Getting to the Roots; or, Everything I Need to Know About

Radical Social Change I Learned in My Garden

Penny Weiss

radical:
of, relating to, or proceeding from a root;
designed to remove the root of a disease or
all diseased tissue;
far-reaching or thorough.

I no longer remember who introduced me to radical feminism in the

1970s. I do recall hearing on many occasions that "radical" meant "to the
root," and that unhke liberal feminism, radical feminism wanted to get
beyond the surface "to the root" of women's oppression. A radical mastec-
tomy, for instance, was sometimes referred to by way of explanation; Uke
a cancer, the disease of patriarchy was to be utterly eradicated, down to its
very roots. Engage, deeply.
This distinction between radical and reformist efforts resonates with
many progressive movements historically, and the references to "roots"
are common. Civil rights advocates, for example, claimed, "Radical means
getting to the root causes of society's injustices and working for root-level,
fundamental change. Radicalism is an honored tradition in Black political
history" (Black Radical Congress 1997). Contrasts are made at the orga-
nizational level, too. In the environmental movement, the Sierra Club and
the Nature Conservancy are in the "reform" column, while Earth First!
and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are listed among the
"radicals" (Wehr 2007).
This etymological image of radical politics getting-to-the-roots is use-
ful for thinking about how and why to engage in work for political change.

WSQ: Women's Studies auarterlyHh 3 & 4 (Fall/Winter 2013) 2013 by Penny Weiss. .. _-
All rights reserved.
132 Penny Weiss

First, to haul plants out by the roots is to destroy them, leaving nothing
behind. Certainly patriarchy, racism, and imperialism are corrupt systems
causing enormous injuries and injustices, and warranting elimination. A
second way in which the analogy between political and plant roots applies
is that plant roots are complex systems, reaching out in multiple direc-
tions. Radicals in diverse movements argue that heterosexism, patriar-
chy, and racism are also systems that reach out and affect wildly diverse
practices and institutions. Third, the metaphor also works insofar as roots
are generally underground, hidden, and protected. Systems of domina-
tion must to some extent use covert strategies and mask their atrocities in
order to survive, whether by calling oppression "natural" and claiming it
benefits "the conamunity," or actually making protesters "disappear." Fur-
ther, many forces that sustain inequalities are dispersed and invisible, hard
to get at, and self-protecting. This is why, for example, feminism speaks
about "unconscious" sexism, and antiracist activists refer to "internahzed"
oppression.

The plague of racism is insidious, entering into our minds

as smoothly and quietly and invisibly as floating airborne
microbes enter into our bodies to find lifelong purchase
in our bloodstreams.
Maya Angelou

Roots as a metaphor, then, provide a powerful picture of pohtical reality,

whfle the idea of uprooting offers an intuitively convincing portrayal of
political change. Its appeal is substantial.
Years after becoming involved with radical social movements and theo-
ries, I became an avid organic gardener. I have pulled up more than my
share of plants and tried to extract them at the root level, either to kill or
kindly transplant them. As I was yanking weeds one day, it occurred to me
that "uprooting" is not so singular a thinggardeners in fact use a range
of tools, tactics, and techniques to uproot plants because plants possess
varying root systems and because factors such as age, weather, season, and
location influence which tools and tactics wifl work best and be least labo-
rious. Pausing among the vegetable beds, I thought about how the same
seemed obviously true of radical pohticswe require multiple strategies
for change that match the ways various practices are held in place in differ-
ent locations and that adapt to external conditions.
 Getting to the Roots 133

Having begun this line of inquiry, I had to dig deeper (it is next to
impossible for a gardener to call it a day). If the analogy between eliminat-
ing oppressive social systems and removing undesired plants is really to
be of maximum use, the political version of uprooting could benefit from
refinement. Analogies are potentially powerful cognitive tools, helping
us transfer knowledge from one subject to another and making less vis-
ible features or implications more prominent. The comparison between
uprooting weeds and ending systems of domination is commonly made
but rarely reflected upon. My goal, then, is to make this familiar analogy
more useful by applying additional information about plant roots to radi-
cal politics; ultimately, my intent is to strengthen arguments and strategies
for engaging in social change.
As I thought that day about how differently one has to approach pull-
ing out pokeweed versus chokeweed, wall ivy, and ground ivy, I came to
realize that other forces, too, were tempting me to rethink issues of "radi-
cal" change. The language of elimination and destruction sometimes left
my pacifist self wanting. It also did not capture how I had worked with an
amazing group of people to establish a "radical," cooperatively run school
without eliminating existing schools. Too, I have worked in organizations
that successfully combine or blend radical and reformist structural ele-
ments (Gottfried and Weiss 1994). Finally, I am aware of the failures of
many radical groups to be inclusive. We know that identifying oneself or
one's organization as "radical" does not necessarily mean we actually do
get to the roots of problems.

