By RADD’s initators
Sometimes, when a new sense of crisis hits, people don’t know what to do. When our communities are under deepened attack, and our ideas and values are increasingly treated by those in power as a threat to their power (which they are!), it’s sometimes hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Still, the ways that we can come together and push back on harsh new realities are not really all that different from how they have been in the past. We just need to do them!
At this time, like always, we need to come together in person, to share space and ideas and resources, to learn together, to organize new initiatives and strengthen existing ones, and to produce a sense of belonging that us among the “radical left” tend not to feel as strongly in times of right wing resurgence and liberal complacency.
To that end, as longtime participants in food justice and food sovereignty movements here in the Bay Area, we have launched RADD: “Radical Agroecology Dinner & Discussions”.
This is a monthly gathering that combines reading group, community building, and political education on agroecology-related topics, while providing a platform for materially meaningful organizing. It takes place at a local urban farm that itself was founded through direct action and land occupation — living proof that “direct action gets the goods”. Helping make the case for us, the farm itself exists as a space that embodies the radical politics of taking control of food and land as the critical basis for any larger revolutionary transformation of society.
Each month’s gathering starts with sharing potluck food, casual socializing, meeting new friends, seeing old friends, and partaking of the convivial technology that never goes out of style: hanging out with fellow humans, without agendas or pressures. Then, one participant shares from a reading or video that they are inspired by and wish to discuss, as a spark to collective conversation and political (self)education. Although it is a “reading group“, there is no requirement to have read the assigned reading in order to attend. Although it is a potluck, there is no requirement to bring food. All are welcome as they are; partly because that is the way it should be, and also because we don’t need to add one more stress to our community’s plate or make them feel inadequate!
After discussing the month’s topic — whether it be land reform, seed sovereignty, direct action possibilities, forms of organizing, or practices of gardening for local conditions — we return to our process of community building, collectively deciding where we want to go next month.
We’ve only been running this gathering for two months, but already we’ve seen a large community of people who are longing for this kind of community space. Each time we have met, the number of participants has grown, and by next time we’ll likely outgrow our 100-person space! We wrote this small article simply to encourage people to do the same wherever you are — it doesn’t need to be about farming, but you know what you and your people are working on and what topics and focuses might help you grow your community’s political analysis, strategic vision, and social-emotional-practical ties, all of which will help us survive under fascist threats. Who knows? These practices and spaces might even help us build the much better future that we know in our hearts is possible, so that we can thrive, not just survive.
Don’t find us on social media, we won’t be there! We are organizing by word-of-mouth, and when the people want to gather, they will let you know that by showing up with enthusiasm. That’s what we’ve seen!