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XIV

THE PERMACULTURE ALTERNATIVE


BY BILL MOLLISON
Pamphlet XIV in the Permaculture Design Course Series
Edited from Transcript of the Permaculture Design Course
The Rural Education Center, Wilton NH USA, 1981

PUBLISHED BY

YANKEE PERMACULTURE
Publisher and Distributor of Permaculture Publications
P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL 32192-0052 USA
YankeePerm@aol.com
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The Permaculture Community
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I grew up in a little village in which there were es. What we are up to is providing the alternative
no rich people, nor any poor. You had no fear of for the person who would rather work with a jolly
starving, nor any hope of becoming rich. We mob of people, laughing and giggling and pack-
were all on one social level. If you were without aging seed, and who know what they are up to,
something, you never had to worry about wheth- and who they are dealing with, and where the
er you would eat or not. My family members money goes.
were the bakers there. We just supplied bread at Outside of what we are doing we haven't seen
no charge to people who couldn't buy bread. any great signs of an alternative appearing. Yet it
That sort of thing went on all the time.Then mon- is going to have to. I think the whole situation is
ey started to accumulate, and we got a totally de- ready for it. We just haven't thought of half the
tached class of people. things we can do yet. Tagari handles a minute
There are plenty of resources in the world for amount of enterprises because they are a minute
everybody. There is land, food -- everything. The community.
fact that some of the people are trying to accu- Most of the cities in Australia now have Perma-
mulate these resources is the reason for the culture associations. We have set up city farms.
problems we have today. This centralization of We get gifts of land into the Institute and transfer
resources has extended to the centralization of it to people within the cities, and so on. Many of
energy, which is causing our acid rain; and the those Permaculture people are heavily involved
centralized control of transport, which has result- in work in the cities. On one hand, they are con-
ed in our freeways. sultants; and on the other hand they participate
We are attempting to provide opportunities for in structuring the local social milieu. Some of
people to come out of this system. them are working hard in the center of the town,
What went wrong with the whole alternative and they won't come out.
movement was that it didn't offer an alternative. I So we want to support these people.
have spoken to many persons who have said, "I Anyone can begin a travel agency. Somebody
wish I could do what you are doing. Can you em- right here can earn a living locally doing all that
ploy me?" booking, and it would be very handy. Our consul-
I would have to say, "No, I can't, because what tants must do a lot of flying. How many are you
I am in isn't employment." flying to China? Twenty. What is it going to cost
Increasingly, though, I have been able to say, them in fares? Twenty people at $2,000 is how
"While I cannot employ you, I can give you a job much? The normal agency fee is about l5%.
in which you can earn your way, and you can $6,000 just to book their flight. To whom do we
leave your present job right now." We have been want to give that money? Give it to somebody
able to do that lately. who belongs to this group of people, where all
So we provide an alternative. But I know of few the profit is not just going to the top, and never
cases where the alternative isn't struggling just to coming out anywhere in rural areas.
look after itself. In most cases, it is not even That is just an example of the hundreds of trips
feeding itself. Our action, if it is vigorous, com- we must make. We are leaving here for direc-
pletely changes that. tions north, south, east and west. Other people
We ask, "What is your present employment?" are coming here and leaving here. So we need a
He answers, "I'm in this travel agency." travel agent. But that is not a full time job. That
"Great! You can earn your money with us as a keeps one of the people here digging the garden
travel agent." most of the time, and occasionally being a travel
You might also earn your money with us as an agent. What would you pay someone to take
accountant, or something else. We are now able over the digging of your garden? $7 an hour? As
to offer more opportunities of that sort. a travel agent, you may book for anyone, of
In Tagari, we are not becoming our town's em- course. Then, if the business grows, you can pay
ployer. Instead, we are changing our status from two gardeners and a travel agent.
that of employee to that of a sharer in enterpris- Everything we have done, we did the hard
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way. We had to study to become a travel agent. Our designers become the distributors. All they
Now if we had known a travel agent, we could need to carry about is these little brochures that
have operated as a local office. But we didn't. they hand out to their clients. Whenever a plow is
We had to learn how to become a travel agent. If wanted, one is broken down and packaged
we had known a real estate agent, we could through to the client.
