$1.50-No Advertising Volu,me VI, No.6 April 1980 R IN Ancil Nance FEMINIST ROOTS MURRAY BOOKCHIN ON REVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY THE STORM BEHIND THE DRAFT
Page 2 RAIN April1980 p R A I N D R o s Last month we were " in transition" again. We moved our offices upstairs so that · those of us who live at Rainhouse can use the kitchen without going "to work" and work can be left upstairs with the door closed on it. Mark has moved in from the Tualatin Valley, and John, our resources coordinator, has crossed the river to live here in the Northwest neighborhood too. Jill's moved downstairs and I'm coming down from the ridge where I've lived in the forest all winter and will be living at Rainhouse also. We've been stripping and sanding and plastering and painting, and we've really only begun to transform our enormous old house into the glowing lovely workingl living space we dream of. Jill and Karen and I have spent sunny afternoons in the garden making "where we are a paradise." Anyway, amid all the chaos, our Feb. 1 March issue went out with more uncorrected errors than we like to see. We're fully aware, for example, that the Underground Space Center in Minnesota is not Under 'bround (for that matter it's not really underground either). MASEC is the Mid· America Solar Energy Complex, not Conference (in cast' you were wondering when it was scheduled to occur). Then two Rainmakers were left out of the staff box: Karen Streuning, our intern from Antioch, and Deanna Nord from Macalaster (Deanna was only here for a month-long interim internship) . Artists went uncredited, too, last month, most notably Ben Shahn, whoseMan Picking Wheat , 1950, we used with our Family Farms spread. (© estate of Ben Shahn , 1980, permission granted.) Honest, folks, we'll settle down someday. We're working on it. -CC RAIN Journal of Appropriate Technology RAIN is a nationa" information access journal making connections for people seeking more simple and satisfying lifestyles, working to make their communities and regions economically self-reliant, building a society that is durable, just and ecologically sound. RAIN STAFF: Carlotta Collette, Mark Roseland, Pauline Deppen, Jill Stapleton, Dawn Brenholtz, John Ferrell Karen Struening RAIN, Journal of Appropriate Technology, is published 10 times yearly by the Rain Umbrella, Inc., a non-profit corporation located at 2270 N. W. Irving, Portland, Oregon 97210, telephone 503 /227-5110 . Copyright © 1980 Rain Umbrella, Inc. No part may be reprinted without written permission. Typesettirlg : Irish Setter Printing: Times Litho An aerial view of Eastern Oregon by Ancil Nance
-- April1980 RAIN Page3 an OPEN Movement by Murray Bookchin ith the opening of the eighties, the ecology movement in both the United States and Europe is faced with a serious crisis. This cris.is is literally one of its identity and goals, a crisis that painfully chaltenges the movement's capacity to fulfill its rich promise of advancing alternatives to the domineering sensibility, the hierarchical political and economic institutions, and the manipulative strategies f~r social change that have produced the catastrophic split between humanity and nature. To speak bluntly: the coming decade may well determine whether the ecology movement will be reduced to a decorative appendage of an inherently diseased anti-ecological society, a society riddled by an unbridled need for control, domination and exploitation of humanity and nature- or, hopefully. whether the ecology movement will become the growing educational arena for a new ecological s(lciety based on mutual ald. decentralized communities, a people's technology, and non-hierardlical, libertarian relations that will yield not only a new harmony between human and human. but between humanity and nature. Perhaps it may seem presumptuous tor a singlt, individual to address himself to a sizable constituency of people who have centered their activities around ecological concerns. But my concern for the Q. .r! (/'jre of the ecology movement is not an Impersonal or ephemeral one. For nearly thirty years I have written extensively on our growin g ecological dislocations. Th ese wri tIngs have been rei nforced by my activities against the growing usc of pesticides and food additives as early as 1952, the problem of nuclear fallout that surfaced with the first hydrogen bomb test In the PaCIfic in 1954, the radioactive pollution issue that emerged With the Windscalc nuclear reactor "incident" in 1956, and Con Edison's attempt to construct the world's largest nuclear reactor in the very heart of New York City in 1963. Since then, I have been mvolved in Ilntinuke alliances such as Clamshell and Shad, not to speak of their predecessors Ecology Action East. whose manifesto, Tile Potuer fo Destroy, TIll' POUler to Create , I wrote in 1969. and the Citizens ommittee on Radiation Information, which played a crucial role in Slopping the Ravenswood reactor in 1963. Hence, 10m hardly be described as an 41tcrloper or newcomer to the ecology movement. My remarks in this letter are the product of a very exrensive experience as well as my individual concern for ideas that have claimed my attention for decades. !It It is my conviction that my work and experience in al\ of these areas would mean very little if they Were limited merely to the issues themselves, however important each one may be in its own right. " No Nukes," or for that matter, no food additives, no agribUSiness, or no nuclear bombs is simply !tot enough if our horizon is limited to each one issue alone. Of equal importance is tbe need to reveal the toxic social causes, values, and inhuman relations that have created a planet which is already vastly poisoned. Ecology, in my view, has always meant social ecology: the conviction that the very concept of dominaring nature stems from the domination of human by huma,n. indeed, of women by men, of the young by their elden;, of one ethnic group by another, of society by the state, of the mdividual by bureaucracy, as welJ as of one economk class by another or a colonized people by a colonial power. To my thinking, SOCial ecology has to begin its quest for freedom not only in the factory but also in the family, not only in the economy but also in the psyche. not only in the material conditions of ljfe but also in the spiritual ones. Without changing the most molecular relationships in society- notably, those between men and woml'J1, adults and children. whites end other ethnic group~ , he terosexuals and gays (the list, in fact. is considerablel-society will be riddled by dOmination even in a socialistiC"classless" and " nonexploitative" form. It would be infused by hierarchy even as il celebrated the dubious vi rtues of " people's democracies ," "SOCialism ," and the " public ownership" of " natural resources." And as long as hierarchy persists, as long as domination organizes humanity around a system of elites, the project of dominating nature will \ontinue to exjst and inevitably lead our planet to ecological extincrion. The emergence of the women's movement, even more so than the counterculture, the " appropriate" technology crusade and the anti-nuke alliances (I will omit the clean- up escapades of " Earth Day"), points to the very heart of the hierardllcal domination that
