The war on water privatization tenaciously struggles on.  Corporations advocating water privatization aim only to gain further economic and political power and negate the public advocacy for the right of constituents to retain their community’s water supplies.  Globally, citizens are threatened by the commercial investments in their water supply with respect to cost, sanitation, and also lack of respect for the sustainability efforts.  There have been numerous accounts of reserve depletions and resource reduction in local communities.  For years, businesses have been trying to turn water into the new cash crop and profit off its bonds, but residents are fighting back.

According to an Investigative research article by Andrew Roth, The World Water Council has only recently pilfered a significant seat in politics, due to the water policy’s shift from public advocacy toward “organizations that favor the private water companies and the commodification of water” (Roth. 2012).  The conversion is a result of a flop in the United Nations deduction that water is an amenity rather than a vital requirement; it also consequentially resulted from their lack attentiveness to the impact placed on poverty stricken countries and budget deficits in local cities.  Profiteers; however, have picked up on this momentum and perceived it as an opportunity to gain access in the water industry for tremendous revenues, and solidification of their higher hierarchical status.

The main opposition to the water industry derives from the Corporate Accountability International organization, which coincides with efforts to protect the world’s people from a commercialized takeover.  The CAI leads the movements against corporate abuse in the areas of public health, human rights and the environment.  Recently, Corporate Accountability International criticized the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on the issue of water privatization, explicitly revealing the “perverse incentives for supporting the profits of water corporations, rather than the access outcomes that are the legitimate mandate of a development institution.”  The report “enumerates a range of conflicts of interest which arise when the World Bank, as part owner of water corporations, also holds itself out as an impartial advisor and expert, offering research, government advisory services, public relations and marketing of private water” (Corporate Accountability International.2012).

Additionally, as of 2010, the United Nations have declared the right to water and sanitation, a human right, as of 2010.  They have urged corporations within the water market to “ensure full transparency of the monitoring and assessment of the implementation of plans of action, projects and programs in the sectors of water and sanitation…” (2010).  In accordance with this announcement, Catarina de Albuquerque, U.N. Special Rapporteur recounted that “Governments have to integrate the human right to water and sanitation and aim at achieving access to safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all without discrimination … to protect human health and dignity, particularly for the most marginalized.”  Universally, there has been a lack of enforcement with respect to human rights of water and regulation with regard to corporations’ exploitation of community water resources.

As referenced in Mr. Roth’s article, scholar Donald Worster conceptualizes this occurrence, dubbing it the inner workings of a “hydraulic society”. Within his theory, he defines a society run by water power as “a social order based on the intensive, large-scale manipulation of water and its products in an arid setting;” further he characterizes, his most developed form of hydraulic society, as the “capitalist-state mode,” which incorporates “[T]he promotion of democracy, defined as the dispersal of power into as many hands as possible, is a direct and necessary, though perhaps not sufficient, means to achieve ecological stability…”  (Roth.21012). The conclusion or solution to this type of society renders complete dis-functionality.

As an example, the 6^th World Water Forum in March of 2012, presented several water debates around the projections to create a balance between polarized viewpoints of private versus public involvement in the delivery of water and sanitation services.  With the drive towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and other such initiatives to reduce the amount of people who lack access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, this issue has come to the forefront as solutions become critical to ensure these goals are met. This debate used the different perspectives from the panel, in an informed and constructive manner, to look to the future for potential fair and equitable solutions within the provision of water and sanitation services.  Solutions were considered but none completely satisfied the requirements each opposition had expected (“worldwaterforum6.org”).

Finally, Roth’s “Water as a Commodity or Commons?” article concludes with, Maude Barlow’s statement on behalf of the alternative People’s Water Forum, that , “It’s no longer about the World Water Forum . . . [N]ow it’s about us and our vision.  The World Water Forum is bankrupt.  They’re bankrupt of ideas.  They’re bankrupt of money, frankly. And they have nothing to offer but what’s failed . . . It’s been a transfer of power” (Roth. 2012).

Concurring with Barlow’s proclamation, recent research proves that when profit is the sole objective, private corporations cut corners in ensuring water safety and quality to save money. Despite promises to the contrary, privatization often leads to rate increases and underfunded infrastructure (Urqiza.2012).  The alternative is to increase government funding in public water system.  Community water system provides several additional job opportunities as well, boosting economic gain further. As citizens, the rights are implemented now; the next step is to actively collect that which is already bestowed upon us.  It is now the rights of the individuals’ to take control over the delivery and conduction of their water and its sources.  Privatization of water can no longer be withheld in the tight gauges of corporate concern; commercialized institutions are not accepting the responsibility to ensure our declared human rights.  It is now the government’s obligation to surrender the rights of public water to the commons.  These are the solutions needed to bring the power back to the populations.

T. M. Steiner is a third year sociology and criminology undergraduate student at Sonoma State University.

References:

Roth, L. Andrew. 2012. Water As Commodity or Commons? Issues From the 2009 World            Water Forum. Retrieved 9/22/12. http://www.projectcensored.org/top-         stories/articles/water-as-commodity-or-commons-issues-from-the-2009-world-water-   forum/.

Corporate Accountability International. Water: Challenge  Corporate Control of Water.      Retrieved 9/22/12.  http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/campaigns/challenge-      corporate-control-water.