If we're full of hatred, we can't really do our work. Hatred

saps all that strength and energy we need to plan.
Csar Chavez

In what follows I accept the defining insight of "radical" politics regarding

the need to get to sustainable solutions to the problems that bedevil and
degrade us, but I draw on the wisdom of the gardener to enrich this fertile
idea and encourage even more productivity. In the garden and in politics,
I will show, we benefit from vigilance, cooperation, education, creativity,
and following the path of least resistance. We can also learn about social
change from the habits and functions of roots, including growing over and
around, and claiming space and resources.
Recalhng Robert Fulghum's Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kin-
134 Penny Weiss

dergarten, my top-ten list, shown in what follows, is based on a study of

everyday experiences, in the garden and as an activist. While it may not be
the case that "everything you need to know about social change you can
learn in the garden," many lessons learned there can broaden our political
options and renew our hopes for deep and lasting change.

1. Be Flexible

Roots have several distinct functions. Interference with any of them may
kill or confine a plant's growth. This knowledge gives gardeners multiple
options for action, and it can be applied to politics as well.
One function of roots is physical supportkeeping a plant from blow-
ing away or bending over too far. Like plants, institutions and social prac-
tices depend on supports that are both more and less visible. For example,
child sexual abuse feeds off conceptions of a private family that cannot be
interfered with and notions of childhood that undermine the credibility
of the young. Beauty pageants rely on corporate sponsorships, the legiti-
macy of the college scholarships they offer, and the narrow, racist ideals
that measure contestants' "beauty." Remove such supports, and the plant/
practice just may topple. That which sustains an institutional practice can
be surprisingly distant, since roots can extend farther than many real-
ize. Moreover, the roots are frequently shallower than often supposed, as
nutrients are most available nearer the surface.
Positively, this growth pattern in plants and institutions shows the
worthiness of "reaching out" strategies that occur at the surface of things,
strategies such as enlisting public health workers to support the decrimi-
nalization of drugs based on decriminalization's link to reduced rates of
HIV infection, or detailing the effects on domestic violence of seemingly
unrelated "nuisance property" laws (Zara 2013). Not every support needs
to be deephaving a lot of roots is an excellent plant survival strategy, as
is having tough ones.
Gathering nutrients is a second vital root function. Instead of labori-
ously ripping out a plant, consider how to keep it from what is vital to
its existence. Basically, you can go after the food supply, the gatherer of
nutrients, or the means of gathering. Although generally unadvisable (my
exception is poison ivy), using pesticides removes from the soil much
of what a plant needs, as does repeatedly planting the same crop in the
same area. Certain bugs and fungi kill root ends that gather the nutrients.
 Getting to the Roots 135

Packed soil makes it tough for roots to find nutrients. Over- and underwa-
tering can be fatal to roots' ability to absorb and transport. Too much com-
petition for nutrients and space from other plants can limit growth or even
be deadly, even to the most invasive plants. Thus, there are practices that
can kill or drastically contain that may be more feasible, more productive,
less strenuous, and less dangerous than digging up or yanking out. These
practices need neither poison the environment nor exhaust the gardener.
The political equivalents here are numerous. We can dry up resources
by changing our consumption patterns and habits and by boycotting
sponsors of destructive projects (from the general "Buy Nothing Day"
and "Turn Off the Television Week" to "girlcotts" of Budweiser for sex-
ist advertising). We can bud and support competing feminist and eco-
logically sound practices and institutions with the potential to crowd out
undesired ones. We can complicate bureaucracies or restrict lobbying
practices, always asking, like a gardener, what are the sustaining nutrients
we might deny, who is gathering them that we might distract or persuade
to do otherwise, and what means are used to collect them that we might
interfere with? A gardener/activist must simultaneously ask him- or her-
self how to increase the nutrients given to other, more desirable plants/
practices or to make them more accessible.
Continuing the theme of multiple paths, sometimes a reasonable or
preferable strategy is using what is around for one's own ends: I have fed
dandelion leaves to my very appreciative guinea pigs and put the leaves in
salads for my decidedly less appreciative children. Such actions challenge
the idea that radical change requires complete eradication; they encourage
us at least to ask whether there is anything among the pesky or oppressive
that is salvageable, useful, or renegotiable and also containable.

