2nd Civil Disobedience Training -longer-



http://www.southcentralfarmers.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=0&Itemid=9

Friday, 04 November 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2005 For more info (909) 605-3136
10:34 PST

JOIN OUR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AGAINST THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES, “STRIP-MALL” DEVELOPER RALPH HOROWITZ and THE LOS ANGELES SHERIFFS’ DEPT.

Who: The South Central Farmers and Cindy Anderson
For more info (909) 605-3136
What: 2nd Civil Disobedience Training
When: Nov. 6th 2005, @ 12:00 noon 41st and Alameda
Why: In preparation of the forceful removal of the by SCFs Strip Mall Developer Ralph Horowitz and the Los Angeles Sheriffs’ Dept.
Cindy Anderson is a long time political activist in the Los Angeles area. She is an active lawyer that specializes in police misconduct cases. She is also and past president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. She has been arrested on several occasions doing civil disobedience.


(Los Angeles, CA) 350 Families in South L.A.Defend Community Farm. For 13 years, 350 families have tended a 14-acre community farm in the middle of South L.A.’s gritty industrial belt. Growing their own cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes and other staples has helped make good nutrition affordable. Traditional crops like chipillin, alachi, quelite and pipicha have helped keep traditional cuisine and folk-medicine alive.

The City of L.A. acquired the land in the late 1980s, but abandoned plans to build a trash incinerator after community protests. In 1994, officials transferred title to the Harbor Department, which contracted with the L.A. Regional Food Bank to operate a community farm on the property. In 2003, the City Council agreed to sell the 14 acres back to the original owner, private strip-mall developer Ralph Horowitz, in a back-room deal, who wants to demolish the garden and build a warehouse.

The community is outraged by the comments that were made by Ralph Horowitz on the Los Angeles Times Oct 31, 2005 article (see http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-garden31oct31,1,7435458.story). These 19th century statements like, “"We have to throw them off," said Horowitz, of Brentwood”, and others like, “…They have to be thrown off by a sheriff.", remind the community of the historical injustices perpetrated on them by the historical occupation.

The 350 families – organized as South Central Farmers – have camped out in the field for weeks to prevent Horowitz from grabbing the land. A sneak attack can come at any time, though, and the group will hold a 2nd civil disobedience training in an effort to inform the community and its members of their constitutional rights.


Civil disobedience encompasses the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government or of an occupying power without resorting to physical violence. Civil disobedience has been used in nonviolent resistance movements in India in the fight against British colonialism, South Africa in the fight against apartheid and in the civil rights movement of the USA and Europe as well as in the Scandinavian resistance against Nazi occupation.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a leader of the US civil rights movement in the United States in the 1960s also adopted civil disobedience techniques, and antiwar activists both during and after the Vietnam War have done likewise. Since the 1970s, pro-life or anti-abortion groups have practiced civil disobedience against the U.S. government over the issue of legalized abortion. More recently, in the 2000s, people have used civil disobedience to protest the war on Iraq.

Many who practice civil disobedience do so out of religious faith, and clergy often participate in or lead actions of civil disobedience. A notable example is Philip Berrigan, a Roman Catholic priest who was arrested dozens of times in acts of civil disobedience in antiwar protests.

In seeking an active form of civil disobedience, one may choose to deliberately break certain laws, such as by forming a peaceful blockade or occupying a facility illegally. Protesters practice this non-violent form of civil disorder with the expectation that they will be arrested, or even attacked or beaten by the authorities. Protesters often undergo training in advance on how to react to arrest or to attack, so that they will do so in a manner that quietly or limply resists without threatening the authorities. For example, Mahatma Gandhi outlined the following rules:
1. A civil resister (or satyagrahi) will harbour no anger.
2. He will suffer the anger of the opponent.
3. In so doing he will put up with assaults from the opponent, never retaliate; but he will not submit, out of fear of punishment or the like, to any order given in anger.
4. When any person in authority seeks to arrest a civil resister, he will voluntarily submit to the arrest, and he will not resist the attachment or removal of his own property, if any, when it is sought to be confiscated by authorities.
5. If a civil resister has any property in his possession as a trustee, he will refuse to surrender it, even though in defending it he might lose his life. He will, however, never retaliate.
6. Retaliation includes swearing and cursing.
7. Therefore a civil resister will never insult his opponent, and therefore also not take part in many of the newly coined cries which are contrary to the spirit of ahimsa.
8. A civil resister will not salute the Union Jack, nor will he insult it or officials, English or Indian.
9. In the course of the struggle if anyone insults an official or commits an assault upon him, a civil resister will protect such official or officials from the insult or attack even at the risk of his life.
2nd Civil Disobedience Training
Who: The South Central Farmers
For more info (909) 605-3136
What: 2nd Civil Disobedience Training
When: Nov. 6th 2005, @ 12:00 noon 41st and Alameda
Why: In preparation of the forceful removal of the SCFs by "Strip Mall" Developer Ralph Horowitz and the Los Angeles Sheriffs Dept.

