ILLUSTRATIVE OPPOSITION
171
Notes
I. For a wider discussion of the distinction between statecraft and authentic political practice,
see Urbanization Without Cities: The Rise and Decline of Citizenship, (Montreal: Black Rose
Books, 1992), pp. 123-175.
2 . Libertarian municipalism represents the political vision of social ecology, a body of
philosophical and political theory developed by Murray Bookchin. Beginning in the 1950s,
Bookchin, a libertarian socialist himself, began to create a synthesis of Marxist and left
libertarian thought, addressing problems raised by gender oppression, ecology, and
community as well as addressing the new developments of capitalism. He then went on to
formalize a coherent theory of the social origins and solutions to ecological problems,
establishing himself as perhaps the most prominent 'leftist voice' in the ecology movement, a
role to which he is still fiercely committed today. His theory of libertarian municipalism
represents an interpretation of how to gradually transform the current nation-state into a
confederation of direct democratic municipalities, drawing upon the libertarian dimensions
within the French and American revolutionary traditions. For a cogent and compelling
introduction to the idea of libertarian municipalism, read Janet Biehl, The Politics of Social
Ecology (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1998).
3. Ynestra King, a primary organizer of the Women's Pentagon Action, gives an excellent
description of the kind of illustrative and ecological thinking which surrounded the event. See
“If I Can't Dance in Your Revolution, I'm Not Coming," Adrienne Harris and Ynestra King,
eds., Rocking the Ship of State (Boulder: Westview Press, 1989), pp. 281-298.
4. According to Vandana Shiva, "Biotechnology, as the handmaiden of capital in the
post-industrial era, makes it possible to colonize and control that which is autonomous, free
and self-generative. Through reductionism science, capital goes where it has never been
before." For an excellent discussion of biological and cultural generativity, see Vandana Shiva,
"The Seed and the Earth: Biotechnology and the Colonisation of Regeneration," in Vandana
Shiva, ed., Close to Home: Women Reconnect Ecology, Health, and Development Worldivide
(Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1994).
5. Pat Spallone. "The Gene Revolution," Generation Games (Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 1992), p. 120.
6. Andrew Kimbrell. "The Patenting of Life," The Human Body Shop (San Francisco: Harper,
1993), p. 195.
7. Indeed, the patenting of human cell-lines has led to some dramatic legal crises. In 1984,
scientists at the University of California licensed a cell line taken from the spleen of leukemia
patient John Moore to the Genetics Institute who, in turn sold the rights to a Swiss
pharmaceutical company, Sandoz. One estimate places the long-term commercial use of
Moore's genetic material, known as the "Mo Cell line" (patent #4,438,032) at about one billion
dollars. In addition, Moore, whose permission had not been sought for the taking of his cells,
demanded the return of his spleen cells before the California Supreme Court. In response, the
court determined that Moore had no direct claim on his spleen cells but that he did have the
right to sue doctors for not advising him of his rights. See Beth Burrows, "Message in the
Junk: Commodification and Response." Paper presented at New Cwrents in Ecological
Activism Colloquium. Institute for Social Ecology. Plainfield, VT. 1 July 1995.
8. Vandana Shiva, Biotechnology and the Environment (Pulau Pinang, Malaysia: Third World
Network, 1993), p. 2.
9. For a wonderful discussion of the relationship between indigenous knowledge and
intellectual property,' see Vandana Shiva, Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge
(Boston: South End Press, 1997).
10. Paul Rabinow provides an ethnographic account of the relationship between private
industry and genetic research in Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1996).
II. Martin Khor. "500,000 Indian Farmers Rally against GATT and Patenting of Seeds,"
Reswgence,] an. 1993., p. 20.
12. For a particularly insightful discussion of the Human Genome Project, see R.C. Lewontin,
"The Dream of the Human Genome," in Cultures on the Brink: Ideologies of Technology ,
Gretchen Bender and Timothy Druckrey, eds. (Seattle: Bay Press, 1995), pp. 107-129.
13. See Vandan Shiva, Biopiracy.
14. My thanks to Bob Spivey for developing what was truly, a wonderful script.