------ Pag(' 4 RAIN Apnl 1980 underpins our ecological crisis. Only insofar as a counterculture, an alternate technology or anti-nuke movement rests on the nonhierarchical sensibilities and structures that are most evident in the truly radical tendencies in feminism can the ecology movement realize its rich potential for basic changes in our prevailing antiecological society and its values. Only insofar as the ecology movement con sciolls ly cultivates an anti-hierarchical and a non-domineering sensibility, structure, and strategy for social change can it retain its very identity as the voice for a new balance between humanity and nature and its goal for a truly ('cological society. ~ This identity and this goal is now faced with serious erosion. Ecology is now fashionable, indeed, faddish-and with this sleazy popularity has emerged a new type of environmentalist hype. From an outlook and movement that at least held the promise of challenging hierarchy and domination have emerged a form of envIro nmentalism that is based more on tinkering with existing institutions, social relations, technologies, and values than on changing thcm. I use the word " environmentalism" to contrast it with ecology, specifically with social ecology. Where social ecology, in my view, seeks to eliminate the concept of the domination of nature by humanity by eliminating the domination of human by human, environmentalism reflects an "instrumentalist" or technical sensibility in which nature is viewed merely as a passive habItat, an agglomeration of external objects and forces, that must be made more " serviceable" for human use, irrespective of what these uses may be. Environmentalism, in fact, is merely environmental engineer!ng. It does not bring into question the underlying notions of the present suciety, notably that man must dominate nature. On the contrary, it seeks to facilitate that domination by developing techniques for diminishing the hazards caused by domination. The very notions of hierarchy and domination are obscured by a technical emphasis on "alternative" power sources, structural designs for " conserving" energy, "simple" lifestyles in the name of "limits to growth" that now represent an enormous growth industry in its own rightand, of course, a mushrooming of " ecology" -oriented candidates for political office and " ecology"-oriented parties that are designed not only to engineer nature but also public opinion into an accommodating relationship with the prevailing socil'ty. Nathan Glazer's " ecologIcal" 24-square-mile solar satellite, O'Neill's "ecological" spaceships, and the DOE's giant "ecological" windmills, to cite the more blatant examples of this environmentalistie mentality, are no more " ecological" than nuclear power plants or agribusiness. If anything, their " ecological" pretensions are all the more dangerous because they are more deceptive and disorienting to the general public. The hoopla about a new " Earth Day" or future "Sun Days" or " Wind Days," like the pious rhetoric of fasttalking solar contractors and patent-hungry "ecological" inventors, conceal the all-important fact that solar energy, wind power, organic agriculture, holistic health, and "voluntary simplicity" will alter very little in our grotesque imbalance with nature if they leave the patriarchal family, the multinational corporation, the bureaucratic and centralized political structure, the property system, and the prevailing technocratic rationality untouched. Solar power, wind power, methane, and geothermal power are merely power insofar as the devices for using them are needl e 5~l y complex, bureaucratically controlled, corporately owned or institutionally centralized. Admittedly, they are less dangerous to the physical heolth of human beings than power derived from nuclear and fossil fuels, but they are clearly dangerous to the spiritual, morol and social health of humanity if they are treated merely as techn iq ues that do not involve new relations between people and nature and within society itself. The designer, the bureaucrat, the corporate executive, and the political careerist do not introduce anything new or ecological in society or in our sensibilities toward nature and people because they adopt "soft energy paths;" like all "technotwits" (to use Amory Lovins' description of himself in a personal conversation 'with me), they merely cushion or conceal the dangers to the biosphere and to human life by placing ecological technologies in a straitjacket of hierarchical values rather than by challenging the values and the institutions they represent. By the same token, even decentralization becomes meaningless if it denotes logistical advantages of supply and recycling rather than human scale. If our goal in decentralizing society (or, as the "ecology"-oriented politicians like [0 put it, striking a "balance" between "decentralization" and " centralIzation" ) is intended to acquire " fresh food" or to "recycle wastes" easily or to reduce "transportation costs" or to foster "more" popular conrrol (not, be it noted, complete popular control) over social life, decentralization too is divested of its rich ecological and libertarian meaning as a network of free, naturally balanced communities based on direct face-to-face democracy and fully acnlalized selves who can really engage in the self-management and self- activity so vital for the achievement of an ecological society. Like alternate technology, decentralization is reduced to a mere technical strategem for concealing hierarchy and domination. The " ecological" vision of " muniei"pal control of power," " nationalization of industry," not to speak of vague terms like .'economic democracy," may seemmgly restrict utilities and corporations, but leaves lhl'ir overall control of society largely unchallenged. Indeed, even a nationalized corporate structure remains a bureaucratic and hierarchical one. As an individual who has been deeply involved in ecological issues for decades, I am trying to alert well-intentioned eeologicall¥ onented people to a profoundly seTious problem in our movement. To put my concerns in the most direct form possible: I am disturbed by a widespread technocratic mentality and political opportunism that threatens to replace social ecology by a neW form of social engineering. For a time it seemed that the ecology movement might well fulfill its libertanan potential as a movement for a nonhierarchical society. Reinforced by the most advanced tendenaes in the feminist, gay, community and SOCially radital movements, it •
