Ecofeminism and Environmental Justice: Bridges across Gender, Race, and Class

Author(s): Gwyn Kirk

Source: Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, Intersections of Feminisms
and Environmentalisms (1997), pp. 2-20
Published by: University of Nebraska Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3346962
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Gwyn
Kirk
Ecofeminism and Environmental
Justice:
Bridges
Across
Gender, Race,
and Class
The ideas in this article come from
my
involvement in various
political projects
over the
years,
from
many
conversations and discussions. I have added
personal
experiences
as
separate
but connected
sections,
in
italics,
focusing
on
pivotal
learn-
ing experiences
that have
shaped my analytical
framework and
guided my
deci-
sions about new
projects.
I
hope
these
snapshots
from this
personal journey give
a sense of this
ongoing process. My very partial
accounts of
significant projects
and
people
en route cannot tell the whole
story
of course. While I include
spe-
cific
examples
to make more
general points,
there is a much
longer story
behind
the
projects;
but that is not
my purpose
here. This
paper
focuses on the
potential
for
making
closer connections between ecofeminism and the environmental
jus-
tice
movement,
both of which are
complex
and fluid
perspectives,
with
signifi-
cant internal variations. Here I
emphasize
the differences between them as a
way
of
understanding
how to make
stronger
links, which,
in
turn,
will lead to a stron-
ger
movement for a sustainable future.
I
began
to think about
ecofeminism after spending
a
couple ofyears
in the
early
1980s
aspart
ofa
wide network
of
women involved in Greenham Common Womens
Peace
Camp
in
England. Ifirst
went to the
camp
in
February
1982. The women were
planning
their
first major
action
for
the
spring equinox
when
they hoped
that two
hundred women would come to blockade the
eight gates of
the base
for
a
period of
twenty-four
hours.
Thefact
that this was an all-womens
camp
was an invitation to
me,
and
Ifound myself
thinking,
could I do this? Like
many
in
Europe,
I'd been
horrified
at news that
speculated
about the
possibility of
nuclear war in
Europe.
Reagan
had come
right
out with it: The United States
waspreparing tofight
and win
a limited nuclear war in
Europe.
I didn't want to believe he was that
stupid.
Id
Copyright
? 1997
by
Frontiers Editorial Collective
2
Gwyn
Kirk
blocked it
out,
turned the
page,
and
got
on with
my life.
These women had taken
action. Over the next
couple ofyears
I recorded womens
stories,
wrote
flyers andpress
releases,
shared in
fund-raising
and
organizing meetings
in
London,
andparticipated
in various
actions,
starting
that
spring equinox. Though
I never lived at the
camp,
I
thought of
Greenham as
my political
home. I went there with an
understanding of
class and class
inequality
as well as British
imperialism.
At Greenham I learned about
sexism, heterosexism, and
systems of
male violence. I started
reading ecofeminist
work
and came to think
of
Greenham as an
example of ecofeminist practice.
Given this
beginning, ecofeminismfor
me has
always
included a
strong
antimilitarist strand and
an activist
approach.
Starting
in the fall of
1981,
a
growing
network of women in Britain
pro-
tested the escalation of the nuclear arms
race,
specifically
the
siting
of U.S. nuclear
cruise missiles at Greenham
Common,
sixty
miles west of
London.'
Women
maintained a continual
presence
at the
gates
of this U.S. Air Force
base,
and
many
thousands
participated
in nonviolent
protests
that were
imaginative,
col-
orful,
and
assertive,
with
powerful
artistic and ritual elements.
They
combined a
deep
concern for a
life-sustaining
future with
political
confrontation and
public
education. U.S.A.F. Greenham Common has since been closed and the cruise
missiles returned to the United
States,
partly
as a result of
persistent
activist
op-
position, partly
due to
political changes
between the West and the Soviet bloc
that resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the 1990s a small
group
of women
still
stayed
on at
Greenham,
campaigning
for the demilitarization of the
land,
formerly
common land
open
to
public
use.
Like the U.S. Women's
Pentagon
Action,
where thousands of women sur-
rounded the
Pentagon
in November 1980 and
1981,
Greenham women identi-
fied militarism as a cornerstone of the
oppression
of women and the destruction
of the nonhuman world.2
They protested
massive
military budgets;
the fact that
militaries cause more
ecological
destruction than
any
other
institution;
the wide-
spread, everyday
culture of violence manifested in war
toys,
films,
and video
games,
which is an
important
factor in the construction of a militarized mascu-
linity3;
the connection between violence and
sexuality
in
pornography, rape,
bat-
tering,
and
incest;
and the connections between
personal
violence and violence
on an international and
planetary
level.
Women involved in this
campaign
came from all
parts
of Great Britain and
from
many
other countries. Some were drawn to Greenham because of their
involvement in feminist
spirituality;
others were members of trade unions or the
Labour
Party.
Some were active in
community organizing
or the antinuclear
3
Gwyn
Kirk
movement;
others had never been
politically
active before.
They ranged
in
age
from their teens to their seventies. Most were
white;
many
were lesbian. This mix
made for what Ynestra
King
calls a
"yeasty
brew,"
with
great power
and
creativity
as well as
disagreements,
contradictions,
and tensions.4 There were
arguments,
for
example,
about who could
speak
for
camp
women;
about the
visibility
of
lesbians who
played
a
key
role in
sustaining
the
camp
after the first
year;
about
the role of a London office set
up
to
support
the
camp;
and about
money.
Some
of these
arguments
were resolved for a
time;
sometimes
they
caused women to
withdraw. The Greenham network was
dispersed
and anarchic in the best sense
of the
word,
relying
on each individual woman's sense of
responsibility.5
There
was a lot of room to initiate actions and
projects
without
every
decision
needing
agreement by
the whole network. In
any
case this would have been
impossible
as
time went
by
and the network
grew nationally
and
internationally.
The
original
camp
at the main
gate
has been maintained into the 1990s.
Many
other
camps,
some
lasting only
a few
days
or
weeks,
were also established from time to time at
the other
gates
and at intermediate
points along
the nine-mile
perimeter
fence.
The fact that there was no
single physical
focus at Greenham made decentralized
decision
making
both
practical
and
appropriate.
It also allowed for the various
camps
to have their own
emphasis,
a reflection of
diversity
not
disagreement.
Another
way
to resolve tensions was to avoid
setting up competing options:
not
either/or but both.
