Author: Jeff Kisling

Capitalism must end

The two major themes of justice work I have been forced to spend so much time and effort on are trying to convince White people to understand their privileges, and why capitalism is so wrong and must end. Capitalism is the system that enforces White supremacy and power, enforces racism. Capitalism is economic slavery of those of any race who are of a certain class, i.e. struggling for basic necessities. Which is ironic because the enslavement of people of color, and the theft of land and natural resources from native peoples was and continues to be the foundation of White supremacy and capitalism.

A system that requires money for any purchase or service is morally reprehensible because that denies anyone without money to obtain basic necessities. How have we accepted millions of children going hungry? Millions denied food, housing, education, healthcare? I am so invested in the work of Des Moines Mutual Aid because we are doing what we can to feed the hungry and provide shelter for the houseless.

I’m always looking for other sources that can express this better. Because this message is critical. The following is from the interview “Bree Newsome Bass: ‘Capitalism Has to Collapse’” by Kelly Hayes, Truthout, January 20, 2022.

“So, the goal is to have that resilient plan, that plan for resiliency there and to have those connections and community there as kind of like our base of operation, while we organize and resist and fight.”

As I’ve been saying and doing, those resiliency connections and community are Mutual Aid.

On a personal note, I have an indirect connection to Bree.  My friend Todd Zimmer, who trained me to be an Action Leader in the Keystone Pledge of Resistance in 2013 and led the Change the Course training I attended in Louisville, was then working for the Rainforest Action Network.  Much of that training focused on nonviolent civil disobedience, direct action planning and execution.

Todd also helped organize the act of civil disobedience by Bree Newsome, who was arrested after she scaled the flagpole to remove the confederate flag at the South Carolina State House June 28, 2015.

The NAACP praised Newsome as a “courageous young woman” and asked for leniency from prosecutors.

“We commend the courage and moral impulse of Ms. Newsome as she stands for justice like many NAACP activists including Henry David Thoreau, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and numerous Americans who have engaged in civil disobedience,” it said. “The NAACP calls on state prosecutors to consider the moral inspiration behind the civil disobedience of this young practitioner of democracy.”

“On June 28, in the early hours of the morning, 30-year-old helmeted activist Bree Newsome scaled the flagpole at the South Carolina State House and cut down the controversial Confederate flag, which was first raised there in 1961, almost 100 years after the Civil War.”

Bree Newsome’s Superwoman-style, Confederate flag pole climb was an artistic statement, the conversation, July 1, 2015


#StopBurningCoal

I was talking with my friend Jake Grobe, of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI) recently as we were working at the Des Moines Mutual Aid free food project. (see: Des Moines Mutual Aid Networking). He knows I am a photographer and asked me to take photos at the Iowa Energy Center Meeting yesterday. The reason for going to the meeting is MidAmerican’s CEO Kelcey Brown has refused multiple requests to meet with ICCI and she was going to be at this meeting.

Jake is ICCI’s Climate Justice Organizer. From his bio: He believes that climate justice is an intersectional fight for racial, economic, and social justice. “Humanity confronts a great dilemma: to continue on the path of capitalism, depredation, and death, or to choose the path of harmony with nature and respect for life.”

“Climate justice is an intersectional fight for racial, economic, and social justice” is the premise of Religious Socialism. https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/

Jake said, “our climate justice team organized this action. We had the intention of shutting down the meeting if we were ignored and did because these coal plants are a leading contributor to the climate crisis which is an existential threat to everything we love.”

There were handouts (below) and signs. And preparation prior to going into the building together. Jake summarized the intention of the meeting, the issues, and what the action would be if the board did not address their coal power plants. Including leaving as a group if the police were called. No arrests were planned. The police were called and showed up right after we walked out of the building.

