===Occupy movement===
===Occupy movement===
{{see also|Occupy movement}}
{{see also|Occupy movement}}
Beginning on September 17, 2011, protesters occupied [[Zuccotti Park]] in [[Lower Manhattan, New York City]].{{sfn|Hammond|2015|p=288}} Calling themselves [[Occupy Wall Street]], these protesters remained in the park for two months, igniting similar actions in countries around the world.{{sfnm|1a1=Sheedy|1y=2014|1p=18|2a1=Hammond|2y=2015|2p=288}} FNB New York City, which usually cooked meals from [[ABC No Rio]], a local [[squat]], formed the basis for Occupy Wall Street’s Food Working Group, forming the “People’s Kitchen”, which served three meals a day to the protesters. Meals typically included bagels, coffee, and fruit for breakfast; salads and sandwiches for lunch; and pasta or rice and beans for dinner.{{sfn|Holmes|2023|p=67}} FNB was also the primary organizer of financial and in-kind donations to the occupation.{{sfn|Holmes|2023|p=164}} Occupy Wall Street ended on November 15, when police forcibly evicted the occupiers.{{sfn|Hammond|2015|p=305}}
===Black Lives Matter movement===
===Black Lives Matter movement===
* {{cite journal |last=Gregory |first=James N. |title=Remapping the American Left |journal=Labor |volume=17 |issue=2 |date=2020 |issn=1547-6715 |doi=10.1215/15476715-8114733 |pages=11–45 |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/labor/article/17/2/11/164301/Remapping-the-American-LeftA-History-of-Radical |access-date=November 24, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Gregory |first=James N. |title=Remapping the American Left |journal=Labor |volume=17 |issue=2 |date=2020 |issn=1547-6715 |doi=10.1215/15476715-8114733 |pages=11–45 |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/labor/article/17/2/11/164301/Remapping-the-American-LeftA-History-of-Radical |access-date=November 24, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Gunningham |first=Neil |title=Building Norms from the Grassroots Up: Divestment, Expressive Politics, and Climate Change |journal=Law & Policy |volume=39 |issue=4 |date=2017 |issn=0265-8240 |doi=10.1111/lapo.12083 |pages=372–392 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lapo.12083 |access-date=December 8, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Gunningham |first=Neil |title=Building Norms from the Grassroots Up: Divestment, Expressive Politics, and Climate Change |journal=Law & Policy |volume=39 |issue=4 |date=2017 |issn=0265-8240 |doi=10.1111/lapo.12083 |pages=372–392 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lapo.12083 |access-date=December 8, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Hammond |first=John L. |title=The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street |journal=Science & Society |volume=79 |issue=2 |year=2015 |issn=00368237 |jstor=24583903 |pages=288–313 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24583903 |access-date=December 11, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Heynen |first=Nik |title=Cooking up Non-violent Civil-disobedient Direct Action for the Hungry: ‘Food Not Bombs’ and the Resurgence of Radical Democracy in the US |journal=Urban Studies |volume=47 |issue=6 |date=2010 |issn=0042-0980 |doi=10.1177/0042098009360223 |pages=1225–1240 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098009360223 |access-date=December 8, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Heynen |first=Nik |title=Cooking up Non-violent Civil-disobedient Direct Action for the Hungry: ‘Food Not Bombs’ and the Resurgence of Radical Democracy in the US |journal=Urban Studies |volume=47 |issue=6 |date=2010 |issn=0042-0980 |doi=10.1177/0042098009360223 |pages=1225–1240 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098009360223 |access-date=December 8, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Heynen |first=Nik |title=Bringing the Body Back to Life through Radical Geography of Hunger: The Haymarket Affair and its Aftermath |journal=ACME |date=2015 |doi=10.14288/ACME.V7I1.792 |pages=32–44 Pages |url=https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/792 |access-date=December 7, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Heynen |first=Nik |title=Bringing the Body Back to Life through Radical Geography of Hunger: The Haymarket Affair and its Aftermath |journal=ACME |date=2015 |doi=10.14288/ACME.V7I1.792 |pages=32–44 Pages |url=https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/792 |access-date=December 7, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Hisham |first1=Nadiyah Noor |last2=Amin |first2=Noor Dina Md |title=Designing for Homeless in Kuala Lumpur: Concepts and Case Studies |journal=International Journal of Integrated Engineering |volume=15 |issue=6 |date=2023 |doi=10.30880/ijie.2023.15.06.029 |url=https://publisher.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/ijie/article/view/14840/6368 |access-date=December 8, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Hisham |first1=Nadiyah Noor |last2=Amin |first2=Noor Dina Md |title=Designing for Homeless in Kuala Lumpur: Concepts and Case Studies |journal=International Journal of Integrated Engineering |volume=15 |issue=6 |date=2023 |doi=10.30880/ijie.2023.15.06.029 |url=https://publisher.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/ijie/article/view/14840/6368 |access-date=December 8, 2025}}
