AlfiE THE STAKESIThe Planet Drum Review VOLUMEl,NUMBER

Reports from: THE BLACK HILLS, QUEBEC, BRITTANY, SAMILAND, AND MORE.

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2. Proliferation of newforestry co-ops and a forestrymanagement cadre, makinglivings at present largely onfederal forest land.

4. Government awareness­Huey Johnson s RenewableResources Investment Fund.Blue Ribbon State Committeereports to State Board ofForestry that $600 millionmust be spent in the next20 years to rebuildCalifornia's forests.

1, Groundswell for repeal ofPeripheral Canal in northernCalifornia.

3. Slow accretion ofknowledge and techniquesamounting to the art ofwatershed repair-to witENT Proiect in RedwooodPark-BLM and CCCstream rehabilitation work inMattole drainagelKing'sRange-development of smallscale hatchery techniquesin Alaska, B. C., etc.promising local rehabilitationof fish resources.

of two decades during whichNorthern California's resourcebase can and hopefully will bereexamined and renewed. Thenature and need of the work arequite clear to many. The waysit's going to get done are less clear.But the following things arehappening:

THE WRITING ON THEWALL:

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place for new ideas and organiza­tions. There are a lot of groupsright now who are involved inecology, feminism, the anti­nuclear movement, but theydon't share a very sophisticatedpolitical analysis.

PB: Separatism in Quebecdoesn't relate to any questionshaving to do with ecology or anti­nuclear activity?

CL: No, in no way. It still hasa very strong nationalist aspect.I mean it is essentially a FrenchCanadian movement, and thereare other minority groups inQuebec who have not been ableto find their place in that move­ment. There are some English­speaking ethnic people that areseparatists, are members of PartiQuebecois, but I think that theymust be considered as petit bour­geois also.

David Simpson

MATTOLE WATERSHED

DearJudy, Peter and Michael,

I am in this abject position,feeling pretty bad about nothaving been able to talkto you prior to the meetingover a week ago and onlynow getting to thiscommunication and doing soon this scuzzy paper withthis cheap ballpoint.A slipshod operation allaround, but I have myexcuses.

Primarily, is more work thanI can possibly do, long exhaustingdays at the end of which thereis only bed-nor is there hereenough order to concentratereadily. Just too damn much todo and too many kids (we havetwo 3-year-old wards for themonth).

Secondarily, and related to ithas been my lack of clarity aboutthe questions you posed in ourlong phone conversation-forinstance, what relevancy canPlanet Drum have in my life?What direction should PlanetDrum turn?

My answers are just beginningto emerge, may indeed seemsimple-minded but, I suspect,will not be short-winded. I think,feel and hope that we are at theonset of a 20 year long work here,perhaps longer, which might belabeled a number of things­environmental repair, watershedrehabilitation, fishing enhance­ment, forestry renewal, rightagriculture, agricultural diversi­fication, etc. We are at the onset

Peter Berg: Christian, is theseparatist sympathy in Quebecconnected to any bioregional,ecologic thinking? What wouldsecession for Quebec mean?

Christian Lamontagne: Peo­ple are not expecting anythingvery new if Quebec succeeds insecession. Nobody is thinking thatthis will change the order ofthings. Most of us think that,"Yes, we will vote for the refer­endum, but it is only because wedon't have any other choice."Between two bad things, we willchoose the one that is less harm­ful. So, right now, many of thepeople who were activists in theSixties are looking for somethingelse, something new. I wouldsay that they are getting boredby the idea of separatism, as thisidea is articulated by the PartiQuebecois. The Parti Queboois isperceived as a petit bourgeoisparty. Which it is. So there is a

RAISE THE STAKESI

REPORT FROM QUEBEC

Christian Lamontagneinterviewed by Peter Berg

The Planet Drum Review

Christian Lamontagne is an editor of Quebec's Le Temps Fou(The Crazy Times). This interview took place in February, 1980.Since then the autonomy referendum has been defeated andwhile Pierre Trudeau attempts to frame a new Canadian con­stitution to accommodate some degree of self-determinationfor the provinces, Quebec liberation forces are re-grouping forfuture struggles to gain total independence. Will the goals of theseparatists be the same as they were before the referendum?Christian was critical ofParti Quebecois' narrow vision especiallyin regard to environmental issues before the May vote, and hisview of what an independent Quebec could achieve instead mayprove prophetic for the next contest over, "Quebec libre,oui ou non?"

I have been working 6 days aweek here at the hotel since Aprildoing cooking and maintenance,which hasn't left much time foranything else. I haven't been offlona except to the nearby Isle ofMull and a recent trip out to theTreshnesh Isles with a localcrofterto help him off-load sheep fromone of the islands where he hasgrazing rights. A wild, steep­cliffed place; some tumbled stone­work marking an 18th centuryvillage site. We manhandled 61sheep into his open boat; whenwe tried to leave, a stern-line gotwrapped around the propellorshaft and we took an icy plungeinto the Atlantic to cut it away;when we got off, it was blowingand the sea was rising and far­away lona had vanished in thefog. We made it back with thehelp of my compass; not withoutsome nervous moments for me.On Mull I've been tracking downstanding stones and other mega­lithic sites, using map and com­pass. I find myself fascinated bythese reminders of a culture tunedto the cosmos in both ritual" andpractical ways-perhaps instru­ments of a vast and highly scien­tific astronomical observatory?No similar inter-related system oflandmarks was laid on thecountryuntil the Ordinance Survey im­posed its network of triangulationacross the landscape in the 19thand 20th centuries A.D.

Today a force 10 gale, a mas­sive swell rolling thru lQe sound,smashing in white fountains ofwater against the granite cliffsof Mull. Awesome and beautiful.

The "season" comes to a closein mid-October, when Kathy andI plan to go to the Outer Hebridesand Orkney. During the wintermonths we will be caretaking thehotel: Kathy silversmithing andcarving, me exchanging main­tenance work for food and coaland electricity credits at the hotel.Next, perhaps another season inlona, or a move to the OrkneyIsles, or perhaps to Ireland?

Enclosed is $10 to s~ure mystanding with Planet Drum.

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The conquest of Mexico bythe Spanish in 1521 is a perfectbut tragic example of how hugemasses of earth which were oncefertile degenerated into deserts.The Spanish cut down the teem­ing fir forests; today, only sagebrush and cactus remain-lifeis impossible. Once the trees aregone then the rains go and thenmost life vanishes.

::::::::::. OREGON

CALIFORNIA

!'Ilb, +- MATTOlE RIVER ~The Trinity River is full of

gravel because the bare, clearcut hillsides quickly erode intothe river and streams. Also, thegravel fills the waters quickerbecause there is already a lowlevel of water in the river. Withclear cutting comes roads for thegiant equipment needed for haul­ing out the timber. These roadsare improperly constructed andinadequately maintained by theForest Service. With increasedroads in an already fragile eco­system more gravel slides into therivers and streams. This meansless water which translates intoless fish population even if no fishare taken by humans..

The managers of our publiclands have been putting out forestfires for many years. Currently,we are facing the possibility of a"fire storm" stretching from San

Wilson (radical journalist), An­drew Currie (ecologist), and JohnMcGrath (playwright). The greatecologist of Scotland is J. FraserDarling, whose major work, WestHighland Survey: An Essay inHuman Ecology, was publishedin the 50's and provides a radicaland detailed prescription forre-inhabitation. John Mercerhas written a good review ofnaturalist issues called Scotland:The DevolutionofPower whereinhe asks; "can the Highlander ex­pect an assembly in Edinburghto take more account of his de­mands for radical reform, suchas that of landholding, than hasthe London parliament?" Scot­land, as a nation, has alwayssuffered internal divisions; be­tween Gael and Anglo-Scot,lowlander and highlander,Crown and clan. The Highlandshave also suffered from completedeforestation, 200 years of ex­tractive sheep farming and apolicy of deliberate genocide.Patterns of exploitation continuetoday in essentially extractivedevelopment schemes-oil, nu­clear waste dumping, EEC fish­eries rip-offs, etc. All very tragicand grim, really. Meanwhile anaturalist grouping petitionsthe UN to grant recognition tothe majority desire for devolutionas expressed in the 1976 referen­dum and since ignored by Par­liament.

N0RTHERN CALIFORNIA REPORTso much energy toward com­petition for these renewable re­sources, the most fruitful futurewhich could promise an adequategeneration of these resourcesmust be seen with another visionin order to halt the increased ex­ploitation of these resources.

Water-Life: Without waterno life is possible. Our watercomes from theclouds. The cloudsprovide us with rains because,as they come into our hills fromthe ocean, they are semi-saturat­ed; when they reach thecool moistair provided by the fir forests theclouds become fully saturatedand they empty themselves onthe hills as rain. The cool moistair occurs below the firs becausethey keep the forest floor shadedas well as hold the subterraneanwater close enough to the surfaceof the earth to sustain vegetation.The trees furnish an insulatinglayer of moist shade.

The Forest Service and theBureau of Land Managementregulate logging as their lawfulobligation to manage publicland. Thelogging practices whichare hammered out and enforcedby these federal agencies are, in .fact, anti-ecological: clear cut­ting destroys the all-importantlayer of cool moist air which fullysaturates the incoming clouds.Therefore, clear cutting causesless rainfall and thus less waterfor the river and, subsequently,less water for the farmers in theValley.

There must be a moratoriumon the current Forest Service andBureau of Land Managementpolicies and practices. Then,after a complete examination oftheir policies, the public wouldsee how hazardous these practicesare to Nature's health and, con­sequently, our own.

What you heard aboutlona is pretty much true­pilgrims, mystics and new ageidealists (a la Findhorn).A christian group calling itselfthe "Iona Community"uses the island and restoredcathedral as its base andpropagates a left-liberalinternational political line.

No sign of nationalist or place­located, values in the sense youmean. But such thinking is in evi­dence elsewhere, in the OuterHebrides most notably, wherethe Highland (Gaelic) culture ismaking a last-ditch stand, as ex­pressed in The West HighlandFree Press (of which I'll send youa copy) and the writings of Brian

There was a "PublicInvolvement Meeting" inthe Civil Defense Hall onApril 19 in Weaverville,Calif., to consider the"Proposed Trinity River BasinFish and WildlifeManagement Program."

Farmers up from theSacramento V alley werelobbying for more water fromthe Trinity for their crops.The federal government'smanagement programofficials were there to insuremore total regulation of theTrinity River (the TrinityRiver drainage system)and to regulate those of uswho participate in the Trinityenvironment.

TRINITY RIVERBrian Hill

Trinity WatershedDenny, California

The local people who attendedseemed to be in unanimous agree­ment concerning their environ­ment. They want local regulationof extra-government agenciesand to refurbish the Trinity Riverand its accompanying bioregion.

It appears that wehave reachedthe point in this area where thereis more demand for the river'swater and organic resources thanis available. Rather than direct

Report from SCOTLAND

Jerry Gorsline

Page 2 ... CIRCLES OF CORRESPONDENCE

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tablishing a model for local peopletaking a resource into their ownhands.

What do you think? I've beenwriting over the din of 6 criticalchildren, a picky teenager, and aharassed wife. I have rambled &overflown the simple & easilyapplicable. I've had no choice.

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Northern California is ap­proaching its great denouement.The forces to set it right are there.

We need support on severallevels. We need a limited amountof money to enable a few peopleto step just enough above the con­stant rigors of life here to do theliteral work involved. We needan informational agency to sortout just what priorities are, whatthe real bill is and who might payit.

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So how might Planet Drumplaya role? I'm not sure but youcan easily see some glaring needs.If there are small research grantsinvolved, 3 would make a signifi­cant difference here. The needfor an overall lobbying and in­formation agency is strong. Theneed for an agency to sort outwhere and which and what isinvolved viz-a-viz avoiding pit­falls, of playing patsy for bigbusiness & government is there.

I reiterate-the governmenthas achieved, in the areas aboutwhich we're talking, an ineffec­tiveness bordering on the crimi­nal.

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majorcompanies are American orEnglish Canadian. Maybe 90 per­cent of the economy is under for­eign control. For my part, I see theecological movements, or ecologi­cal approach to politics, as the on­ly way to include English and eth­nic minorities in the party in Que­bec.

Why?Because then the main subject

of the political struggle would bethe regional base. It would nolonger be merely thesolution to anethnic problem.

How would you be able to sup­port a regionist consciousness?

We will have to mix it with so­cial preoccupations to create amore democratic society, eco­nomically and socially. I mean itwill have to be a kind of ecologicaldecentralist movement.

It can't come from within theParti Quebecois?

No.

You're suggesting that there beanother party.

There is the basis for that kind ofparty. But, it cannot be done yet.

What would be the constitu­encyfor that.party? Would it in­clude native people?

It would.

Would it include rural people?Rural people are no longer an

important part of the population.The number of farmers has drop­ped from 100,000 to maybe20,000 within the last 10 years.

Do you think that the separatistmovement is for the time beingfloating on top of another enor­mous social change that is takingplace?

Parti Quebecois doesn't reflectthe exact situation in Quebec. Ev­erybody feels stuck in the move­ment right now. Everybody iswaiting for the autonomy ques­tion to be closed forever.

What issue is present in Quebecnow, or is emerging in Quebec,that will force the enviromentalquestion? Which single issue?~

We have an opportunity hereto reverse a trend, that of waningsalmon first, timber resourcessecond. We have the techniques,hard information that no govern­ment agency has, and a fairlybroad commitment. We can makea difference. We can and are es-

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5. Growing region-wideawareness of the waningSall1wn resources and a widecommitment to do somethingabout it. Salmon, of course,i~ the base line for forestrypractices-silt in the riverkills the fisheries.

MATTOLE WATERSHED ••.

Now who's going to spearheadthe fight? The loggers aren't.The timber companies aren't.The government is basically in­effective and deeply uninformed.

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What we're up against is anincredible lethargy in some areas,often on the part of people whostrongly support us.

One of the really interestingthings involved here is that re­inhabitory people are very active­ly involved on many levels; eco­nomic, cultural and spiritual. Itis work we can, ought, and willbe doing. We are at last address­ing ourselves to the heart of things-primary production and tryingto make it jive with what LinnHouse calls natural provision.We finally might have some realeffect on the real processes thatfeed and house Americans. Theold timers can't simply sluff us offas starry-eyed kids. The Salmonare disappearing. The timber isdisappearing. The resource baseis waning.

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primarily mining and the forestproducts industry.

Perhaps it's because they're sobusily engaged in destroying theeco-systems of Quebec, that theParti Quebecois doesn't want toespouse an environmental pointof view? Maybe it would get intheir way economically if theydid.

You see, when there is an unem­ployment rate of about 20 percentor 30 percent, which is the rate ofunemployment in most of the re­gionsofQuebec, people don't carevery much about ecology. Theywant jobs, the price is not impor­tant.

Do peoplefeel under the gun asfar as making a living is concernedin Montreal, and in Quebec gen­erally? Do people feel desperateeconomically?

'No, because they are still inNorth America, and the way oflife is not as bad as it could be.

Can you compare the situationin Quebec with Cornwall, whichis really very small, with no cityeven near the size of Montreal?Cornwall still has a lot of agricul­ture because they have so muchland intact. They have an interestin the future of Cornish native in­dustries. They're very concernedthat they beable to continuefarm­ing andfishing. Some of them aredetermined to get free of Englandand England's demands on Cor­nish resources, so that there couldbe more reasonable treatment ofthose resources.

It is our particular political con­text in Quebec that impedes usfrom beingconscious of ecologicalproblems. The main reason whythe separatist movement grew isthat people felt a menance fromCanada, they were afraid of beingassimilated and destroyed as a na­tion. That is still the main subjectof the separatist movement.

French-speaking people arealso oppressedin terms ofemploy­ment, aren't they?

Yes, they continue to be. All the

the United States. They are play­ing the United States against Eng­lish Canada.

What would be necessary for amore environmentally orientedgovernment to take powerin Que­bec? Would there have to be achallenge to the Parti Quebecois?

I think that isn't possible yet.Maybe after the referendum nextspring. If they lose, I think thatsome of the members ofParti Que­becois, and also all the old activistsof the Sixties, will see a chance tobuild something else.

Would the anti-nuclear peopleform alikely basisfor another par­ty?

No, and I don't think they everwill because there is only one nu­clear plant operating in Quebec.There is a second one which hasbeen in construction for 6 or 7years now, but it will be our lastone. So for the next 10 or 15 years,the nuclear reactor problem willnot be very acute in Quebec.

Why isn't there a more ardentecological feeling? In some sepa­ratist movements, the ecologicaland environmental content isquite high. Is it because Quebecis so industrialized?

It is because of the nationalquestion. Maybe it is paradoxicalto say this, but, the separatistmovement in itsfirst year was seenas a national liberation strugglewhich had very little to do withecology...

In France, and especially inBrittany, there are publicationsand personalities pushing en­vironmental ideas. Apparentlythey want to be known as peoplethat are taking first steps in thatdirection.

But, I think that it is becausethey are facing a more acute eco­logical problem than we are. Ifyou see the country in Quebec,you'll see that there is only onemajor city, Montreal, where 60 %of the industry is located. The restof the province is very quiet. Theindustries outside Montreal are

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using our civilized devices to ex­ploit, conquer and destroy Na­ture, let us use the same meansto rebuild and complementNature.

I live in a "Primitive" area,12 miles from the nearest road.Last year I had the distinction ofbringing and old timer, 84-years­old, back here. It was the firsttime he had been in the backcountry in 40 years. He told methat when he lived here in the hills40 years ago they used to ridehorses anywhere in these hills.Now it is solid branches from theground to the tops of the firs.

"The whole forest is gonnaburnl" he said. "There's deadyew wood and cedar trees. Nonew ones can grow because there'snot enough water for them,"

We are the victims of improperforest management. Instead ofprotecting our public lands, theFS and BLM have, in fact, per­mitted their imminent demise.We should be protected fromgovernment policies and prac­tices with a moratorium on theirdestructive actions.

Teams of students and profes­sors from nearby universitiescould come to help the local peo­ple of each county decide appro­priate management policies andpractices. Their decisions couldthen be directed to the managersof the public's land (our land)for them to carry out. This is acall for local regulation of federalagencies to assure salvation ofour forests and our water.

We need more water, moretrees, more soil and intelligentlogging practices. We need toprevent our forests from burningdown so ourwaterwill not vanishIThe removal of undergrowth ineach county must be a majoreffort.