The Peace
Camp
was the first
long-term
antimilitarist
protest
of this kind
by
women,
and it
inspired
dozens of other
peace camps
outside
military
bases,
plutonium processing plants,
factories
making weapons components,
bomb as-
sembly plants,
and
military tracking
stations in North
America,
western
Europe,
Australia,
and New Zealand. For several
years
in the mid-1980s women held
peace protests
and rallies in
many
countries on
May
24,
designated
as Interna-
tional Women's
Day
for Disarmament. In 1987 in the United
States,
women
participated
in coordinated Mother's
Day
actions in the North
(at
the site of the
Extremely
Low
Frequency
Trident submarine communication
system
in north-
ern
Wisconsin),
in the South
(at
the Pantex nuclear warhead
assembly plant
out-
side
Amarillo, Texas),
East
(at
the Savannah River nuclear
power plant,
South
Carolina),
and West
(at
the Nevada nuclear test
site).
Greenham women were
mostly
white,
and our
analyses ofmilitarism
andpatri-
archy
did not include much about race. This
may
not be true
for
some individuals,
but it was
truefor
me and also true
ofleaflets
and
statementsput
out
by camp
women
and local
supportgroups
in the
earlyyears.
A
major challenge
on
thispoint camefrom
4
Gwyn
Kirk
Pacific
Island women. Zohl de
Ishtar,
an Australian woman who lived at Greenham
for
some
time,
talked about the
devastating effects ofthe
atomic
(later nuclear)
tests in
the
Pacific
done
by
Britain, France,
and the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.
Together
with
others,
she
organizedseveralspeaking
tours in
Britainfor Pacific
women.
I heard Titewhai
Harawira,
a Maori woman
from
Aotearoa
(New Zealand),
and
Chailang
Palacios,
Maria
Pangelinan,
andJacoba
Semanfrom
Micronesia in 1985.
They
had
afabric
banner
showing
a
large map of
the
Pacific andpointed
out that it
is one
vast,
continuous
ocean,
not
just
blue borders at the
edges of
the world as it
appears
on British
maps,
where Britain is
always
at the center.
They confronted
us
with our Euro-centeredness and our
ignorance of
their situation and British colonial
history.
We were
only
involved in antimilitarist activism,
they said,
because now our
own white asses were on the line. Where had we been
for
the
past
forty years
when
their
people
had been human
guinea pigs for
the nuclear
powers?
Their
struggle
was
for
a
nuclear-free
and
independent
Pacific.
The
Pacific
would never be
nuclear-free
until it was
independent-economically, politically,
and
militarily-from
Britain,
France,
and the United States. You should think
ofyour
own
struggle
this
way, they
advised us. Britain can never be
nuclear-free
while it
ispart ofNATO.
Look at all the
places
around the world where uranium is
mined,
where bombs are
tested,
where
radioactive waste is
stored,
andyou
willfind
indigenous peoples
land.
We cried.
Wefelt guilty
and ashamed. For
many of
us,
the world and
ourplace
in it would never be the same
again. Ifelt
as
though
the
top of my
head had been
blown
offfor
a
while,
and when
things
settled
again my eyes
and
my
brain weren't in
quite
the
sameplace
as
before.
Some women
organized
Women
Workingfor
a Nuclear-
Free and
Independent Pacific
in
solidarity
with these activists and their communities.
Theyproduced
a newsletter that continued the educational work
ofthe speaking
tour;
they organized
more
speaking
tours, demonstrations,
andpetitions; theypublished
the
speeches of Pacific
women activists.
The second
major challenge
about race came
from
the
Kings
Cross Womens
Centre in London. This
group
was also
mainly
white,
but Wilmette
Brown,
an
Afri-
can American
living
in
England,
was a
founding
member
of
the Centre and her
analysis of
race and
imperialism
was central to the
Kings
Cross womens
perspectives.
The Centre
supported thepeace camp
in the mid-1980s and
organized
workshops
on
race, militarism,
andpoverty.
This work was an
important influence
and
helped
me
to
reframe my
ideas. But
theforceful
discussions became
morepolarized
and
degener-
ated into
personal
attacks that were
very
destructive. It is
very easyfor
white women to
feel guilty
about race. Like
many
others,
I was
deeply
saddened with what seemed to
be an
unbridgeable rift andfelt
at a loss to know how to mend it.
5
Gwyn
Kirk
By
this
point
I was
often
in the United States. I'd become involved with a law-
suit,
Greenham Women vs.
Reagan
etal.,
filed
in the Federal District Court in Man-
hattan in November 1983. The
impressive
volume
of testimony
fom
thirty
interna-
tionally
known
expert
witnesses was never heard in
court,
but several British women
plaintiffs, myself
included,
talked about the issues at
major
demonstrations,
confer-
ences,
and
public meetings,
in
college
classrooms,
and on radio talk shows over the
next
year
or so until the New York Court
ofAppeals
threw the suit out in the
spring of
1985 on the
grounds
that it was
aboutpolitics
and had no
place
in court. I traveled
widely
in the United States and
got
to know a lot
of interesting people
who talked
about the
difficulties of being
involved in
oppositional politics
in "the
belly of
the
beast. " The more
Igot
to travel and talk, the more I wanted to
stay, something
I had
neverplanned
or even
imagined.
While
arguments
about race and racism were
going
on at
Greenham,
I was
learning
about race in the United States. And like
many
people
who come to this
country from Europe,
I had to learn where
Ifit
into the
landscape of racialpolitics
here,
and what it means to be white.
Ecofeminist Theories and Practices
Given their varied
backgrounds
and
experiences,
Greenham women took
very
different
paths
into this
movement,
their theoretical ideas
growing
out of and
informing
their activism.
Key insights
of ecofeminism-that Western
thought
constructs hierarchical
systems
defined
by
dualisms,
reinforced
by
an economic
system
based on
profits
rather than needs-were
part
of their
understandings.
Greenham women came to
recognize
fundamental connections between milita-
rism, racism, sexism,
poverty,
and environmental
devastation,
and
they
worked
on
many
interrelated
projects: protesting pornography
and violence
against
women;
protesting
cuts in the British health service rather than the
military
bud-
get; protesting
uranium
mining
in
Namibia;
and
protesting
the
stockpiling
of
food in western
Europe
to
keep prices high
while so
many people
in the world
die of starvation. One
group
filed suit in the United
States,
claiming
that the
deployment
of nuclear missiles at Greenham Common was unconstitutional and
broke United Nations rules of war. Others made connections with
peace
activists
in eastern
Europe
and the Soviet
Union,
or
campaigned
for a nuclear-free Eu-
rope.