* {{cite book |last=Holmes |first=Marisa |title=Organizing Occupy Wall Street: This is Just Practice |publisher=Springer Nature |publication-place=Singapore |date=2023 |isbn=978-981-19-8947-6}}
* {{cite web |last=Huff |first=Ryan |title=Protest’s tragic turn remembered |website=East Bay Times |date=2007 |url=https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2007/09/01/protests-tragic-turn-remembered/ |access-date=November 30, 2025}}
* {{cite web |last=Huff |first=Ryan |title=Protest’s tragic turn remembered |website=East Bay Times |date=2007 |url=https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2007/09/01/protests-tragic-turn-remembered/ |access-date=November 30, 2025}}
* {{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Clarence |title=Tougher Moves Against the Homeless |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle-tougher-moves-ag/186018214/ |access-date=December 1, 2025 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=1995 |page=4 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}
* {{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Clarence |title=Tougher Moves Against the Homeless |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/san-francisco-chronicle-tougher-moves-ag/186018214/ |access-date=December 1, 2025 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=1995 |page=4 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Rogers |editor-first=Alisdair |editor-last2=Castree |editor-first2=Noel |editor-last3=Kitchin |editor-first3=Rob |date=2013 |title=Anti-globalization movement |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199599868.001.0001/acref-9780199599868-e-69 |encyclopedia=A Dictionary of Human Geography |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=December 9, 2025}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Rogers |editor-first=Alisdair |editor-last2=Castree |editor-first2=Noel |editor-last3=Kitchin |editor-first3=Rob |date=2013 |title=Anti-globalization movement |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199599868.001.0001/acref-9780199599868-e-69 |encyclopedia=A Dictionary of Human Geography |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=December 9, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Shannon |first=Deric |title=Food Justice, Direct Action, and the Human Rights Enterprise |journal=Critical Sociology |volume=42 |issue=6 |date=2016 |issn=0896-9205 |doi=10.1177/0896920515608924 |pages=799–814 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0896920515608924 |access-date=December 7, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Shannon |first=Deric |title=Food Justice, Direct Action, and the Human Rights Enterprise |journal=Critical Sociology |volume=42 |issue=6 |date=2016 |issn=0896-9205 |doi=10.1177/0896920515608924 |pages=799–814 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0896920515608924 |access-date=December 7, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last=Sheedy |first=Matt |title=The Occupy Movement, Religion and Social Formations |journal=Bulletin for the Study of Religion |volume=43 |issue=1 |date=2014 |issn=2041-1871 |doi=10.1558/bsor.v43i1.17 |pages=17–24 |url=https://journal.equinoxpub.com/BSOR/article/view/14788 |access-date=December 11, 2025}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Siegel |first1=Jonathan R. |title=A Law Professor’s Guide to Parliamentary Procedure |journal=Journal of Legal Education |date=2020 |volume=70 |pages=26-64 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/jled70&i=30 |access-date=December 7, 2025 |issn=0022-2208}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Siegel |first1=Jonathan R. |title=A Law Professor’s Guide to Parliamentary Procedure |journal=Journal of Legal Education |date=2020 |volume=70 |pages=26-64 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/jled70&i=30 |access-date=December 7, 2025 |issn=0022-2208}}
* {{cite book |last1=Solnit |first1=Rebecca |author-link=Rebecca Solnit |last2=Schwartzenberg |first2=Susan |title=Hollow City: The Siege of San Francisco and the Crisis of American Urbanism |publisher=Verso |publication-place=London; New York |date=2000 |isbn=1-85984-794-3}}
* {{cite book |last1=Solnit |first1=Rebecca |author-link=Rebecca Solnit |last2=Schwartzenberg |first2=Susan |title=Hollow City: The Siege of San Francisco and the Crisis of American Urbanism |publisher=Verso |publication-place=London; New York |date=2000 |isbn=1-85984-794-3}}
Food Not Bombs (FNB) is a loose-knit group of independent collectives that distributes free, usually vegan and vegetarian food. This food is typically sourced from donations or from salvaging and then served in public spaces or at activist gatherings. There are about 1 thousand FNB collectives in about 60 countries around the world. It is often considered an anarchist or anarchist-inspired group, as well as a form of franchise activism.