In a democracy the peopledecidewhat is best for the govern­ment. In a totalitarian regimethe government dictates whatis best for the people.

soil production and help holdthe subterranean water close tothe surface.

The tinder box problem ofundergrowth is a monumentalone and only quick action willavert a fiery future. Sometimesthe undergrowth is too tall fora controlled burn. More road­building will cause erosion. Itappears that labor-intensiveremoval of undergrowth is dras­tically needed if we are to saveour forests and water supply.Brush can be cut and put backon the ground as mulch. Hard­woods can be used for energy(firewood and alcohol), buildingmaterials or even food. And,because the absence of fires hin­ders the conversion of acid vege­tation to natural alkaline ferti­lizer, it may be necessary to spraythe forests with lime to obtainoptimum Ph levels. Ecologistscould figure this out.

For those environmentalistswho support the present Wilder­ness area policies, I would like tonote here that the FS and BLMpractice of putting out forest fireshas had more negative impact onthe ecology of our forests than allother human activity with theexception oflogging. And becausethe present undergrowth/tinderbox problem has been created byhuman intervention (putting outforest fires), it should also be cor­rected by humans. People willhave to manually remove thedangerous level of undergrowth,especially in the Wilderness areas.

I suggest the idea of Wildernessareas be changed to include hu­man beings. We arepart ofNatureand Nature is part of us. As "civil­ized" people we have been cruelto Nature. I am sure that throughthe use of scientific ecologicaland technological means we canhave as positive an impact on thefuture as we have had a negativeimpact on the past. Instead of

SAM SILVER

Yes. He was the man whonationalized it, in '62.

His personal power as a politi­cal person is somewhat based onhaving done that.

Yes.

Would the future economicpower ofafree Quebec be in turnbased on hydro-electric powerproduction?

In some part, because wealready sell electricity to NewYork. And the James Bay projectwas built mainly for export rea­sons. We don't need that amountof electricity in Quebec itself.

The building of that project hasbeen oppressiveto the Cree people'in particular. You say the provin­cial government is no more help­ful to them now than the federalgovernment. If the Parti Quebe­cois ran Quebec, would they beany more helpful?

No.

Is it likely that the Parti Quebe­cois would, if it came into totalpower in Quebec, be more en­vironmentally oriented?

I would say no. Because there isa strong emphasis on creating astronger economic exchange with

RAISE THE STAKES! is published tri-annually by Planet Drum Foundation. a non-profit organization.Inquiries. manuscripts and contributions should be sent to Planet Drum Foundation. P.O. Box 31251.San Francisco. CA 94131 USA. Telephone (415) 285-6556. The entire contents of RAISE THE STAKES!are copyright © Planet Drum Foundation 1981. However, in order to encourage dissemination of theinformation in this issue (only). any non-book publication may reprint any article-without charge­upon wrillen request. Additionally. full credit to RAISE THE STAKES!-induding our address andsubscription rates ($6/year for 3 issues)-must prominently accompany the reprint of any article.

Editors-Peter Berg. Judy Goldhaft Berg and Michael Helm. Assistant Editor-Robert C. Walls.GrapJJir- Design and Production-Thomas Morris, Sharpshooter Studios. Berkeley.

Typesetting-Ampersand Typography. Berkeley. Printing- Warren's Waller Press. San Francisco.

Increased rainfall would cleanthe rivers and streams of graveland silt as long as new erosioncan be halted. Increased rainfallwill help us back into a healthyand productive river system onlyif we augment our harvest withmeasures to replace it. For in­stance, hatcheries and nurserieswould be a fruitful alternative.Also, more rain means that thefarmers in the Valley will haveenough water for their crops and,perhaps, even enough to beginflushing out the poisons and toxicwastes which they have inundat­ed their rich lands with.

In order to create more rain­fall, logging practices must bedevised to guarantee the con­tinued existence of cool, moist,insulating layers of air. Non­arable land areas can be stimu­lated to produce trees by plantingsuch hybrid grasses as fesque,birds foot, tree foil, clover andorchard grass. Grasses increase

Francisco to Canada becausethe brush and hardwoods havegrown high enough to incineratethefirs. When Nature and naturalpeople regulated the forests. fireswere encouraged by lightningand seasonal burning of the un­derbrush. Now we live in a tinderbox because of less 'rainfall andhardwoods tall enough to reachthe highly flammable fir branch­es.

TRINITY RIVER ...

REPORT fROM QUEBEC .•.

What is the feeling of Canadi­an Indian people toward theParti Quebecois?

There are about, I would say,16,000 Indian people in Quebec,and there is a kind of warfarebetween the federal governmentand the provincial governmentover who should have controlof them. At present they are stillthe responsibility of the federalgovernment.

And the provincial govern­ment wants that responsibility?

Yes. They want to have theresponsibility. Indian groups arepractically dying. They are toosmall to have any kind of bar­gaining power, and they are alsoa very small minority.

What people are we talkingabout?

The Montagnais and the iro­quois. The Six Nation people.Their problem is that they arestill living in the northern partof Quebec where there are alot of mines, and plenty of hydro­electrical projects. So they arebeing removed at the same timethat they still have rights onthe lands.

The Parti Quebecois is forthe hydro projects?

Yes.

Is its power in any way basedon thefact that the hydro projectsare there?

I would not say so directly.But Hydro Quebec, which is thenational company, is a verystrong symbol of power.

Rene Levesque had a lot to dowith setting it up, didn't he?

~~c<w>­VIW

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. Right now, today, we who live on the Pine Ridge Reser­vation are living in what white society has designated a "na­tional sacrifice area," What this means is that we have a lotof uranium deposits here and white culture (not us) needsthis uranium as energy production material. The cheapest,most efficient way for industry to extract and deal with theprocessing of the uranium is to dump the waste byproductsright here at the digging sites. Right here where we live.This waste is radioactive and will make the entire region un­inhabitable forever. This is considered by industry, and thewhite society which created this industry, to be "an ac­ceptable" price to pay for energy resource development.Along the way they also plan to drain the water table underthis part of South Dakota as part of the industrial process, sothe region becomes doubly uninhabitable. The same sort ofthing is happening down in the land of the Navajo andHopi, up in the land of the Northern Cheyenne and Crow,and elsewhere. Over 60 percent of all U.S. energy resourceshave been found to lie under reservation land, so there's noway this can be called a minor issue. For American Indians,it's a question of survival in the purest sense of the term. Forwhite society and its industry it's a question of being able tocontinue to exist in their present form .

We are resisting being turned into a national sacrifice area.We are resisting being turned into a national sacrifice peo­plel The costs of this industrial process are not acceptable tous. It is murder to dig the uranium here and tv drain thewater table, no more, no less. So the reasons for our resist­ance are obvious enough and shouldn't have to be explainedfurther. To anyone.

Now let's suppose that in our resistance to exterminationwe begin to seek allies. Let's suppose further that we were totake revolutionary Marxism at its word: that it intends noth­ing less than the complete overthrow of the European capi­talist order which has presented this threat to our very exist­ence. This would seem to be a natural alliance for AmericanIndian people to make. After all, as the Marxists say, it is thecapitalists who set us up to be a national sacrifice. This is trueas far as it goes.

But, as I've tried to point out, this "truth" is very deceptive.Look beneath the surface of revolutionary Marxism andwhat do you find? A commitment to reversing the industri­al system which created the need of white society for urani­um? No. A commitment to guaranteeing the Lakota andother American Indian peoples real control over the land andresources they have left? No, not unless the industrial pro­cess is to be reversed as part of their doctrine. A commit­ment to our rights, as peoples, to maintaining our valuesand traditions? No, not as long as they need the uraniumwithin our land to feed the industrial system of the society,the culture of which the Marxists are still a part.

Revolutionary Marxism is committed to even furtherperpetuation and perfection of the very industrial processwhich is destroying us all. It is offering only to "redistribute"the results, the money maybe, of this industrialization to awider section of the population. It offers to take wealth fromthe capitalist and pass it around, but in order to do so,Marxism must maintain the industrial system....

RUSSELL MEANSDENOUNCING

MARXISM

VI

~..oc<<aw....---------------------------

Leonard Rifas

BLACKHILLSREPORT

You have asked whether the much-advertised Rancher­Indian Alliance to save the Black Hills is for real.There are opinions on all sides.' The short answer isno, but first some background.

Before there was a Black referred to as the Committee)Hills Alliance there was decided not to distribute theirthe Black Hills Energy brochure and bumper sticker atCoalition, a group formed the Survival Gathering becausein response to the threat of they thought it would harm theuranium mining in the hills. initiative's chances if it wereEarly last year some associatedwith theAlliance. AfterAmerican Indian Movement some hot argument, an Alliance one woman was banished from were in favor of the Gathering. 'made," depending on the strengthpeople came to one of the leader, without asking anyone, the Gathering for removing her Some who criticized the Gather- of your optimism.

BHEC' d ff d had a flyer printed up and dis- shirt and I personally observed ing for being pointless or locally The Alliance boasts one ranch-s meetings an 0 ere b ed th h' . h oneofthefolksfromthebuslrode od ti als d M' K hf

tri ut at e gat ermg Wit counter-pr uc ve 0 oppose er, arvm ammerer, on w oseto join orces. text lifted from the Committee's outwith being hassled by "Securi- uranium development. Some family's land the Survival Gather-

Some coalition members brochure plus an original lead ty" for appearing spaced out. who said nice things about the ing was held. He's clear-headed,thought that A.I.M. support paragraph which attacked the Also all Marxist-Leninist lit- Gathering were personally in a great speechmaker, committedwould be a political liability. Governor and President for fail- erature was kept out of the Gath- favor of uranium mining. and likeable. He's the only localOthers were interested in the ing to protect the public interest. ering by an "outside literature Still your question was not how rancher active in the Alliance.possibility of Indians and whites Local people cite this story as an review committee." The Revo- the Survival Gathering went over I hope this letter answers yourworking together on something. example of why they don't like lutionary Communists did show locally, but whether ranchers question. If you print it I hopeThelatter group formed the Black to work with the Alliance. up, slip through a bungling Alli- and Indians are sitting down to- you edit it in such a way that myHills Alliance. This kind of insensitive, un- ance bureaucracy, and briefly gether to work for their common high regard for the people active

The Black Hills Alliance has democratic decision-making ap- display their paper. They were survival. The answer is "no" or in the BHA and the BHEC isput most of its effort into organ- parently lost the Alliance most of overheard telling a BHA leader "not yet" or "a start has been apparent.izing two big events. Last year's its local support after the "Na- that the people of South Dakota ~ 000was the National Gathering of tional Gathering" last year. The werereadyandeagerforthiskind r--------------'"":"""'!!'-·!....\·-----,the People which included an estimate I heard on how many of informllation, and he was over- RUSSELL MEANS .:~~evening of speeches and music local people helped organize this heard te ing them that if they ~ -~(Jackson Browne reportedly year's Gathering was so small you tried tosell thatstuffin local towns ~~<praised it as the best-organized could count them on one hand they'd be lucky to escape with AT 1980 }\:fJ,movement event he'd played with enough fingers left over to their lives. SURVIVAL \~~,r··for); a 20 mile march into the throw a bowling ball. Fortunately the censorship ~~: (Black Hills the next day; and then Still, the Alliance deserves committee had no objection to GATHERING "a day of speeches and workshops. credit for making a great effort political humor and so the materi­This year's big event was the ten toconducttheSurvival Gathering al available at the site includedday Survival Gathering. in a way that would not alienate bumper stickers and buttons from

The people in the Black Hills surrounding communities. Par- the Hog Farm's "Nobody forEnergy Coalition are still active ticipants were briefed repeatedly President" campaign and theand have recently formed the on the importance of abiding by Plutonium Players' "Reagan forSouth Dakota Committee for conservative dress codes and Shah" offensive, and the full linePeople's Choice. They have maintainingsobriety.lheard that of Educomics comic books (theplaced an initiative measure on I R. Cobb editorial cartoons andtheNovemberballotwhich would i Anarchy Comics aroused therequire South Dakotan voter i NO most enthusiasm).approval of all new uranium MY L._._._·_._·__·- Some of the speeches seemed

! SOmines or mills, nuclear power I partially calculated for theirplants, or nuclear waste dumps I effect on local opinion, includingin the state. (Editor's note-The! Russell Means' much discussedinitiative lost 49 to 51 percent.) --.-._._j BELLE FORCHE RIVER denunciation of Marxism and

The moderate backers of the John Trudell'scallfor "liberation,initiative (which like California's not revolution."Prop. 15ofl976is not even strictly The rules which governed theanti-nuclear) are trying to dis- Gathering kept local opinionassociate themselves from the from becoming as negative as itAlliance, which has a partly de- .'). easily could have been. Localserved local reputation for being ~ i-CHEYENNE RIVER press coverage was generallyradical, weirdo, "foreigners" p:l i-._._._._._._._. favorable.(i.e., non-South Dakotans). is WY 1 NB An Alliance staff person told

The South Dakota Committee S;. me, "We've done nothing but...f.or_P.eo...p.le.'s_C..h..o..i..ce....lii(h.e..re..a.ft;;e;;r_.

m.' ..,; gain on the local level. People

;- who thought: the Alliance was aMaybe the question of forests thereare a lotof Quebecois-speak- bunch of hippies last year now

because they have been extremely ing and French-speaking people agree with our objectives."exploited for the last50 years. And in Africa, for example. There is A local newspaper reporternowthere is a modernization plan also a very strong feeling among thinks the Gathering will helpwhich has been proposed by the Quebecois for Cuba. There are the moderates working on thegovernment. Itwants to put 2 bil- about 20,000 Quebec people who uranium initiative because "peo­lion dollars into modernization take their vacations in Cuba each pIe who would be turned off byof forest industries in the next I0 year. it are already turned off' and thatyears. Actually that moderniza- Would you talka little bit about "for the most part people aretion means bigger machines and Le Temps Fou. What made you impressed."more effective ways of cutting A local historian thinks thewant to start the magazine?trees. This will kill the forests Th Gathering "might have donee reason for starting Lesooner or later. T h more harm than good" becauseempsFou as to do with wanting

What percentage of the econo- to articulate our personal history. of speeches given there whichmy is related to forests? Wewere activists in theSixtiesand "breed more hate" by "carrying

Itis the biggest industrial sector in the early Seventies; and then a on like it was the white peoplein Quebec. It might be around 10 part of the movement, the bigger today who did those things 100or 15 percent. part, was transformed into two years ago."

I her ifi major Marxist-Leninist organiza- A South Dakotan activelys t e any signi 'cant agricul- opposing uranium development

t al ' th t 'llj th . tions. We couldn't agree withur ISSUe a Wl orce e en- considered the Gatherl'ng "not. I'!) that. So we left the movement formronmenta queshonr helpful" because of "anti-devel-T th two years, and lots of other peoplewo years ago e government opment, anti-business, anti-

ed 1 t t th ' f did the same. There was a verypass a aw 0 s op e mISuse 0 government rhetoric" which "is1 d th h 1 t · . th deep mood for a new critical ap-an roug specu a Ion m e not what South Dakota peopleM t al h f h proach to politics and socialon re area, were most 0 t e want to hear."

1 S· th be t . u1 change. We could no longer seepeop e are. mce e s agrlc - Another local reporter thinkst 11 d · als . this th .socialchangeonlyin terms of classura an IS 0 m area at the Gathering won't have much1 rted b th f struggle. So we started Le Tempsaw was suppo y e armers effect on the uranium initiativeas well. Fou as a vehicle for exploring and

articulating our histories within a either way and that people willWe haven't discussed Quebec's less rigid structure. (Editor's note decide on the irIitiative in the fall.

foreign policy at all. What would -copies of Le Temps Fou, a The Tuesday after the Gather­be the possibility that an autono- French language publication may ing I walked around Rapid Citymous Quebec would want to re- be obtainedby sending $2 to 4073 asking local people what opinionlate to the rest of the world as an Saint-Hubert, Montreal, P. 0., they had of the Gathering. It wasinterdependent region oj the bio- H2L 4A7 Canada.) 107°(F) but so dry that it wassphere? almost comfortable. Of the ones

I think it is a real one. Already 000 who told me their opinions most'---------- ..;;;;.;;;;,,;;....,J

Page 4 .. CIRCLES OF CORRESPONDENCE NORTHWEST NATION

000

The region is diverse, politi­cally. There's a general concernover the high unemploymentrate and escalating propertytaxes. Some people feel the solu­tion to the problems lies in thegeneral area of boosting businessand incentives to 'success', andthereby promoting employment:these people support Pro~essiveConservatives (roughly 'Repub­licans'). Others would like to seeincreased taxation, federal andprovincial, of upper incomepeople, and more governmentcontrol (and presumably aid tosmall industry and businesses):they support the New Democrats(socialists); the NDP candidatefor Member of Parliament wonout over the PC incumbent inthe recent election. As I said,Doukhobors mostly go NDP.Alot of hippies do too, butwehada very on-the-ball, thirty-year­old, new-agey Liberal candidaterunning for MP in the last twofederal elections, who a lot oflong-hairs liked (he lost, though).

Environmentally, we havethree major problems: clear-cutlogging, damming and diversionof rivers for hydro-electric power,and uranium exploration andmining. After a few confron­tations, and community outcry,last year at Genelle (near Trail), auranium exploration operation,undertaken by a big Americancompany, was stopped. More re­cently, dueto popular opposition,the B.C. government granted aseven-year moratorium on urani­um exploration and mining.The lofty Bates Commission,which was studying the issue, wassimultaneously asked to hand inits report, even though on theoriginal schedule they were al­loted three months more. We mayhave to fight this one again. Theother two problems are still verymuch with us, at present,. thoughthey're receiving public atten­tion.

•Counterculturally, there's lots

going on here, with a number ofstreams converging in Nelson.There's a super-fine natural foodsrestaurant, The Jam Factory.Fairs areput on twice a year, withcrafts, music, etc. There are ges­talt groups there (and in Slocan),Tibetan Buddhist (a Lama resi­dent in Nelson), an environ­mental group· runs a soup-and­sandwich house, some accom­plished resident artists there.Two good alternative bookstores,one just for children's books, abulk natural food store, danceand drama groups, concerts ofvarious sorts fairly frequently.Rolfers and other body-workpeople, a China-Canada Friend­ship League chapter, Sierra Clubchapter, alternative home­energy business (wood stoves,etc.; now designing and buildingpassive solar houses), activewomen's centre, and so on. All ofthese things seem to be of interestmostly to people who've movedinto the area from somewhereelse; I'd imagine that this fact hasparallels in other regions. There'sa health-food store in Nelsonthat's been around for longerthan I've been here. It's run bya middle-aged Doukhobor man,and has a lot of long-haired cus­tomers, but many Doukhoborcustomers too, who have knownthe owner for many years. Hespeaks Russian to them, and Eng­lish to us. The people who en­counter one another in the storeare real friendly. It's nice.

