Smashing Green Capitalism & Letting Green Anarchy Grow

Resistance Is Fertile: Smashing Green Capitalism & Letting Green Anarchy Grow

By Luna’s Light Warrior

A few years ago I was sadly and quite easily sucked into green-consumerism. I felt that I really wasn’t helping the Earth unless I was spending bunches of money (and most of my small income) on Earth friendly products from “environmentally conscious” companies. I had been convinced by the green-left that I could rescue this beautiful land by trading in environmentally-unfriendly corporations, vehicles, energy, food, factories, and house cleaning products for environmentally-friendly ones. I even went to the Green Festival in San Francisco hoping for some more insight on how I could live my life more eco-friendly. However, all I found was a two story building filled with people whose goal it was to keep the market alive. What I have found out since then (on my own, not with the help of the media of course) is that change won’t happen through the market, change is only going to happen when we live a life in deep connection with the earth.

Most of these big companies that are now toting eco-friendly labels such as “USDA Certified Organic,” “Free Range,” “Pesticide Free,” or “Fair-Trade,” aren’t really concerned whether or not all of the old growth forests in the world are destroyed, or if your local park is bulldozed to be replaced by a strip mall, or about high levels of mercury from factories that’s being emitted into our water systems and causing very harmful health repercussions, or that the air pollution in some areas is so bad that children are growing up suffering with severe and acute cases of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, or about worker mistreatment, or about animal suffering and exploitation.

What these big companies do care about is capital. Their first priority isn’t to save the environment. Their priority lies in what’s going to make them money; and that is to exploit the earth and the consumer’s wants and desires. If it takes a little bit of changing how they manufacture their product to make sure they are still raking in the high profits, than that’s what they’ll do.

When I became aware of this I asked myself, “How is this really any different?” Corporations are still corporations, mass production is still mass production, industrial agriculture is still industrial agriculture, greenhouse gas emissions are still green house gas emissions, worker and animal exploitation is still worker and animal exploitation. Essentially, nothing is really changing. A lot of oil, natural recourses, land, and beings are being used and exploited in order to produce on this large of scale, even to make eco-friendly products. So it’s clear to me now that buying in to “green” companies really isn’t going to cut it. In order to truly liberate ourselves, the Earth, and the animals we need to cut capital and consumerism out completely.

A beautiful example of a way we can free ourselves from and smash the system of the market and its many harms is to grow our own food and reclaim unused, abused, and/or neglected land for nature. Food grown organically may be less harmful to the earth and our health but it still takes a lot of recourses and land to grow mass amounts of food and ship it to processing facilities and then ship it out to stores so it can be paid a high price for. The area I live in was once covered in lush wetlands which, not so long ago, was home to many different species of animals, plants, and indigenous cultures, most of which are no longer here. Most of the land has long since been taken over by agriculture, just one of the many means of capitalism. There are countless pieces of land here where all of the plant life has been ripped out and now all that remains are empty dirt lots resentfully awaiting to be topped by more shopping strips and other centers of consumerism.

Early this Spring, my partner and I started a local guerilla gardening project on a little piece of vacant land hugged between a road and a parking lot. It was littered with garbage but had lots of grass growing so we decided it would be a good home for some more plant life. We liberated some small potted trees and other small plants, cleaned up all of the trash, and started planting. We also started sprouting different vegetable and fruit seeds which will be ready in mid-Spring to plant in the garden and will produce food for us and the community. This is now an open piece of land where friends and others in the community can grow food for themselves as well. No market involved there.

Starting a garden like this is so easy and fun. Collecting seeds and soil for free is simple. It’s also really easy and quick to liberate potted plants. Just get a few friends together, find a spot, get some seeds and plants, and you have instant bonding with your community and with the Earth! Make sure to give your plants plenty of attention and water when they’re growing so your garden may thrive. Another fun way you can spread a little bit more nature around is to make seed bombs and throw them in places like cracks in the sidewalks, empty dirt lots, and road dividers. Grass seeds and wildflower seeds are really good to put in seed bombs because they grow really easily without much attention and water. To make seed bombs check out the Seed Grenade Recipe from http://www.lizchristygarden.org. You can also make them very simply with just some soil and seeds. Mix some seeds into the soil, add a little water to it if necessary to get the soil to a consistency where it will stick and hold into a ball shape. Mold the soil with your hands, let the balls dry a little bit to make sure they’ll hold together, then go seed bombing! These are great ways to build your connection with your community and with the Earth and cut out the market. And it really is great fun. Try it in your town, get creative, get crazy, smash green capitalism and let green anarchy grow!

This article appears in Modesto Anarcho #3. View it here at: www.geocities.com/anarcho209

http://wggc.resist.ca/node/89