PLANTIFA: Antifascist Guerilla Gardening as Revolutionary Community Praxis Through Multispecies Resistance Toward Total Liberatio

• In Event: 21st Century Collaborations in (Re)Imagining Activist Teaching: Addressing Social Justice and Sustainability in Teacher Education

Abstract

Responding to the interrelated exploitations of both humans and more-than-humans brought to attention by a global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, this paper addresses the importance of Anti-facism (ANTIFA) together with the idea of considering multispecies resistance and what such consideration means for a pedagogical practice in solidarity with radically reimagining democracy. Drawing from Critical Animal Studies (Best, 2009; Nocella et al., 2014), Anarchism (Haworth, 2012; Suissa, 2010) and EcoJustice Education (Martusewicz et al. 2015), this paper draws attention to the potential for scholar-activist educators to interrupt human supremacy together with diverse species as integral to environmental justice and inextricably linked with social justice. Highlighting the important role of diverse more-than-human (Abrams, 1996; Plumwood, 2002) species in aiding in how we as humans learn to live in accordance with Earth in ways that support ecological, environmental, and social justice, we draw from theoretical and auto-ethnographic (re)presentations of total liberation guerilla gardening we refer to as part of PLANTIFA.

This paper suggests that guerilla gardening offers unique educational opportunities in the form of wholesome, and much needed, praxis. Utilizing anarchist, decolonial (Tuck et al., 2014), and eco-feminist/democratic frameworks (Merchant, 2008; Shiva, 2015), as well as drawing direct inspirations from the Zapatista movement, guerilla gardening presents community activism that connects people with place, history, permaculture, and subversion of hegemony. In the context of education, guerilla gardening offers learners to be immersed with their communities and local ecosystems, beyond mere classroom walls. It is a process of mapping local terrain and history, identifying non-invasive plants and suitable locations, considering food-bearing plants for community needs, as well as the afterward tasks of watering and nurturing. Questions of, “Who, what, or where ought to be included in a democracy?” “Is planting local flora legally or ethically wrong?” and “What eco dilemmas between private property, the tragedy of the commons, ‘ethical consumerism,’ and climate change?” are just some of the questions learners can consider during this process of eco-revanchism. Ultimately, we are connecting wholeheartedly with the anti-fascist movement all over the world by appropriating their acronym (Antifa) with deference as a way to plant seeds of love against hierarchies. We are Plantifa!

Authors

• Brandon Edwards-Schuth, Washington State University - Pullman

• Marco Cerqueira, Washington State University