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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022_07_05 SSchumacher_Food Not BombsFrom:Stephen Schumacher Subject:Food Not Bombs experiences out on the streets feeding the homeless throughout the lockdowns: "We weren"tafraid" Date:Tuesday, July 5, 2022 1:19:37 PM ________________________________ ALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on linksif you are not expecting them.________________________________ https://zero-sum.org/i-am-done-with-the-left-right-divide/ Keith McHenry of Food Not Bombs is interviewed by Paul Cudenec | Jul 1, 2022 PC: Could you say a little bit about Food NotBombs, how that came about and what it aimed, and indeed aims, to do? KM: Food Not Bombs is a global all-volunteermovement that protests war and poverty by takingdirect action. Our people share the gift of foodwith anyone, without restrictions, whilereclaiming the public commons. We are independentof state and corporate power. Our activistsrecover food that can't be sold from groceries,bakeries, farms and distributors, prepare veganor vegetarian meals that are shared on thestreets behind the banner of Food Not Bombs. Our main goal besides meeting the needs of thepoor is to influence the public to take action toforce the state to redirect our resources fromthe military to provide access to healthy food,safe housing, education and healthcare. We are aclassroom that practices the philosophy ofanarchism without the dogma of the fashion anarchist. The first collective came together at ananti-nuclear action in New Hampshire, "The May24, 1980 Occupation Attempt of Seabrook NuclearPower Station." A friend, Brian Feigenbaum, wasarrested at the protest and we were able tosecure his bail from someone with means. On theway home we agreed to hold bake sales to pay thecontributor back. That turned out to be a slowway to raise money. We also had a moving companycalled Smooth Move and one family we were helpingwas tossing out a copy of the poster "It will bea great day when our schools have all the moneythey need, and our air force has to have abake-sale to buy a bomber". This gave us the ideato buy surplus military uniforms, set up ourposter at our bake sale and tell those walking bythat we needed help buying a bomber. This got theattention of pedestrians who otherwise would haverushed past, giving us the opportunity to speak to them about the threat of nuclear war, poverty and hunger. In 1979 and 80 I was a produce worker at a natural food grocery called Bread and Circus inCambridge, Massachusetts. I took the produce thatwas wilted or bruised and could not be sold toseveral families living in public housing onPortland Avenue. One day one of the motherspointed out the construction of the new glassbuilding across the street from their crumblinghousing, noting that it was about to be completedand that scientists who would be designingnuclear missiles would be moving in. This gave methe idea for the name Food Not Bombs. The street theater of our bake sale was soeffective at engaging people who walked past inconversation that we adopted the street theaterideas of the Living Theater. We also started acampaign against the banks who financed and wouldprofit from the construction of the SeabrookNuclear Station. The First National Bank ofBoston was our main target and when we learnedthat their stockholders meeting would be held onMarch 26, 1981, at the Federal Reserve Bank wedecided to protest by setting up a soup line onthe Atlantic Avenue sidewalk outside the toweringfacility. We asked our friends to join us at a"soup line" dressed as Depression Era hobos withthe intention of giving a visual example of thefuture we would face if we failed to stop thepolicies of Ronald Reagan, the nuclear industryand banks. The night before the action werealized we had not recruited enough people tolook like a soup line so I went to the lastsurviving homeless shelter from the days of theGreat Depression. I spoke with those sittingaround the bleak tile room of the Pine Street Innabout the protest. Some recalled theirparticipation in the protests against the VietnamWar and expressed excitement at attending. Thenext day nearly everyone I had spoke with joinedus. Pedestrians rushing past said they weresurprised to see a soup line just a month afterReagan had become president. The guys from theshelter told us there was no food for thehomeless in Boston and suggested we set up everyday. That evening we agreed to do just that. I started a second group in San Francisco in1988. The police made 94 arrests of ourvolunteers for sharing food without a permit thatsummer. I would learn some 35 years later thatthe FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force had sent amemo to the San Francisco Field Office about theAugust 22 arrests, claiming Food Not Bombs was "acredible national security threat". The arrests sparked interest in other cities so I took my notes on how I started the San Francisco group and made a flyer, "Seven Steps to Starting aLocal Food Not Bombs Group" and mailed it tothose who wanted to start a chapter insolidarity. During the next few years the citywould make a total of 1,000 arrests and with eachwave of repression more people would respond bystarting their own local group. I also made apoint of letting people