Gaia Grove Eco-Camp and Learning Center in Florida

Gaia Grove Eco-Camp and Learning Center

About

Permaculture, Sustainable Building & Farming, 

Co-Creation, Community Development & Support. 

Health & Wellness.

Offering products soon, including honey. 

Coming soon, a support and education network, 

and an eco-product buying club 

for sustainable and healthy living.

Mission

To learn through hands-on experiential methods 

and share information with each other 

on how to live more sustainably.

We are interested in growing & gathering 

as much food as we can, 

and building low cost, energy efficent, 

healthy homes such as our portable & recycled 

'Gaia View Portable Eco-Home' and off-grid natural homes 

such as cob, earthbag, cordwood, yurts, tree houses, 

shipping container homes and more. We are 

also interested in setting up cottage industries 

on the land to help sustain us.

Description

We are located on 91.9 Acres 

on the upper Santa Fe River in Bradford County, 

12 miles north of Gainesville, Florida, 

home of University of Florida.

We are inviting people to take a tour 

and participate in one or many

of our hands-on eco-living workshops. 

We have very low cost camp sites 

and natural home building sites for one or many nights.

Groups can also 

rent the facilities for their own events. 

We also have two Guest Houses, 

one 2 bedroom/2 bath furnished home 

on the Gaia Grove property 

and another 6/3 Home nearby with cozy fireplace, 

large kitchen, nicely,fully furnished bedroom, 

and handicap accessibility for short 

or long term stays as an alternative to camping.

We will be offering language immersion classes 

in English to speakers of other languages 

as well as in Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese. 

We are now setting up language and 

permaculture learning programs 

at our affiiliated centers in Ecuador, Brazil and Taiwan.

We are just beginning the Gaia Global Institute 

where we will offer classes in workshops 

on such things as: 

Global Localization, 

Peace and Conflict Resolution, 

Fair Trade vs Free Trade, 

Global Environmental Issues, 

Community and Economic Development 

as well as Foreign Language and Permaculture Design.

For more info, please check the website: 

http://gaiagrove.webs.com/

ARC 38 in Wassaic NY

Arc38 is a living experiment in authentic culture, 

situated on 188 acres of wetland and forest in Wassaic, NY. 

We strive to actualize human potential, 

by creating an incubator 

for the best ideas ready to take form, right now.

MISSION STATEMENT

Arc 38 is a community of people who strive to facilitate, educate 

and uplift the populus by means of sustainable permaculture, 

spiritual diversity and values of unifying inclusivity.

The Goals of Arc 38

The Goal of the Arc 38 Core Group is simplistic in it’s complexity 

and is vastly encompassing of many ideals. 

One of our most high goals is to ease and assist 

in the unification of diverse social cultures. 

We conclude that 

our main goals must emulate missions 

which are inclusive of all people 

while still being definitive enough 

to provide a general direction. 

This direction will be developed through and for projects 

which may assist in the lasting creation 

of such a diverse atmosphere, 

prioritizing the needs of the whole 

over the wants of individuals, 

thus the following will outline 

what the projects at Arc 38 are representative of.

We seek to create an abundant and sustainable world 

by becoming the proper example and epitomization 

of what that may mean. 

By using diverse methods of permaculture, 

we are able to encourage 

a more conscious use of our resources. 

We serve to promote the preservation and facilitation 

of life giving, tangible resources such as potable water, 

clean air, abundance of nutritious foods, 

renewable energies and more. 

We collectively share the belief that 

resources such as these 

are that which is too precious to take for granted, 

that all should have access to those resources 

which provide life.

The land upon which Arc 38 is situated 

is home to natural marsh and wooded environments 

with diverse species of microbial, insect, plant and animal life. 

Stewardship of these lands is very important to us, 

protecting and caring for these natural wonders are of top priority. 

Biodiversity may flourish through intelligent forestry management, 

taking great care not to choke the ever flowing 

forces of nature yet instead to work in harmony.

It is only through the pursuit of these ends 

that we gain the ability and time to practice 

a more positive atmosphere of equality, acceptance, 

and coexistence for all people. 

By removing the fear and grip of scarcity 

we are more capable of providing a peaceful existence, 

a non-discriminative sanctuary where people of diverse social, 

economic and spiritual cultures may congregate without fear of judgement. 

We look forward to the evolution of human consciousness as a whole 

and strive to become a great cultural center.