Reflecting on the Doukhobor/New Settler relationship onceagain, I'd have to say that gen­erally the most empathy is therewhen there is a shared sense ofeconomic fate: the specific kindsof work people commonly get,the pressures of inflation andtaxes, the fact that few peoplehere are getting rich I

und'erstand the marijuana, thesplit-ups amongcouples, our min­imal consumer interest, or ourfrequent favoring of 'environ­mental' over 'employment-op­portunity' values.

.By now, most of the hippiecommunes, as such, have dis­banded, too. The engrained orpreferred individualism of theparticipants, the mobility towhich they were accustomed,their range of opinions and in­terests, the instability of couplerelationships within the group,and other factors eventuallydecimated their numbers, re­sulting in people wanting theirown piece of land, or sub-divid­ing the communal land, or mov­ing away. But many of us are still

. here in the West Kootenays,maybe a thousand or more (in­cluding our kids). There's lots ofus still gardening; some operating'alternative' busmesses like nat­ural food stores, small lumbermills, horse logging operations,craftwork, etc. There's probablymore relaxed interaction amonglong-time residents, Doukhoborand otherwise, and us 'new­comers' now than when I movedhere eight years ago; and it prob­ably has something to do withour becoming more realisticabout the actualities of life inthis area.000

in Canada are being considere~for development to off-set thepower losses that will result.Also, we have now found thatthe Regional Energy Bill (S-885),that is being pushed by SenatorJackson, has clauses in it to assist·the development of nuclearpower (which will be very ex­pensive) by using hydro power(cheap) to blend the costing.Therefore, we are in the positionof subsidizing the nuclear in­dustry with power from B.C.­power which will be sold cheaperto the U.S. in many instancesthan its cost to the residentialuser in Canada.

You might ask why I am in­volved in all this since I do nothave power delivered to myhome, but you must realize thatthere are roads being plannedon the Stikine River for con­struction this coming summer,and that our power authorityis making moves in several water­sheds at once, often withouthearings and without legal man­date to initiate these develop­ments. We have to create systemsof communication and perhapsstronger actions from a base inrural locations. So far, the bulkof city dwellers have no incli­nation to support those in thehinterlands.

Wales Island, just opposite theQueen Charlottes) has built itsroad out of the tailings and could Doukhobor neighbors of theirhave released a substantial con- generation: color TV sets, a fridgetamination into the surrounding full of beer, Sears type livingmarine environment. room furniture. Many of the

This case is particularly of Doukhobors are employed in theconcern to myself and my friends regional mining, smelting, log-who are going to be depending ging, and lumber industries, ason the seaweed harvests for a QUEEN well as in the local Department ofmajor source of income. The Highways. I would say that many

h h I k CHARLOTTEspecies w ic we are 00 ing at of them are still suspicious of theas the most attractive have been ISLANDS Canadian government. To thealso reported in the scientific extent that they participate incommunity as the species which Canadian politics, they tend, as ahave the highest biological fix- ~ group, to favor the New Demo-ation rates known from studies 5 cratic Party (somewhere in thedone in other areas. (In the Irish :: area of social democracy to stateSea, Porphyra, which is used to ~ socialist). Among themselves, themake layerbread, created a con- t5 Doukhobors are split into a num-dition of critical proportions in ~ ber of factions, and there is someheavy consumers near the Eng- J:"ct...,,,, interfactional strife every nowlish Windscale re-processing ~~(l'}- and again over religious andplant; the giant brown aIgaes, --...... social matters. There are stillattractive to the B.C. Govern- '- some leaders who claim a pro--.-.ment to be developed near Mas- phetic role in relation to theirset, have some of the highest J 1R people.known rates of plutonium and oe USS Some Doukhobors have beenpolonium-a uranium decay Slocan Valley, B.C. very friendly to the long-hairedelement-uptake.) . . . newcomers who began moving

Another interesting question The West Kootenay area into the area around twelve oris the treatment of the native (particularly the Slocan thirteen years ago-there's onepeoples in B.C. as compared to Valley, where I live, and the warm-hearted older couple justthose in Alaska. There have been d down the road whom I particu-communities in an aroundmany devastating attacks on the larly enjoy visiting with-butindigenous peoples in S.E. Alaska the towns of Castlgar, Trail, others have been more stand-in the past, but at least they have and Crand Forks) is still offish, even hostile. This maybeen recognized as having rights, homeland to many break down roughly into agein the past few years, and there Doukhobors. They are, groups, with the elders (60s &70shas been a settlement. This is not I think, the largest ethnic being friendly, the middle-agersthe case in B.C. What this means group in the area. The older (35-50s) less amiable, and thein terms of law is not something generation (sar over-50) youngers tending to be friendly,I wish to address-the natives remembers the communes too. But that's very general. Somehave good legal counsel-but it vividly-sometimes fondly, of the Doukhobors saw us youth-has a great effect· on' the com- sometimes with embarrass- ful social experimenters as theirmunicationsbetween non-natives spiritual children (nephews?),

ment-but I don'tand natives. In Alaska, there is and others resented things .likea much better communication. I know of any etisting how much easier it was for us towas able to return to Alaska and Doukhobor communes. find an alternative to publicvisit with friends, both native and Most live in nuclear or school for our children, and howwhite, aftera 13 year period of ex- somewhat-extended families, we were able to get governmentiJe. I had a good basis to compare frequently on ten or twenty grants for community projects.the feelings I got with those of acres of land with a nice It was only after the newcomersworking for several years with garden and orchard, were here in Hills (unincorporat-(and for) natives in B.C. I.·.attrib- with many relatives living ed community, north of Newute the better feelings in Alaska b Denver) for about ten years thatto the fact that the people there near y. we were invited to share the usehave had the recognition of their of the Doukhobor recreation hallposition and a basic settlement. The way of life of mainstream and playground. But we're still

These are the types of prob- rural BC has influenced them not considered part of the 'offi­lems that I feel come under re- greatly; and though they often cial' (Doukhobor) community.gional responsibilities. If there try to keep their taxes down by (Alas, this maybe the fate of 'new­is no other way than expropria- leaving their homes unfinished on comers' everywhere.) There's de­tion of the responsibilities into the outside, the interior of homes finitely an us-and-them situationregional hands, then so be it. reflects the adoption of the simple here, though not a hostile one.If we are able to educate the. worldly values of their non- Doukhobors, as a group, don'tgovernment departments, then .. ....we need to do this-after all theyare just people-but failing theirwillingness to learn, we musttake action to survive as com­munities and as people.

At this time there are hearingstaking place in Vancouver underthe National Energy Board ofCanada to review the applica­tions by B.C. Hydro to export10 billion kilowatt hours of elec­tricity per year to the U.S. forthe next 5 years. This amountsto about 40% of the productioninB.C. atthis time, and it is wide­ly held that our power authori­ty is using this move as a spring­board to develop more dams inthe north of the Province.

The B.C. Energy Coalitionis acting as an intervenor in thesehearings, along with other groupslike the Union of B.C. IndianChiefs. We have been very busygetting information about the de­velopments of energy legislationintheU.S. andmore-or-Iesssecretdevelopments by B.C. Hydro (of­ten totally without permission) tobuild roads and powerlinesthrough areas which are claimedby various Indian Bands, or existas wilderness at this time.

The work we aredoing also triesto relate what the benefits ofconservation measures and small­scale community power projectscould be, as opposed to large­scale developments. We wantpeople to understand that asenvironmental priorities areraised in the U.S., so that mini­mum flows are guaranteed instreams in the Columbia drain­age and other reclamation movesare made. Virgin watersheds

•

Dug DobynsQueen Charlotte Islands

Dear Planet Drum-

Most of my time thissummer was spent on theQueen Charlotte Islands,fishing and helping to buildup a little trading companythat has its centre on theNorthwest tip of thenorthern island. These peoplehave obtained a permitto hand-harvest seaweedfor organic food stores.They have been makingtrading trips up theNass River as well, to tradefor oolichan grease-and this Fall went up withdried seaweed, halibut,snapper, and other seafoods.

In previous journeys, whenthese people have retunied to theQueen Charlottes they have goneinto the Haida village in Massetand given jars of grease to thegrandparents. The idea of gettinga trade economy established be­tween regions is one which hasbeen around for a long time. Thequestion is, at what distance andin which political context?

The reason that I'm mention­ing this is because I feel that acertain resistance to inter-re­gional trade exists in much of thePlanet Drum community. Thefood for a people in a regionshould come from that region­this is a very often-stated tenetof regionalism.

In regards to the region re­ferred to as the Northwest NationI would give a different bound­ary. The Queen Charlottes andthe Islands of the Haida in South­ern Alaska; Skeena & Nass; Stik­ine; Taku(withAtlin&Carcross);Chilkat & Tatshenshini (withHaines and Yakutat); Islandsof the Tlingit. Of course thisreally is a problem, because itincludes both territory in theState of Alaska and in the Prov­ince of B.C. (and a couple ofcommunities in the Yukon Ter­ritory). But there is either thisone big territory, or else one willhave to look at the NorthwestNation, asRaisetheStakes1 has it,as 3 smaller nations-the QueenCharlotte Islands, Nass-Skeena,and the Stikine.

The point is, there are somebig problems in this whole areathat stem from the internationalboundary between Canada andthe United States. We need tomake some real attempts to lessenthe effect that this has had ondeveloping a regional culture,and by creating an exchange ofregional products we will beginto have a way to share some ofthe basic identities with ourenvironment.

One factor in the exchangeis the different resource policiesin B.C. and Alaska. This goesinto a great complexity. Oneexample is the difference in log­ging practices, which DougAberly has drawn out so well.(Ed. note: Raise the Stakes #1.)Another is the practice of urani­um mining. In B.C., we areholding hearings about the pol­lution problems that might resultfrom uranium mining, and thereis at least a good chance that thistype of mining will be restrictedfrom the Province. In Alaskathere has been mining for sometime. In one instance, a minenear the boundary (on Prince of

SAMILAND

on

Page 6

Continued

C~LES OF CORRESPONDENCE . . . Page 5

I. refuge to the famine victims of. '., . Bangladesh, helping in the recon-

struction of earthquake-tornGuatemala, or more recently,aiding the boatpeople of Viet­nam, the SOP has60ught to main­tain this image of cooperationwith respect to the North-Southcontroversy. So to have the Samesencamped in Oslo demandingpolitical changes, and mobilizingthe Norwegian community be-

1979. Using the sit-in tactics, hind them, was something thechains, and persuasive discus- government could neither wit­sions so often employed else- ness nor tolerate given their inter­where, the 150 occupiers success- national reputation. On Octoberfully stopped construction that IS, the government conceded today, and for the next 104 there- Folkeaksjonen when it an­after, as more than 1500 people nounced that construction at­occupied the site. Fortunately for tempts would be halted, andthe occupiers, a number of further discussions would takewrinkles in the political situation place in the NVE and the Stortingdeveloped, which prevented concerning Same rights.either their removal or effective If it appeared that the SOParrest, and reflect how the cur- government had truly changed itsrent nature of Norwegian society position, those hopes were soontolerates the tactics of nonviolent dashed after the agreement. Thedirect action. newly appointed Environment

One involved the police who, Minister, Rolf Hansen, cancelledin large numbers, either refused a scheduled meeting with Folk­to be sent north out of sympathy eaksjonen on October 29, in a re­with the issue, or collaborated buffof the group's status with thewith Folkeaksjonen by telling people, the Same's right to thethem the official plans in ad- land, and their willingness tovance. The chairmen of the Po- continue discussion with thelice Union, meanwhile, openly government.questioned the use of the police The political manueveringsfor such a "political" issue, there- that took place in Oslo in theby underlining the fact that con- wake of Folkeaksjonen's directstruction on Alta was tied to other action tactics, were taken to bol­maneuverings in Oslo. ster the slim margin Prime Minis-

As for the Army, the only other ter Nordli and his party hold overforce available in this nation of the Conservatives and Christian4 Vz million people, at least 200 Democrats. Elections are sched­riot troops were on call during the uled for just two years away, andsummer. But their employment with every opposition party pub­would have created a political re- licly against construction in Finn­action more serious than the sit- mark, the SOP politically cannotuation called for at the time. The afford to loose the issue, as energylast person to use military force development of the northernagainst the people was Vidkun waterways along with the NorthQuisling in a repression of an Sea oil constitutes the centerpieceelectrical workers strike in 1932. of its economic picture for theQuisling later formed the fascist future.party in the country, was a mem- In the decades ahead, the SOPber-of the Nazi's occupation gov- hopes to increase Norway's ex­ernment that destroyed nearly ports of both electricity and oil toevery house in Finnmark in 1943, provide the capital for a programand eventually was executed of expansion of its industrial base,after the War. No one in the gov- and overcome its dependence onernment was willing to risk the earnings from the agricultural,comparison, so the occupiers fishing, and textile sectors. Earn­remained. ings from the sale of electricity to

A permanent camp was even- Sweden and Denmark total near­tually established at Detsika, on Iy $800,000 a day, and could in­10 acres of land west of the Alta crease if export began to powerfulriver. Until September 7, the Common Market countries likecamp served as a base of opera- West Germany. By the 1990's,tions, as over 6,500 people from the vast oil reserves of the North20 nations visited the site, took Sea will constitute 20-25 % of thepart in the series of actions, or GNP, and 40-45% of Norway'sotherwise mixed with the Same total exports. However, opposi­residents, sharing information or tion to this program has surfacedtaking in the harvests from the on a variety of fronts, and par­lands. A permanent occupation ticularly threatens the continu­force of400 was maintained until ance of State-direction in thethe return to school of its large economy by the SOP. The oppo­student population forced its clo- sition Conservatives and Chris­sure. A smaller replacement was tian Democrats are more inclinedbuilt a Stilla, and occupied by to seek official entry into thethe Sames until October 19. Common Market, and generally

By this time the movement's "open up" the economy to privateleaders had realized that it need- banks and international firms.ed to eIVploy more than just pas- Except during the era of occu­sive resistance to halt construc- pation, the Social Democrats oftion: it wanted the government to Norway have ruled for an un­concede defeat, and announce a broken period of nearly 40 years.change in policy. So in early Oc- Pursuing this cradle to grave sys­tober, Folkeaksjonen took the is- tern of capitalism, the Laborsue to the Storting, while support Party can boast of governingactions were held throughout the while the per capita income ofcountry, and the camp at Stilla Norwegians is ranked fourth (atremained active. On October 9 $9,850) among Western capitalistand 10, a small group of Sames countries. Yet this program isset up camp in the park leading to maintained, in part, by a taxa­the front doors of the Storting, tion rate of nearly 40% andand at once, made headlines that where discontent has erupted intook the issue out of the far north. Oslo for the second year in a row,They were eventually arrested, as nearly 3,000 people rioted ononly to return with a permanent May 1, looting stores and officescamp supported by 200 people. A and battling with the police in anhunger strike was also initiated, action that even the press re­with the demands that the gov- ported was a conscious rejectionernment stop construction and of authority.re-open negotiations. Recent events in Sweden also

The presence of an embattled point to the fact that social de­Same community in front of the mocracy has come to a crossroadStorting was becoming difficult that' ect the future direc­for the ruling Social Democrats. ~ ...-:::: .Over the years, the SOP has cul- ~

tivated a posture of humanitar- ~

ianism with respect to the Third. Cf!iWorld. Whether it was offering ~~

Social Democracy in Crisis

Folkeaksjonen necessarily beganto take on a direction and com­position that placed it within theanti-nuclear/safe energy move­ments of the industrialized West.People from Denmark, Sweden,andWest Germany came to Finn­mark in large numbers in 1979.Helge Mathisen, an organizer forFolkeaksjonen in Bergen, ac­knowledged the relationshipwhen he said that "Yes, definitelythere is a connection betweenprotecting Samish waterwaysand nuclear reactors. Those whooppose [construction on] Alta,also oppose nuclear plants andlarge scale energy developmentconnected with the CommonMarket and the International En­ergy Agency." It is this consor­tium of Western Europe, Japan,and the United States that haspushed the development of en­ergy sources capable of blunt­ing the dependence on OPEC oil,and securing the economic andpolitical stability for capitalismlost after the 1973 oil boycott.The result has been a relentlessprogram of construction from theBasque region of Spain to thecoast of Brittany, as each govern­ment has pursued energy devel­bpment for its own domesticbase.

Folkeaksjonen is presentlycommitted to nonviolence, notbecause of the pacifism of Gandhior King, but because of certainelements in Sameculture, and thepresent bourgeois democraticnature of Norwegian societywhich reinforce this direction.Tore Bongo, a Same resident ofAlta who has worked against theplant since 1973, pointed out that"before they [the Europeans]came, we did not have the wordwar in our language; we have notfought amongst ourselves likeyour tribes. We have heard ofGandhi and the others, but wehave not studied them. Folkeaks­jonen is for all the people of thearea. We know it is right, the peo­ple like it better than guns, andthe police do not act like in yourcountry."

The years of systematic inte­gration with the values and struc­tures of Norwegian society have,however, left their mark on boththe individual psychology andsocial patterns of the people. Be­ginning in the 1920's, the north­ern schools did not permit theteaching of the native Samisklanguage to children. Thoughthis policy was reversed by thegovernmentin the early 1970's, ithas met with uneven success,while the impact of the climate ofthe past has been more serious."After so many years," remarkedTerje Danielsen, a social workerliving in Bergen and active inFolkeaksjonen, "a Same dressesand tries to speak like a Norwe­gian. He tries to forget he is aSame, because he is ashamed."

For the Same communities,there has been the continued de­velopment of its lands, providingthe benefits of industrial society,yet imposed in such a mannerthat overlooks their politicalrights, and threatens to exhaustthe traditions of their culture.The most endangered element inthis situation is that of reindeerbreeding in the northern lands.In 1978, a reindeer breeding actwas passed in the Storting thathas amounted to a new version ofenclosure: both the amount ofland and the number of familymembers engaged in this activityare regulated, while ownership ofthe land remains with the govern­ment. Though a scant 8 % of theSames are engaged in the breed­ing, its practice represents themost conscious assertion of Sameculture. Their efforts to maintainsome independence have ledthem to accept treaties and laws,until by 1979 they initiated directaction.

