Communication and Education

For the second year in a row Sunseed happily welcomed a group of 10 schoolchildren from Bulgaria to our community, along with two of their chaperones, for a shared weekend of learning about sustainability in our beautiful off-grid village. This four-day stay was made possible by the “Knowledge through Adventure” project of “Bulgarsko shkolo,” co-funded by the ERASMUS+ program.
This also marked another collaboration with our neighbours at Miraposa, with the children staying in the eco-guest house next door to Sunseed’s main house. A great arrangement considering we have 18 members of the Sunseed community at the moment and we are very full!

During the four day stay, the students had workshops on various topics connected to our life here in this desert oasis.

Since the group arrived in the afternoon of October 31st, they started with a workshop from Elisa and the sustainable living team centred around pumpkin carving and discussing all the uses of this seasonal vegetable that we have in abundance in this region! They talked about all the uses for the plant, including baking seeds and eating the delicious insides. After an afternoon of discussion and carving, the students (and the Sunseed community) enjoyed a delicious dinner of pumpkin soup. 

 The following morning they were given the full Sunseed tour by Ashley, our Education Coordinator, followed by a morning of planting new trees in the domo area with Juanma and the Organic Gardens Team. In the afternoon they ventured into the drylands with Ecostystem Restoration Interns Luna and Emilia to identify and categorise plants, finally making a nature mandala from found plant life in the area. 

 Saturday was another busy day for the students, with a trip to Sorbas to visit the geological phenomenon that is the Cuevas de Sorbas, followed by a traditional paella lunch and then a trip to the visitors centre in Sorbas, finally attending a workshop centred on carving using the miraculous pita plant at the Pita Escuela (formerly located in Los Molinos del Rio Aguas with us, but now headquartered in Sorbas).

For their last full day with us (which was incredibly rainy thanks to heavy storms that flooded the area), the students learned about how to process the leaves of the pita plant to access the fibers, then learned how to braid them and make them into cordage, eventually turning them into their own bracelets, all courtesy of a workshop from Marco, another artisan neighbour in the village. Finally the children were taken through a gentle yoga and meditation practice in the afternoon with Luis, our Ecosystem Restoration Coordinator. 

 Hosting groups is a wonderful part of our life at Sunseed as a non-formal education project, and this return visit from our Bulgarian friends was no different. We hope to see a new group of them next year! There is something extra magical about being able to introduce our low-impact way of life to young people. 

If you are also interested in bringing a group of students of any age to Sunseed please get in touch with us at education@sunseed.org.uk.

Communication and Education

By Bobbi, European Solidarity Corps member in the Drylands Department.

Last week, during our weekly “educational activity”, I invited the community to a presentation on the world of community conflicts. To kick things off, I asked my fellow Sunseeders what comes to mind for them when they hear the word “conflict”. Most of their responses were associations with anger, hiding, avoiding, violence. In other words, it’s not exactly something people feel like picking up in their free time. Quite the opposite, a deep fear of conflict is beneath the surface of many individuals of our community. And since community and individuals are inherently intertwined, this fear of conflict influences how we handle disagreements in community.

Because at the source of conflict is usually exactly that, a disagreement. And, according to Seeds for Change´s definition, conflict is what happens when two or more people have seemingly incompatible opinions, values or needs [1]. Given this, I argue that conflict is inevitable. So instead of tiptoeing around it, why not turn it into something we can welcome, something regenerative? How can we transform conflict from a destructive force into a catalyst for growth, both personally and as a community?

To tackle this puzzle, I would like to untangle conflict resilience, conflict resolution and accountability procedures.

First up, conflict resilience is about being pro-active, like weeding your beds so that your veg can grow big and strong. Just because conflict can be a gift, does not mean that conflict is something to seek out. Conflicts tend to grow when they are not dealt with when still small, with high emotional and sometimes even structural consequences for those involved. The art of a healthy conflict culture thus partially lies in prevention: formal and informal practices to address disagreements before they snowball into full-blown battles. Practices which can help us nip conflict in the bud include regularly sharing appreciation for each other, committing to handling frictions when still fresh and having an openness to giving and receiving constructive feedback. This way, differences in opinions, values or needs can be constructively worked through without tensions running high in the relationships. All this work contributes to our conflict resilience, our ability to handle conflicts on an individual and collective level without being thrown out of equilibrium.

