Month: January 2019

By Abigail
People’s Park in Berkeley — perhaps the longest-running land occupation in the US —turns 50 years old in 2019, but there’s no time for nostalgia. The park is facing imminent destruction from a University of California Berkeley (UC) plan to construct an up to 1,000 bed dorm, so defenders are struggling to defend the land. Over school winter-break, scores of police in riot gear staged 2 pre-dawn raids so that crews could clear-cut the Eastern half of the park and clear out a protest camp. Over 40 trees were cut and 6 people were arrested. UC claimed the raids had nothing to do with the development plan and were part of “routine tree maintenance.” What a joke — everything about the surprise raids showed UC’s deception and bad faith regarding the park.
Constructed without UC permission in 1969 to create a beautiful community on vacant UC land, UC’s first 1969 attempt to seize back and destroy the People’s Park lead to rioting, police shootings that left bystander James Rector dead and dozens wounded, and a week-long National Guard occupation of Berkeley.
UC has always claimed to legally own the land, but they have blood on their hands and since 1969 they have never been able to control it. Over the years, park users have practiced “user development” by building and tending gardens, trees and landscaping as determined by users, not government managers. In response, UC has done everything it could to undermine community efforts, destroying gardens and free-boxes, and encouraging social disintegration.
The park is a rare place in the city open to everyone, hosting a free speech stage and daily free food servings. People’s Park exists for use by people, not for sale or profit. For decades, the slogan on the street when it comes to UC proposals to develop People’s Park has been “they try it, we riot.”
Dorm construction may begin in 2020 and has received support from Berkeley’s mayor and other city officials, in contrast to previous development attempts that received much less support. UC hopes that wide-spread gentrification and the housing crisis will finally allow them free reign over the Park, but nothing’s certain when it comes to People’s Park. According to the People’s Park Committee, which is organizing 50th anniversary celebrations in April and coordinating defense of the park: “Student housing can be built elsewhere. The city and campus community must prevent UC Berkeley and private corporations from decimating People’s Park precious green space. There are several alternative locations to build student housing.”
The best way to protect the park is to build solid community support by using the park as a thriving venue for radical action, alternative culture, art, music and life outside of consumerism. East Bay Food Not Bombs has served lunch at 3pm Monday-Friday at the Park for the last 25 years. Park committee meetings are Sundays at 1pm. Let 1,000 Parks Bloom! More info at peoplespark.org.

Upcoming Events
• Class on People’s Park and the Right to the Commons – UC Berkeley thru April 30. Tuesdays 5-6 pm Barrows Hall Room 166 syllabus at Peoplespark.org
• Walking tour of Telegraph Avenue with park- founder Michael Delacour see peoplespark.org

By Kiki, doing time with her man serving a 25 to life sentence. She makes the drive to see him every weekend

The line is long this morning in the tube and the smell is a mixture of hair product, dirty concrete, and damp cold air along with a visceral feeling of anxiety, excitement, despair, and resignation. The resignation comes in unique flavors from aggressive to exhausted and I wonder sometimes how one concrete tube can contain so many emotions without cracking. Then again, how can any one of us stay so contained considering what we are lining up for.

If you didn’t know any better, and could ignore the obvious give-aways; you’d think this line up of women would be waiting to enter a club. It’s only 7 am and there are women who have awakened at 3:45 am to get here on time and let me tell you these women are looking good. Hair washed and coiffed, make up meticulously applied, clothed with attention, precision, an eye to attract and be appreciated. I want to tell each one of them “looking beautiful today!” just to bring some smiles to faces in this grim grey place. And considering the regulations, there are a whole lot of women with creativity and imagination to get around these rules and achieve an end result of beauty.

This is a woman’s story and not just because the line is almost always over 90% female; the wait, the silent bearing up and non disclosures, the sheer endurance. While one would hope we would feel on the same life raft together, truth be told, in arenas of scarcity fellowship is a rare commodity.