At Stilla, a remote section ofland about 20 miles south of Alta,Folkeaksjonen met the construc­tion crews and police on July 5,

energy projects in Sameland, dis­placing the people to exploit thewaterways of the north for the in­dustrialized centers of the south.This has created a hardship andbitterness in the people, to an ex­tent that the Nordic Same Coun­cil, representing Sames through­out Scandanavia, would declarethat "We have experienced howthe land where we live and en­dured has been taken from us . . .[and how]. We have experiencedthe destruction of our traditionsand cultural heritage. We areSames and want to remainSames."

After petitioning the Storting(Parliament) in Oslo for nearly10 years, and holding votes in thelocal governments that rejectedthe NVE's proposals, the peoplewere still faced with a confronta­tion over the proposed dam. OnNovember 30, 1978, the Stortingvoted in favor of an NVE-backedresolution that would impose ahalt to all further construction bythe Sames in their villages alongthe Alta river, and provide for theinevitable displacement of thepeople. But beyond this develop­ment were the wider politicalconsequences: the continuederosion of the people's economyand culture thru imposed in­dustrialization.

It was shortly after this votethat the residents of Finnmarkadopted the strategy of the Folk­eaksjonen (People's Action), andextended their struggle into non­violent direct action. A nationalmovement then develpped, thatreflected both the politics of ecol­ogy and safe energy now of con­cern to the industrialized West,and the political ri~hts of an in­digenous people fighting to main­tain their independenpe.

On January 16, 1979, just twodays before the Polar Darknesswould once again give way tolight, the people met in the class­rooms of the village school, andagreed to the principles and strat­egy of Folkeaksjonen. By the endof the year, Folkeaksjonen wouldhave local groups in 42 communi­ties, and nearly 20,000 members.

.As the movement developed,

Yet today, the real implicationsof this history continue to lie inthe political situations that thesepeople experience with the na­tional governments they live un­der. Just as the Sioux tribes thatoccupy the Black Hills are nowfaced with the expropriation ofthe wealth of their land, so arethe Sames of Finnmark Countyconfronted with an identicalprospect: that the Norwegiandrive to create energy, under thejustification of remaining self­sufficient, will ruin the variedecology that is the land's treasure,and continue the erosion of aSamish culture that has survivedfor centuries under the shadowsof the Midnight Sun,

_ ~~i:~.l_~

~1'IJ>1II&J~1.";:~<"':;~~~.::?~~{~~;::';;~~~,;David Pingitore

I

In the nearly untouched forests and deltas of Norway'snorthern counties live the Sames (saw-mes), or Lappsas the West has come to call them. A nation of 50,000people, their nomadic heritage on these lands goes backfor centuries prior to the settling of Scandanavia by theEuropeans, and the creation of the Norwegian State,

As a people rooted to theland well before the expansionof Western society into thenorth, the political historyand culture of the Samepeople resembles that of theNative Americans. For as thebuffalo influenced the patternof life for the tribes of theGreat Plains, the reindeeronce occupied a similarposition for the Sames in theirlands that stretch acrossNorthern Scandanavia andthe Soviet Union.

Polar Colonialism

What is currently at stake, isthe outcome of a 12-year struggleover whether the NorwegianElectricity Board (NVE) will beable to dam the Alta-Kautokeinowatercourse, a vast network ofwaters and delta land thatbranches thru the length of thecounty, Since the proposal wasfirst announced in 1968, theSame and Norwegian residents ofFinnmark have fought the NVE'sintention to construct the 660,000to 1,400,000 Mega Watt station,

Within the Alta watershed sys­tem are lakes, marsh land andrich deltas, and upland plateauscovered with forests, providin&one of the largest bird sanctuariesleft in the nation, and markingthe northern boundary for pinetrees in Norway. A massive off­shore fishing industry providesnearly 500 million kilos to the na­tion's yearly catch, and alongwith agriculture, hunting, andreindeer breeding, provide theeconomy for Alta, a village of13,000 Norwegians and Sames.

The NVE plans call for the con­struction of a dam 110 meters(330 ft.) tall, and the flooding ofnot only the largest canyon inNorthern Europe, but the Samevillage of Masi itself, placing itunder 10 meters of water in thespring.

Over the last few years, Nor­way and its Scandanavian neigh­bors have developed at least 100

BRITTANYThe Last 20 Years:

The Post-WWI Generation

they had. And to ensure this, theyreasoned, their children mustlearn French, and abandonBreton.

Twenty years ago Brittany'spopulation consisted of 3 millionnative, plus more that 1 millionemigrants. The economy wasprimarily agricultural. Most ofthe farm holdings being too smallto afford a fair standard of living.Lack of employment in industrycontinued to force a high pro­portion of young people to leave.French media and state agencieshad been at work for 100 yearsto destroy the sense of Bretoncommunity, instilling shame andcontempt for its language, foster­ing the notion that the countrywas too poor and too backwardto support itself, while extollingFrance's military power and cul­ture.

But opposition to this assimi­lation was organized during theinter-war period by the BretonNational Party of Breizh Atae.Following the example givenby other small nations strugglingfor liberation, the nationalistleaders sought help from Germa- ,ny, the only foreign power dis­posed to give it, as WWII drewnearer. The retaliation which fol­lowed the return of French powerafter WWII was applied indis­criminately to all Breton-mindedactivists. Those who escapedphysical repression were forcedinto a mental ghetto.

But, from the ashes of theBreton disaster following WWIIarose a renewed, and, perhapseven more fervent interest in anddevotion to Breton culture andBrittany.

Many cultural organizationsblossomed: especially organiza­tions devoted to the traditionaldances and music like the Boda­degarSonerienandCeltic Circles.

To satisfy UNESCO, 30 min­utes a week of Breton programswerebroadcast from a short rangeradio station and a law was passedin 1951 allowing optional Bretonlessons 1-houra week in the termi­nal classes of secondary schools.

In 1959 began the series of mas­sive farmer revolts, which con­tinued throughout the sixties.Attended by crowds of up to120,000 throughout Brittany,they were marked by road blocks,railway barricades, tractor pa­rades, the dumping of tons ofcauliflower, artichokes, and po­tatoes in town streets.

There were clashes betweenfarmers and French riot policein February 1967 in Kemper in

Treaty of Union (1532)

1) No tax levied at Paris couldbe collected in Brittanywithout the prior consentof the Breton government.

2) Revenue from certain toxeslevied in Brittany werereserved exclusively for usein Brittany.

3) Theiuridicialsovereigntyof the Parliament ofBrittany, and the right ofBretons to have their casestried in Breton courtswould be maintained.

4) No Breton could becompelled to serve in royalarmies outside of Brittany.

5) No alteration in thelegislation, the institutions,or the customs ofBrittanycould be made without theexpressed consent of theBreto!, government. i"

ducal crown. She, and Brittany,were married to Charles, andFrance, in 1491.

Mter Anne's death some yearslater, with no Breton "ruler" tolook out for Breton interests inthe French kingdom, a "TreatyofUnion" was drawn up, betweenthe Breton Parliament and theFrench Kingdom. It stipulates:

In 1788 the Breton Parliamentwas dissolved by Louis XVI.After the French Revolution theformer province of Brittany wasincorporated into the new de­partmental administrative struc­ture of France.

The degree of success in bring­ingBrittany into the lap ofFrenchsociety can best be measured bythe vigor of the Breton language.Up until WWI Brittany was, forall intents and purposes, Breton­speaking ... obstinatelyso. Thosepeople who'd moved up in theworld-off the farm and into thecities-swallowed all the Frenchtheycould. But, back on the farm,Breton lived, and the old way oflife flourished. Then came WWI.240,000Bretons died-doublethenumberofcasualties for the entirerest of France. And with themdied Brittany's innocence. AfterWWI the Breton people, havingrubbed shoulders with a larger,faster inovingworld, decided thattheir children would not suffer as

BRITTANY by Laurie Fadave

EUROPE: WHAT DO CENTRALIST POLICIESwhich 280 people were wounded. answer to the violenceLeading these farm protests were manifesting itself daily in thethe poets of the new generation form ofunemployment,of Bretons, men like Glenmor emigration, vexQtion andand Per Denez. repression against tens of

Throughout this period, it thousands of our people, inremained the policy of the French particular the young, whogovernment to keep Brittany claim the right to work andunder-developed, thus pressuring live with dignity in Brittany.the young people into leavingtheir homeland to become assimi­lated into the mainstream ofFrench society. Some gruesomefigures from the mid-60's attestto this: In 1960 the number ofagricultural workers in Brittanywas 816,000: this fell to 317,000by 1966.

One might hope the bulk ofthese nearly 500,000 workershad been absorbed into new in­dustries in Brittany. But, in 1960there were 162,000 industrialworkers, and by 1966 this figurehad dropped to 147,000. In 1967investments in Brittany haddropped 31 % from the previousyear's figure.

On the cultural front, grass­roots organizations kept petition­ing government agencies for theright to have Breton taught inthe schools-for more than thatoneoptional hour per week grant­ed them in 1951. But petitionswith 150,000 signatures were ig­nored. Frustrated with using deafand blind bureaucratic channels,natives turned to other means tocall attention to Brittany's strug­gle.

Itstarted in 1966and developedin 1967-68 with attacks by theFLB (Breton Liberation Front)on State installations, prefectures,police stations and tax offices.The FLB renewed attacks in the1970's, after the regional reformspromised by de Gaulle in 1969never materialized. Their mostsignificant targets to date havebeen the bombings of the Roc'hTred~don TV aerial in Octoberof1973-knocking out TV servicefor most of western Brittany, andofthe Palais de Versailles in June,1978.

One of the men, P. Loquet,brought to trial for attemptingto blow up an Agriculture Minis­try building in Nantes in July1975 stated, before his trial, thatthe FLB decision to use violencehad not been taken without re­flection and that it was motivatedby the injuries caused to the Bre­ton people by the centralisticFrench state and its administra­tion. Loquet said:

We were previously activein the political, economic,cultural, trade-unionist andecological fields and cameconstantly against thedeliberate will of establishedpower to enforce theirdecisions by all meansincluding violence. We wantto safeguard employment inour salt-marshes, uphold theright of public access to ourshores, see our rivers and thesea duly protected againstpollution, stop the recklessdestruction of our landscapeand end the catastrophicpractice of ioining togetheronce-privately owned smallfarm holdings for the sake oflarge profiteers with theencouragement of the FrenchState. We acted only in

Most people today think of Brittany as a picturesquevacation spot in the west of France, a land populatedby polite peasants in curious costumes. In truth, Brittanyhas not always been part of the French nation, nor was itfrom its earliest days destined to become a happilyintegrated province of La Belle France. Contrary to whatmost French historians would have you believe,before there was a France-Belle or otherwise-there wasa Brittany just as there was a Corsica or Basque country.

But, there is a methodto the madness of thosehistorians who'd lead youto believe the contrary.Because, in the words of oneFrench historian, ErnestRenan, "to forget . . . or toget one's history wrongare the essential factorsin the making of a nation."

And France, that is that areawhich holds Paris as its heart,stretching in all directions for25-50 miles at most, has becomean imperial state. Meaning, ofcourse, that those outlying areas,like Brittany and Corsica, whichFrance has used to extend heroriginal borders, are meant tobe a part of herself-and nothingmore.

This fact has been reiteratedthroughout French history, homthe first land clutchings duringthe Middle Ages, down to thepresent moment. In 1978, Presi­dent Giscard d'Estaing, visitingCorsica, stated emphatically thathis government is committedto "the unequivocable eradica­tion of those imbecilic and back­ward sentiments of minoritycultural nationalism. Such senti­ments only weaken the fibre ofFrench society. And peoples likethe Basques, Corsicans and Bre­tons should come into the 20thcentury'"

During the Medieval periodBrittany was an independentduchy, owing allegiance to eitherthe Norman kings of England,or the King of France~depend­ing on which way the armieswere marching at the time. How­ever, with the French monarchy'spush for more power, and, hencemore territory during the 15thcentury, Brittany was drawndeeper under French control.The period was marked withbattles and defeats for the Bre­tons, which finally ended in 1488when Breton Duke Francois IIwas stripped of his sovereignrights by French King Charles VII-of even the right to arrangea marriage for his daughter with­out the French King's consent.

Duke Francois died a monthlater, leaving his eleven year olddaughter Anne with a worthless

Page 6 ... CIRCLES OF CORRESPONDENCE

Incidentally, in their defense,the defendents refused to recog­nize the legitimacy of the Frenchcourt. They demanded a trial inBrittany for crimes committedthere, according to the statutesof the Treaty of Union in 1532.They were given 10 months inprison. Subsequent defendants,brought up before French courtsfor crimes of lesser monetarystature against the French statein the name of Brittany, havealso cited the Treaty of Union intheir defense and have receivedsentences of up to 15 years inprison. Therepressivewar againstBrittany is escalating.

There is the tragic ecologicaldisaster which struck Brittany inMarch 1978-when 230,000 tonsof crude oil gushed forth from thetanker Amoco Cadiz, and spreadalong125 miles ofBrittany's northcoast, devastating the nestinggrounds for thousands of sea­birds, and ruining the seaweedand oysterbeds, from which theregion's fishermen derive theirincome.

Compensation for this "act ofGod", as the French governmentpropaganda presents it, to dateonly totals $10,000 in damagespaid to thousands of people whosewhole family's source of incomeshave been wiped out. That's$10,000 in toto; not $10,000 perfamily. More might be paid out,at some undetermined futuredate, pending French lawsuitsagainst the Shel) Oil Company.The people's only choice at themoment is emigration.

Meanwhile, despite obviousdisapprovalon the part of govern­ment agencies and authorities,cultural awareness in the areasof dance, music, theatre, litera­ture and language in Brittanytookoff during the 60's with a momen­tum that, if anything, has onlyincreased.

The Bodadeg ar Sonerien, mu­sic groups and" Celtic Circles aretoday the pride and joy of eachlocal community. Interest intraditional music has spawnedthe formation of organizationsdevoted to the collecting of themusic and to traditional mu­sic instruction-particularly inbinou (Breton pipes), bombardeand harp.

Turned on to their heritageby contemporary bards andpoets,likeGlenmor, GillesSevvatand especially Alan Stivell, youngpeople have really taken up theirancestral language.

Stivell's cry has not goneunheard, Hep Brezhoneg,Breizhebet hep Brezhoneg,arrabat komm diwar-bennBreizh,"Without Breton, there is noBrittany. Without Breton,we can no longer speak of aBrittany:'~

000-------------------------------------------

000

SAMILAND ..•

tion of its economy, and thedemocratic nature of its society.In 1978, the country's Social De­mocratic Party led by Olaf Palmefell from power over their pro­gram of nuclear energy that hasplaced six reactors in the country,and has plans for the completionof six more. The events at ThreeMile Island added momentum tothe anti-nuclear forces in thecountry, which includes the nowruling Center Party, and theywere able to force the govern­ment to hold a national referen-

dum on the question of nuclearpower March 23 of this year.Though the opposition was de­feated in the voting, it took near­ly 40 % of the total votes cast,while Prime Minister ThorbjornFalldin of the Center Partywarned that he may not abide bythe referendum's resull:s, and willseek a moratorium on furtherconstruction.

Simiid AEdnan/Same Land

From their perspective, theproblems that confront the Sames

and the actions they are nowforced to take to maintain theirnarrow independence, are plac­ing them as a people into a largerpolitical arena where interestsand perspectives come together.This fact was acknowledged byTore Bongo, when he said that"this is the first time that Samesand Norwegians have workedtogether. Though it is mostlyNorwegians who live in Finn­mark, we work very well togeth­er, and feel energized becausenow this forces the government todiscuss our rights."

This new understanding hasalso come about through the rec­ognition that the Same's relation­ship to the government is sharedby many other people throughoutthe world. In 1975, the WorldCouncil of Indigenous Peoplesmet in Port Alberni, Canada,bringing together native peo­ples from Australia, Greenland,North and South America, andScandanavia. What was pro­duced there was the beginnings ofa native peoples movement, di­rected not only against the poli­tical disregard and impositions of

national governments, but to­ward the unification of a peoplewho, in both historical and sym­bolic terms, live on the edge ofnational borders, and are mar­ginal to each country's citizen­ship.

These contacts continued inSweden in 1978, and areplanned again for the summerof 1980, when indigenouspeople meet in Geneva,Switzerland under a UnitedNations framework.

CIRCLES OF CORRESPONDENCE . . , Page 7

FROM PARIS AND LONDON HAVE IN COMMON?

000

Director: Paul Temperton

Telephone:Hebden Bridge 3962

Isn't your campaign just partof a backlash against

devolution for Scotlandand Wales?

No. We are not a politicalparty but an all-party pressuregroup. Most of the people so farinvolved in the Campaign al­ready belong to one or other ofthe three main parties, and re­main committed there. Insteadwe want our supporters to workthrough the existing parties, andindeed through trade unions andany other organisations to whichthey belong, by spreading aware­ness of our belief in self-govern­ment for the North and trying toconvert them to that view. Formore information, contact:Campaign for the North,Birchcliffe Centre, Birch­cliffe Road, Hebden Bridge,West Yorkshire HX7 8DG

Does that mean you wanta completely separate state,

cut of( from the UnitedKingdom?

No. The devolved regionswould remain in the UK. But wehave to break up the centralisedmonolith so that we can negotiatefreely with each other how far wewant certain things decided on acommon basis for the whole UK.

Is the Campaign going to putup candidates at elections?

No. The Campaign for theNorth supports those in Scotlandand Wales who are demandinga measure of self-government;we hope they will in turn supportour demands. Unfortunately thepress, both in London and Scot­land, has tended to suggest thatEnglish regionalism is in somestrange way the opposite of devo­lution for Scotland and Wales­whereas what ought to havedeveloped, and what we will tryto promote, is a coalition of forces(Scottish, Welsh and NorthernEnglish) demanding decentrali­sation and opposing their com­mon enemy-the concentrationof power and resources inLondon.

tality, making trips to Whitehallto extract as much regional doleas they can. Government aid mayencourage big business to site afactory in the North, but the oddsare that it will be a branch fac­tory employing low-wage labor,the boss will still be in London(or New York), and when theeconomic climate worsens it willbe the firstto close down. Indeed,many such factories have closeddown the moment the Govern­ment aid ran out. All the powerremains in the South-East, andthe net effect is in fact to increasethe long-term dependency of the"assisted areas" on London.Instead, the severe economicproblems of the North, like thoseof Scotland and Wales, must besolved by the people who livethere, and they must be giventhe powers and resources to do so.

people do not live in the South­Eastern corner of the country.We say that the Northern identityshould no longer be somethingyou have to discard or hide if youwant to "get on" in London­chauvinist Britain. We want peo­ple in the North to be proud oftheir distinctness, for diversity isstrength. The North must start torediscover its soul.