But what about those conflicts that escalate nonetheless? That is where conflict resolution comes into play. This way, you do not need to scramble for solutions on the spot, but you can follow the predetermined steps of a conflict resolution procedure. Often when conflicts occur, thinking clearly and calmly is inhibited by difficult emotions taking the foreground, so coming to an agreement, or meeting in the middle, can seem impossible. Conflict resolution can be mediated or non-mediated. Importantly, it focuses on both parties hearing and being heard, underlying needs being put on the table and the relieving of emotional charges. Non-violent communication can be a valuable tool in these settings. These processes work best when people are committed to also doing their inner work; to understand why they might be triggered, what unmet needs they have, to take responsibility for their own emotions and be willing to receive the perspective of the other party.

And then there are times when harm or violence occurs, when trust is seriously shaken and a dialogue is no longer an appropriate response. That is where accountability procedures come in. Unlike the punitive legal system, this response is ideally in line with Transformative Justice principles. Priority lies both in care for the victim and providing learning opportunities for the perpetrator and the community. The accountability procedure seeks to find solutions which prevent recurrence of the harm taken place and usually entails various levels of intervention.

But how do we put all this theory into practice here at Sunseed? A place which welcomes a diversity of people with a high member turnover. Individual practices can be encouraged, but cannot and should not be enforced. Collective activities can be implemented and require a lot of trust. Furthermore, learning how to engage with conflict constructively is not something you learn overnight, but more like learning how to ride a bicycle. At first, it will feel awkward, you will probably fall a few times and scrape your knee. However, after a while, you might even be able to ride hands-free. And maybe, once you can ride hands-free, your (short) stay at Sunseed is already coming to an end again. 

Unfortunately I do not have a magic solution I can present to you about how to become the perfect we-love-to-manage-conflict-community. However, I do have a few ideas that I would like to explore and develop. And, because I believe Sunseed is not the only place struggling with building trust and continuity while continuously rotating its group members, I would like to share these ideas with the wider world of communities, collectives and movements as food for thought. 

Healthy conflict culture can be manifested both on an informal, (inter)personal level, as well as on a more structural level. On the informal level, community members can encourage each other and themselves to hold curiosity to experiences, to invest in relationships, and to embrace a culture of giving and receiving constructive and appreciative feedback. When individuals take responsibility for keeping healthy relationships and helping each other grow, a lot of powerful transformation can already occur.

This individual work ideally goes hand in hand with community practices. These practices can serve as learning spaces for becoming a better community member, as well as designated places for talking about tensions, to lower the threshold for sharing these tensions and invite everyone to participate in these processes. Weekly or monthly rounds of celebrating failings, addressing small tensions, or sharing appreciation are ideas that can be experimented with. Alternatively, you could facilitate spaces where people (one to one or in a small group) can more thoroughly explore feedback for each other, deepen their relationship or talk about community practices for collective growth. Lastly, drafting a collective agreement about conflict and feedback culture, as well as implementing a conflict resolution procedure can help with fostering collective commitment and function as tools for navigating conflict. After all, conflict is easy to talk about when it is far away, but gets a lot more tense once you are in the midst of one.

While I stand by these suggestions, there are a few unanswered questions to have awareness of. A main one for Sunseed is how this process of building trust and establishing conflict culture can take place while people are only staying for a short period of time. Another one is how we can also involve those who are conflict avoidant or perhaps do not see conflict engagement as a priority, though they might very well be actors in conflict.Lastly, how can we balance feedback and conflict engagement with having room to be, breathe, play and work? At what point is there too much conflict and feedback engagement? 

In the end, there is probably not a one size fits all solution for managing conflict in communities. The important starting point is a collective commitment to start unpacking this topic, with all its intricacies. Keeping an open mind and willingness to experiment is vital for this. At Sunseed, we are taking steps in this process now and will probably keep having to re-evaluate (and fail! and celebrate!), as we go on. 

