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Download PDF of Complete Issue PBerkeley’sEACE Journal of Nonviolence POWER & Conflict Transformation Monks Ordaining Trees in Thailand Taking a Stand for Environmental & Social Justice Also in this issue: Exclusive Interview: Julia Butterfly Hill The Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil Fall 2007 $3.99 U.S. $4.49 Canada Indigenous Resistance 3 7 5 to Oil Imperialism 5 2 7 Legislation that Matters: 7 Nominee for Best New 2 Publication 2006 0 The Peace Tax Fund 7 4 4 7 0 1 PEACEPOWER Where Is the Intersection of www.calpeacepower.org Volume 3, Issue 2 • Fall 2007 Environmental and Social Justice? Editorial Board lobal warming has been on the tips of everyone’s tongues, from cafés and Carrie Brode • Jenica Cimino Gclassrooms to the daily news. Such concern with rising greenhouse gas emis- Chelsea Collonge • Lara Duncan sions and their effect on the planet has brought much attention to the relationship Caroline Kornfield • Jerlina Love between humans and the environment. In this issue we pose the question: “What Eli Sasaran McCarthy Tal Palter-Palman • Sujal Parikh is the relationship between environmental and social justice?” Jordan Pearlstein Our exploration of this question led us to uncover a wide range of movements, Matthew A. Taylor debates, and struggles that we believe reflect the need to respect the environment when pursuing social change goals, and the importance of employing nonviolent Editorial and Production Staff means to achieve ecologically sustainable ends. John Campbell • Ryan Curtis Anna Kallet • Eui-yun Kim In his fresh take on vegetarianism, John Campbell exposes how factory farming JyaHyun Lee • Corine Stofle contributes to environmental degradation, from hazardous runoff to intense use of resources to increased global warming. Caroline Kornfield and Matthew Taylor Contributing Writers and Artists depict struggles over the importance and sanctity of trees, from the depleted for- Emma Brode • Amy Elmgren ests of Thailand to Berkeley’s very own Memorial Oak Grove. Both describe the Yelena Filipchuk • Chris Fretz Andrew Hawkes • Lani Lee role that nonviolent activists play in preserving the trees. Hillary Lehr • Ken Preston-Pile Racism and classism are two often-overlooked lynchpins of environmental op- Jamie Rowen pression - environmental burdens like toxic waste often have a disproportionate impact on poor people and people of color. Ryan Curtis highlights how an African- Faculty Advisors American community rose to resist a toxic dump in North Carolina. In an exclusive Prof. Dacher Keltner Prof. Michael N. Nagler interview, famous tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill tells the tale of her stand in solidar- ity with the people of South Central Los Angeles against the destruction of the Write a letter! nation’s largest urban farm. letters<at>calpeacepower<dot>org Lani Lee and JyaHyun Lee bring us around the world to nonviolent environ- (please mention which article if mental struggles in Nigeria, Colombia, and Korea. Jerlina Love introduces us to responding to a story) the Landless Worker’s Movement in Brazil, a group that develops farms on fallow Contribute! fields in order to subsist and enact their inclusive vision of land reform. Ken Pres- we welcome submissions: ton-Pile profiles Gandhian activist Vandana Shiva, who struggles to protect both submit<at>calpeacepower<dot>org the rights of farmers and the integrity of seeds in India. Join us! These and many other nonviolent efforts across the globe demonstrate the in- to apply to join our staff: extricable link between respecting humanity and respecting the environment. We staff<at>calpeacepower<dot>org hope that these articles inspire you to explore your own relationship with the world we are looking for writers, editors, photographers, artists, around you. layout designers, web team contributors, and business managers About PEACEPOWER hat kind of power can persuade the British to leave India as friends, not Also visit: Wenemies? What kind of power can move the hearts of white Americans www.mettacenter.org to recognize the need for civil rights for African-Americans? What kind of power ASUC Sponsored PEACEPOWER is a nonprofit publication and is not an official publication of the can persuade an air force pilot, ordered by a dictator to quell an uprising, to turn Associated Students of the University of California. The views expressed herein are the views of the away from his target, unable to fire on a crowd of unarmed Filipinos? We call this writers and not necessarily the views of the Editors, Staff, Faculty Advisors, ASUC, or of the University of Peace Power, also known as principled nonviolence. Rather than a negation of California, Berkeley. violence, peace power is a positive force for change and resistance. By renouncing Printed on 100% the use of coercive force, it draws on the persuasive power people have over each post-consumeR recycled paper other’s hearts, or what Kenneth Boulding calls “integrative power.” It can also be with soy-based inks by Alonzo described as “person power,” the dedication of each individual when they convert environmental Printing, an a negative drive to a positive drive. When those who have achieved this individual Alameda County, California green-certified company. dedication come together, they enact “people power.” This is the power that can transform our selves, our relationships, our conflicts, and our world. 