Ofice Location: 11911 SAN VICENTE BLVD #275 LOS ANGELES, CA 90049

Phone: (310) 440-7878.

Maybe we can shame him into backing down. Maybe it could cost him if people going into his office find out about what he is doing.

Also he will need to file for a demo permit with the city. SCF should demand a public hearing and contest the demo permit. The demo permit is public record and it will have a date on it so SCF will know when they are coming.

Hey Moron, How is a Mall going to Produce More food then a Garden?

A mall produces nothing (other then traffic and waste). its just a place to sell things. they can sell food there, but that doesnt mean that it produces any food. Besides, do you think the great mall is going to give away any of its Food to help serve the poor in the surrounding areas?

The people Comitting acts of civil disobedience are people with heart, Strength and determination. They do not want to see this garden paved over for yet another useless mall. I hope that i will be able to join them.

And don't get me started on the use of eminent domain by the city...Some of us still remember chavez ravine.

You're a freaking joke. You sound like a Vendido more then a Chicano.

In the spirit of Magon,
//CX

Chicano831 wrote;

"The owner will build his mall on his land which will help feed even more people than some stupid community garden."

Huh, that's an interesting statement. Maybe those asphalt nuggets from parking lots really are edible after all. Why doesn't Chicano831 try some asphalt nugget samples from any mall's parking lot and compare their nutritional value to fresh vegetables grown in a community garden. Inbetween mouthfuls of delicious asphalt, please answer me this question; how does a strip mall provide people with more nutritious food than in an already existing community garden??

Maybe what Chicano831 means is that by way of industrialized agriculture a strip mall that sells food can provide people with more nutrition than a community garden. However the costs of input into industrialized agriculture (petrochemical based pesticides, fertilizer, etc.) and the outcome (nutritional value of food) is often lower than the input, especially since most industrial agriculture is monoculture and community gardens are using crop diversity, resulting in greater nutritional variety..

When getting into the discussion of land ownership, remember that the land in question once was in the care of indigenous peoples. Any claims of land ownership usually involves a long chain of violent land thefts and forced relocations of indigenous peoples. So if a diversity of mixtecs are living on the land and growing food in a community garden, that is the closest to the original lifestyle of indigenous peoples..

What ALL people need most for present and future survival is the continuation and proliferation (growth) of community gardens similar to this one..

luna moth

Chicano831 wrote;

"the answer is "wages" which are used to purchase food at markets. The amount purchased by even minimum wage workers greatly outweighs that can be produced on a plot of land. Why don't u do the math?"

The concept of this capitalist tripe is that if we increase people's wages by offering employment then there will suddenly be more food available at markets. This is another myth that assumes ecology processes are dictated by our capitalist economic wizards of money like Ralph Horowitz..

Wizrds of Money audio files;

http://www.robinupton.com/people/WizardsOfMoney/

A community garden farm IS providing food to people directly without the middleman of wage slavery and a retail market. When food is grown and distributed by the farmers and community land stewards, the ecological system provides soil replenishing without the addition of petrochemical based fertilizers and other addictions of industrial agricultura (monocultura). Look at any scientific studies on soil erosion, salinity increases and other long term byproducts of industrial agriculture (monocultura) and you may realize the value of community gardens using crop diversity as a real human benefit by providing nutritious food for people with low cost of input (no petrochemical byproducts needed). Just having some short term wage slavery economic factor at the expense of the land's long term sustainability as a community garden results in a net loss of food production potential for the community. The only real benefactor is the wallet of one Ralph Horowitz and any of his paid capitalist stooges..

"Organic agriculture can feed the world";

"This paper looks at numerous and diverse data sets from around the world, showing that given the right conditions, organic agriculture can deliver sustainable high yields. Organic agriculture programs initiated by several organisations have substantially increased yields for many third world communities. This has been done with very low input and infrastructure costs to these communities and has substantially increased their standard of living. Data from the advanced agricultural economies of North America, Australia and Europe show that best practice organics can deliver equal and to significantly better yields than current conventional agricultural practices."

http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/110705.cfm

It will be sad if the community allows their garden to be paved over for another meaningless warehouse. Community gardens produce life and food, warehouses produce capital accumulation for wealthy land barons like Ralph Horowitz. Another question; what tribe of indigenous people were slaughtered and forcibly relocated so that Ralph Horowitz could claim ownership of this communal land space??

http://www.dickshovel.com/500.html

The land belongs to noone, though the current community garden land stewards are treating the land better than a wage slavery warehouse ever will..

luna moth

can we find out who he is deveoping it for and aim our protest also at them