It’s finally 7:30 and the buzzer sounds. Like a herd of gazelle we become alert, ears and eyes cocked on the door, watching as the line begins to creep. Honey drips faster but love won’t give up. When I finally get through the door it’s close to 8am (only an hour this lucky morning) I have gotten through the first step. Three more hurdles of processing steps; the check in, the x-ray machine and metal detector, the clothing check and finally I am out the other door, striding down the long walk. There’s just no way to do this walk slowly. As I am getting closer, I finally allow myself to begin to get excited because we are now in the same world. In a matter of minutes, this week long wait will end. But not quite yet, one more door, two more gates, and then the last walk, with one more check in, find a table

and now pace with what I pray will only be the last few minutes.

Do this with me now: imagine someone you cherish, heart and soul; maybe it’s your beloved child, or an adored parent, or even, if you’re lucky, your mate. Imagine that love, how you can practically feel their blood coursing through their veins, how the very sinew of them is etched into yours and now imagine you cannot get to them because there is a very thick wall and multiple gates and fences in between and layers upon layers of unclear obstacles and the way in is fraught with opacity, rules which are confusing. In your mind’s eye you circle the walls with frustration and the sheer energy of having to stand still and do nothing when every cell in your body silently shrieks to move, to take action. It is the act of doing nothing with so much pent up energy which is the ultimate exercise. Believe me, the burn out is real. There is a sheer exhaustion which comes from crossing borders, from one world to another and then back again, in the space of hours, and those hours filled with crowds and lines and more lines coupled with the wanting and needing and hoping.

How do we keep that ember burning? The fact is, despite all the draining uncertainty, I have seen evidence of embers – throughout a room. Lovers, families, parents with sons, fathers with children, siblings, hunched over small tables meant for children, intent on the contact. This scene becomes primitive in my mind – tribes huddled around the fire of love, practicing the human need and desire to connect, to be seen and loved. And it is because of the setting that the embers of love take on richer hues, poignancy, and depth.

For now though, I glance at the clock. It is 8:35 and when I glance again and in the direction of my line of sight, I see him, finally, and with that all lines and time are forgotten. All that matters is that moment, that smile, that love I feel emanating from me and traveling towards me. So I do what anyone would do, I walk straight towards him, smiling.

By David Graeber. Published by Simon & Schuster (May 2018), 368 pages, available online January 2018

Review By Stuart

Bullshit Jobs, by David Graeber, professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics, delighted me with its clear thought on an issue I hadn’t read about.

“A bullshit job is a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case.”

Individual workers judge whether their own job is bullshit.  A youGov poll found that in the United Kingdom 37 percent of those who had full-time jobs were quite sure that their job did not make any meaningful contribution to the world.  A poll in Holland put this as high as 40 percent.

A bullshit job isn’t just a job that has some bullshit associated with it, though this is an important issue, with a survey showing the amount of time US office workers spend on their primary duties decreasing from 46 percent in 2015 to 39 percent in 2016.  A bullshit job is one that is entirely or overwhelmingly bullshit.

A bullshit job is different from a shit job, one that pays and treats workers poorly.  Lots of shit jobs are clearly of benefit to society.   Graeber refers to “the inverse relationship between the social value of work and the amount of money one is likely to be paid for it”.

Some categories of bullshit jobs are: flunkies (who make other people look or feel important), goons (aggressive but not necessarily physically), duct tapers (who get around a problem that ought not to exist), box tickers (who allow an organization to claim to do something it isn’t in fact doing), and taskmasters (either unnecessary superiors, the opposite of flunkies; or those whose primary role is to manage bullshit tasks or jobs for others).

People with bullshit jobs are typically unhappy in them, often deeply.  One of Graeber’s poetic headings is “on the misery of knowing that one is doing harm”.

The book speculates as to why bullshit jobs are proliferating.  Many deal with handling information, a kind of job that is increasing.  Another big question is why we as a society do not object to the growth of pointless employment.

Graeber goes back to the organization of labor in feudal society in Europe and “the theological roots of our attitudes toward labor”, then forward to “how, over the course of the twentieth century, work came to be increasingly valued primarily as a form of discipline and self-sacrifice”.