have opened a local office. If you get smart, you might do all the manufac-
The real estate business, as a function of Per- turing of it yourself. If you don't want to make
maculture, doesn't necessarily give us any addi- shoes and discs and things out of special steel,
tional ownership of land. But it gives us a meas- you contract that part out. You might care to
ure of control over what happens across a lot of send out a card just to see if anyone wants to
land. That is what we want to achieve. pre-order such a plow. If you get ten pre-orders,
I would like people in America to take greater then you contract parts for ten. I point out that
advantage of this real estate business. Some- everything we do can be started without any cap-
where in the consultancy may be -- there often is ital, or with very little capital
-- a qualified real estate person, or a person who How do you open a publishing business? You
might know someone who is qualified, whom issue cards soliciting pre-orders, and you get
they can appoint as an agent. Then you could your money in. You then spend all the money
operate Permaculture real estate branch offices. you get for pre-orders on printing. Remember
It was two years before we could start to be- that what you get for pre-orders is the retail price.
come real estate agents. Now we have found six So for every book you sell on pre-order, you will
real estate agents who are living as hippies. So be able to print additional copies. What you have
we can get one straight away. They had become then is an additional supply of books, all yours,
sick of the business -- just selling graziers more all paid for, after authors, editors, etc., get their
land. So they got out and went to live in the percentage.
bush. But they still qualify as real estate agents. Our business is to teach people self-
Real estate agents can also manage properties, sufficiency. We do not handle anything that
earning management fees, getting paid perhaps doesn't promote self-reliance. I don't see any ne-
$1,000 or $2,000 a year just to manage the hir- cessity for any of our people to be running
ing, and to oversee the property. They don't take around looking for money. There is more money
any risk. They just do the leasing and manage- than we can handle right in these systems, if we
ment of the properties. A local real estate agent manage them ourselves. But if we leave the
can spend the most of his time digging the gar- management to others, there is none in it. In
den, and occasionally driving down the road just Australia, we have been able to distribute Perma-
to see that nobody is bulldozing up the trees, and culture Two through our own people. That is
that people are pruning the orchards on time, what we want to do.
and so on. There is quite a range of employment Now what about seed and seed companies?
opportunity here. Let me tell you about the Self-Reliance Seed
We are going to need someone right here to Company [now replaced by Phoenix Seed Co.-
manufacture Yeoman's plow. What you do is put Ed.]. It deals only in open-pollinated seeds. It
the components out to three small manufactur- deals only in varieties from which people can
ers. Somebody makes the shoe, and somebody save their own seed. It will collect seed from any-
else makes the shank. A couple of kids who where in the world. If we ever set up a seed farm
have nothing else to do, an unemployed group, in Australia, we could get sprayed. So we must
makes the frame, and they do ten at a time. If never set up a large seed farm. We break it up.
they can make the shanks, good. Our manufac- What we want is for everybody here to say what
turer then bolts the parts together, and we order seed they will grow, and what seed they will col-
the plows from him. He prints up a little brochure lect. What we are proposing to do is to print Self-
on the plow, and appoints distributors. That is all reliance Seed Company envelopes to be issued
there is to it. with a rubber stamp that says, for example,
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Queen Anne's Lace. The grower requests 200 They can only be given to a grower for the pur-
envelopes, and is sent the stamp and envelopes. pose of starting his own supply. Then he can sell
The grower then collects the seed, fills the enve- the seed from what he grows
lopes, and stamps them Queen Anne's Lace; Every seed we sell has instructions on how to
and he receives what amounts to the price be- save your own seed. We are selling self-reliance.
fore retail. In this way the money returns to the What I hope will happen is that the seed ex-
grower, to the person who goes into the forest change path will expand and expand, and that
and collects the seed of the red oak. Nobody the selling aspect will reduce and reduce. There
else gets a large margin. This person gets the will always be a few people who want to buy their
grower's margin and the packager's margin. seed. I would hope that the amount we are put-
You will need a seed cataloger, who is really a ting out to the growers will reduce and reduce, so
publisher. It is normal for seed companies to list that eventually every plant wanted will be grown
three packet sizes. You want a good handful of locally in the United States and elsewhere.