2. Use MultipleEven Seemingly ContradictoryTactics Together

Botanists distinguish between two types of root systems. In a taproot, such

as the carrot, the primary root is prominent and has a single, dominant axis
(the carrot is the root). By contrast, a fibrous root system, as in tomatoes,
has no dominant root but branches in every direction.
Pufling out a taproot seems straightforward. The roots do not ven-
ture far, thus presenting one target to aim for. But there are reasons that
many invasive plantsincluding kudzu, burdock, and dandelionare
taproots. They grow deep, and any piece left behind has amazing poten-
136 Penny Weiss

tial to reemerge. As many have witnessed, dandelions easily yield all the
material above ground or just beneath, with no permanent loss following,
for the remaining end will determinedly bring forth new blooms. Simi-
larly, some authoritarian and oppressive institutions may relinquish some
of their most obviously offensive practices without sacrificing much and
with plans for reemergence intact. Eliminating deeply rooted institutions
with narrow support, as with taproots, requires a combination of force and
gentleness. One can vigorously thrust a garden fork along all sides of a dan-
delion while one gently rocks the root in order to extract it in its entirety.
Hence, seemingly contradictory tactics can sometimes work together with
more effectiveness than either can accomplish alone. Confrontation and
coalition can coexist, especially in an ongoing working political relation-
ship, as can separatism and cooperation. Separatism can provide the space
to discover ideas and voices rendered illegitimate or muted in other envi-
ronments; thus, it can also contribute later to more productive "mixed"
groups.
A range of tactics brought to bear on a single issue can speak to the
diverse, interacting forces supporting the practice, can reach people at very
different pohtical places, and can encourage life-sustaining support and
mutual education among political groups. For example, anti-rape activism
can beneficially range from the moderate "intervention training" programs
(MVP, Green Dot, and so forth) and self-defense classes to establishment
of violence-free zones and outing of rapists.

3. Don't Jump to Conclusions About Your Opponents

While taproots are among the deepest, most difficult plants to control,
it is also true that some, including turnips and radishes, grow near or
partly above the surface and are easily extracted; we should not, in other
words, jump to conclusions even after understanding what distinguishes
one group of plants/institutions from another. Similarly, plants that are
impressively invasive if left to reproduce or spread, such as mint, are con-
tainable and highly desirable under different circumstances.
State actors are often deemed complicit in oppression, and rightly so.
Laws codified the treatment of many adults (Native Americans, white
women, and African Americans, among others) as minors or as property,
limiting their rights and their opportunities, while pohce interfered with
or arrested them disproportionately for their normal behaviors, their ille-
 Getting to the Roots 137

gal acts, and their protests. But many state actors came together recently to
challenge the treatment of the approximately "500 girls aged 17 and under
[who] are sold for sex each month in Georgia" (Baker 2010). These actors
included a county commissioner, juvenile court judges, a former mayor,
and state legislators. The world is a complex place, where even carefully
drawn categories are often inadequate and generally established for other
purposes. While roots are typically below the surface of the soil, they can
grow above ground (orchids) or water (mangroves). There are birds that
can swim and fish that canfly.Historically, government employees "consti-
tuted an important network of women's movement activists who perme-
ated the state and engaged in oppositional actions; they often worked in
ways that remained largely unnoticed both by the movement and by the
bureaucracy that employed them. Contrary to the view that social move-
ments exist [only] outside the halls of power, this part of the women's
movement existed within the state from the movement's inception" (Ban-
aszak2010,2).
Politically, while police may be menacing to people and communi-
ties of color and to the undocumented, and unresponsive to or unhelpful
with calls of domestic violence, groups from Human Rights Watch to state
Coalitions Against Sexual Assault agitated and lobbied to get police forces
to process the backlog of rape kits, resulting in "passage of The Sexual
Assault Evidence Submission Act requiring that all law enforcement agen-
cies submit sexual assault evidence within 10 days of collecting it and that
all untested kits be submitted for forensic testing." They did not write off
all actions of all police as corrupt. "So far 92 percent of police jurisdictions
have complied" (Moore 2011).

