In the Community Garden...
Demopublican
Dan Clore <cl...@columbia-center.org> wrote:
> News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
>
> http://www.dailycal.org/article/112912/gardening_organizer_aims_to_unify_commu
> nity
> The Daily Californian Online
> Gardening organizer aims to unify community
> By Sara Johnson
> Daily Cal Staff Writer
> Friday, April 22, 2011
>
> A former political activist, Laurence Schechtman's Neighborhood
> Vegetables is responsible for planting numerous gardens throughout the
> wider East Bay area.
>
> The "Laurence of Berkeley" today is actually the second. The title was
> passed to Laurence Schechtman - a self-described anarcho-syndicalist and
> prominent community activist - about 30 years ago.
>
> Schechtman is a longtime Berkeley activist. He moved to the city in 1964
> after a particularly shy friend told him about his participation in
> protests and demonstrations.
>
> "'If Berkeley has done that to you, I'm coming,'" Schechtman recalled
> telling his friend.
>
> His resume is lengthy: He has spent many years involved in food
> co-operatives and progressive politics. He holds a master's degree in
> sociology from UC Berkeley.
>
> "(Berkeley) was the most amazing place in those days," he said. "(But)
> right from the beginning, my preference was community building rather
> than protest."
>
> His gardening kick began in the early 1990s, when he asked students in a
> class at the Berkeley Adult School to help him plant a garden in the
> empty lot next to his house on Virginia Street.
>
> "If you come on down and help me plant my garden, I'll cook you a pot of
> spaghetti," he said he told the students, adding that 10 people showed up.
>
> In 2006, he cofounded the Berkeley Progressive Alliance, a group aimed
> at unifying progressive groups around the city in support of candidates.
> This was also the end of his political activism to date.
>
> "I came to the conclusion ... you cannot have progressive politics that
> is worth anything unless you have a community," Schechtman said. "When
> you don't have a community ... it doesn't matter what the ideology is,
> you attract people who want power."
>
> So he changed his focus to organizing that community. In 2008, he signed
> up about 100 people for Neighborhood Vegetables, East Bay, a
> community-focused group aimed at assisting residents with planting their
> vegetable gardens.
>
> Mary Ann Blackwell has one of those gardens. Through the group,
> Schechtman organized a gardening party at her home in North Oakland.
>
> "The fact that he brings people together in the neighborhood to meet and
> get to know each other is a powerful force for positive change and
> unification," Blackwell said in an email.
>
> Neighborhood Vegetables held two garden work parties last weekend, and
> two more are scheduled in the upcoming weeks. Schechtman brings his
> mandolin to each party.
>
> Berkeley resident David Skolnick said Schechtman "has quite the
> repertoire" of union and folk songs. Skolnick, who teaches writing and
> English for non-native speakers at local colleges, has been working with
> Schechtman on Neighborhood Vegetables for several years.
>
> The parties also regularly include a gift circle, Schechtman said. At
> these circles, he said guests are asked, "What do you do, what do you
> need?" in services and skills, emphasizing that "it's not a trade, it's
> a gift."
>
> "I got a massage the other night," he said.
>
> Today, he has about 2,000 people on his email list. Nonetheless, he has
> mixed feelings about this growth.
>
> "With all those people, I can send emails," he said. "If you phone and
> you schmooze, people will come."
>
> His long-term goal is decentralizing the organization to a more
> neighborhood-focused level. At a meeting Wednesday, he set up two work
> parties in North Oakland around 61st Street and San Pablo Avenue - about
> two blocks apart.
>
> Schechtman said these upcoming events "concentrate on developing that
> neighborhood as a sample neighborhood." Ultimately, he hopes to
> restructure Neighborhood Vegetables to create closer-knit communities
> that can garden, share food and even develop "baby-sitting co-ops."
>
> "Then you'll have the neighborhood village," he said.
>
> He has organized another meeting for Thursday in West Berkeley to
> develop the community around Rosa Parks Elementary School.
>
> Schechtman does have one complaint - he does not have a garden of his
> own. His landlady will not let him.
>
> "My confession is that I'm not a gardener, I'm an organizer," he said.
> Tags: Laurence Schechtman, Neighborhood Vegetables, Berkeley Progressive
> Alliance
and some community gardeners approach the local groceries and
restaurants to compost their "waste" and even cardboard can keep the
weeds down.
--
Karma, What a concept!