The World Water Forum. Post Forum Highlights 2012. Retrieved 9/22/12.              http://www.worldwaterforum6.org/en/

Moore, Derek. 2012. Sonoma Council Unanimously Rejects Water Rate Hike. The Press    Democrat. Retrieved 9/22/2012.       http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20120916/ARTICLES/120919661?p=2&tc=pg&     tc=ar

Urquiza, Kristin. 2012. Keep Water Supply in Public Hands: Public Water Works. The       Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 9/22/12.  http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/news/keep-      water-supply-public-hands.

by Andy Lee Roth

Associate Director, Project Censored

The nation of India boasts one of the world’s highest economic growth rates.  At the same time, eight states in India are home to more of the world’s poor than live in all of Africa’s twenty-six sub-Saharan nations.   India’s poor include tens of millions who have been internally displaced by government policies designed to promote economic growth.  As Arundhati Roy documents in previous books, including Cost of Living (1999) and Power Politics (2001), most of these displaced persons are tribal people: India’s Dalit and adivasi have lived off the land as commoners, outside the cash economy, for generations.

Across three essays originally published in 2010, Roy’s latest book, Walking with the Comrades, documents the government’s campaign to remove tribal people from their traditional homelands, so that multinational corporations can more easily extract the abundant mineral wealth, including bauxite, of India’s heartland.  “We are watching a democracy turning on itself, trying to eat its own limbs,” Roy writes.  “We’re watching incredulously as those limbs refuse to be eaten.”  Her dispatches from the frontlines of this struggle make crucial and challenging reading for anyone who champions the commons and/or advocates principled nonviolence.

Roy deftly relates how the Indian Constitution of 1950, “the moral underpinning of Indian democracy,” relegated India’s entire tribal population to squatter status, criminalizing “a whole way of life” and snatching away “their right to livelihood and dignity.”  The PESA Act of 1996, an attempt to right the wrongs of the 1950 Constitution, made it illegal and unconstitutional for the government to acquire tribal land in order to turn it over to private companies.  But this attempt to “radically recast the balance of power,” was subverted:  The International Monetary Fund effectively installed Manmohan Singh, initially as finance minister, to implement structural adjustment and economic reform.  Singh and his cabinet, Roy writes, are “evangelically committed to the corporate takeover of everything – water, electricity, minerals, agriculture, land, telecommunications, education, health – no matter what the consequences.”

As Prime Minister, in 2009 Singh told India’s Parliament that the Maoists who resist the government’s campaign of land acquisition were India’s “biggest internal security challenge,” noting that resistance “will certainly affect the climate for investment.”  Roy shows how this “furtive declaration of war” anticipated the government’s multi-pronged ground-clearing operations, which include official programs such as Operation Green Hunt and unofficial components such as Salwa Judum (Purification Hunt), a state-supported people’s militia whose first financers were Tata Steel and Essar Steel.  Both Operation Green Hunt and Salwa Judum employ tactics of “strategic hamleting” initially developed by General Sir Harold Briggs during Britain’s campaign against Malaya’s communists in 1950.

While the government labels all who resist its policies of land acquisition in service of corporate interests “Maoists,” Roy writes, “If you pay attention to the many struggles taking place in India, people are demanding no more than their constitutional rights.”  Roy literally walks with these people, and in many ways her book’s most important insights derive from this contact.  She finds ordinary people fighting for their livelihood, not Maoist ideologues.  She does meet actual Maoists, whom she describes respectfully, even as she is critical of their organization’s shortcomings.  Maoist struggles to redistribute land “have been completely unsuccessful,” Roy concedes; however, Maoists have “shone a light on the deeply embedded structural injustice of Indian society.”  She denounces Maoist violence when it is misdirected, while she acknowledges that violence may be necessary:

“People who live in situations like this do not have easy choices…  The decision whether to be Gandhian or a Maoist, militant or peaceful, or a bit of both (like in Nandigram) is not always a moral or ideological one.  Quite often it’s a tactical one.  Gandhian satyagraha, for example, is a kind of political theatre.  In order for it to be effective, it needs a sympathetic audience, which villagers deep in the forest do not have…  Sometimes tactics get confused with ideology and lead to unnecessary internecine battles.”

Roy and her adivasi and Dalit comrades have come to this position through hard experience.  For decades Roy championed nonviolent resistance, including public demonstrations and lawsuits by grassroots organizations like the Narmada Bachao Andolan, against the damming of the Narmada River.  In Walking, as Roy considers violent resistance, she pointedly asks, “Which door did the Narmada Bachao Andolan not knock on during the years and years it fought against Big Dams on the Narmada?”  If the government will not respect nonviolent protest, it leaves few other options for people fighting for their lives.

Maoist or not, the people who make up the resistance movement in India’s heartland forests act in defense of commoning as a way of life.  They assert their rights to subside, as they have for generations, outside the capitalist culture of private property and cash-based markets.   They “go to battle everyday to protect their forests, their mountains and their rivers because they know that the forests, the mountains and the rivers protect them.”  They offer one model of what acting in defense of the commons looks like.   As Roy shows us, without flinching, that defense includes violent resistance – a reality that challenges another value held dear by many proponents of the commons, principled non-violence.

Confronting as it does the Indian government’s “war against its poor” in service of corporate interests, and the difficult dilemmas of armed resistance, Walking with the Comrades concludes with Roy asserting the significance of imagination that exists “outside of capitalism as well as Communism” and offers “an altogether different understanding of what constitutes happiness and fulfillment.”  Her book challenges all who read it to put their imagination to use in the creation of such a future.  It is essential reading for all who care about the commons.

A footnote to this review:  In January 2012 Starbucks announced plans to open 50 outlets in India by year’s end.  Starbucks will partner with Tata Global Beverages, a subsidiary of the Tata Group that also includes Tata Steel, hoping to capitalize on the rising aspirations of many Indians, though this group is unlikely to include any of Roy’s forest comrades.