[1] Working with Conflict in our Groups; a guide for grassroots activists – Seeds for Change 

Resource list 

• Constellating Change training by the School of System Change 
• Conflict is Inevitable event (Global Grassroots Support network, Alternative Justice, RadHR, Gastivists Collective)
• Folks at Transformative Governance network 
• Nonviolent Resistance in the Face of Hostility: Walking towards Conflict with Care for All – Miki Kashtan
• DPACE Initiative – Foundations for Building Conflict Literacy 
• Victorian Public Sector Commission – Building onflict resilient workspaces 
• Loomio Cooperative Handbook 
• DSFL – AWG Accountability Handbok 
• Transition Network Conflict Resilience Resources 
• Effective Collective – Dealing with Conflict
• EAFB 2020 – Critic and Self Critic: What, Why and How.

Communication and Education

This educational activity consisted of two parts:

Within the first week, we were informing ourselves about the sea of plastic – a local justice struggle on a human and environmental level in the region Almería  where Sunseed is based. The greenhouses in Almería, referred to as el mar de plástico (the sea of plastic), supply between 40-50% of all fruits and vegetables within the EU which equals 3.5 million tonnes of food annually. This comes with several environmental and human rights issues, such as plastic pollution, groundwater depletion, groundwater and soil pollution due to chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and the exploitation of (undocumented) migrant workers due to bad working conditions and low payment, qualifying as a slave labour conditions.

The week after, we went to El Ejido to talk to a representative from the Andalusian Workers Syndicate (SAT) who is supporting migrants in their struggle for humane working conditions. The objective of the syndicate is to stop exploitation of one human by another by trying to at least enforce the workers’ rights that are already there (but unfortunately don’t go far enough). Most greenhouses are close to the Almerían municipality of El Ejido.

Part 1: Info session within Sunseed

To gain a common level of understanding regarding the topic, we watched the following mini documentaries:
> Inside Europe’s BLACK HOLE: Almería  ‘s Sea of Plastic – YouTube
> 🍅 Veggiespiracy 🥦 Plastic Sea Almería   | 40.000 hectares of greenhouses | Louis De Jaeger – YouTube

After that we shared reflections about this topic in smaller groups and brainstormed questions we wanted to ask our contact the following week when going to El Ejido. We came up with questions regarding the following topics:

• the worker’s situation in the greenhouses;
• the production system and ownership of the greenhouses;
• the legal situation surrounding this form of human and environmental exploitation;
• resistance towards this exploitation;
• water scarcity due to the industrialised food production in the greenhouses;
• the role of the Andalusian Workers Syndicate (SAT);
• the meaning of the greenhouses for Spain;
• and finally the potential future of the greenhouses.
•  

Part 2: Visiting SAT in El Ejido

Introduction of our SAT contact person
I am a rural (campesino) worker doing a regular job and besides that I also work for this syndicate outside of my working hours. I go as a representative for Almería   to different meetings for immigrant workers, telling what happens in Almería   to the outside world.

I am also part of another group called “Campesino”, that is a collective group of different syndicates that have a lot of meetings and often go to Brussels.  

What do you do within the syndicate?

Generally speaking, confront capitalism. We organise demonstrations and strikes. We try to help workers with their rights. I also work as Treasurer here.

How can you as a person and SAT in general help greenhouse workers?

We listen to the workers’ needs and problems and try to figure out how we can push the needs as a group. We try to find ways to pressure companies and the capitalistic system as a whole.

Generally speaking, what are the needs of the greenhouse workers?

The employers are often not following the law and pay less money than they should. They often do not pay enough, for extra hours and they do not give holidays. There is also sexual harassment happening, mostly towards women. Other problems are that many do not speak Spanish so we also offer Spanish lessons here. 

Have you been taking greenhouse companies to court?

Yes a lot! Thanks to our fight, companies now have to pay extra hours and vacations. There is now more control from the government and inspections are conducted.

What is an example of success that SAT had?

There are a lot of cases where SAT helped workers to receive their payments when employers refused to pay. For instance, there is the case of this worker who only earned 20 euros per day while working 14 hours per day from Monday to Sunday. He heard about the syndicate from a Moroccan friend and then SAT took this case to court and he was awarded 20.000 euros and he’s now in the process of getting that. So that is a success. But it’s also a success that many of the businesses here know about SAT. SAT has the recognition of fighting for the workers and that’s really important. It means the employers know that they can’t just do whatever they want, because they are being watched. Another fight I consider a success was attending a strike that was not organised by SAT but by other bigger syndicates (https://www.eldiario.es/andalucia/Almería  /envasadoras-manipulado-Almería  -conciliacion-huelga_1_6375400.html). SAT is quite small but when it came to the moment of getting to the streets, SAT was the first to show up there. 

