Building Community

What’s in store for 2012?

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I am not by nature a squirrel. I don’t get a big feeling for hoarding or collecting stuff (though I do, like many coastline dwellers, have a habit of pocketing stones and quirky things from the beach). And yet this is the time when it is smart to be thinking ahead and stocking up with summer’s abundance. Some wise Transitioners have been at this for months: plaiting onions, bottling raspberries, cooking up vats of green tomato chutney and damson jam, drying rosehips and borlotti beans. Along their hallways and windowsills sit pumpkins of various colours and sizes, seeds carefully collected in a drawer, dried herbs and chillies swinging from the ceiling.

Citywatch: Occupy movement identifies food movement common inspiration and options

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Move over, Bill Shakespeare. The whole world is no longer just a stage, and we merely players with our entrances and exits. Today’s world is otherwise occupied, as people in over 1000 centers around the globe play their role, take their entrances and exits around platforms, portals and places— the Three P’s of 21st century movement politics—as in Occupy Wall Street. The city-based food movement is based on many similar principles, so city officials and food advocates should take a close look and wave their jazz fingers when they see an idea that can be adapted.

Different journeys in the same direction

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Sue doesn’t believe in what she calls the “myth” of climate change. And she’s not interested in the peak oil conversation. She follows a couple of conservative talk show hosts and does what she does because of what they’ve forecast for our economy. The outward signs of my life read much the same as hers, but my motivation comes from concern about environmental degradation, energy scarcity, and the economic implications of both. I’m progressive and listen to public radio. Yet Sue and I can work side-by-side because we’ve taken the time to listen to each other, to learn about and understand our different perspectives. We’ve chosen not to argue the details, but to welcome each other to the work that aligns to address our shared concerns.

Bringing #OWS home for the holidays

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Though they’ve played an especially mendacious role in our predicament, it’s not just the big banks that have created our manifold problems. We all play a role every time we spend our hard earned money. Each one of us feeds the hyper-consumption beast by shopping at big box stores and malls, by using disposable cups and straws, and by confusing petty indulgences for necessities.

How libraries are doing more with less

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Do more with less. It’s a popular refrain these days, and one that libraries are all too familiar with. Re-tooling the ways that they share information and resources while simultaneously juggling financial issues, the challenges before libraries are significant. But with the support of their communities, libraries are moving into the future.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s foreword to ‘The Transition Companion’

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Spreading outwards from its inception in the towns of Kinsale and Totnes, Transition has become a remarkable network with global reach. There are now practical projects under way on the ground all over the UK, and beyond. They demonstrate beyond doubt that the strengthening and diversification of local economies, underpinned by a commitment not to squander the Earth’s finite resources, is a highly effective strategy for the uncertain times we live in. They help take the fear out of the future, while offering people a renewed sense of belonging; of shared experience and goals; of a life that makes sense again.

Occupy to self manage

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As they first formed, the assemblies were invigorating and uplifting. We were creating a new community, I was told. We were making new friends. We were hearing from new people. We were enjoying an environment where dissent was the norm. But as days passed, and then weeks, it got too familiar. And it wasn’t obvious to folks what more they could do.

To grow, the occupations need to very explicitly conceive themselves in ways that address immediate needs, are aimed at viable and worthy long term goals, and develop modes of participation that cause normal folks, enduring normal harsh conditions, to feel that giving their time makes good sense because it can eventually lead to a new social system with vastly better outcomes than those presently endured. Occupations that began in response to economic insanity need, as well, to broaden and adopt a more encompassing focus taking into account not only the economy, but also, and equally, matters of race, gender, age, ability, ecology, and war and peace.