Here is what Iowa Energy Center Board’s agenda was supposed to be: https://www.iowaeda.com/board-agenda/ieda-energyfeb22/

Our group entered the conference room quietly. Signs were kept out of sight by hiding them under coats. When the meeting asked if anyone wished to speak during public comments, four people from our group raised their hand (who had prepared ahead of time what they would say). Each person was allotted two and a half minutes.

When the first person began speaking, the signs “Your Greed Kills. MidAmerican Iowa’s #1 Polluter” were uncovered and passed among us. But everyone listened quietly with some finger snapping to support certain comments.

When the time for public comments had expired, Jake continued to speak. Asking Kelcey Brown to explain why MidAmerican was not going to shut down their five coal plants, raising many of the points in the handout below. Kelcey Brown said something like thanks for your comments and then didn’t respond when Jake made the ask that she meet with us to discuss our demands. When he kept going after that she briskly walked out. 

Jake continued to speak over calls from the board that the time for public comments was over. He spoke about the existential threat of greenhouse gas emissions. Asking if members of the board weren’t worried how their own children would be affected. He pointed out MidAmerican’s development of wind power wouldn’t matter if they continued burning coal until 2049.

This made me think of the term, going into the belly of the beast, meaning “being in the middle of a very bad situation or a dangerous place.” Also, “speaking truth to power.”

Humanity confronts a great dilemma: to continue on the path of capitalism, depredation, and death, or to choose the path of harmony with nature and respect for life.

Jake Grobe

The issue of CO2 pipelines came up, which we are definitely against.

Jake and a few others in our group continued to ask questions. After some time, the board adjourned, and we were told it was time to leave. Jake said a few more things, then asked us if we were ready to go. In the preparation Jake said we would leave on our own terms, and we did.

Katie Bryan, ICCI’s communication director called me prior to the action to make sure I knew there might be some intervention at the meeting. And we discussed how I would get the photos to her. She also suggested if possible, sharing photos as the action was occurring. Not being adept at either using my phone camera, or using twitter, I did manage to send her the photo that she was able to use in the tweets below.

Our Demands

  • Shut down coal plants by 2030 at the latest 
  • No utility shut offs and utility bill relief for working people who don’t qualify for LIHEAP 
  • Reinvest into energy efficiency programs above pre-2018 levels

Facts 

MidAmerican Energy is the single biggest carbon polluter in the state

  • They own five coal-powered plants to generate electricity and plan to keep burning coal until 2049
  • A report of MidAmerican’s electricity generation in 2020 shows that all the electricity they generated from coal was in excess of Iowa’s needs 
  • In fact, nearly a third of all the electricity they generated was sold to other utilities out of the state for $124.3 million
  • It’s clear that MidAmerican Energy is burning coal for greed, not for need. And we’re paying the price. 
  • In 2020, the excess coal generation in Iowa sent 16,977,124 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, representing economic harm ranging from $865 million to $2.58 billion.
  • Sponsoring a *small* fleet of electric buses in our city is a greenwashing scheme and an empty gesture when you consider that in order to offset the last two years of MidAm’s C02 emissions, they’d have to electrify 193,000 buses! 

MidAmerican Energy is making working families pay more to keep their homes warm

  • In 2018, MidAmerican spent over $100,000 dollars to lobby Republicans in the Iowa state legislature to pass a bill that made massive cuts to energy efficiency programs
  • This included $9,000 to State Rep. Gary Carlson who spearheaded the bill, $16,000 to Republican Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, $11,5000 to Republican Senate president Jake Chapman, $10,000 to Republican House Majority Leader Pat Grassley, and $10,000 to Kim Reynolds since 2018
  • Since that bill passed, working families are getting less help to weatherize their homes to keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer
  • MidAmerican Energy reported kilowatt-hour savings for 2020 that were 64% lower than what the utility achieved the year before the law took effect.
  • Now, MidAmerican customers are paying twice as much for their heat and 61,000 Iowan families have been forced to apply for utility assistance because they can’t pay their bills!  
  • Meanwhile – MidAmerican is on track to make over a billion in yearly profits, another record year! 
  • This is corporate greed and political corruption at it’s finest! 