know they could use thecarrot and fist logo and any other Food Not Bombsimages or texts without restriction. I was arrested 94 times between 1988 and 1994 andwas framed on three violent or serious feloniesand faced 25 years to life in prison, spending atotal of 500 days in jail. Volunteers were beatenby the police and our food was seized and tossedout. We organized a system to reduce the loss ofmeals using decoy buckets with tiny amounts of food. These arrests in San Francisco, followed byarrests in Florida, inspired the formation ofmore chapters. Today there are at least 1,000groups in over 65 countries. We provided the foodaid to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina andhundreds of our volunteers helped with HurricaneSandy. Our volunteers also provided food andmaterial relief after super Typhoon Yolandasmashed the Visayas region of Philippines. Food Not Bombs has also provided food andlogistical support for direct actions to defendthe environment, indigenous sovereignty, strikes,anti-war actions, Occupy and many otheranti-globalization protests including the WTOblockades in Seattle in 1999 and Cancun. Maybe the most impressive action we inspired wasthe uprising against the corrupt government ofIceland that resulted in the collapse of thepolitical leadership and the jailing of severalbankers. It is clear to me that Food Not Bombsmust step up our organizing efforts as theplanned economic calamity of 2022 will make the2007 financial crisis seem minor by comparison. Our four decades of organizing againstinternational economic policies takes us to thepoint where we are today, where we need to takeaction against the "Build Back Better"stakeholder capitalism policies of the WorldEconomic Forum, the World Health Organization andother global corporate institutions. There is acontinuity in our founding resistance tocorporate plunder and its ravages of poverty andwar outside the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston and our resistance to the trans-humanist totalitarian technocratic globalist policies threatening our humanity and Earth today. PC: What projects were you involved in at thestart of 2020 and what was your initial reaction to the Covid moment? KM: I had just returned from three weeks inGuatemala where I had been writing a book aboutmy life when news came that a deadly pandemic wasabout to sweep the country. I had intended tocontinue writing and help with the preparationand sharing of our weekend meals but that changedfour days after my arrival in Santa Cruz, California. When we learned that the indoor meal programs forthe homeless and poor had been ordered to closeon March 14, my local Food Not Bombs group agreedto fill that void. If we didn't start sharingfood and water with the unhoused community,hundreds of our friends would go hungry andsuffer from a lack of drinking water. That morning we met to formulate a plan on how toshare meals safely under the reported conditions.We moved our weekend meal to the Clock Tower, apublic plaza across the street from where weshared our normal weekend meal because about 20people were camping up against the fence thatprotects the Post Office from the homeless. Wedidn't think it was wise to have a line of over100 people standing so close to people and their tents. Like many other people in our group, I had theimpression the crisis would last a month or soand the other food programs would reopen. Thatwas at a time when the authorities were claimingwe needed "two weeks of quarantine to flatten thecurve". So we set up a daily meal, our DIY handwashing station and a distribution of survivalgear in solidarity with our local homelessorganization, calling our project the Santa CruzHomeless Union COVID-19 Relief Center and Food Not Bombs meal. I remember being impressed to hear that many ofmy unhoused friends found that the lockdown wasliberating. Everyone, housed and unhoused, wasunited in this chaos. Many people who lived inthe streets told me on day one that they thoughtthe whole fear story was a scam and nearly everyunhoused person who I spoke with claimed thattheir rough life would make them immune from anyplague. None of my homeless friends worried aboutgetting COVID. The only concern they had wasbeing able to get drinking water and something to eat. It seems crazy now but in the first weeks of the pandemic we had an aggressive policy of wiping down our tables and our delivery van with bleached water. We wrapped caution tape loopedthrough large yellow Trader Joes grocery lugsthat we placed around our serving tables to adddistance between the servers and the peoplecoming to eat. A week later we spray paintedwhite dashes in six-foot intervals for socialdistancing along the sidewalk leading to theserving area. The police claimed the virus couldbe passed from person to person if we continuedthe practice of letting people rummage throughour clothes donations and, to avoid being shutdown, we had volunteers hold each item up so ourfriends could decide if it was something they would need. That same week the City erected homeless triagecenters in downtown parking lots that werenothing more than chain-linked cages with acouple of portable toilets. The mayor of the citystopped at our meal and asked us to move to alocation where we could help them lure theunhoused into their cages. I