This
overwhelmingly
white and middle-class women's
peace
movement has
not sustained
itself,
in
part
due to the ebbs and flows of
activity
characteristic of
all
decentralized,
voluntary
networks that
experience
an unavoidable loss of con-
tinuity
and
experience
as members come and
go. Many
who were
previously
involved in women's
peace groups
became active in battered women's
shelters,
6
Gwyn
Kirk
rape
crisis
work,
reproductive rights,
the
year-long
coal miners strike in Britain
in
1984,
Central America
solidarity
work,
and environmental issues. Others made
life
changes
that
changed
their
priorities,
for a while at least:
going
to
college,
taking
a new
job, having
a child. Another reason
why
this movement could not
sustain itself was because it
overemphasized
the threat of nuclear war rather than
simply focusing
on all wars. In
addition,
crucial connections between militarism
and the
oppression
of women were
emphasized
while racism and class
oppres-
sion were
downplayed
or
ignored.
Women of color
critiqued
white feminist
peace
groups
as
racist,
and this issue
ultimately
divided both the Women's
Pentagon
Action and Greenham networks.6
Ecofeminism in the United States has varied roots in feminist
theory,
femi-
nist
spirituality,
animal
rights,
social
ecology,
and
antinuclear,
antimilitarist
orga-
nizing.7
This eclecticism is
problematic
to
many
academics who see ecofeminism
as
lacking
in intellectual coherence. It is also
problematic
in terms of
activism,
as
women
working
from a
range
of different and sometimes
contradictory
theoreti-
cal strands do not
easily
build coalitions or social movements. Ecofeminist ideas
are
currently explored
and
developed
in the United States
through
animal
rights
organizing
and feminist
spiritual practices
as well as
through
newsletters and
study groups,
conferences,
college
courses,
and women's land
projects.
Some
ecofeminist concerns are taken
up by
feminist researchers who
participate
in
environmental
organizations
or contribute to national and international
debates,
attempting
to reframe crucial issues.
Examples
include the National Women's
Health Network's research and
organizing
around industrial and environmental
health;
critiques
of
reproductive technology
and
genetic engineering by
the Feminist
Network of Resistance to
Reproductive
and Genetic
Engineering
(FINRRAGE);
and
critiques
of environmental
approaches
to
population
control
(Committee
on
Women,
Population,
and the
Environment).8
Some
1,500
women from all
continents
gathered
in Miami in November 1991 to
develop
a women's
agenda,
titled "Women's Action
Agenda
21," to take to the U.N. Conference on Envi-
ronment and
Development
in
Brazil,
in
June
1992. This World Women's Con-
gress
for a
Healthy
Planet included women who work for U.N.
agencies,
elected
politicians,
teachers, scholars,
journalists,
students,
and activists-women who
are
working
inside formal
governmental
structures,
in
lobbying
and educational
work,
and
through grassroots organizing.9
At the same
time,
many
ecofeminists in the United States
emphasize
con-
nections between the
oppression
of women and the
oppression
of nature at the
expense
of race and class. This has led to
significant gaps
between much ecofeminist
work and women's
grassroots
activism in the U.S. environmental
justice
movement
7
Gwyn
Kirk
and also between U.S. ecofeminism and women's
campaigns
for sustainable de-
velopment
here and in countries of the South.
Several
experiences
in the late 1980s and
early
1990s
illustratedfor
me the
way
this
separation
is constructed and
played
out. In 1987,
for example,
I went to a
weekend
workshop
in New York
organized by
the
LearningAlliance.
The theme was
EnvironmentalJustice-thefirst
event I'd attended to use this term-and the venue
was 125th Street. As a white woman I didn't
often go
to Harlem.
Thefirst afternoon
was
given
over to
presentations
from African
American and Latino activists
talking
about environmental racism and
community organizing
in their
neighborhoods.
I
was struck
by thefact
that the
group
was
very
multicultural-at least
half
werepeople
of
color-and I remember it as a
very lively
discussion. On the second
day
I was
involved in a
workshop
on
ecofeminism:
a
small,
white
group thatfocused onfeminist
spirituality.
In November 1991 Iattended the World Women's
Congressfor
a
Healthy
Planet in
Miami,
participating
in a small
workshop
on
ecofeminism. Again,
this was
a
smallgroup of
white women who wanted to talk about
spirituality,
while across the
hall,
in the same time
slot,
a session on Third World
development
drew a
huge
crowd.
Ifound
both these
experiences depressingandfrustrating.
In
my
mind
ecofeminism
is both material
andspiritual.
In 1990 Id worked with Ynestra
King, editingsome of
her earlier
essays
into a small booklet titled "What Is
Ecofeminism?"In thepreface
we
said:
"Ecofeminism
is
aboutpersonal andplanetary
survival.
Therefore
our concerns
include the
politics offood,
health,
population,
land,
development,
economics,
resto-
ration
ecology,
violence
against
women and
children,
and antimilitarism. " I'd no-
ticed that Native
American, African American,
and Latino environmentalists in the
United States
usually
do not
polarize spirituality
and
politics
as some U.S. Greens
and
ecofeminists
have done. Their
belief
in the interconnectedness
of life
is instead a
springboardfor
activism
against governments
and
corporations
that
repudiate
such
connections
by destroying
or
contaminating
the
earth, air,
and water as well as a
multitude
of life forms. Strong
social movements need to involve as
many
people
as
possible.
This means
finding frameworks for understanding
that include the
many
interrelated
aspects ofan
issue. In the
pamphlet
we'd said:
"Ecofeminism
seeks to be a
multicultural
movement,
making
connections with women
from many different
back-
grounds
andplaces,
organizingaround
these issues in the U.S.
andglobally. "Ecofeminism,
as
many
white women seemed to understand
it,
was
simply
too limited. I was con-
vinced that it didn't have to be.
In 1990 I started
teaching
at Colorado
College
in Colorado
Springs
where I
offered
a course on
ecofeminism.
A
colleague,
Devon Pena, was involved as a scholar
and activist with Chicano
farmers
in the San Luis
valley
in southern Colorado. He
8
Gwyn
Kirk
knew
ecofeminist
literature and his
challenge
to me was: How can there be a mean-
ingful
connection between
ecofeminism
and
environmentaljustice?
Women and the Movement for Environmental
Justice
The
people
most affected
by poor physical
environments in the United States are
women and
children,
particularly
African
Americans,
Native
Americans,
and
Latinas.
Many
women of color and
poor
white women are active in hundreds of
local
organizations campaigning
for
healthy living
and
working
conditions in
working-class
communities,
in communities of
color,
and on Native American
reservations,
which are all
disproportionately
affected
by pollution
from incin-
erators,
toxic
dumps, pesticides,
and hazardous
working
conditions in
industry
and
agriculture.10
This movement draws on
concepts
of civil
rights,
and its
orga-
nization, too,
has roots in the civil
rights
movements as well as in labor
unions,
Chicano land
grant
movements,
social
justice organizations,
and Native Ameri-
can
rights organizations.