2 PEACEPOWER Fall 2007 www.calpeacepower.org www.calpeacepower.org PEACEPOWER Fall 2007 An alternate vision of security Inside this Issue without nuclear weapons, p. 26 Environmental & Social Justice 4 The MST Peasant Struggle for Land and Dignity in Brazil by Jerlina Love 6 Vegetarianism from an Environmental Perspective by John Campbell 8 A Return to the Land with Vandana Shiva by Ken Preston-Pile 11 The People vs. the Toxic Landfill in North Carolina by Ryan Curtis 12 Monks in Thailand Ordaining Trees by Caroline Kornfield 14 Korea’s Struggles: Independence & the Environment Landless workers fighting by JyaHyun Lee for their rights with 16 People Unite to Save a Sacred Oak Grove in Berkeley constructive means by Matthew Taylor p. 4 20 Indigenous Resistance to Oil Imperialism by Lani Lee Public Policy 24 Alternative Service for Drafted Dollars: The Peace Tax Fund by Chris Fretz 26 Approaches to Security without Nuclear Weapons by Chelsea Collonge 28 Update on the Department of Peace from Dennis Kucinich by Carrie Brode Resistance to oil companies in Nigeria Perspectives on Gandhi p. 20 30 M.P. Mathai on India’s Gandhian Movement by Yelena Filipchuk A review of the recent 32 Nonviolent Economics: from India to L.A. by Amy Elmgren film Blood Diamond 34 Travelogue: The Gandhi Legacy Tour by Jerlina Love p. 36 Reviews & Interviews 36 Blood Diamond film review by Anna Kallet 37 Imagine Coexistence book review by Jamie Rowen The Peace Tax Fund, 38 The Legacy of Luna book review for the sake of conscience by Matthew Taylor p. 24 40 Interview: Julia Butterfly Hill by Matthew Taylor 42 Commentary: Berkeley Deserves Better than British Petroleum by Hillary Lehr Andrew Hawkes 43 Subscriptions and Back Issues PEACEPOWER Fall 2007 www.calpeacepower.org www.calpeacepower.org PEACEPOWER Fall 2007 3 Environmental Justice A Movement of Meaning: Peasants Struggle for Land and Dignity in Brazil This event brought together 1,200 men and women from 23 by Jerlina Love states to build a vision and infrastructure for their new move- he Landless Laborers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalha- ment. At the conference, delegates laid out four basic goals: 1) Tdores Sem-Terra or MST) is the most important new social to maintain a broadly inclusive movement of the rural poor; movement in contemporary Latin America with over 1.5 mil- 2) to achieve agrarian reform; 3) to promote the principle that lion participants. In Brazil, 1.6 percent of the landowners con- the land belongs to those who work on it and live from it; and trol roughly half of the land on which crops could be grown, 4) to create a just, egalitarian society and put an end to capi- and the MST is organizing nonviolently for land reform and talism. a higher quality of living for The MST, which is lead by poor and landless Bra- the landless. So far the MST’s zilians, has vigor- land occupation struggle has “The MST has vigor- ously struggled gained re-appropriation of ously struggled to to persuade land- enough land to award more owners to concede than 350,000 families land persuade landowners their unused land titles in 2,000 settlements. A to concede their un- through land oc- further 180,000 encamped used land...and has cupations and has families currently await gov- chosen to organize ernment recognition. In their achieved both land their resistance al- effort to improve lives, the rights and rehuman- most completely MST has worked to build co- ization for the landless without violence. operative living communities The movement and farming communities, workers of Brazil.” has achieved both schools, and teacher training land rights and programs. Along with land social rehumaniza- occupation actions, these self-improvement projects are the tion for the landless workers of Brazil. Brazilians of all classes backbone of the MST movement. are slowly beginning to recognize these masses of poor, land- less people as inherently worthy. This is a significant step, Birth of a Movement considering Brazil’s history of dehumanizing its poor, laboring In Spring 1985, after 164 families won the titles to class. land in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande The MST is not the first organization to promote agricultural do Sul, the MTS held its first national congress. reform in Brazil but it has been the most successful. From 1950 The BuTTerfly effecT: Special reporT nterconnectedness is an essential facet of life. This is a reality that is increasingly apparent in a world Iof globalization and climate change, where we must grapple with our perceptions of our place in the world as a species and our relationship to other life forms.
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