4. Understand Connections, Relationships, Coalitions

Despite the development of rhizome theory by certain literary theorists

seemingly enamored of them (Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari), rhi-
zomes are among a gardener's toughest foes. Rhizomes, which are techni-
cally underground stems, function as roots. They search far and wide for
water. No matter how much of one you destroy, a very small portion of
the underground stem that may be left behind is afl it takes for the plant
to survive and to once again take over your yard. Even powerful machin-
ery merely scatters rhizome pieces farther into the field. One must root
them out repeatedly, at successively deeper levels, and preferably burn any
138 Penny Weiss

pieces found, since they survive even in a shallow layer of dry soil. Or one
can repeatedly remove the weed without worrying about the roots, even-
tually starving and killing the roots and rhizomes. Or you can let loose the
pigs, who will root out and eat the rhizomes (sometimes, cattle, horses,
and geese will do the same).
Like plants, institutions "reproduce" themselves in a number of ways
and have a variety of connections to their offshoots. Plants that surface
from rhizomes can be far enough apart to look unconnected, as might
some pohtical organizations (often with intentionally, confusingly neu-
tral-sounding names). Similarly, apparently unconnected relationships
between conservative groups and causes vary and need to be understood
as something more complex. Organizations may be modeled after one
another: "In the United States the strategies and organizational structure
of the Heritage Foundation . .. have served as a model for scores of new
conservative think tanks" (Thunert 2003, 7). Links between seemingly
disparate causes need to be understood, too. Sticking for the moment with
conservatives, we should understand why the Christian Coahtion is for
Israel, "Don't Ask Don't Tell," and tax cuts, while they are against Planned
Parenthood, "ObamaCare," the "Fairness Doctrine," and embryonic stem
cell research (Christian Coahtion 2011 ).
Pulling out one plant, even with its roots, is useless in the case of rhi-
zomes. One needs to get at the life-giving connectors beneath even the
roots. On the positive side, to nurture social change, cultivate deep con-
nections and supports between causes and organizations. At the least,
such strategies limit what is lost when one goes down; at best, shared
information and joint actions make all less vulnerable and more prepared.
Rhizomes teach us politically to know the nature of the beast with which
you are wresthng, wear down the opposition by committing yourself "to
be [ing] engaged in the process for the long haul" (CARA 2006,255), and
form deep alliances across boundaries.

5. Be Vigilant

The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and

uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated
into our common life.
JaneAddams
 Getting to the Roofs 139

One lesson from the garden is that most of the time it pays to be cautious
and persistent, even vigilant. Despite the presumed finality contained in
the imagery of "getting to the roots," uprooting does not automatically
equal death. One year, I dug up heaps of wild scallions overtaking my
garden, and (lazily) exposed them to the sun to die. While most plants
would die under such conditions, scallions do not necessarily oblige, and
(resilient organisms that they are) they rerooted in every available crack,
even into space they had not previously managed to occupy. Similarly,
while I did not at all desire its demise, my apple tree that was felled by
a mighty wind has continued to produce apples for several years now,
despite the fact that the majority of its roots are above ground. What one
might reasonably consider obvious "plant debris," or a tree whose days are
numbered, can turn out to be quite capable of resurrection. "Never say
die" seems to be the motto of some greenery, and is also the appropriate
response to it. Rhizomes, as discussed above, are another example where
"getting to the roots" is insufficient.
Even on a less dramatic level, because bigger weeds are more difficult
to control than small ones, and more likely to leave hundreds of unwanted
seeds behind, regularly patrolling the garden and eliminating weeds when
they are small just makes sense. Watching the borders for invaders is also
necessary (despite the reactionary imagery here) since even mulch, fences,
and walls do not prevent unwanted plants from climbing under, over, and
through or stop seeds from being blown to or dropped into your beds.
One need only watch fashion trends or abortion law to see that politi-
cal victories, too, may be only apparent. Prohibitions of abortion have
been followed by its legalization and then by both new and resurrected
restrictions. The tightly laced boned corset gave way to the less restrictive
girdle, which almost disappeared, but is now followed by "high-waisted
power panties" and "sculpting" garments that even extend down to the
elbow (!) to "address [the] troublesome area . . . [of] flabby arms" (slim-
pressions 2009). Similarly, bell hooks discusses how "when contempo-
rary feminist movement was at its peak, sexist biases in books for children
were critiqued. Books 'for free children' were written. Once we ceased
being critically vigilant, the sexism began to reappear" (hooks 2000, 23;
my emphasis). Margaret Murie, an environmental activist who worked for
sixty years to protect Arctic wilderness against developers and oil com-
panies, "regularly returned to Alaska and . . . held off various development
schemes such as a hydroelectric dam, a 'wolf control' project, a natural gas
140 Penny Weiss

pipeline, and a plan to use atomic explosions to create a deepwater port"