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During the early 1960s, the New Left emerged as a social force in United States. Associated with groups like the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the New Left advocated for participatory democracy and greater rights for minorities while opposing the Vietnam War. By the late 1970s, many New Left groups had fractured. However, a new style of radicalism also emerged during the 1970s. This style was defined by its decentralized structure, feminist-inspired politics, and use of anarchist methods like affinity groups and direct action.
Many activists from the 1970s anti-nuclear movement adopted this style. Among these activists, members of the Clamshell Alliance, originally founded in 1976 to protest the construction of the Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire, were some of the first to challenge the nuclear power industry using direct action tactics such as occupations and guerrilla gardening. Between 1976 and 1977, the alliance occupied the Seabrook plant three times. In 1979, after a debate about another potential occupation,[a] an alliance faction split off to form the Coalition for Direct Action at Seabrook, which organized two failed occupation attempts in 1979 and 1980.
During the 1980 occupation, coalition member Brian Fiegenbaulm was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer. To raise money to cover his legal expanses, a group of coalition members[b] in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts organized a bake sale. Dressed in military uniforms and holding a sign that said “I’m waiting for the day when schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale for a bomber”, they sold pastries on the streets of Boston.[c]
On March 26, 1981, after Fiegenbaulm was released, the group organized a soup kitchen across from the First National Bank of Boston, which was one of the sponsors for the Seabrook plant. Dressed as “hobos“, they hoped to evoke the soup kitchens of the Great Depression though what one of the the group’s members, Keith McHenry, later called “street theater”. Between 50 and 70 people ate at the kitchen,[d] and soon after, the group decided to dedicate themselves to feeding people full time.
Around this time, McHenry was working at the organic food cooperative Bread and Circus, often salvaging food from the cooperative to donate to a local housing project. The headquarters for Draper Laboratory, which designed guidance systems for intercontinental ballistic missiles, was located across the street from this housing project. According to McHenry, this was the inspiration for the name Food Not Bombs (FNB).
During its first two years, FNB primarily focused on bulk food distribution, food tables, and distributing literature. Its members squatted in a house on Harvard Street, collecting food salvage seeking donations from health food stores. They then redistributed this food to drug rehabilitation clinics, immigrant rights organizations, service groups for unhoused people, soup kitchens, and to Rosie’s Place, a local women’s shelter. They also provided free vegan meals in Harvard Square every Monday, participated in marches against nuclear weapons, and prepared for the upcoming March for Nuclear Disarmament in New York City. This march took place on June 12, 1982, and was the biggest protest in the history of the United States at the time.[e] That year, FNB also sponsored a “Free Concert for Nuclear Disarmament” in Boston and participated in a 10-day protest against Reaganomics at Boston Common, providing meals for the protesters.
In the late 1980s, FNB began focusing on United States interventions in Central America. In 1985, it helped organize an occupation of the John F. Kennedy Federal Building to protest President Ronald Reagan‘s Central America policy.[f] When PepsiCo set up a tent where people could participate in the Pepsi Challenge next to an FNB tent, FNB organized a “tofu smoothie challenge”, distributing tofu smoothies and brochures on the Coca-Cola Company‘s deployment of death squads against Guatemalan labor organizers while criticizing Pepsi‘s lack of nutrition. It also produced several films about United States intervention in the Salvadoran Civil War.
Spread to California
[edit]
In 1987 or 1988,[g] McHenry moved to San Francisco, where he founded a second FNB collective. According to McHenry, this second collective was inspired by peace activist Brian Willson, who had had his legs severed by a train during a rail blockade along the Sacramento River. As one of its first actions, the San Francisco collective worked with the anti-nuclear organization American Peace Test to distribute food to protesters at the Nevada Test Site. There, its members encountered a Long Beach group called “Bread Not Bombs”, inspired by FNB Cambridge. This group became the third FNB collective.