April 1980 RAIN PageS The hoopla about a new "Earth Day" will alter very little in our grotesque imbalance with nature if it leaves the patriarchal family, the multinational corporation, the bureaucratic and centralized political structure, ele property system, and the prevailing technocratic rationality untouched. seemed that the ecology movement might well begin to focus its efforts on changing the basic structure of our anti-ecological society, not merely on providing more palatable techniques for perpetuating it or institutional cosmetics for concealing its irremediable diseases. The rise of the anti-nuke alliances based on a decentralized network of affinity groups, on a directly democratic decision-making process, and on direct :letion seemed to support this hope. The problem that faced the movement seemed primarily one of selfeducation and public education- the need to fully understand the meaning of the affinity group structure as a lasting, family-type form, the full implications of direct democracy, the concept of direct actIOn as more than a " strategy" but as a deeply rooted sensibility, an outlook that expresses the fact that !'v l'ryollc had the right to take direct cOlltrol of society and of her or his everyday life. lronical\y, the opening of the eighties, so rich in its promise of sweeping changes in values and consciousness, has also seen the emergence of a new opportunism, one that threatens to reduce the ecology movement to a mere cosmetic for the present society. Many self-styled "founders" of the anti-nuke alliances (one thinks here especially of the Clamshell Alliance) have become what Andrew Kopkind has described as " managerial radicals" - the manipulators of a political consensus that operates withill the system in the very name of opposing it. The " managerial radical" is not a very new phenomenon. Jerry Brown, like the Kennedy dynasty, has practiced the art in the political field for years. What is striking about the current crop is the extent to which "managerial radicals" come from important radical social movements of the sixties and, more significantly, from the ecology movement of the se:?venties. The radicals and idealists of the 1930s required decades to reach the middle-aged cynicism needed for capitulation , and they had the honesty to admit it in public. Former members of SDS and ecology action groups capitulate in their late youth or early maturity- and write their " embittered" biographies at 25,30, or 35 years of age, spiced with rationalizations for their surrender to the status quo. Tom Hayden hardly requires much criticism, as his arguments against direct action at Seabrook last fall attest. Perhaps worse is the emergence of Barry Commoner's "Citizen's Party," of new financial institutions like MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy), and the " Voluntary Simplicity" ce:?lebration of a dual society of swinging, jeans-clad high-brow elitists from the middle classes and the conventionally dad, consumer-oriented low-brow underdogs from the working classes, a dual society generated by the corporate-financed " think tanks" of the Stanford Research Institute. In all of these cases, the radical implications of a decentralized society based on alternate technologies and closely knit communities are shrewdly placed in the service of a technocratic sensibility, of " managerial radicals," and opportunistic careerists. The grave danger he.re lies in the failure of many idealistic individuals to deal with major social issues on their own terms-to recognize the blatant incompatibilities of goals that remain in deep-seated conflict with each other, goals that cannot possibly coexist without delivenng the ecology movement to its wQrst enemies. More often than not, these enemies are its " leaders" and "founders" who have tnI'd to manipulate It to conform with the very system and ideologil'S that block any social or ecological reconciliation in the form of an ecological society. The lure of "influence," of "mainstream politics," of "effectiveness" strikingly exemplifies tne lack of coherence and consciousness that afflicts the ecology movement today. Affinity groups, direct democracy, and direct action are not likely to be palatable-or, for that matter, even comprehensible-to millions of people who live as soloists in discotheques and singles bars. Tragically, these millions have surrendered their SOCial power, indeed, their very personalities, to politicians and bu reaucrats who live in a nexus of obedience and command in which they are nomlally expected to play subordinate roles. Yet tlris is precisely tire immedinte cause of the ecological crisis o.f our time- acause that has its historic roots in the market society that engulfs us. To ask powerless people to regain power over their lives is even more im portant than to add a complicated, often incomprehensible, and costly solar collector to their houses. Until they regam a new sense of power over their lives, until they create their own system of self.manageml'Dt to oppose th~ present system of hierarchical management, until they develop new ecological values to replace cu rrent domineering values-a process which solar collectors, wind macilines, and French-intensive gardens can /adU tate but never replace-nothing they change in society will yield a new balance with the natural world. Obviously, powerless people will not eagerly accept affinity groups, direct democracy, and direct action in the normal course of events. That they harbor basic impulses which make them very susceptible to these forms and activities- a fact which always surprises the " managerial radical" in periods of crisis and confrontation-represents a potential that has yet to be fully rL'alized and furnished With intellectual coherence through painstaking education and repeated examples. It was precisely this education and example that certain feminist and anti-nukt' groups began to provide. What is so incredibly regressive about the technical thrust and electoral politics of environmental technocrats and " managerial radi cals" today is that they recreate in the name of "soft energy paths," a specious "decentralization," and inherently hIerarchical partytype structures the worst forms and habits that foster passivity, obedience and vulnerability to the mass media in the American public. The:? spectatonal politics promoted by Brown, Hayden, Commoner, the damshell " founders" like Wasserman and Lovejoy, together with recent huge demonstrations in Washington and New York City breed masses, 1I0t citIzens-the manipulated objects of mass media whether it is used by Exxon or by the CED (Campaign fo r Economic Democracy), the Citizen's Party, and MUSE. Ecology is being used against an ecological sensibility, ecological forms of organization, and ecological practices to "win" large constituenCies, 1I0t to edu cate t/ll!m . The fe;I r of " isolation," of " futility," of "ineffectiveness" yields a new kind of isolation, futility and cont.