Its tactics include
organizing
demonstrations and ral-
lies,
educating
the
public, researching
and
monitoring
toxic
sites,
preparing
and
presenting expert testimony
to
government agencies, reclaiming
land
through
direct
action,
and
maintaining
and
teaching
traditional
agricultural practices,
crafts,
and skills.
Specific organizations represent
different mixes of these
strands,
depending
on their
memberships, geographical
locations,
and
key
issues. Ex-
amples
include West Harlem Environmental
Action,
the Mothers of East
L.A.,
the Southwest
Organizing Project (Albuquerque),
and the Citizens'
Clearing-
house for Hazardous Wastes
(Virginia).
Besides
opposing
hazardous
conditions,
the environmental
justice
move-
ment also has a
powerful
reconstructive
dimension,
involving
sustainable
projects
that intertwine
ecological,
economic,
and cultural survival. The 4-H Urban Gar-
dening project
in
Detroit,
for
example,
coordinates well over one hundred small
gardens citywide
and relies on the
expertise
of local
people, mostly elderly
Afri-
can American
women,
who raise
vegetables,
both for individual use and to
supple-
ment food
prepared
at senior
centers,
as well as
crops
for sale: loofah
sponges,
fresh
herbs,
honey,
and worm boxes for
fishing." Many
of these women were
brought up
in rural areas in the southern United States where
they
learned about
gardening
before
coming
to Detroit for work in the 1930s and 1940s.
By
draw-
ing
on local
people's knowledge,
these
gardening projects provide
fresh
produce
at little financial
cost,
contribute to the revitalization of
inner-city
communities,
and
give
a sense of
empowerment
that comes from self-reliance. When
people
are
outdoors
working they
also make
neighborhoods
safer
by
their
presence,
watch-
fulness,
and care. An additional
goal
is to teach
young people
about
gardening,
9
Gwyn
Kirk
strengthening
connections between the
generations
and
helping young people
to
become more
self-supporting. Examples
of sustainable
projects
in rural areas in-
clude the White Earth Land
Recovery Project,
a
project
that
produces
wild rice
and
maple sugar
on Native American land in
Minnesota,
and Tierra
Wools,
a
New Mexico worker
cooperative
of
twenty people-most
of them women-that
owns some three thousand head of Churro
sheep
and
produces high quality,
hand-woven
rugs
and
clothing
and
organically produced
lamb.12 Their
objec-
tives include economic
development
and environmental
protection,
as well as
cultural revival and conservation.13
Women make
up
the
majority
of local activists in environmental
justice
organizations,
sometimes because
they
have a sick child or because
they
have
become ill themselves. Illnesses caused
by
toxins are often difficult to
diagnose
and treat because
they
affect internal
organs
and the balance of
body
function-
ing.
Women have been
persistent
in
raising questions
and
searching
for
plausible
explanations
for such
illnesses,
sometimes
discovering
that their communities
have been built on contaminated land or
tracing probable
sources of
pollution
affecting
the
neighborhood.'4 They
have
publicized
their
findings
and taken on
governmental agencies
and
corporations responsible
for contamination. In so
doing they
are often ridiculed as
"hysterical
housewives"
by
officials and
report-
ers who have trivialized their research as emotional and
unscholarly. By
contrast,
Lin Nelson honors this works as kitchen table science. In October 1991 women
were 60
percent
of the
participants
at the First National
People
of Color Envi-
ronmental
Leadership
Summit in
Washington,
D.C.
Many
urban
gardeners
in
northern cities are
elderly
women,
while in rural areas women work on
family
garden plots, planting, harvesting,
and
processing
fruit and
vegetables
for home
use.15 As
ethnobotanists,
women know
backcountry
areas in
great
detail because
they go
there at different seasons to
gather
herbs for medicinal
purposes. Among
Mexican
Americans,
for
example,
curanderas-traditional healers-continue to
work with herbal remedies.16 This detailed
knowledge
is learned from older
people,
as is also the case with some Native Americans and others who live in rural areas.
Gender is
significant
for women in the environmental
justice
movement,
but
this is not a
concept
of
gender
divorced from race and class. Women activists see
their
identity
as women
integrated
with their racial and class
identities,
with race
and/or class often more of a
place
of
empowerment
for them than
gender.
Al-
though they recognize
their own subordination based on
gender, they
are not
interested in
separating
themselves from the men in their communities and frame
their
perspectives,
as
women,
in class- and race-conscious
ways.
Ecofeminism does not seem relevant to these activists because it
pays
much
more attention to
gender
than to race or class.
Moreover,
it is not a land-based
10
Gwyn
Kirk
movement,
is not
currently
involved in
promoting
sustainable
development,
and
is not
directly
involved in
struggles
for
healthy living
and
working
conditions,
though
there are individuals who define themselves as ecofeminists active on
these issues. Some ecofeminist writers and the editors of ecofeminist
anthologies
have
attempted
to
bridge
this
gap by including
a few contributions
by
women of
color. 17 In an
attempt
to make
connections,
these editors
inadvertently appropri-
ate the activism of women of color whose work is
marginal
to collections that
assume a
unitary
framework. Alliances in
practice
between ecofeminists and en-
vironmental
justice
activists still need to be made.
Devo'n Pena took me to
meetfarmers
in the San Luis
valley. Typically thefarms
include well-watered bottomland
for pasture
and
crops
and
dry upland
areas that
seem to
grow
little more than
sage.
We sat in
Joe
Gallegoss
kitchen and talked; more
accurately, they
talked and I listened. One crucial issue was
thefact
that a
gold
min-
ing company
located in the hills, Battle Mountain
Gold,
waspolluting
the river with
cyanide.
The
riverfeeds
an intricate network
of irrigation ditches-acequias-that
link all
thefarms
in the
valley. They
talked about the
importance ofclean
water.
They
opposed "centerpivot" irrigation systems
that draw
waterfrom
underground aquifers.
This was the
lunacy
ofliving
on
capital-squandering
a nonrenewable resource.
They
talked about the
relationship
between
crops
and
wildplants
that
support
birds,
rab-
bits,
and other small animals.
They
described the soils in the
valley
in a
way
I'd never
heard soil described
before,
the sensuous
feel of sandy
loam and Alamosa
clay,
what
you
need to know to cultivate them well.
They explained why
its
increasingly
hard to
make ends meet
financially, despite working hardfor long
hours,
and the
traps
and
contradictions
of rampant capitalism
that is
only
interested in
quick profits. They
talked about their
families working
this land
for
seven or
eight generations,
from
before
it was
part of
the United
States,
always respecting
that it is alive. I also listened
to a lot
of
sexist talk and sexist
assumptions,
even chivalrous
notions,
about womens
place
and
capabilities.