By the 1980s, San Francisco was experiencing a mass houselessness crisis due to stagnating wages, high housing prices and unemployment, mass evictions, a decline in apartment hotels and other public housing options, and Reagan-era welfare state rollbacks. Many of the newly unhoused needed food, and FNB activists noted that there were no organizations providing free meals in the Haight-Ashbury district. As a result, the San Francisco collective began regularly serving food at the intersection of Haight and Stanyan Streets, near Golden Gate Park.
Permitting controversy
[edit]
FNB San Francisco struggled to obtain a permit for its Haight-Ashbury kitchen to operate, and on August 15, 1988, a group of 45 riot police arrested nine FNB activists[h] for serving food without a permit. Photos of the arrests were published in the San Francisco Chronicle, and a week later, between 150 and 200 people[i] marched throughout the Haight-Ashbury district to protest the arrests. 29 of these protesters were arrested. While protests against the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) continued to escalate, the department defended the arrests, with an SFPD public relations officer arguing that FNB was making a “political statement”, not just giving away food. Ultimately, in September 1988, Art Agnos, the mayor of San Francisco, issued a 60-day permit permit to FNB to distribute food at the intersection of Stanyan and Page Streets. A second permit was issued on February 1, 1989.
On June 28, 1989, FNB San Francisco organized a 24-hour soup kitchen for a tent city protest at Civic Center Plaza, in front of San Francisco City Hall. The encampment, called Camp Agnos, protested the city’s failure to address houselessness and high housing prices. After FNB occupied Agnos’s office as part of the protest, the city filed an injunction against it for serving food in the plaza and revoked its permit to serve food near Golden Gate Park. It later regained this permit and also received a permit to serve food at the Civic Center Plaza, but these permits were also revoked on July 6, 1990, with the passage of a law making it more difficult to obtain food distribution permits in the city. On January 25, 199, 1991, McHenry was charged with contempt of court for breaking the city’s injunction and on February 14, asked to serve 40 days in jail. On March 22, the injunction was dropped.
On October 9, 1992, FNB held its first international gathering in San Francisco. About 75 people attended the gathering from about 30 active FNB collectives, including several from Canada. During this gathering, FNB activists outlines the group’s guiding principles. After this meeting, FNB activists served food to activists from the American Indian Movement who had come to protest the Columbus quincentennial celebrations being held in the city.
Soon after this first gathering, FNB collectives were founded in London, Melbourne, Montreal, Prague, and in cities across the United States. Over 600 people attended a second international gathering in the San Francisco in 1994, which consisted of ten days of workshops, protests, street theater, and tent cities.
Frank Jordan protests
[edit]
After becoming mayor of San Francisco in 1992, Frank Jordan stepped up anti-unhoused measures, with FNB activists recording police officers confiscating unhoused peoples’ shoes and sleeping bags and abducting their pets. By 1994, FNB activists in San Francisco were regularly being arrested and beaten by police, causing them to appeal to President Bill Clinton‘s Civil Rights Division for aid, which it did not send.
In 1995, about 600 people protested outside throughout San Francisco during a city festival celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. These protesters included FNB activists, AIDS activists, and activists calling for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Prior to the celebrations, police staged what journalist Clarence Johnson called an “aggressive campaign” against the city’s unhoused. Nearly 280 protesters were arrested on felony charges, with FNB member MacDonald Scott stating that he was attacked by riot police wielding batons.
In the aftermath of these arrests, human rights organization Amnesty International wrote to California Governor Pete Wilson threatening to designate the arrested protesters as prisoner of conscience. FNB continued to stage protests against Jordan’s anti-unhoused measures, and that year, Jordan lost his bid for re-election. Researcher Sean Parson argues that FNB contributed to his defeat. During a mayoral debate hosted by the San Francisco Chronicle, candidates were asked what they would do about FNB, with only Jordan saying that he would continue to arrest them.
Anti-globalization movement
[edit]
During the 1990s, the anti-globalization movement, which opposed unrestricted investment and trade, emerged. In 1997, FNB activists in Vancouver, Canada, distributed food during the “Unfree Trade Tour”, which culminated in a series of public presentations at the Carnegie Community Centre protesting globalization in Basque Country, San Francisco, Spain, and Vancouver. Later, during the 1999 Seattle WTO protests, also known as the “Battle of Seattle”, over 50,000 people protested against the World Trade Organization (WTO) during its 1999 Ministerial Conference, with FNB collectives from across the United States coordinating food distribution for these protesters by forming mobile “food units”. FNB continued to provide food for later anti-globalization protests. At a 2001 protest in Gothenburg, Sweden, Hannes Westberg, the 19-year-old co-founder of FNB Gothenburg, was shot in the chest by police and imprisoned for five months.