In discussing alcohol fuels, distinctions must be made between gasohol and pure alcohol, and between ethanol and methanol. Gasohol is a mixture of alcohol and gasoline. In the U.S., the mixture usually contains 10 percent alcohol, but many cars can take mixtures of up to 20-25 percent alcohol, and with minor modifications, even more. In fact, it is not hard to modify cars to run on pure alcohol, as racing cars do. Ethanol is drinking alcohol, and methanol is the highly toxic "wood" alcohol. Ethanol _ _ __ _ _ _ ...............~ i1'p'iJEi:'sw&iWl ' I~~~~~~Iiift~ is commonly made by fermenting almost any source of non-woody biomass. The starch molecules in the biomass are broken down to sugar, which is fermented to alcohol. Methanol is made by "pyrolizing" wood or coal, heating it at high temperature and pressure, so that is releases a variety of gasesf:;:.:;:;:;:;:;:; and liquids. One of the gases is then converted to methanol. Both methanol and =~:~:~:.~f.:~~:~:~:~~;;;,u itllllililiffi1 rh:~::g~.David Holzman, editor of People ~Il~~~I~~~~~~~mmmmmll RAIN does n't happen to Itav~ a resident Alcohol Fuels Expert (all I know about alcohol production is that my gra ndfat her sllpposedly died from a bad bn/cll of his own brew-Grandma carried on Ih e business for many yea rs ), so in recom mending information fo r you to study we're slicking Ihis montll to the freebIes. The mformafion we've compiled is due in large pa rt to Deanna Nord. Dennna. during an internship with the Minnesota Energy Agency, had compiled a reference list and bibliography Otl gasohol. When she npplied to illtern here at RAIN we {ls ked her to do a similar search for liS. The results are git.ing us the opportunity to study the whole business ourselves , and we' ll be letting you know what we learn. Thank you, Dl'anna. -cc The Energy Consumer, Jan. 1980, from: DOE Office of Consumer Affairs Room8G082 Washington, DC 20585 Descriptions of policy, hIstory, economics, resources in each state, and other publications make this issue of the Energy Consumer the most up-to-date SOUTce fo r alcohol fuels information. To complement rhis, the DOE is operating mil- fT C-I? lines you can call for more specifics. 1/800/533-5333, 11 800/535-2840, in Louisiana 11800/3532870. Facts About Gasohol, and 11te Reading List, from: Solar Information Data Bank SERI 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, CO 80401 oncise, even terse, glossy overview of gasohol. As it states, this is just the basic facIS, no "how-to," more " why-to." I . " oglst.r ,., ineffectlvenes~ , namely, a complete surrender of one's most basic ideals and goals. "Power" is gained at the cost of losing the only power we really have that can change this insane society-our moral integrity, our ideals, and our principles. This may be a festive occasion for careerists who have used the ecology issue to a,dvance their stardom and personal. fortunes; it would become the obituary of a movement that has, latent within itse.lf, the Ideals of a new Bookchin world in which masses become individuals and natural resources cont. become nature, both to be respected for their uniqueness and spirituality. _ ~ An ecologically oriented feminist movement is now emerging and the contours of the libertarian anti-nuke alliances still eX.lst. The fUSing of the two together with new movements that are likely to emerge from the varied crises of our times lTIay open one of the most exdting and Hberating decades of our cenrory. Neither sexAlcohol Fuels, an annotated bibliographyfrom: National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) P.O. Box 3838 BuUe, MT 59701 Everyone we asked for information referred us to Scott Sklar and Jim Kerstetter's bibliography. Like most every other bibliography, it has become quickly dated, but they intend to revise it. In the meantime it's still an excell ent place to begin. Fuel from Farms, a guide to small-scale ethanol (grain alcohol) production, from: DOE P.O. Box 62 Oak Ridge, TN 37830 William Hedrick, a consulting engineer who builds alcohol plants, suggests that this publication may be "the best summary treatm('Jlt of the field." "There are," he adds, "still some shortcomings, such as the need for a directory of manttfacturers of the equipment. "
[ ENERGY ) Solar Energy Handbook, 1979 from: Power Systems GrouplAmetek Inc. Chilton Book Co. Radnor, PA 19087 This is a good nuts and bolts overview of active solar systems from the people who brought you all those nuts and bolts car repair books. It starts with the sun, explaining the equations of its motion as it traverses the sky. Once you know where the sun will be, the book explains how to collect the energy available detailing collector types and efficiencies. It proceeds to explain how to distribute the energy you've just collected. To wrap it up, there are collcctor and storage sizing techniqucs and methods of estimating long-term cost and payback. It's a better than average book in that it describes the good as well as bad points of the types of systems it covers. - Gall Katz Feminist Resources on Energy & Ecology (FREE) P.O. Box 6098 Teall Station Syracuse, NY 13217 " Eco-Feminism" promises to be one of the buzzwords of the '80s. Last month women from all over New England and New York gathered in Amherst, Massachusetts, for " Women and Life on Earth: A Conference on Eco-Feminism in the '80s." (More on that In a future issue!) One of the groups represented at the conference was FREE, a feminist ecology organization. FREE provides information, materials, speakers and skill-sharing "dedicated to addressing women's concerns from an ecological perspective and providing i.nformation on energy, technology, politics and the environment from a feminist viewpoint." FREE was started not too long ago by Donna Warnock and others with the help of the Syracuse Peace Council. The graphic on this spread of a beautiful old tree encircled by the words "feminist ecologist: everything is connected" is from a FREE button (uh, Ilctually, it's $.65 ppd.). The tree, by the way, is from Rainbook I Give FREE your support; send them a self-addres.sed stamped envelope and put yoursel1 on their mailing list- and put FREEon yours I - MR Present Value: Constructing a Sustainable Future, by Gigi Coe, 1980, $5.95 from: Friends of the Earth 124 Spear Street San Francisco, CA 94105 Present Value describes example!? of renewable energy projects in California. As such it is a regional guide. But the California models can be adapted to serve in other d imates as well and so the book has a broader usefulness than its California focus would suggest. The book is divided into three parts. The first describes systems, active and passive solar retrofits, utilizing .the technology for such novel tasks as preheating water for dairy farm use to warm cows' teats and sterilize the stainless steel holding tank for the milk. This saves the dairy farm an average of $700 per year in fuel bills. The second part of the book " shows how these basic concepts can be integrated and used in different structure." Homes and office buildings design ed for Apn l1980 RAIN Page 7 solar reliance and natu ral cooling are featured, with the last example being Village Homes, where the concept of energy conservation is extended to include a whole community'Splanning. In part th ree the natural conclusion of the book blends the earlier mentioned technologies with " local enterprise, food and energy production, and waste recycling" to describe ways to build "self-reliant communities." The book's order, layout and graphics all combine to make it readable, enjoyable and valuable as a tool for, yes, "construcllng a sustainable future."