Caroline Griffith, NEC Executive Director
On April 22, demonstrators at Cal Poly Humboldt occupied Siemens Hall, an administrative building named for former university president and proponent of peace Cornelius Siemens. The occupiers were protesting university investments in military contractors who are profiting by selling weapons to the Israeli government to be used in the continued killing of Palestinian civilians. One inspiring aspect of the occupation that was repeatedly left out of or glossed over in media accounts was the establishment by protestors and their supporters of alternative systems of care. Within hours of setting up camp (after the initial, heavy-handed attempt by administration to remove the students with the aid of armed police from multiple local jurisdictions), students had established systems for making sure that people were fed and had their basic needs met, that they stayed mentally and physically healthy, and that they could share ideas and make decisions collectively. They even organized a cleanup schedule for the newly christened “gender irrelevant” bathrooms in Nelson Hall.
This microcosm of communalism and collective decision-making (what one participant referred to as “village culture”) is an example of reclaiming the commons — or “commoning” — of occupying and existing in public space in connection with that space and with each other. This radical act of reclaiming common space and existing outside of capitalist frameworks pushes back at the current paradigm of modern life which prioritizes profitability, growth and order over our interactions with nature and each other. This local example is a fantastic opportunity for us to explore and imagine different ways of sharing land and existing on the planet together in ways that prioritize connection and mutual benefit outside of capitalist structures.
Many of us who care for the land have heard the concept of “The Tragedy of the Commons”, the idea that humans, when left to their own devices, will naturally compete with each other for resources until those resources are completely depleted. Promulgated by economists since the 1800s and more recently by biologist Garrett Hardin in a 1968 paper of the same name, this concept has infused the mainstream conservation movement while also being used to justify private ownership over collective ownership. Hardin and his predecessors argued that common ownership and management will lead to “tragedy” because people will inevitably act in their own self interest, leading to devastated landscapes and the ruin of resources as everyone tries to outcompete others to get the most benefit. There are two implications here. One is that people are inherently greedy. The other is that private property owners will do a better job at land management because they’ll want to protect their profitable resources. Unfortunately, we’ve seen the opposite happen on private timberlands and agricultural lands which are “managed” for maximum profit in the short term rather than the good of the community. The current state of the environment actually represents a tragedy of capitalism and a fealty to private property and all the “rights” associated with it.
The idea of the commons comes from pre-16th century Europe when the lands between villages were common spaces for hunting, gathering, fishing and grazing. Those who utilized and relied on those spaces were called “commoners.” In the 16th century, the landed gentry began to enclose and privatize the commons for profit, primarily agriculture, excluding those who had traditionally used them. This led to peasant rebellions, and also fed the Industrial Revolution as peasants who could no longer thrive in the countryside were forced into cities to find livelihoods.
The enclosure of the commons was also exported around the world with the British Empire, and here in the United States served to further colonization, westward expansion, the plantation system, and resource extraction. Throughout the settlement of the US, the federal government routinely claimed and then sold off land that had traditionally been stewarded and held in common by Indigenous people. From the Removal Act of 1830 which facilitated forcing Indigenous people off their lands in the eastern US, to the Homestead Act of 1862 which allowed settlers to “claim” 160 acres of land each, to the gold rush-era policies of extermination, the act of enclosing and privatizing lands has been a foundational part of this country which has led to the accumulation of generational wealth and access to natural resources, but only for a select few.
Here in California, where 48 percent of land is privately owned, the top seven landowners are all forestry or agriculture companies, many of whom environmentalists know have caused harm through logging practices, irrigation practices, pesticide spraying and more. Sierra Pacific Industries, Mendocino/Humboldt Redwoods Company, Green Diamond Resource Company, New Forests, Tejon Ranch Company, J.G. Boswell Company and the Wonderful Company collectively own approximately 3.5 million acres of land in the state of California.
Fifty-two percent of the land in California is public land, with 47 percent owned by the federal government (US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Department of Defense, etc.). Although these lands are ostensibly owned by the public, opportunities for the public to engage in the management and decision-making about what happens there is limited. Just for a little context, the ancestral territory of the Karuk Tribe is approximately 1 million acres, the vast majority of which is currently managed by the National Forest Service, which as of 2017 was 83 percent white and 62 percent male. Although government ownership does not lead to collective decision making about public lands, there are examples locally of co-management agreements with local Tribes and collaborations with community groups that show there is some movement being made towards more communal management.
Not only do we know that private property ownership and management by the few does not guarantee good stewardship, there is also evidence that communities that share common land – whether that be forests, fields or rivers – have an incentive to protect it for future generations rather than exploiting them to seek short-term gain. In “The Solutions Are Already Here” (reviewed by Elena Bilhiemer in April 2024 issue of EcoNews) author Peter Gelderloos describes “commoning” as “an ecological rather an economic practice, as the goal is not to alienate wealth, to produce commodities for a market and thus to accumulate capital that can be reinvested in more ecologically destructive/economically productive activities. On the contrary, the goal is to procure health and wellbeing of the members of the community in a way that preserves their autonomy, through an interdependence with their local ecosystem rather than a forced dependence on an accumulative economy.”
Throughout history and around the world there have been countless examples of people successfully, communally, stewarding the commons for collective well-being, not profit. The examples are often specific to a certain region or ecosystem, or just temporarily pop up in response to the political climate, but they serve as inspiring examples of what could be. Here are some examples of movements to reclaim public space, exist outside of capitalist structures and redefine land, water, food and energy as “the commons.”