seed for a person who has a big garden. For the What we really want to do is to build up every-
urban gardener, you want 10 carefully selected where the important species for Permaculture,
seeds -- 10 zucchini, for ex-ample -- for the ur- because there are many varieties we cannot get
ban gardener wants only 10 seeds. anywhere now. This catalog will list all the plants
We are not putting other good seed companies we ever want. These plants will be listed under
out of business. What we want is our seed. We Bee Forages, Chicken Forages, Cattle Forages,
want pea tree seed; we want all the Chinese Deer Forages, Fireproof Plants, etc., and listed
seeds, the medicinal herbs. In our catalog, we by zone.
list those open-pollinated seed companies, such You ask for a feed-back from the people get-
as Johnny's Selected Seeds and Kent Whealy's ting the seed. If something is unsatisfactory, you
Seed Savers Exchange. Our catalog advertises inform the grower about what has happened.
their wares, free of charge. If they would list ours, You just normally refund the full price of the
that would be good, too. Then we might agree to packet, if it is unsatisfactory, and inform your
break into different sections of the market. The grower. If your grower is a responsible person,
seed that we want is Permaculture Seed. he will refund you. If not, find another grower.
Every seed company that ever starts has to You know Thompson and Morgan Seed Com-
buy seed to begin. So in the back of the catalog, pany? They have about the largest seed catalog.
you ask for growers to supply seed. You get into Do you know what they operate out of? You say,
a garden movement, thereby involving many probably a square block area? That's what I
small growers. With very short-lived seeds, you thought! They occupy a house smaller than any
give the collector's address, and the dates under house around here, just a little old house, and lit-
which he will directly mail. tle old ladies with spectacles are there in a tiny
The other thing that can come out of this is room. You can't get in there because there is just
seed exchanges, which are free. The only per- room for the lady and the chair. This place is be-
son who makes any money out of the seed ex- side the Essex Road, just out of London. I didn't
change is the cataloger, who makes a charge for believe it! I drove past it five times. I knew I was
printing it up. dealing with the world's largest international seed
In the front of the catalog is a listing of the company, and I drove past it and parked, and
seed for sale, and in the back, is the Permacul- eventually went to this little house to ask where it
ture seed available as exchange. You only want was, and that was it! There were bags of seeds
one seed catalog for the United States. That real- in the porch, little old ladies everywhere. Chil-
ly is a national job. I will tell you who wants to do dren, during their school holidays were hired.
packaging too -- that is the Watts' Self-Help That is (or was) the Thompson and Morgan Seed
Group. Company.
The Institute can get free seed from anywhere Because we are the middle class, people who
in the world, but these seeds cannot be sold. have our wits about us, and who are well educat-
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ed, we have to initiate things and take action. produced by a manufacturer who may own the
Then we pass it off. rights to it. He just might be overjoyed if you
While perhaps we can't give you $2,000 very would walk into his shop and say, "Send us three
often, we will give you the ability to earn a quar- of these and give us the American rights." You
ter of a million dollars fairly often. Then when you would then find a casting firm, perhaps in the al-
get too much action, you pass it off. You pass it ternative. Then you would contract out the
off, because you see further places to go. screws and things for turning to repetition engi-
We decided as a policy, we would never give neers. Finally, you would assemble it and get it
money away. Instead, we give enablements on the market here.
away. We will fund a college to teach an aborigi- Than there are little things, little bits of handy
nal gardener. We will not give the aborigines gear like a twigger, which is a bit of bent wire.
money. We will give orange trees to aborigines; You can give the manufacturing of this to a small
we won't give them the money to buy orange group in an urban center. What they have to do
trees. We give fishhooks, not fish. That is critical- is keep cutting the wire off and bending it. It is
ly important. It is giving people self-reliance. very handy. Our Sheltered Workshops in Tasma-
If you have someone who wants to start a Per- nia make it. You can make the first twigger.
maculture nursery, you can get the standard de- Make it work, then hand the twigger over to a lit-
sign on the nursery from us. Then you can build tle group as their item. We invented it and gave it
a standard for America. The nursery should be to a shelter group. They were perfectly capable
functional. The plants in the Permaculture sec- of doing that so there are little things like that
tion of the nursery should be placed in functional which we call hand off. They can be listed in the
groups. back of the seed catalog.