-C CANVAS TUBE CIRCULATION SYSTEM ;",v .. :l ~ ;:.. '".. .t E 1 ism, ageism, ethnic oppression, the "energy crisis," corporate power, conventional medicine, bureaucratic manipulation, conscription, militansm, urban devastation or political centralism can be separated from the ecological issue. All of these issues turn around hierarchy and domination, the root conceptions of a radical social ecology. It is necessary, I believe, for everyone in the ecology movement to make a crucial decision: will the eighties retain the visionary con ccpt of an ecological future based on a libertarian commitment to decentralization, alternative technology, and a libertarian practice based on affinity groups, direct democracy, and direct action] Or will the decade be marked by a dismal retreat into Ideological obscurantism and a " mainstream polities" that acqUIres " power" and " effectiveness" by following the very " stream" it should seek to divert? Will it pursue fictitious " mass constituencies" by imitating the very forms of mass manipul3tion, mass media, and mass culture It is committed to oppose? These two directions cannot be reconciled. Our use of "media," mobilizations, and actions must appeal to mind and to spirit, not to conditioned reflexes and shock tactics that leave no room for reason and humanity. In any case, the hoice must be made now, before the ecology movement becomes institutionalized into a mere appendage of the very system whose structure and methods it professes to oppose. It must be made consciously and deciSively-or the century itself, not only the decade, will be lost to us forever. Murray Bookchin leacht's in thl! School of Envir(lnmental Studies at Ramapo College, N/, and is fo under and directo r of th e lTJstltllte for Social Ecology at Cate Faml (c/o Goddard ( ollege, Plafll!ield, VT 05667). HI! is the autho r of lI umerOll5 articles and books on social ecology. Essays which elaborate more freely on vIews only noted in this letler are available from Comment Publishing Proiect (P.O. Box 371 , Hoboken, NJ07030). ~
Page 8 RAIN April 1980 DOMESTIC The Wheel of Fortune (1976), 72 pp., from: The Center for Rural Affairs P.O. Box 405 Walthill, NE 68067 The Wheel of Fortune tells the story of yet another technology's ability to determine the fate of lives and land regardless of the consequences. The center pivotal irrigation system has had a dramatic effect on increased crop production in Nebraska. It has also introduced what could be termed "speculative farming" on a grand scale. Land appreciation and tax. breaks have attracted absentee and multiple/corporate investors faster than The Center for Rural Affairs can document them. The absentee owner in ruraJ America and the foreign investor in the Third World show the same careless waste of land and resources. The pivotal Irrigation system is being used to produce CfOPS on land which the Soil Conservation Service has classified unsuitable for farming because of its high susceptibility to wind cr-osion. Land used in Ihis way will produce crops for a few years, bu t unless allowed to lay fallow the topsoil will blow away. The majority of these farms is controlled by absentee owners. "ExpJoitive short-term use of farm land has led the authors to compare absentee owners in Nebraska to mining in Appalachia. The Wh eel of Fortune is a particularly sensitive and well-researched report. The Center for Rural Affairs puts out The New Land Review, an equal! y well-done and accurate periodical ($.50 donation per copy). - KS Southern Profiles: Appropriate Technology in the Southeast, by Jeff Tiller and Dennis Creech, 1980, $3.00, from: Georgia Institute of Technology Engineering Experiment Station Atlanta, GA 30332 This directory, financed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, is an example of tax money well spent. The listings include organizations, individuals, films and publrcations in such broadly defined a.t. fields as food, energy, waste & water utilization, and health. It describes activities, presents points of view, and even acFORIEGN The Growth ofHunger: A New Politics ofAgriculture, by Rene Dumont and Nicholas Cohen, 1980, 213 pp., $7.95 from: Marion Boyers Inc. 99 Main Street Salem, NH The Growth of Hunger addresses all peoples' right to food. The CIA's position is, "As custodian of the bulk of the world's exportable grains, the U.s. might regain primacy in world affairs." On the international market food is viewed as a commodity. As a result of this attitude tllward food, people go hungry while transnational corporations gain revenues from luxury ('rops. A new politics of agriculturl' would suggest that staple grains be exempted from inflationary market manipulations. Price stabilization has been continually squelched by agri-powers at World Food Confe rences . Dumont and Cohen see appropriate agriculture as the origin of a country's political and social well-being. A self-reliant economy depends not on agribusiness capital but decentralized land reform with government-assisted credit and village-based appropriate technology. As world agriculture currently stands, the broad political and economic changes that would lead toward a new polities of agriculture seem out of reach. However ... "there is a potential for revoJution within the populace of the hungry and oppressed whIch cannot be ignored. " r hl' Gro'tI.>th of Hunger is part of an Ideas in Progress series published by Dumont and Cohen. Authors such as Ivan Illich, Wilham Leiss, Godfrey Boyle, Robert L. Heilbroner and Henry Skolimowski, experts in ecology, health, economics and energy, " rethink the underlying concepts of many of our leading institutions and provide alternatives." - KS cesses fu nding sources. It's an exhaustive resource directory. perhaps the best regional guide I've seen. One criticism-the access mfo for RA IN is over a year old. I wonder if that's true for other listmgs. - cc Southern A.R.C: Appalachian Resource Catalogue, 1979, $4.00 from: Southern A.R.C. Box71-A Warne, NC 28909 ThISis not really the same sort of directory as SO l/ them Profiles although some overlap does occur. Perhaps the funding of each of them has defined their perspective. SO ll them Profile5 has the luxury of independent financing while Southern A.R.C seems to be at least in part dependent on advertising. "The Southern A.R.C is a network to connect you with the prodijcts (italics mine) and services" of the Appalachian region. It's more difficult to utilize as a resource guide than is SOLI them Profiles, but then its intention is broader. The A. R. C is meant "as a directory, guide, or as an enjoyable book to read." Its index retrieves information sometimes lost in the bulk of the book, bUI the bulk or the book is indeed enjoyable. -CC ICS "Agribusiness Targets Latin America," January-February 1978 issue of NACLA-Reports, bi-monthly, $l1/year, from: North American Congress on Latin America 46419th St., Oakland, CA 94612 North American Congress on Latin America has been in touch with the politkal struggles of Latin Americans for eleven years. Agribusiness Ta rgets Latin America offers five articles that describe the changing face of transnational agribusiness. No longer satisfied with cash crops such as tea, bananas, coffee and sugar, U.S. corporations have raken a further plunge into Third World C('onomics. Low cost production (cheap land. labor and materials) has accelerated expansion and investment into non-traditional agri-sectors such as beef and vegetables, as wel! as many manufacturing and processing industries. NACLA describes the power of tra05na