Monetary sustainability will ensure our survival and success 

in the current outer paradigm, giving us the opportunity to 

improve our services and provide better outreach. 

Through the main goals of Arc 38 a myriad of services 

may generate monetary funding that may both be used to uplift Arc 38,

it's individual projects and those in the pursuit of similar goals. 

We also hope to help bring economic flow for the local community 

outside of our miniature community, 

doing our best to live in harmony with all around us.

Lastly, by inviting the public to become apprentices 

and stewards of our projects we hope to provide the ability 

for people to learn with hands on experience. 

Educating people on how they may implement similar projects, 

anywhere in the world, is what will truly create 

the change in the world that we wish to see. 

For though we may all be individuals who are responsible for ourselves 

there is no limit to what we can accomplish by uplifting one another. 

Together we will change the world.

For more info, check the website at http://arc38.org/

Meet Burnpile Press; a DIY publishing project 

in Northeast Florida

by Siddie Friar

I'd like to introduce you to Burnpile Press; an independent publishing project dedicated to producing and distributing progressive literature for free. Located in Jacksonville Florida and founded in 2012 Burnpile has a strong DIY ethic. Our battle cry is 'Do it yourself. Do it together. Do it now.' We believe that education is a basic human right. That no one should be denied access to educational materials or opportunities because of an inability to 'pay for it.' 

On a micro-level we work to meet the need for open access to alternatives to the mainstream for under-served populations of our city. While also filling the general void left by the mainstream media for communities with access to more resources. We do this by producing and publishing our own literature with our off-set printing press. As well as distributing the works of other groups with progressive, radical, or anti-authoritarian politics.

Burnpile Press is a worker owned cooperative 

entirely run by volunteers and funded by contributions of time, materials and money 

from our community. 

One example of this is in the summer of 2013 

we were loaned funds by one of our allies, 

Grateful Fred of New World Rising, 

to purchase a house. 

This space is becoming the operational hub for Burnpile Press. 

One third of the house is dedicated to production, there will also be dorm rooms for volunteer staff, an outdoor kitchen and shower, renewable energy systems, a variety of edible landscaping and aquaculture installments around the entire property. 

We salvage as much material as we can and live simple lives. While our volunteers are supported by the projects none of us get paid. We are here because we want social change and recognize that it starts at home. It starts with each one of us and the relationships we keep with each other. We are young with a stubborn optimism of what's possible if we work together toward a shared horizon goal. We hope to spark inspiration in our peer group and beyond to take action. 

This is a reveille. Life is short, it's time to step up to the plate; do it yourself, do it together, do it now. Visit our website for more information, we look forward to connecting;

• Email: Burnpile@riseup.net
• Web: http://burnpilepress.org
• Twitter: @Burnpile_Press
• Facebook: Burnpile Books and Press

The STAND Center in Belize by Andrea Ackerman

EARN A 1 ACRE FARM IN THE MAYA MOUNTAINS!

@

The STAND CENTER

Sustainable Tropical Agriculture & Natural Development

Center for Experiential Learning

Belize, Central America

learn.live.grow.give.

We are a family, a community, 

a not for profit organization 

and a permaculture farm.

We are the seeds of tomorrow, 

pushing our courageous 

cotyledons up out of the dank fertile rotting mess 

society has left us as our inheritance. 

When life hands you a sack of shit, 

grow some tomatoes! 

We are you...your voice, your soul song, 

singing its melodious sonnet of love 

for this intricate economy of ecology. 

We are your hands, digging deeply...gently...

into our Mother earth to extract her good gifts 

without raping her essence. 

We are your heart, pulsating

wild love for our wondrous world, 

caressing her and mending her 

in all the ways we know. 

We are your mind, seeking ancient wisdom to cultivate, 

wild seeds of hope finding refuge from the 

ever encroaching concrete jungle!

Do you hunger for these things? 

Do they feel like shimmering shadows of

something you long for but have forgotten where to find? 

Do you find societies narcissistic demands for your time and attention 

draining your vitality 

and leaving your aching bones

 too dry to follow that gypsy song 

into the forest garden you know.you belong in? 

Does freedom feel like a mirage, always at the tips of your

fingers, yet never touched?

Here is your chance...

you need nothing more than resolve, courage, faith, and trust. 