“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.”

- Carl Sagan

Upon receiving an invite to the NYC Cannabis March on May 5, I found myself meditating upon this concept: If you wanted to find one topic that effectively illustrated the sheer disconnect between perception and reality, that topic just might be – drum roll, please – hemp.

Wrestler-turned-Governor Jesse Ventura sez: “Industrial hemp is a very useful plant. I challenged the attorney general to get rid of the criminal stigma associated with hemp so we can look at it in terms of how it might be useful.”

Actor-turned-Governor Ronald Reagan sez: “I have absolute proof that smoking even one marijuana cigarette is equal in brain damage to being on Bikini Island during an H-bomb blast.”

Obviously, there are more than a few ways for us to view hemp:

Illegal. Despite industrial hemp’s proven, well-documented value, it cannot be commercially grown in the United States. Why, you ask? Well, it seems the powers-that-be can’t grasp the reality that there’s a difference between industrial hemp and marijuana.

Medicine. Here’s the scoop from NORML: “Modern research suggests that cannabis is a valuable aid in the treatment of a wide range of clinical applications. These include pain relief — particularly of neuropathic pain (pain from nerve damage) — nausea, spasticity, glaucoma, and movement disorders. Marijuana is also a powerful appetite stimulant, specifically for patients suffering from HIV, the AIDS wasting syndrome, or dementia. Emerging research suggests that marijuana’s medicinal properties may protect the body against some types of malignant tumors and are neuroprotective. Currently, more than 60 US and international health organizations support granting patients immediate legal access to medicinal marijuana under a physician’s supervision.”

Efficient and Economical. “Industrial hemp is an incredible resource,” explain the good folks at Hemp.com. “Hemp is harvested for its fibers for hemp clothing and seeds for hemp oil. With a relatively short growth cycle of 100-120 days, it is an efficient and economical crop for farmers to grow.”

Super Fiber. HempOrganic.com explains http://hemporganic.com/whyhemp.html: “Hemp is the world’s strongest natural fiber. It has been used to make cloth and rope for over 10,000 years.  Hemp was the first crop ever cultivated for textile production. Hemp cloth is stronger, longer lasting, more resistant to mildew, and cheaper to produce than cloth made of cotton.  Hemp ropes are known for their strength and durability.  The original Levi Strauss jeans were made from a hempen canvas. Even Old Glory was made from hemp fiber.”

Animal-Free Protein Source. The edible part of hemp provides many nutritional benefits. This includes higher protein levels than those found in nuts, other seeds, meats, dairy products, fish, and poultry.

A Way to Ride the Waves. Thanks to EcoFoil by OceanGreen, instead of polyurethane or polystyrene blanks being used on their surfboards, explains Warren McLaren, “they use hollow balsa wood from FSC certified Nicaraguan forests. These handcrafted blanks are purchased under fair trade arrangements for the final shaping in Cornwall.” Fiberglass is eliminated from the mix through the application of an organically grown hemp cloth “skin” which has about 10% of the CO2 emissions associated with fiberglass.

Your Next Home. Researchers at the University of Bath believe hemp “could be used to build carbon-neutral homes of the future to help combat climate change and boost the rural economy.” To which, the crew at Eco Worldly add: “Homes built from the hemp-lime material can reach carbon neutrality in large part due to the remarkable efficiency by which the fast growing hemp plant can store carbon as it grows.” Gives new meaning to the term “grow house.”

Misunderstood. As pointed out by David P. West of the North American Industrial Hemp Council: Smoking industrial hemp will not get you high, using hemp oil will not get you high, and hemp fields cannot be used to hide marijuana plants because hemp is grown quite differently and harvested at a different time than marijuana.

Better than alcohol. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), alcohol abuse is the third leading “preventable cause” of death in the US.

Number of deaths from smoking weed: 0

Way better than tobacco. Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the US each year, causing about 1 of every 5 deaths. This is more than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.

Number of deaths from smoking weed: 0

“Herb is the healing of a nation…”

- Bob Marley

Of course, the war on weed can trace some of its roots to longstanding racism. In addition, marijuana arrests/convictions help feed the ever-growing profits of the ever-growing prison-industrial complex while criminalizing hemp helps protects the ever-growing profits of the ever-growing pharmaceutical-industrial complex.

Mic Check: No matter where you may personally stand on using hemp and/or marijuana, it should be apparent that this issue is very much connected to the other socio-economic battles being waged by Occupy Wall Street (OWS).

It’s all part of a much larger fight for a holistic global justice—so let’s make the big connections, broaden our scope, and find more allies. Nothing less than our shared future is at stake…

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

#OccupyHemp. OccupyMedicalMarijuana. #DeOccupyPropaganda.

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

“While they were saying it couldn’t be done, it was done.”

- Helen Keller

One Sunday afternoon last November—in the pre-eviction Liberty Square/Zuccotti Park encampment—my jaded eyes lit up when I saw a sign that read:

KRIPS OCCUPY WALL STREET.

Mic Check: The sight of dozens of disability rights activists occupying one end of the park provoked a particularly wide smile—and it wasn’t solely based on my devotion to holistic justice. Please allow me to explain…

Back in the pre-Internet days of yore, I used to review zines for a wide of print publications, e.g. Factsheet 5, Anderson Valley Advertiser, and Alternative Press Review. One of the zines I was assigned to cover was Mouth Magazine: Voice of the Disability Nation. My glowing and nuanced review inspired Lucy Gwin, founder and editor of Mouth, to send me a postcard of gratitude (I’m sure I still have that piece of snail mail around here somewhere).