The Small Farm Development Corporation 1006 Surrey Street P.O. Box 2699 Lafayette, LA 70502 318/232-7480 At last a program that provides tools, land and technical trainmg to low income people interested in making farming their livelihood. TiTe Fa mily Farm Coopera tive (FFC) program is modeled after the Israeli "Moshav," a cooperative farming community of individually owned farms. Qualified applicants are paid to receive two years of on-sit~ training in vegetable and livestock farming, small farm management and marketing. At the end of the training period, title to individual parcels of land is transferred to the participants. FFC proVides access to housing, medical care and social services. Family Farm Cooperatives are being planned for Alabama, Florida and Louisiana. Each will eventually consist of 120 families. Four different federal agencies (Commuruty Service Administration, Department of Labour, Economic Development Administration and Farmers Home Administration) are providing funding grants to the Small Farm Development Corporation, a non-profit organization .. v fii z- '0 c:: 0( tional companies over the lives of boais fria5 (landless laborers) and minifudistas (subsistence farmers and day laborers). They document exploitation of field laborers and the inability of corporate agriculture to meet "people's most basic need (or food. " The impact of agribUSiness in the Third World cannot be separated from its effects in so-callt·d deveioprd countries. Transnational corporate ahiltty to manipulate food prices led American consumers w be overcharged by $12-15 billion in 1977 alone, according to the USDA. learly we are fighting the same enemy. NACLA Reports offers an excdlent tool for understanding the dynamics of transnational agribusiness. ~KS Needless Hunger: Voices from a Bangladesh Village, Betsy Hartmann and James Boyce, 1979, $3.00 from: Institute of Food and Development Policy 2588 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94110 " in one stroke land became pritJatc property ." "Land, the ultimate sOllree of wealth and pOUier _. . is beco ming concent rated in fewer and feUicr /ia/lds." " . . . most of the food aid goes to those who can best afford to pay tlte market price , the urban middle cla ss. " "Foreign aid dollars are dir('(tly support· ing Bangladesh's milttary and policc forces. " Sound familiar? Hartmann and Boyce do April1980 RAIN Page 9 which will operate the FFC. Implementation of the program begms summer 1980 With help from the Israel Association for International Agriculture, an organization which 'provides technical assistance on agricultural methods. The FFC is deSigned to break the cycle of rural poverty, unemployment, and migration to urban centers. If successful, the program could serve as a nationwide model for rural renewal. People concerned about the direction of agricultural policy and small farming should keep a watchful eye on the development of this program. -KS The Graham Center Seed Directory, by Cary Fowler, 1979, $1.00 from: Frank Porter Graham Center Route 3, Box 95, Wadesboro, NC 28170 1£ last month' s access from Tilth , " Seeds of the Earth," has you wondering where to turn for viable, traditional seed and plant varieties that are not distributed by subsidiaries of awesome megacorporations, the answer is the Graham Center Seed Directo ry. This beautiful little booklet lists small family-owned nurseries as well as larger but still independent ones which provide. for the most part, orgonic products. There is also a " Seed Saving Chart" in case you have seeds left over from last year, and a thorough analysis of the seed patenting crisis ~'Onfront i n g world agriculture_Important reading and useful access together m one very handy resource. Not bad for $l .00 - CC an excellent job of analYl-ing the social and economic crisis in Bangladesh (from hving there), but beyond describing the problem, their more significant contribution is in generating responses to it. They suggest: " We can work to hail military and economic assistance Ulhlch bolsters Bangladesh's narrow elite at the expense of tlte country's poor majority . . .. We must look beyond tlte symptoms of hunger to Ihe causes.. . . We must ask whether the best way to Itdp the poor is to give arms , money <HId food to the rich." "We can assist the many pepple in Ba ngladesll and throughout the third world who are wurking to mobilize the poor for development and social change. We ca rl offer fill(1 l1cial support to groups workillg in their own comm ll nities ." " We call continue to educate Ollrselves and others about th e Ileedless hrmga of millions of people thrOlig/lOllt the world." -cc
Page 10 RAIN Apnl1980 Agri -Economics cont. Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP) 2606 Westwood Drive Nashville, TN 37204 The Agricultural Marketing Project (AMP) began in 1974 to assist family {arms in Tennessee. Currently it has sister organizations in Alabama, North Carolina and qeorgia. "AMP seeks systematic change in the food production and distribution system to increase farmer and consumer control over the economic furct's that affect their lives. Concepts of decentralization, local self-sufficiency and maintenance of an ecological balance are all important factors an shaping the direction of AMP's efforts." In 1975 AMP initiated Food Fairs, direct farmer to consumer markets. commonly held in church parking lots. Food Fairs soon spread to 29 cities throughout Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina and Ohio. AMP organizers set up the first Food FaIrs in particular (mes. In the fall, farmers incorporated to form Farm Associations for Retail Marketing (FARM) which continues Food Fairs with AMP prOVIding technical assistance only. One of AMP's principal aims is to encourage tbe growth of urban-rural COalitions. Farmers and consumers face many of the same problems, such as higher prices, fuel costs and the expansion of corporate agriculrure. Educational pamphlets which proVide information on nutritional foods. the growth of corporate agriculture, financial conditions of small farmers and the causes of high food pnces arc distributed at Food Fairs. AMP organizes workshops taught by farmers which include such topics as site management, consumer publicity, and