Late at
night, Ifinally
said, "Yes,
butyou
ve
got
to think about
gender.
The liberation
of
women
andgirls
has to
bepart ofa truly
sustainable
future.
"
And there are women in San
Luis,
of
course,
who are
saying
the same
thing.
The
vagaries ofthe academicjob
market meant that I
left
Colorado,
torn
by
the
realization that connections between
people, especially
across lines
of
race, class,
and
culture,
need time to
develop
and a real
life
context to
grow
in. This was a limitation
of aproject
I'd been
part ofsomeyears
earlier:
WomanEarth,
a multiracial network
of
women who wanted to link
spirituality andpolitics,
with a
focus
on
health,
ecology,
andpeace.
We also
adopted
the
principle
of racialparity,
meaning
that there should
always
be
equal
numbers
of
women
of
color and white women. A core
group of eight
11
Gwyn
Kirk
women met and talked and met and talked. We invited a
larger group
to a
four-day
working meeting.
We were
long
on ideas but short on
making
them
happen.
Ironi-
cally,
WomanEarth was
profoundly unecological
in a
very
basic
way:
We were a bi-
coastalgroup, spread
out across this vast
continentfrom California
to New York with
no
strong
roots in a
place.
Like
many
would-be
groups andpartnerships, wefound
it
hard to
confront
difficult
issues between
usforfear
that the alliance
wouldfall apart.
It
did,
of
course,
but I still dream
of
a workable WomanEarth some
day.
This
project
was crucial to
my developing understandings
about race and
my
commitment to
multiculturalprojects
in the
future.
We had
high hopesfor
WomanEarth. Like
many
tough experiences,
it's been a source
of
seeds,
some
of
which are still
waitingfor
the
right place,
time,
andpeople
to
sprout.
Building
Alliances for a Sustainable Future
Given the
widespread
and
profoundly
serious nature of environmental
degrada-
tion,
environmental issues have
great potential
for
bringing people together
across
lines of race and class. For such collaboration to
work,
people
need to have some
basis for
knowing
one
another,
some shared stake in the
community,
and the
prospect
for
developing
trust
despite
differences in
culture,
ethnicity,
and class.
There needs to be authentic connection based on
honesty
and mutual
respect.
Much has been written about
building bridges
across lines of difference in the
past
decade or so.18 One obstacle is
ignorance-simply
not
knowing
each other's
experience
as well as not
understanding
its
significance-though people
in
op-
pressed groups always
know more about dominant
groups
than the other
way
around. Other obstacles include
treating
other
groups'
concerns as less
meaning-
ful than one's own and a lack of trust between
people separated by profound
differences in class and culture. The
bridges
to be built are emotional as well as
intellectual,
making personal
connections that reach across our
segregated
lives.
Alliances
require
conscientious
listening, honesty,
active
compassion,
and a will-
ingness
to be self-critical.
Learning
about others means
being open
to uncer-
tainty
and
surprise,
an
ability
to
suspend
disbelief,
and a sense of ease with our-
selves so that we can be
fully present
to each other.'9 This
requires settings
and
projects
where
people
can work
together
to
develop
a shared
political
culture and
language, providing
a
key
role for individuals whose
experiences
and connec-
tions enable them to cross lines.
Women of color
point
out to white women that we
conveniently ignore
our
privilege
as white while
emphasizing
our
oppression
as women. To build
bridges
across
gender
and race for white feminists means
understanding
that women of
color cannot
separate
race and
ethnicity
from
gender, any
more than we can
12
Gwyn
Kirk
ourselves. We have to make alliances with women and men of color
and,
in the
process, may
have to deal with what we consider to be sexist attitudes and behav-
ior. White women need to
acknowledge
the
ways
we
sustain,
perpetuate,
and
benefit from
racism,
albeit often
unknowingly-in
itself an
aspect
of
privilege.
Those of us who write and teach about ecofeminism need to
remedy
the
class,
race,
and ethnic limitations of our
perspectives
so as to build authentic alliances
that cross race and class lines. We need to use our
privilege
in the interests of
social
justice.
It is
important
to make a distinction here between a
politics
of
solidarity, implying support
for others in
struggle,
and a
politics
of
engagement
where we are in
struggle together.
In 1991 a
group of community
activists in Detroit started Detroit
Summer,
a
multicultural,
intergenerationalyouth program/movement
to
rebuild,
redefine,
and
respirit
Detroit
fom
the
ground up.
It was based on Freedom Summer
(1964)
when
youngpeoplefrom
northern states went to the South to
registerpeople
to vote. Detroit
Summer invited
youngpeople
to
spend
three weeks
working
on
community projects,
talking
to
community
activists in their seventies and
eighties
as well as to
theirpeers,
visioning
a new kind
of community
and
economy,
not based on the whims
ofcorpo-
rate investors but instead on
localprojects
that
provide for peoples
basic needs. The
youngpeoplepainted
houses,
cleared
trashfrom
empty
lots,
madeplaygrounds, planted
gardens, andpainted
a mural. But this was much more than a
paint-it, fix-itsummer
program.
It was a volunteer
program
with a clear
agenda ofpolitical
education. On
the last
day
the whole
group
toured the work sites and showed each other their handi-
work. Less
tangible,
but
equally important,
was the
fact
that
they
had lived and
worked
together:
white suburban
teenagers
and
college
students; African
Americans
and Latinos
from
the
city,
half
of
them
young
women;
a
few
lesbian or
gay.
Shea
Howell,
one
of
the
founders of
Detroit
Summer,
had said to me some
years
earlier:
Come to Detroit and see the
future!
In 1993 I volunteered to
cookfor
Detroit Sum-
mer,
a
practical way
that
I,
as an outsider and
adult,
could
support
the
project.
Detroit
brought many things together for
me: the
opportunities
as well as the severe
challenges posed by postindustrial
cities with their
devastatedphysical infrastructure,
poverty,
and racial
segregation;
the need to rethink the
economy
and to initiate eco-
logically soundprojects
that could
support localpeople;
and the
importance of
work-
ing together
to rebuild communities across
generations,
but with
young people
cen-
trally
involved. The
group
who initiated Detroit Summer had a
history of working
together politically. They'd
been in Detroit at least
twenty years,
some much
longer;
they
had
connections,
reputations,
and a track record.
13
Gwyn
Kirk
Standing
on Common Ground
Coalitions and alliances need
practical
contexts as well as
processes
where
people
can work
together
and
grow
in their
knowledge
and trust of each other. The
following
issues are
just
a few
examples
that have the
potential
to
bring
ecofeminists
and environmental
justice
activists
together
in a much more concerted
way
than
is
happening currently.
