Page 12 RAIN What Can We Do? by William Valentine and Frances Moore Lappe~ May 1980, $2.45 plus $.10 postage, from:- Institute for Food and Development Studies 2588 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94110 Often at RAIN we talk about doing ~n issue of our favorite books. In the category of non-fiction, What Can We Do? would be my choice this year. The book is almost as re-energizing as a good conference, and for many of the same reasons. The bulk of the book consists of interviews with organizers in food- and hunger-related projects. They are asked to describe their work, but more importantly, their motivations and the ways they balance themselves to avoid burning out. It's this sense of the personal, this getting to know these people, that gives the book such strength. The fact of their effectiveness in each of their realms is inspirational as well. One example from the book is below. There are many more plus_ nearly a hundred other groups listed at the end of the book. After the sober analysis of the imbalance in our world's economy and the consequent poverty and starvation described in other I.F.D.P. studies, it is good to be able to be buoyed by one. This book reminds us that we're in good company. -CC The financial holdings of churches, universities, foundations and pension funds, among others, comprise a significant segment of the investment funds that fuel the world's economy. Usually tightly controlled by a small sector of the financial community, these funds are invested in areas of the economy where they can yield the highest return. Traditionally a field devoid of political concerns, institutional investors are being forced to consider the political implications of their investments. One particular area of concern has been the role of U.S.- based financial investments in supporting apartheid in South Africa. Under pressure from activists, institutions (particularly churches and universities) have been forced to withdraw their investments in companies doing business in South Africa. But a nagging question remains: where can those investments be channeled so they don't support oppressive structures? The Institute for Community Economics has developed a fund to channel money into socially rewarding and financially viable investments. ICE has created three different funds with varying degrees of risk, to which they hope to attract institutional investors. Money will be channeled into companies or organizations that emphasize democratic participation of the workers and/ or community and the production of socially and ecologically sound products (alternative energy and appropriate technology are given high priority). Examples of the types of investments which ICE has been investigating and which meet both social criteria and financial feasibility include: • A company producing a pyrolitic converter for transforming wood waste into energy at a cost of less than 50 percent of the present price of gas, oil or coal. • A company producing a new type of small scale tractor which can do the effective work of standard tractors two to three times its size and cost. • Secure investments in community controlled land trusts which lease land for farming and housing. ] l Our work is to build a c investment fund that w reasonable return AND community developmE How did you get statted in this work? I had a front row on the '60s. As a high school student in Berkeley, California, I m_atriculated with the Free Speech Movement and graduated with the People's Park occupation. I was studying international relations and Latin American literature at San Francisco • ·1 State during the upheaval there in 1968-69. I was very deeply in- •valved. I helped do television tapings on a lot of the issues and de- I bated to bring them in focus for people. ·1 But what affected me more than anything was the year I spent living with a Nicaraguan family in the Mission District of San Francisco. Through them it seemed as if I had met most of the other 30,000 Nicaraguans living in San Francisco at that time. I was struck by the particular history of Nicaragua, its relationship to the United States, and the control of the country by the United Fruit Company. Some years later and after considerable study abroad, I worked for VITA (Volunteers in Technical Assistance). I was asDrawings by Brad Klaus
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