Food Not Bombs has participated in hundreds of events over the years and each one was unique. We do not have the space in this book to tell every story. Therefore, we have chosen one peak event from three "era" we have identified: The Food Not Bombs Free Concert for Disarmament on May 2, 1982 from The Cambridge Collective Era (1981-1982); the first APT Nevada Test Site Action on March 10-17, 1988 from The Affinity Group Era (1984-1988); and, the Labor Day arrests of Food Not Bombs-San Francisco in Golden Gate Park on September 5, 1988 from The National Organizing Era (1988-1991). During the first few years, we were a collective with a totally shared economy, living and working cooperatively in Cambridge, Massachusetts; later, we evolved into affinity groups of like-minded activists who lived close to each other and did the day-to-day Food Not Bombs work; and still later, we evolved into a loose-knit network of autonomous organizations all across the country. The following is a recollection of events which took place during each of these era.

On the day we had planned for the free concert, we got up extra early. As we had every morning for the last year, two members of the collective would leave the house with our four dog friends who also lived in our house and pile into our '67 Dodge van. The first stop was always the bakery in Harvard Square. The manager there insisted that we arrive at their door no earlier than 7:30 am and no later than 7:35 am, exactly. If we were even a couple of minutes late, the manager would have already put the left-over muffins and bread into the trash compactor. In our first year, we only missed five days, and three of those were major snow storm days. As we were driving, we began reminiscing about the first time we did this for our first action. This would have been for the soup line at the First National Bank of Boston stockholders' meeting outside the Federal Reserve Bank in March of '81.

As nuclear power protesters, we wanted to do street theatre which would remind people of a 1930s style soup kitchen to highlight the waste of valuable resources on capital intensive projects such as nuclear power while many people were hungry and homeless right here in this country. At first, we thought we would have actors play the part of the homeless. Then we realized we could get people who were actually homeless to participate by making an invitation we could distribute at Pine Street and other shelters. We collected day-old bread from a bakery and some fruit and vegetables from the local coop on the morning of the stockholders' meeting and cooked a huge pot of soup. We set up a table at the Federal Reserve Building in Boston and to our surprise, over one hundred people showed up for a meal. The action was sponsored by a task force of the Clamshell Alliance to highlight how the directors of the bank, the nuclear utilities, and the building contractors were all interlocked; that is, they were all the same people. We were not sure we wouldn't be arrested, but we did it anyway. It was a tremendous success; even some sympathetic stockholders stopped by and donated a dollar or two.

After collecting the bread at the bakery in Harvard Square, we proceeded to Fresh Pond, the only park in the city of Cambridge where it was legal to allow dogs to run off the leash. Our four dog friends, Jasmine, Arrow, Sage, and Yoda, were very important members of the collective. They made sure we got up every morning to do our food collection and take them for their walk at Fresh Pond. They also played an important role in bringing the collective together in the first place. Jasmine had a litter of puppies in the summer of 1980. Three of the puppies were adopted by friends who, at the time, all lived in different houses in different neighborhoods. Over the next year, these friends became closer friends, in part because of the relationship of the dogs, and eventually, they all moved in together as the founding members of the FNB collective. Hence, Jasmine and three of her puppies all ended up living together. And every day, someone in the collective would go with the dogs to Fresh Pond for a walk. Sometimes, everyone in the collective would go for these walks and we would spend the time thinking about and planning the future of the collective. It was at one such walk that one of our most elaborate plans for a series of actions was developed.