To paraphrase, Lucy basically expressed appreciation that—finally—a “normal” radical like me “got it” about disability issues. A friendship was born, I soon became the “token normal” on Mouth’s writing roster, and I learned to adore their motto: PISS ON PITY. In 2005, I even included a chapter about Lucy and related issues in my book, 50 American Revolutions You’re Not Supposed to Know.

#DeOccupyPity

It might come as a bit of shock to those unfamiliar with the disability rights movement, but not every differently-abled person would rather be non-differently-abled or even dead.

Mic Check: Dead people, you see, can’t fight the power and raise hell.

And here’s a newsflash to those who think Christopher Reeve represented the disability rights movement: The Krips weren’t impressed with Superman’s search for a cure. In fact, they’re also not pacified by Jerry Lewis’ telethons and they want/demand freedom for the two million Americans imprisoned in nursing homes against their will. Now.

As the Krip mantra goes: “Nothing about us, without us.”

Another area of vexation is the lack of support from and/or the inability to “get it” within progressive circles. From the movement’s early days—the League of the Physically Handicapped was formed in New York City in May 1935—right up to today’s issues, the Left has typically blown the opportunity to work collectively with those waging a crucial human rights battle.

“It is disheartening, to say the least, when I can still pick up a book or read a call for unity to fight for social justice which omits or does not give equal weight to the disability social movement against oppression,” says Marta Russell, author of Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract.

It should go without saying that people with disabilities have much to contribute as equal members of the vaunted 99%.

“As the political focus is constantly on the deficit, disabled people face an economic terrorism everyday of our lives,” Russell adds. “What will be snatched out from under us next? Social Security? Medicare? Medicaid? Section 8 Housing? Low income heating assistance? In-Home Support Services? You get the picture.”

Mic Check: There’s good news and it is spelled OWS.

#Occupy4AllAbilities

“Occupy is trying to completely change the terms of the debate,” says T.K. Small, an attorney and disability rights activist from NYC. “They are bringing something new to the table. Activists with disabilities need to be part of that.”

Among the disability activists I met back in November was Nadina LaSpina, a mutual friend of Lucy Gwin’s who has post-polio syndrome and uses a motorized wheelchair. Nadina is a former professor and a leader in the NYC and national ADAPT chapters and has been arrested more times than she can count.

Upon being arrested at the OWS camp on November 17, 2011, Nadina declared: “If we want our voices heard, we can’t sit this out or wait for an invitation. They will only address our issues if we are there and do the work. We made sure we tuned OWS leadership into disability issues by talking with them.”

Nadina sez: “I wish we could stop fighting. But so many of our people are still incarcerated in nursing homes and other institutions, so many are still living below the poverty level, so many are being denied basic human rights, including the right to live. The Americans with Disabilities Act has been eviscerated in our courts, its promise of equality still remains unfulfilled. We still face prejudice and discrimination in every area of our lives on a daily basis. So we have no choice but to keep fighting. Activism must come first.”

As I see it, the brilliance of OWS lies in recognizing that activism must come first and, as the 99:1 ratio demonstrates, that means holistic activism. After all, 99% is a damn big number—a huge umbrella under which a vast range of dissidents can coalesce.

And coalesce they have…including those disabled comrades who suggest we piss on pity and instead get busy creating change right fuckin’ now.

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

#Occupy4AllAbilities. #DeOccupyPity.

Resources:

Occupy On Wheels: Awareness, Inclusion, Solidarity

Occupy Disabled

NYC General Assembly Disability Caucus

Video: Why camping out is not a wheelchair accessible option

Video: Raul Carranza speech at Occupy San Diego Labor Solidarity

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

“We know we cannot be kind to animals until we stop exploiting them—exploiting animals in the name of science, exploiting animals in the name of sport, exploiting animals in the name of fashion, and yes, exploiting animals in the name of food.”

- César Chávez

If anyone requires proof that dark green ethics and radical earth defense are becoming more and more widespread, consider how the all-purpose smear of “terrorist” is being increasingly used by governments and private groups to criminalize eco-dissent.

Mic Check: So, what exactly is a terrorist?

By current standards, you can pack a calf into veal crate or pump food down a goose’s gullet or grind up live male chicks to fertilize your fields—and you’d run no risk of being called a terrorist.

You could also clear-cut forests to make way for doomed livestock or blow off mountain tops in search of coal or pump toxin-filled smoke into the atmosphere and you’d garner virtually no attention at all—let alone be labeled a terrorist.

But if you choose a lifestyle based on compassion and logic or speak out against vivisection or protest use of fur? Well, thanks to the Green Scare, you deserve an orange jumpsuit and a one-way ticket to Gitmo.

Green Scare refers to “the federal government’s expanding prosecution efforts against animal liberation and ecological activists, drawing parallels to the ‘Red Scares’ of the 1910′s and 1950s.”

This term was first known to have appeared in 2002 in the wake of congressional hearings titled “The Threat of Eco-Terrorism” which discussed groups including the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).

As GreenIsTheNewRed sez:

“The animal rights and environmental movements, like every other social movement throughout history, have both legal and illegal elements. There are people who leaflet, write letters, and lobby. There are people who protest and engage in non-violent civil disobedience. And there are people, like the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front, who go out at night with black masks and break windows, burn SUVs, and release animals from fur farms. Animal rights and environmental advocates have not flown planes into buildings, taken hostages, or sent Anthrax through the mail. Yet the FBI ranks them as the top domestic terrorism threat.”

The US government’s extreme prejudice against animal rights and environmental activists is, of course, no freak accident. Like most everything in a profit-driven society, it comes down to who is paying who.