Finally, what can be done?  The author doesn’t have the answer, but thinks a universal basic income might help, divorcing work from finding the money to stay alive.  If necessary work were distributed equitably, 40 hours a week would be way more than enough; we could all work less and have more time for life.

By Faith G. Harper, 2017, Microcosm Publishing

Review by Kathy Labriola, Counselor/Nurse

“Dr. Faith” is a psychologist in private practice in San Antonio, Texas. She initially wrote a bunch of terrific self-help zines for people struggling with depression, anxiety, and/or addiction. These zines were eagerly utilized by lots of people in radical political scenes , and many found their way around the country. They were published as a series by Microcosm Publishing in Portland. Oregon, who eventually persuaded Dr. Faith to expand them into a book, which became “Unfuck your Brain.” And she has written quite a few new zines, on a broad range of useful topics: masturbation, coping skills, sex and relationships, “adulting,” PTSD, developing healthy boundaries, “woke parenting,” BDSM, and more.

“Unfuck your Brain” is short and to the point, because Dr. Faith’s mission is to give people practical tools to tackle many mental health challenges and to cope with the insanity of modern life. Its brevity is one of its strong points, because when someone is in crisis, they need help right away, and they don’t have time to read a 300-page book full of lots of non-essential filler. Not one word of this book is gratuitous. It gets right down to the business of helping you figure out what the fuck is wrong and how to reverse this negative spiral.

The book starts with a comprehensive but very accessible description of how human brains work, and how trauma and other problems affect how our brains function, or more accurately, how they malfunction. Each chapter discusses a different issue, such as anger, grief, addiction, depression, and anxiety. You gotta love the chapter headings, including “Why is my brain such a big hot mess?” and “The Asshole Amygdala” (that part of your brain that turns memories into emotions and creates trauma-related triggers, among other things), “Take Action: Name that Bastard!” “Am I just in a bad mood, or do you suck?” and “The Platitude Bullshit People Say that Doesn’t Help.” In each chapter, she explains what is going on in your brain with each specific problem, and then provides advice on various approaches to help people feel better as quickly as possible.

The section on Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) provides the best explanation I have ever seen of this debilitating condition. Even more importantly, it describes effective and innovative strategies for reducing these painful and exhausting symptoms, and becoming calmer and more functional.

The section on addiction is refreshingly devoid of judgement and the usual shaming of the addict. And Dr. Faith provides a very balanced assessment of abstinence-based programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, as well as harm reduction and other non-traditional approaches to substance abuse and compulsive behaviors.

Some of the problem-solving approaches she suggests are self-care strategies, including getting more exercise, eating nutritious food, sleeping, playing music, spending time in nature and with supportive friends, and mindfulness techniques like meditation. Others include anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs, herbal medicines, counseling, recovery group meetings, and alternative healing techniques such as harm reduction, acupuncture, and Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

There are many other books out there on depression and other mental health conditions. However, this book was clearly written for our alternative radical community, by someone who obviously understands our worldview and our needs. And unlike most other authors, Dr. Faith talks in plain language that anyone can understand, and has a lot of compassion and respect for people struggling with mental health problems. And she does not push a specific agenda. Instead, she provides great information on a wide range of choices, and encourages each person to find their own path to healing.

By Michael Pollan (2018), A Perigree Book/Penguin Group

Review by Jesse D. Palmer

This book might convince your mom and dad to take LSD and psilocybin mushrooms (if they aren’t already doing so.) Michael Pollan is a big-name, super earnest, mainstream journalist type who articulately and systematically makes the case that psychedelic substances are revolutionary technology that should be accepted and used. He explores contemporary medical research that is re-discovering how useful these drugs can be treating depression, PTSD, drug addiction, end of life anxiety, and other conditions.

But the book is most interesting in its explorations of psychedelics by healthy people to gain insights into the nature of reality, the centrality of love, and the roots of spirituality. Throughout the book, Pollan reports that people who took high-dose, ego dissolving psychedelics found the trip to be amongst the most meaningful experiences of their lives. Many changed their lives after the drugs wore off.

