Nowtopian

England is blooming

Since my last entry I’ve been rolling along: a nice visit to the Center for Contemporary Art and the Natural World in Exeter with Clive Adams on top of a ridgetop in southern England, after which he graciously drove me down to Totnes, the titular capital of the Transition Town movement. I didn’t do a talk at either stop that day, but met a bunch of great folks. Ben Brangwyn and Cath hosted me in Totnes, and we spent a good part of the evening in different restaurants and pubs in discussion with local TT activists, and a crowd of Irish and Danes who rolled in with a caravan of climate change activists…

View from the ridgetop back towards Exeter.

I read a very intelligent critical pamphlet (pdf available)Â by Paul Chatterton and Alice Cutler of the Trapese Collective called “The Rocky Road to a Real Transition” in which they advocate for a more contentious and politically edgy approach to transitioning. They advocate especially engaging in solidarity actions with campaigns, communities, and people who are protesting and fighting with oil companies, carbon-producing development projects, etc. Turns out this effort was not well received by some folks around the Totnes scene, who eschew what they call “divisive” politics. I noticed this in passing while I was explaining my critique of wage-labor to Ben. Another guy originally from New Jersey but living over here now, who is recently back from a 18 month organizing/training trip to New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and other locales as a Transition Town organizer, looked immediately rather dismayed, his countenance betraying his discomfort. I spoke with his partner later in the dinner and she explained her work in terms of addiction, and I realized that the basically “hippie” culture that they seemed to be part of was much like what we have in Northern California. An approach that wants to situate political change in terms of individual consumption, moral failure, addiction and greed, all neo-Christian to my mind. My efforts to shift the discussion to production didn’t go too far at that dinner table, but I had a lovely evening with Ben and Cath later, though we didn’t plumb the same conversation.

Beautiful spring skies have been chasing me around the country.

Like Paul and Alice, I am critical but still a big fan of Transition Towns as a starting point for an important effort to begin restructuring our relationship to the physical, political, and social environment. After Totnes, I took the train to London, arriving in time to do a Talk at the venerable 56a Infoshop in Southwark. Chris-x is an old friend and hosted me, along with his roomie John, and I had a great time catching up, talking politics, and finding out what he’s been up to since I last saw him some years ago. I also had the pleasure of a short visit on Monday with John Jordan, who was working with several comrades and his 14-year-old son on a whole batch of applications for a permaculture workshop for homeless people that they’re producing soon.. We went out for a greasy spoon lunch where I had a rare big plate of liver! John is quite the dynamo, and was very involved in the Climate Camp G20 protests. I’ve been following the story as it’s slowly leaking out about the 47-year-old guy who died during the demo, a passerby, but one who got clubbed and then violently thrown to the ground, after which he staggered away for half a block and then collapsed and died from a heart attack. Pretty grim, and maybe it will help turn the tide against the police tactics, especially “kettling” where they enclose demonstrators and squeeze them in before mass arrests. Time will tell… Later on Monday night I went up to East London and did a Talk at the Pogo Cafe, so that was a fun new part of London for me. A nice crowd, a common experience that at least a few folks at each Talk get really inspired, so that in turn inspires me!

This Jamaican businessman was across from me at the top of a doubledecker bus, running his office from the front seat, while I was rolling northward for my lunch appointment.

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Nowtopia in Bristol

Arrived in Bristol and Roger B., my wonderful host, whisked me off to Stokes Croft where he handed me off to Chris, a guy who will probably eventually be known as the Mayor of Stokes Croft. He is one of four people who together own the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC) building, and in it he has a storefront where local folks, many of them alcoholic or drug-addicted, drop in seeking work. We stood on the sidewalk in front of the place for a while, as he began to explain the neighborhood and his years’ long effort to fight the local council and transform the area based on a local arts community that he is part of, and while we chatted, a steady stream of characters came up to greet him, cajole him for attention, maybe a job, but always with a lot of obvious respect and affection, which he returned without judgement.

People's Republic of Stokes Croft Headquarters, Bristol, England.

His building is quite large and Chris has in it a huge collection of ceramic decals he purchased from a local firm that went out of business, and somewhere he has a couple of shipping containers full of porcelain. Stokes Croft is apparently one of the neighborhoods where the world-famous Banksy first made his mark (literally) and there’s a couple of iconic pieces of his within sight of the PRSC.

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As the place straddles a busy thoroughfare that splits just to its side, there’s an odd triangular plot of land that Chris and others organized an artistic transformation of, renaming it Turbo Park with these odd Easter Island-inspired sculptures and spraypaint murals.

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Cardiff, Wales, a city killing itself?

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I was at Cardiff and had a lovely time at the Nutopia Conference. I spoke in the morning yesterday as part of a 1.5 hour panel with Mike Hallett, Development Director of Igloo Regeneration, a straight up “green” real estate developer (mega-millions), and Steve Garrett, a very sweet guy who is the main organizer of the Riverside Farmer’s Market here in Cardiff, and then me. We were not entirely in sync, Hallett presenting a more or less typical planning demonstration of how his company (named the #1 Green development company in the world by the UN!) plans to renew the old coal yards in a part of Cardiff Bay (condos, townhouses, some parklands and less parking, but nothing about agriculture or transportation or anything radically “sustainable”). Garrett went next and immediately objected to part of Hallett’s presentation due to the paltry allocation for open and green space and the total lack of agriculture. That was as sparky as it got, and he went from there to a lengthy home movie of his trip to Havana’s community gardens and manure piles (!) and said clearly that the ‘gig is up’ and we have to change everything. No longer is there any hope of restarting the system as we’ve known it. But his comments didn’t add much to that healthy sentiment. I went and did a super condensed Nowtopia talk, which really seemed out of left field after the prior two speakers, but people seemed to enjoy and many people spoke to me later with a lot of enthusiasm and I sold a pile of books.

Peering back from the bike tour in Cardiff.

We had two walks and a bike ride, all related to the Nutopia Conference. I give very good marks to the overall Conference (and am sorry I couldn’t stay through the end). There’s a great crowd of interesting people, good synergies… On the morning walk before we spoke, conferees were sent out to find a series of posted printouts around the area, each displaying an excerpt from an email from Zimbabwe, detailing the breakdown of water supplies, the cholera epidemic, the famine, the death of the prime minister’s wife, juxtaposed to ironic locations designed to highlight a way to think about the same issues in a “stable, first world” context.Â I particularly enjoyed the signage about cholera posted in a “health products store” full of over the counter herbs and health foods, and the signage about the famine over the shoulder of three guys wolfing down a hearty English breakfast. It was a good way to get started in the conference.

Sign about famine in Zimbabwe, part of the a Nutopia exploring adventure, on window behind the guy and his sandwich.

We had a nice, short bike ride led by Robert Bermingham of Cycle Cardiff, wherein he showed us the River Taff, and had us riding in single file to my dismay. I loved riding around though, and it was great to catch this view of daffodils blooming on the river.