But aren't regional aid policiescorrecting all this nowadays?

But London is the capitalafter all, and surelyeverycountry must have a big

capital city?

In fact, Britain has one of thelargest populations in the worldto be governed from one centreby a single Parliament and a cen­tralised civil service. In the de­veloped western world, onlyFrance can match Britain's de­gree of centralisation for sucha large population. Concentrat­ing all major decision-making inone large capital has a centralis­ing effect on all aspects of life. Avicious circle is set up whereby or­ganisations of all kinds-com­merce, labour, pressure groups,the media, as well as cultural andother amenities-feel they mustbe based where the governmentis. Power and wealth are suckedinto the centre (or rather the cor­ner)-on practically any measureof affluence the South-East cor­ner of the country comes outmuch more prosperous than theNorth-and so is talent, for allnational career structures leadthere. The rest of the country iscorrespondingly ignored or re­garded as a mere hinterland tothe capital, and its potential isstultified. Thus much of theNorth suffers from economicneglect, relative poverty anddereliction, and high unemploy­ment-and from outward migra­tion as our young people moveaway to the lusher pastures andbetter opportunities of the South­East.

Regional economic, employ­ment and industrial policies ofsuccessive governments, createdas palliatives from above ratherthan constructive policies frombelow, have in fact almost whollyfailed to correct regional inequal­ities because they have attemptedto tackle the symptoms withouttouching the root cause of thehouble--the centralised system.lnstead, they have afflicted ourlocal politicians, trade unionleaders and businessmen with asubservient begging-bowl men-

Restructuring the machineryof government is a very

boring subject-is that allyour Campaign is about?

ing an impression of a stupid per­son they frequently adopt an im­itation Northern accent), thatnearly all serious BBC pro­grammes are peopled over­whelmingly with the regional ac­cent of the South-East (Northernvclices are fine for light entertain­ers and trade union leaders), thatwhen people talk about a "typicalEnglishman" they usually meansomeone with the typical out­look, values and speech of South­Eastern England. Yet 75 % of the

Not at all. We want to developpeople's sense of identity as beingNorthern as well as British, andwe feel that the North's tradition­al distinctness in a great manyspheres deserves to be preservedand strengthened. This separate­ness appears in many ways-dif­ferences in speech patterns andlanguage, lifestyle, popular cul­ture, food, sports-anyone ofwhich may seem trivial, but all ofwhich taken together are indica­tive of the resilience of Northern­ness in the face of decades of Lon­don-chauvinist propaganda fromthe Oxbridge-centered educationsystem, the so-called "national"(Le. London) press, the grosslyover-centralised BBC, and thewhole London-based establish­ment. It is disgraceful that a "re­gional" accent is still a consider­able disadvantage in many walksof life (when Londoners are giv-

Won't this undermine thesovereignty of the UK

Parliament?

form of regional offices of govern­ment departments and a largenumber of unelected, undem­ocratic regional boards and au­thorities (water, health, econom­ic planning, tourist boards and soon); it must be made democratic.Thirdly, we would abolish one ofthe two layers of local govern­ment created in the disastrous1974 reorganisation-in mostcases the county councils. Countycouncil powers would then be re­allocated between the districtand regional levels. So thereshould be no overall increase inthe number of tiers of govern­ment or the number of officials.

The idea of governmentthrough' a single point of sover­eignty is out-of-date and inap­propriate to modern needs. Manyother democratic countries haveabandoned it. Parliament justi­fies its sovereign role from theconcept of the UK as a centra­lised unitary state-yet in thecomplex modern age it is becom­ing increasingly obvious thatBritain, or even just England, issimply much too big to be gov­erned efficiently as one unit. Par­liament and Cabinet are showingthemselves increasingly incap­able of controlling the vast a­mount of detail which govern­ment nowadays involves. It is thepeople, not a particular institu­tion, who should be sovereign.And devolution-all-round wouldleave Westminster free to dealproperly with the responsibilitieswhich suit it best-the functions(such as defence, foreign affairs,customs and currency) whichhave to be decided on an all-UKbasis.

But why split up England­surely the English regions

are not the same asScotland or Wales?

Not the same, but more com­parable with Scotland and Walesthan is England as a whole. Thereis very little sense of English (asdistinct from British) nation­hood; England is not a nation inthe sense that Scotland and Walesare nations. Rule by London overa unitary England was not fullyestablished until 1642 when theCouncil of the North, along withthe Council of Wales, was abol­ished. More to the point today,England is anything but homo­geneous-economically, cultur­ally or socially-and in manyways the North has more in com­mon with Scotland and Walesthan with the rest of England.

We have too muchgovernment already,

Why create more?

Is there any demand forregional government

in the North?

So what is the Campaign for?

It is a pressure group com­mitted to the belief that the Northof England needs the power totackle its own problems in its ownway. That means we too wantdevolution, or some form of re­gional government within theUnited Kingdom for the Northas a single unit, or with the Northdivided into two, three or four re­gions, according to what the peo­ple want. The Campaign for theNorth brings together people whoshare this belief, who want topromote it and also would like tojoin in filling out the details of justwhat sort of self-government weshould have.

The demand is beginning togrow. The Kilbrandon Commis­sion on the Constitution foundthat dissatisfaction with centra­lised government from London isactually greater in the North thanit is in Wales, and not much lessthan in Scotland. We believe thatthis dissatisfaction can and mustbe developed into a conscious andpositive demand for self-govern­ment.

NORTHUMBRIA by Colin Simms

That's not what we are pro­posing. Firstly, a lot of powerwould be shifted downwards tothe regional level so that West­minster and Whitehall would re­tain only limited all-UK functionsand be less significant in people'slives. Secondly, a regional tier ofbureaucracy already exists in the

The North of England, the fifteen million peopleliving between the Midlands and the Scottish border, con­stitutes one of the largest and most important regions notjust of Britain, but of the whole of Western Europe. It is aclearly defined region, with a considerable culturalidentity and a common economic history and prospects­despite centuries of London rule.

Yet whilst we hear a lotabout devolution to Scotlandand Wales, London govern­ment seems to assume that wein the North, who sufferfrom the same concentrationof political and economicpower in London, are contentwith our lot.

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- Page 8

RECONSTITUTING C.

A MODEL FOR REGIONALSELF-DETERMINATION

Jack Forbes

I am suggesting that we adopt an initiativewhich would provide for the possible divisionof California, subject to these new entitiesbeing admitted to the national union by Con­gress.

Very briefly, I am proposing that the votersof this state should possess the right to divideCalifornia as an inherent right of democraticself-government, provided that it be done insome kind of orderly, logical manner.

To achieve this we coulddivide California into a series of regions, as follo s:

PALOMAR(San Diego and Imperial counties);

'?"i

RAMONA(Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino);

INYO(Inyo, Mono, Alpine);

YOSEMITE(Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito,Kings, Kern, Tulare, Fresno, Merced, Mariposa, Madera,

Tulolumne, Calaveras, and Stanislaus); and

SHASTA(all of the remainder except that Riverside may join

Palomar or Ramona, Ventura may join Ramona or Yosemite,and San Joaquin may join Yosemite or Shasta).

After the initiative were passed into law those regions along theedges of present California (Shasta, Palomar, and Inyo) would beentitled to form separate states (or to join Nevada, in the case ofInyo) after appropriate elections.

The voters of Ramona and Yosemite would have to wait to set upnew states because their location precludes pulling out until after ac­tion by either Shasta or Palomar.

The proposal also provides the opportunity for Palomar and Ra­mona voters to form a single state if they wish and the same is truefor Shasta and Yosemite. The objective of this plan, in short, is notto arbitrarily chart out the future of California in some rigid waybut rather to retain a degree of flexibility.

I have not analyzed the proposed new states to see if Democratsor Republicans, Whites or Blacks, or Chicanos and Indians will gainany advantage. The reason for this "oversight" is that I consider itinherently advantageous for people of all races to possess legislativedistricts of near-neighborhood size. The number of ethnic minori­ties holding office would have to sharply increase under this planwithout, however, making any special efforts in that direction.

SHASTA

YOSEMITE

Significantly, also, thefollowing other advantageswould accrue: (1) campaigncosts would be greatly lowered,thus allowing more people torun for office without becomingindebted to special interests;(2) the cost of government, ingeneral, could be made moreconsistent with the needs ofparticular communities; (3) newcounties would doubtless becreated by the new states(especially Ramona andPalomar), thus making localgovernment more rational andresponsive (for example,breaking up huge Los Angelesand San Bernardino counties);

Riversi

(4) new constituti<make possible theof city-counties orof organization w]the duplication ofcity, county, and ~

governments; (5)fossilized school csuch as that of Lccould be broken l

recombined with (

I. The Constitution of the State of California is hereby amended toprovide for the possible division of the State of California into severalnew states, subject to the following provisions and subject to the admis­sion of any new states to the United States of America by.congress•

Page 9DIVIDING CALIFORNIA:

AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTIONOF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

••IFORNIA

were already admitted in the samemanner as the State of California op­erated between the time of its Consti­tutional Convention of 1849 and itsadmission to the United States in1850; (7) each new state shall assumeits proportionate share, based up­on percentage of California popula­tion as determined by the most proxi­mate Federal dicennial census, of thedebts and obligations of the State ofCalifornia except that Region V(Shasta) shall be required to reim­burse the State of California for thevalue of the non-portable state facili­ties located in Sacramento, said valueto be based upon square-footage re­placement cost.

c. The same procedures and obli­gations shall be mandated for Re­gions II and IV except as follows:(1) Region II (Ramona) may not pro­ceed to make a new state operationalunless either Region I (Palomar) orRegions V (Shasta) and IV (Yosemite)have voted to establish new states and(2) Region IV (Yosemite) may notproceed to make its new state opera­tional until the voters of either Re­gions I (Palomar) and II (Ramona) orof Region V (Shasta) have voted toestablish new states.

d. The counties possessing the op­tion of joining two regions may con­duct a special election at any time, ei­ther at the call of the Board of Super­visors or as a result of a petition of 5percent of the registered voters, to de­cide which region to join. If such acounty's voters decide to join a par­ticular region prior to the conductingof an election as described in (c)above they shall be entitled to votein the said region-wide election;otherWise, they shall be bound by thedecision reached by voters in theneighboring regions.

e. Nothing in the above is to pre­clude the right of the voters of RegionI (Palomar) and Region II (Ramona)from joining with Riverside Countyto create a single state OT to elect to re­main as the State of California in theevent that Regions IV and V elect toform new states.

£. Nothing in the above is to pre­clude the right of the voters of RegionV (Shasta) and Region IV (Yosemite)from joining with San Joaquin Coun­ty in reaching a decision to form asingle state or to elect to remain as theState of California in the event thatRegions I and II elect to form newstates.

a. Region III (lnyo) will be re­quired to join the State of Nevada assoon as the legislature of the said stateagrees to the said joining and to theassumption of the portion of the Stateof California's bonded indebtednessand other financial liabilities directlyrelated to Region III or apportion­able to Region IlIon the basis of theregion's percentage of California'spopulation as determined by themost proximate Federal dicennialcensus.

b. Regions I (Palomar) and V(Shasta) shall proceed to establishnew states in the following manner:(1) the members of the CaliforniaState Senate, and of the CaliforniaState Assembly having their principalplaces of residence within one of thesaid regions, and of the members ofthe county boards of supervisors rep­resenting counties within each of thesaid regions, shall convene withinthirty days of the election in meetingscalled by the Secretary of State ofCalifornia; (2) each said meetingshall constitute a constitutional con­vention for each region but said con­ventions shall be authorized solely toadopt the existing Constitution andlaws of the State of California as theinterim constitution and laws of thenew states until such time as a regularconstitutional convention is chosenby the voters of the new state; pro­vided, however, that the said Consti­tution of the State of California maybe modified to provide for an interimunicameral legislature for the saidnew states; upon the completion ofthe above, the Secretary of State ofCalifornia, acting on behalf of thenew states, shall formally requesttheir admission to the United Statesof America; (3) within sixty days ofthe convening of the above meetingsspecial elections shall be held in eachnew state to elect a complete slate ofstatewide officers and legislators,to serve for the same length of time asif they were serving in the State ofCalifornia; (4) in the same electionrepresentatives to the United StatesCongress shall be elected, provided,however, that they cannot assume of­fice without the concurrence of saidCongress; (5) the expenses of the saidmeetings and elections shall be borneby the State of California but shall bereimbursed by the new state withintwo fiscal years; (6) until such a timeas the said Congress admits the newstates they shall operate as if they

Region IV - YOSEMITEshall consist in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey,

San Benito, Kern, Tulare, Kings, Fresno, Merced, Mariposa,Madera, Tulolumne, Calaveras, and Stanislaus counties

Region V - SHASTAshall consist in Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Alameda, San Mateo,

San Francisco, Contra Costa, Amador, Sutter, Sacramento,El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Solano, Napa, Sonoma,

Marin, Yuba, Nevada, Butte, Colusa, Lake, Glenn, Tehama,Lassen, Plumas, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Mendocino,

Humboldt, and Del Norte counties.

(2) Riverside County voters may elect to join Region I or Region II;Ventura County voters may decide to join Region II or Region IV; andSan Joaquin may decide to join Region IV or Region V.

C. Upon approval of this amendment to the Constitution by a major­ity of the state's voters the following shall be mandated:

(1) The voters of each of the above regions shall be authorized toseparately hold elections to establish new states, said elections to be heldat the next regular statewide election following the validation of a peti­tion containing the signatures of at least five percent of, each of the re­gion's registered voters. Region III (Inyo) shall be authorized only to holdan election to determine whether or not a majority of the region's voterswish to join the State of Nevada. However, if the vote is negative, thenthe said voters of Region III may vote to join Region IV (Yosemite).

(2) If a majority of voters in any given region vote to establish anew state, or, in the case of Region III (Inyo) votes to join the State ofNevada, the following actions are mandated:

B. (1) For the purposes of dividing the State of California the territoryof said state shall be divided into five regions, as follows:

Region I - PALOMARshall consist in San Diego and Imperial counties

Region II - RAMONAshall consist in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino counties

Region III - INYOshall consist in Inyo, Mono, and Alpine counties

A. The voters of the State shall possess the right to divide the state orto join another state as an inherent right of democratic self-governmentprovided that it be done in an orderly manner as prescribed below.

)....

Many of us might have avision of what we want Shasta orYosemite to be like in 2000. Wemight still want the Eel and theKlamath to flow to the sea. Wemight want to see green hillsbetween Oakland andSacramento. We might want tofish in unpolluted streams, orride bicycles along bike pathsstretching from sea tomountains.

Whatever it is that we wantfor Shasta or Yosemite, atpresent, is not a dream but anillusion. Why? Because we donot have the majority vote overour own fate. Palomar andRamona (southern California)possess veto-power over allour wishes, and that is a politicalfact of life.

But I don't propose to pitregion against region. All partsof the state can benefit fromdivision and it is in that spiritthat this plan is offered.

that currently exist as islands orenclaves; and (perhaps mostimportantly), (6) local peoplecan have a meaningful role indetermining the future of theirhomeland, of the region inwhich they live, (7) the numberof Federal Senate seats wouldincrease from 2 to 10 senators,thus giving us a much strongervoice in Congress.

RAMONA

n

d

dence. This can be achieved by variousroutes.

I would give first priority to energyindependence, to developing your ownenergy resources and controlling yourown energy transfers. The region isrich in water-power, and excessivelyrich in wind power. It has a high directsolar potential, and one of the greatestbiofuel potentials of any region in thecountry. Power from waves and tidalruns, from salinity and thermal gra­dients are all available along the coast.The approach with the most prospect

- for success appears to be a localizedapproach-how can we get the rightkind of energy to do this particularjob at this particular place, rather thanhow do we supply from some central­ized source X kilowatts per capita perday for a population of X numbers.

The second area demanding attentionis agriculture, aimed at providing food.We have heard encouraging wordsabout the agricultural potential of theregion. But there is no doubt that cropgrowing has suffered because it hasdifficulty competing economically,under the present system of subsidiesand developed infrastructure, withthe agribusiness enterprises of the Cen­tral Valley and the Middle West. Yeta wide variety of crops can be grownhere. If we get away from an excessivereliance on machines and agriculturalchemicals, and get back to direct humancare of soils and crops, to ecologicalagriculture, this region can certainlyproduce the basic food crops that itneeds. Considering the experience withthis region's unmentionable majorcrop, I must suspect that the best thingthe government could do for NorthCoast agriculture would be to makefood growing illegal.

As for meat, fish, and other animalproducts, there is no question of thecapability of the region to produceenough and more while still retainingsustainability. Admittedly the an­adromous fisheries are in bad shape.This is no fault of the fishermen, whoare usually cooperative when questionsof conservation are concerned, but aquestion of watershed care and riverdiversions. It reflects more on govern­ment, and the timber companies.

Finally, to discuss the area's greatestsource of wealth-its timber resource,I hope that in the future the people herebegin to really care for their forests.I hope you will look at the whole sys­tem, from seed to growing tree to thefinal finished product of paper, plastic,furniture, plywood, construction lum­ber, and so forth. That you will askwho gets the profit at each stage of theoperation. Ask how much of the wealthto be derived from the production andmanufacture of forest products staysin the region, and how much goes out­side. And how you can control thisprocess to guarantee that the peopleof this region are the primary economicbeneficiaries from their most importantnatural resource. Perhaps you couldfollow the example of the Arab statesand form an OTEC-Organizationof Timber Exporting Counties-toguarantee a greater share of the profitsfor your people.