In 2005, McHenry was invited to Lagos, Nigeria speak at a Mahatma Gandhi memorial lecture. Members of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) were also slated to speak at this lecture, and, according to one NANS member, were impressed by McHenry’s talk. As a result, NANS adopted a resolution to work with FNB to “facilitat[e] peace” in Nigeria. It also invited McHenry to return to Nigeria for a tour in 2006. The tour began on February 15, with McHenry and FNB activist Jill Gwinn arriving alongside Australian journalist Liz Tadic. The group visited Katsina-Ala, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Abuja, and Lagos, with McHenry giving public speeches and interviews, attending lectures, and meeting with farmers, as well as government and university officials. After the tour ended on March 7, local FNB activists participated in a second “consolidation tour” of new chapters founded in cities across the country, and in October, organized an FNB conference in Lagos.
In February 2006, after playing a gig in Gerona, Philippines, a group of 11 punk musicians and FNB volunteers decided to travel to Baguio to attend the Panagbenga Festival. After arriving early on February 12, they decided to hitchhike to Sagada. On February 14, they were stopped at a police checkpoint in Buguias, where they were captured, beaten, and taken to a military outpost. There, they were accused of being members of the New People’s Army, which had recently raided a military outpost in Mankayan, and tortured into confessing. According to a report by the World Organisation Against Torture, they were blindfolded and electrocuted, with some being partially buried alive and one being struck in the genitals with wood. According to reporting from Bulatlat, one of the musicians, a 15-year-old girl, was forced to bathe in cold water and choked with a plastic bag.
After the musicians’ capture, FNB started the “Sagada 11” campaign to advocate for their release. By March 11, an FNB petition to free the Sagada 11 had received over 1,000 signatures from private individuals and organizations, including Earth First! Philippines, Local Anarchist Network, Not for Sale, and Project Aperture. On its website, FNB also encouraged members to protest outside of Philippine embassies and to send letters to the Philippine Secretary of Justice, Raul M. Gonzalez. Two of the Sagada 11, both minors, were freed on May 30 after the passage of the the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, which exempts minors from criminal liability. Three others were cleared of wrongdoing by the Benguet regional trial court in June. The remainder were freed by around January 2007.
Beginning on September 17, 2011, protesters occupied Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Calling themselves Occupy Wall Street, these protesters remained in the park for two months, igniting similar actions in countries around the world. FNB New York City, which usually cooked meals from ABC No Rio, a local squat, formed the basis for Occupy Wall Street’s Food Working Group, forming the “People’s Kitchen”, which served three meals a day to the protesters. Meals typically included bagels, coffee, and fruit for breakfast; salads and sandwiches for lunch; and pasta or rice and beans for dinner. FNB was also the primary organizer of financial and in-kind donations to the occupation. Occupy Wall Street ended on November 15, when police forcibly evicted the occupiers.
Black Lives Matter movement
[edit]
Houston ticketing controversy
[edit]
Yangon
Ideology and beliefs
[edit]
The Principles of Food Not Bombs
1. The food is always vegan or vegetarian and free to everyone without restriction, rich or poor, stoned or sober.
2. Food Not Bombs has no formal leaders or headquarters, and every group is autonomous and makes decisions using the consensus process
3. Food Not Bombs is dedicated to non-violent direct action and works for non-violent social change
Veganism and vegetarianism
[edit]
In its statement of principles, first outlined in 1992, FNB states that its food is always either vegan or vegetarian. In the book Hungry for Peace, an FNB primer released by the group, McHenry writes that FNB’s adoption of veganism and vegetarianism was influenced by writer Frances Moore Lappe‘s 1971 book Diet for a Small Planet. In particular, FNB was influenced by Lappe’s discussion of the environmental impact of meat production on land and water resources. McHenry argues that adopting vegan practices supports local small farms and thus the decentralization of agriculture, as well as reducing food spoilage and promoting a healthier diet.