MidAmerican Energy could save ratepayers over $1 billion by retiring their coal fleet by 2030

Study published by Synapse Energy Economics, a nationally recognized energy analytics firm

  • Recent expert analysis shows that retiring MidAm’s coal fleet by 2030 and replacing it with solar, wind, battery storage, and energy efficiency would save ratepayers $1.2 billion through 2040, while creating high-quality jobs for Iowans.
  • $1.2 billion is their conservative estimate! — In the likely scenario that high gas prices continue and we finally see a national tax on carbon emissions, MidAm would save $5 billion by retiring its coal fleet by 2030 instead of allowing it to remain online indefinitely!!!! 
  • That same scenario would also reduce carbon emissions by 318 million tons by 2040!
  • When the captive customers of MidAmerican pay for their power, they certainly are not agreeing to health impacts or death as a part of the deal. Yet, MidAmerican corporate greed results in 5 to 13 Iowans dying per year and increases the health care costs of Iowans by $64,681,145 to $145,675,343.  

MidAmerican Energy is poisoning Iowa’s water

  • MidAmerican has coal plants and stores ash on the banks of the Missouri, Des Moines, and Mississippi rivers, at least 3 sites have been found to be polluting groundwater above federal advisory levels 
  • MidAmerican emissions are worsening the climate crisis which is making droughts worse and drying up Iowa’s waterways. Hotter temperatures combined with lesser water flow is increasing blue-green algae blooms which make the water toxic. This has gotten so bad, that the major water sources for the Des Moines metro area have been untappable at times during the last two summers. 
  • Water is life!

#StopBurningCoal

Writing a Better Story

Since I write so much, this article/story by Carrie Newcomer caught my attention. I can tell what she says will help me, can help all of us write better stories.

“Something I have learned as a writer is that every single day I wake up with a clean page. Each one of us awaken at the dawn with a pen and open notebook.”

Every day I wake up with a clean page, not knowing what I will write. It is a spiritual practice, listening to discern what to write. And lately I’ve been working on writing by hand, so I do “awaken at the dawn with a pen and open notebook.”

So let us honor the stories that gave us courage and personal grounding, the stories that brought us here, the finest ones the ancestors carried for us until we could carry them ourselves.

Carrie Newcomer

Carrie and I are Quakers. I got to hear her sing and tell stories when she visited our Quaker yearly meeting, Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative).

There are Quaker meetings that set aside time for people tell stories of their spiritual journey.

Some years ago, my mother began to gather Quaker stories, which can be found here: https://quakerstories.wordpress.com/

https://quakerstories.wordpress.com/

Writing a Better Story

–by Carrie Newcomer, syndicated from carrienewcomer.substack.com, Feb 17, 2022

Global Abolition and White Supremacy

For most of my life I understood abolition to mean abolishing slavery. I often heard about that in my Quaker community. The story is that Quakers were involved in the underground railroad, helping freedom seekers escape from where they were enslaved.

But my friend Lucy Duncan writes about myths and avoiding uncomfortable truths.

We White Quakers like to revel in our myths about ourselves. These include “we were all abolitionists”; “we all worked on the Underground Railroad”; and “none of us were slaveholders.”

Often there are kernels of truth in myths, but the truth is more complex. Myths exist to veil the complexity and contradictions of our history, to obfuscate the differences between who we think we are and who we really are and have been. Often we want to take credit for the courageous few among us in order to absolve us from the uncomfortable reckoning with our past and our present. These myths protect our sense of innocence and goodness, but at what cost? Our failure to interrogate uncomfortable truths keeps us from living up to the promise of our faith, one that centers uncovering truth as foundational to our communal religious life.

A Quaker Call to Abolition and Creation by Lucy Duncan, Friends Journal, April 1, 2021

There are many stories of white Friends today refusing to reckon with our past, and what racial justice requires of us now.