NOW IS YOUR TIME TO BREAK FREE! We left the confining comforts of

economic slavery a decade ago....knowing in our hearts our kindred would

follow...and yet, our hearts grieve to see our sisters and brothers too

institutionalized to step out of the open door into their birthright.

 As we raise our own children 

feeding themselves in the rainforest, we call to them. 

They are too attached to the same familiar luxuries 

that have ripped our culture 

and soul life down to a bleeding skeleton....

without a petroleum based reality, 

without Walmarts and Starbucks and and free WiFi...

without these fancy health food stores that fill their packages 

with cleaner yet still highly processed, mass farmed

foods devoid of living essence that can only come from 

eating our food minutes off the branch.....

without these sparkly lures, a real life, connected to one another

and to the dirt and the water and the sunshine that sustains us.....

just feels like too much of a sacrifice. 

But I call out to my true TRIBE... those rainbow warriors

and wild humans who gather together to celebrate life 

for a brief magical moment...

those souls who at the end of the gatherings, 

wonder WHY we all choose to leave our forest home so quickly.... 

It was these feelings that inspired us, more than a decade ago, 

to find a home for this lost tribe I had finally rediscovered.... 

And we have! So.... I call out to you 

in a song many of you already know.....

I hear the voice of my Grandmother calling me

I hear the voice of my Grandmother calling me

Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

Listen...listen, Listen...listen....

May the rivers all run clear, 

May the mountains go unspoiled!

May the air be pure, 

may the trees grow tall, 

may the earth be shared by all....

So, If you know you have what it takes to turn raw land 

into a garden and to feed yourself...here is our challenge!

EARN A 1 acre ETHO-FARM! 

All you have to do is BUILD A HOUSE, 

PLANT A GARDEN, and share and 

connect with our community!

It really is that simple! 

If you have what it takes to cultivate raw land into

something that can provide for you ...and YOU CAN HAVE IT!

We will share our own knowledge with you as you hone your own skills. 

To find out more, visit our Community\Organization web page. 

(www.stand-center.com)

Click on ETHO-Farm challenge!

Community begins with You!

The What's Hip Docufilm Project by Marcus Severns

The What's Hip Docufilm Project

by Marcus Severns

When I was in high school, I felt the desire to see the world. 

As a senior, I was living on my own and desired to drop out 

and pursue this goal. 

Yet I stayed to get a diploma, since American society places formal education in high revere. 

After my first year of college, in 2010, I dropped out to travel the country.

The temptation to experience life was overwhelming, 

I had to see and learn things which could never be taught by TV, movies, or school. 

I gave nearly everything I owned to charity. The only stuff I kept was art, books, and my vehicle. 

With the idea of freedom and not much else, I hit the road. 

While on the road, living in my car and in the woods, 

I learned there isn't much a person needs to sustain themselves; 

and as for companions,

everyone I met became as family.

After living at two organic farms, my film maker friend Mateusz Gugalka contacted me 

to ask if I wanted to make a documentary about “hippies”, 

since he was interested in how I lived.

In the summer of 2014, we began filming the documentary “What's Hip”. 

Our agenda was to go to festivals, interview historians, and go to intentional communities.

Due to several unfortunate events, “What's Hip” was put on hold.

 Mateusz and I have temporarily split ways until we can generate enough money for travel. 

However, we plan to reunite in 2015. Our goal remains the same:

Show how the hippie movement has progressed from the 60's to today. 

With a focus on intentional communities

and living off the land.

So, from dropping out, I traveled the country, volunteered, and set my life towards the betterment of Earth. 

Unknowing of what to do or where to go, I simply went. 

I've heard from numerous people who want to to do as I've done. 

Only, they believe money is an issue. It's not; anyone can find a community

 by word of mouth, through directories such as the website ic.org, Wikipedia, or even random browser searches.

As for travel itself, a person just needs courage. 

There are so many options to living alternatively, 

and the populations of these cultures are growing.

 If you've heard of an alternative lifestyle which you want to live, 

but don't know how to start, you can learn from someone who has done what you'd like to do. 

Or, you can do as I've done – quit everything you're doing, and just go.

"We Can All Make A Difference With A Little Change" by Amanda Walton

 “We Can All Make a Difference With A Little Change” by Amanda Walton

We can all be a part of the process of Change. We don’t have to force change; we can let our world change on its own, But when we make our own small changes, with positive intentions, it makes the kind of change that matters the most. These are some of the steps you can take, to make small changes that contribute to big changes for the world.

