From: "Keith McHenry" <foodnotbombs@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Date: Sat, May 17, 2008 6:46 pm
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOOD NOT BOMBS
Twenty eight years of cooking for peace.
The May 24, 1980 Occupation Attempt of Seabrook
Nuclear Power Station in New Hamp****re marks the
birth of Food Not Bombs. Food Not Bombs cofounder
Brian Feigenbaum was arrested at the May 24th direct
action to stop the nuclear station. He and his
friends held bake sales to raise money for his
defense and thus Food Not Bombs began.
This year Taos Food Not Bombs will be celebrating
the 28 year history of Food Not Bombs with free vegan
meals and a not so vegan birthday cake at the Taos
Plaza from 2 to 4 on Saturday, May 24th. In the past
many groups have organized a free out door concert
where the local chapter provides free meals to
everyone that comes. Food Not Bombs calls their
birthday concerts Soupstock. The largest such
celebration was on the 20th anniversary when Soupstock
drew over 20,000 people to Dolores Park in San
Francisco.
Reflecting on our nearly three decades of organizing
it is really amazing that an all volunteer effort
could grow from eight young anti-nuclear activists
in Cambridge, Massachusetts to a global movement
active in over 1,000 communities. It is fitting that
one of our news chapters would start in Cambridge,
England almost 28 years to the day of the action
that inspired the movement.
The accomplishments are truly inspiring. Food Not
Bombs worked for two years to help promote the June
12, 1982 March for Nuclear Disarmament in Central
Park, New York where our Cambridge chapter provided
meals to some of the over one million people who
participated. On August 15, 1988 nine volunteers
of the second Food Not Bombs group where arrested
in at the entrance to Golden Gate Park in San
Francisco marking the first arrest for sharing free
food. The city of San Francisco made over 1,000
arrests for feeding the hungry inspiring the movement
we have today. Food Not Bombs volunteers were
declared "Prisoners of Conscience" by Amnesty
International.
Each time the San Francisco police made more arrests
people would contact Food Not Bombs to see how they
could also start a new group and get arrested feeding
the hungry. Food Not Bombs had its first gathering
in October of 1992 in San Francisco and its second
gathering in 1995 during the 50th anniversary
Celebration of the founding of the United Nations.
Food Not Bombs volunteers helped start the current
underground radio movement with San Francisco
Liberation Radio and Free Radio Berkeley in 1993
when the media refused to re****t on the police
violence against Food Not Bombs. In preparation for
the 1995 gathering the idea of Indymedia was born.
San Francisco Food Not Bombs also called together
the activist community to form the October 22nd No
Police Brutality Day Actions after nearly 200 people
protesting against police violence were arrested.
Food Not Bombs groups helped organize and provided
food at huge protests against Desert Storm. The Food
Not Bombs banner lead the blockage of the Bay Bridge
in San Francisco as volunteers provide meals to
hundreds blockading the federal building.
Food Not Bombs organized several tours including
the Rent is Theft Tour where a tofu spread cooking
demonstration was broadcast on a 5 watt FM radio
transmitter and the audience was invited to open an
abandon house and enjoy tofu spread sandwiches the
grand finally. Food Not Bombs chapters all over
the United States started illegal FM radio stations
in several hundred cities. The UnFree Trade Tour
of 1997 visited 60 cities in the U.S. and Canada
informing the public about the human cost of free
trade agreements and the dangers of the World Trade
Organization. Participants attending planned to
organize an effort to stop the WTO if it ever came
to North America. In November of 1999 Food Not Bombs
volunteers from all over North America came to
Seattle and helped set up the convergence center
and provided meals to thousands of anti-globalization
protesters. Food Not Bombs became a regular
participant in many anti-globalization actions from
then on. One volunteer was shot and arrested in
Sweden at a G-8 meeting. Volunteers were injured at
the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas protest in
Miami. Volunteers also provided meals at the last
three Democratic and Republican National Conventions
and many Earth First! and first nation blockades.