These economic and social questionsare vital to this region, but the mostimportant goal for the managementof timber and all other wild land re­sources in this region is conservation.I mean conservation in the broad senseto include both preservation and directeconomic use. The key terms that gowith it are multiple use and sustainableyield, those words which have theirmeanings changed by almost everyuser. I define multiple use to includewilderness areas and national parksas well as commercial timber and rangelands. Sustainable yields are producedby wilderness for the benefit of all.They are also produced by commercial­ly managed lands, providing the temp­tation to achieve maximum short-termprofits from the exploitation of oneor a few products is resisted. Thewhole concept of so-called maximumsustainable yield applied to any singleproduct of an ecosystem is now under

Not everybody seems to realize thatthere is another vicious world war al­ready under way. It is the war againstthe planet. It is an ecological war, andthe weapons being used are more pow­erful every day. This war is being won,rapidly. The anti-planetary forces haveall the big victories. By the end of thecentury they will be well on their waytoward extermination of the tropicalhumid forests on Earth, with their tens,or hundreds, of thousands of species.Outstanding victories against planetEarth are being gained along the edgesof the world's deserts. We are told thatin some places the anti-planetary forcesare advancing the desert edge, creatinglifeless areas, at a speed of 16 kilome­ters per year. According to the UN,the battle against agricultural land isalso going well. By the year 2000 one­third of what remains will be destroyed.Meanwhile new recruits flock to theanti-planet armies, around 80 millionpeople are added to the world's popu­lation in each year. When this war hasbeen won, the consequences will be assevere and irreversible as if we hadfought a nuclear war with the Soviets.We will not stop this war by buildingmissile race tracks in Nevada. It isstrange how invisible this war is topoliticians, even when it is describedin the government's own Global 2000report.

All of this may seem peripheral tothe subject of North Coast-2ooo, butit is the setting against which you mustplan your program. It is the reasonwhy I say time is running out. It is thereason why it is foolish to pretend thatthings will go on pretty much alongthe lines that they have in the past.They won't, There must be new direct­tions, and they must be sustainable. Forthis region they must take into accountthe necessity for achieving a maximumdegree of self-reliance.

By self-reliance I am not suggestingthat the region become totally self-suffi­cient. Self-sufficiency in a full economicsense is probably 'both an unrealisticand undesirable goal-since it involvessacrificing the natiural advantages ofthe region in favor of emphasizing ac­tivities that are best performed by otherregions. At worst, it means going backto what would be for most people in­voluntary simplicity-doing withoutenough. Self-reliance, as I see it, in­volves development of the capacity tosupply the basic needs of people-food,energy, water, clothing, shelter-butmore particularly taking control ofand understanding the processes bywhich those needs are met.

The North Coast has been tradition­ally a colony, a Third World area, sup­plying raw materials to populationcenters in California and elsewhere.For the year 2000, I am suggesting thatthe region should break the colonialbonds and achieve economic indepen-

growth. In fact any population forecastmust be viewed with suspicion. Forexample, if present military trendscontinue there may be no people herein the year 2000, or alternatively thearea may be flooded with refugees. Ifcertain resource exploitation trendscontinue, there may be little left in theregion to support people. The real ques­tion to be asked is not "what is the pop­ulationforecast", but rather, what levelof population do you want to achieve.What level can be reasonably supportedat a standard of economic well being,personal dignity, and freedom-withinthe ecological constraints that this re­gion presents. Bear in mind that a goodshare of the present population is notbeing supported at a reasonable level.

There is one goal for the year 2000that we must regard as essential. By thattime every major economic activityin which we are engaged must be e­cologically sustainable, or well on theway to becoming ecologically sustain­able. There is no other option if wewish to continue to inhabit this planet.We are running out of time.

It is difficult to look at the state ofthe world today and find much to becheerful about. Conditions on planetEarth have become really scary, andit is only by forgetting about them,at least temporarily, that a person cansleep at night. Obviously we live witha continued threat of war, a big war,the final war. We have lived with thatthreat ever since we dropped the firstnuclear bomb on Hiroshima. It is anold familiar demon. Sometimes I thinkwe have grown fond of that demon­we seem to need an enemy that we canfear and hate. But too much concernwith that threat causes us to waste ourresources, energy and personal sub­stance in preparation to prevent or fightthe wrong war.

ECO-DEVELOPMENT:Decolonizing Ourselves

**From a talk given at the North Coast-2000 Conference,Eureka, California; September 13,1980.

Page 10

However, what is essentialfor any of this to happen is achange in attitudes. You mustbecome, if you are not already,natives of this region-not tran­sients, invaders, carpetbaggers,but people who belong to theland and love the land. To be­come a native you need not beborn here, but you must identifywith this country. Only youwho feel this way can really betrusted to build the kind ofNorth Coast 2000 that will beneeded.

• •Raymond F. Dasmann

It is obvious that we are here today because we want to pathfindour way into the year 2000. We want to try by that time'to achieve

For example, I see little value in say­ing that population growth in this re­gion is going to continue to such andsuch a level. I see a real negative valueif we use such population forecastsas a basis for planning. If we say popu­lations will reach double what theyare today and therefore we must pro­vide schools, roads, medical facilities,sewerage, energy, water, food for thatnumber of people-then we are engag­ing in the process that many peoplehave described as making the popu­lation forecast into a self-fulfillingprophecy. We are either agreeing thatpopulation growth is a force beyondour control, which it is not; or we aresaying we want to see that level of

*Transcribed from a talk given April 9th, 1979, at the Planet Drum sponsored,Listening To The Earth Conference, San Francisco, California.

REVISIONING NATURALRESOURCE POLICY

Continued on Page 12

• • •So how does capital get grounded?

How do the debts get paid? The peoplewho should be assuming the debts arethe people who are making the profits.

Most work in natural resources isseasonal. Fishers and loggers could behired for reforestation and stream re­pair work in the off-season. Agricul­tural workers could be restoring soilbetween harvests. They could be mak­ing compost piles.

In the Northwest, where timber har­vesting is the primary source of income,some of this work is being done­although it's starting about thirty years

Let's go back in time for a momen .There is evidence to show that whenHomo sapiens arrived or arose in NorthAmerica there was a period of one ortwo thousand years, resulting in the ex­tinction of at least several species oflarge mammals. But there is also evi­dence that these disturbances taughtthese early inhabitants something. Forthis period was followed by some twen­ty to thirty thousand years of humanstability, characterized by tremendous­ly diverse cultures and languages reso­nant with the surrounding life-zones. Apre-European language group map ofNorth America put side by side with aland-form or biotic province map willshow surprising correspondences. Thelast two hundred years have again beencharacterized by great biotic disturb­ances as the industrial age organizeditself around mass markets and globalcommerce rather than around plane­tary realities. This time there is no placeto move, once our natural provisionhas been destroyed.

So it is time once more to re-examinehow to act within North America andthe biosphere. It is time to invent social,political and economic forms devotedto the preservation of unique life-zones,our homes. It is time to re-assessour notions about individuality and therole of humans in the web of life. Richand diverse human cultures are notmade up of masses or of consumers,those two most belittling of descrip­tions, but of peoples who are in dailyinteraction with the surrounding webof life and who will fight to ensure thattheir home is not terminally injured.

But meanwhile, local people are con­vinced that their choices and their verylives are controlled by a global econo­my which is riddled with paradoxesand over which they have no control.They are told that their jobs, their fuelsupplies, are at stake if they don't act asinstructed. Feeling helpless, they watchthe web of life which supports thembeing stripped away and wonder wheretheir food and heat will come from tenyears hence.

Neither of the two dominant campsof classical economics (right or left)considers natural resources as capital.Capital for them is something thatfloats about three feet off the ground,is very mobile, It can move very fast,it feeds off natural resources. It is in­finitely hungry. It moves on when thefood is gone. Capital acts as if naturalresources are inexhaustible, eventhough we have known for more thana generation this is not so. The firstthing I was taught about Business wasnever to use your own capital, but toborrow from others. And sure enough,capital moves from bioregion to bio­region, ecosystem to ecosystem, feed­ing, feeding . . . borrowing from oneplace to shore up another. IT NEVERGROUNDS ITSELF ANYWHEREAND IT NEVER PAYS ITS DEBTS.Some results (and this is my last list ofbad thi.ngs): the expanding Sahara, thepoisoned Mediterranean and NorthSeas, the exhaustion of the CentralValley of California in our life time,Chesapeake Bay radioactive next week.

• • •

gions, watersheds and ecosystems.These are all complex entities. Theyrequire some· attention for an under­standing of how they work. While thesesystems are interrelated in the workingsof the organism we call the biosphere,each is different from the other. Speciesvary from bioregion to bioregion. Run­ning and still water, salt and fresh watermaintain different sorts of balancesfrom watershed to watershed.

These factors make it difficult foreven the best-intentioned of centralisedbureaucrats, be they in Washington,Ottawa, or Sacramento, to come upwith intelligent management planning.Their constituencies are divided byarbitrary boundaries wi'th certain eco­nomic and political priorities. Theyinvariably respond to the depletion ofnatural resources with market-valuestatistics, turning diverse and stablebiotic provinces into extremely brittleand unstable monocultural blocks.They don't have to act that way, butthey do.

Some examples: Herbicides are usedto discourage the growth of anythingbut Douglas Fir in the Northwest, be­cause that is the most marketable plant.The genetic diversity and natural abun­dance of the Pacific Salmon tends to besubverted by self-perpetuating andcentralised hatcheries. Surely everyonehere knows the horrific results of phos­phate fertilizers and monocultural agri­culture in the Central Valley.

So it seems to me that such planningcannot be comprehensive. It must besite-specific. Information and policydecisions for such matters must comefrom local people who are far-sightedenough to realise that the future of theirhomes, and the homes of their children,depends on right decisions about natu­ral resources, or the web of life of whichthey are a part.

At the very least, federal, state, andcounty agents in forestry, fisheries,and agriculture should be required todo an internship, much like a doctordoes-a minimum of a year in the re­gions to which they are assigned­talking to the inhabitants, studying thelocal natural systems, and spendingsome time in the woods. People livingwith the Ponderosa Pine in the Sierra,the Douglas Fir and Salmon in the CoastRange, or with the deep top soil andscarce water of the great valleys, or thedelicate balances between salt and freshwater in the Delta will make differentsorts of economic and cultural policywhen they realise that their continuedexistence there depends on it.

<J..J,""-\ J'ilZ~Y11..7<'.. v--.-T" LiJ<:x:u~

I kept expecting rioting in the streets of Harrisburg and Philadelphia. In­stead, I kept hearing statements like, "Well when the boss says we leave, we'llleave." You saw a few angry mothers ... but most of the people seemed lostand confused.

After some thought, I became convinced that this complacency was theresult of the fact that those people have been convinced that they don't liveanywhere in particular·. Everything possible has been done to obscure the factthat they live in an unique and beautiful region which could be the source oftheir everyday sustenance and delight. Instead they've been filled with con­cepts and head-sets like: "natural resources."

LinnHouse •

Like the rest of you, I've beenlied to more in the last few weeksthan in any similar length oftime since I was in school.I'm referring to the incident atThree Mile Island.

The near melt-down didn'tsurprise me; that's built into thetechnology. The lies didn'tsurprise me; they're built intothe media. What did surpriseme, in fact depressed me, wasthe complacency of the localpeople.

Web of life is enduring.Natural resources are expendable.

Web of life is mutually nurturing.As natural resources, somespecies are singled out for marketvalue; others are consideredpests.

Web of life is somewhere you canlive; it's home.Natural resource systems have"resource bases."

Examine the way the living planetorganises itself: into biomes, biore-

Webs of life are diverse, bothwithin themselves and one toanother.Natural resource managers wouldprefer that they were mono­cultural. When resource repair isdone, it usually is monocuIturalrepair.

A web of life has human niches,places where humans fit into it.Natural resources has zoningplanning. (And "departments ofhuman resources," employmentagencies, and career-counseling.)

Webs of life are organised intobiomes, bio-regions, watersheds,eco-systems, etc.Natural resource management isorganised into states, provinces,counties, districts, etc.

The web of life is an inhabitedplace.Natural resource zones areoccupied territories.

The phrase "natural resources" is aquantification for something that mightbetter be called, "the web-of-life-which­surrounds-us-all-and-of-which-we-are­a-part." As such a quantification, theweb of life is subject to "consumerneeds," the priorities of "private prop­erty" and the "demands of the public,"in capitalist countries, and to the "needsof the masses" in socialist countries.

I will use the phrases "natural re­sources" and "web of life" interchange­ably to indicate two different attitudesabout the same thing. The former at­titude is centralist; the latter is decen­tralist.

This disparity of approaches offers usnot only our strongest arguments forsocial, political and economic decen­tralisation, but also a form aroundwhich to organise such moves.

As I speak, please keep the termsinterchangeable in your mind and seewhat that stimulates. Here are somecharacteristics of the two attitudes:

serious question. Balanced sustainableyields of many resources from healthyand thriving ecosystems is a more sen­sible goal to pursue.

The argument, advanced in someof the preliminary papers for this con­ference, stating that "by the year 2000consumers will demand two or threetimes the amount of timber producedin California today" and therefore "tomeet this future demand in two alter­natives have been suggested: (1) har­vest more trees off the same amount ofland, or (2) increase the amount of landavailable for logging" is the same kindof cart-before-the-horse, self-fulfillingprophecy that I referred to in relationto population projections. The ques­

tion that should be asked is how muchtimber can this area produce on a sus­tainable basis, without damage to soils,water yield and quality, air quality,wildlife and fisheries, range forageand all the other potential benefits andvalues of a sustainable healthy ecosys­tem. Then you can say how much thisregion can sensibly supply, takiug firstinto account the needs of its own peo­ple. So-called demands, meaning wantsand wishes, of other people must betailored to the available supply. Thefirst kind of statement is what you ex­pect from a colonial administrator insome imperial capital. The second isthat of free people managing their ownresources.

The North Coast is still a colonialarea, which by the year 2000 must ei­ther be well on its way toward freedom,or else have slumped back into accept­ing the condition of dependent wardsof distant masters, serving primarilyto supply their demands. The way toeconomic freedom is certain to be ar­duous and not easy to chart. Manyfalse directions may be taken. But whatyou must achieve is the developmentof this region. You have a choice be­tween two ways of looking at the con­cept of development. The old way, fol­lowed during the idiot years of the1.9505 and early 1.960s was supposed tobenefit the developing countries, but infact it did not. It was successful, how­ever, in its primary objective-the richgot richer. The new concept of the 1980shas been stated by K. Dadzie in the Sep­tember, 1980, Scientific American:

"Development is the unfolding ofpeople's individual and social imagina­tion in defining goals and inventingways to approach them. Developmentis the continuing process of the libera­tion of peoples and societies. There isdevelopment when they are able toassert their autonomy and, in self­reliance, to carry out activities of inter­est to them. To develop is to be or tobecome. Not only to have."

This definition can also be appliedtotheconceptofeco-development,eco­logically sustainable development.Eco-development is based on threepremises:

1. It must meet the basic needs ofpeople, and in particular the poorestpeople, before attending to the wantsof the well-to-do;

2. It must encourage self-relianceand a degree of self-sufficiency in essen­tials, based on knowledge, traditions,and skills of the people concerned;

3. It must be based on a symbiosisbetween people and nature, to main­tain the diversity of the natural world,and provide for diversity in the socialworld. Through this it can help to guar­antee the sustainability of all essentialactivities.

I would suggest that these premisesalso be your guides toward reachingyour goals for California-2000 andNorth Coast-2000.

However, what is essential for anyof this to happen is a change is attitudes.You must become, if you are not al­ready, natives of this region-not tran­sients, invaders, carpetbaggers, butpeople who belong to the land and lovethe land. To become a native you neednot be born here, but you must identifywith this country. Only you who feelthis way can really be trusted to buildthe kind of North Coast 2000 that willbe needed. ODD

(Jnlt A Is half an hour late:a butcher knife turned up missing In the kitchen.We watch a movie:Kalahari Bushmen hunting giraffe.Paul Bad Horse says,Why didn't they tame those zebras?They had our waysonly not so advancedand no horses.If they tamed those zebrastheir lives would be easier.

Me too - from Dave.

Bad Horse laughs -Hell, that's what got me In herein the first place,that wildness.

Bad Horse-Did you try friendly first?Yep. Didn't make no difference.We finally sold him for dog foodafter he went for some kidsby the corral.He was just plain wild,that's all.

Dave says,I'll bet If one ofJUs escaped from hereand they were hunting us on the dividewe'd have a lot of that back -like that deer.They wouldn't sneak up on me.

What is it for?

To promote the common concerns of all who are opposed to giantismand who are working for peace and freedom in terms of a non-central­ised, multi-cellular, power-dispersed world order.

Who will attend?

FOURTH WORLD ASSEMBLY: LondonJuly 1981

(for the summer writing class at the MontanaState Penitentiary at Deer Lodge, with specialthanks to Paul, Dave, and ,Joe.)

David laughs,me and my partner, up In Kallspelwe had a zonle,half zebra, half horse.Tried to tear the corral downto get at our stud.We put the kid on him,hell, he was no kid, eighteen years old.It threw him,tried to kill him.Wildest thing I ever seen.Maybe those bushmen knew about zebras.

Joe Youpee says,I never saw a person that was truly wild,not like a deer anyway~,the way a deerwhen you're trying to sneak up on himwill all of a sudden 11ft its head and see you.That's wild.You can sneak up on a man.

by Roger Dunsmore

Someone asks,What do you mean by wildness?Wild like an animalor wild llke a Hell's Angel?

What will it do?

The Assembly will discuss plans to establish a permanent Fourth Worldcentre and forum, and to campaign vigorously for the right of self-ruleof member groups all over the world on the basis of a draft Declarationof Intent which will be presented to it for adoption.

We believe this Assembly will prove to be of major historic importanceand the beginning of a wholly new and more hopeful development inhuman affairs which will help to remove the threat of death which nowoverhangs the entire global community.

Representatives from communities, small nations, communes, ethnicminorities, religious, cultural and linguistic minorities, and those whoshare a similar stance.

For further information and draft Declaration write:The Convener, 24 Abercorn Place, London, N.W. 8, Britain.

(Ed. note. Since giving this talk, LinnHouse has become involved with agroup which is using incubation boxefor the first time on the Mattole Riverin Northern California. He writes:"We're getting ready to trap king sal­mon near the mouth of the Mattole,fertilize their eggs and eventually movethe eggs to incubation boxes at variousplaces in the watershed. We hope todeal with 60,000 eggs this year, morenext year. Too early for a progressreport yet; there are many places in theplan where we could make mistakes.It's not that what we're doing is so dif­ficult, nor that there's any lack of localgenius. It's just that we're attemptingto do something that has never beendone just this way before.