(Nies 2002, 290-92). Despite (or along with) her assessment that "envi-
ronmental activists could prevafl," Murie insists "that Congress must be
constantly watched" (292; all my emphases). Victory in the form of voting
rights for Black citizens led to new restrictions, from poll taxes to harass-
ment to congressional redistrictig.
The implications are clear: discard carefiilly, celebrate cautiously, and
check back regularly; know and operate on the assumption that vigilance
is often required and is within the bounds of normal political and botanical
practice. We can be certain that left to their own devices, seeds wifl sprout
where we do not want them and, without our continued activism, cul-
tural practices and organizations that support class or racial inequahty wifl
continue to adapt and thrive. For example, "If they fail to activate direct
methods of resistance, churches will continue to be thoroughly complicit
in male violence" (West 2006,244). Gardens do not generally weed them-
selves, and others' advice about what "moderate" actions constitute a "rea-
sonable" response may underestimate the tenacity that is actually visible
everywhere in the garden and in politics.

6. Follow the Path of Least Resistance

Never use a cannon to kill a fiy.

Confucius

Sometimes perhaps we do more than we need to in order to get the job

done. A gardener knows that it is not always necessary to extract a plant
at root level in order to kill it. There's even a tool one can use, a scuffle, if a
cheap hoe isn't good enough. It scrapes along the surface of the soil to kill
plants. This demands minimal physical strength, does not require bend-
ing, and is quick. It works best on young plants.
The political equivalents are practices one can end fairly easily, with-
out seventy-year struggles, mass protests, endless meetings, lobbying,
pohtical theater, and writing of novels, treatises, constitutions, manifestos,
and op-ed pieces. Often these are more recentyoungerpractices, less
firmly entrenched in law, religion, and culture. Without elaborate systems
of defense, they are more vulnerable. Candidates might include addi-
tional tax breaks for the obscenely wealthy, "defense of marriage" acts that
aflow one state not to recognize the legitimacy of what another legalizes.
 Getting to the Roots 141

or certain forms of cosmetic surgeryperhaps the labiaplasty? These are

relatively new practices, fairly small populations gain financially from or
support them, and we have critiques on the ready from related issues to
put into play when necessary. Such strategies require keeping organiza-
tions in place, on the lookout and ready to inform and move, just as, in the
garden, getting plants when they are vulnerable requires attentiveness and
having the tools at hand.
If the idea is to kill a plant and prevent it from reemerging, sometimes
superficial lopping off is all that a gardener should do. Many advise hoeing
under the surface to make sure stems cannot mischievously sprout new
leaves. But breaking the topsoil brings dormant seeds to the surface where,
guess what, they start new plants (think backlash, pohtically). One may
eliminate one plant but set the stage for more to emerge. Pohtically one
can see this played out when a practice hke suttee (the immolation of a
widow on her husband's funeral pyre) is outlawed, and then the nearly
obsolete practice undergoes a revival, "reinvention as a symbol of national
integrity" (Sudbury 2006,16).
Frequently, rather than digging down and extracting, the easiest thing
to do is cover up unwanted plants with old newspapers and mulch, and
find other fascinating things to do while you wait for the buried plants to
dieand, incidentally, enrich the soil. Finally, gardeners know that the
most productive vegetable gardens need notmaybe even should not
be weed free. Weeds can, for example, provide food for beneficial insects
that prey on the real garden pests. "There is no point in forming a whole
organization when all you really need is a lunch date" (Baumgardner and
Richards 2005,42). Relax.

7. Make and Nurture Connections

Plants generally do not exist in isolation from each other (outside of arti-
ficial conditions, like clay pots). Shade from one tree affects the health
and height of everything in its shadow. The span and depth of one estab-
lished root system affects what is available for a seed that just took root.
But plants do not only "compete"they also protect and cooperate. The
same shadow that thwarts growth also protects smaller plants from harsh
sunlight and assaults associated with weather (wind, hail). Plants clustered
together protect each other from insects that would otherwise have easy
access to their stems or roots.
142 Penny Weiss

