Maine-made farm goods soon will wind their way to Boston by schooner
It’s art. It’s protest. It’s celebration. And, who knows? It may even be a practical way to get cargo to market.
and come dine with us when the ship comes in!
Check out the upcoming roundtable we will be hosting with our friends who are sailing down from Maine to bring delicious Maine products to the Boston Public Market- join Maine food leaders Marada Cook, Severine v T Fleming, JJ Gonson, Wenzday Jane and more and taste the terroir of Maine in our special Maine taco features, Monday August 31st.
Read more about the Maine Sail Mission in the words of Rivera Sun
Maine Sail Freight Revives A Salty History of Revolution & Independence
by Rivera Sun
In this new millennium marked by the looming threat of transnational trade deals
like the Transpacific Partnership (TPP), The Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), one unusual trade
adventure, Maine Sail Freight will embark on a creative, bold journey as an act of
defiance against business-as-usual. When Maine Sail Freight launches its maiden
voyage at the end of August carrying 11 tons of local, Maine-made cargo, the
Greenhorns – a plucky band of young farmers – and the sailing crew of an historic
wooden schooner are declaring their independence from corporate tyranny and re-
invigorating sail freight as a wind-powered transportation agent of the booming
local food economy.
And, interestingly, they will carry one freight item that has a long history of
revolutionary potential: salt.
Yes, salt.
Over a hundred years before Gandhi’s independence movement kicked the British
Empire out of India, the American colonies were roundly beating the same empire
using tools of nonviolent action – noncooperation, civil disobedience, boycotts,
strikes, blockades, parallel governments, marches, rallies, and self-reliance
programs. The two independence movements even shared parallel salt campaigns.
Both the American Revolution and the India Self-Rule movement used salt as a tool
of resistance and liberation. Gandhi’s 1930 Salt Satyagraha campaign is famous. The
1776 New England saltworks expansion is virtually unknown. Indeed, the well-
organized, clearly identifiable nonviolent campaigns are often overshadowed by
violence and war in the retelling of revolutionary era history. The research,
however, testifies to the nonviolent campaigns pivotal role in the struggle.
Know your history, as the saying goes. The British certainly should have. In 1930, one
hundred and fifty years after American Independence, Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India,
commented on the brewing salt law resistance saying, ” At present the prospect of a
salt campaign does not keep me awake at night.” Too bad . . . if he had stayed awake,
studying the history of salt, colonial governments, and independence movements, he
might have lost sleep . . . but he wouldn’t have lost India.
Over a century ago, in 1776, the British Empire lost the American colonies over a
famous tax on tea . . . and salt.
Everyone knows the story of the Boston Tea Party – rowdy colonists, incensed by the
tax on tea, dressed up as Indians and stormed Boston Harbor to dump the contents
of a ship carrying import goods into the water. The colonials boycotted tea,
demanding “no taxation without representation”. Less well known is that the tax on
tea also contained a tax on salt. At the time, salt was a necessity of both household
survival and for the economic functionality of the colonial fisheries, which exported
salted fish. There were, however, no saltworks along the lengthy coastlines of North
America. The salt used by the colonists was imported from the British Caribbean.
When the new tax laws were announced in the colonies, the colonists declared they
would boycott imported goods from Britain, refusing to cooperate. Of course, they
didn’t use the term “boycott”, which would not be coined until 1880, when the Irish
rebelled against the land agent Charles C. Boycott.
The colonists rebelled against the tax laws, declaring independence. A crippling
embargo was placed on the colonies, cutting off the supply of imported salt entirely.
In response the Continental Congress placed a “bounty” on salt to encourage the
young nation to build saltworks and produce this essential resource. Cape Cod
responded to the call, even inventing new elements of the salt production process.
They rejected the process of boiling out the water, as it used too many cords of
wood, and instead developed a system of producing salt that used wind power to
haul the seawater to the drying troughs, natural solar power to evaporate the water,
and a unique construction of rolling canvas roofs that would keep the rain out of the
troughs, then pull back on sunny days to allow the light in. The production of salt
increased the Americans self-reliance, lessened their dependence on the empire,
and strengthened their ability to resist British oppression.
These three dynamics – increasing self-reliance, lessening dependence, and
strengthening the ability to resist oppression – are all elements of what Gandhi
would later call “constructive program”. Gandhi employed eighteen different
constructive programs in his movement, one of which was the production of salt.
The 1930 Salt Satyagraha was a powerful demonstration of the two-fold strength of
nonviolent action. In addition to the constructive dynamics, it also utilized the
“obstructive” dynamics of noncooperation and mass civil disobedience, as well as
many acts of protest and persuasion including marches, rallies, picketing, letter
writing, and demonstrations.
The story is simple: the British Empire held a monopoly on the production of salt in
colonial India, operating the saltworks to their own profit and charging the Indians
for the staple. In 1930, Gandhi decided to openly defy the salt laws, inciting
thousands of Indians to make and sell salt, rendering the salt laws unenforceable
through mass noncooperation. Gandhi, as always, added his usual political clarity
and dramatic flair to the undertaking. Where the Americans pragmatically made salt
as a necessity of survival and a tool of self-reliance, Gandhi’s marches, public
announcements, mass disobedience, and inimitable sense of humor made humble
salt the downfall of British authority over India. Gandhi overtly challenged the
British over salt . . . and won.
Today, contemporary struggles revolve not around colonies and crowns, but rather
between citizens and trans-national corporations. The basic lessons of salt still hold
true for modern times. Increase self-reliance. Lessen dependency on oppressors.
Refuse cooperation with injustice. Build parallel institutions. As Maine Sail Freight
travels from Portland to Boston, reinvigorating traditional ocean trade routes, the
participants are also joining the growing popular resistance to global corporate
domination. As history will attest, their success lies in the willingness of the people
to non-cooperate with business-as-usual, and instead participate with the
constructive actions of local, sustainable, and renewable economies. Here’s where to
find out more and join the Portland to Boston adventure.
Rivera Sun is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, Billionaire Buddha, and
Steam Drills, Treadmills, and Shooting Stars, the cohost of Occupy Radio, and the
cofounder of the Love-In-Action Network. She tours nationally speaking and
educating in nonviolent civil resistance. Her essays on social justice movements
appear in Truthout and Popular Resistance. www.riverasun.com