Do It Yourself

Description

Do you really want to change the world? If the answer is YES, then this book shows you how.



Ethical consumerism is now big business. But leading a sustainable and truly radical life encompasses a whole variety of things that challenge the mainstream. This book shows how we can make real changes to the way we live. In simple steps, it describes how you can create sustainable and equitable ways of living that can help transform not just your own life, but the culture around you.



The book weaves together analysis, stories and experiences. It combines in-depth analytical chapters followed by easy to follow 'How to Guides' with practical ideas for change. Taken together, these small steps can move us towards taking back control of our lives from governments and corporations.
Glossary

Introduction: Do it yourself

1. Why the party's over

2. How to get off the grid

3. Why do it without leaders

4. How to make decisions ourselves

5. Why society is making us sick

6. How to manage our own health

7. Why we've still got a lot to learn

8. How to inspire change through learning

9. Why we are what we eat

10. How to set up community gardens

11. Why we need cultural activism

12. How to prank, play and subvert the system

13. Why we have to reclaim the commons

14. How to set up autonomous spaces

15. Why we need to reclaim the media

16. How to communicate beyond TV

17. Why we need to take direct action

18. How to build active campaigns

Conclusions: Changing our world

Index

Sujets

• Jardinage
• Techniques de jardinage
• Maison
• Entretien de la maison
• Power Resources
• Social Psychology
• Political Advocacy
• Political Process
• Political Ideologies
• Political Science
• Media Studies
• Do-It-Yourself
• Energy and society
• Zapatista
• Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
• Natural Resources
• General officer
• Squatting
• Politics
• Gardening
• Energy
• Activism
• Anarchism
• Énergie
• General
• Social
• G8

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780745348278
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Do It Yourself

First published 2007 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright The Trapese Collective 2007
The right of The Trapese Collective to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 2.0 England and Wales Licence. Permission for reproduction is granted by the editors and the publishers free of charge for voluntary, campaign and community groups. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ or write to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA. Reproduction of the text for commercial purposes, or by universities or other formal teaching institutions is prohibited without the express permission of the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Hardback
ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2638 2
ISBN-10 0 7453 2638 2
Paperback
ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2637 5
ISBN-10 0 7453 2637 4
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on paper accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council and is suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton
Printed and bound in the European Union by Gutenberg Press, Malta
contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Glossary

Introduction: Do it yourself
1. Why we need holistic solutions for a world in crisis
2. How to get off the grid
3. Why do it without leaders
4. How to make decisions by consensus
5. Why society is making us sick
6. How to manage our own health
7. Why we still have a lot to learn
8. How to inspire change through learning
9. Why we are what we eat
10. How to set up a community garden
11. Why we need cultural activism
12. How to prank, play and subvert the system
13. Why we need autonomous spaces in the fight against capitalism
14. How to set up a self-managed social centre
15. Why we need to reclaim the media
16. How to communicate beyond TV
17. Why we need to take direct action
18. How to build active campaigns
Conclusion: Changing our worlds

Index
illustrations
1.1 The permaculture flower
2.1 An eco-home
2.2 A haybox
2.3 Solar shower 1
2.4 Solar shower 2
2.5 Solar shower 3
2.6 Solar shower 4
2.7 Solar shower 5
2.8 Solar shower 6
2.9 Solar shower 7
2.10 Solar shower 8
2.11 A two-chamber compost toilet
2.12 Grey water system
2.13 Slow sand filtration at home
4.1 Conditions for good consensus
4.2 A model for small group consensus
4.3 Consensus hand signals
4.4 A typical spokescouncil
4.5 A model for spokescouncil consensus
5.1 Zapatista health clinic
8.1 Poster advertising our workshops
8.2 Spidergram
8.3 Chair game
8.4 Timeline of world history and resistance
8.5 No Borders Tour of Asylum Shame, Leeds
8.6 Designing your own life: before and after
9.1 Resistance is fertile
9.2 The Cre8 Summit Community Garden, Glasgow
10.1 Design for a community garden
10.2 Crop rotation
10.3 Circular wire mesh compost bin
10.4 Wooden pallet compost bin
10.5 Earthworm
10.6 Stinging nettle ( Urtica dioica )
10.7 Fat hen ( Chenopodium alba )
10.8 Aphid
10.9 Ladybird
10.10 Slug
10.11 Beetle
11.1 Rebel clown at the G8 summit, Scotland 2005
11.2 Subvertising, Manchester, UK
11.3 The pink and silver block
12.1 Praise be, to therapy
12.2 Proposed Nike monument in Karlsplatz, Vienna
12.3 The Yes Men live on TV
13.1 The Square Social Centre, London, UK
13.2 Autonomous spaces in the UK and Ireland
14.1 Fitting a Yale lock
14.2 Fliers from UK social centres
14.3 Activities in UK social centres
15.1 Irish Indymedia website
15.2 Reclaim the media logo
16.1 Bristle : Bristol s local monthly magazine
16.2 The Hate Mail spoof newspaper
17.1 Action against Shell
17.2 Workers assembly at the Zanon occupied factory, Argentina
17.3 Demonstration in Billin, Palestine against the building of the apartheid wall
18.1 Karabiner hand lock on
18.2 Tripod