Food Not Bombs planned a series of three protest marches from Cambridge City Hall to Draper Weapons Research Lab of MIT in the summer/fall of 1981. We designed these marches to highlight how the international politics of nuclear war directly affects local politics; specifically, the diversion of resources from human needs reduces services for the people of Cambridge. It was not a coincidence that our house was half way between City Hall and Draper Labs. The first march was on Hiroshima Day, Aug. 6. FNB provided food and organized a speak-out in the triangle of public land in the middle of the street at the entrance to Draper Labs. To dramatize what would happen if a one megaton nuclear weapon hit Draper Labs, we burned a copy of the Boston telephone book, pointing out that all of the people in this book could be vaporized in less time than it takes for it to burn. The next march was on October 10 and was called Music and March to End the Arms Race. Again, we marched from City Hall to Draper Labs. This time General Duffy, the president of Draper Labs, met with us in advance. Other groups which had protested at Draper Labs had been arrested for stepping off the sidewalk onto Draper Labs property. We were requesting permission to gather and serve food right in the courtyard on the property. We assured him we would be nonviolent and had a nice talk with him about peace and nuclear weapons. He assured us that he wanted peace as well and that nuclear weapons were necessary for peace in our modern world. Since we were in apparent agreement, he agreed to let us protest on Draper property. So we did, with all the employees looking out their windows at us with our banners, posters, and food table. Before the next march which was called the Walk For Peace, we tabled in Brattle Square in the snow to educate the Christmas shoppers about the dangers of nuclear weapons being developed right here in our town. At that time, in 1981, many people were not yet aware of the danger or that it was going on right in our backyard. By this time, we were very familiar to all the city councilors and we were able to have this walk co-sponsored by Cambridge City Council. On December 20, 1981, it was only 4 degrees outside but we marched from Cambridge Commons, past City Hall to Draper Lab anyway. To our amazement, 75 people showed up to march. We made a huge white dove out of bed sheets and sticks which took several people to carry. This Peace Dove lead the way.

The walk around Fresh Pond was invigorating, as usual, and we were able to review our plans for the concert later that day. From there, we drove to Bread and Circus, an organic food store, where we loaded boxes of produce and buckets of tofu which had been set aside for us. It never ceased to amaze us how much food we were able to recover. We had a network of several neighborhood grocery stores which we would visit to collect food. While we were making the rounds, we got to talking about how this collection network had grown and how that allowed us to be able to feed large numbers of people for very little money. This got us to thinking about the first very large event we fed.

The day before Halloween, October 30, 1981 Vice president George Bush was speaking to the stockholders of M.I.T. We made our first Food Not Bombs banner for this action. We set up our food table and there were the usual speeches. The crowd was several thousand people in costume. After the speeches, we marched onto Mass. Ave. and stood outside the building where Bush was speaking and chanted and beat on drums. We were so loud he had to cut his talk short. We brought a puppet of Bush which we burned in effigy. Someone burned an American flag. Soon, wooden police barricades became a bonfire in the center of the road and people continued drumming and dancing and chanting until after Bush had gone.

We unload the produce and bread at the Food Not Bombs house and started washing what we need to cook. About six people were already cutting vegetables and stirring large pots of soup. We had a whole crew just preparing food while another crew was at the park assembling the stage and the sound system. The Land of the Younger Self was also being created. It was a make believe land for everyone who wanted to play like a child for the day. It had a bubble making area, a face painting area, and a creative play area. Vendors with crystals, scarves, and tie-dye clothes also arrived and displayed their wares. The food arrived and was placed with the literature table next to the stage. When the music started, people gathered from all over the neighborhood. Everyone came.

Our second street action was on August 20, 1981 outside a weapons bazaar at Boston University. The night before, we spray-painted the outline of "dead" bodies on the ground, stenciled mushroom clouds with the word "Today?", and wheat-pasted "War is Murder For Profit" posters along the route we knew the weapons buyers and sellers would take from their hotel to the conference hall. The day of bazaar, we distributed free food and flyers protesting this profiteering off weapons of mass destruction. The literature had the mushroom cloud stencil on it and we held signs that were also stenciled. Samuel Day of the Progressive wrote a great article about the contrast between the free meal outside and the $90 lunch he had with a general. He mentioned that the general made sure he didn't step on the spray-painted dead bodies.

The concert started with Dawna Hammers Graham performing on stage and an exhibition of martial arts happening on the far side of the park. People of every size, shape, and color came to the call of the music. As the reggae band One People rocked, people danced and had a great time. Lost Time Inity, Anni Loui and Company and Jane Albert all performed. By the time the Art of Black Dance and Music was to perform at the end of the day, it had clouded up and started to rain. But, it was a tremendous success for all involved. A peaceful concert at which thousands of neighbors danced and had fun with plenty to eat, all for free from Food Not Bombs.