“By donating money to politicians and paying high-priced lobbyists to advocate for their interests,” writes Doris Lin, “corporations that profit from animal exploitation not only make sure that their legal right to use animals and treat them as property is codified in federal, state and local laws, but also make sure that government policies favor their rights and interests over those of the animals and the public.”

Which leads us directly to the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act—passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 27, 2006.

The law, explains the Center for Constitutional Rights, “was pushed through Congress by wealthy biomedical & agri-business industry groups such as the Animal Enterprise Protection Coalition (AEPC), the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), with bipartisan support from legislators like Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative James Sensenbrenner. The new law replaced its predecessor, the Animal Enterprise Protection Act (AEPA), which had become law in 1992.”

The AETA specifically targets anyone who “intentionally damages or causes the loss of any real or personal property (including animals or records) used by animal enterprise, or any real or personal property of a person or entity having a connection to, relationship with, or transactions with an animal enterprise.”

Mic Check: If you don’t think the AETA casts a treacherously wide net, re-read that last paragraph and juxtapose it with this biblical excerpt (John 2:13-16): “In the Temple courts (Jesus) found men selling cattle, sheep and doves and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the Temple, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said: ‘Get out of here.’”

The next time someone asks you: “What would Jesus do?”

Accurate answer: About 12 to 18 months (insert rimshot here)

Please allow me to repeat: It’s not nearly enough to rise above the latest man-made conflicts and/or differences and proudly declare oneself a “humanist.” In the name of holistic justice and planetary rebellion, we must go deeper to identify as earthlings and stand—fists raised—in solidarity with all of our fellow earthlings.

Good place to start: Work to abolish the AETA.

‘Regardless of how one feels about animal rights or animal rights activists, the targeting of political activists as ‘terrorists’ because they cause a loss of corporate profits sets a dangerous precedent,” writes Will Potter. “Occupy Wall Street (OWS), for example, clearly is focused on challenging corporate power and has utilized a diversity of tactics currently classified as ‘animal enterprise terrorism,’ including non-violent civil disobedience and home demonstrations. If this legislation is not overturned, it will be the blueprint for targeting all protesters that pose a threat to business as usual.”

The system being challenged OWS is built, in a major way, on the exploitation of non-human animals and the eco-system.

Mic Check: Dark green environmentalism is an OWS issue. Animal liberation is an OWS issue. Veganism is an OWS issue.

It’s all connected within a culture constructed on the premise of unlimited growth and it must all remain connected within a movement aiming for holistic justice.

If you’re working to dismantle corporate power, expand freedoms, and create a safer, more sane culture, you already have plenty in common with animal rights activists. Why not take things even further and recognize that the mighty 99% also includes non-human animals—and the entire ecosystem itself?

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

#Occupy4AllSpecies. #DeOccupyAETA.

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

“Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it.”

- Banksy

As we bear witness to the current version of America’s presidential election charade, I’ll remind you of something I wrote earlier this year: The most consistent and primary difference between Republicans and Democrats is that they tell different lies to get elected.

To which I added:

Let’s recognize that choosing to #Occupy is more powerful than choosing to vote. Let’s Mic Check the bogus debates. Let’s expose and reject the Lesser Evil ploy. Let’s make it clear that we’re on to their bullshit and we’re ready to protect the future we share with all life on the planet.

We live in a Coke/Pepsi, McDonalds/Burger King, Mastercard/Visa culture and even open-minded activists can find themselves tricked into binary thinking, e.g. the aforementioned two-party farce or the oft-discussed violence/non-violence “debate.”

These are common examples of thinking inside the proverbial box but there’s another issue that provokes dangerous stereotypes and unfortunately, it’s rarely discussed in mainstream—or even radical—circles.

I’m talking about gender identity.

#OccupyTheSpectrum

“Changing how we see images is clearly one way to change the world.”

- bell hooks

Thanks to the recent story of a five-year-old in England named Sasha Lexton being raised gender-neutral, however, this topic is finally garnering some media attention.

“Stereotypes seem fundamentally stupid,” explains Sasha’s mother Beck Laxton. “Why would you want to slot people into boxes? Gender affects what children wear and what they can play with and that shapes the kind of person they become.”

I suggest you re-occupy this concept: Gender shapes the kind of person we become.

I did just that when I asked my friend Pam for her thoughts on Sasha Lexton. Not surprisingly, she told me she loved the story, adding: “There is a whole spectrum of gender. In between male/female, you’ll find, for example: genderqueer, genderfluid, two-spirit, gender neutral/androgynous, and transgender. And it’s certainly not just about appearances.”

In other words, someone may present as male or female but internally experience something entirely different.

“That’s where gender goes beyond performativity,” Pam said, before commenting on my recent use of the term “non-straight males,” which, she said, “confuses sexuality with gender. I think probably a better term is ‘cis-males,’ i.e. men who present as men and experience their gender as male as well.”

If you still don’t think “taking a sharp knife to the box” is highly necessary, dig this bit of not-so-common sense from a group called tranarchists: “We believe that the patriarchal heteronormative cisgendered state-capitalist establishment is directly responsible for the oppression of transgender individuals and therefore must be destroyed.”

Word…

#DeOccupyBinaryThinking

“Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.”

- Clarence Darrow

For one example of “teaching children not to doubt,” please allow me to paraphrase a poem by Ani DiFranco, in which she talks of a test we all face in kindergarten or the first grade. You know the deal. They show us two squares and a circle and the inevitable question is: Which one doesn’t belong?

Thus, at the tender age of five or six, we’re being taught that different doesn’t belong. Different is wrong. We’re being taught to exercise our freedom of choice—within the narrow parameters proscribed by the dominant culture.

