Serving food in Nigeria
Courtesy of Food Not Bombs
Keith McHenry sez: "Food Not Bombs' central unifying principles are a commitment to nonviolence, free unrestricted access to vegetarian food, and an honest attempt to make decisions as a group without hierarchy."
Created in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1980, Food Not Bombs (FNB) is the brainchild of McHenry and seven other activists. "We came out of the Clamshell Alliance," says McHenry, " [which was] trying to shut down Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. It was a collection of mostly anarchists but also included Quakers and the Red Clams, who were socialists."
With roots in a variety of social causes, it's not surprising that McHenry describes the FNB project as essentially "the food wing of a movement that includes anti-authoritarian music, art, unlicensed radio, zines, squatting, needle exchange, bike and hemp liberation, info shops, computer networking, autonomous decentralized non-hierarchical organizing, consensus decision-making, and sharing a philosophy of tolerance, joy, and free expression."
By linking the national problem of homelessness with the larger issue of rampant militarism, McHenry's goal is to address "the inhumane agenda of the government at both the personal and international levels" as a path towards beginning a nationwide debate. This goal is being aimed for not only with commitment and passion, but also with creativity…often in the face of massive police repression.
I recently spoke with Keith McHenry and our conversation is below.
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