Not all FNB collectives are fully vegan, however. For example, as of 2006, the Harrisonburg, Virginia collective served food with dairy, eggs, and sometimes donated meat. Anarchist activist Peter Gelderloos, a member of the Harrisonburg collective, explains that many lower-class food recipients found FNB’s vegan offerings unappetizing and unsatisfying. While some collective members opposed serving non-vegan food, Gelderloos argues that “vegan food is not culturally neutral, or even constitutive of a meal to people from some cultural backgrounds”.
Free food for everyone
[edit]
FNB says in its statement of principles that its food is free and available to anyone “without restriction, rich or poor, stoned or sober”. In Hungry for Peace, McHenry argues that this is a way of responding both to poverty and to “lack of self-esteem”, providing an alternative to bureaucratic systems that are “designed to control, humiliate and often punish people without money”. According to Parson, FNB’s free food distribution is influenced by the concept of mutual aid, which was first articulated by Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin in 1890. Anthropologist Sarah Fessenden argues that FNB’s free food distribution “de-commodifies” food “from the point of distribution to the moment of consumption”.
Group autonomy and consensus
[edit]
According to FNB’s statement of principles, it is leaderless, with autonomous groups employing a consensus decision-making process. McHenry argues that FNB’s lack of a formal leadership structure prevents authorities from targeting charismatic leaders to undermine the group. An FNB member interviewed by researcher David Boarder Giles recalls an incident when police approached the FNB Seattle collective in 2006:
The cop drives his car into the middle of the square — and, you know you don’t really see vehicles in there very often— and he pulls out this big megaphone, and was like, [cop voice] “One of you, come over here.” And we all look at each other, and we’re like “No.” And so eventually he keeps getting more and more upset… And so we said “No, we’re not — we don’t have a leader or anything.” So we all went up and talked to him as a group… I think he was scared.
Former FNB activist Chris Crass notes that there have been debates within the group about the concept of leadership. Crass argues that figures like himself and McHenry often played leadership roles without acknowledging it, making it difficult to discuss the power dynamics at play within the group. According to Crass, recognizing this facilitated an ideological shift in the group from “no leaders” to “working to all be leaders”.
Parson traces FNB’s consensus decision-making process to the Quakers, who were influential in the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s. Meanwhile, Boarder Giles states that it was “partly intended to emulate Indigenous political systems such as the Zapatistas and Iroquois“. In the foreword to Hungry for Peace, historian Howard Zinn argues that FNB’s consensus decision-making process provides an example of how to form a “good society”. Boarder Giles argues that FNB’s use of consensus is an “anarchist answer” to Robert’s Rules of Order, an influential American book on parliamentary procedure.
Many[j] identify FNB as an anarchist group. Others, such as Fessenden, describe them as “anarchist-inspired”. Parson argues that FNB was not originally an explicitly anarchist group, but that an association between FNB and anarchism emerged during the 1990s due to their association with the 1970s anti-nuclear movement, which Parson argues developed along anarchist principles. Meanwhile, researcher Drew Robert Winter states that all of FNB’s founding members were anarchists but that they decided not to adopt an explicitly anarchist stance, believing that this would be “needlessly alienating”. However, Winter also states that explicit anarchist affiliation is more important to FNB collectives in Indonesia and the Philippines, who commonly use anarchist symbols such as the circle-A.
In a study of one FNB collective by sociologist Deric Shannon, six out of 11 surveyed members explicitly identified as activists. The rest did not claim any specific political affiliation, but all said they support anarchist politics. One of these activists said that while they “like feminism, queer stuff, and anarchism too”, that “the ideas are more important than the terms”. Another activist explicitly identified as an anarchist but said that it was not “in any kind of narrow way” and that they “like things about all kinds of anti-authoritarian politics”. Yet another identified as a “class struggle anarchist”, stating that FNB “build[s] community and activity among working class people” and does political work instead of “just doing charity for people”.
Nonviolence and direct action
[edit]
FNB says in it statement of principles that it is dedicated to nonviolent direct action. In Hungry for Peace, McHenry argues that nonviolent action sustains change in a dignified way, drawing public support. However, he also says that nonviolence should not be confused with passivity, as he says that authorities will likely use violence to stamp out nonviolent movements. Boarder Giles argues that these “nonviolent clashes” have the power to “shape the terrain of urban space and enforcement” by creating a “many-headed hydra”[k] capable of creating new opportunities for political affinity and resistance. Parson argues that by adopting nonviolence as an organizing principle, FNB contrasts itself with the “institutional and structural violence” of austerity and neoliberalism.