If you are setting up an aquaculture nursery, Another thing we need is a good bench still,
put a few tanks around your yard. If you throw made up of ordinary glass -- pitted glass will do.
the whole lot in the pond, you come out with one We also need a field still that can be carried into
dominant species. So in the nursery, it is best to a field and set up for the crude distillation of per-
use stock ponds. On all the plants we sell, we in- haps a ton of material, which will allow you to dis-
dicate which is rampant, and how to deal with it. till mint oils.
Now what sort of hardware, and what sort of A husker-grinder is another essential item. I
rights should we be looking for? We want good have never seen a really good one except the
retrofit materials. So we are interested in glass, Ripple Flow. All these that we have are either
in ducting, in squirrel cage fans, and automatic very slow, heat-generating, or high-energy
opening vents, sealants, insulation. Look through things. If Permaculture obtains the rights to the
the solar catalog. Pick out things that you think manufacture of the husker-grinder, we've gotten
might be critically important in what we are doing it for all of us. That's the important thing. We can
and recommending to clients. Then go to the start to manufacture it right away, everywhere,
manufacturer and say, "Can I get distribution? on a local basis.
would like distribution, prefer manufacture, but Now the whole idea of this is that you don't
will be happy with retail." produce something for export to India or to Aus-
Another sort of hardware that interests us is tralia. In every case, we make it our policy to
small processing hardware. Here is the big miss- manufacture within range of the users. Well-off
ing category. You can buy anything to produce clients should be encouraged to put in a facility
anything you want, buy any little chipper, plow, for the district. There is no point in having 5,000
seeder, bagger, but you can't find processing husking systems all going parallel to each other.
hardware. We want pressers, oil seed extractors, There is no point in having Geoff Wallace's plow
juicers, stills, dryers, all those things that are the on every farm. It should be on hire for the district,
real bases of self-sufficiency on a small site. because a person only wants it for half an hour,
Keep your eye out for things in this category. sometimes two hours.
In India, there are very good oil presses being We need grain cleaners, seed cleaners, both
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for threshing and cleaning. This is an item some- be a thousand pounds. They are made easily
one may need to reinvent. from a mold. This would be a good product for a
Let's look at something else now. We went to group of people to make. They are excellent as
Toyota and said. "We have 51 consultants in the stock tanks -- for watering stock, small stock, or
field. We own 17 Toyotas. What kind of deal will poultry. They can be ramped up for small stock.
you give us if we register these as a fleet, and Catfish would grow in them, and tadpoles and lit-
then everybody transfers to Toyotas?" Toyota tle fish. If I were setting up an aquaculture nur-
has a range of vehicles, and they run well under sery, I would set it up with 40 or 50 of these.
rough conditions. We also have a design engi- We have, among Tagari members, a split. We
neering group capable of making things for those have a group of Luddites. Ludd was the leader of
Toyotas that cut the petrol consumption, or other a group of men who went out with sledge ham-
attachments that take alcohol-gas, or they can mers and broke up machinery. There are people
make anything you wish. Toyota offered us 15% in our group who have an instinctive distaste for
off the list price. Then we went to the taxation computers. We have other people in our group
people and they told us that the Institute didn't who see a tremendous benefit in having comput-
have to pay sales tax. ers. There is a package now you can get for
There is no hope we can set up a vehicle man- $300 that fits on your Apple computer. It is cou-
ufacturing plant. What we can do is set up an ar- pled with the ham idea. It requires a ham radio's
rangement with a present manufacturer and start license. Anywhere on the face of the globe these
to replace the bits until we have replaced most of little units listen for each other. Any one of these
the parts we are interested in. We do the same can talk to any one of the others, or automatically
things with a tractor, so that our tractors will not shunt. If you want to talk to anybody, to ask a
break down. For a client who is starting with question, or make a transfer through deal or bar-
grassland and wants to progress to forest, a ter, you put the data into the computer and press
small eight to 20 horse-power tractor is a useful a button and it goes out to this one which catch-
tool. He can run over the grassland, making es it and stores it. There need be no one at
dumps where he is putting his trees, and working home. If you are there, it can handle your an-
the grassland, building up rapidly to really rich swers within two seconds. If you are not at
tree soils. home, it stores the information until you put the
So what you need is a hardware assessment answer in, and then it goes back. This operates
and selection group to run the whole of that busi- across Canada now.