Today abolition more commonly refers to abolishing police and prisons. I’ve joined in the work of Quakers for Abolition Network and contributed to an article about this in the Western Friend, https://westernfriend.org/issue/94. I participate in the Central Iowa Democratic Socialists of America’s prison letter writing efforts and am taking two courses related to abolition.

As I was praying about what to write today, I was thinking about the terrible abuses the Wet’suwet’en peoples in British Columbia are suffering from the heavily militarized Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The state sanctioned violence to enforce construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline through their sacred and pristine lands and water. Yesterday I wrote about stopping the criminalization of Indigenous land defenders. And I realized this is another case that calls for the abolition of police and prisons.

That led to making the connection to the entire history of colonization of so-called North America to abolition. To the global colonization of Indigenous peoples. To the need for abolition of colonization and supremacy worldwide. Including repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery.

Abolition is about ending systems of control over populations. That is why my friends and I are working to create Mutual Aid communities. Mutual Aid is about replacing vertical hierarchies with horizontal group structures. There can be no control from above if there is no vertical hierarchy.

“What would it look like to finally and fully abolish slavery?” It would look like Mutual Aid.

What would it mean for us to take seriously and collectively as a Religious Society a call to finish the work of abolition, hand in hand and side by side with those affected  and their loved ones? What would it mean for us to stand fully with the calls to abolish the police and fully fund community needs instead? What would it mean to reckon with our past complicity with harm and fully dedicate ourselves to the creation of a liberating Quaker faith that commits to build the revolutionary and healing faith we long to see come to fruition? What would it look like to finally and fully abolish slavery?

A Quaker Call to Abolition and Creation by Lucy Duncan, Friends Journal, April 1, 2021

Stop Criminalizing Indigenous Land Defenders

These videos tell the story of the most recent persecution of the Wet’suwet’en peoples by the Canadian government and the militarized Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They speak eloquently for themselves.

They point out what has been obvious to anyone watching the trucker protests the double standard of how the RCMP treat them versus the state sanctioned violence against Indigenous peoples.

Two warnings. There are scenes of police violence. And the song at the end of the first video includes words not appropriate for children but are for the message given.

Today, February 14th 2022, a day that we honour and remember all our relatives that go missing and are found murdered, our land defenders are attending court for upholding Wet’suwet’en law.

We live by our ancestors teachings and the laws that have been in place forever. We will defend our lives and way of living, as all those that came before have done, so that our children will not have to fight the same battles.

We are so grateful that so many nations and allies have stood with us. Their bravery and conviction will always be remembered. Today we stand united before a court that refuses to recognize its’ own rulings. Today we also support our Likhtsamisyu and Gitxan relatives as they appear in the same court for also upholding Wet’suwet’en law. We are all one.

This is a first appearance for all those that were arrested on November 18/19 2021. There are two others facing charges that were arrested and violently removed from Coyote Camp on Cas Yikh yintah appearing today as well.

The criminalization of our people and the blatant racism of the so-called justice system is especially pronounced now as we see how non-indigenous people are treated. The violence used against Indigenous women protecting Indigenous land is intentional. The kid gloves used in Ottawa is intentional. We will not allow this to continue for our children to grow up with.

For more information please visit yintahaccess.com on how to support and current campaigns.

Follow our social media pages for updates on today’s court and future proceedings.

Misiyh.

Following is some history related to support from various groups in Iowa for the Wet’suwet’en struggles.

January 26, 2020

Bear Creek Friends (Quaker) meetinghouse is in the Iowa countryside. Many members have been involved in agriculture and care about protecting Mother Earth. A number of Friends have various relationships with Indigenous peoples. Some Friends have worked to protect water and to stop the construction of fossil fuel pipelines in the United States, such as the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.

We are concerned about the tensions involving the Wet’suwet’en Peoples, who are working to protect their water and lands in British Columbia. Most recently they are working to prevent the construction of several pipelines through their territory. Such construction would do severe damage to the land, water, and living beings.