But the experiences users have while on psychedelics are more instructive about the capabilities present in our brains all the time than they are about the drugs themselves.

Pollan debunks war on drugs myths that have stalled mainstream scientific and philosophical exploration of psychedelics for the last 50 years. Perhaps threatened by these drugs’ unmistakable power, mainstream institutions cracked down in the 1960s and then have dismissed psychedelics as dangerous relics of the counter-culture ever since. Pollan wants mainstream society to take a fresh look, and luckily this seems to be happening.

In October, the FDA gave “breakthrough therapy” designation to a psilocybin-based drug being tested to treat depression. The designation means there will be an accelerated research and approval process for the drug because there was strong evidence showing it would be a substantial improvement over currently available therapies.

I hope Pollan’s book helps revive wide-spread acceptance and use of psychedelics as well as legalization. With the world stuck on so many issues — unable to urgently respond to the climate crisis, unable to address increasing wealth inequality, losing cohesion and tolerance — now is an excellent time for new inspiration and deeply-felt appreciation of the unity we all share as life forms on a fragile world.

Squatting Everywhere Collective (SqeK)

Edition Assemblage 2018

Rudolf-Diesel-Str. 37, D – 48157 Münster

Review by dj dio

This book is 356 pages long and contains 30 different authors writing on 30 different situations around the world. What unites these stories is the underlying question: “Who has a right to be where and who gets to decide?”. There is no more central social question in our modern times and these authors address this question directly and indirectly from many different angles. What makes this book very readable is that the answers come in the form of anecdotes and histories from a wide variety of real world struggles…..this is not a collection of abstracted theoretical discussions, this is on-the-ground praxis!

Real, lived experiences from the city streets, the villages, the countryside and the wilds told by people who are part of these struggles. My personal favorite was Margot Verdier’s reporting from the ZAD near Nantes in France where a very diverse group of folks have successfully challenged government and industry plans to build (yet another fucking) airport. Replete with victories, losses and lessons learned, you will find no references to 401K plans here! Read this book if you want to open your mind up to something other than cynical, individualistic survival strategies for the coming zombie capitalocalypse. You will be inspired!

Thanks if you purchased a 2019 Slingshot Organizer — selling them is how we pay to publish this paper.

If you want to help draw art or otherwise create the 2020 Organizer, contact us now. We include the work of over 30 artists from all over the US and internationally in each organizer — it could be you this year. The schedule this year is:

• Edit and add more historical dates (May and June)

• Update radical contact list (June and July)

• Make art for the calendar starting June 24 with all art due July 25.

• Make the organizer July 27/28 and August 3/4.

Once we get returns from stores in February, we’ll be giving away bulk quantities to organizations that distribute them to prisoners, immigrants, homeless people, or others who wouldn’t otherwise have access. Contact us if you want to participate.

The Slingshot Organizer smartphone app is available but we need help publicizing it. Tell your friends. Right now it only works on Android phones, but we think there may be an iphone version available in 2019.

Slingshot continues to receive many emails asking us to remove particular people from the organizer because they were alleged sexual abusers, racist, sexist or homophobic etc. While we don’t want to promote harmful people, it isn’t always clear that the answer is to write people out of history who have made important contributions to collective liberation despite their flaws. We edit the list of historical dates every year so if you have ideas or suggestions, please let us know.

Compiled by Jesse D. Palmer

Here’s some updates to the Radical Contact List published in the 2019 Slingshot Organizer. Please send us your updates about new spaces. We know we’re just scratching the surface of a global, fired-up, exciting do-it-yourself underground. Thanks for everyone who is making it all happen with your hard work and passion. You can sometimes find updates at slingshotcollective.org. Note that the on-line contact list hosted at tao.ca is no longer being updated and due to computer problems we are unable to take it off the internet. Sorry for the confusion.