ness. You are going to have a lot of designers in If you want a bee plant list from the stored in-
this country. These groups who go into the man- formation, the list comes back, and the computer
ufacturing and supplying of these items have a records the name of the person who asked for it.
really wonderful opportunity for marketing some- An automatic account comes up in their name.
thing absolutely specific to the requirements of There is a charge for the service only. There is
Permaculture. Tanks are another hardware item no paper work involved, no lists being mailed.
that seems to be lacking here in America. The As an example, say that Bruce has agreed to
most useful size is quite shallow. It is 15 to 18 handle the lists and has an Apple computer and
inches deep, and four to six feet in diameter, one of these devices. You can phone in your or-
reachable to the center. That size tank is extraor- der to the local person who also has this device,
dinarily useful. You can produce a condition suit- and you say, "Give me a bee list for an alkaline
able for bulb growing by just laying an inch of wa- hillside facing south in Timbuktu." This person
ter over it, saturating the soil. You can set up a puts it through to Bruce's computer. You are
pond with six or twelve inches of soil. These identified as to who you are, and Bruce's comput-
tanks are constructed of precast concrete, which er sends the information back. The local person
is the best material for this purpose. They do not whom you contacted says, "Here it is." That
need a drain hole. Once they are full of water, should be within two seconds, because what you
you can't move them. They will then weigh may- are asking for is stored. You have your list, and
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alongside your name in Bruce's computer comes er. He rings and asks if there is anything you
up the fact that you have sent for that list. There- want to say to everybody that's that important,
fore you are charged $4. The charge comes and you generally say, "Not tonight."
back on your list, so you know what you owe. "OK. We have a message coming in for you...."
This is a very good way to trade and barter. The whole thing is dealt with within two hours.
I had a message one night. I said, "Get your You don't use it for chatting.
tape recorder." They got a tape recorder out and Now you might have an important national
I gave them the whole story on seed patenting message to go out, and you say, "Yes, to all sta-
legislation in Australia and the way it was being tions this message ..." And that can go on tape
edged in without anybody knowing. They relayed and go out to all stations. In addition, our fast
this tape to every state. It was also relayed to a tape copying service group, called the Down to
group whose job is quick tape copying. They can Earth Association will fast tape copy the mes-
do it in seconds. Then this group started mailing sage and send it to all members, who then get it
this information to all organic gardening groups, to the local programs on all radio stations, and so
and we had Australia alerted the next morning. it goes out to the man in the street that evening.
Thousands of notes were pouring in to politi- The specialty of the Down to Earth Association
cians. We've that sort of organizational level in is working with media. Their tapes go to all sorts
Australia, and have had for a long time. of people on both sides of the media -- on the
We also have local radio programs that run government side of the media, and on the private
regularly -- Permaculture half-hour programs -- side -- and these messages go out in their pro-
and they are commonly reaching six to 12 million grams. They say, "We just got an interesting tape
people weekly. in which you might care to hear..." and it goes
We are feared and respected, because we can out to all the people in Melbourne. A lot of people
bring the local government down, the state gov- tune into that station. It is Public Access. We
ernment. And we are prepared to do so. We have other people within such services and they
jammed the parliamentary switchboard into Tas- can do other linking-calls.
