permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 5:26 PM, Douglas Hinds <cedecor@gmx.net> wrote:

*New Trump threats to farm workers. Please help
<http://action.ufw.org/page/m/3bed9974/14578be6/45136780/2b771d5d/3465264146/VEsE/>*
https://secure.ufw.org/raids

I hope they get the money they need
Viva farm workers, peasant farmers, homestead market gardeners,
traditional, indigenous, natural farmers, urban and rural modern serfs and
victory gardeners.
"Today is the first day of the rest of your life.", from the Digger Papers

Related news, new and old:

NEW:

The Peasant Farmer Who Stood Up to the President of Nicaragua
http://www.ipsnews.net/2017/02/the-peasant-farmer-who-has-st
ood-up-to-the-president-of-nicaragua/

Francisca Ramírez, the head of the peasant movement that is leading the
fight against the construction of an inter-oceanic canal in Nicaragua,
which has made her a victim of harassment by the administration of Daniel
Ortega. Credit: Luis Martínez/IPS

MANAGUA, Feb 24 2017 (IPS) - The unequal battle that small farmer Francisca
Ramírez is waging against the Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega has
become so well-known that people are calling for her security and her
rights from the political heart of Europe.

Who is she and why did the European Parliament order Nicaragua on Feb. 16
to protect her life and rights, as well as those of thousands of peasant
farmers in the centre-south of this impoverished Central American country?

Ramírez is a 40-year-old indigenous farmer who has lived all her life in
the agricultural municipality of Nueva Guinea, in the Autonomous Region of
Caribe Sur, 280 km from the capital.

She told IPS in an interview that her family has always lived in that rural
area, which was the scene of bloody fighting during the 1980s civil war.

When she was eight, her father abandoned them and her mother had to work as
a day labourer, while Ramírez took care of her five younger siblings.

Having survived the U.S.-financed war against the government of the
Sandinista Front for National Liberation (1979-1990), Ramírez learned
agricultural work, got married at 18, had five children, and with the
effort of the whole family, they acquired some land and improved their
living conditions.
OLD:

The Diggers and Levellers of Warwickshire
Midland Revolt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland_Revolt
The Enclosure Acts - Study Tools
www.britaininprint.net/study_tools/enclosure.html

Declaration of the Diggers of Warwickshire, 1607
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/declaration-of-the-diggers-of-warwickshire-1607

This item is a 17th-century copy of the contents of a manuscript broadside
composed by rebels in Warwickshire during the Midland Revolt of 1607, and
circulated as a rallying cry to other ‘diggers’. The Midland Revolt was a
peasant uprising against land owners who enclosed common and rented land.
Enclosure was leaving rural workers unemployed, homeless and without the
means to feed themselves (for more information see Stow’s *Annales*
<https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-midland-revolt-in-stows-annals-of-england>).
The declaration is signed, ‘From Hampton field in hast: Wee rest as poore
Delvers & Day labourers for the good of the Commonwelth till death. A. B.
C. D. &c.’ The copyist gives the letter the title: ‘The Diggers of
Warwickshire to all other Diggers’.

This passionate letter clearly outlines the problem with enclosures and
expresses the sense of urgent need on the part of the ‘poore Delvers & Day
labourers’ who wrote it against ‘these incroaching Tirants, which would
grinde our flesh upon the whetstone of poverty’. The diggers claim they
would rather die ‘manfully’ in this resistance than die ‘for want of that
which these devouring Encroachers doe serve theyr fatt Hogges & Sheep
withall’.

Although they are rebels, the writers present themselves as loyal to the
King, using the imagery of the body politic in describing themselves as
‘members of the whole’. They describe the actions of the land owners as
tyrannical, and enclosures as being neither for the good of the monarch nor
the commonality, but only for ‘private gaine’.

This manuscript copy comes from several papers found in the study of
William Dell (c. 1607–1669), secretary to Archbishop Laud.

NEW:

[image: Permanent Culture Now] <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/>

   - Contact Us <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/contact-us/>
   - Old site all posts <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/old-site/>
   - Analysis <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/analysis/>
   - Inspiration <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/inspiration/>
   - Practical Projects
   <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/practical-projects/>
   - Redesigning society
   <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/redesigning-society/>
   - Films <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/films-2/>
   - Latest news <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/latest-news/>

A common peoples history of the UK part 3: Levellers and ranters and diggers

http://www.permanentculturenow.com/a-common-peoples-history-of-the-uk-part-3-levellers-and-ranters-and-diggers/

by Michael <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/author/madboy23/> | Aug 25,
2012 | Common Peoples History
<http://www.permanentculturenow.com/category/inspiration/radical-history/common-peoples-history/>,
Inspiration <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/category/inspiration/>, PCN
<http://www.permanentculturenow.com/category/culture/>, Radical History
<http://www.permanentculturenow.com/category/inspiration/radical-history/>
| 1 comment
<http://www.permanentculturenow.com/a-common-peoples-history-of-the-uk-part-3-levellers-and-ranters-and-diggers/#respond>