Organizational structure
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There are about 1 thousand FNB collective in about 60 countries. They exist on every continent except Antarctica. FNB collectives are autonomous and decentralized, taking part in a diverse array of activities. Membership is also diverse. Many FNB members are migrant workers, punks, underemployed or unhoused people, or university students. As its members move between cities, they often found new collectives, facilitating the group’s spread. Several scholars[l] identify FNB as a form of franchise activism (activism carried out by autonomous groups using the same name in different locations).
Many FNB collectives use similar procedures. First, they obtain food, either through donations or by gathering excess from local businesses, often by dumpster diving. They then cook this food and serve it, typically in public community spaces or at activist gatherings, such as book fairs, conferences, and protests. At these feedings, FNB activists distribute literature and discuss global issues. FNB collectives are organized on a volunteer basis, with activists not receiving pay. They typically do not accept monetary donations beyond what is necessary to obtain basic supplies, such as pots, pans, and folding tables.
- ^ The group in favor of the occupation called for cutting the fences around the plant to gain entry and wearing helmets and gas masks for protection. The group opposed argued that cutting fences was a form of violence and that wearing protective clothing would provoke police violence.
- ^ This group included Amy Rothstein, C.T. Lawrence Butler, Jessie Constable, Jo Swanson, Keith McHenry, Mira Brown, and Susan Eaton.
- ^ This was their second attempt to organize a bake sale for Fiegenbaulm. The first had not been successful.
- ^ “At least 50” according to researcher Sean Parson and 70 according to researcher Drew Robert Winter.
- ^ Estimates of the number of attendees vary. Researcher Matthew Armstrong estimates the number at “upwards of 500,000”. Researcher L. Bruce van Voorst estimates the number at around 750,000. Henry Richard Maar III estimates the number at “more than one million”.
- ^ McHenry says that the occupation was a protest against United States intervention in the Salvadoran Civil War. However, a contemporary news story says that the occupation was also protesting a trade ban on Nicaragua.
- ^ 1987 according to researcher Sean Parson. 1988 according to researchers Drew Robert Winter and David Boarder Giles.
- ^ Parson says 15 activists were arrested. However, McHenry, Winter, and Boarder Giles say that it was nine.
- ^ 150 according to Winter. 200 according to McHenry and Boarder Giles.
- ^ See Heynen, Winter, Parson, Gracjasz & Grasseni, and Boarder Giles.
- ^ The concept of the “many-headed hydra” comes from historians Marcus Rediker and Peter Linebaugh, who compare the transatlantic mass movements of the late 18th century to the mythical Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed beast in Greek mythology whose heads grew back as they were cut off.
- ^ See Gavriluţă & Dăscăliţa and Hisham & Amin
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Notes:
Hello! Just a heads up that I am planning on overhauling and improving this article. My primary goals are to improve sourcing and to expand the article in preparation for a GA review. Here are a few notes on these changes:
- Some of my main sources will be “Doing Liberation: The Story and Strategy of Food Not Bombs” by Drew Robert Winter from the collection Anarchism and Animal Liberation: Essays on Complementary Elements of Total Liberation, Cooking up a Revolution: Food Not bombs, Homes Not jails, and Resistance to Gentrification by Sean Parson, and A Mass Conspiracy to Feed people: Food Not bombs and the World-class Waste of Global Cities by David Boarder Giles. The former is, of course, an essay, and the latter two are academic monographs.
- My revisions will also cite FNB co-founder Keith McHenry very extensively. I recognize he’s definitely not a neutral source, but ultimately, I think the info he provides is just too valuable to pass up. In the “history” section, I generally try to use him in an auxiliary fashion to fill in gaps, verifying what he says using external sources (such as news coverage or academic literature) when possible. When there are contradictions, I note them. In the ideology section, I use his statements with attribution.
- In order to avoid US bias, I tried to cover activities from collectives outside the United States as much as possible. This meant, in some cases, they I had to use WP:PRIMARY sources and sources close to the subjects. I ultimately decided that, in order to prevent bias and uphold WP:NPOV, it was necessary to include these sources. If there are objections to this, please let me know (and if you find better sources, please add them).