GG’s Social Trade & Treasure Club – Brooklyn, NY

A social center with studio residences, an event space, art gallery and vintage shop with a forming income sharing co-op. 1339 Dekalb Ave, Brooklyn, NY 347-808-1919 ggssocialclub.com

Trans Pride Initiative – Dallas, TX

A community space and office that hosts events. 614 W. Davis St Suite 208, Dallas (Mail PO Box 3982, Dallas, TX 75208)

Dismantle Change Build Center (DCBC) – Portland, OR

A collectively operated community center that hosts a number of grassroots social justice groups including Critical Resistance, Don’t Shoot Portland, Brown Girls Rise, Urban Nature Partners PDX and Portland Books to Prisoners. DCBC also hosts Crescent Shine, a multi-vendor artist and consignment shop. It occupies the space that used to be In Other Words Books. 14 NE Killingsworth, Portland, OR 97211, dcbc@criticalresistance.org, dcbcpdx.org

Delaware Art Initiative Booking Collective – Claymont, DE

A booking collective for all-ages punk/DIY shows in the Wilmington area based in a house that hosts local independent label Impetus Records. 13 Delaware Ave, Claymont, DE 19703. deartinitiative.booking@gmail.com Folks in Delaware may also want to look for DisturbancE, a monthly punk zine that has lists of upcoming all-ages events, articles from people in the scene and local artist highlights. They host events but do not have a physical address (yet). disturbancede@gmail.com

Medusa Women & Trans Squat – Chicago, IL

An anarchist, feminist squat. 1450 S Avers Ave. Chicago, IL 60623 773-322-5562

People’s Harm Reduction Alliance – Seattle WA

A peer-run harm reduction organization that does needle exchange, hep-c testing and provides other services at a variety of locations. Headquarters at 1415 N.E. 43rd St. Seattle, WA 98105 206-330-5777 peoplesharmreductionalliance.org

Mankato Makerspace – Mankato, MN

A volunteer run art and fabrication space with welding, glass working, forging, woodworking, painting, aerosol, textiles, pottery and more. 1700 3rd Ave., Mankato, MN 56001 507-387-7218 mankatomakerspace.org

Empowerment Infoshop – London, Ontario, Canada

The have books and zines as well as shirts and buttons they make themselves. They have an archive and host events and shows. 613 Dundas street East, London Ontario, N5W 2Z1 Canada

Glitter Bean – Halifax, NS, Canada

A unionized workers coop cafe that is queer and trans centric with radical art and zines that hosts activist events, meetings, and parties. 5896 Spring Garden Rd., Halifax, NS B3H 0A6, Canada

The Common House – London, UK

An event space with members not consumers. Unit 5E, 5e Punderson’s Gardens, London E2 9QG, UK, commonhouse.org.uk/about-2/

Sparrows Nest – Nottingham, UK

A library that hosts events. They don’t want us to publish their physical address but if you email them to set up a time to visit, they’ll tell you. tel. 7388417325 thesparrowsnest.org.uk

Glasgow Autonomous Space – Glasgow, UK

A huge warehouse with a library, herbal clinic dispensary, kitchen, wood workshop, meeting space, and a garden with a greenhouse. Unit 11, 53 Kilbirnie St. Glasgow, G5 8JD glasgowautonomous.weebly.com

Librería Proyección – Santiago, Chile

A volunteer-run social center and library that supports small publishers with 3 meeting rooms and a multipurpose room for presentations and workshops. San Francisco 51, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile +56 2 2639 6950 www.libreriaproyeccion.cl

Infocentrum Salé – Prague, Czech Republic

An anarchist community center that hosts workshops, presentations, screenings and meetings with a radical library and archive. Named after the Salé pirate colony in Morocco, which was an economically, politically, and intellectually independent territory for decades that was a base for subversive activities. Open Monday to Thursday. From 4 pm to 10 pm. Orebitska 14, Praha 3, 130 00, Czech Republic, sale(at)riseup.net, sale.451.cz

Tři ocásci – Brno, Czech Republic

A co-op owned fair trade café and vegan bakery supporting human rights and civil society. třída Kpt. Jarose 1935/18, Brno 602 00 Czech Republic, info@triocasci.cz triocasci.cz 775 702 778

Changes to the 2019 Slingshot Organizer

• Interference Archive / Common Notions Books is at a new location (they moved and were not included in the 2019 organizer.) 314 7th Street Brooklyn NY 11215. interferencearchive.org

• We published In Other Words books in Portland, Oregon but they closed in June and are now DCBC (see above). They put a goodbye message on their website which is at the end of the on-line version of this article.