After this concert, our organizing was focused towards building momentum for a giant disarmament rally on June 12, 1982 in New York City's Central Park. On May 12, we served food on the Rainbow Warrior at a press conference related to this upcoming event. This was the same Rainbow Warrior that the French government bombed and sank when Greenpeace was protesting nuclear testing in the South Seas. Much of the food for the New Englanders For Peace Rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on May 16th was shipped by the Rainbow Warrior. At this rally outside the fence at Pease Air Force Base, we prepared and cooked food in a field kitchen in the middle of a big field with a hose for running water. We served an incredible number of meals. We brought so much food, at the end of the day we were giving out bags of leftover fresh produce. During the last song, people danced holding carrots to the sun. The whole week before the June 12 International March For Nuclear Disarmament in New York, Food Not Bombs staffed tables on the Avenue of The Americas from mid-morning to 2 the next morning. We met activists from all over the world. As everybody knows, over one million people attended that rally to protest nuclear weapons. Alexander Haig, the Secretary of Defense at the time, when asked by a reporter if this large demonstration would make a difference on U.S. policy, responded with, "Let them protest all they want as long as they pay their taxes!"

San Francisco Food Not Bombs, which had just started, and Boston Food Not Bombs met in the dark of night under the dessert sky in Nevada. We were at an encampment called Peace Camp and activists from all over the world were meeting here to take nonviolent direct action against the nuclear weapons testing going on across the dessert. This was in the spring of 1988. Sponsored by the American Peace Test, this action would be the the first joint action by Food Not Bombs groups from across the country.

The next morning, we loaded equipment into our truck and drove from Peace Camp to the main gate. We set up with the Wackenhuts (a private army hired to "protect" the test site) amassed across the gate. They looked as though they wanted to arrest us any minute. However, we knew it was still early and the action had not yet begun. We were preparing a breakfast of miso soup and rice and beans for the activists who would gather here soon. With the adrenaline running high, we thought back to a similar event at which Food Not Bombs had fed large numbers of activists preparing to challenge government war making by nonviolent direct action at the Federal Building in Boston.

In the spring of 1985, the U.S.-backed government in El Salvador was massacring civilians and the contras were terrorizing Nicaragua. Congress was preparing to vote on sending still more tax dollars to these murderers. So the Pledge of Resistance, a national organization committed to resisting U.S. military intervention in Central America, was planning actions in an effort to stop further bloodshed. Many of the volunteers in Food Not Bombs were active in the Pledge of Resistance. If Congress voted in favor of sending more aid, we planned the shutdown of the J.F.K. Federal Building by occupation 24 hours after the vote. Since we would only have short notice, Food Not bombs took a risk that the vote would happen on May 6th and printed thousands of posters announcing the May 7th action. The vote did occur on May 6th, the Pledge consented to the action and our posters hit the street. The next day, we arrived with our food and literature tables. The crowed quickly grew. Before long, over 500 people had entered the lobby of the Federal Building and thousands more were outside in the plaza chanting and showing their anger. People sat on the floor filling every inch of the lobby. As people climbed over the protesters to get into the building, the protesters sang and spoke out against contra aid. The police tried to convince us to leave, then they threated us with arrest. We were solid in our resistance and refused to leave. A very powerful speak-out was held by the protesters while occupying the building. When the building was closed at six p.m., the police started the arrests. Outside, supporters cheered and Food Not Bombs continued feeding people. Over 500 activists were arrested that day in one of Boston's most successful nonviolent direct actions. Our food support helped make it possible for the protesters to stay at the building all day and most of the night.

After a nervous morning preparing miso soup under the intense scrutiny of the Wackenhuts the first activists started gathering at the main gate. There was uncertainty in the air about what the reaction of the Wackenhuts would be since we were in the desert far from the public eye. A cold, anxious affinity group huddled around our table drinking hot miso while building up the courage to act. Bus loads of workers were beginning to rush past us and through the gate into the Test Site. We could see many more buses speeding towards us down the highway off in the distance. Suddenly, an affinity group walked onto the road and the string of busses came to a halt. The Wackenhuts ran out and started roughly grabbing and dragging the blockaders off the road. As soon as they cleared the first affinity group from the path of the buses, another affinity group filled the street. Before long, 30 or 40 vehicles were backed-up from the gate, up the ramp, and onto the highway. Our action was making the bus loads of workers late to their jobs of preparing nuclear weapons tests. Just like at Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, the cost of nuclear testing was slowly rising. The blockade continued for over an hour as many affinity groups took over the street. Some were arrested and placed in the pen awaiting transportation to Beatty where they would be booked and released. Others were just beaten upon and thrown from the roadway. All of us were excited about the success of the first day of our week-long action. As we cleaned and packed up our table and headed back to Peace Camp across the highway, we reflected on the wide variety of actions Food Not Bombs had been involved in over the past few years. The Boston Pee Party was a funny example.