Environmental Health
Working
in toxic
workplaces
is a serious health hazard for
women,
especially
women of color. Some industrial firms have
kept
women of
child-bearing age
out
of the most hazardous work-often the best
paid
in the
factory-or required
that
they
be sterilized
first,
to avoid
being
sued if these workers later
give
birth to
babies with disabilities.
High
incidences of lead
posioning
in
young
children,
cancer clusters in various
parts
of the
country,
and environmental illnesses in-
volving sensitivity
to chemicals are
just
a few environmental health issues that
can
bring together
women's health advocates and
grassroots
environmental
groups.20
Food Production
A
specific example
of environmental illness is
pesticide poisoning
of
farmworkers,
many
of whom are Mexicans and Mexican American. Contaminated
produce
is
not
good
for consumers either. Middle-class mothers were
very
effective in
get-
ting
the
pesticide
Alar banned in the United States in the late 1980s because it
can
damage
children's
health,
but
they
showed no
apparent
awareness of or con-
cern for farmworkers
exposed
to it in the course of their work.21 In
many
areas
mainly
white,
middle-class consumers choose to
buy organically grown produce,
which does
nothing
to
improve
conditions for farmworkers. Much more needs
to be done to build alliances between farmworkers and
consumers,
for
example
by supporting
farmworkers'
campaigns
for better
working
conditions,
shopping
at local farmers'
markets,
investing
in
producer/consumer cooperatives,
as well as
by increasing public
awareness of the
dangers
of
pesticides.
Making
Cities Liveable
The literature on Green cities
emphasizes
air
pollution,
auto
congestion,
urban
sprawl, energy overconsumption,
toxins,
deteriorated
buildings,
and an absence
of
open space
as
key
issues.22 These
problems
are seen in terms of the
physical
design
of
cities,
which is based on cars.
Though
mention is sometimes made of
14
Gwyn
Kirk
political,
economic,
and cultural obstacles to
ecologically
sound
cities,
planners
and architects tend to
emphasize
new or
revamped
architectural
designs
and trans-
portation technologies.
Other
aspects
of urban life-affordable
housing,
em-
ployment,
amenities,
environmental
health,
and
personal safety-are equally
criti-
cal.
People organizing
around such issues in urban
neighborhoods,
often
women,
understand
only
too well the connections between
poor physical
environments,
poverty,
and racism. As
exemplified by
Detroit
Summer,
this is a fruitful area for
building
alliances between ecofeminists and environmental
justice
activists.
Making
Connections: The Process
ofAlliance-building
The
following principles
concern the
processes
of
building
aliances:23
1. Know who
you
are,
what is
important
to
you,
what
your non-negotiables
are. Know
your strengths
and what
you bring
to this shared venture.
Recog-
nize,
accept,
and honor the
ways you
are different from the others.
2.
Figure
out
why you
want to become allies with a
particular person
or
group.
What do
they
stand for? What are their values? What are
they
interested in
doing politically?
How do
you
know this? How do
you
find out? What is the
purpose
for
coming together?
3. Commit
yourself
to communicate. Hold
judgement
until
you
understand
what is
going
on. Ask the other
person
to
say
more.
Listen, talk,
and listen
more. This
may
be
accomplished through
conversations,
reading,
films,
events
and
meetings,
and
learning
about each other's
community.
4. Share the
past.
Talk about what has
happened
to
you.
5. Be authentic and ask for
authenticity
from others. If this is not
possible,
what is the alliance worth?
6. Check out the
person/group
as the
aquaintance grows.
Are
they
who
they
say they
are? Do
they
do what
they say they
believe in? Do
you
have reason
to trust them?
Judge
them
by
their track record and what
actually happens,
not
by your
fears,
hopes,
or
expectations
that come from old
experiences.
7.
Keep
the
process
"clean." Call each other on difficult issues as
they
come
up-preferably
with
grace, teasing maybe, firmly
but
gently.
Don't
try
to
get
to the bottom of
things
when it's
impossible
to do so
meaningfully,
but don't
use externals
(too late,
too
tired,
too
busy,
too
many
other items on the
agenda)
to avoid it.
8. Be
open
to
being
called on
your
own
stuff,
even if it's
embarassing
or makes
you
feel vulnerable. Tell others when their
opinions
and
experiences give
you
new
insights
and
help you
to see
things differently.
15
Gwyn
Kirk
9. Do some
people
in the
group
take
up
a lot of
space talking
about their own
concerns? Are
they
aware of it? What is the
unspoken power dynamic
be-
tween
people?
How does
age, gender,
class,
or race
play
out? Can
you
talk
about it
openly?
10. What is the "culture" of
your group?
What kind of
meetings
and decison-
making style
do
you
have? If
you
eat
together,
what kind of food do
you
serve? What kind of music do
you
listen to? Where do
you
meet?
11. Look for the common
ground.
What are the
perspectives, experiences,
in-
sights,
and dreams we share?
Major
U.S.
progressive
movements this
century
have
emphasized specific
injustices.
In the 1930s it was class and labor
rights;
in the 1950s and
1960s,
race
and civil
rights
for
people
of
color;
in the 1970s and 1980s women's
liberation;
and in the 1980s and 1990s
rights
for
gay
men, lesbians,
bi- and transsexuals.
Despite opposition,
each movement made
significant progress
and then ran into
limitations and contradictions. The
challenge
for
organizers
and activists is to
recognize
such
limitations,
to face
them,
and to
respond
in a
way
that is transfor-
mative rather than
regressive, rethinking strategies
and
demands,
building
on
their
experiences, gains,
and losses. The next
major
social movement will need to
incorporate
demands from earlier movements,
building
a concerted
oppositional
politics
in the United States that
radically challenges
white-dominated,
patriar-
chal,
global capitalism
and includes transformative
agendas
and
strategies
for
sustainable
living.
The work of
creating
livable communities
is,
at
root,
about
taking
on the whole economic
system
and the
systems
of
power-personal
and
institutional-that sustain it. A
broader-based,
stronger
environmental
justice
movement must
integrate
race, class,
and
gender, framing
issues so that alliances
can be made.
A vital
aspect
of
building
movements involves
visioning
the
future,
chang-
ing
one's
personal
values and
aspirations, rethinking
and
recreating
one's
place
in
the
world,
forging
alliances across lines of difference and between
generations,
through
art,
song,
ideas,
and
analysis,
as well as shared
projects.
It means
opening
up
a
public
debate that
challenges
and
opposes
the values and
practices
of this
economic
system-its
hazardous
production processes
as well as its consumerist
ideology.
It means
framing progress
in terms of
sustainability,
connectiveness,
and true
security.