Well, I truly hope it’s truly obvious that we must appreciate and accept that not all humans identify within a narrow spectrum but must be equally respected for whatever self-identification they choose. This alone is a worthy goal for any justice-minded soul.

However…what has all that got to do with the fate of our species, all species, and the eco-system itself?

Almost everyone is heavily conditioned to recognize the male/female binary—and to a lesser degree, the gay/straight binary. If more and more of us could de-occupy these narrow concepts, well…imagine how much easier it would become to question other repressive constructs.

Imagine how much easier it would be question all forms of modern mythology. Wait…did I just say “mythology”?

In today’s world, mythology evokes images of Jupiter, Hercules, and Thor; it’s something the primitive ancients engaged in before modernity reared its enlightened head. Yet, for example, the US is a nation very much built upon a foundation of fables and there are many forms of modern mythology that have taken hold: free markets, Western supremacy, the cult of science and technology, fundamentalist demagoguery (from religions to corporations)—to name but a few.

Such deeply held tenets could only exist in a society consciously and purposefully conditioned to worship wealth, consumerism, and the unquestioned preservation of power at any cost.

However, through independent thought and serious activism, the myriad cracks in this rickety façade are duly exposed. From there, well…another world is possible.

Assignment for 2012: #Occupy the subversive pleasure of thinking for yourself.

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

#OccupyTheSpectrum. #OccupyOutsideTheBox.

(Thanks to Pam and Calla for the input and to Jen for the inspiration)

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

“Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it with our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories.”

- Arundhati Roy

The spine is made up of 24 bones—called vertebrae—connected by ligaments and muscles to form the spinal column, which protects the spinal cord: a pillar of nerves that connects your brain to the rest of your body.

Without a spinal cord, you could not move your body.

Without a spine, you could not stand tall and keep yourself upright.

Mic Check: I smell a metaphor brewing…

Without a healthy backbone—literally or figuratively speaking—we cannot stand up for ourselves…or others.

We are symbolically spineless.

As the folks at HealingKeys.com add: “The spine symbolizes our strength, courage, being centered and uprightness. Problems with our spine indicate feelings of weakness and fear. We have lost our centeredness and emotional integrity and are feeling overburdened.”

***

“When did punk rock become so safe?”

- NOFX

***

One might say that when we feel weak or overburdened, we are, in a way, spineless.

But when we’re centered and in touch with our emotional integrity, we are #occupying backbone.

For example…

Spineless is succumbing to the relentless two-party propaganda and voting for an allegedly lesser evil

Backbone is tirelessly working to create enduring, bottom-up change—via direct action

Spineless is believing the media stereotypes about Occupy

Backbone is being too busy occupying to give a shit

Spineless is splintering the movement with counterproductive and misguided attacks

Backbone is accepting that successful activism is never either/or

Spineless is living in fear of social norms, oppressive laws, and loss of reputation

Backbone is being less afraid of the State than of living on a planet without trees, without drinkable water, without arable land, without a hint of justice.

Spineless is playing it safe

Backbone is recognizing that safety is an illusion

***

“Early in my life, I learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.”

- Malcolm X

***

There’s no shortage of

• more-radical-than-thou purists
• activists seeking excuses to remain in-activists
• mainstream types ever-willing to surrender their faculty for critical thought

If you rebuild and fortify your subversive spine and stand up in the name of holistic justice, all of the above (and others) will be coiled and ready to attack. It’s never easy to challenge the status quo, to stand out, to consciously opt out of groupthink…but it’s a whole lot easier with a strong and flexible spine.

No one knows how OWS will play out in 2012 but without some committed and sustained backbone from a wide range of allies, it cannot grow, evolve, and realize its potential.

If OWS does not realize its potential, well…basically…we’re fucked.

***

“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.”

- Rumi

***

#OccupyBackbone

The revolutionary process requires a strong and flexible spine because it involves the nuts and bolts of daily, even hourly resistance—hard work like reaching out to those who’ve been heavily conditioned by mainstream culture.

This can be an agonizingly slow, inch-by-inch effort—but it’s crucial.

The revolutionary process requires a strong and flexible spine because it also involves broadening our scope and making wider and wider connections—aiming for holistic perspectives and thus, holistic justice across lines of gender, age, ethnicity, species, ability, sexual orientation, class, and more.

This is abstract work but no less arduous.

This choice must be made: #Occupy Spinelessness or #Occupy Backbone. The future is waiting upon your decision.

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

#OccupyYerSpine

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

“The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say, “What are you going through?”

- Simone Weil

In this digital age, we’ve all experienced situations in which a text message or e-mail was misconstrued because the person on the receiving end could not discern tone. Without the facial expressions, physical gestures, and vocal inflections gathered during face-to-face conversation, communication can often be challenging.

“The more we understand about postures and movements that we use to signal our feelings to one another,” says zoologist Desmond Morris, “the less insecure and uncertain we feel.”

As Tupac Shakur sez: “I’m a reflection of the community.”

With that in mind, I am unilaterally announcing: “Face-to-Face February.” One month to explore the value of real-time human contact and the role it can play in saving our eco-system.

Mic Check: Hey, if nothing else, it might good for a few communal laughs…

#OccupyLaughter

“The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can’t fake it… try to fake three laughs in an hour – ha ha ha ha ha – they’ll take you away, man. You can’t.”

