Mahtin writes:

Reclaim the Commons

San Francisco, June 3-9, 2004

Initially formed to oppose Bio2004, RECLAIM THE COMMONS has quickly grown from a single mobilization into a movement. Within this movement, we want to teach and demonstrate sustainable, life-affirming alternatives to biotechnology and corporate power in general: organic food, community gardens, water reclamation, urban transformation, a gift economy, and so much more. We do this hoping to inform, enrage, and inspire, as we spread the skills and tools we need to bring our visions to fruition.RECLAIM THE COMMONS! Traditionally, THE COMMONS was cropland, grazing land, or forest that belonged to the community as a whole and benefited all. Now, THE COMMONS includes everything needed to support life on earth: air, water, shelter, food, energy, biodiversity – as well as our multi-cultural heritage. Corporations, aided by the governments they dominate, are seizing control of these basic rights, and privatizing them for the profit of a few. Yet, public control of the commons is essential for true democracy; for racial, economic, and social justice; and for a diverse and sustainable society. WE ARE RECLAIMING THE COMMONS!

RESIST BIOTECH! The biotechnology industry is a prime example of how global corporations are eroding democracy, threatening our health and environment, and concentrating control of our food and resources in the hands of a few profit-driven companies. With almost no public debate, over 100-million acres of genetically engineered (GE) crops are planted each year in the United States. That’s almost 70% of the world’s GE crops. Once released into the environment, these GE life forms can’t be recalled, and there’s no way to predict their effects on our bodies, eco-systems, and future. Gambling with the future of human and environmental health is gravely affecting FOOD SOVEREIGNTY throughout the world, dramatically increasing the risks of BIOWARFARE and further entrenching the health-for-profit system with the creation of BIOPHARMACEUTICALS that are ‘grown’ in GE plants and animals. Already these artificial life forms have contaminated seeds and crops that have been cultivated over thousands of years. And while our tax dollars subsidize corporations developing anti-aging drugs and biological weapons, these same companies deny affordable drugs to people in desperate need of medical relief.

PLANT ALTERNATIVES! It’s time to put as much energy into creating that better world as we have been putting into resisting the exploitative one! We need to get off the corporate grid, exercise democracy outside of party-driven, corporate-funded electoral machines, live sustainable lives, and create just and thriving communities amid the corporate-controlled world! As part of the June Mobilization, we will be PLANTING ALTERNATIVES all over the Bay Area! We’ll be showcasing community-based, eco-solutions to urban problems such as unemployment, homelessness, pollution, gutted education and services, unaffordable health care, exploitation of immigrants, police brutality, crime, corporate threats to neighborhood sovereignty, and other pressing economic and racial justice issues! And you can be an alternative planter, too! Study our list of working groups to find the best spot for you to bloom and grow.

Deconstructing the Empire:

- Corporate Power/Biotech Teach-in & Alternatives Workshops:
Presenters from around the world

- RTC World Café:
Participatory Democracy in Action; A Truly Revolutionary Experience

- Republican National Convention Consulta:
Plan Our Role in Crashing the Party

Composting the Empire:

- Mass Rally and March:
“End the War on Iraq, End the War on the Commons”

- Racial Justice Day of Actions:
Show How Corporate Wealth Is Built on Injustice and Poverty

- Day of Direct Action to Stop Biotech and End Corporate Rule & War in conjunction with the G8 Summit being held in Georgia

Reclaiming the Commons:

- Biodiversity Gala and Commoners Ball:
Upstage the Biotech Gala; End Corporate Control of Public Policy

- Planting Alternatives:
Day of Eco-Actions that Create the Better World We Envision

- Really, Really Free Market!
What would a Free Market Really Really Look like? Bring Something You Value and Participate in a Gift Economy in the Shadow of Profit! Join us in Union Square.

There are many others in the works, including on-going eco-projects, live video feeds from Iraq and the G8 mass protests in Savannah, strategy sessions, trainings in permaculture, consensus process, facilitation, etc., spokescouncils, autonomous, wildly creative actions, a free state, screenings, street parties, wellness center, convergence space, radical family collective space and events, and more!

read more at http://www.reclaimthecommons.net