refused. I wouldn'tlet them use the trust we have with the unhousedto intern those who live outside. They abandonedtheir program a couple days later after theyrealized the unhoused were not interested incooperating. The governor of the state announcedthat the government would provide millions to buyor rent hotels for the homeless to quarantine butour city and county refused to take them up onthe offer, even though we are a tourist town andthe hotels were nearly empty. Our city leadershave been vocal about the unhoused being lessthan human and not worthy of help, which was atthe core of their refusal to move everyone inside. I remember thinking this could be the beginningof an economic collapse and that we needed toprepare. It looks like I wasn't far off the mark.Our Food Not Bombs chapter ordered a truck loadof dried goods from Second Harvest Food Bank.Twenty or more pallets of rice, beans and cangoods were unloaded outside the kitchen we wererenting at the time. But the county governmenttook over the facility to shelter a couple dozenunhoused people in pup tents lined across theauditorium above the kitchen. We had to find anew place to cool and moved our pallets of foodto a closed restaurant and a 20-foot refrigeratedshipping container we had secured a year beforewith a grant from the food bank. My girlfriend Kathleen was a social worker at twolocal hospitals. Patients said to have COVID werewheeled down the hallways under plastic tents ontheir way to a COVID floor. The first days had a feel of a dystopian science fiction movie. Radio and TV programs blasted out doom. They screamed that we could all die if we didn't obey. Nonstopfear. Homeless triage cages, images ofbody-bagged people being wheeled to refrigeratedtrucks, health officials standing with Trumpannouncing emergency measures. We all witnessedthe media madness. This was my first tip thatthere was another agenda other than public health. It is no wonder those locked into their homeslost the plot. If you didn't venture outside youwould think, from the constant terror on themedia, that the streets were littered with the dead. I had just sold my permaculture farm in NewMexico and was given a financial award by a groupto honor my dedication to promoting a veganlifestyle, so I had a bit of money for the firsttime in my life. In an attempt to build pressureto provide dignified accommodation to thoseforced to live in the streets, I paid for eightybeds and announced I would be providing hotelvouchers at 6:00 pm that evening. Over 100 peoplearrived and the crush of desperate people seekingfor a chance of a night in a bed and a hot showerwas heartbreaking. The chief of police declaredit a violation of COVID gathering restrictions,telling the media that we were holding an illegalrally rather than providing a chance to sleep ina hotel for the evening. I was able to pay fortwo more nights for 180 people and the localshelter asked me to put up half their people onthe fourth night. I was investigated by thepolice for handing out counterfeit hotel vouchersbut they never took me to court. The county government was offered millions toprovide hotel rooms but at the height they placedless then 150 of the over 2,000 people who livedoutside in their empty motels. This was a signthat they did not value the unhoused as fullyhuman. In the early months of the crisis therewere more than 2,000 unused hotel beds in SantaCruz since tourism was over for the near term. During the first months of the lockdowns, thestreets of Santa Cruz were empty of vehicles. IfI happened to pass another motorist I would waveand they would nearly always respond with a nodor gesture of their own. The public restroomswere closed and drinking water was scarce. Theonly people walking the streets were those who lived outside. The largest challenge was calming the violenceand acting-out of those who were alreadysuffering from mental health issues. The tension was intense in those early days and those people who were already having emotional difficulties really freaked out, making the sharing of ourmeals otherworldly. Lots of yelling and fights.There were times when I had to step in and keeppeople from beating someone to death. But wedidn't stop and have been out on the streetssharing food and water with our community fornearly 900 days in a row now. Services that thegovernments are refusing to provide. Since we were the only group making sure thosewho lived outside had food, the public wasgenerous and we were able to buy two more 20-footshipping containers which we have stocked to theroof with dry goods. We also bought a waterfiltering system to clean the river water if theelectricity failed, which is a real possibilityhere in the world's fifth largest economy ofCalifornia. We also prepared to cook outside inthe event that gas is cut off, stockpiling propane tanks and stoves. There was a massive forest fire that forcedhundreds of people from their homes. A thick redsmoke blotted out the sun for days. Fire evacueescame to us not only for food but to replace theirlost clothing. We also have been giving out cheappup tents to those who have just moved to thestreets or had their vehicle or tent confiscated by the city. We defied the fear with our introduction of afree solar-powered concert at our meals duringeach holiday. People danced