• Anarres Infoshop in Portland, OR isn’t in the printed calendar because they moved right before presstime. As of today they are looking for a new space – but by the time you read this they may have found one, so look them up.

• Blood Fruit Library in Chicago has moved to a new location that is no longer public, so do not go to the address listed in the 2019 organizer. If you want to contact them, email bloodfruit_library@riseup.net. Also they got a lot of letters from prisoners so prisoners can mail Chicago Anarchist Black Cross at 1321 N. Milwaukee Ave. PMB 460 Chicago, IL 60622 (it is a PO Box, not a place you can visit.)

• Qilombo in Oakland, Calif. was evicted.

• The phone # for Boing Anarchist Collective in Salt Lake City, UT changed to 385-229-4235.

• The address for Peoples Cauldron in New York changed. The new address is 3669 Main St., Stone Ridge, NY 12484. They share the space with Carthaigh Coffee, an anarchist coffee shop.

• Comrades in Chicago told us we should remove Working Bikes from the contact list because they said it isn’t a real community bike shop. They suggested we list West Town Bikes 2459 W Division St, Chicago, IL 60622 instead because even though it is a for profit business they have a work-on-your-bike night available even to those without funds. Slingshot is in Berkeley so it is hard to check this out, but if you’re in Chicago, please email and let us know what you think.

• We got an email from Delaware pointing out that the contact listed there is just a natural food store — they suggested better things to include (see above.) If we can’t figure out a good contact in a state, we may list a coop or natural food store so there’s at least something but we are eager to take those out if we can figure out something better. Thanks!

• We heard about K’é Infoshop — an indigenous community organizing space with a library that hosts events “in the capitol of the Navajo Nation” — but we can’t figure out if they have a physical address nor get them to write us back. We think the mailing address may be PO Box 400, Window Rock, AZ 86515 — let us know if you have any info about them.

• We didn’t include Edmonton Small Press Association in the printed edition. They are located at 11336 101 St. Edmonton, Alberta T5G 2A7 Canada 780-434-9236 ESPAArtHaus@gmail.com – please call or email for an appointment before you visit.

• The address for l’Etincelle should be 56
Boulevard du Doyenné, 49000 Angers, France.

 

ON LINE VERSION ONLY (do not paste into the newspaper by mistake):

Good Bye Message from In Other Words, Portland, Oregon

Dearly beloved In Other Words Communities,

There is no softening this announcement. After 25 years, In Other Words is closing at the end of June 2018. The current members of IOW do not come to this decision lightly. We are grieving. We invite all of you who have found even a moment of clarity, love, determination, and joy to spend some time with our reasons for closing In Other Words.

Some reasons for the closure are increased expenses and the lack of funds, volunteers, and board members. This is a cycle of In Other Words as an organization, and also the cycle of community spaces in capitalism. IOW periodically discusses closing because of a lack of money and people. This isn’t sustainable, especially emotionally, for the people who come here and work to provide this space as a resource to Portland Feminist communities. Even if funds poured in, and masses of people showed up in response to this announcement, we would not continue our tenure here.

We cannot continue because we know reform does not work. The current volunteers and board members stepped into and took over a space that was founded on white, cis feminism (read: white supremacy). It’s really difficult, actually, impossible, for us to disentangle from that foundational ideology. Volunteers and board members tried to reform and re-envision the organization, and have found it unattainable to do, especially with so little resources. We have experienced this as a very real reminder that reform doesn’t work. Patriarchy, White Supremacy, Capitalism cannot be reformed and ever serve the people. Abolition is the goal.

We are then very excited and grateful that Critical Resistance Portland is working to keep the space on Killingsworth open as a community center. Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe.