We are all in this together. There is a caricature of feminism today that

sees feminists as "not only all white and middle class but also utterly uncon-
cerned about diversity" (Evans 2008, ix). Despite its erroneous assump-
tions, "this often replicated narrative of a homogeneous social movement
has tremendous staying power" (Gilmore 2008, l). The truth is that we
have a history rife with examples of activism where people's "political posi-
tions were based on a material understanding of the intersecting hierar-
chies in their lives. . . . In these coalitions, they incorporated, or at least
sought and tried to incorporate, many perspectives and experiences into
their activism on a number of issues" (2-3). Every radical needs connec-
tion to movements and to other activists with whom to learn, work, and
play. Progressive movements encourage us to acknowledge the mythical
nature and often the undesirability of "independence" and "individuahsm"
gone wild and to learn about relational alternatives to competition and
hierarchy. Like plants, we affect each other and are dependent upon a com-
mon environment for survival and growth. We can lean on one another
when we need to, support others when we are able. Radical movements
are pohticalthey cannot stop at the level of the individual for solutions.
A perfectly healthy seedling placed into exhausted soil with no protec-
tion from the elements is unlikely to flourish. Cooperative engagements
are well worth the effort. In fact, while such political work takes time and
energy, it also renews (Elster et al. 1994).
Cooperation takes a multitude of forms. Gardeners can share runs to
the horse farm for manure and exchange excess vegetables and divided
perennials, while activists can trade computer skills for mailing lists and
join forces for volunteer training, as do the domestic violence agencies in
Saint Louis. As one member of a household might tend the gourds while
another sees to the grape vines, so can activists divide labor and proj-
ects while working in sync and sharing the bounty. Know yourself, your
community, and your alhes; engage in ventures that build community
whfle challenging the oppressive status quo; learn and teach; and share
resources, defeats, celebrations, and skills.

8. Learn New Tricks from Everyone You Can

Potential gardening mistakes are infinite, but many are avoidable with
education and experience. When I free plants I am trying to eradicate, I
usually vigorously shake the soil to reduce the chance that the roots will
 Getting to the Roots 143

survive and to put back into my garden some of the rich, beautiful dirt
I incidentally removed along with the plant. But, with bulbous-rooted
weeds, it turns out that such shaking self-defeatingly frees small bulblets
capable of resprouting. The better way is to toss the whole mess into a hot
compost pile and incorporate it back into the garden later.
At an academic conference I attended, conversation at the lunch table
turned to gardening. Problems were easily shared. Nearly everyone at all
levels of gardening had something to offer. In the gardening world, we
seem readily to grasp one another's problems and have a comprehensible,
easily shared reference hst that names the sources of our ills: poor soil,
insect infestation, transplant stress, insufficient light, drought, overcrowd-
ing, and so on. In gardening we recognize, as possible sources of knowl-
edge and genuine expertise, everything from the little jade we have kept
going on our windowsill and stories from previous generations to favorite
books and neighbor's plots observed in the community garden.
But I wonder if there is an obvious activist equivalent to these easy
conversations or to the garden clubs, garden tours, master gardener orga-
nizations, herb societies, seed and bulb exchanges, how-to manuals, and
city greening projects. My questions include whether radical activists
have amassed a comparable common, easily grasped vocabulary of ills
that plague our activist projects; if we are sometimes less trusting of each
other's goals; whether we as easily share and learn from stories about what
others tried when they hit hurdles such as lack of money, low turnout,
backlash, internal strife, burnout, and defeats, or attempted to understand
why such things happened or how they were avoided or overcome. Grow-
ing things, despite all the pitfalls and failures every gardener encounters,
seems doable: multiple methods are usually respected; the joys are obvi-
ous; a group of relative strangers at lunch openly passes on wisdom and
support. This could be the case with activism, too. In both, "most of the
knowledge produced is generated through 'mutual interview' conversa-
tions among people in the community affected by the problem at hand,"
a "bottom up" method less indebted to experts that we know is reliable
and builds community (Stern 1998, 107). What is required in both farm
and political co-ops is practical wisdom, applied ethics, situated politics.
For our pohtical plots to be as fruitful as our garden plots, we need better
sharing of information in ordinary civil discourse. We can learn from our
contemporaries and from histories of resistancesuch learning contrib-
utes to our expertise, provides encouragement, offers precedents to coun-
144 Penny Weiss

ter opponents, and reminds us of the range of activists and activist projects
with whom and upon which we can build.

9. Be Creative

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate

from the heart whose soil has never been loosened orfertilized
by education) they grow there,firmas weeds among rocks.
Emily Bronte