to the live music andenjoyed each others' company. While most peoplewere isolated in their homes receiving food fromdelivery services while glued to their computerscreens, our poor and homeless friends were free.In the first two years only two of my unhousedfriends reported contacting COVID. Crystal workednights at a shelter and she felt ill for twodays. Dream Catcher slept at the shelter and wassick for a week. Everyone else I met who saidthat they had caught the dreaded disease livedinside and did as they were instructed. They hadcowered before their TVs and computers andresisted the temptation to interact with other humans. We frustrated the authorities with our gatheringsbut there was little they could do. The jailswere full and when they did arrest our friendsthe police released them as soon as they arrivedoutside the jail gate. The courts were closed fornearly a year so we ignored our charges and wenton with our lives. I remember one of our homelessvolunteers was ticketed for violating thequarantine. His citation was for $1,000 and hisaddress was marked as "transient." He ignored it, other than to show it around to highlight the insanity of our times. We were free. We weren't afraid. The Homeless Persons Healthcare Project has beenaggressively injecting people, offering theunhoused $50 gift cards. It has only been in thepast few weeks now that my homeless friends havestarted to report that they are very ill withCOVID. All of those I meet who now have COVIDhave been injected. None of my unvaccinatedfriends have been ill with COVID in over a year now. PC: So all this changed your overallunderstanding of the situation? How would you nowdescribe what has been happening over the last couple of years? KM: In the first weeks of the pandemic I fearedfor the worst. I recall posting negative commentsabout those who questioned the official narrativeat first but the fear narrative around COVID wasbeing pushed nonstop in the media, suggestingthere was more to this than public health. I wasalso witnessing that no one I knew who, accordingto the screaming media should be dying, was ill.Each day I saw that the only impact was closedstores, empty streets and shuttered food programsincreased my belief that the pandemic was not as severe as advertised. When Trump announced the Operation Warp Speed,that got my attention. A military programcoordinated with some of the largestpharmaceutical companies in the world suggestedthere was more to this drama than concern forpublic health. The endless announcements thateach program was sponsored by the Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation didn't add to myconfidence that this hysteria was based inreality. I had spent the past two decadesorganizing against the Gates of the world and thepatenting of his GMO seeds with groups like the Organic Consumer Association. Since I have been the direct target of covertdisruption by state intelligence agencies for thepast four decades I am naturally suspicious ofofficial narratives. The media lied us into warafter war so this had the same feeling as the WMDof Iraq, the babies taken from Kuwaitiincubators, the Gulf of Tonkin incident and otherdisinformation campaigns of the past. It wasn't long after that that one of my closestfriends, Dr. Shannon Murray, came to Santa Cruzto visit Kathleen and me. She was on her way tostart a new life since her employment as ascientist had vanished. She is a virologist andan expert on gain-of-function research. I knew her when she was helping develop the Moderna vaccine at the National Institute ofHealth in Bethesda, Maryland. She feared therecould be major health problems from the vaccinessince the first human trials had not yet takenplace and more study was needed before they couldbe considered safe. She shared that the animaltrials had not been promising, killing nearly 80%of the vaccinated animals who were exposed toSARS-CoV-1. She also expressed concern thatresearch in these vaccines had abruptly become asecret military program, sharing that her accessto data had suddenly gone dark in January. Atthat time she was still using an alias, as didher coworkers, so they could share their concernswithout fear of being banned from their life'swork or murdered like former Merck Pharmaceuticalsales executive Brandy Vaughan, who was killedjust as the pandemic was being announced. Likesome of those she worked with at the NIH, Shannonrefused to get the COVID jab and encouraged us to refuse as well. As I said, my girlfriend Kathleen worked at alocal hospital with a COVID wing. As the dayspassed she failed to see the deaths suggested bythe news. Sure, many elderly people filled thesection but few succumbed to the virus. Once thevaccine program began she would return home toshare one story after another of the stroke andheart attack patients who had just received theirfirst jab. Those injected were fast becoming thepeople who filled the ICU unit. They were the ones leaving in the body bags. Sharing food every day outside also made it clearthat the official story was false. Every day ahundred or more people would gather together toeat. No one said they had contracted COVID orshared that they had the symptoms. The deaths ofour friends came at the end of a needle offentanyl-laced heroin and meth or from thebrutality of a life lived unprotected