CR is actively looking for partner organizations who wish to participate in keeping this vital community resource available. Interested organizations can email them here: crpdx@criticalresistance.org

To all of the people who have organized here, attended events, read a life-changing book in our library, gave their time, money, energy, knowledge, skills, and love to this space – we thank you. We invite you to share your stories, feelings, and memories of In Other Words.

We invite you to participate one last time. Please, join us in the closing process, to be a part of the transition of the end of one story and the beginning of another. If you would like to help with time and energy in physical or logistic closing work, you can email us at: scheduling@inotherwords.org or call 503-232-6003 between 1 and 5pm Friday through Sunday. If you cannot physically join us in closing and you would like to help, we still need funding to help us make it through this closing process. You can donate here: tinyurl.com/donate2IOW

Cover art is by Talia: Over the past year in the backyard of my communal building, one of us planted a garden: ·Nasturtium, which produce spicy yet fresh-tasting orange flowers; Rosemary; Iris; Tulsi Basil, another delicious-smelling and tasting plant, great for making tea; Parsley, plus two varieties of scented Geraniums, and a million little succulents. Then, the landlord cut down all of the Nasturtiums. No one realized how the flowering weeds were influencing all the other plants; much of the garden wilted. But then I noticed a new weed growing. Small wild tomatoes were growing! Over six months, the plant sprawled across the brick yard, curling up to bicycles and dropping sweet, red fruits all around. So I sent a note to the landlord, “You mess with this tomato plant, and there’ll be hell to pay!”

Please consider: when you’re gardening, weeds can be as beneficial or more so than ornamental plants. Look up: “Guerilla Gardening”. You can transform a simple, abandoned plot of dirt into a flourishing wonderland!

by PSEF crew

Humans are the only creatures who don’t recycle their waste back into the local landscape that produces their food. And the practice of removing our waste from that nutrient cycle is relatively new for us. Many societies around the world never abandoned the practice of collecting and returning human waste to the local environment, the widespread use of “night soil” in Asia being the most obvious example. Much ado has been made about poor sanitation in urban areas before the advent of sewers and flush toilets. Thermophilic (hot) composting allows the safe recycling of human waste on a home scale without the risk of spreading pathogens and parasites.

In the developed world, most human waste is collected in sewage systems and pumped to waste treatment facilities. It is mixed with everything else that gets washed down a drain and often with the street runoff from urban storm drains. It is now rather unsuitable for composting and direct application to agriculture as it is full of toxins. Processing human waste in home scale, dispersed humanure systems is a great way to recover this valuable resource and complete the nutrient cycle.

Building a humanure system is probably the easiest, least expensive “environmentally friendly” thing a person can do; all that is needed is 20 sq. ft of outdoor space. It saves you money, reduces water and energy usage, improves your immediate surroundings, and eliminates your contribution to a major global problem (dumping of treated and partially treated sewage into oceans and waterways).

We’re often asked if hot composting is effective at breaking down and disabling pharmaceuticals in human waste. Scientists have yet to explore this as humanure is still totally taboo in the West. What is for certain is that sewage treatment does not adequately neutralize these chemicals, and they are already contaminating our water on a global scale with disastrous results. A good measure against these risks is maintaining an awareness of the medicines being consumed by household members who use the humanure toilet.

Composting is a fascinating, educational process and will change your relationship to your poop. You can add an outdoor bathroom to your home with scrap materials, a bucket and a $15 toilet seat! And digging out the finished compost at the end of the process is a revelation! It is sweet smelling, full of life energy and definitely better than any amendment you will ever find at the nursery or garden center. You will begin to shed your Westerner’s dread of poop and an important piece of you will be brought back into reality — we are part of these processes, not separate from them and they are magical! Poop is magical! So are thermophilic compost microorganisms!

When we first built our humanure system we were surprised at how the new toilet remained odor free and at how easy it all was to throw together. We were also surprised at how pooping out in the garden in an airy lean-to with a honeysuckle vine growing through it quickly made pooping indoors seem a rather barbaric practice. Free bathroom, an end to poop-phobia and killer vegetables? Fuck Yes!