 - Lenny Bruce

We humans have invented so many ways to express our humor—just think of all the words we have (in English alone) for “laugh” (giggle, chortle, snicker, chuckle, cackle, guffaw, hoot, snigger, titter, snort, etc.) and “funny” (hilarious, humorous, uproarious, comical, droll, hysterical, amusing, witty, mirthful, etc.), and “joke” (gag, one-liner, witticism, wisecrack, pun, riposte, jest, prank, jibe, etc.).

But somewhere over the years, we manage to lose a few hundred laughs every 24 hours.

Children (of all cultures) laugh, on average, 400 times a day. For adults, the number is 15. So, it doesn’t matter what makes you laugh…but that you laugh. Doctors Gael Crystal and Patrick Flanagan call laughter “a form of internal jogging that exercises the body and stimulates the release of beneficial brain neurotransmitters and hormones.”

Endocrinologist Stanley Tan has found that humor and exercise trigger “similar physiological processes,” i.e. releasing neuro-hormones that act “like an orchestra, each instrument makes a particular note. Laughter makes the entire orchestra more melodious or balanced.”

Mic Check: Typing LOL or LMAO is not the same thing as a group of comrades heartily laughing together before heading out to do battle against the 1% who threaten the future of all life on earth.

#OccupyMoreThanTechnology

“Sometimes it’s a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.”

- David Byrne

Which brings me back to the whole face-to-face concept. In the name of communication context, let’s not forget all the solidarity that’s been cultivated without the benefit of an iPhone…for example, movements in areas like anti-slavery, labor, women’s rights, civil rights, and anti-Apartheid.

So, while one of the magic elements of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is the clever use of technology to not only connect like-minded souls but also to outwit the 1%, perhaps it’s greatest strength lies in its fervent striving for face-to-face human contact. Occupants are encouraged to share their stories, anyone can yell out “Mic Check,” and close-knit occupations of all forms and styles continue to sprout up across the globe.

Dorothy Day sez: “We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.”

Two simple steps towards embracing face-to-face community:

• Connect with your local occupation
• Talk to your neighbors

Mic Check: When staring down a heavily-funded, well-armed propaganda machine, let’s never forget that it’s gonna take a wide and ever-evolving range of tactics to bring down the dominant culture and it starts with a combination of direct action and direct contact.

So, my fellow occupants, the question remains: Who’s gonna have the last laugh?

Let’s find out by getting face-to-face in February…and beyond.

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”

- E. O. Wilson

Too often, we humans like to see ourselves as above or perhaps not even connected to the “animal” kingdom. But the more we learn about the species we tend to underestimate, the more we can adjust our perceptions and behavior towards an earth-friendly way of life.

Along those lines, did you know that bees communicate on a highly sophisticated level? For example:

“When food is discovered by ‘scout’ workers, they return to the hive. Shortly after their return, many foragers leave the hive and fly directly to the food. The remarkable thing about this is that the foragers do not follow the scouts back (the scouts may remain in the hive for hours). So the scout bees have communicated to the foragers the necessary information for them to find the food on their own. It turns out that the scouts can convey to the foragers information about the odor of the food, its direction from the hive, and its distance from the hive.”

Pretty impressive, huh? Combine that with the reality that bees pollinate one-third of the food we Homo sapiens eat and well…maybe we need to figure out a new way to value them—and all of our multi-legged co-inhabitants.

Let’s start with a few ways in which we can choose to perceive bees:

Annoyance. The sound of a buzzing bee can send many humans into a fear frenzy. If only we were as wary of planet-raping, mind-controlling corporations as we are of minuscule insects.

Smart and Sensitive. Bees are extremely intelligent and studies have demonstrated that yes, they do feel pain.

Exploited. As detailed by PETA: “Like other factory-farmed animals, honeybees are victims of unnatural living conditions, genetic manipulation, and stressful transportation … Profiting from honey requires the manipulation and exploitation of the insects’ desire to live and protect their hive.”

Endangered. I have three words for ya: Colony Collapse Disorder.

Invaluable. More than 100 agricultural crops in the United States are pollinated by bees. “Bees help to pollinate a wide range of food crops, including fruits, nuts, spices and vegetables,” writes Amanda Hepburn at Vegging Out. “Without bees, food production would fall dramatically.”

Despite all this, we still hear plenty of nonsense about “killer bees” along with other alleged threats, like this:

I recall a 2010 article ominously entitled, “Day of the Grasshopper Looms,” by Stephanie Simon of The Wall Street Journal, that serves as a fine example of misguided and misplaced blame.

In that piece, Simon told us how “hungry swarms” of grasshoppers can cause “hundreds of millions of dollars in damage” when they devour corn, barley, alfalfa, and beets. Of course, no mention that much of those crops are grown using genetically modified organisms, heavily sprayed with pesticides, and typically reserved for doomed livestock. No need for context when you write for the corporate media.

Simon also wrote of cows unable to find grass without talking about those cows being slaughtered to support the industrial meat-based diet or the climate damage that diet causes. Nah, let’s instead talk about solutions (sic) like aerial spraying of the pesticide Dimilin.

Simple suggestion: Don’t demonize insects when it’s us humans who are treating the planet like it’s an orbiting outhouse.

Some of the many ways we can view a grasshopper:

Pests. Some context from John R. Meyer, Department of Entomology, NC State University:

The mass media continually reinforces the belief with reports about killer bees, giant grasshoppers, poisonous spiders, and crops destroyed by marauding bands of insects. This cultural indoctrination has produced a society that seems to be increasingly consumed by efforts to eliminate insects from all facets of daily life.

Pest control has become big business. Nearly 75 million pounds of broad-spectrum insecticides are manufactured and sold each year for use in American homes and gardens. Annual revenues from insecticide sales to homeowners exceed $450 million.