alremative technology. Food programs for gradeschoolers which emphasize nutrition and the economics of small farming have been developed by AMP and Manna, a Nashville anti-hunger coalition. AMP feels that communication and reciprocal education between consumers and farmers will lead to dialogue about the political change$ that must take place in the agricultural economy. This integrative approach of working on many different levels, establishing communication between groups, and viewing the problem from various du ections IS an important part of AMP's success. It is very inspiring to find an organization purring the tools and knowledge into people's hands that can help them push for a market economy responsive to their needs. -KS ( LIBRARY "Emerging Patterns of Community Service," edited by Margaret E. Monroe and Kathleen M. Heim, special issue of Library Trends, Fall 1979,$5.00 from: University of Illinois Press Urbana, IL 61801 Libraries have traditionally catered to highly literate users-people with power and status in the community. A survey in the 19605 revealed that many librarians, while recognizing that a real need existed to serve people at the other end of the specm Ull, were psychologically locked into doing what they knew best : developing central reference services and highly specialized subject collections. The essays in this special issue of Library Trends describe how these patterns have gradually broken down to allow for literacy training programs and other services to non-traditional library users. They also reveal a broadening of community involvement in such areas as the development of information fiJes to direct people to thE' programs sponsored by their local citizen groups. Perhaps most interesting : some libra ries are now offenng programs in bibliotherapy ("selfgrowth based on the shared experience and diSCUSSIOn of literature") . These are positive innovations, and we can hope they will flou rish and expand. We can also hope that librarians will learn to describe them to us with a more sparing use of profeSSIOnal Jargon. -IF Guide to Convivial Tools (Library Journal Special Report #13), by Valentina Borremans, preface by Ivan Illich, 1979,112 pp., $5.95 from: R.R. Bowker Company Xerox Publishing Group 1180 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036 Convivial tools are those which give IUlch person t hat uses them Iht' g rell test opportunity to enrich the ell1lironment witlt the frlllts of his vision. - Ivan Illicit "The library-today mor(' than everIS the place where a dissident world view can first take shape and consistency. By proper! y labeling a new kind of perspective and by putting a new kind of matenal on the shelves, a new social reality can be fostered that will be confirmed even by those who impugn its legitimacy." Cataloging hundreds of books, periodials and organizations, this comprehensive international guide is a bibhographic must fo r researchers, librarians, studen ts and others interested in " use-value oriented convivial tools." -MR )Sri,",e .nd T," ..ology Lib,."" (Volume 5 of Subject Directory of Special LIbraries and Infonnation Centers, 5th ed.), edited by Margaret L. Young and Harold C. Young, 360 pp., 1979, $48 from: Gale Research Company Book Tower Detroit, MI 48226 This volume contains descriptions of several thousand libraries with collections in the areas of scienceItechnology, agriculture, energy, environment/conservation, and food science. It is weighted heavily towards government, industry, and university-supported institutions, and is hardly a sure source of information about library holdings of your favorite grassroots non-profit group (it even omits the RAIN library, for heaven's sake I), but it is still likely to point you toward some rich lodes of research data which you didn't know existed. A good book to recommend to your local library. -JF ( THE PAST) By the People: A History of Americans as Volutlteers, Susan J. Ellis and Katherine H. Noyes, 1978, 308 pp., $8.95 (hardcover), $5.75 (paper) plus $1.00 postage and handling from: Energize Book Orders 6507 North 12th Street Philadelphia, PA 19126 From Red Cross worker to frontier vigilante; from community group fundraiser to student activist : Americans have always shown a remarkable propensity for involving themselves in voluntee r causes of all kinds. Authors Susan Ellis and Katherine Noyes, themselves volunteerorganizers, believe the self-reliant spirit evidenced in volunteer action has had a profound effect on American history-while somehow escaping the special foclls of historians. Tiley also note that until the present century, women in America could make their impact fclt Dilly through volunteer action, so in the ab~ence of a comprehensive history of volunteers there has not really been a comprehensive history of women's accomplishments. By tit" People was written to fill these gaps. Ms. Ellis and Ms. Noyes have combed many hundreds of sources to locate the people who have shaped the present through their deJicution to social. political and religiOUS volunteer action, but have tended, until now, to fall between thl' lines of history texts. The result is a book wirh a fresh and frequently inspiring picture of America's past. -)F
rpemilliS~,,~~OOIS / ,/ / Woman and Nature, The Roaring IIlside Her, by Susan Griffin, 1978, $3.95 (paper), from: Harper Colophon Books Harper & Row 10 East 53rd Street New York, NY 10022 Saturday, Feb. 16, 1980 Began Woman and Nature and learned that the book records many voices. That the first of these reflects on the definition of matter. That matter is defined by linear thinking. Among the descriptions of matter is the history of women burned for their wisdom (wicca meaning wise, meaning witch). I think as I read about the talk I will deliver today at an anti-draft rally. "Women," I will say, " are the victims of every war. We arc the spoils of war. " The morning's paper tells of two previously convicted rapists and their horde of photographs of 500 women. That 40 of the women are missing. That five are known to have been tortured, raped , mutilated and murdered. That the mother of one identifies her daughter's tape-recorded voice " screaming and begging for mercy" while she is tortured, raped, and finally murdered. Asleep, I dream of 4.2 million (half the number of witches murdered) draft-age women armed and trained to avenge the mother and her daughter. I am sick all night. Monday, Feb. 18, 1980 "We say there is no end to any act. The rock thrown in the water is followed by waves of water, and these waves of water make waves i C; .... . 01 01 ..c: ... Q .. 6 ~ -1:: 1ii .. •• 01 1::.. ..> -t: .. 01 :1_ ·~e -'" t:'c Q 01 r:>.e ..- Q .!l ~ ·Sc .. 01); -~.. ~ .!l ~ c"'" Q Q '" .... ~ 01 .;::: "Q ~§ ..c: Q .. 01 , .0.. Q ... N"Q :.