I have nightmares about ground ivy. Like other ground covers, it sends out
a vining stem that roots at its nodes, and at each spot where it roots it sends
out several more vining stems, each of which roots and sends out more
stems . . . you get the picture. Even more remarkably, uprooting ivy can
prove counterproductive. If you rip it out incompletely, it sends out two
runners where previously there was just one. Speaking from experience, I
know that you can remove 50 percent of the ivy and end up with twice as
much. Surprisingly, one effective strategy against encroaching ground ivy
is a common household product: 20 Mule Team Borax. Borax not only
cleans; it turns out, it can kill. Creative examples like this are unlimited.
Eliminate plants in the cracks of driveways by pouring boiling water or
vinegar on them. Add dish soap to a spray bottle of water to conquer the
dreaded squash bug. A jar lid filled with beer entices slugs more than your
cabbage plants do, leading the slugs to a sudsy, tipsy demise.
Political creativity is a joy to behold, given the parched landscape poli-
tics tends to be much of the time, and the energy it can create. Ignore advice
to stick to traditional tactics, not to turn more people off by engaging in
unconventional acts. Consider the success of the Guerrilla Girls, "feminist
masked avengers" who wear gorilla masks and sandwich boards revealing
the results of their "weenie counts" in art museums (Guerrilla Girls 2009).
Recall how Mother Jones gained ground when she stepped out of more
familiar labor organizing practices and "organized the miners' wives into
'an army' and armed them with tin washtubs, mops, brooms, and pails of
water" to challenge scabs hired by mine owners, and how "newspapers
gave enormous amounts of publicity to the issue of child labor" when she
organized the March of the Mill Children (Nies 2002, 109, 112). Who
would have guessed that a small, unsigned notice announcing a conven-
tion "to discuss the social, civil, and reugious condition and rights of
 Gettingto the Roots 145

women" would bring hundreds of people together in Seneca Falls, New

York, in 1848 for the first women's rights convention (Weiss 2009, lOO)?
Just as advice to rely upon toxic herbicides is usually wrong, playing by the
rules, politically, frequently does not pay off, whereas taking risks, stretch-
ing and rewriting the rules, often opens eyes, builds community, and leads
to effective change. Let loose as you engage, as do radical cheerleaders and
mockumentary makers.

10. Pay Attention to Context

An astonishing array of weeding tools is available. The reason for this range
is that there are so many different plants, settings, and gardeners. A left-
handed gardener will prefer a weeder with a left-handed version, while
those whose do not easily kneel might favor scrapers with long handles.
Some tools are designed for more delicate weeding close to plant stems,
between seedling plants and flowers, or in confined spaces, while others
are designed to remove weeds without damaging the lawn (Dailey 2009).
Location isn't everything, but it matters in deciding upon a tool, as do the
needs and abilities of the gardener.
A gardener must learn whether a plant fancies sun or shade, dry or
moist soil, for putting a low-moisture lover like lavender in damp soil
results in root rot, and ferns wilt in the same sun that purple coneflowers
adore. There simply is no such thing as universally good soil, the perfect
tool, or the right amount of water, just as there isn't one perfect child care
policy or a universal solution to envirormiental racism. More abstractly,
as Susan Bordo notes in her discussion of the "maleness" of philosophy,
"it is the context, not the formal 'grammar,' that is determinative. I do not
believe that there is one grammar of exclusion or one grammar that neces-
sarily 'enables.' Sometimes complexity enables; sometimes it effaces and
mystifies" (1992,202; emphasis in original).
As gardeners need to know their soil, so activists need to know their
community. Do you have to start by building support, or are there already
networks in place and a positive history to build upon? Is the soil/com-
munity exhausted from previous plantings/actions or enriched by them?
Those skills and resources you have access to at the moment determine
which ones you go out looking for in others. Both gardeners and activ-
ists need vision, as well: tomato plants so jam packed they will delight a
canner, a hotline staffed twenty-four hours a day with volunteers in abun-
146 Penny Weiss

dance. Not all fellow gardeners or activists need identical vision or skills,
either. Use what works, know the soil and the climate, local pests and ben-
eficial insects.

Plants and trees... grow in places that are suitable

for them, where, insofar as nature allows, they can
grow and thrive and avoid withering and dying.
Some plants grow infields and others on mountains,
or in marshes, and some cling to stones, and some
grow in the barren sandsand if they were transplanted
to a place you or I would think of as likelier
for vegetation, they would die.
Boethius

While not every community can support the same organizations and
actions, no community needs simply to accept the status quo or write
off certain ventures as forever undoable. It is remarkable that "most col-
lege students believe that their campuses are apolitical" or conservative
(Baumgardner and Richards 2005, 57), for not only are there pockets
of progressives everywhere, but such beliefs justify inaction rather than
engagement, an unwarranted and destructive defeatism. Every soil can be
improved. Creative gardeners grow astonishing bounty in containers, on
roofs, up walls, and on land previously polluted or overfarmed. The forms
that activism can take are as unlimited as our imaginations, as diverse as
the "organization" of gardens, yet all work "to challenge patriarchal [and
other] hierarchies" (Gluck 1998,31).

