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A life lived in the pursuit
of peace can sustain every friend and every family member, surrounding
them with the strength and support that we need to make it through the
days. No matter the struggle of humanity one is concerned with, be it
womyn’s rights, anti-imperialism or gay rights, everyone needs a helping
hand and someone to love, because we are just that, human. Another
essential part of life that connects every person and every animal in the
world is our food. The anarchists, the single mothers, the grandparents
who have distaste for government structure or the politicians clinging to
their quest for power are all likely to agree that they want their food
supply to be safe for consumption. The fact that everyone needs safe food,
no matter their background, can serve as a means to connect every struggle
for social justice in the world.
In a place like Vancouver we can see that companies enforcing the use of
genetically modified foods stand above the city blocks surrounding us the
people. The fact that businesses such as Monsanto are selling terminating
seeds, that don’t reproduce themselves, to villages in India and other
third world communities and the truth that there is a homogenization of
once diverse seed strains taking place at the hands of Monsanto is enough
to make me wonder, can we really trust these people when they tell us that
modifying foods genetically is safe? It is coming down to the need for the
people, in imperial nations who house companies such as Novartis, Agrevo
and Monsanto, to stand up to these businesses and those who control them
with boycotts, protests in the streets and education about genetically
modified foods. The world’s food supply should be celebrated, cherished,
protected and enjoyed by every person and creature in the world and will
be if we stand up to imperialist companies now, for our right to safe
food. It is imperialist businesses such as those listed above who are
threatening the hope for a future where compassion and cultural diversity
come before what has been called ‘the poison of revenue.’ Community
gardens and organic companies who keep prices low are all a starting point
for making safe food available for everyone. There are a lot of products
for sale today that do not benefit humanity in any way and it’s my belief
that this production is simply a way for the wealthy, power hungry
companies of the world to occupy consumers and to enslave producers and
workers at all levels. This ensures that the temporary materialism in the
lives of the ruling class is handed down from generation to generation.
The outrage of the masses of workers who have been lied to about how safe
the world’s food supply is and about how free our lives are under wage
slavery transcend any ruling class prospects of human greed with a burning
desire for a better world. If every food company out there, no matter how
small or how big, can make the desperate need for organic seeds apparent
to themselves and to the rest of us; and if they can protect the organic
seeds they have, then everyone will benefit. This can only happen if each
one of us from every social struggle and every angle of outrage and
concern can support one another in the search for a safe global food
supply and the defense of a culturally diverse world. Teach-ins, such as
the Envisioning Peoples Struggles Conference that took place during June
of 2005 in Vancouver are amazing ways to connect our struggles. Also,
protests in the streets and boycotts of multi-national companies who
support unsafe and oppressive food market practices are needed in a big
way right now for us to educate ourselves.
It is of great importance for the peoples engaged in the struggle for
environmental protection and safe food to recognize and utilize the
connection of class struggle that is intertwined in the destruction of the
environment by companies and nation states that perpetuate class war, and
to confront racism within environmental movements. Racism is intertwined
with environmental destruction. In America, the decimation of the vast
land that was once thriving and wide came at the hands of the upper class,
beginning with European colonization and the racism that exists during the
settlement of Europeans in North America. If we look to a quote by Red
Cloud, Chief of the Oglala Sioux, we can hear the reality of the
dominating class and their followers in the United States and in lands
exploited around the globe, “They made many promises, more than I can
remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and
they took it.” And today, land is still being taken in the interests of
profit at the expense of the environment, in North America, in Haiti,
Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and many more places around the world by the
global elite and by fascist states who really do not care about the
livelihood of anyone outside of their parliament, white houses, estates
and palaces. It is because of capitalism and class struggle that organic
food is so hard to come by at cheap prices, because the multi-national
food companies are run by the rich white upper class who are friends of
imperial government and who would rather stay as rich as possible than
make safe food available to everyone. The fascism of the upper class of
nation states the world over must be confronted by the movement for
environmental and social justice in the world, and it is this movement
that must be united if the world in the future will be a place where we
can truly enjoy the nature that we are all interconnected with, and
therefore the nature which connects us to one another.
The sun, and the food which it gives life to, are at the centre of our
existence and need to be celebrated and protected. Every struggle for
social justice revolves around our desire for a better world and it’s my
hope that environmental protection can serve as a way to connect all of
our avenues, leading to an earth where peace and diverse cultures thrive
and are protected.
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Kyle Robert is a youth from
Burnaby who has had his eyes opened by authors such as Bakunin, Charles
Bukowski and Michael Albert and vows to stand against fascism in all its
forms.
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