It’s not often that I come across a student protest action that’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard of before, but this is one of those days.
Last Wednesday student activists and others at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, a Canadian university some seventy miles northwest of Seattle, held a teach-out on “food democracy” and sustainability issues. There was music, a slate of speakers, pamphlets to read, and tea. At the end of the event the group planted a garden.
On the lawn.
In front of the library.
They ripped up the sod, built some raised beds, and planted a variety of vegetables and other native plants. They planted, they mulched, they designed rock borders. They put up fences to keep rabbits out.
On the lawn of the quad, in front of the library.
Oh, and they have a great name, too: Resistance Is Fertile.
As the group’s blog describes it, “The event showed that gardening and food security could be possible, inspiring, and fun at UVic. No leaders, political doctrines, or organizing structures: each person digging and gardening for their own reasons.”
Police showed up, of course, and made warnings but no arrests — participants formed a human chain to protect the gardeners. (There were, organizers say, five hundred people there, including a group of elementary school kids.)
It wasn’t until late that night, around midnight, that they returned … with bulldozers. One student was arrested for “assault by trespass” for standing in front of a ‘dozer, but before long the new gardens had been plowed into mud. When students marched on the administration building in protest the next morning, they found it locked. Later, they say, one male senior administrator violently shoved a female student who was trying to get inside.
The group has, in addition to their blog, posted a YouTube video and an online ‘zine.
They promise to return to the quad this Wednesday at noon to rebuild the garden.
Thanks to the New School Reoccupied blog for the heads-up on this action.
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March 29, 2010 at 10:49 pm
GK
This is what direct action is all about: a peaceful, beautiful protest that gives something back to the community. It’s not just for press coverage or to shame someone. If the garden had remained, it would have provided a real service to the university by providing food, a safe work space, and more. I commend the UVic students and I’m excited to see what happens when they rebuild on Wednesday!
March 30, 2010 at 9:20 pm
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March 31, 2010 at 5:35 am
CW
UVic. already has an on-campus community garden. Why do people seem to be ignoring that? There is perfectly good space in there being wasted because this group decided to go and build a garden in a place where they had to have guessed it would be removed. Way to piss away our tuition money.
April 1, 2010 at 12:55 am
Luke McKnight
Exactly. Today, after observing bucket drumming and loudspeaker rhetoric, I walked over to the existing community garden. About 1/3 of the area is entirely unused with another 1/3 looking as though it had been deserted for years. It was hilarious to see this large designated space wasted after the scene at the library.
I don’t disagree with their argument, but I don’t understand their complaint or need for protest.
April 2, 2010 at 4:12 pm
michaeljoseph1
THE GARDEN IS BACK! we built it again… bigger and better, and have been showin up in numbers+shifts to protect that shit
the administration made some pretty hefty threats, but the gardeners are prevailing, and demands are being brought into admin meetings for immediate action.
April 2, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Crystal
So you’re squatting there illegally until the admin’s will meet your demands? How is this a good thing? You claim that the admin are being fascist and yet you’re imposing your will on not only them but all the other students on campus as well. Is that not hypocritical? And you know what, UVic owns the land so they’re allowed to say no to your proposals. Their job is to educate the students who pay to go there and fund research, not convert their property into a farm. Go protest somewhere that can do more for your cause because your actions here are smothering the good aspects of your movement with negative feelings from people (like myself) who don’t like it when a small group of individuals feels like they can do whatever they want on space they don’t own.
April 3, 2010 at 6:21 am
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April 4, 2010 at 4:46 am
Felix
Re: a community garden already exists at UVic:
This is true, however the existing garden is not communal. There are a few communal plots on it, but most plots are leased individually to students on a yearly (I think?) basis. If a student leases a plot and doesn’t do anything with it (as seems to be the case for a few of the plots), it doesn’t change the size of the waitlist any.
Presently there is a long waiting list for those plots, so though the garden exists, it doesn’t mean there’s access to garden space for all who want it.
That should’ve been more clearly explained at the protest, but I think the protest organizers wanted to avoid mentioning the official community gardens because the protest was not affiliated with them.
April 5, 2010 at 11:39 pm
michaeljoseph1
I really don’t understand why people like Crystal have a problem with this action. How is building something productive and holding multiple educational events/workshops/potlucks there “imposing our will” on anyone? That seems preposterous to me, that I am somehow taking away someone else’s freedom of will by building something that my community wants.
It seems like most people who protest this action just really like the status quo more than anything, and they are willing to destroy the plants in order to show their defense of said status quo.
One of UVics agreements in their Sustainability Action Plan is to “convert existing lawns into edible landscapes.” The university teaches about sustainable food systems, and says that it wants to create them, and takes no action in that direction. SO people act and make something very beautiful, and raise awareness about the issues surrounding growing food on campus, and the common argument against it is: “illegitimate, private, power,” What is your actual investment in that? are you intimidated? I assure you we don’t bite. Are you jealous? Some individuals have come forward and admitted that.
Its a strange old paradigm: I can’t get what I want, so no one else should get what they want. Bizarre.