Rights of Nature
According to the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, “Rather than treating nature as property under the law, rights of nature acknowledges that nature in all its life forms has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.” Current laws recognize the rights of individuals and corporations to hold property, but essentially legalize harm to nature and non-human beings by allowing certain amounts of pollution and degradation in the course of doing business. Efforts to recognize the rights of nature seek to strengthen environmental protections and relations to the land by recognizing the inalienable rights of that land, basically granting nature personhood and all the rights associated with it. Ecuador has recognized the rights of nature in its constitution. The City of Pittsburg was the first major city in the US to recognize the rights of nature. Locally, the Yurok Tribe has granted personhood to the Klamath River establishing “the Rights of the Klamath River to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve; to have a clean and healthy environment free from pollutants; to have a stable climate free from human-caused climate change impacts; and to be free from contamination by genetically engineered organisms.”
Community Ownership
Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are non-profits that steward land and properties for the benefit of low-income tenants. According to the International Center for Community Land Trusts, CLTs, “hold land on behalf of a place-based community, while serving as the long-term steward for affordable housing, community gardens, civic buildings, commercial spaces and other community assets on behalf of a community.” CLTs take land out of the speculative market, making it a place to live and thrive rather than something to make money off of. Locally, Dishgamu Humboldt is a CLT formed by the Wiyot Tribe to “facilitate the return of Wiyot ancestral lands to Wiyot stewardship, putting land in trust for the purposes of affordable housing creation, workforce development, and environmental and cultural restoration.”
Camping as Protest
Although the Gaza Solidarity Encampments at universities across the nation and world are a very prescient example of protest encampments, this method of commoning is very, well, common. As a protest to the enclosure of the commons in England, the Diggers occupied and farmed land despite violence perpetrated at the hands of landowners. During the US Civil Rights Movement, thousands of people occupied Resurrection City in Washington, DC for 42 days to demand jobs and assistance for the poor. From peace activists, to the Occupy Movement, to Climate Camps, protest encampments serve not only as a very visible form of civil disobedience but are also spaces where activists gather, organize and share knowledge with each other. The Climate Camps of Britain in the early 2000s were largely constructed of reclaimed, reused materials, another act that exists outside the realms of commerce.
Homeless encampments can also be a form of protest encampment. In 2000, a group of unhoused people in Portland, OR formed Dignity Village on a piece of vacant city land under a bridge. After three years of being moved from place to place by city officials (often moving their belongings en masse like a parade to bring attention to the eviction), residents eventually formed a nonprofit and were given access to piece of land where they provide “a safe, clean, self-governed community” that is based in mutual aid and interdependence.
Sharing Food
Food Not Bombs (FNB) is an all-volunteer movement that recovers food that is destined to become methane gas in a landfill and turns it into free, vegan meals for anyone who is hungry. Founded 44 years ago by anti-nuclear activists, there are now chapters all over the world that work with grocery stores and restaurants to take produce they are unable to use and make it into healthy meals. Meals are served outdoors, in public spaces, with no restrictions. In the beginning, many volunteers were arrested and faced jail time for the radical act of serving food without a license. But once authorities realized that FNB were often the first on the scene with hot food during disasters, they stopped persecuting them. Local chapters serve weekly in Eureka and Arcata. Information can be found at foodnotbombs.net.
Guerilla gardening is the act of growing food and flowers on empty plots of land, much like the Diggers of 17th century England. People’s Park in Berkeley, CA (since taken over by the university to build housing) was guerilla gardened in the late 60s by students who planted trees and flowers on a vacant plot of land owned by the university, transforming it into a public space that was open to all (until the university kicked everyone off in January 2024). Guerilla gardening can be as simple as surreptitiously spreading native seeds on vacant city properties, or as elaborate as reclaiming spaces and turning them into food gardens for those in need. A word of caution to the aspiring gardener: Learn the history of the land if you are trying to grow food, as many vacant lots have been contaminated by past industrial uses and are not safe for food production.
Reclaiming the Streets
It is estimated that as much as half of the land area in a modern city is devoted to roads, parking lots, service stations and other infrastructure dedicated to the supremacy of automobiles. Not only are fossil-fueled vehicles one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis, they are also incredibly dangerous. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that traffic deaths reached a 16-year high in 2021 with 42,915 people dying in car-related accidents in the US. Critical Mass is a movement of cyclists reclaiming the streets that was founded in San Francisco in 1992. It is a monthly, celebratory, music-filled, political-protest ride in which cyclists take a full lane to build awareness of cyclists’ rights and to challenge the domination of cars and oil in our transportation system. Most Critical Mass rides happen on the last Friday of the month.
Take the Power Back
As we transition from fossil fuel energy sources, many of us are wary of massive energy projects that continue to benefit corporations. One solution is decentralized community-owned renewable energy. Decentralized energy systems are smaller and closer to consumers, so they are more efficient and require fewer transmission lines. When they are community-owned or cooperatively-owned, the community has a say in how projects are developed and profits don’t go to distant shareholders, they stay with community members. One example is the Oakland-based People Power Solar Cooperative which “invests in community-led projects that create alternatives to PG&E and other private utilities by decentralizing, democratizing, distributing, and diversifying the energy system.”
These are just a few examples of people stepping outside the boundaries of capitalism to meet their needs collectively and with care for the planet. Although many of us agree that the current system is not working for us, it can be hard to imagine a different future because this is all that we’ve known. Luckily, there have always been courageous outliers willing to challenge the status quo and show us a different way. And, as with the Gaza Solidarity Encampments, although many of these arise in response to violence or catastrophe, there is also an element of joy in coming together to collectively imagine a better world.