= c ~ .. in the air, and these waves travel outward infinitriy, settinx particles in motion, leading to other motion and motion lipan motion endlessly . ... We say in every particle every act lives. " Griffin reminds us that they'll cut off the top of the mountain and carve out the ore. They'll sell this to fill their banks. I think of Butte, Montana. I recall my horror at the second largest manmade hole in the world. Saturday, Feb. 23 , 1980 All week 1avoided the book. I was angry and depressed. I worked in the garden . Gradually rwas restored. Today I finished rl'ading it. " We heard of this woman who was out of control. We heard that she was led by herfeeiings. That her emotiolls were violent . .. That certainly her life should not be an example to liS. (The life of the plankton depends on the turbulence of the sea.)" . To describe Griffin's sources, numerous, varied, documented, her years of search/research would be, I think, a misdirection. What she has done is weave together the pieces of history, the con struction of logic, the habits and techniques of dominance. These she telis to illustrate the connection between harnessing a planet and silencing women. Of course the planet has rebcled.. "The equation lor oxygen stays in his mind but he cannot breathe what Ill' IIsed to call air." . .. "Eve ry attempt he makes to order this world decrease s his spact'." . And the women-ROAR. " This above all, we 'lC;VC /l ever denied ollr dreams . ... We do not dellY our voices. We arc disorderly. We have often disturbed the peace. Indeed, we study chaos-it points to theluture. The oldest al1d wisest among liS can read disorder." -CC
Page 12 RA[N April1980 lIn this spread on women non-dominant values. Ti ~~notesoll ecology (e-kol'e-ji) 1. th e bran ch of biology that deals with the relations between living organisms and their environment. 2. in sociology, th(' relatio'nship between the distribution of human groups with reference to material resources, and the consequent social and cultural patterns. . - Webster's New World Dictionary Both feminism and ecology embody the. belief that everything is connected to everything else-that the eco-system, the production system, the politicalleconomic apparatus and the moral and psychological health of a people are all interconnected. Exploitation in any area has repercussions on the whole package. Merging feminism and ecology is not simply a device to unite two currently popular movements, thereby strengthening the numbers of each. It's no coincidence that the two movements share common concerns, common roots, and common visions. Patriarchy's attack on women is so closely associated with its assault on nature that it's difficult to see where one begins and the other leaves off. " Feminist ecologist" may be a new term . But the movement it describes is not. Societies once existed which were ecological, democratic, communal and peaceful, where women held social and political power. Relationships between women and men were non-monogamous, so that the paternity of children was often difficult to establish. Consequently, kinship was matrilineal (traced through the mother) . Property was owned by women and inherited by women . Records of the tribes and their balances and accounts were kept in the temples of the deities-the Divine Ancestresses. [t is likely that the women of these temples invented writing to maintain these records . It is only with the invasion of the Indo-Europeans (beginning about 3000 B.C.) that cultural patterns dating back many centuries are disrupted (the earliest goddess image found has been dated about 25,000 B.C.). The Indo-Europeans replaced the mother deity, the life worshipping religions of the people they conquered, with a male god. To secure patrilineal kinship and inheritance they instituted monogamy. To guarantee paternity, any transgression of the monogamous relationship on the part of the woman (including her being raped) was punishable by her being put to death. pressed, the values denie change. We approached tation . We've reacted to sources. We've cross-pol process a nurturing one. gry, some of it makes us stronger. In her letter to ]emilliS1llOteoology spective: ' '/' m not one fv sexism before folks undo' oppression. I think it le(11 ing behavior modificatiu Donna Warnock There was tremendous opposition to these ideas. They were seen as unnatural. Whole tribes were massacred for their resistance (see the Old Testament). But resistance and reactive slaughter continued into the 18th century in the form of witch burnings. [n the meantime a market economy developed . Political power accompanied economic power. As merchandiSing grew, communal property became private, production expanded, small tribal governments became kingdoms, and communal agricultural societies gave way to feudal ones. The economy became profit-centered, and classes of producers and consumers were created to generate that profit . The contemporary product of all of this is embodied in our global crisis. Non-renewable resources have been all but depleted. In the past quarter century alone global fuel consumption has tripled, oil and gas consumption quintupled, and there's been a seven-fold increase in the use of electricity. Thousands of new polluting chemicals have been put on the market, and deadly radiation from nuclear power production will remain with us for the next 250,000 years. Five million people could be killed from a nuclear reactor accident, and nuclear war could end life on earth. The doomsday predictions are all too real. And who are we told is to blame? "In an overpopulated world, ordinary, 'normal' woman may yet become the sorceress who inundates man with every new creation , who keeps pou ring forth a stream of children for whom there is neither role nor room , whose procreative ins tinct , irre sis tiblr , keeps producing like a machine go ne mad. .. . " And in the end the balance of this globe may yet again have to b(' redressed by the Great Mother herself in her most terribl(' form: as hunger, as pestilence, as the blind orgasm of the atom." - Wolfgang Lederer, M. D. The Fear of Wom en , 1968 Witches, Midwives and Nurses, by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English, 1973,48 pp., $1.95 from: The Feminist Press SUNY/Coliege at Old Westbury Box 334 Old Westbury, NY Authorities estimate that millions of women accused of being witches were killed between the 14th and 17th centuries. "One writer has estimated the number of execution s at an average of 600 a year for certain German cities, or two a day, 'leaving out Sundays.' Nine hundred witches were destroyed in a single year in the Wertzberg area, and 1000 in and around Como. At Toulouse, four hundred were put to death in a day . In the Bishopric of Trier, in 1585, two villages were left with only one female inhabitant each ." Who were these women and why has the gynocidal intent of the witch trials been obscured and erased? Witches were strong, autonomous women. They were not the possessions of men . For this they burned. Many of them were healers, who used their knowledge of herbs and plants to care for the sick and the poor. Historians would like us to believe that the witch hunts were carried out by hysterical peasant mobs purging their villages of eccentric, isolated old women. The opposite is true. " The witch hunts were well-organized campaigns, initiated, financed and executed by the Church and State." What were the crimes of these women? "The Church associated women with sex,
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