Concluding Thoughts

Getting to the roots, it turns out, is sometimes simple but often quite oner-
ous. It is occasionally essential, often unnecessary. The differences depend
on the gardener, the garden, and the plant; on the activist, the commu-
nity, and the problem. Rarely is only one strategy available. Seldom are our
opponents or our allies as simple to classify as caricatures would have us
believe. Potential coalitions come in many varieties, especially when we are
part of a community over time. What seems very close to a universal truth
is that we need to be vigilant observers and prepared responders, never
assuming that some good outcome automatically leads to more or greater
 Getting to the Roots 147

change. Just as nearly universally true is that radical change is possible, and
that we need each other and to be mindful of processes to accomplish it.
It is fallacious that we cannot institute anything new until we ehminate all
oppression. It is not even true that every aspect of the status quo is hope-
lessly corrupted, fit only for destruction. There are possibilities in progres-
sive pohtics, as in gardening, for transplanting, reframing, adapting, and
redirecting. The language of elimination and death is sometimes part of
the problem. Here the garden is not just a metaphor but an enterprise we
can learn from and use for keeping ourselves grounded and accountable.
We should probably aspire to be less wasteful and presumptuous and more
inquiring, creative, and respectful lifelong learning gardeners and activists.
What happens to the range of actions that might be deemed "radical" if
we shifted from the idea of "uprooting" as the litmus test? I have encoun-
tered defenses for the "radicalness" of everything from growing one's own
food and using cloth menstrual pads to riding bikes and opposing neolib-
eral economic policies, sometimes even of contradictory practices. As it
grows from this journey to the garden, what seems to distinguish the more
radical is the commitment to inclusive, complementary community; the
democratic nature of the actions and goals; an ongoing willingness to keep
a critical eye not just on outside oppressors but also on internal processes
and policies; and the depth of the analysisespecially hnking issues and
refusing to limit action to an isolated cause.
In the end, it is important and potentially inspiring to remember that
both pohtical institutions and roots are opportunistic. They grow in no
predetermined direction and in whatever environment supplies adequate
resources such as oxygen, water, warmth, and food. A root is a flexible
thing, growing around rocks, for example, in the search for space and food,
or reaching down from a rock face to soil below a cliff. Adventitious roots
can grow out of a stem, branch, or even leaf. Sometimes even the worst
conditions, such as droughts, lead roots to the greatest grovrth.
My favorite image in all this undoubtedly comes from fig species that
actually germinate in the fork of another tree. From the fork it sends long
roots down into the soil below the tree. As the fig tree grows, the roots
form a network around the stem of the host tree. These roots eventually
constrict the trunk of the host to the point where it dies and only the fig
remainshence the name "strangler roots." The lower part of the "trunk"
of thefigin this case is a false trunk composed of the strangler roots (look
up a picture of this impressive feat!).
148 Penny Weiss

This is good news for radical politics. Sometimes, the best way to ehmi-
nate one thing is to plant something else that will eventually strangle it, or
dwarf it through shade, or starve it by having more aggressive roots. We
have many alternative institutions that understand and apply this model,
from schools that employ anti-bias curricula and anarchist publishing
houses to women's health clinics and grassroots lending organizations.
These did not require obliterating capitahsm or poverty before they could
get to work. They grew in the cracks, making room for themselves while
simultaneously putting some limits on the oppressive status quo and pre-
senting opportunities for them to change.
Finally, uprooting and planting are part of the process of gardening, but
there is no moment at which a garden is done. The same is true of politi-
cal change. Even assuming that patriarchy and colonialism are uprooted,
what comes to occupy their space is not ceremoniously planted once and
left to its own devices. The whole needs to be nurtured continuously and
even reconfigured over time, problems and dangers need to be spotted and
addressed, growth of the desired must be encouraged, and education must
be ongoing. The unavoidable truth of the matter is that "we will always
have weeds, and the challenge of ridding our garden of them." Less recog-
nized is that many a "true gardener enjoys the very activity of weeding," as
the activist enjoys the process of continually allowing one's self and com-
munity to evolve, reflect, confront, reimagine, agitate, and grow. "Enjoy
your dirty hands, and happy heart!" (Ledgerwood n.d., 2).

Penny Weiss is director of women's studies and professor of poiiticai science at Saint
Louis University. She is the author or editor of several books, including Canon Fodder:
Historical Women Political Thinkers and Feminist Interpretations of Emma Goldman.
She is indeed an avid gardener.

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