It involves
promoting
vibrant local economic
projects
so that
people
are not
dependent
on the whims of
corporate
investors and
developers,
building up
communities where
young people
are
needed,
where
they
can de-
velop
skills and
gain respect
for themselves and each other
through meaningful
16
Gwyn
Kirk
work and
participation
in
community projects
and decision
making.24
It involves
expanding
and
strengthening many existing,
small-scale
projects, including
com-
munity gardens,
farmers'
markets,
cooperative organic
farms,
seed banks to safe-
guard genetic diversity,
and
backyard gardening
and
composting;
the
designing
and
building
of
ecohousing
that
repairs,
reuses,
and
recycles
discarded
materials,
vacant
land,
and derelict
buildings, especially
in
blighted postindustrial
cities;
and
promoting technologies
that
rely
on renewable resources. It involves
creating
a definition of wealth that
goes beyond
the material and includes
health,
physical
energy
and
strength, safety
and
security,
time, skills, talents,
creativity,
love,
com-
munity support,
a connection to one's
history
and cultural
heritage,
and a sense
of
belonging. Clearly,
this is both a
long-term agenda
and
something
that is
already happening
in small
ways through many
local
projects.
We lead
contradictory
lives,
navigating
our
way
in this
crazy capitalist
world.
For me
ecofeminism
is activist
andpulls constantly against
academic work. It needs
the rootedness
of
a home
base,
which
pulls
at
my
traveling life.
It is a
complex
and
enlightening way ofseeing
how the
oppression of
women, racism,
economic
exploita-
tion,
and the
ecological
crisis all interconnect. It is a
politics of opposition
and resis-
tance as well as a
politics of
reconstruction and
hope.
Notes
1.
See,
for
example, Carolyn
Blackwood,
On the Perimeter
(London: Fontana, 1984);
Alice Cook and
Gwyn
Kirk,
Greenham Women
Everywhere
(Boston:
South End
Press,
1983);
Barbara Harford and Sarah
Hopkins,
Women at the Wire
(London:
Women's
Press, 1984);
Sasha
Roseneil,
Disarming Patriarchy:
Feminism and PoliticalAction at
Greenham
(Buckingham
and
Philapdelphia: Open University,
1995);
and Ann
Snitow,
"Holding
the Line at
Greenham," MotherJones,
February/March
1985.
2. Ynestra
King,
"All is
Connectedness,"
in
Keeping
the
Peace,
ed.
Lynn Jones (London:
Women's
Press, 1983),
40-63.
3.
Cynthia
Enloe's
phrase.
See,
for
example,
Enloe, Bananas,
Beaches and Bases:
Making
Feminist Sense
oflnternationalPolitics (Berkeley: University
of California
Press, 1990),
and The
MorningAfter:
Sexual Politics at the End
of
the Cold War
(Berkeley:
Univer-
sity
of California
Press, 1993).
4. Personal conversation.
5.
Gwyn
Kirk,
"Our Greenham Common: Not
Just
a Place but a
Movement,"
in Rock-
ing
the
Ship ofState:
Toward a Feminist Peace
Politics,
ed. Adrienne Harris and Ynestra
King
(Boulder: Westview, 1989),
263-80.
6.
See,
for
example,
Valerie Amos and Pratisha
Parmer,
"Challenging Imperial
Femi-
nism,"
FeministReview 17
(1984): 3-19;
Barbara
Omolade,
"We
Speak
for the
Planet,"
17
Gwyn
Kirk
in Harris and
King, Rocking
the
Ship,
171-89;
Women
Working
for a Nuclear Free
and
Independent
Pacific,
Pacific
Women
Speak: Why
Haven't You Known?
(Oxford:
Green
Line, 1987);
and Women's
Pentagon
Action,
"Unity
Statement,"
in
Jones,
Keeping
the
Peace, 42-43.
7. See,
for
example,
Carol
J.
Adams,
The Sexual Politics
ofMeat:
A
Feminist-Vegetarian
Critical
Theory
(New
York: Continuum
Books, 1990);
Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology:
The
Metaethics
of
Radical Feminism
(Boston:
Beacon
Press, 1979);
Elizabeth Dodson
Gray,
Green Paradise Lost
(Wellesley,
Mass.: Roundtable
Press, 1979);
Charlene
Spretnak,
ed.,
The Politics
ofWomens Spirituality
(New
York: Anchor
Books, 1982); Starhawk,
Truth or Dare: Encounters with
Power, Authority,
and
Mystery
(San
Francisco:
Harper
and
Row, 1987);
Andree Collard and
Joyce
Contrucci,
Rape of
the Wild: Mans Vio-
lence
Against
Animals and the Earth
(London:
Women's
Press, 1988);
Greta
Gaard,
Ecofeminism:
Women, Animals,
Nature
(Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 1993);
Ynestra
King, "Healing
the Wounds:
Feminism,
Ecology,
and the Nature/Culture
Dualism,"
in
Reweaving
the World: The
Emergence of Ecofeminism,
ed. Irene Dia-
mond and Gloria Orenstein
(San
Francisco: Sierra Club
Books, 1990), 106-21,
and
"Feminism and
Ecology,"
in Toxic
Struggles:
The
Theory
and Practice
ofEnvironmen-
talJustice,
ed. Richard Hofrichter
(Philadelphia
and Gabriola
Island,
British Columia:
New
Society
Publishers, 1993), 76-84;
Pam
McAllister, ed.,
Reweaving
the Web
of
Life:
Feminism and Nonviolence
(Philadelphia:
New
Society
Publishers, 1982);
and
Jane
Meyerding,
ed., We Are All Part
of
One Another: A Barbara
Deming
Reader
(Philadelphia:
New
Society
Publishers, 1984).
8.
See,
for
example,
Lin
Nelson,
Regina
Kenen,
and Susan
Klitzman,
Turning Things
Around: A Women's
Occupational
and Environmental Health Resource Guide
(Wash-
ington,
D.C.: National Women's Health
Network, 1990).
FINRRAGE U.S. con-
tact:
Janice Raymond,
Women's Studies
Department, University
of
Massachusetts,
Amherst,
Mass. 01003. Committee on
Women,
Population,
and the Environment
contact:
Betsy
Hartmann,
Hampshire College,
Amherst,
Mass. 01002.
9. The World Women's
Congress
for a
Healthy
Planet was
organized by
Women's En-
vironment and
Development Organization,
845 Third
Ave., 15th floor, New
York,
N.Y. 10022.
10.
See,
for
example,
Robert D.