Step 1 – Know What You Stand For: Be willing to struggle for the things you stand for, but first, know what it is that you stand and struggle for. Every life lived consciously has a huge impact.

Step 2 – Get Others to Join Your Cause: Getting others to join you is fairly easy. Just tell others about the things you’re passionate about. When you’re passionate about something, people are going to take notice, and this inspires them to plug in with the movement too.

Step 3 – Be Open to Making Change within Your Plan:

If you’re working to make changes happen, remember to be flexible. Stay on course, but go with the flow. Plans don’t always work out as planned, but being flexible makes room for synchronicity and the flow of small miracles.

I’m part of change in our world. I want people to see and hear the truth, and to know they can do something about the injustices around them. To create a big potential impact, I’m making these changes at home first. I teach my children about the important things in life. I teach them how to treat each other and the world around us. I know that I’m making an impact when I hear my children talking to their friends about the changes that they too can make. Just remember that you have the power to start making change today, and you can make those changes all on your own.

Amanda Walton is a busy stay home mom to four, writer, and blogger. 

She writes about the things in life that matter the most to her at Simply Shawn N Jenn. 

Activism for Affordable Housing

Activism for Affordable Housing

It’s been three years since the big Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City’s Zuccotti Park, the protest movement that began in response to rampant social and economic inequality.  While it appears that the protesting aspect of the Occupy movement is dormant, the fact is, the movement is alive and well.  Why?  Because the same rampant conditions that compelled the movement continue, and are even worse. Income gaps continue to widen, people continue to lose their homes, and the robber barons continue to raid every aspect of the country on all levels. Moreover, while these things continue to worsen, our so-called leaders continue to cut social programs, which were designed to relieve poverty and to provide security nets.  

Even though social justice activism is not currently centralized in the Occupy Movement, the spirit of it is dispersed far and wide, seeding new programs everywhere. This is because, after the protesting, comes the real work: that of building a better new world, a sustainable world based on equality and justice of all kinds, for all people everywhere

. 

One exciting issue that the Occupy Movement focused on, and that the New World Rising cares a lot about, is Alternative Housing, Affordable Housing, and Fighting Gentrification.

What can social justice activists do to advocate for affordable and alternative housing, in this terrible time of economic collapse and housing market nightmares?  We can commit ourselves to direct action, by actually building shelter and by cooperatively acquiring properties to rehab and sell at low cost, for example. 

We can organize marches and encampments to rebel against gentrification.  We can fight alongside and on behalf of socioeconomic victims, in areas where housing will be torn down for corporate developments.  We can bring people together to participate in trainings on legal home ownership defense and nonviolent direct action, and then participate in coordinated actions, which will hopefully grow and strengthen the movement.  

Most importantly for the focus of the New World Rising, we can work together 

to acquire and build affordable and alternative housing, to be occupied by fellow activists.  

We are not powerless.  Together, we can do this.

The federal government has proven that it’s unwilling and unable to address the economic and housing crises.  And while the Occupy Movement did have difficulty translating into a widespread political movement, the fact remains that we still have power to make effective change on the grassroots, local and community levels.  If you care about affordable housing and alternative housing, whether for the homeless, for activists, or for anyone else, then it’s important to get busy and organize a grassroots community group to deal with the city, county, corporate and other forces that try to oppose fair housing.  That seems to be the best and possibly only way to demand that things like sustainability and affordability play a vital role in housing plans. When opposition and protest do not work, we turn to actively building viable alternatives together.

All of the elements that led to the Occupy 

movement’s birth are still in place, and are in fact worse.  The rich are richer, the corrupt live without fear of going to jail, and everyone knows the government is not coming to save us.

Social Justice Activism is the individual or collective effort to address injustice and to promote justice, by direct or indirect means, including writing letters and signing petitions, campaigning for politicians who stand for justice and equality, commitment to boycotts or to such things as only buying local, going to street marches, going on strike, and things of that nature, performed with all due respect. We make it known that the situation is unacceptable.  My favorite and most accessible form of activism is online networking,

 using social media to facilitate your participation in the conversations, 

and to organize collective actions.

The New World Rising is aligned with the cooperative movement style of activism.  In this way of activism, people work collectively to build alternatives to what is not working, going so far as to build new institutions and entities that are in accord with cooperative principles.  The intentional communities movement would be a good example of this.  Intentional communities help to reinhabit the suburgatory of America and rewild it with life ways closer to those of our grandparents, living with and loving your neighbors, more like family than strangers. Activists in cooperative mode don’t seek to lobby politically or to protest, they simply combine powers and resources in order to accomplish great things that actually address the needs of the common people, the common wealth, and the common good.