from the elements. When I saw people the media called anti-vaxxersarmed with AR-15s waving confederate and Trumpflags at protests against the lockdowns I washorrified. There is no way I would ever joinpeople like the Proud Boys and Trump supportersin demonstrations against COVID policies. Thequestioning of Dr Fauci was framed as a positiontaken only by racist gun-toting Trump supporters,effectively driving my friends in the left intothe arms of the military and big Pharma. Itseemed every leftist friend had retreated to their apartments in fear of dying. I had the impression I was one of only a coupleof progressive activists that thought something wasn't right. I would slowly learn that several other left friends also shared my perspective. I connected Shannon with an old journalist friend,Sam Hussini, who had been writing ongain-of-function research and bio-warfareprograms at places like the Fort DetrickBiological Warfare Laboratories. I learned thatanother colleague of mine, the director of theOrganic Consumers Association, Ronnie Cummings,and my associate Vandana Shiva were alsoexpressing concerns that mirrored our worktogether against Monsanto. So even though Iremained publicly silent, worried my opinioncould cause harm to the Food Not Bombs movement,I started to feel less alone. This was the erawhere, in desperation, I started to post crypticmessages about understanding how people like theartists Käthe Kollwitz must have felt as everyoneshe knew seemed to have signed on to the NationalSocialist agenda during the march towards WorldWar Two. I did get some confused comments. When my dear friend in her 40s messaged me fromAustralia that she almost died from myocarditis Icould not be silent any more. That was the laststraw and I became a vocal opponent of the jabs. I first wrote a letter on this subject when Ireceived an invitation to attend a meetingforming a new progressive alliance. Toparticipate you had to provide proof of avaccination or a negative COVID test. I wrote toinvite the progressive community to stand insolidarity with the working class by refusing tomeet in facilities that demand proof ofparticipation in the vaccine experiments. Nearlyevery "essential worker" I depended on for autorepair, printing and other supplies shared myperspective on the COVID clampdown. The left Ihad known stood for workers' rights during thefirst four decades of my life, but that hadchanged. We had become tin foil hat deplorableseven though those smearing our position depended on us to provide their needs. Before the invitation to this meeting asking meto help start a new progressive group, I hadshrugged off the proof of vaccine requirements. Iignored the proof of vaccination requirement forattendance to the American Civil Liberties Unionawards ceremony since I couldn't go anywaybecause I had to cook that day. I later learnedthat the outdoor venue for the meeting did notrequire this proof, nor did the Simpkins FamilyCenter where the progressive alliance wasintending to meet. My allies were the onesimplementing this policy. Allies I know had beensitting at their computers during the entire pandemic and rarely went outside to see reality. One of the organizers kept trying to get me to be "an example for the community" by getting"vaccinated". I patiently explained the reasons Iwould never subject myself to the poison but he continued to pressure me. I also had friends that were eager for me toattend the opening of the documentary "Foodie forthe People" that had a section that featured meand the work of Food Not Bombs. The filmmaker wasexcited to tell me that he used a clip from hisinterview with me to promote the film. Theannouncement for the film required proof ofvaccination or a negative PCR test. But I alsolearned that Del Mar Theater, where the movie wasbeing shown, didn't require proof of vaccinationor a negative test yet those showing the movie had made it a requirement. The final insult was the day I went to myfavorite activist cafe and was told I could notenter unless I could show proof of vaccination.That was it. I had been outside nearly all day,every day of the pandemic. I never spent a secondinside being quarantined. I could see the realityof the pandemic with my own eyes. I couldn't remain silent any longer. I wrote an essay, "Looking at COVID as aProgressive" that I posted online and emailed itto the community. That broke things open. By theend of the week I started to get emails and callsof relief from friends who had been silent,believing they too were alone in feeling that thepandemic restrictions were part of a power grab. One of the most discouraging aspects of thepsychological operation was to see posts by FoodNot Bombs groups promoting the vaccines andmasks. One New York chapter shared anannouncement that people could come to our mealand get vaccinated under the headline SAFE -EFFECTIVE - FREE. Another chapter posted anannouncement to an outdoor protest in late June2022 with a large type demand to "Wear Masks". Tosee the movement I helped start actively supporta totalitarian corporate agenda has been heart-breaking. PC: Are there now many others in your circles who share your dissident take? KM: Thankfully several of my close housed as wellas unhoused friends are on the same page. As Ipointed out before, my many of my homelessfriends