Remembering Food Not Bombs volunteer Eric Weinberger
February 19, 1932 - December 15, 2006

Eric Weinberger died peacefully in Boston, Massachusetts on December 15, 2006. Eric was dedicated to Food Not Bombs for over two decades. He not only cooked and shared food with the hungry of Boston but Eric also taught the Food Not Bombs community many important lessons about non-violent social change. He participated in the Food Not Bombs kitchen at the Nevada Test Site in 1988. He also participated in the first Food Not Bombs gathering in 1992. Howard Zinn writes about Eric in the Forward to the Food Not Bombs book. Eric Weinberger has been an important figure in America's peace and social justice movement for the past half century. We will miss him!

History professor Howard Zinn wrote of Eric "Then one night I was invited to a gathering place for poets, musicians, and performers of all sorts who were possessed of some social consciousness, and there was a counter at the side of the room, and, again, that sign: Food Not Bombs." "This time, I paid more than ordinary attention, because I recognized the man behind the counter, Eric Weinberger. I had met him twenty-five years before on the road from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in the great civil rights march of 1965, and again in 1977, in another march, this time of anti-nuclear activists, into the site of the Seabrook nuclear power plant. Now another dozen years had elapsed, and he was with Food Not Bombs." He did a 32 day fast while in jail. Eric died peacefully at age 74 in Boston, Massachusetts on December 15, 2006. Tom Cohen's book, Three Who Dared included "The Eric Weinberger Story." Eric studied at Black Mountain College then joined New England Committee for Nonviolent Action and was encouraged to organize in the south. "I knew Eric very well, of course, when he was at New England CNVA, and as he worked in the South with the ex-sharecroppers," remembers fellow CNVA staffer Marjorie Swann Edwin. "He did a fantastic job of helping them to get businesses started, making items which were sold through the peace and civil rights networks. He finally had to leave because of serious threats on his life, but he stuck it out for far longer than most people would have." He marched with Martin Luther King Jr and was active with Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and he helped organized the logistics for the Chicago protest outside the 1968 Democratic Convention. "Much later, Eric discovered from his FBI file that he would have been indicted with the Chicago 8 for "conspiracy to cross state lines to incite a riot"- except that the FBI couldn't figure out where and how he crossed the Illinois state line. Unlike the others indicted, he hadn't flown to Chicago but had driven, characteristically unnoticed, in a truck with the sound equipment (a novel system of multiple "loud-hailers" daisy-chained together, so that small units hand-carried within the line of march could be heard throughout a moving crowd of thousands of people)." He was also great with numbers and designed a computer system to help him with his work as an accountant for Rounder Records. Eric was an accountant when he started to visit Food Not Bombs co-founders Keith McHenry and Jo Swanson at 41 Gardner Street in Allston where they were cooking with Food Not Bombs. Eric joined Food Not Bombs soon after the large June 12, 1982 march for Nuclear Disarmament in New York City and became a core volunteer that kept Boston Food Not Bombs going for another 15 years after Keith and Jo had moved to San Francisco. He helped Food Not Bombs cook and share food at the 1988 protest at the Nevada Test Site and participated in the 1992 and 1995 Food Not Bombs Gatherings in San Francisco. Eric was one of Food Not Bombs most important voices supporting the principles of nonviolence and a non hierarchical way of organizing the movement. Many of these facts were noted in the memorial book to Eric and some of his ashes were poured around the grass of the Boston Commons that afternoon in memory of all the thousands of times he helped share vegan meals near that location.
Eric Weinberger, 1932-2006
Video with Eric helping with the meal in Boston in 1988
Eric volunteering with Food Not Bombs at Park Street Station on January 4, 1989

To read more about Eric 's incredible legacy please visit the website created by his friends.


FRIENDS OF ERIC


FORWARD TO THE FOOD NOT BOMBS BOOK

By Howard Zinn
This is an extraordinary book, written by an extraordinary community of people. Their presence became known to me quite gradually, over a long period of time. I began to notice their tables, their signs, and cauldrons of hot soup and supplies of nutritious vegetables at meetings, at demonstrations, and on city streets. Then one night I was invited to a gathering place for poets, musicians, and performers of all sorts who were possessed of some social consciousness, and there was a counter at the side of the room, and, again, that sign: Food Not Bombs.

This time, I paid more than ordinary attention, because I recognized the man behind the counter, Eric Weinberger. I had met him twenty-five years before on the road from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in the great civil rights march of 1965, and again in 1977, in another march, this time of anti-nuclear activists, into the site of the Seabrook nuclear power plant. Now another dozen years had elapsed, and he was with Food Not Bombs. I thought these Food Not Bombs folk are carrying on the long march of the American people, moving slowly but inexorably towards a livable society. The message of Food Not Bombs is simple and powerful: no one should be without food in a world so richly provided with land, sun, and human ingenuity. No consideration of money, no demand for profit, should stand in the way of any hungry or malnourished child or any adult in need. Here are people who will not be bamboozled by "the laws of the market " that say only people who can afford to buy something can have it.

Even before the recent collapse of the Soviet Union, it was an absurd and immoral policy to spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year to support a nuclear arsenal that, if used, would bring about the greatest genocide in human history and, if not used, would constitute an enormous theft from the American people. Today, with no "Soviet threat, " the policy of spending a trillion dollars over the next few years to maintain a nuclear arsenal, other weapons, and a worldwide network of military bases is even more absurd. The slogan "Food Not Bombs" is even more recognizable today as clear common sense.

This slogan requires no complicated analysis. Those three words "say it all." They point unerringly to the double challenge: to feed immediately people who are without adequate food, and to replace a system whose priorities are power and profit with one meeting the needs of all human beings.

It is rare to find a book that combines long-range wisdom with practical advice, but here is a treasury of such advice. It tells in specific detail how to form a Food Not Bombs group, how to collect food, how to prepare it (yes, wonderful recipes!), and how to distribute it.

Every step in this process is intertwined with the warning: do not allow self-appointed "leaders " or elites to make important decisions. Decisions must be made democratically, with as wide a participation as possible, aiming to reach a consensus.

The idea here is profound. If we want a good society, we need not shout, but rather show, how life should be lived. Yes, this book is truly nutritious.

Food Not Bombs
P.O. Box 424, Arroyo Seco, NM 87514 USA
575-770-3377
1-800-884-1136
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