  

We’ve touched on the Occupy Movement as an ongoing event that drew in many people to protest widespread economic and political horrors, but failed to translate into a huge widespread movement with the power to actually transform society.  However, we sure tried it for quite a good long time, planting memes and seeds for future change and growth.  We touched on the fact that all of those seeds dispersed far and wide, as activists went home and reinvigorated the sociopolitical climate wherever they lived.  Now I will round this out by touching on the right to housing, which is why social justice activists fight for affordable housing in the first place.’

The right to housing is the basic socio-eco-cultural right to adequate housing and shelter.  This most basic human right is endowed to all humans, and is recognized in most national constitutions, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  In Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is stated that humans have a right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living.  It states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”  According to international human rights law, in the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, the right to housing is regarded as a freestanding right.

So what’s wrong with this picture???  What’s wrong is that this is theoretically 

one of the richest countries in the world, yet millions of people of all ages are homeless! 

And the vast majority of them are homeless due to circumstances beyond their control. 

They're completely deprived of their basic human rights,

 and very few people do anything about it.

Sure, we can be creative and talk about earth bag houses, boat houses, tree houses, and all kinds of cool stuff. But for now, consider that these things are not even in the realm of possibility for the vast majority of people. They can’t even find a bathroom sometimes, so how are they to find a way to create a humble little home like that, 

as their basic human rights say they can and should have?

That’s where social justice activists come in. 

Habitat for Humanity does some mainstream things, and they have their pros and cons. However, there are many innovative people out there,

actually inventing housing solutions of all kinds, both permanent and mobile.  

They are putting their money where their mouths are, 

they are walking their talk, and they are a gift to the world. 

 And if more people lived like them, we would have a lot less homeless people. 

We must work individually and collectively to promote solutions, 

economically, politically and culturally, 

at the grassroots, local, and countrywide levels.  

We need a return to diversity, extended families, sustainability, 

innovation, clean energies, and so on.  

We need gardens on every rooftop, so every family can feed itself.  

We need rain catchment barrels with filters at every home.  

And most importantly, we need a nice humble home of some kind or another 

for every single person and family who wants one.  

There is no excuse for it to not be that way. 

The reason is greed and power in the wrong hands. 

We have a long road ahead, but if we take it together, 

one step at a time, 

we make real change in lives, in history and in the world.

Radical Zines Give a Voice to Activists

Radical Zines Give A Voice to Activists

A ‘zine (pronounced “zeen”, like bean) is a self published magazine, pamphlet or booklet, which is distributed through an intricate network of people, outlets like college campuses, and collectives. 

Zines give a voice to people who don’t usually have a platform in mainstream media, such as activists for social justice and revolution. They give us an outlet to express our opinions, visions, ideals, and creativity, without censorship and with total freedom. With zines, anything goes, because you are making it yourself, in collaboration with other activists. The motive is passion, not profit, and so zinesters, the people who make zines, tend to value authentic voices that rant and sing, rage and awaken.

Most zines are just simple 8 by 11 sheets of photocopied paper, stapled together, full on both sides with words and graphics. Fancier ones might be in the form of a quarter or half sheet booklet that’s laser printed, photocopied, letter-press printed, or silk screened, and bound together by stapling, sewing, gluing, or simply folding the pages together. Zines are typically distributed through the informal networks of friends, collectives, bookstores, record stores, music venues, the mail system, and hand to hand, for the purposes of our self expression, our group expression, and the documentation of our movement.

Since their beginning, at the invention of the printing press, zines have given protestors, activists and marginalized people an opportunity to have their own opinions published in leaflet and pamphlet form. And since their inception, zines have been linked with underground movements and insurrections. Zinesters, from Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, to those in circulation now, have always emphasized the passion of the issues rather than any profit driven motives. True self expression and genuine communication of issues are always at the center of our creative efforts. But let’s be clear, all zines are equally good, whether they make sense or not, whether they have mainstream success or not, whether they are made of materials that last or not, because they are a means of putting people’s voices out there. For the activists of our network, our voices are chiming in for peace and justice through any means possible. We also toot our own horns about our activists and our projects in development.