"Local response has been universallysupportive. We have enthusiastic vocalsupport from the Grange and from theCounty Board of Supervisors. Materi­als are being donated by building sup­ply businesses and a lumber company.The Associated Loggers of Californiahave offered tools and volunteers.Technical advice has been freely givenby the California Fisheries ResearchUnit at Humboldt State University.Local Department of Fish and Gamepeople have been most helpful, a sur­prise after long and difficult negotia­tion with that agency at the state level.

'What remains to be resolved is theproblem of who is going to pay for thiswork. The nature of the problem andthe appropriate responses have beenrecognized first by the residents of theregion, to whom the watershed damageis painfully apparent every day. Almostall the cash that's gone through ourhands has come from concerned indi­viduals who want the work done as di­rectly and quickly as possible. Thework that gets done here, however, willhave effects felt far beyond the locale.Benefits will be gathered by both com­mercial and governmental interestswho don't live here. What shift of think­ing is necessary before these debts areassumed by the rightful heirs? An enor­mous amount of watershed repairdemands doing in the Coast Range andit can best be done by the people wholive there. Who's going to support thesepeople while the work gets done?")

000

tions seem so big and permanent thatmost people find it very hard to thinkpast them. So I want to end my com­ments with some facts to dispel despair:

• Fact 1-There are some places wherecapital shouldn't be grazing at all. Theresidents of a small town in South­eastern British Columbia, Geselle,decided last year that they didn't wantnooo uranium mining around theirtown. The town has about 200 people. . . they made their decision unani­mously. Through civil disobediencethey were able to shut it down in abouttwo months. The RCMP tried to stopthem. They arrested a few people, more.people came. They simply were unstop­pable, because everybody in that areawas agreed that they did not want tolive with uranium pilings.

• Fact2-At the same time that Pharaohicculture was thriving, which was a peri­od of a couple of thousand years, Berberculture and Bedouin culture were thriv­ing. They were indigenous cultures,by which I mean they had figured outa way to live within their life-zoneswithout disturbing them. There arestill Berbers and Bedouins, and up until50 years ago they were acting in thesame way they acted in 4000 B.C. Thereare no more pharoahs.

• Fact 3-More than half the damagedone to natural systems in North Amer­ica has occured in the last thirty years.There was no interstate highway systemin 1945. It could take as little as twogenerations to reverse this damage.

• Fact"4-China and South Korea, onegovernment on the extreme left, th~

other on the extreme right, have plantedenough trees in the last thirty years tochange the climate of Asia and reversea human-made catastrophe thousandsof years old.

Page 12REVISIONING .••

too late. The people who are doing thiswork are very interesting people. Theyoffer one of the most hopeful reinhabi­tory models I know about.

The Northwest Forest WorkersAssociation (NWFWA) represents atthis point maybe a couple thousandpeople. The organisation is made up ofnon-hierarchical collectives of treeplanters who bid on tree-planting jobsthat come up from government andprivate so~rces. There's a lot of thatwork available between British Colum­bia and Northern California. It's fairlywell paid work and seasonal, which thepeople who are into it like. They tendto be hard-working, forest people andhave formed themselves into this union­like organisation which does not actlike a union. They do not hold out fora bigger piece of the global pie, but forintelligent forest practices. They tendto know more than a lot of people aboutintelligent forest practices. They actu­ally read the stuff that comes out ofthe Forest and Range Experiment Sta­tions, which the managers of the forestdo not. Because they are a collective,NWFWA members can underbid pri­vate contractors. They're taking overthat whole sector of the job market.Because they're devoted to their work,their results tend to be 2 or 3 times betterthan private contracting work. Recent­ly, they have decided to support a re­search organisation in the interest ofbetter forest practices. Every workgroup brings back information fromthe sites they're repairing about thekinds of damages the various kinds oflogging have done. That's all being puttogether by a research organisation towhom each worker pays a small tithe.They're expanding into thinning andpole construction economies. Theyplan to be into logging in the next fiveyears. The reason they think they cando that is because, at the present rate ofcutting, there will be no more firstgrowth timber in the Pacific Northwestwithin the next 4 or 5 years. This willmake labor intensive and selective log­ging competitive. These are going tobe the people that are prepared to do it.

Another example of a local popula­tion that's trying to become less con­fused exists in the north coasts of Cali­fornia. The salmon population therehas been severely damaged over thelast thirty years; by bad silviculturepractices and to a lesser extent throughoverfishing. It's been depleted to maybe30% ofitself 3040 years ago. And now,with the low water we've been havingthe last few years, the people that liveon the rivers have been acting like peo­ple always do who live on salmon riv­ers, and that's getting as many salmonas they can out of them. The salmon arefound trapped in the pools caused bythe low water. The people who're doingit don't realise the extent of the problem.

But there are other people in thisarea-which is economically depressedbecause the logging industry there hascannibalised itself-who are workingto restore the salmon runs, stream bystream, and creek by creek. They aredoing this through stream restoration,which is labor intensive by nature andmeans jobs, and through the establish­ment of small hatcheries or incubationboxes in every possible location. Theadvantage of small hatcheries are mani­fold. They preserve the genetic diver­sity of the salmon, which centralisedhatcheries do not, by allowing thesalmon to spawn in the same water­shed they were born in. Eggs hatchedin incubation boxes show six to tentimes the survival rate they show innature, making them an ideal tool forassisting a threatened run. Finally, theboxes allow local people direct par­ticipation in the health of the indigenousruns.

I talk about these things all the time,and I'm usually met with at least a cer­tain element of despair. Things likestate lines, national boundaries andbureaucratic multinational corpora-

Page 13

I

Continued on Page 14

~Hill contends that alternatives in agri- Iculture will only occur with a quali­tative change in consciousness and aholistic approach to what food is reallyall about.

". . . while it is usual to recom­mend primarily technological andpolitical solutions to problemssuch as those that exist within thefood system, the acceptance . . .of any changes that are proposedare dependent on the psychologicaldevelopment and awareness of thepeople involved, Le., we must beclear internally if we are to createsustainable external harmony."

Or, more to the point:

"It seems reasonable to supposethat the process of becoming famil­iar with the external wisdom ofnature is dependent on the level offamiliarity with the internal wis­dom of the body."

Hill then sets out to describe a "visionof a sustainable agricultural future"involving a synthesis of several internaland external contemporary alternativessuch as the human potential movement,holistic health, appropriate technology,solar energy and biological agriculture.Hill sees the fundamental problems ofour faltering food system as rooted inan inability to grasp a holistic view ofthis internal-external synthesis of work­ing alternatives, Le., to the fact thatsustainable solutions lie outside thefocus of conventional approaches toproblems. "Holism", notes Hill, "pro­motes management systems that avoidcrises and promote sustainable tech­nologies in agriculture" ... Le., inte­grated pest management, landscapediversity in agro-eeosystems, solaragro-techno]ogies, regional crop varie­ties, local food economies, and a thor­ough understanding of the relationshipbetween human health and soil fertility,and of the necessary balance betweenproduction, consumption and recyclingof organic matter through the decom­poser chain of the soil. Of course manyof these alternatives are currently beingresearched and practiced separately,but not systematically. For example,the agricultural research establishmentcontinues to plug away at many of thesealternatives in isolated stations, crank­ing out data, suggesting new tech­niques. But nowhere is there an agri­cultural research station investigatingthe entire spectrum of these eco-nomicand eco-logical alternatives simulta­neously as a holistic unit . . . as a livingagro-eco-system.

Although Hill's paper tends to getbogged down in the all-encompassingsemantics of new-age ecospeak, histhesis is clear and important: the ac­ceptance and success of a sustainableagriculture involves existential changesin the way we view our internal mindset(what is progress, what is health) andexternal potentials (the necessity ofself-sustaining economics and tech­nologies). We can view this anotherway. History is neither a cycle of pat­terns nor an arrow of inevitable tech­nical progress. These patterns, ironi­cally, ignore the effects of time. Rather,history is a spiral. . . returning onitself but at another level. The "return­ing" includes the time-honored internaltraditions of survival such as culture,cooperation, sustainability, simplicityand self-reliance . . . the sort of thingsthat give agribusiness people cause tocall alternative agricultures "reaction­ary", "back-to-the-Iand", and "unreal­istic nostalgia". But the changing level(time dimension) of the spiral alsooffers us an alternative ... a new ageagri£ulture which could creativelythrive in a vastly more complex andtroubled world than yesterday. Wemight call this new level: Bio-RegionalAgriculture.

If agriculture is committingsuicide then it is worth askingwhy it is doing so and, moreimportantly, what the alterna­tives are for rescuing it ...for making it sustainable andadaptable in a world that cannotsurvive without it. For ifagriculture is dying it followsthat its people are dying also.

A recent paper by Dr. Stuart Hill ofMcGill University entitled: "Soil, Food,Health and Holism: The Search forSustainable Nourishment," addressesthis problem of why, and outlines po­tentials for alternatives. Hill n9tes:

'The modem food system has be­come a run-away machine, out ofcontrol, increasingly dependent onnon-renewable resources, consum­ing renewables faster than they canbe renewed, causing correspond­ing human and environmental deg­radation, and producing productsthat feed our obsessive wants firstand our nutritional needs second."

about 17 times if we consider the entire ~'II~i.lr.food system. A similar situation existsfor non-renewable minerals used inagriculture, especially rock phosphate.At present rates of use, U.S. suppliesare sufficient for about 30 years. Afterthat we will have fo go abroad, androck phosphate, like petroleum, willbecome an unpredictable political re­source. For example, according to a1977 report by the National Academyof Science:

". . . by 1990 Morocco and vari­ous Middle Eastern Countries willsupply 7S % of the world trade inphosphate rock. If this happens,a cartel could easily be formed tocontrol phosphate prices."

-7) The Increasing Dependency on aFew Hybrid Crop Varieties and the Lossof Genetic Information in CultivatedPlants. The demise of regional cropvarieties and the widespread use ofhybrid monocultures over large areasof the country have destroyed the ge­netic buffer zones that once held manypest outbreaks in check. A large supplyof plant stock (Le., genetic diversity)is also the source of continued reser­voirs from which to breed varieties ofpest-resistant crops. As bioiogical di­versity is destroyed so is the potentialfor adaptation. Again we see an exam­ple of modern agriculture creating theconditions for its own vulnerability. . . destroying the options for its ownsurvival. It is obvious that yield peracnHs no longer a sufficient benchmarkfor agricultural efficiency. Vast socialand environmental costs must also beconsidered on the balance sheet. Thefact that modern agriculture is notcommonly seen as a problem, IS a prob­lem in itself. Exactly which resourcesare people willing to sacrifice to ensurethe present food system? Because thisquestion is not even being asked, publicignorance and special interests preventa rational collective answer. But evenif people were willing to pay the costof] st topsoil, rural culture, environ­mental quality, farmland, food quality,economic control and public health,these "costs" now pose a threat to thefuture stability of the system itself. Thisis because the "advances" of our agri­culture, as we have seen, are increasing­ly dependent on resources and practicesthat are not sustainable and on the ex­ploitation of resources that are. In otherwords, the seven major issues outlinedabove (there are more) are all com­ponents of an agriculture that is rapidlydestroying itself and its supportive re­sources. But the strategy of any bio­logical system like agriculture is adap­tation, not extinction. Hence, agri­culture is committing suicide and thatis insane.

our children probably will. Even ifpesticides posed no health hazards,there is indisputable evidence that ASA SINGLE STRATEGY OF LONG­TERM PEST CONTROL they simplydo not work. Pesticides produce resist­ant pests, secondary pests and damagethe ecological fabric of the agro-eeosys­tem. Even the USDA admits their greatlimitations and the futility of contin­ually inventing new poisons. Pesticidesmust be integrated into a more holistic,biologically based strategy of controlwhere a variety of methods are used... Le., integrated pest control.

-S) The Dramatic Loss of ProductiveAgricultural Land. According to USDAstatistics the U.S. has already lost atleast V3 of its topsoil in the last 200years. Nearly 240 million acres (twicethe size of California) have been ruinedfor agriculture by erosion. Since 1945the U.S. has lost about 45 million acres(size of Oklahoma). Annual losses fromsheet and rill erosion alone are l)OW setat 2 billion tons per year . . . enoughto cover all the cropland of Pennsyl­vania, New Jersey and New Hampshirewith 7 inches of topsoil. These astound­ing figures boil down to an average nettopsoil loss of at least one inch everyfour years. Assuming an average worthof $1,000 per acre for cropland, this soilloss amounts to more than $17 billioneach yearl But more than money, ero­sion is the loss of an irreplaceable re­source. In addition to erosion, we arealso losing cropland to salinity, deple­tion of groundwater, acid rains andsuburban sprawl.6) The Complete Dependency of Agri­culture on Non-Renewable Resources,Especially Fossil Fuels and Rock Phos­phate. U.S. agriculture is now entirelysubsidized by fossil fuel technologieslike tractors, chemical fertilizers/pesti­cides, irrigation pumping systems, etc.In fact the entire food system nowrevolves around a complex food dis­tribution network that stretches acrossthe entire country by air, rail and road... from grower, to broker, to proces­sor to consumer . . . a system in whichfood production and consumption areoften separated by thousands of milesand hundreds of gallons of gasoline ordiesel fuel. It's clear that the energysubsidy and centralization of fooddistribution can't continue to providethe cornucopia of varied and cheapfood in an era of growing fossil fuelshortages, unpredictable foreign in­fluences and rising energy prices. Also,agriculture, historically an energy pr.o­ducer, has become an energy sink ...consuming about 5 times more (non­renewable) energy than it provides, or

Richard Merrill

THE SUICIDE &REBIRTH OFAGRICULTURE:Some PreliminaryThoughts on aa BioregionalFood System

One of the most underrated yetvital issues raised during the 1970'swas the continued ability of U.S.agriculture to provide food fordomestic use and export. True, mostAmericans eat comparatively well, U.S. farmers continue toprovide most of the world's exported grain and the U.S. foodsystem is still one of the most sophisticated in the world in termsof distribution and food variety. But the gnawing question duringthe decade became: Yes, this may all be true . . . but at what costand for how long? For the first time in U.S. history the benefitsof our modern food system became judged against a much largerconcern . . . the social and environmental consequences of theway we feed our society and, more importantly the long-termsustainability of that food system.

At one level mounting doubtstended to focus on seven majorissues:

-1) The Rapid Destruction of Our RuralCulture. Small independent farmershave moved to the cities to be replacedby energy-intensive technologies andcapital. Rural lands no longer offer anopportunity in time of plenty or a socialbuffer in time of war and depression.Worst of all, most people view the ruin­ation of rural America as simply anunfortunate by-product of our indus­trial "progress". But for others agri­culture IS a culture and, as noted byWenden Berry, "... a culture is a prac­tical necessity. When a culture is de­stroyed it is a natural calamity." Whathas, in fact, been destroyed is the fun­damental purpose of agriculture, viz.,to create a fulfilling culture wherebyproductive land can be stewarded andnurtured for future generations. In itsplace a new purpose has emerged: toproduce food for profit at the expenseof the land (i.e., culture). This newpurpose has become the greatest ca­lamity of all.

. - 2) The Growing Monolithic Structureof the U.S. Food System. Farm produc­tion, processing and distribution havebecome concentrated in the hands offewer and fewer people. The increasingcontrol of farmlands and food-relatedindustries by corporations and cartelshas transformed agri-culture into agri­business, has transformed traditionsof stewardship into techniques of profitand much of the U.S. food system intoa corporate oligarchy.3) The Usurpation and Exploitation ofFarm Workers. The recent history ofthe farm labor struggle in America islargely a history of the National FarmWorkers Association attempting toovercome generations of racial dis­crimination, minority oppression andeconomic inequalities. Farm laborersremain one of the most oppressed laborgroups in the country.

-4) The Growing Ineffectiveness andPublic Health Hazards of AgriculturalChemicals. In 1945 the U.S. producedabout 40,000 tons of a few syntheticpesticides. Today, in spite of EPA con­trols, oil companies and scores of chem­ical firms continue to produce over600,000 tons of o'{er 1000 pesticidechemicals variously combined in over50,000 registered, commercial pesti­cides. Over half of the 400,000 tonsapplied annually in the U.S. is used incities. Each day the health of thousandsof farm workers, growers, food-processworkers, landscapers, foresters, urbangardeners etc. is jeapordized becauseNO ONE knows the long term effects,both direct and synergistic (in com­bination with other chemicals), of pest­icides. We may never know ... but

Thus I was not surprised toread, in a recent edition ofNAOP's newsletter, OptionalParenthood Today, a report on"The Prospect of ParentalLicensing and Training." Thiswas in no way a policyrecommendation on their part,but does go to show that oncepoliticized, childbearingbecomes, in our nationstate,vulnerable to regulation.Nothing is sacred.

An unnamed social scientist,"who works with a Floridajuvenile and family courtdivision" was quoted asfollows:

"We require a physician tobe licensed to medicate a child,a psychologist to be licensed(or certified) to test a child. Ateacher must have a mastersdegree to teach a childalgebra . . . A barber must belicensed to cut a child's hair.Yet we cling to the barbaricpretense that anyone can be a'natural' parent....

"I suggest that prospectiveparents should be required toobtain a permit to bear a chiM.The regulation of parenthoodon this basis is both justifiedand feasible. Certainly thecommunity has legitimateinterests in populationcontrol-social, ecological,and economic....With thetechnology for geneticmanagement on the horizon,the question of who shouldbear children and how,already a subject of publicdebate, must be faced."

NAOP mentions that "thewriter goes on to hope that apre-parent training programwould develop to helpprospective parents qualify fora childbearing permit."

What's wrong with thispicture? Or rather, what'sright? Training certainly helpsto eliminate barbarism, an alltoo scarce quality in anevermore homogeneous world.We know that training and theexaminations which reify it arevalves regulating themembership of elites. In ahomogeneously intellectualsociety, it is crucial toquantify, examine, andmeasure. I like John Cage'sobservation: "Measurementmeasures measuring means."IQ tests test not intelligence,but the ability to submit to IQtests. They reveal only whatan educated elite-civilized,you might say-perceives tobe "smart".

The standard of parentalcompetence wouldundoubtedly be determined bypsychologists, practitioners ofa discipline which at its mostpresumptuous diagrams thesoul, finds the least commondenominator of will, and hasan explanation for the mind'severy surprise. Like otherpseudoscience, psychology

profound cultural change: therationalization ofreproduction.

