them a flyer about the IMF/World Bank effects on global forests and use it as an opportunity to start conversations, build community support, and reforest the city one yard at a time.
2. Community Gardens: There are plenty of existing community gardens that could use a hand, so if that is what your group is interested in, give us a call and we'll try to hook you up with some locals.
3. Urban Reclamation: Throughout the city there are abandoned lots just waiting to be discovered and reclaimed by the people and Mother Earth. These actions provide opportunities for us to connect the issues of the environment, community control, biotechnology and the role of the IMF/World Bank when we talk to the media and the community members walking by.
4. Spectacle on the Green: This one is going to be the most confrontational and is going to require a well-organized cluster of affinity groups. The idea is to liberate a section of greenspace in central D.C. This idea has the potential to create a powerful image of the people reclaiming the capitol city in a creative and beautiful way. All the details are left to you for obvious reasons.