During the time just before the Boston Pee Party on October 29, 1986, we were confronted by a crazy array of issues. Reagan had kicked the general level of national repression to heights by demanding widespread mandatory drug testing using the "war on drugs" as an excuse. One of the members of Food Not Bombs worked as a technician in a lab responsible for drug testing and knew just how unreliable the tests really were. Innocent people were losing their jobs. The media was awash with stories about the menace of drugs and the need to cast aside civil liberties to win this "war" at any cost. It occurred to us that political activists would make an easy target for this hysteria. We planned to respond to this repression by "flooding the White House" with urine samples. However, we dropped the idea for fear we would all end up in prison. But the idea was too good to be forgotten and several weeks later we were back to planning the Boston Pee Party at the federal building. We designed a flyer announcing a "piss-in" on October 29 but because of the "war on drugs" hysteria we didn't put a phone number on it so no one would get harassed. We obtained a supply of urine sample jars like the ones used in hospitals in which to collect urine. Our flyer had the White House address on it so people could mail their urine to Reagan from the privacy of their own home. For those who came to the protest, we had jars and printed address labels so people could mail the samples directly from the protest. We mailed numerous jars of urine to the White House that day, although we never really knew how much urine was mailed nationally. However, Abbie Hoffman heard about our action and mentioned it in his book STEAL THIS URINE TEST . Only the White House really knows the success of our "piss-in" urine testing protest action.

Out in the dessert the next day, an ad hoc affinity group formed during breakfast. It was composed of members of Food Not Bombs and several others. They named themselves the Jackrabbit. This affinity group planned to escalate tactics by attempting to cross the dessert undetected and enter the town of Mercury, a city consisting entirely of technicians and scientists devoted to nuclear weapons testing, about eight miles into the test site from the main gate. At the daily Peace Camp strategy meeting the night before, the "leaders" had discouraged "back country" actions like walking across the dessert to Mercury because they felt it was too dangerous. The authorities had told them anyone caught entering Mercury would be charged with a felony and face six months in jail. We felt that if they didn't want us there, it was exactly where we should go; besides, what were they hiding? So the Jackrabbit affinity group piled into a van and took the highway north to a pass between two prehistoric treeless mountain ranges. By now it was daylight and we feared we might be seen, even up in the mountains, by one of the surveillance helicopters. When the Highway Patrol was out of sight, the driver pulled off the road. Seven of us jumped out of the van and ran down a slope and climbed under the barbed wire fence marking the boundary of the test site. We carried water, fruit, and of course, carrots. We raced straight up the side of a steep rocky cliff. Our path wove just north of the crest of the ridge so we would be out of sight of the Wackenhuts down in the valley around the main gate. The flower and wild life up there amongst the rocks were beautiful and brightly colored. The beauty inspired moving conversations about the contrast between this beauty and the nuclear destruction occurring right at the end of this mountain range. As we walked along, we would stop and place stones in the shape of peace symbols. It was so beautiful, we wanted to forget that our presence on this ridge was a protest against nuclear testing and just enjoy our hiking trip. But we were rudely reminded when a surveillance helicopter flew over the mountain we were on. We quickly jumped down onto a ledge behind some high rocks. The Wackenhuts in the helicopter didn't seem to see us but we weren't too sure. We decided to head for the valley floor and get as close to Mercury as possible before we were caught. When we got to the valley floor, we found an marker for an old ground zero caped in clay. We put it in the center of a giant peace symbol made of rocks. As we made the long hike across the dessert to Mercury, it became clear we had not yet been spotted. During the afternoon, we happened upon a building that seemed like it was supposed to represent a house just outside the blast area. Several hours later, we came to a white water tank sitting at the edge of the town of Mercury. Not far away, we could see two guys in a pick-up who looked like they were hiding behind the tank drinking beers. We were trying to decide what we should do when we got to into Mercury when several white pickup trucks sped over to where we were and men with machine guns jumped out, surrounded us, and ordered us to lay on our stomachs. They frisked us, handcuffed us and put us in one of the vans. As we were being transported out of Mercury, we passed by an amazing array of "star wars" style weapons. We commented to each other about them, but were told by the guards to look straight ahead and not to look or talk about these weapons. We all stared at the weapons anyway and talked about how their sinister appearance was a clear reflection of the mentality of those who would think building nuclear bombs was a good idea. Just like prisoners of war, we were ordered out of the van and march at gun point into the "cage", a large fenced in area of the desert divided into a mens section and a womens section near the main gate. It was cold and getting dark and our food had been confiscated. Once imprisoned and with out food our conversation naturally turned to protests involving fasting.

