Happy Friday New Leaf

Fri Feb 17 10:31:10 EST 2017

Thank you Sara!

I meant to get this to you all earlier... this is happening tomorrow. It
seems like a very cool Social Ecology- rooted action group that's working
to respond to trumpism, among other things. I'm unable to make this meeting
but I attended a great initial one this fall.  To reiterate what I shared
with many of you this fall at a NL meeting...the discipline of Social
Ecology is a fusion of proven aspects of anarchism and marxism, with an
awareness that ecological principles are at work in human social systems.
Some Social Ecology work has investigated the relationship between human
hierarchy and ecological destruction.

This was sent to me by Eleanor Finley (eleanor.finley at gmail.com), a UMass
PhD student of Social Ecology. Don't hesitate to contact her if you're
interested in these ideas.

Sun and Peace,
Ned

*When: Saturday, Feb 18. 4 - 6 pm*

*Where: Pioneer Valley Worker's Center, Northampton*

*20 Hampton Ave, #200 *

*https://www.pvworkerscenter.org/ <https://www.pvworkerscenter.org/> *

*Agenda: To discuss readings/peer education, break into local discussion
groups (identify key issues?), follow-up on organizational questions (who
are we?) *
***Please extend the invitation to your friends and neighbors who might be
interested in joining us!** *

*Readings!* As we discussed during our first meeting, me, Jonathan, and
Lisa have assembled some resources. Please try to come having read at least
one:

(1) * The Meaning of Confederalism *by Murray Bookchin (2016) (attached)

An in-depth introduction to municipal politics and the principle of
confederation.

(2) *A Federation for Freedom and Direct Democracy (AFADD) Manifesto*
(2001) (attached)

This organization came out of the Anti-Globalization Movement during the
late 1990s/early 2000s. They laid a lot of groundwork!

(3) *Seattle Neighborhood Action Council (NAC) How-to (attached) *

This explains how to form a "neighborhood action council," that is; to use
municipal organizing as a form of resistance.

(4) * Reason, Creativity, Freedom: the Communalist Model*. by Eleanor Finley

Link: https://roarmag.org/essays/communalism-bookchin-direct-democracy/

ROAR Magazine just published this brief introduction that I wrote. It is
for beginners. Note that the words "communalism" and "municipalism" are
used interchangeably.

Over the last few week, one of our members, Alexa Frazier, has worked to
develop this symbol adapting the principles of a municipal movement. Feel
free to use it or pass along!

1.* Non-hierarchy*: The idea that hierarchy is unethical, representing
top-down relationships of domination between two or more human beings.
Although humans often project the idea of hierarchy onto the natural world
(essentially 'naturalizing' the idea of hierarchy), hierarchy does not
exist in the non-human world.

2. *Direct Democracy*: The idea that people may create citizens assemblies
in which they work together to discuss and determine the political policies
that shape their everyday lives in their municipalities.

3. *Moral Economy*: Citizens (rather than just workers, for instance) can
join together in the citizens' assembly to discuss and determine the ways
in which they will produce and distribute goods and services for members of
the municipality.

4. *Social Justice and Equality*: These ideals must always remain at the
center of the forums in which we engage in political and economic justice
and freedom. Those among us who have been dehumanized in particular
ways--through white supremacy, hetero-patriarchy, ageism, and so on--must
remain constantly aware of regaining and maintaining human dignity.

5. *Ecology*: The idea that humanity must be ever mindful to enhance,
rather than deplete, the biodiversity and stability of the rest of the
natural world.

*More links and info!*

Rojava, Syria:  https://roarmag.org/essays/rojava-autonomy-syrian-kurds/

Barcelona, Spain: https://medium.com/@BComuGlobal/why-the-municipal-
movement-must-be-internationalist-fc290bf779f3#.3z946rsps

The Zapatistas:  https://roarmag.org/magazine/why-we-still-love-the-
zapatistas/

"Is America Ready for a Municipalist Movement?"
https://roarmag.org/essays/us-anti-fascism-municipalism/

The Communalist Project, Murray Bookchin. http://social-ecology.org/wp/
2002/09/harbinger-vol-3-no-1-the-communalist-project/

Revving it Up, the Revolutionary Potential of the New Anti-globalization
Movement by Chaia Heller.  http://social-ecology.org/wp/
2005/01/revving-it-up-the-revolutionary-potential-of-
the-new-anti-globalization-movement/

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

- Eleanor

On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 9:32 AM, Sara Brown <saragerbrown at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello, just wanted to plug a couple events this weekend (fliers attached):
> ~Friday/today!~
> Earth Democracy vs. Corporate Globalization with Vandana Shiva
> @ Stoddard Hall Smith College 4pm (hop on the 3pm or 3:30pm PVTA 39 bus)
> ~Sunday~
> Belated Birthday of the Trees @ Red Barn 4pm
> Jewish Student Union is hosting this nature celebration and feast - no
> jewish background necessary - and there will be tons of FOOD (including 10
> loaves of homemade challah)!
> ALSO this is a fucking crazy invention turning car exhaust into pen ink.
> http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/design/a25100/
> air-ink-kickstarter/
> Hope to see you at New Leaf meetings Wednesdays 6:30-7:30 in Kern 108.
> Have a great weekend!
> ~Sara Brown
> P.S. Another People's Climate March is happening in Washington DC on April
> 29th (1 week before the end of classes) to build solidarity and show
> resistance on Trump's 100th day in office. Check out the platform here:
> https://peoplesclimate.org/ Hopefully we can get a large number of
> Hampshire people going... if you're interested in attending and/or helping
> to coordinate this please reach out to me sgb13 at hampshire.edu.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Newleaf mailing list
> Newleaf at lists.hampshire.edu
> https://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/newleaf
> Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/265896526795491/
>

-- 
Greater than the power of mighty armies is the force of an idea whose time
has come.
-Victor Hugo
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.hampshire.edu/pipermail/newleaf/attachments/20170217/cf46e552/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 00001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 43635 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.hampshire.edu/pipermail/newleaf/attachments/20170217/cf46e552/attachment-0001.jpg>