How does SAT get funding?

Monetary aid mostly comes from Brussels, from the left wing parties and organisations. Also the yearly fee we get from workers covers some costs. SAT is one of the smallest syndicates in the area, getting funded by different programs but we still don’t have enough people to do all the work that would need to be done. Applying for more funding, e.g. from the EU, requires a lot of work, as granting institutions demand detailed documentation of SATs work. So this is difficult to achieve when already being understaffed.

Do you have to register as a member to get help from SAT? 

No, we try to help everyone and to listen to their needs. To get legal help though, you have to register so you can get a lawyer from us. 

How do you register as a SAT member?

You can only give your name. You can but do not have to show your passport or legal papers. And then you have to pay the yearly fee of 65 euros – it is the cheapest syndicate I know of.

How many members are registered?
It is hard to say as there are a lot of transient people from Africa that come and go. Many registered but then later we never heard from them again. But I would say about 4.000 people that are registered. Fixed members (affiliates) though I would say over 600 people.

How many greenhouse workers are there in this region at the moment?

It is hard to say as many are not registered, they have no papers and are “illegal” immigrants. Most of them also do not know about their rights. But roughly speaking about 300,000 workers in the province of Almería  . 

What are the demographics of the greenhouse workers?

The workers are mostly men. They’re trying to make a better life for their families who are back home. They’re mainly from Algeria and Morocco. More are beginning to come from Sub-saharan countries now. 

How can the undocumented/”illegal” workers get their needs met/get help?

We give counselling to them and try to legalise their status with an “Arriago” working visa. We try to get them legal papers that show that they live and work permanently in Spain.  After being in Spain for 2-3 years you can apply for a working and resident permit. It is not easy though to get this permit, a series of requirements have to be met. 

Do you have examples of companies using “illegal” workers?

On paper all looks good, but reality tells a different story, many are “illegal”. When we win a trial against companies, they have to admit they have used “illegal” workers. Most of the companies have got used to thinking that they can get away with this as there are so many “illegal” immigrants coming through all the time and it is easy to take advantage of them. 

What is at the root of the exploitation of workers?
The exploitation of workers in this sector is caused by big supermarket chains who put a lot of pressure on the farmers. They just don’t buy the tomatoes for the price the farmers would decide on. And following that a lot of price dumping is happening. The Situation in El Ejido is a structural issue, which needs to be solved somewhere else. El Ejido is just one example of what is created by capitalism. If the workers would get paid more fairly, and if the farmers would invest more in better work and food conditions in general, the prices of the exported products would increase. That would have a direct effect on the prices we pay in the supermarkets. And this could trigger an enormous inflation…

How do greenhouse workers find out about SAT?

Mostly they hear about us through other workers, through word of mouth. We also get recognition with our demonstrations, strikes and movement rallies. Some may also see, hear or read about our victories in trials we won against companies. Some may hear about us in the media and news. 

SAT is also active in St. Isidro, a region in the north of El Ejido characterised by its greenhouses. Here the structure of workers’ rights is better organised. Just the fact that the workers know more about the existence of SAT makes it easier to help and to be active. Also, workers bring a more politically-driven energy and attitude to the table which also makes it easier to get together and achieve progress.

Are the greenhouse inspections you mentioned only for companies that employ workers affiliated with SAT?

No, there are regular inspections of fieldworkers and also other parts of the company, to see if the requirements are met. This is not linked to SAT membership.

Is it the EU or the Spanish government doing the inspections?
The EU itself doesn’t really help, it is the Spanish government. It’s more on a country to country basis. 

Who owns the greenhouses?
They began as small single owner businesses and cooperatives, then big companies got interested. It was better organised before. Bayer, Syngenta and Monsanto control the seeds used now, so it’s Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). Also foreign companies from the Netherlands, Germany and France are buying land to cultivate now. These big companies also denounce and serve lawsuits to smaller companies if they use non-GMO seeds. They control the laws and own the market. They can make laws which suit them and convince smaller growers they’ll get a better yield with GMOs. The suppliers have a series of requirements they have to meet to sell to supermarkets. They tell them what to do if there’s a plague or the plants get ill. You have to buy their products so you enter into their game and so they make you consume their products for life. If you don’t play their game, you don’t play! 