The history of zines is surprisingly long and very colorful. A wide spectrum of people and groups, from anarchists and punks to communitarians and Rainbows, from people of color and  radical lesbians to prison inmates and student activists, have used zines to express themselves creatively and to convey their ideas and issues passionately, with the colorful freedom that is only found in grassroots production. Zines are an empowering and interesting art form. The New World Rising has been producing and distributing a zine of its own since the eighties, and we’re preparing the 2014 edition right now.

Making zines is an enjoyable activity that anyone can do. If you do it with others, it’s an opportunity to develop friendships, build alliances, grow your network, be creative, and have a kind of fun that results in something you know will be distributed far and wide, and used to awaken and empower people. Activists like us tend to advocate for things like social justice, sexual liberation, musical enjoyment, and other things that make life good. But you can express or advocate anything you want, anything important to you, We encourage you to get involved in zine production with us, make zines of your own, and make mini zines, in addition to our big annual edition.

Zine production is part of DIY culture, (do it yourself culture), where we empower ourselves by taking the media back into our own hands. It was so cool when I was in college, because most everyone I knew would make zines by hand, by cutting out words and pictures from magazines and newspapers, gluing it to a page, adding in their own drawings and poems, then zeroxing it on both sides in black and white, stapling it together, and selling it for $1 a copy.

It was a whole subculture that was very cool, very intelligent, and very creative. We need a huge renaissance of that kind of thing!

Each zine in existence has its own unique flair, which makes zine collections quite fascinating to study. I can spend hours in anarchist coffee shops and bookstores, just getting lost in all the rants and philosophies, poems and art, quotes and ramblings. Activists, like many other people who are different from the mainstream, take it as a given that we have to use alternative forms of media to get our voices heard. We create our own newspapers, we make journals, we write books. Self publishing now takes back the power from the agents and publishing houses, and puts it squarely into our own hands, so we should take advantage of that.

It’s true that you could drown in a sea of zines out there, but so what. Your voice just adds more music to the literary symphony, and someone out there will just love what you do. It will likely be enjoyed by somebody who will then have a conscious conversation about it, which will then ripple out in ways you will never even know about. But you can know it’s true, because the history of zine production has proven that it is.

When activists engage in zine production, we are free of the constraints of censorship and publication standards. We can do it any freaking way we want to! Any style, any content, any anything! I find that liberating and empowering. There is a whole huge community of zine makers, too, if you ever wish to plug in to a great subculture. There are also graphic novels, comic books, pamphlets by groups like crimethinc (which I adore), and more. There is no shortage of inspiring and creative literature to explore. And I like to explore it randomly, not looking for any particular thing, but just being totally surprised and following wherever that goes.

We are now distributing 10,000 copies of the 2014 issue of the New World Rising magazine, from coast to coast, hand to hand and heart to heart, in college towns, coffee shops, laundromats, anywhere people want something good like this to read and be inspired by.. 

On this blog here, and in the upcoming online NWR e-zine, we're giving voice to our social justice activism, in the areas of community building, project promotion, socioeconomics in our income generation and funding of projects, decriminalization of cannabis, promotion of the music scenes, and more. We also plan to throw in great artwork, poetry, quotes and whatever else comes to mind. 

Won’t you join with us and submit something too? Or think of a mini zine you’d like to make, and get it out there!

Creating Conscious Alternatives to Corporate Capitalism

Creating Conscious Alternatives to Corporate Capitalism

  

Many activists feel acutely aware that Corporate Capitalism has ruined everything. So where do we go from here, as activists for socioeconomic justice, focused on Building a New World Now, 

a world that is just and sustainable for all?

First, we need to find a balance between our hopes for a better world, and the realities that we must deal with. There's no way that militant opposition to Corporate Capitalism will just smash it to pieces, as so many of us would love to see. Unrealistic expectations among even the most idealistic activists will lead to burnout and despair. And it often has. Who hasn’t heard of old hippie “sell outs”, who once embraced revolution, but who are now are part of the problems rather than the solutions?

A good place to start is solidarity with other activists, no matter what kind of economy they believe in. Because you see, revolution is a very long term proposal that requires hard work for many, many years. It’s better to think of it as evolution—socioeconomic (r)evolution. No matter how pessimistic our thoughts may be about the current economic models, we are wise to maintain optimism in our spirits and in our will for direct actions. We need to support anyone who fights for true social justice, who struggles against economic injustice. Even if we disagree with their favorite issues, 

or their methods, experiments, politics or goals.