This notion of “pest” is unique to humans and completely anthropocentric.   We define pests in terms of our own standards of good and bad—standards that are often based largely on aesthetics, economics, and personal welfare, and shaped by cultural bias and personal experiences. In reality, many of the insects we label as pests are essential components of our natural ecosystem.

Food. Birds, lizards, mantids, spiders, and rodents eat grasshoppers.

Athletes. We all marveled when Michael Jordan took off from the free throw line and dunked, but a typical grasshopper can jump 30 inches. If His Airness could jump that many times his body length, he would be able cover an entire football field in a single leap.

Not a Cricket.

• Crickets are nocturnal. Grasshoppers are diurnal.
• Grasshoppers are more vividly green than crickets.
• Crickets do not fly.
• A cricket’s antennae are longer than a grasshopper’s.
• A cricket has its ears in its legs. A grasshopper’s legs are located in its abdomen.

Part of the Big Picture (like all of us). As herbivores, grasshoppers link plants to the rest of the ecosystem. Their droppings contribute to nutrient turnover by returning nutrients as fertilizer for the plants.

Speaking of turnover, when was the last time you showed some love to the lowly earthworm?

Charles Darwin, after making a careful study of our squirmy pals, reached this conclusion: “It may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organized creatures.”

Here are few other ways to see the earthworm:

Ecosystem Engineer. As earthworms tunnel through the soil, these passageways allow air and water to circulate to soil microorganisms and plant roots. The gang at BackyardNature.net explain: “Each year on an acre of average cultivated land, 16,000 pounds of soil pass through earthworm guts and are deposited atop the soil.” Without such plowing, soil would become compacted, air and water wouldn’t be able to circulate in it, and plant roots would be unable to penetrate it.

Full of (Good) Shit. Darwin calculated that if all the worm droppings (rich in nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus) resulting from ten years of worm work on one acre of soil were spread over that acre, it would be two inches thick.

Food. Weasels, otters, mink, frogs, pigs, raccoons, birds, snakes, and turtles are just some who will occasionally dine on the slow-moving earthworm.

As Henry David Thoreau did. “A worm is as good a traveler as a grasshopper or a cricket, and a much wiser settler,” HDT wrote. “With all their activity, these do not hop away from drought nor forward to summer. We do not avoid evil by fleeing before it, but by rising above or diving below its plane; as the worm escapes drought and frost by boring a few inches deeper.”

Love x 5: How could you not absolutely adore an organism with five hearts?

To sum up, what creatures like bees and grasshoppers and earthworms leave behind enriches the ecosystem while most of what we humans leave behind kills it.

So yeah…I’ll say it on mo’ time: It’d be great if corporations paid more taxes or if single-payer health care were enacted but such changes would ultimately fall into the proverbial Titanic/deck chair category if our eco-system is not restored and respected.

This is why we must reject the propaganda, violence, and oppression of the state (and its corporate owners).

This is also why we must continue to #Occupy and never surrender the goal of fashioning an alternative form of human society—based on consent and voluntary cooperation—as soon as fuckin’ possible.

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

#OccupyEcosystemBeforeEconomics.

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back…”

- Rainer Maria Rilke

The land we currently call “United States of America” is home to more than a quarter-million rivers. Of those 3.5 million miles of water:

• 235,000 miles have been channelized
• More than 600,000 miles are impounded behind dams
• More than 25,000 miles have been dredged for navigation

Can I get a Mic Check?

If you take things to a global stage and contemplate that 80% of the rivers in China can no longer sustain life, well, you’d have a pretty good idea of how some humans choose to perceive (and treat) rivers.

For others, of course, rivers provide habitat, freshwater, recreation, and contemplation. They offer continuity and a sense of history.

Rivers mean transportation, connection, and boundaries.

Rivers link mountain peaks with ocean depths.

With that in mind, here are a few ways to look at a river…

Inspiration. Just ask Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen and David Byrne and a few zillion others.

Safe Haven. Of the 1200 US species listed as threatened or endangered, 50% depend on rivers and streams.

Dammed. More than 45,000 large dams (45 feet or higher) were built in the 20^th century and these structures are a serious green issue that impacts all life on earth. Dams are expensive, destructive, and ineffective. In California alone, dams have resulted in the loss of 90% of that state’s river environment and 95% of the salmon and steelhead habitat—all at a cost fifty times higher than more efficient solutions.

Toxic Dump. One tiny example—of far too many—to get you started: Even after two decades of participation in the National Estuary Program, a federally funded environmental protection effort, the lower Columbia River habitat between Oregon and Washington continues to suffer from decades-old applications of the banned agricultural pesticide DDT (dichloro diphenyl tichloroethane), restricted industrial insulators and lubricants (PCBs) Polychlorinated biphenyls, and chemical compounds PAH (Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), found in petroleum and its byproducts.

Vulnerable. According to American Rivers: “The impacts of global warming will hit rivers first and worst, in the form of increased droughts, floods, and waterborne diseases.”

I’ll say it again: It’d be great if corporations paid more taxes or if single-payer health care were enacted but such changes would ultimately fall into the proverbial Titanic/deck chair category if our eco-system is not restored and respected.

In other words, incremental reform will do little to nothing to change realities like this: 860 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage is spilled or legally dumped into US streams and rivers every single year.

This is why we must reject the propaganda, violence, and oppression of the state (and its corporate owners).

This is also why we must continue to #Occupy and never surrender the goal of fashioning an alternative form of human society—based on consent and voluntary cooperation—as soon as fuckin’ possible.

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

#OccupyEcosystemBeforeEconomics.

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.