didn't fall for the fear campaign rightout of the gate. I was heartened when I watchedThe Convo Couch podcast early in the crisis andheard Pasta and Fiorella express the samebewilderment at our friends and allies pushingthe agenda of those we had spent years organizing against. Glory and Steve at the Slow News Day also expressed amazement at the way in which those who once stood with us in the issues ofworkers' rights, resistance to mega corporationsand the military had become vocal defenders ofthose threatening our freedoms. After I posted"Looking at COVID as a Progressive" my circle doubled. PC: Two things surprised me about the reaction ofthe rump of the left, including anarchists, toCovid. The first was the position they took,completely accepting the official line andsupporting masks, lockdowns, social distancingand injections. The second was the way that thiswas not just an opinion, but an article of faithwhich had overnight somehow become ideologicallyessential. If you questioned government, opposedBig Pharma, exposed the links between the two orstood up for individual freedom, you weresuddenly considered "right-wing"! The vitriol andvehemence with which I was attacked reallyshocked me. Did you experience anything like that? KM: I have often been called a Trumper or rightwing by my anarchist and other left friendsduring this insanity. People are not so bold anymore but for the first two years people said theywere shocked that I had become a far rightRepublican Trump follower since I had been knownas an anti-war leftist. I think the fact that Ihave been out on the streets for nearly 900 days,sharing food when the state provided nearly nosupport at all for the unhoused, has made itdifficult for local people to express thisopinion openly to me. I am also seeing less ofthese direct attacks on social media now. I findit interesting that my allies in theanti-globalization and peace movements do not seea connection between our protests against theWeapons of Mass Destruction lies before the Iraqwar, GMOs, a woman's right to choose abortion andbig Pharma but now are public about supportingforced vaccination, censorship, and the war in Ukraine. PC: I have spent a lot of time trying to work outexactly why the left/anarchist scene collapsed sodramatically as a force for resistance in theSpring of 2020. Do you have any thoughts on this? KM: Based on my having survived four decades ofstate and corporate intelligence agencydisruption, I believe I have an educated guess.It looked like there was an effective strategylinking covertly controlled far right groupswaving Trump and Confederate flags and AR-15swith opposition to the COVID policies. I know Ididn't witness any other left anarchists denouncing the policies in the first months so like many others who may have shared my perspective I thought I was alone. The headlinesof most corporate media blasted stories like"Coronavirus: Armed protesters enter Michiganstatehouse" with the media showing footage ofprotesters outside state houses chanting "Let usin!", "Let us work" and "This is the people'shouse, you cannot lock us out". Before COVID,unarmed leftists would have been the oneschanting these slogans but the images ofTrump-supporting, gun-toting anti-lockdownprotesters helped shape the narrative. In theearly days of the crisis, the Los Angeles Timeshad a story showing a Proud Boy Nazi withswastika tattoos stabbing a pedestrian during a lockdown protest. But this is only one of the many aspects of thepsychological operations that was effective. Theuse of media to repeatedly claim isolation,masking, social distancing and shots were allabout protecting the community and for thegreater good of all, fed into some of the corebeliefs of the left. No self-respecting leftistswants to be accused of being selfish. The left also did not want to be anti-science andsince all alternative ideas were censored orattributed to tin foil hat Qanon Trumpers itbecame a badge of honor to smugly sneer at thoseignorant hillbilly deplorables. I also think that those in power were clever andtheir foundations started to fund a loyalopposition with haste when the Democratic Partychose Biden as the leader of the regime. One ofthe first reports on the popular left programDemocracy Now! featured Peter Daszak of theEcoHealth Alliance claiming a bat virus in aWuhan wet market was the likely source of thePandemic. My friend, investigative journalist SamHusseini, was never asked to refute Daszak'sclaim even though Sam had several articlespublished in April 2020, on the history ofgain-of-function releases at American-fundedbio-weapons laboratories, a dramatic subject thatwould have interested Amy Goodman before thecrisis. The host Amy Goodman breathlesslyreported on the refrigerator trucks outside NewYork City hospitals. She was all in on theofficial COVID narrative and that has had a majorinfluence on the American left. Foundations have helped to coopt as many leftorganizations as possible. Most of our alliesaccepted their support, surrounding the left withcommunity groups who danced to the tune of Gates, Soros and other philanthropists. The funding of the non-profit industrial complex is often a means of controlling dissent in the UnitedStates. The messaging was unified and total. Itwas intimidating. My early posts of "I alwayssupport