mania Parliament for a week, and they convened The people who are voluntarily performing
at midnight and changed legislation and got it out these services have to be persuaded. They have
to us through radio because they couldn't get in to be people like ourselves, who believe that
or out by way of the lines to the Parliament what we are doing is ethical and good.
house. It was for the purpose of stopping an evil If we think something dangerous is going to
substance from being sprayed over the farm- happen, we have state emergency services.
lands from the air. When that spray was coming, I rang the State
So what I'm telling you is if you do cooperate Emergency Service and said, "I want you to put
and stop chopping up the whole system into little out a call for all pregnant women, all farms with
bunches of people, which is a big feature of the animals, to stay indoors tomorrow."
American alternative, if you do speak with one They said, "Why?"
voice, brother, you are a loud voice. I said, "Here is why ... So you get all animals
We have a Permaculture association that oper- under cover over the whole state and all preg-
ates on a weekly schedule, linking up with six nant women under cover across whole state."
key points across the whole nation. You ring in to The State Emergency Service went into action.
one of these key points if you have a message They cannot refuse to tell a population of a
that you want to go out to the whole nation. We present danger. You do that a few times, and it
contact central, which sends the message out to becomes very embarrassing. Either they have to
all six key points, and all these key points have refuse to act, which is illegal; or if they act, it is
local dissemination groups. This is absolutely very embarrassing. Those messages have to go
easy. It takes a person willing to spend one eve- out. These are tactics we have successfully used
ning a week sitting in at the telephone and ring- to shift whole national and state policy.
ing all six points. He can jack them into each oth- So we don't let something like seed legislation
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die. There are fighting groups set up in all Per- things we didn't even know existed, such as
maculture associations. Independently of the dragon's blood trees and South African wild
Permaculture association, as a result of the radio plums. They will conduct anyone on a tour of the
broadcasts, other people have set up fighting city to show them those trees, so people can see
groups against these legislations. what they look like. They collect seed from these
Then we set up the act of defiance, the Self- trees. They have a free seed exchange between
Reliance Seed Company. Don't let it die. They themselves. They are powerhouses. Some of
give in, because it is too embarrassing, too pub- these groups number over 200 people in quite
lic, too much voice, too much action against small districts. Often from the ranks of those as-
them. There is no use giving them information. sociations come the next designers. They carry
That's just news. You give them the action basis. out a fantastic number of functions; you can
Now you people here in this country are a set pass off an enormous amount of work to those
of individuals who are perfectly capable of oper- people. One group produces the Permaculture
ating in your own way. So I expect that you will Quarterly, and how they do it, I don't know. [This
get on with your jobs. That Bill Mollison happens has since failed. Ed.] It is a very big job they are
to be anywhere doesn't matter. If he gets run doing.
over or drops out of sight in London, it is just an- There are more than 30 associations sending
other person. I don't want to be personally in newsletters in, and some of them have meetings
charge of anything here. I would very much like that as many as 200 people commonly attend.
you to adopt the attitude that you are forming a The Permaculture association has taken over
university of minds, a companionship; and I don't some really downtrodden sheep country, and
want any stratification happening in this network. they have moved in on it with thousands of
That's what I want to say. Be sure to give people seeds. God only knows what they are doing.
jobs, and be sure those jobs do not stratify. Our Housework cooperatives have begun within
system will be superseded if it succeeds. It can one of the associations. Seven women with small
go wrong if it succeeds, too. If that happens, oth- children -- and some who went through that near-
er people will come and attack it and say they ly went crazy on their own -- meet on Saturdays,
will be glad when we get out of it. and they absolutely bang, bang the house. They
It looks as though what we are trying to do has clean it from top to bottom. Then they go out and
to be done. I think it is awfully important. I can do the same with the garden. They do this on
see in my life there is nothing else worth doing. I each person's place with small children. Now
think it's life or death, and I'm hitting hard on the they find they have very little to do. It gives peo-
life side, if I can. That may be a hard decision for ple with small children a slight break in complete
you to make, because it doesn't give you much. madness.