The Veterans Fast For Life came to mind. This was one of Food Not Bombs most empowering events we had the privilege to attend. Veterans all over the country were planning to fast and hold rallies in several cities. In Boston, they made an encampment on the Boston Common with tents and banners. They were highly visible and outspoken. We went to the Commons with our biggest banner to support their protest against the secret U.S. wars in Central America. However, this time we didn't bring our food because we wanted to honor the veterans who were fasting. Since we were well known by this time by the people living on the streets around the Commons, they would come up to us and ask were was our food. We told they about the fast and they were shocked. They had never seen Food Not Bombs tables without food.

As we sat in the cage, our supporters outside the main gate were busy. A crowd, which we could see from the cage, had gathered at the main gate earlier in the day. More blockade actions across the road at the main gate had resulted in many arrests and consequently, more people in the cage. Food Not Bombs had been there all day feeding the crowd. Now that the day was coming to an end, the supporters who remained were drumming and dancing in celebration of another successful day of protest. Suddenly, inside the cage, oranges and apples started falling from the sky. We looked across the desert to our friends outside the fence. They were throwing food to us from this incredible distance. Then, spontaneously, a person from the crowd high-jumped over the fence and came running towards the cage. With the Wackenhuts in hot pursuit, this mysterious person ran up to the fence around the cage and climbed into our prison before the Wackenhuts could grab him. On his back was a bag of food for the us. While we ate and waited for the sheriff's department to take use to Beatty for booking, we told the story about another time the police tried to stop us from feeding people during our protests outside the World Series at Fenway Park in Kenmore Square, Boston.

The victories of the Boston Red Sox looked like they might be a big loss for the poor and homeless of Kenmore Square. The local business association was seeing dollar signs with each Red Sox win. The "bums, punks, and other undesirables" would have to be cleared from the Square if business was to succeed. The business association, with the advice of the Boston Police, sent out a newsletter demanding every merchant lock their dumpsters and turn in those businesses that don't, post signs asking customers not to give money to beggars, and report all sightings of undesirables, punks, and bums to the police. They were encouraged to make notes on the time and location of each incident, and if you could, get a photo to include with your notes to the police. In a few days the cops were telling people to leave town or face arrest. We wrote a letter of protest to the business association, the police, and the newspapers pointing out that homeless people had the same rights as everyone else and that this discrimination was leading down a dangerous road. Who would be the next victim of this kind of fascist logic? Food Not Bombs started sponsoring "welcome to Kenmore" meetings with free food in the park with the idea of introducing the business people to the homeless people who lived under the overpass, inside doorways, and in the back alleys of Kenmore Square. The press came and the homeless came, but of course, the business association members didn't. After several very visible demonstrations and embarrassing press coverage which exposed their illegal intentions, the business association withdrew the letter and quietly dropped the issue. From most reports, the only increase in robbery in Kenmore Square during this time came from the businesses which jacked up their prices to cash in on the World Series.