secret military programs and Big Pharma",in my ironic response to social media demands tocomply with the totalitarian program, were eithermocked or commented on with confusion. Remindingactivists of our struggle against the World TradeOrganization and its direct line to theproponents of a digital slavery of vaccinepassports, and other programs of globalistassociations like the World Economic Forum andThe World Trade Organization, seems to haveevaporated with the fear of COVID and thepotential of being mocked for not going along with the crowd. PC: How do you see the relationship now betweenthe likes of you and me and those we previouslycalled our comrades? Have the division linessoftened at all over recent months, as you maybehinted, or are we looking at a decisive rupture, do you think? KM: It could take many years for a large portionof our allies to join the struggle even as theyare forced to participate in an ever-increasingdigital slavery. The impact of Mass Formation hasbeen effective. But there is some hope. I oftenattend a Freedom gathering on Sunday afternoonsand of the 30 or 40 people who participate atleast half are left activists and the other halfare Republicans. I am witnessing a shift wherepeople on the left are now silent about anythingto do with COVID and are starting to focus on theeconomic collapse and the dire conditions weface. Many are even starting to become quietabout their worship of Zelensky now that aUkrainian victory is less certain. They are notready yet though to connect the COVID program andwar to the march towards the Great Reset. Asevents spin out or control, it is possible therewill be some unity around some aspects of theGreat Reset if it is presented as an attack byglobal capital, but the mask/vaccine area of thisprogram may be impossible for our friends to seeand they may continue to support things likecensorship, digital passports and mandates. Itseems that even as my fully vaccinated friendskeep getting COVID or die of strokes and heartattacks, they are so wedded to the narrative thatthey are not able break out of the trance. PC: How should we go forward from here? How canwe best build new alliances of resistance withoutcompromising our core values which, for me atleast, remain exactly the same as they were before Covid? KM: This is a tough question in light of the global chaos and successful divide and conquerstrategy of capitalism. One path is to buildlocal systems of mutual aid so we can survive.The war on thought is unrelenting. Building localcommunities that support one another emotionallyand with the necessities of life may be our onlyalternative. Food Not Bombs history may providesome guidance. We have intentionally formed anon-hierarchical decentralized system oforganizations that seeks to address the needs ofthe community. Housing with Homes Not Jails,transportation with Bikes Not Bombs, Food NotLawns, Free Radio, Composting, and of course thefood of Food Not Bombs. The other key idea onecould take from 42 years of Food Not Bombs is ajoyous welcoming atmosphere that encouragesdialog by providing literature, music and theaterwith the necessities of survival gear and a hotmeal. Evading the violence of the state may bedifficult and strategies of self defense need to evolve. On the points connected to the fear of COVID,many of our former allies may be lost to us fordecades to come but on the issue of digitalslavery, police repression and the economiccollapse we may have some unity. As difficult asit can be, I make a point of being understandingof those who worship the COVID narrative, alwaysmake sure they know I am unvaccinated and move myconversations towards our shared history ofresisting the corporate exploitation and theeconomic slavery of the global institutions. The latest preplanned trauma in the United Statesis centered around the divisive issues of gunsand abortion. There is, however, an intersectionaround privacy and personal autonomy with thosewho are pro-choice on the issue of abortion andthose who want the freedom to refuse the jabs.There should be unity with the principle thatcensorship is never justified, but so faranarchist are still on the "silencinguncomfortable ideas" train. And there must beuniversal agreement between the left and rightfor the need to end war in Ukraine and an urgentdemand to ban all nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. As free thinkers we can encourage a greattransformation of the human spirit where we findsolutions outside the left-right paradigm. Thatdiscussion and search must continue in earnest. Iam done with the left-right divide. It's now thehumans versus the deadly robotic corporate state.My message in my 1992 book "Food Not Bombs, Howto feed the hungry and build community" was to organize against the death culture of state and corporate power. That remains my perspective today, only now this fight must find a solutionand fast. We need to form a strategy that isdifficult for the intelligence agencies todisrupt, builds solidarity and threatens thepower elite while nurturing a thriving community.The anarchist theories of decentralized localautonomous social structures I believe are key tosurvival. Total noncooperation with the systemwhile operating survival projects independentfrom state and corporate institutions is the path I am taking.