This is an on-going serialisation we are doing of a great little book
called, ‘A history of community asset ownership’ by Steve Wyler who has
kindly agreed for us to reprint his book on our website. We think a much
better title for the book would be ‘The UK common peoples history’. We at
Permanent Culture Now were going to do a very similar take on History that
Steve has done with his book, so when we saw it we were like that’s great
someone has already done the hard work. So we are expanding the work by
adding our views as to why this history is relevant for today, drawing
parallels with then and now and taking from it inspiration for building a
more permanent culture. You can download a pdf of the book for free here
<http://www.dtawales.org.uk/publications/c/152/i/280/> where you can also
find out more about development trusts, this will not have our commentary
in it, so please come back and check the expanded articles on our site.

NEW:
The new Diggers, Levellers and Ranters of the Twentieth Century: The San
Francisco Diggers

The Digger Archives
http://www.diggers.org/top_entry.htm

San Francisco Diggers
http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=San_Francisco_Diggers
Historical Essay
by Eric Noble

Does anyone remember the Diggers?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/6/7/1391445/-Does-anyone-remember-the-Diggers

    The Diggers took their name from the original English Diggers (1649–50)
who had promulgated a vision of society free from buying, selling, and
private property. During the mid- and late 1960s, the San Francisco Diggers
organized free music concerts and works of political art, provided free
food, medical care, transport, and temporary housing and opened stores that
gave away stock. Some of their happenings included the Death of Money
Parade, Intersection Game, Invisible Circus, and Death of Hippie/Birth of
Free.

    The group was founded by Emmett Grogan, Peter Coyote, Peter Berg (later
director of Planet Drum), and other members of the San Francisco Mime
Troupe including Billy Murcott, Roberto La Morticella, and Brooks Bucher.

Their concepts of new institutions to replace the sick ones of those times
was powerful.  Their free stores helped a lot of people.   I see some
activity today of a somewhat similar nature and hope it grows.

    The group sought to create a mini-society free of money and capitalism.
The Diggers provided a free food service in the Panhandle of Golden Gate
Park in Haight-Ashbury every day at four o'clock, generally feeding over
200 people with a stew from donated meat and vegetables that was served
from behind a giant yellow picture frame, called the Free Frame of
Reference. On one occasion, at a free concert in the park, people who came
for the food were given a two-inch-by-two-inch frame to hang about their
necks, called the portable Free Frame of Reference. The Diggers also
popularized whole wheat bread with their Digger Bread, baked in coffee cans
at the Free Bakery in the basement of Episcopal All Saints Church on 1350
Waller Street. In cooperation with All Saints Church and later via the
Haight Ashbury Switchboard at 1830 Fell Street, they arranged free
“crashpads” for homeless youth drawn to the Haight-Ashbury area.

    They opened numerous Free Stores in Haight-Ashbury, in which all items
were free for the taking or giving. The stores offered discarded items that
were still in usable condition. The first Free Store, in a six-car garage
on Page Street that they found filled with empty frames that they tacked up
on the side of the building, was called the Free Frame of Reference and was
later superseded by the Trip Without a Ticket on Frederick Street. It was
unclear how the stores were funded. The 1% Free poster, showing two Chinese
Tong assassins under the Chinese character for revolution, was thought to
be demanding a 1% tithe from merchants, but that was not the case. The
poster was a challenge, implicitly suggesting that 'free' people were the
minority, and inciting others to step up. They also opened a Free Medical
Clinic, initially by inviting volunteers from the University of California,
San Francisco medical school up the hill from the neighborhood.

    They threw free parties with music provided by the Grateful Dead, Janis
Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and other bands. They also staged street theater
events such as driving a truck of semi-naked belly dancers through the
Financial District, inviting brokers to climb on board and forget their
work. On December 17, 1966, the Diggers held a happening called “The Death
of Money” in which they dressed in animal masks and carried a large coffin
full of fake money down Haight Street, singing “Get out my life, why don’t
you babe?” to the tune of Chopin’s “Death March.” This was a precursor to
the happening “The Death of Hippie,” staged in October 1967. In “The Death
of Hippie,” also staged in the Haight Ashby neighborhood, masked
participants carried a coffin with the words "Hippie--Son of Media" on the
side. This event was meant to mark the end of the era of Haight-Ashbury.
The event was staged in such a way that any media outlet that simply
described the happening would unknowingly transmit the Diggers' message
that Hippies were a media invention. This was called "creating the
condition you describe". The Diggers skillfully used this technique for
media relations. Their own publications, notably the Digger Papers, are the
origin of such phrases as "Do your own thing" and "Today is the first day
of the rest of your life." The Diggers fostered and inspired later groups
like the Yippies.

-- 
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared