Greenhorns press!
In this new millennium marked by the looming threat of transnational trade deals like the Transpacific Partnership (TPP), The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), one unusual trade adventure, Maine Sail Freight will embark on a creative, bold journey as an act of defiance against business-as-usual. When Maine Sail Freight launches its maiden voyage at the end of August carrying 11 tons of local, Maine-made cargo, the Greenhorns – a plucky band of young farmers – and the sailing crew of an historic wooden schooner are declaring their independence from corporate tyranny and re-invigorating sail freight as a wind-powered transportation agent of the booming local food economy.
And, interestingly, they will carry one freight item that has a long history of revolutionary potential: salt.
Yes, salt.
Over a hundred years before Gandhi’s independence movement kicked the British Empire out of India, the American colonies were roundly beating the same empire using tools of nonviolent action – noncooperation, civil disobedience, boycotts, strikes, blockades, parallel governments, marches, rallies, and self-reliance programs. The two independence movements even shared parallel salt campaigns.
Both the American Revolution and the India Self-Rule movement used salt as a tool of resistance and liberation. Gandhi’s 1930 Salt Satyagraha campaign is famous. The 1776 New England saltworks expansion is virtually unknown. Indeed, the well-organized, clearly identifiable nonviolent campaigns are often overshadowed by violence and war in the retelling of revolutionary era history. The research, however, testifies to the nonviolent campaigns pivotal role in the struggle.
Know your history, as the saying goes. The British certainly should have. In 1930, one hundred and fifty years after American Independence, Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, commented on the brewing salt law resistance saying, ” At present the prospect of a salt campaign does not keep me awake at night.” Too bad . . . if he had stayed awake, studying the history of salt, colonial governments, and independence movements, he might have lost sleep . . . but he wouldn’t have lost India.
Over a century ago, in 1776, the British Empire lost the American colonies over a famous tax on tea . . . and salt. Everyone knows the story of the Boston Tea Party – rowdy colonists, incensed by the tax on tea, dressed up as Indians and stormed Boston Harbor to dump the contents of a ship carrying import goods into the water. The colonials boycotted tea, demanding “no taxation without representation”. Less well known is that the tax on tea also contained a tax on salt. At the time, salt was a necessity of both household survival and for the economic functionality of the colonial fisheries, which exported salted fish. There were, however, no saltworks along the lengthy coastlines of North America. The salt used by the colonists was imported from the British Caribbean.
When the new tax laws were announced in the colonies, the colonists declared they would boycott imported goods from Britain, refusing to cooperate. Of course, they didn’t use the term “boycott”, which would not be coined until 1880, when the Irish rebelled against the land agent Charles C. Boycott.The colonists rebelled against the tax laws, declaring independence. A crippling embargo was placed on the colonies, cutting off the supply of imported salt entirely. In response the Continental Congress placed a “bounty” on salt to encourage the young nation to build saltworks and produce this essential resource. Cape Cod responded to the call, even inventing new elements of the salt production process. They rejected the process of boiling out the water, as it used too many cords of wood, and instead developed a system of producing salt that used wind power to haul the seawater to the drying troughs, natural solar power to evaporate the water,
and a unique construction of rolling canvas roofs that would keep the rain out of the troughs, then pull back on sunny days to allow the light in. The production of salt increased the Americans self-reliance, lessened their dependence on the empire, and strengthened their ability to resist British oppression. These three dynamics – increasing self-reliance, lessening dependence, and strengthening the ability to resist oppression – are all elements of what Gandhi would later call “constructive program”. Gandhi employed eighteen different constructive programs in his movement, one of which was the production of salt. The 1930 Salt Satyagraha was a powerful demonstration of the two-fold strength of nonviolent action. In addition to the constructive dynamics, it also utilized the “obstructive” dynamics of noncooperation and mass civil disobedience, as well as many acts of protest and persuasion including marches, rallies, picketing, letter writing, and demonstrations.
The story is simple: the British Empire held a monopoly on the production of salt in colonial India, operating the saltworks to their own profit and charging the Indians for the staple. In 1930, Gandhi decided to openly defy the salt laws, inciting thousands of Indians to make and sell salt, rendering the salt laws unenforceable through mass noncooperation. Gandhi, as always, added his usual political clarity and dramatic flair to the undertaking. Where the Americans pragmatically made salt as a necessity of survival and a tool of self-reliance, Gandhi’s marches, public announcements, mass disobedience, and inimitable sense of humor made humble salt the downfall of British authority over India. Gandhi overtly challenged the British over salt . . . and won.
Today, contemporary struggles revolve not around colonies and crowns, but rather between citizens and trans-national corporations. The basic lessons of salt still hold true for modern times. Increase self-reliance. Lessen dependency on oppressors. Refuse cooperation with injustice. Build parallel institutions. As Maine Sail Freight travels from Portland to Boston, reinvigorating traditional ocean trade routes, the participants are also joining the growing popular resistance to global corporate domination. As history will attest, their success lies in the willingness of the people to non-cooperate with business-as-usual, and instead participate with the constructive actions of local, sustainable, and renewable economies. Here’s where to find out more and join the Portland to Boston adventure.
This is a cross-post from The Greenhorns, providing professional development and cultural vibrancy within the young farmers movement. Greenhorns produce events+ media that support, promote and recruit new organic growers, including film, radio, almanacs, exhibits, art-stunts and networking mixers.
Resilience, transition, inter-generational collaboration, food sovereignty, land stewardship, low-input, diversified farming is the ground story of the new economy we are building together. Greenhorns say: don’t build a bunker, build a relationship with the new farmers and new economy entrepreneurs in your community. Figure out how to help with graphics, materials, office space, accounting, legal services, social networking, volunteer hours, or in barter for food. Working together, we can do more to rebuild community resilience.