And I don't expect all of you to make that deci- You know, when you have three little kids you
sion. But some of you may. The main thing we can never get that housework done, and it drives
have to do is to get people within their own home you crazy looking at it. They also do the same for
country competent on their own ground, with a people newly moved into the district. They go,
lot of support systems, right where they are. the whole group -- there may be a hundred of
Permaculture associations are spreading right them turn up -- and they just say, "What do you
into center of research and other establishments, want done?" And they do it. They bring trailers
and who knows what funnels out? There are Per- and trucks and tractors, and clean up all the old
maculture Associations all over Australia, and cars, take them to the dump, stack the wood,
we didn't set more than about half of them up. make the place look good. Then they have a big
They share species. They visit each other's plac- party. All that is going on happily in the world.
es. They share housework cooperatives. Some So what we are trying to do is get a lot of nice
of them who live in the city of Perth have identi- people together. If somebody is not nice, you
fied every large useful tree in that city, found a drop them out of a cooperative net. Really, in
fantastic resource of Permaculture value, found some ways, I wouldn't like to cross some of the
The Permaculture Community
8
Permaculture people, because some of the 70 ic, you are dead." And he said, "I'm going to get
toughest gangs in Watts cooperate with us. you out tonight." This black doctor got him out
Did I ever tell you about Watts? As the last and sent him away, because he knew that where
thing, just before we close this section, let me tell he was nearly all alcoholics died.
you about Watts. So he went down to Watts. He thought he
When I was in California talking to the Tree would die in Watts, because what he had done
People, a reporter came in, a woman to interview in Watts preyed on his conscience. So he went
me. She sounded scared about tomorrow. So I down to Watts and he lay down in a little thing
asked, "What are you going to be doing?" still there, a little porch in front of a square build-
She said, "I am going to interview a remarka- ing that was deserted, locked, and nailed up, and
ble person down in Watts." I had heard of Watts the porch measurement was about five feet by
she said, "I'm really scared about how I am go- eight. He lay in there for eight years drinking
ing, to get in there, but, you know, I've got to go." wine, and never getting out except to go across
I said, "I'll go down with you. I don't mind." to the pub get more wine on his relief check and
And she said, "Oh, great! great! great!" come back with his wine and drink. So he didn't
I said, "I'll throw myself in front of you and you buy any food.
can run, you know." But he didn't starve, because all the little chil-
So down we went. It was about as we thought. dren going around Watts, little toughies, many of
There were a lot of gentlemen about, and ladies them in gangs of five and that, used to break
about, and it was a pretty tough looking place. their sandwiches in half and feed him, sit down
We walked through something that made you and give him bottles of pop, and give him an ap-
feel as if you were coming past the executioner. ple occasionally. The children of Watts fed him
It was like a place in London, a jewelry place for eight years. So, while he was in terrible condi-
where you go to sell a smuggled jewel, and you tion physically, he was still alive at the end of
just pass a lot of heavies lying about with bulging eight years.
pockets. They opened several doors, and little One day he decided to stand up. He got up
things opening and closing. As you are led in, and stopped these little kids and he said, "Listen!
your escape is cut off. Sitting in this place is a I owe you my life! Now life means nothing to me,"
man called Barney Mull. He is a big Watts fellow. he says, "My life is yours, I give you my life. You
There he sits -- Barney. He said, "Come in!" All gave me my life. It's yours." He said, "I will never
around the wall there are people who are wiping take any risks with it; I'll never get married to any-
the skin from scars, holes in them, and big heavy body -- nothing. I belong to you, to you -- see?"
pockets. These were tough little mobs. I mean they con-
We got in there. We asked what this was? trol the streets And when the mob is full, My
He said he was a Bahai and that he had been God, they're armed! So he said, "We are going to
a debt collector in Watts with a group of heavies, do something. What's wrong here?"
collecting rents from the people of Watts. That And they said, "Well, we haven't any money;
meant he had a group of agents under his con- we got nothin' to do."
trol. He was collecting rentals, sometimes for So he got this little mob, and they took him
churches and places that owned property in over, and in effect elected him boss. The porch
Watts. Then his family broke up, and he became was his office for the next couple of years. He
an alcoholic. He lost his wife. When he became started the Watts Self-Help Group.