Bullard,
Dumping
in Dixie:
Race, Class,
and Environ-
mental
Quality
(Boulder:
Westview
Press, 1990),
and
Bullard, ed.,
ConfrontingEnvi-
ronmentalRacism:
Voicesfrom
the Grassroots
(Boston:
South End
Press, 1993); Hofrichter,
Toxic
Struggles;
Charles
Lee,
Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States
(New
York:
Commission for Racial
Justice,
United Church of
Christ, 1987);
and Andrew
Szasz,
Ecopopulism:
Toxic Waste and the
Movementfor
EnvironmentalJustice
(Minneapolis:
University
of Minnesota
Press, 1994).
11. 4-H Urban Gardens is a
project
of
Michigan
State
University, Department
of
Agri-
culture,
Wayne County Co-operative
Extension
Service,
640
Temple
St.,
6th
floor,
Detroit,
Mich. 48201.
18
Gwyn
Kirk
12. White Earth
Recovery Project,
P.O. Box
327,
White
Earth,
Minn.
56591;
and Tierra
Wools,
P.O. Box
118,
Los
Ojos,
N. M. 87551.
13. Donald Dale
Jackson,
"Around Los
Ojos, Sheep
and Land are
Fighting
Words,"
Smithsonian,
April
1991, 37-47;
and Laura
Pulido,
"Sustainable
Development
at
Ganados del
Valle,"
in
Bullard,
Confronting
Environmental
Racism, 123-40.
14.
See,
for
example,
Katsi
Cook,
"A
Community
Health
Project: Breastfeeding
and
Toxic
Contaminants,"
Indian Studies
(spring
1985): 14-16;
Celene
Kraus,
"Blue-
Collar Women and Toxic Wastes Protests: The Process of
Politicization,"
in
Hofrichter,
Toxic
Struggles,
107-17;
Mary
Pardo,
"Mexican American Women Grassroots Com-
munity
Activists: 'Mothers of East Los
Angeles,"'
Frontiers: A
Journal
ofWomen
Studies
11:1
(1990): 1-7;
and Robin Lee
Zeff,
Marsha
Love,
and Karen
Stults, eds., Em-
powering
Ourselves: Women and Toxics
Organizing
(Falls Church,
Va.: Citizens Clear-
inghouse
for Hazardous
Wastes, 1989).
15. Lin
Nelson,
"The Place of Women in Polluted
Places,"
in Diamond and
Orenstein,
Reweaving
the
World, 172-87;
Rachel
Bagby, "Daughters
of
Growing Things,"
in
Diamond and
Orenstein,
Reweaving
the
World, 231-48;
and Bernadette
Cozart,
"Gardening
as Sacred
Activism,"
Woman
ofPower,
23
(1994):
26-28.
16. Dev6n
Pefia,
"The 'Brown' and the 'Green': Chicanos and Environmental Politics in
the
Upper
Rio
Grande,"
Capitalism,
Nature,
Socialism: A
Journal
of
Socialist
Ecology
3:1
(1992): 79-103;
and Bobette
Perrone,
H. Henrietta
Stockel,
and Victoria
Krueger,
Medicine
Women, Curanderas,
and Women Doctors
(Norman:
University
of Okla-
homa
Press, 1989).
17. See,
for
example,
Carol
J.
Adams, ed.,
Ecofeminism
and the Sacred
(New
York: Con-
tinuum, 1993);
Leonie Caldecott and
Stephanie
Leland, eds.,
Reclaim the Earth:
Women
Speak Outfor Life
on Earth
(London:
Women's
Press, 1983);
Diamond and
Orenstein,
Reweaving
the World; and
Judith
Plant, ed.,
Healing
the Wounds: The Promise
ofEcofeminism (Philadelphia
and Santa
Cruz,
Calif.: New
Society
Publishers, 1989).
18.
See,
for
example, Margo
Adair and Shea
Howell,
The
Subjective
Side
of
Politics
(San
Francisco: Tools for
Change,
1988),
and
Breaking
Old
Patterns,
Weaving
New Ties
(San
Francisco: Tools for
Change,
1990);
Lisa Albrecht and Rose M.
Brewer, eds.,
Bridges of
Power: Women's Multicultural Alliances
(Philadelphia:
New
Society
Pub-
lishers, 1990);
Anne
Bishop, Becomingan Ally: Breaking
the
Cycle of Oppression
(Halifax:
Fernwood
Publishing,
1994);
Elly
Bulkin,
Minnie Bruce
Pratt,
and Barbara
Smith,
Yours in
Struggle:
Three Feminist
Perspectives
on Anti-Semitism and Racism
(Brooklyn:
Long
Haul
Press, 1984);
bell
hooks,
"Sisterhood: Political
Solidarity
Between
Women,"
in Feminist
Theory:
From
Margin
to
Center,
ed. bell hooks
(Boston:
South End
Press,
1984), 43-65;
and Bernice
Johnson
Reagon,
"Coalition Politics:
Turning
the Cen-
tury,"
in Home Girls: A Black Feminist
Anthology,
ed. Barbara Smith
(New
York:
Kitchen Table: Women of Color
Press, 1983),
356-68.
19. See,
for
example,
Sarah Lucia
Hoagland,
Lesbian Ethics: Toward New Value
(Palo
Alto,
Calif.: Institute of Lesbian
Studies, 1988),
198-246.
19
Gwyn
Kirk
20.
See,
for
example,
Anne Witte
Garland,
For Our Kids'Sake: How to Protect Your Child
Against
Pesticides in Food
(New
York: Natural Resources Defense
Council, 1989);
and Lawrie Mott and Karen
Snyder,
PesticideAlert: A Guide to Pesticides in Fruit and
Vegetables
(San
Francisco: Sierra Club
Books, 1987).
21.
See,
for
example,
Lester Brown and
Jodi
L.
Jacobson,
The Future
of
Urbanization:
Facing
the
Ecological
and Economic Constraints
(Washington,
D.C.: Worldwatch In-
stitute, 1987);
Tim
Elkin,
Duncan
McLaren,
and
Mayer
Hillman,
Reviving
the
City:
Toward Sustainable Urban
Development
(London:
Friends of the
Earth, 1991);
David
Gordon, ed.,
Green Cities:
Ecologically SoundApproaches
to Urban
Space
(Montreal:
Black Rose
Books, 1990);
Richard
Register, Ecocity Berkeley: Building
Cities
for
a
Healthy
Future
(Berkeley:
North Atlantic
Books, 1987);
and Anne Whiston
Spirm,
The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human
Design
(New
York: Basic
Books,
1984).
22. Thanks to
Margo Okazawa-Rey
for
working
on this with me.
23. Grace Lee
Boggs, "Beyond Corporate Bondage,"
The
Witness,
May
1994, 18-20;
and
James Boggs,
"We Need to Create
Neighborhood
Businesses,"
The Northwest
Detroiter,
March
15, 1993, 9.
20