Ultimately, we were all taken to Tonopah in the sheriff's buses and booked there. This was a three hour drive from the main gate, one way! With the hundreds of arrestees and hundreds more supporters arriving to retrieve them, we overran this small town out in the middle of the dessert. There were so many of us, we completely consumed all of the food at one restaurant. The people working there that night could not recall ever seeing a line at the door, not even on New Years Eve, their traditional biggest night of the year. We broke the record for their busiest night ever. It was like one big party all over town for several hours without any incidents. Finally, after everyone was released from the school gym where the booking took place and almost everyone had a hot meal or a cold drink, we managed to find rides for all and headed back to Peace Camp.

By the summer of 1988, there were Food Not Bombs groups operating in Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. But, the event that actually catapulted Food Not Bombs into the national and even international spotlight was the Labor Day arrests in Golden Gate Park. The following stories are about the four weeks proceeding Labor Day during which time Food Not Bombs volunteers had been repeatedly arrested for feeding the homeless. By Labor Day, support had grown to the point where over 700 people came along with hundreds of homeless folks, police, and press people. The event was front page news all over the world.

The past several weeks have been crazy with reporters interviewing us; city officials supposedly offering us a building to use for cooking and serving (it actually wasn't available or their to give away in the first place); and the press misrepresenting all of it so that we look uncooperative and implied we had sinister intentions. And of course, there were all the arrests to deal with. Today is Labor Day, a Monday holiday, so we will need to cook an extra large amount of food to serve at lunch. Each successive Monday, we have been attracting larger numbers of homeless and supporters, not to mention police, in response to all the press coverage and controversy of the previous arrests. To think back to how innocently we stumbled into this bizarre situation is mind numbing.

Although we had been serving free food in Golden Gate Park every Monday since May, the police stopped by our table on the first Monday in August and told us we couldn't serve food here. We told them we believed we didn't need a permit to give away free food, that it was a Constitutionally protected activity, but we had written the Parks Department anyway. We told the police we had hand delivered a letter on July 11 asking for a permit but had not yet received an answer. The cops left but as we were loading the last boxes at the end of our day of food service, two cops came up to us and demanded to know "What are you doing here?" and "Do you have a permit to be here?". We told them that we were just leaving. At that point, the police started giving us tickets for things we weren't even doing like not having our seat belts on, driving with a broken tail light and things we couldn't even figure out. We were legally parked with the engine off and we were getting moving violations. We knew we were in trouble. While signing the citation, the person sitting in the driver's seat was punch in the face by one of the cops for making "inappropriate" comments. The cop opened the door of the truck, pulled the person out, threw him on the hood of the vehicle, and handcuffed him. A police wagon arrived and the "driver" was taken to jail. An hour later he was relieved without charges. We realized this Monday's regular Haight and Stanyan lunch might be visited again by these same two cops and we were apprehensive as we cooked our huge pots of miso soup. We loaded up the truck, drove to Haight and Stanyan, and unloaded the truck with the help of those who had come to eat, setting up along the sidewalk. People lined up and we began serving. Within minutes, police vans and cops on horses started coming from every direction. Two long lines of riot police with riot sticks and helmets marched out of the woods and surrounded the tables and volunteers. The captain in charge ordered them to arrest the servers. Nine of us were handcuffed and lead to an awaiting police wagon. The energy in the police van was high. Food Not Bombs could be arrested for serving free food in a public park. This could be the beginning of America's own "Gandhian Salt Marches."

After finishing lunch preparation, we loaded the truck with food. We didn't want to drive directly to Golden Gate Park because we were afraid we might have all our food confiscated before we even started. So we unload the food at different locations around Buena Vista park, a smaller park about 8 blocks down Haight Street from where we normally serve. We moved the truck out of the area so the police would be unable to tow it as a form of harassment. Musicians and speakers addressed the crowd of several hundred who had answered our call for help to protect our right to share free food with people who needed it. Everyone was invited to help carry the boxes of food, literature, and picnic blankets (our tables had been confiscated by the police) down Haight Street to Golden Gate Park. Those who were not carrying food or equipment were encouraged to bang on pots and other noise makers as we marched. That was a popular suggestion, so off we went chanting "food not bombs, food not bombs" as we poured onto Haight Street.