This is what solidarity is about. It’s about going beyond our seeming divisions, such as capitalism versus anarchism, or evolvement versus dismantlement. We should be asking critical questions with each other and brainstorming about possible solutions, rather than criticizing and lamenting, or following common party lines, or regurgitating the slogans of long dead activists. We should balance lessons learned from the past with our own common sense and our progressive visions of a better world.

So what kind of questions should we ask, as activists searching for conscious alternatives to capitalism? I think we should ask what kind of economies we really want—do we want an economy based on our true values, or on the seemingly heartless greed of corporations? Do we want to reward people for their contributions and sacrifices, or for their productivity and efficiency? Do we want to encourage individual preferences for mass, conspicuous consumption, or do we want to foster the common good of parks, libraries, mass transit, pollution reduction, and the like? Or a balance of both? Do we want our economic decisions to be based on competition and consumption, or on cooperation and collectivity? And so on.

What do we value? What do we want our economies to achieve? We can’t be taken seriously as activists by simply saying “Capitalism Sucks”. We have to have well thought out alternatives to propose and collectively build, and they have to be alternatives that average people can relate to and feel great about. The best ways to find the answers are by collaborative debates with one another. We have to discover the values and principles we want to live and die for. And we have to be able to express it in everyday language.

So is there any good alternative to Corporate Capitalism? Good question. Yes there is, actually. But it’s not a simple answer. There are MANY alternatives. And not all of them are desirable. We can consider Conscious Capitalism, Resource Based Economies, Marxism, Anarchism, and many more.

Let’s consider what we are wanting an alternative TO. Many of us do not like or want an economy based on competition, conspicuous consumption, exploitation, imperialism, environmental destruction, and hierarchies of power. That kind of capitalism is inherently unjust, and so any activist worth their salt is not going to be attracted to that.

We know that many activists hope for collectives, co-ops, and worker run entities based on broad principles of true democracy. We know many wish that the current economy could be completely dismantled and replaced quickly, but I feel like that might be naïve.

Do you know what a market economy is? Do you know what the basic institutional features and dynamics of capitalism are? Do you know how the alternatives you hope for are different from what we have now, or how it might be more or less fair, or how it might still deliver the goods that hundreds of millions of people depend on? I do not, nor do I claim to.

If we do not know or understand these answers, then how are we to avoid replicating the same kind of structures that we have now, and ending up just doing it in a cooler way?

Activists have different allegiances to different economic models. There is the libertarian Marxist way, the anarchist way, the participatory economic way, and so on. Who is to say which one might be better than another? What is most important is to consider the relevance of what you propose to the people who are suffering the economic injustices that you care about. In my field, we call this Applied Anthropology. It’s direct action based on the wishes of the people you serve. How do the alternatives we wish to explore affect the people involved all the way down the line? How do they affect the content of the zines and articles and speeches we produce, and the content of our dialogues and debates? What direction do THEY hope for us to take, if we fight on their behalf? How can we be sure to propose and implement alternatives that have deep understanding of the class and structural problems we’re addressing? And do those people actually favor the models we propose?

I took a class at a Seventh Day Adventist Church to learn about overcoming poverty. Each student had a wealthy mentor, who volunteered because they wanted to understand the realities of homelessness and systemic poverty. This was a long term project, two years. These mentors were not progressive activists. They were privileged upper class people with hearts of love and compassion for the suffering. And they learned a lot, as did we. What are WE doing to learn about the people whose lives we wish to change? This is a good example of seeking relevance.

Remember, no matter what alternative economic model you embrace as an activist, remember to deeply consider the values and principles on which you are basing your assumptions and conclusions. Remember to be humble, to be open and to not be attached to how you think about things. Remember to be welcoming, to foster solidarity with the people you serve, as well as with fellow activists of any stripe. This will give you the power to have real impact in real lives and situations. Remember that the alternatives we create and support must embody the values we claim to hold, and they must actually empower the people we whose lives we hope to improve. So discover what those values are, before you latch onto any one particular model for change.

Revolution does NOT happen overnight, nor does it happen in an immediate overthrow of the current paradigms. It starts in the grassroots, community, and everyday workplace realms. And it never ends. It takes years of organizing, making mistakes, and building a resource base before true revolution takes hold. We are in this for the long haul.