Food Not Bombs volunteers provided the meals to the
protesters at Cindy Sheehan's Camp Casey in Crawford,
Texas. Food Not Bombs has also provided free meals
at many major disasters. New York and New Jersey
volunteers fed the 9/11 rescue workers, provided
the food after the Loma Prieta Earthquake in San
Francisco and the movement organized the food relief
effort for the survivors of Katrina.
Tel Aviv Food Not Bombs has been active in working
against the occupation. They provided meals at peace
camps on the West Bank and joined Anarchist Against
the Wall in cutting through the gates between Israel
and Palestine. Slovakian chapters started animal
rescue shelters in 24 communities.
Food Not Bombs feed the protesters at the Orange
Revolution in Kiev, Ukraine and a 600 day farmers
vigil in Sarajevo. Australian chapters work with
the aboriginal people, at Baxter Refugee center,
provided meals at actions against U.S. Australian
military training and at efforts to stop gold mining.
The last Global Food Not Bombs Gathering was held
in the Ukraine in August 2007. That location was
chosen because it is center to the growing Food Not
Bombs movement in Europe. Several Food Not Bombs
volunteers have been stabbed by Neo Nazis in Russia.
Two volunteers have died in these attacks yet there
are over 50 chapters in Russia and the movement is
popular across every country of eastern Europe.
Many of our volunteers are honored by local
organizations for their work with Food Not Bombs.
The Copenhagen chapter was awarded the Danish Peace
Award and the Kuala Lumpur Chapter was just recognized
with the Malaysian Human Rights Award.
Our volunteers in Orlando and West Palm Beach, Florida,
Victoria, British Columbia, and Kitchener, Ontario
have been facing arrest by local governments. The
Kitchener chapter recently negotiated with the
business community to continue its work outside City
Hall.
Federal agencies in the United States have placed
Food Not Bombs on a number of Terrorist lists. The
Pentagon has included the group on its TALON list.
The FBI claims Food Not Bombs is a terrorist group
and Homeland Security has Food Not Bombs and some
of its founders on their terrorist watch list. Food
Not Bombs volunteers have been taken off of
international flights, questioned and the contents
of their wallets have been input into computer data
bases. Food Not Bombs volunteers have been arrested
on terrorism charges since the Oklahoma Bombing and
a number of those arrested have won payment for
their mistreatment by the U.S. Government. One
volunteer took his own life shortly after his arrest
in Arizona. The government has yet to tie Food Not
Bombs to any crime of violence yet maintains our
work is a threat.
As Food Not Bombs starts its 29th year the movement
is growing more than ever. Along with the creation
of the Cambridge, England group volunteers are busy
organizing new chapters all over the world. Other
new chapters include Alice Springs, Australia,
Beijing, China, Bangkok, Thailand and Cairo, Egypt.
In response to the growing economic, political and
environmental crisis Food Not Bombs groups are
starting to grow food with "Food Not Lawns." Really
Really Free Markets are becoming popular and many
other exciting projects are being developed by the
Food Not Bombs Movement.
Taos Food Not Bombs is proposing that we organize
a World Gathering the weekend before the 2009 World
Peace Conference. The Mayor asked the Taos Peace
House to organize a conference to develop a strategy
for building a united effort towards ending war,
poverty and exploitation. The volunteers at the
Taos Peace House met May 1st and agreed to help
organize the World Peace Conference. Taos is one
of the oldest towns in North America with tow 900
year old pueblos. For centuries Taos has worked
for peace and sustainability. Today many innovative
experiments in alternative living are under way in
Taos making it a perfect location to celebrate the
29th anniversary of Food Not Bombs and assist in
creating a unified effort for peace, social justice
and a sustainable future.
It is wonderful to see that this all volunteer
movement is having such an impact all over the world.
This movement is united around the principles of
nonviolence, the use of a horizontal decision making
structure of Formal Consensus organized around the
idea of independent autonomous groups without leaders,
that collects unsold food to provide vegan and
vegetarian meals free to anyone without restriction.
This simple model is providing a hopeful example
during these times of cataclysmic catastrophe. Tell
everyone you know that there is something positive
they can do and invite them to participate in Food
Not Bombs. Food is a right, not a privilege.
THE 28TH BIRTHDAY OF FOOD NOT BOMBS
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/happy_birthday_fnb.html
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