Is there anyone or any organisation here in the area interested in fighting against GMO? And are they getting any closer at getting their interest met?

There are some groups in Spain like Greenpeace, there might be more. The fact is that as a producer, as a farmer, you need a plague resistant plant in order to make money. Otherwise, your whole crops will die and you’ll get no benefit from that, you’ll lose money. Companies like Bayer, Syngenta and Monsanto are tweaking and engineering this in order to make resistant plants and most of the time you will choose that because it’s a guarantee that you’re not going to lose money. To try to do the old fashioned organic way is just too risky for a farmer betting all his livelihood on getting a good crop. Also not everyone can “afford” to buy ecologically and as farmers have been using pesticides for years, it takes a big cultural shift to change this. The EU demands a certain quality of products but sometimes produce from Morocco slips in which has more chemicals in it and is cheaper. 

Do you think that Spain will eventually get laws that prohibit farmers from using their own seeds so that they will only be able to get seeds from private companies?

What is happening here in Almería  , Andalucia and Spain in general, is the fault of the pressure that is coming from the top of big supermarket chains that are pressing down from the top, demanding cheap food. There are farmers in small villages somewhere in Spain who do have their own seeds and crops, but the problem is that they’re not able to sell to the mass market like supermarket chains. All these stores that are selling according to EU regulations need traceability to the source, so the only way these farmers can sell their stuff is by local farmers markets which are very small scale. Or they already sell to specific restaurants in the area.

What happens with products from the greenhouses that cannot be sold?

The huerta de europa products sometimes get thrown away if they aren’t “perfect”. Sometimes the non-perfect products get pickled. Islamic and feminist groups also help the workers and especially the Islamic groups appeal to the Moroccan workers. SAT’s focus of supporting workers who have already been in Spain for quite some time to get them a permit to “legally” stay, is quite pioneering. The company I work for next to SAT is also taking part in an experiment that allows workers to take produce home if it’s surplus or not fit for sale. 

Who are the foremans in the greenhouses?

The foremans are usually Spanish, occasionally Romanian and they are very difficult to deal with. They abuse their power and lie. They are chivatos and negreros, the right hand men of the company owners and they think they’re above the law. They’re sometimes even worse than their own bosses/greenhouse owners.They are usually the main enemy because they are the ones who are stalling the fights. They are usually the ones who know things first because they’re the ones on the ground. The boss might go around every 3 or 4 hours, but the foremans are the ones working in the fields and sometimes they lie, and I have seen very unfair things happen because they’re friends with the bosses and the bosses will believe them without any proof. They’re traitors. 

How can Sunseed support the syndicate?

It’s basically about being more people for collective actions. When there are events we organise, then it’s good to have more people showing up with banners and making noise. That might do more damage to the business than a single legal action that the greenhouse owners can more easily hide. And if people on the streets can see this collective action then it has a lot of impact but also the fighting is nice. For people who are young, getting involved in these types of actions is very gratifying. Once I was hit by someone at a protest because I was protesting against the exploitation of this worker we already talked about (who was working from Monday to Sunday every week 14 hours per day while earning 20 euros per day). I’m not scared of going to actions like this and I can only laugh at the employer who is doing these horrible things to this worker and trying to scare me off with this act of violence. It’s important to get involved in these actions that have such practical outcomes. Since there are also illegal practices going on close to Sunseed, e.g. illegal wells for olive plantations. Sunseed could also take actions like this and the syndicate will be there to support these actions. 

What is the status quo of environmental movements in Spain/this area?
Movements of fighting for anything in general came way later to Spain than in other countries in Europe like France. And activism is arriving in Spain slowly, but not necessarily in a place like El Ejido, a little town, which is full of racism and sexism and generally also more reactionary. 

What’s the average age of people showing up to actions or demonstrations also regarding climate change?

I am the youngest worker in the syndicate. What could be the reason for that is that young people are less engaged in this topic. Maybe because on the left, there are also some horrible people who don’t change anything for the better and that we might need new associations to get real change. Generally, it seems like the majority of the people here in Almería   are not aware of the climate crises and rather want to make a lot of money.