Like every other sexualspecies, we are set up to do It.Sexual reproduction and thedeath it requires mockindividuality and rationality,too. Our program is to keepshaking the genetic dice. Nevermind crapping out, just passthose bones along. Notreproducing, for us, can be amatter of decision, a learnedbehavior. It means quietingthe blood's insistent urging tochromosomal immortality. Itmeans that as an individual,you hc.ve exactly your lifespanto figure out another way toscratch "Kilroy was here" onthe planet's notoriously shortmemory.

Thanks to the populationbomb, the women'smovement, and tocontraception, childbearing isnow an Issue. Its issueness. putmy madonna friend throughsome changes before she coulddo what used to comenaturally. There may still becultures where a woman canmake love heedless of theconsequences, but this isn'tone of them.

Because of my involvementwith population issues, Iwound up on the advisorycouncil of the NationalAlliance for OptionalParenthood (NAOP). Begunas the National Organizationfor Non-Parents, this outfithas evolved from doing publicrelations for childfreeconsumerism and providing asort of Parents Anonymoussupport group for people whowouldn't do It all over again ifthey had to, to doing openminded, if conventional,research and education on themultidimensional reality ofparenthood in America. Inaddition, NAOP is allied withthe fight for abortion rights,monitors legislation and otherpublic policy which mightdiscriminate againstnon-parents, and providesexcellent educational materialsfor teenagers who confrontpossible parenthood withevery unadorned backseatfumble.

Because I have irrespressiblereformist tendencies, I supportNAOP; I like the way it'sdeveloped, I think it does areasonable service in the worldas we find it. Because I alsohave radical utopiantendencies, I recognize thatNAOP is another cog in themechanism to intellectualizeeverything. And where anaspect of culture has becomeintellectual, experts are sure tobe swarming.

Recently, I happened to be at a meeting with a verypregnant and very beautiful woman, thirtyish, aboutmy age. Alight from within, she is so gorgeous rightnow, I can't take my eyes off her.

THE LIMITSOFPOPULATIONCONTROLStephanie Mills

Several months ago, at adifferent meeting, I listened toher describe her struggle todecide whether to continue herunplanned pregnancy; andwhether to marry the father,her lover. She wound up doingboth, finally, although attimes during her internaldebate, she felt that becominga wife and mother wasbetraying her radical past. Shedidn't specify the ideals she feltshe was contradicting, but Ican guess what they mighthave been: independence,autonomy, a destinyunconditioned by biology,abortion uncomplicated bymorality, womanhood notdefined by motherhood.Although we hadn't knowneach other in our studentagitator days, we had beenworking overlappingterritories, and I couldunderstand her chagrin atfalling in step with billions ofother women through time outof mind.

Now I don't know nothin'about birthin' babies. But forseveral years, my big issue wasoverpopulation, which isnothin' but birthin' babies.Like many other well-meaningbut misguided crusaders, I wasconcerned with a problem andoffering solutions without afine-grained sense of thereality I was generalizing. Ionly knew what I read. I readthat the unprecedented growthin human numbers was theengine driving the wholeenvironmental crisis, and thatseemed to make sense. It was aglobal problem, with billionsof us, rich and poor, perchedat the top of the food chain,pressing, from need or fromgreed, against the lives andplaces of every other species.Push comes to shove, andalthough that gross cause andeffect scenario I believed tenyears ago seems laughablenow, our numbers, whoseimpact is multiplied byagriculture and othertechnology, are pressing,pressing ...

The global perspective,aggregating us all, subsumingindividuality, rendering usstatistical, demanded grandsolutions: the perfectcontraceptive, forcedsterilization, tax disincentivesfor childbearing; and the moreprogressive notions of linkinginfant health care and familyplanning services, providingsocial security in thedeveloping nations, andpromoting woman's literacy.The more humane stuff isn't ascost-efficient as a technofix; allof this array will further a

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SUICIDE AND REBIRTH •••

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Every region of the United States has its own uniqueclimate, geology,' resources base, vegetation, watershed,topsoil, culture, economy and food needs . . . its own"bios" or set of potentials for adaptation and survival.By decentralizing our food system, that is, by encour­aging each region of the country to become more self­reliant-more dependent on its bios for growing, mar­keting and distributing food-the larger food systembecomes more stable arid adaptable. There are severalreasons for this. For one thing, energy is reduced throughdecreased transportation and processing. Also, fresh,nutritionally superior, food is made available throughdirect marketing of locally-derived crops. In addition,more jobs are created in the region and the regional econ­omy becomes more stable and viable. Finally, the groweris able to use farm technologies and techniques that bestutilize the local resource base and thus reduce depend­ence on distant (non-renewable) resources controlled byunstable forces.

These technologies and techniques include: a) Inte­grated Pest Management Programs for local crops andlocal pests, b) the recycling of organic wastes onto near­by farmlands, c) the use of solar agri-technologies suchas solar heating, irrigation, electric and fertilizer manu­facturing systems; wind energy and the production ofbiological fuels, d) the development of regional cropvarieties adapted to the local bios (including pests), e) thedevelopment of diverse scaled-down food productionsystems (aquaculture, raised-bed horticulture, solargreenhouse production, etc.) and the tools to make themwork, and f) the utilization of people and small local jobopportunities for businesses and hence the developmentof regional food economies and growers, brokers, farm­ers markets, food crops, neighborhood food stores andfood processors, community gardeners, etc.

Awareness of one's bios and of one's region (''bio­region") implies knowledge of one's options for survival.Convenience and freedom are not the same thing. It maybe convenient to buy food from fields or factories afar.However, it does not enhance one's freedom to do sobecause the distant food is based on an extremely vul­nerable and uncontrollable technology. The importantpoint is that agriculture is more easily set into the bio­regional mode than any other part of our culture; all ofits resources, technologies and economies have the po­tential for being locally derived. The inevitable decen­tralization of our society will begin with agriculture,and a decentralized agriculture begins with a dear evalu­ation of the agricultural bioregion. This is the next whorlin the spiral. This is .the rebirthing of agriculture.

000

Page 14

Page lS

-Peter Berg

III

ALL AREA77 Reade StreetNew York City, NY 10007$5/issue

Although it shyly describesitself as the beginning of "aseries on method and place,"ALL AREA has promise ofbecoming an essential jour­nal for presentations and dis­cussions about re-Iocatinghuman intellect from a pre­occupation with mechanisminto closer correspondencewith living processes. Cuedby Gregory Bateson's "themap is not the territory" andCharles Olson's appreciationof Pleistocene cultural ori­gins, the first issue sets out onan expedition of culture-as­place-perception that rangesthrough Frank Gillette's vid­eo observation of southernTexas, Paul Metcalfs notesfrom a conference on Alaskain transition, and a Bedouin'sloose-fitting sense of time inthe southern Sinai. Bateson isrevealed at the top of his formin a "metalogue" with PaulRyan; Olson in his letters onPleistocene consciousness.

It's time that serious at­tempts to view culture as in­terdependent with the work­ings of the biosphere had ahearingoutside the context ofshvindus and Swiss Armyknives. If ALL AREA per­severes in sticking with thereal thing while avoiding thepreciousness of little,. maga­zine chatter, it could becomean important forum.

ROOTDRINKERCanton, NY 13617$5/year (4 issues) U.S.$6/year Canada

ROOTDRINKER adds asignificant quality to theemergent field of bioregionalpublications. Editor AlanCasline has managed to in­clude the land-based historyand culture of the St. Law­rence River border country oftheAdirondacksso complete­ly into a "new settler" per­spective that at first reading itseemsas though a publicationof the Adirondack HistoricalSociety has been takenover by bioregion-watershedguerillas. Interviews withold-timers, notes on naturalhistory, articles about lad­dermaking or a one-roomschoolhouse are mixed casu­ally with subjects like rein­habitation, renewable ener­gy and local self-reliance ascontemporary versions of thelong-time traditional way ofdoing and thinking aboutthings. ROOTDRINKERpresents the region complete­ly in terms of its own naturaland human resources. It's theAdirondacks without tourist­fodder.

REVIEWS

SAMIID AEDNANNorwegian Sami Associa-tion • N 9730Karasjohka • Norway

"We are Samis and wewant to remain Samis," be­gins the preface to SAMIIDAEDNAN (Samiland) theoutspoken and unusually at­tractive "inform Bulletin" ofthe Norwegian Sami Associ­ation. Remaining Samis isoneoftheepicstruggles in theFourth World movement. Tobegin with they're usually re­ferred to by non-Samis as"Lapps," a colonial termoriginated in the 13th cen­tury, and their homeland isan unrecognized territoryofficially incorporated intothe northern parts of Nor­way, Sweden, Finland andUSSR. Uranium mining, tim­ber, land and hydro-powerinterests in those countriesare moving in on Samilandmore hungrily than everbefore, and the need to de­fend Sami living-in-placeidentity has never been moreacute. SAMIID AEDNAN isan authentic source for cur­rent Sami views of their cul­ture and political issues.

UPRIVERDOWNRIVERBox 390Cazadero, CA 95421$6/year

UPRIVER DOWNRIVERisstrong, deliberate and clev­er. Here is reinhabitory cul­ture that can defend itself."We call it a newsletter, andthink of it as an extended cor­respondence among peoplewho are trying to learn howtolivein northern California,a placeweregard as a distinctbiological/cultural regionrather than part of an arbi­trary State . . . We considerthe region as a community oflife-air, earth, water, light,other species, and us-andfeel that it is incumbent uponus as inhabitants of this placeto resist the further destruc­tion of its natural systems and'to begin repairing the dam­age already done." Peoplewho actually live some place,who thriveon makingsophis­ticated responses to the com­plexities and beauty of thatlife, possess natural advan­tages over the extractiveforces that would destroy it.UPRIVER DOWNRIVERflaunts those advantages;excellent in-place research,unrestrained love for the re­gion, absolute distrust ofexternal authority, and asense of humor that disman­tles the Engines of Dehu­ma~ity.

Whether you live in north­ern California or not, read atleast one issue of UPRIVERDOWNRIVER to see howfine a simply printed andassembled reinhabitory jour-nal can be. If you do livethere, make sure you get allthree of the issues that areavailable so far-they won'tdate. r-=~~-.....-_

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CHRISTOPHER SWAN

000

Why? Because they see nobiological relationship. Theysee no connection betweenresource, place, people andesthetics. Similiarly there islittle understanding of theabiding biology of a placeinclusive of the naturalenvironment and people. Soalso, there is littleunderstanding of the notion ofdurability or sustainabiJity.

Somewhere in all this is aconnection between solarenergy, sustainability, placerelatedness, the very design oftools, decentralization as abiologically viable humanisticconcept and bioregionalism.Furthermore there issomething about b'oregions ona watershed level and on aplanetary level beinganalogous to community andnetwork.

In the writing of WindowMusic, which is abouttransportation, I've alreadydeveloped a chapter on rivertravel that will discuss, amongother things, how rivercraft areoften uniquely designed for a.3pecific river and thusexpressive of a bioregionalesthetic. Now I'm beginning tosee how the same approach willbe necessary in other areas. Forexample, places like Yosemiteand Grand Canyon are of suchimportance to millions ofpeople that we tend to destroythem with the tools we use toget to them. Certainly fewerpeople could go there but isthat a viable possibility? Itseems more appropriate todesign tools that fit those placesand inherently minimize ourimpact.

Similiarly I'm working out abalance between thestandardized and generalizedsystem common to allbioregions and the specificvariations that might be neededin each. For example, the basicparts of a bus could be made insay the southwest while itcould be assembled in theplace where it is to be used; inthe northeast that would meanall sorts of variations to copewith snow and ice and cold.

Underlying all this is thebeginning of an ethic based onecological perception. Anethic that Illich has articulatedmore than anyone else but asyet no one has put in popularform, nor has anyone reallyaligned it with the esthetics ofplace and the design andmanufacture of tools.

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In writing about technologyI kept stumbling over themarketing esthetic and thecentralized no-place nonsenseit represents. Recently I talkedwith Lorell Long aboutesthetics and found myselfsaying that any notion of whatwas beautiful, balanced and"right" was directly related toplace. Our sense of form andbalance is derived, almostentirely, from our perceptionof the natural order of grass,trees et cetera. That is theprimal architecture. So, as webecome placeless we lose oursense of esthetics andsimultaneously becomevulnerable to a marketednotion of beauty; ultimatelya vacuous concept derived,and relative to, only itself.The machine talks to themachine.

I have also been concernedwith some kind of bridge­between the centralized basicindustries like steelmaking andthe potentially, and oftenactually, decentralizedindustries like bike making. Ina very crude way the steelindustry was bioregionallybased in that it was centered ina region that contained iron oreand coal, as well as thewaterways to cheaplytransport the raw materials.While that system's inherentcorruption has now played outas decay of the northeasternU.S., it remains to illustratewhat may be a viable principle.One that may already beplaying out. Assuming thewhole continent movestowards photovoltaics as aprimary electrical source wherewould those cells bemanufactured? Where there isa great deal of sun-the desert.Like cotton mills that wereonce located on riversphotovoltaic plants would belocated where the sun is.Similiarly the decayed steelindustry may also utilize solarand move't~thesoutheast andwest. The plants would benecessarily decentralized andcould utilize only scrap metalof which copious quantities arenow scattered around theplanet. In fact we couldprobaby continue to recyclewhat we have long sincerefined and mine practically noore.

Obviously the problem withall this is one of scale. Wealready can see how the solarindustry, so recentlydecentralized, small-scaleindustries, is now beinggobbled up by the greedymultinationals. For the mostpart people do not see anythingwrong with that. They let ithappen and the employees ofthe congloms just go along.

looks for predictability. In aworld of infinite variety, itwants proof.

While wiser, shamanshrinks soften the bordersbetween their craft and the artof soothing a troubled mind,armies of jobseeking doctoralcandidates will emerge toestablish whateverqualifications we need, and totrain and test accordingly.

My greatest fear is not thatthis pre-parent trainingprogram would produce amonocrop of children.Children always foil the bestlaid plans to sculpt theircharacter. Like much socialtheory based on environmentaldeterminism, parentalLamarckism will probably fail.But the prospect of amonocrop of parents, all dulylicensed by the state, ischilling. On the fringes of thatpale and well-heeled crowdwould be a myriad of dark andweedy outlaw moms and popswhose marginal lives would bemade somewhat more difficultby the penalties for unlicensedparenting.

These rebels wouldprobably take their illicitoffspring to homeopaths oracupuncturists, ignore theirlittle psychologies altogether,teach them at home in freeschools (probably neglectingalgebra) and let their babieshair grow long, long, long.They will not belong to aprofessional organization.

All of the licensees ourFloridian social scientist citedas certifiably responsible canclaim only "structural" not"sapiential" authority. Thisuseful distinction was drawnby the savant RobertTheobald. Structuralauthority adheres to a person.It comes from having asuperior position in abureaucratic hierarchy or astate-patented monopoly onusing a certain skill. It accruesthrough strictly limitedcompetition. It is aboutsaluting uniforms and not theirwearers.

Sapiential authority inheres.It is also known as wisdom.Structural and sapientialauthority aren't necessarilyexclusive, although having theformer may make getting thelatter that much harder. Still,once in a while, power getsread as responsibility andbegets wisdom which earnspower which demands wisdomand you find a wise person in aposition of authority. Thishappening is entirely too rarefor us not to questionauthority.

We are writing towards alife where wisdom can beidentified without benefit ofcertification, where power isimmaterial and thereforelimitless, where authority isstrictly limited toself-management. We arewriting and thinking towards aworld full of differences,differences from place toplace.We are yearning tore-inhabit a planet specifically,not a globe whose policies areintelligently based onaggregates.

To achieve these desires, wewill have to admit that wecannot know the future, andthat our past interpretationshave been earnest andapproximate at best. Like myfriend the madonna, we willhave to put our faith inunreason, and keep hope high.

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THE NEXT STEP

-Peter Berg and Michael Helm

For the past six years Planet Drum Foundation­through its regional bundles and other publications-hasconcentrated on developing and presenting conceptual,planetary news. News which has been at the interface ofsuch traditional disciplines as biology, geography, anthro­pology, politics, and literature, and which has documentedsome of the bioregionally specific ways in which the planet,Earth, expresses itself.

It is now increasingly apparent that political decentralizationand ecological sanity go hand in hand; that indigenous peoples­both emergent and traditional-living in specific bioregions arethe only ones with both the understanding and the interest topursue energy and resources policies that insure long-term, multi­species habitation of the biosphere. Certainly, on the record,centralized bureaucracies and multi-national corporations canno longer be trusted to respect the basic natural processes-theweb .of life-that sustains us all. Bioregions are the appropriatelocations for decentralization. Just as we know that biologicaldiversity and health express themselves in decentralized, bio­regional ways, so too do human cultures.

With this, the second issue of RAISE THE STAKES, we believethe time has come to put some of the concepts developed, some ofthe knowledge acquired during the past six years, to work withina more accessible and regular framework. Acceptance of the con­cept of a bioregion has grown steadily and at present there are anumber of distinct bioregional groups carrying out specific actionsand programs. Planet Drum Foundation is being reorganized tofulfiJl-.greater networking and support functions for the groupswhich now exist and those which will emerge in the future. Ac­cordingly, we have created a new format for Raise the Stakes­with several sections-which we hope will facilitate the planetarydialogue:

1) An informal, CIRCLES OF CORRESPONDENCE sectionwhich is intended to serve as an on-going planetary newsletter­a mutual aid network-to use in the struggle to slow down andthen transform the industrial juggernaut that threatens to con­sume us all. It is our hope that you, our readers, will become a partof the circle-of the planetary medicine show-and contributevital information, both urban and rural, about what is going onin your native .regions. That you will send us your letters contain­ing reports on activities, interviews, poems, stories and graphics­whatever works-and thus help broaden the circle of sharedplanetary awareness.

2) A more conceptual, reinhabitory magazine section which willfeature exploratory essays and discussions in such areas as Politics,Natural Science, Watershed Restoration, Aesthetics, Ethics, andNatural Provision.

3) A Review sectjon to bring attention to valuable but little­publicized regional (and other) books and periodicals.

4) AStory and Poetry section. 5) Select Features.

It is our hope that with imagination, hard work, and yoursupport we can help describe the contours of an equitable anddit;erse planetary identity.