We never would have guessed that the Mayor would want to meet with us to negotiate an end this situation. The arrests were rapidly becoming a political embarrassment. City officials had obviously made a big mistake when they ordered the arrest of Food Not Bombs. The support was coming in from around the country and growing. People were outraged. It was almost unimaginable that anyone in this country could be arrested for feeding the poor in a city park. The Mayor, Chief of Police, the City Attorney, other city officials, representatives from the A.C.L.U., and community activists all met together to negotiate. The Food Not Bombs' correspondence with the city showed that the police were using the parks department to create a problem that didn't exist. There were no permits needed for this kind of activity and the city looked stupid. We decided at this meeting to meet again the next day; we also agreed not to talk to the press and that there would be no more arrests until we reached a settlement. On the way to the second meeting, a Food Not Bombs negotiator was arrested for hugging a homeless Vietnam vet who was, at that moment, planning to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge because he was sick of living in the park. After 45 minutes, the police released him and he was able to attend the meeting only because it started late. The Food Not Bombs representatives decided that they weren't willing to continue the negotiations because the city had proved itself untrustworthy by arresting a negotiator on the way to the meeting and for having released a press statement the night before derogatory of Food Not Bombs. We told the mayor we would continue serving free food in the park and we would leave it up to him to decide whether to order more arrests. He freaked out. He was not used to being held accountable or having his authority questioned. He needed a way out. He offered us a six week temporary permit. Even though he was late to opening night at the Opera, he held a press conference to announce this "settlement" and called Food Not Bombs "pioneers in the effort to end homelessness and hunger."

The crowd, which had swelled to several hundred, filled one corner of Golden Gate Park. Food Not Bombs volunteers spread out long blue tarps on the ground and set out the food. When dozens of people started serving the crowd, the riot police moved into the park clutching their night sticks with the plastic visors of their helmets pulled down. At one point, a cop started to pound a server with his club. A Channel 5 camera operator was filming this when the supervising police lieutenant calmly walked up behind the camera operator and knocked him to the ground, cutting his face on the camera. The police marched around the field trying to cordon off areas but the food serving kept moving and it became impossible for the police to take control of any ground. Soon the protesters where marching behind the lines of riot police dancing and chanting in a parody of their attempt to control. One line wove into a circle and everyone held hands and sang "Give Peace a Chance." Fifty four servers were ultimately arrested. Little did we know his was not going to be the end of wholesale police attacks against San Francisco Food Not Bombs.

In the summer of 1989, the homeless in several cities across the nation created communities for support which they called Tent City. Tent Cities became major actions Food Not Bombs in New York and San Francisco. These Tent Cities brought the humanity of the poor to the public eye. Mayors in both cities were in crisis because the homeless situation which was getting worse and because of the violent attacks against the homeless by frustrated taxpayers. They have no solutions to poverty because they are unwilling to address fundamental failures of centralized authority. This resulted in the Mayors highlighting their own inadequate "solutions" to this dire situation. At the food tables in San Francisco, the homeless told stories about how, the night before, the police came into the park and beat people and destroyed their camps. Some were hauled off to jail. One night, the fire department came and sprayed people with water. On another night, the police drove into the park and shone floodlights on everyone and threatened them over a loudspeaker. After three days of this, people asked us to help stop the police attacks. We moved our daily noontime food service from United Nations Plaza to City Hall. We started serving at 5 o'clock on June 28 and served hot meals 24 hours a day. The homeless had created a Tent City across the street from City Hall in Civic Center Plaza. Tent City created hope and encouraged self empowerment. The Mayor would threaten to send in the police and the community would rally together. After the mayor ordered that the "residents" of the park couldn't use tents or sleep at any time, there was a spontaneous march to the mayor's office where a giant Food Not Bombs banner was hung from the mayor's balcony. On July 12, the Police Activities League moved a carnival, complete with bumper cars and Ferris wheels, into Civic Center plaza. The fair was named after "Emperor Norton", San Francisco's most famous homeless person of the 1800's. When we saw the police, we feared we might be arrested to make room for the carnival so we placed several of our buckets of soup out of sight. On Thursday July 13, at 6 o'clock, the police moved in, arrested several people, and took the soup we were serving. As soon as the police left, we were back with more soup and bread. When the police walked by again, they found us serving and arrested us again. The fact that we were able to bounce right back several times was a real embarrassment, the kind of embarrassment they would feel many more times in the coming years. The next day, in response to the the arrests. a large rally developed at noon at City Hall. Food Not Bombs brought more food for lunch. One group of people, inspired by Tiananmen Square protests in May, came with a 15 foot tall "Goddess of Free Food", complete with a shopping cart in one hand and a carrot in the other. Again riot police were in the wings. When the giant Food Not Bombs banner was unfurled on the steps of city hall, the people holding it were arrested. After spending the afternoon locked in a police wagon, those arrested were taken to Northern police station and had a court order banning free food distribution read to them. One person was then taken to Superior Court where he got to defend himself. He called the court order "morally incomprehensible". He said, "It's going to become burdensome to taxpayers in San Francisco, because hundreds and hundreds of us will be arrested. We will in no way comply with this act of judicial terrorism". These statement would eventually become a reality. Food Not Bombs continued to exert its right to serve free food every day. Food Not Bombs continued being arrested and coming right back with more food as soon as the police would leave.