The Trapese Collective is Alice Cutler, Kim Bryan and Paul Chatterton.
After studying Social Anthropology, living in the Can Masdeu community in Barcelona, and campaigning with London Rising Tide, Alice has recently settled back in Brighton where she is putting her ideas into practice - running workshops, teaching English to asylum seekers, community gardening, writing and cooking at the Cowley Club social centre.
Kim travels between Escanda (Spain), Dublin and Trapese (UK) trying to avoid getting tied up, but simultaneously wanting to settle down - juggling love, life, jobs, politics, worrying about ensuing climate chaos and growing vegetables.
Paul can normally be found teaching and researching on autonomy and international politics at Leeds University. His other lives include helping to set up a social centre, the Common Place, and a housing co-operative in Leeds, volunteering with Kiptik, a Zapatista solidarity group and spending time on his allotment. Previously, he has written Urban Nightscapes: Pleasure Spaces and Corporate Power (2003) and Taking Back Control: A journey through Argentina s popular uprising (2004).
acknowledgements
In this book, we have tried to gather into one place many of the inspiring examples and ideas that we have come across in an attempt to make them more accessible and possible to realise. We see this as one part of our ongoing work to communicate these analyses and initiatives with as many people as we can. This book would not, of course, exist without the thousands of people who work away on these projects, campaigns and networks. It would not exist either without all the people who have helped us organise and who have come to our workshops over the years, asked questions, engaged with these debates and given us the motivation to write it.
Our inspirations come from the many movements and people within them who are acting to make the world a more sustainable, fairer place. We would particularly like to thank everyone involved with: the Common Place, the Cowley Club, the Sumac Centre, Escanda, Can Masdeu, Seoma Sprai, and all the other radical social centres, Rising Tide, Schnews, Indymedia, Kiptik and the Zapatistas, No Borders Network, Clearer Channel, the Wombles, Seeds for Change, the Dissent! Network, Shell to Sea and Rossport Solidarity Camp, the Piqueteros, the Camp for Climate Action, CIRCA, Smash EDO, Corporate Watch, Caf Rebelde, the Permaculture Association, PGA, (People s Global Action), Activist Trauma Network, Via Campesina, Scottish Education for Action and Development, Cre8 Summit, Bristle, the Aubonne Bridge Campaign, Carbon Trade Watch, International Solidarity Movement, Anarchists Against the Wall, Earth First!, Food Not Bombs, Moulsecoomb Forest Garden, Xanadu and Cornerstone housing co-operatives in Leeds, EYFA, Mama Cash, Carbusters, Radical Routes, the Advisory Service for Squatters, Bicycology, and the many struggles against privatisation in the UK and beyond.
There are also many specific people whose contributions and advice have made it possible to produce this book, and thanks to you all. Especially, we are very grateful to the chapter authors who had the time, patience and confidence in us to contribute their work to this publication; Andy Goldring, Bryce Gilroy-Scott, Seeds for Change, Tash Gordon and Becs Griffiths, Jennifer Verson, the Vacuum Cleaner, Stuart Hodkinson, Chekov Feeney, and Mick Fuzz. Also to the many people and groups who have added their experiences and stories that make this book what it is, including; Starhawk, George Marshall, Earth Haven, Malamo Korbetis, Jo and Tony Bryan, Warren Carter, Donna Armstrong, Ruth O Brien, Graham Burnett, Insight Video, the Porkbolter, Mark B, Ziggy, Dave Morris, Fuzz, Freya, Anarchist 606, Isy, Claire Fauset, John Jordan, the Alberta Council for Global Co-operation and Nicola Montanga.
A very big thanks to everyone that has helped make the book look as good as it does, namely; UHC Design Collective for the cover of the paperback edition, Andrew X for suggestions for the page design and all his other help, Ade Lovejoy and Alex Mac for the chapter icons, Simon Liquoricefish, Guy Pickford and Alison at Leeds University for the illustrations, Guy Smallman and Active Stills for photographs. Also thanks to Seth Wells, (Vector Pixel) for the website and Brian for the leaflet.
Thanks also to Melanie Patrick and Robert Webb of Pluto Press for bringing it all together and David Castle for his supportive role as commissioning editor at Pluto Press, especially for his backing of Creative Commons publishing. Also thanks to the School of Geography at Leeds University for their support.
Last but certainly not least, a huge thanks to all our families, partners, compa eros and friends who have been such a great help and support to us. To anyone we have forgotten to name, thanks.
Putting this book together has been a very educational and inspirational experience for us. We worked collectively throughout, meaning that at times things took a lot longer than if someone had just taken charge, but we were anxious that the book was a reflection of our politics and desires for change. We made some mistakes, fairly inevitably, mainly because we had not done anything quite like this book before, but we hope that the end result conveys our excitement about the ideas and solutions that are presented. I