Speaker notes from guest lecture at First UU Society of Syracuse Sunday Service on May 30th, 2026.

“Some of us have more and better access to the natural gifts from our Earth than others. We recognize this as land ownership and location, strong family households that enable time to garden and cook, and awareness and knowledge passed between us about plants and their uses and benefits (overcoming “plant-blindness” – Plant blindness is a cognitive bias defined as the inability to notice or appreciate plants in one’s everyday environment. Coined by botanists James Wandersee and Elisabeth Schussler in 1998, it describes our tendency to view plants merely as the static green backdrop for animals, rather than as dynamic, essential living organisms).

And along these lines, some of us have more economic gifts than others that enable access to our natural gifts. We recognize this as generational wealth, freedom from racial redlining, homeownership rather than renting to build equity, and better education opportunities that lead to better job opportunities leading to not having to work two low-income jobs just to survive.

When we garden, who and what are we gardening for beyond ourselves and our planet? Beyond the birds and bees and butterflies, beyond the food we harvest for our own consumption, and beyond the aesthetics, easy access, and fun it provides us?

When we garden at home, whom else do we provide for? When we garden at a community plot, whom else do we provide for? Our gardens and ourselves, Our gardens and others, What does it mean with and without ownership and control, and what and how are you planting?

Social psychologists John French and Bertram Raven developed the foundational model categorizing power in 1959. Today, we recognize that The Foundational Frameworks of Societal Power are rooted in six key sources:

Authority (Legitimacy): Power granted by societal consensus, laws, or institutional positions (e.g., elected officials, judges, or established organizational leadership).

As an example, a recent political flyer focused on the theme of “Feeding our Communities”. But let’s differentiate between charity and mutual aid. Mutual aid is a community-driven model of voluntary resource and service sharing where neighbors support one another. Unlike traditional charity which is often top-down funded through taxes that are many times regressive, or progressively out of touch with reality, it operates on solidarity, not hierarchy, emphasizing peer-to-peer relationships, dignity, and collective action to meet everyday needs and respond to crises. The political accomplishments are incredible, such as raising the minimum SNAP benefits and funding the Double Up Food Bucks program. Though can we envision a time in the future when these types of charity won’t be needed, and where we practice an embedded ethos of mutual aid locally in control of our resources with an empowered populace centered on a systemic focus addressing both immediate material needs (like food or medical care) and the root causes of systemic inequalities? I’m sure many can, I do, and I hope you do too.

Force and Coercion: The ability to impose will through threats, violence, or legal penalties.

We’ll bypass this one, as we are not going to focus our practices on this form. Though we can safely say that those who control the economy, often control the force and coercion in use.

Expertise and Information: Possession of specialized knowledge, skills, or control over communication channels.

The now and the future of power is becoming rooted more and more in information, and the control of it. Even the world wide web, where all information is seemingly available at our fingertips, is controlled by media corporations and tech algorithms. The behemoths of the modern economic system hold the vast majority of this control. Is there a way to take it back?

Cultural Influence (Symbolic Power): The ability to shape societal norms, ideologies, and what is considered “normal” or valuable.

Although this form of power is often tied to education, religion, and the arts; the way this cultural influence is propagated, shared, and accessed, is highly controlled by the previous form of power – Expertise and Information control – as well as the control of economic systems that provide resources for education and the arts.

Referent Power: Influence driven by charisma, respect, social networks, and the ability to inspire others.

Referent power is something we do have the ability to use as strugglers in the empire. Though it is unfortunate that most do not get decently resourced for this, unless they are already part of media or leadership in a field, and are therefore unable to convert that referent power into action at the scale needed.

Control of Resources: Access to and distribution of capital, wealth, and natural resources, which dictates who holds leverage in a community or economy.

The power to pass laws and make organizational decisions, the power to impose or lessen legal penalties, the power of controlling knowledge and information, the power to shape norms, the power to inspire others – I argue are all founded in economy.

My thesis is that any and all social movements must be firmly planted within a solidarity economy grounding. So when you are asked What are you planting? Don’t just think of plants, and seeds, – bushes and trees – think of where you are planting your money.

Annuals have a season, and a limited life span. They do provide food for that season, and they do produce seed for the next, though that often requires your stewardship to save seed, store them properly, and start them up again next year. There’s not a seed bank locally that is providing that service, there rarely is except for some limited seed libraries, and person-to-person sharing.

But there are financial banks that allow you to plant your money not just for the season, but as a perennial strategy for putting your money to work for yourself and for the community. These entities allow your money to provide tenure of service. This is the phrase I use to describe using your money as a perennial planting for more than one season of benefit. These are CDFIs (https://www.ofn.org/what-is-a-cdfi/).

The tenure of service from your money creates an ongoing, growing, and stable resource for reaching those in need. Our CDFI bank here in Syracuse is Cooperative Federal Credit Union.

• Founded in the 1980s in response to apartheid and housing needs locally.
• Based in mission leadership of social justice.
• Board of Directors made up of individuals representative of the low-income communities of need that are serviced.
• Join and plant your money to work over and over again through loan assets reinvested in the community at over 100% of shares (what does this mean, how your money leverages more money from grants, secondary capital, and membership growth).
• Practice democratic solidarity economy as part of a diverse and passionate group of owner-members.

Today, I also want to share with you a new initiative that we launched last month called the Syracuse Solidarity Housing Security Fund intended to provide an avenue for neighbors to help neighbors keep their homes. Envisioned in the spring of 2025 in the face of federal budget cuts and seeing friends lose their jobs from such, the fund is a mutual aid cash assistance program to help people stay in their homes during moments of hardship, enabling them to not fall behind mortgage or rent payments in instances of job loss for example. I’ve got flyers in the back, or you can go to coopfed.org, and as a special gift – the first 25 donors who contribute $50 or more before June 15 receive a limited edition Investing in People t-shirt with artwork from local artist Cayetano Valenzuela of Black Rabbit Studios.

The housing fund program is also made possible by the fiscal sponsorship of the Alchemical Nursery Project as the 501(c)3 that provides a tax exemption for donors. Alchemical is a project I started in 2008 with 2 other friends, that has grown to stewarding, with the use of Permaculture practices and ethics, 4 different green mini-meadow and mini-forest garden sites in the city, with dozens of edible species available for free pick. (Tell the story of how this started with Magda, the Syracuse Peace Council and the Advisory Committee, the Muslim American Care & Compassion Alliance, and the free health clinic.)

But we didn’t intend to stop there at the borders of our stewarded lands, The Alchemical Nursery was also formed to support intentionality of community and regenerative growth socially and economically. Our Founders are behind the creation and fiscal sponsorship of the New York Cooperative Summit (www.newyorkcooperative.org). I have also been bringing the expertise I have accumulated over the years in the cooperative business model to the launching of Equity Now 315 – a pipeline from Micron funds supporting construction trades workforce development to housing cooperative creation and ownership by local residents.

The possibilities are endless when we plant perennially, not just in a garden, but with our money in the communities we thrive to save.

Let’s take back the power held by corporations, politics, media, and extractive profit models in Stewarding our Land and Gifts. Thank you.