- Re: Why Just (sic) Stop Oil will win Archived Message
Posted by Ian M
on June 9, 2023, 12:09 pm, in reply to "Re: Why Just (sic) Stop Oil will win"
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'Yes. Unfortunately in the UK (and especially in Scotland) where the control and ownership of near all the land by a tiny number of exceptionally wealthy people and "Hedge funds" inevitably means taking on what is essentially the UK establishment itself.' Indeed, I liked Simon Fairlie's idea in Land Magazine 31 of broadening anti-slavery protests to landowners who acquired their thousands of acres from slave profits: 'We need a landless movement to follow the example of the MST, the landless workers' movement of Brazil - to press home the demand for land reform by moving in force onto the estates of the wealthy with yurts, cows, chickens and tractors, breaking the ground and sowing crops to the cry of "land to the tiller". The movement could learn a thing or two from the toppling of Bristol's Colston statue, and how it increased awareness of the legacy of colonialism and the slave trade. A reminder that England's peasantry was dispossessed and its working class exploited by the forerunners of many existing landowners would not go amiss. And where better to occupy first than the 14,000 acres belonging to Conservative MP Richard Drax, whose land and riches came from his ancestor's slaveholdings in Barbados?' - Breaking the Landlock, TLM issue 31 https://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/back-issues Funnily enough we've already had our first sour experience with council planning. It took 2 months to get approval from them to get approval for our first polytunnel, something which should be permitted development on agricultural land, just needing us to notify them and then get it rubber stamped. But they got all pissy about the 'visual impact', and could we site it nearer the existing settlement, could we screen it with hedging etc. Spent most of yesterday potting on half of the tomatoes and cucumbers into giant pots and throwing the other half away because the bloke who was going to help us put it up can't come until next week. And yet, to hear councillors speak in public, you'd think they were doing everything in their power to support local food production! Not 'joined up thinking' as one of them (a Tory, funnily enough) privately put it to me. Needless to say applications for the 2nd tunnel + packing shed are going in asap... 'The "disadvantage" of this kind of low fossil energy /local resource building is that everything takes much more time, thought, and lots of human labour but is that not what we are after in a world that has become deskilled and where most of us are now "surplus to requirement" as a consequence of the machine world we presently live in? ' Indeed, well put. None of the things that are worth doing well and taking time over in order to create something that lasts are recognised and valued under the capitalist system. Another thing that makes it hard is being primarily oriented around the need to make money for all the 'necessities' the culture forces on us, eg: vehicle ownership, electricity, insurance, council tax etc. If we were doing this to feed ourselves directly and maybe a dozen other people in exchange for the skills & services they could provide, it would be a breeze and significantly alter our priorities from day to day. Funny how that works out... Congrats on the pine marten. Never seen one myself but have already seen a couple of red squirrels since being here, and even some signs of beaver activity, which is pretty magic! cheers, I |