ecopunk

[swomper]

Are there more green/eco anarchist's on this forum, people that are being busy with climate neutral living/building growing yer own crops etc.?

We (me and swomp) live on a squatted piece of land in amsterdam were we try to show normal people what sort of alternative's there are for electricity, housing, growing your own food instead of shipping it from across the globe.
We also have website but i'm afraid it's only in dutch so bad luck for the english speaking people.

[bellyscratch]

Welcome.

If you want to find other eco-anarchists, then join the Environmental Left group, the link is in my sig

[Sasha]

aaaaaaah its an hippy invasion!!!! get the long hair cutting siscors and digeridoo burning flametrowers out!!!!
:laugh:

hello dear, nice to have you finaly on board...:)

some intresting debates on the enviorment can be found here: http://www.revleft.com/vb/sciences-and-environment-f32/index.html although most regular posters there are H+'rs
fellow annarchists can be found in the anarchist group: http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?groupid=2, although that one has been a bit dead of late.

oh shit, i forgot, just a warning, anti-civilisation/eco-fascist primitivism is a ground for restriction around here so tread carefully in discussing anarcho-primitivism, some people here are lost in the finer points of the debate and try to sling the restriction hammer way to fast.

[swomp]

Just to get something clear: we are not Hippies! were eco-punks. hi psycho, guess you mistook swomper for me swomp(the shorter one)?

so hi, im also living on the swomp.
Swomp is a dutch abbreviation for something loosely translated as 'smart trailer people on nice places'. Its a direct action form started in the nineties. empty allotments in amsterdam where buildings were demolished (often social renting, to make place for luxury apartments) and owners were letting it lay there for years, were squatted by putting caravans on it to live in. Apart from addressing the housing struggle it was also a protest against city policy repressing travelers in that days.

The last swomp(4!) became more than just a housing struggle project.
In the course of last year the dutch earth first climate campaign was going on, the message is shrink or drown. off course alternative technologies have to be developed, but solar and wind/water energy is not the future, they have to be accompanied by structural shrink, otherwise, being in holland (below selevel) wel will drown. So we attack the big polluters, like E.on, who is building new coal-fired power plants, and we block their gates, stop their conveyor belt supplying coal, shut down power plant, block their office space, disrupt their conventions etc.

but we also want to show that there is an alternative, a fact that no journalist at an action wil pay attention to, so we needed an action that would be the message itself. Swomp4 was born. We squatted the terrain, put caravans on it an started to build gardens and grow our own crops. We have energy from solar cells, collect rainwater, struck a groundwater-pump, build an eco compost toilet, build a little straw-bale house with a living room and kitchen where we heat and cook on a wood burner. Since veggies need to be local and organic we try to grow as much as possible on our own terrain.

After a month we put out a press release with a declaration of Independence. since then we have been a TAZ (temporary autonomous zone) an eco free-state. Founded on an eco-anarchist ideal.

Since we live behind a fence everybody from the neighbourhood passing by sees us which gives us the chance to talk to them and spread our message... And by now a small group has started a transition town initiative

We get quite a lot of attention, in the form of press and people showing up at our weekly open garden days, we are an infocentre for people interested in sustainable living, climate change, community action and direct action. this month were there for almost 8 months and still going strong.

[Sasha]

yeah, the swomp is nice.... should drop by again soon

(although i believe global warming is not much more than the new millennium bug)

[Bilan]

Crust punks...:p

[swomp]

crust punk, eco punk, greencrust, whatever, (everything but hippie)

and off course global warming is just the new millenium bug...

just like the hunger in the thirld world is just a story to get kids to finish their plates.

[Sasha]

well, i think we'l at least agree that stuff like live earth was as effective at stopping climate change as live aid was at stopping hunger in the 3th world :lol:

[Bilan]

yes, yes, fair enough. I used to be quite into crust punk. (You wouldn't believe it if you saw me now! haha).
Wolfbrigade + Ekkaia = win.

[thejambo1]

welcome aboard,i hope you post more on your situation,i am very interested in it,also the transition town stuff.:)

[swomp]

cool, i will start a thread somewhere for this.

ill try to find my way around here. till now ive been held back by the complexity by this forum, i never seem to be able to navigate towards what im lookin for.

[swomper]

same here. thanx for the link to environmental left. i will check it out.