After the arrests on Labor Day in Golden Gate Park, we all danced around what food we had saved from the police. Then, those of us remaining had to get out of the area without getting arrested. We went up Haight one block and several cops on Hondas raced up to several people about 30 feet behind us. The police smacked them to the ground with their sticks and then dragged them into the street and arrested them. We thought we might be next so we ran up a side street and continued winding up Buena Vista hill. After we crossed the hill, we walked through back streets until we got to Channel 4 T.V. station. We went on air shortly after we arrived and were asked about our reason for continuing to serve free food knowing we faced arrest. We explained that serving free food is everyone's right and is an unregulated activity protected by the Constitution. We then encourage everyone to stand up for their rights. That brought the interview to a close.

Although the city finally issued us a health permits after these arrests, it wasn't through trying to stop San Francisco Food Not Bombs from serving free food. We were harassed and arrested again in the summer of 1990; and this pattern of harassment continues to the present. But during all this, and partly because of it, Food Not Bombs has continued to grow and expand its program. The attention and creditability the arrests brought us was invaluable. So far, only the City of San Francisco has made that mistake. The Food Not Bombs groups in Sacramento, Long Beach, Santa Rosa, and East Bay have not (yet) been arrested. Neither have the groups in Portland (Oregon), Washington, DC. New York City, nor Boston. We continue to grow and we still serve free food every day. There are new chapters of Food Not Bombs springing up all the time. Perhaps today is the day Food Not Bombs starts in your town.

"This policy of non prosecution is very frustrating and distressing . . . there are also inherent problems if the department ceases enforcement . . . [Food Not Bombs] would no doubt, 'rub it in the face', with visible, blatant, and untimely distribution of food. It could result in a chaotic situation and set a dangerous precedent for other groups who refuse to abide by the law . . .

- CAPTAIN DENNIS P. MARTEL

COMMANDING OFFICER - NORTHERN POLICE STATION

ON FEB. 9, 1990 IN AN OFFICIAL SAN FRANCISCO POLICE MEMORANDUM

" Many of those interviewed said the frustration and anger on all sides of the issue is likely to mount unless more money is found for services.

Without more money, they say, this fall's skirmish between police and Food Not Bombs could be just mild warnings of conflicts to come.

'If the homeless were organized, if they received some heavy leadership . . . you might have social unrest' said Harry de Ruyter, director of social services for the Salvation Army in San Francisco.' You might have an uprising.'"

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

OCTOBER 31, 1988

"They [Food Not Bombs] feel they can manipulate the homeless issue to set the stage for some kind of radical new social order."

ART AGNOS

MAYOR OF SAN FRANCISCO

AUGUST 26, 1988

"They [Food Not Bombs] never sell the food, but always give it away for free. Again, in over eight years, we have never had any public health related complaints or difficulties with this program. They enjoy broad- based community support. In fact, this group works cooperatively with the city in our mutual agenda of educating the public about the dangers of nuclear war and encouraging peace through nuclear disarmament."

ALFRED E. VELLUCCI

MAYOR OF CAMBRIDGE

JANUARY 20, 1989

IN A LETTER TO BEN GALE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO HEALTH DEPARTMENT (FOUND IN THE SAN FRANCISCO POLICE FILES)