an alcoholic he became suicidal. He thought the So then he sits down with his mob, and they
best way to die was to walk into Watts, because decide to go take over the next street. This is a
he would surely die. tough proposition. Gang war. He worked out a
But while he was in the hospital as an alcohol- strategy, which he still uses. He fitted them out
ic, a black doctor came and said to him, "Man, I with different colored baseball caps and things
got news for you, you get out of here or you are so everybody can see each other and know ex-
dead. If you come here and stay in as an alcohol- actly where they are in the district. They drive in
The Permaculture Community
9
fast in a green van, so they are right in the middle hands on the table. When the new gang chief
of the next gang's territory. They pile out. The comes in, he comes in with a shotgun and the
war chiefs, the four of them in the yellow hats, go darkness all around. He has his heavies behind
and stand with their back to a corner, looking at him, and they got people across the street in
each other so everybody's back is covered all the cars. They check out every corner of that room to
way. see that nobody is laying an ambush. And they
So he has a scouting team out. Then he sends throw all their scouts out to see they are not am-
out some little green hats, and the little green bushed. They come in to start dealing. Or, they
hats start walking down the street. Barney and could open fire through the windows and kill us.
some other heavies come around this way. Sure That's their choice.
enough, the gang pounces and surrounds these So they start dealing, and they go on dealing
little green-hatted kids. They got 'em. And at that You know, you're going to treat these people fair-
point the yellow hats see where the action is, and ly. Fairness and openness are all they under-
they point in that direction so all the rest knows stand. And minding the boss on the line is all
where it is, and they start to walk down this side they understand, because they are getting shot
of them. Barney is coming up the other side, and every night. Maybe 46 cops go out just to wipe
the little green hats are surrounded. Two lots of out seven of them. They got their knives when
heavies are standing around the gang. Finally they go out, and they go out together with shot-
Barney said to them -- you see, everybody was guns. The cops have determined this seven has
standing there like this, and everybody's pockets to die tonight. So they are at war all the time.
were full of pistols, knives, shotguns -- he says, That's in Watts, in Los Angeles.
"OK, you're dead!" He says, "You're dead! We Want to come and help us? You already got to
got'cha. You're dead." He said, "We came here be dead before that, you see.
to kill ya, and we're going to kill ya." And the little Oh, the newspaper reporter? Yes, she inter-
kids, stiff like this, 'cause they know they got viewed him and left, and Barney and I went on.
guns in their backs and guns in front of them, And I took him out and introduced him to some
guns on the other side, and they are out- Mexican groups whom I met independently --
maneuvered. They recognized some of the yel- they were walking up and down the street.
low hat boys, 'cause they might be Chino, you So, Barney doesn't drink any more, doesn't
know -- the real killers in the next block, or they touch drink.
might be from this site. So they start walking like The firms around there have given him thou-
this -- got to be as macho as they can. sands of dollars. He counts it and then returns
So they all start walking up and down like this nearly all of it, and he has gone from 15% self-
And the gang chief walks up and down too, you finance to 85% self-finance. He's gotten accoun-
see. So they come to a deal. He's going to send tants working for him. All the firms would give
his top man in at night and they are going to ne- him all their money to hold for them, because
gotiate a deal, because they are dead, and their they can't operate unless they have money.
lives are ours. We've killed 'em. Did I see Watts tower?
Slowly, Barney has taken over 70 gangs that Yea, but I was looking at a little porch near
run the whole bloody district, run the employment Watts tower, more than at Watts tower. I was
and they run the gardens. If you want war, we got looking at an area that was already taken over; I
war. was looking at a lot of little gardens and green
So this is the Watts Self-Help Group. You have things.
never been amongst a more hellion movement in Barney is dead. He was shot not long after I
all your life. left there. But he had counted himself dead
Barney and I are going to meet them. We are years before, and we must all count our-selves
going to sit in a whitewashed room with four win- dead before we tackle real risks.
dows and people in arms. Everything in view,

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