Bear Creek Friends Meeting, of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) approved sending the following letter to British Columbia Premier, John Horgan.

John Horgan.
PO BOX 9041 STN PROV GOVT
VICTORIA, BC V8W 9E1.
Email premier@gov.bc.ca

John Horgan,

We’re concerned that you are not honoring the tribal rights and unceded Wet’suwet’en territories and are threatening a raid instead.

We ask you to de-escalate the militarized police presence, meet with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs, and hear their demands:

That the province cease construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline project and suspend permits.

That the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and tribal rights to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) are respected by the state and RCMP.

That the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en lands, in agreement with the most recent letter provided by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimiation’s (CERD) request.

That the provincial and federal government, RCMP and private industry employed by Coastal GasLink (CGL) respect Wet’suwet’en laws and governance system, and refrain from using any force to access tribal lands or remove people.

Bear Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)
19186 Bear Creek Road, Earlham, Iowa, 50072

February 7, 2020

Several of us gathered in Des Moines, Iowa, for a vigil in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en peoples. Our friends at Bold Iowa and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI) helped notify people about our vigil.

Feb 7, 2020

And photos from other events since that time.

#wetsuwetenstrong

Disaster preparedness

I write almost daily about Mutual Aid. Mainly because I’ve experienced what an effective and moral way this is for people to care for each other.

One of the most common reasons Mutual Aid communities come into being is in response to disasters. Yesterday’s post, Usefulness of Mutual Aid Against Our Failing Government, was about one of many unfolding disasters.

My lifelong experience has shown people will do anything they can to avoid acknowledging, let alone doing anything about disasters. I’ve often shared, many times and many ways, my inability to convince a single person that I know of, to give up their cars. The farm boy moving to the big city (Indianapolis) and being horrified by the clouds of noxious fumes visibly shooting out of the exhaust pipe of every car. This was in the early 1970’s, before catalytic converters hid the exhaust. I learned how quickly people stop listening to warnings like that.

So here we are. I don’t need to enumerate all the consequences we now see from refusing to deal with greenhouse gas emissions. People can no longer deny the environmental chaos. And yet they continue to refuse to do anything about it. Rather than work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, emissions continue to climb. People are beginning to panic, to demand someone, somehow fix the problem. Even asking people to think about their children, and their children’s children, hasn’t worked, which is truly shameful.

Now it is far too late. The time lag between the time a certain amount of greenhouse gas enters the atmosphere, and when the warming that results from that amount are seen, is over 10 years. The loss of ice means sunlight that once reflected off it, is absorbed instead by the exposed dark water. The oceans have already absorbed enormous amounts of heat but are now heat saturated. Which has been fueling worsening hurricanes, extreme rainfall, and flooding. Another environmental disaster is the rapid increase in methane concentrations. Massive amounts of methane are frozen beneath the ice but are now being released as water temperatures rise.

Methane is the second most abundant anthropogenic GHG after carbon dioxide (CO2), accounting for about 20 percent of global emissions. Methane is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. 

Importance of Methane, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Severe drought will impact food production, hydroelectric power systems, and clean, or ANY water supplies.

Electrical power supplies and grids will fail. Try to imagine having no water or electricity.

I knew this environmental chaos would trigger the collapse of our economic, political and social systems, which don’t have near the resources or will to recover from these cascading problems.

Unfortunately, there are other disasters that I didn’t anticipate, or how they are evolving.

Although there are predictions of disease from microbes released from melting permafrost, I didn’t foresee the distrust of science. Or that public health would botch the response to the current pandemic.

I didn’t think about how people would blame increasing fuel prices on efforts to switch to electric vehicles, which many can’t afford.

I didn’t anticipate the polarization of the Supreme Court. I thought we might always be able to count on the balance of power from that branch of government.

I thought the governmental collapse would be from inability to deal with environmental chaos. What I didn’t foresee were politicians and parties actively subverting what we have called the democratic process. The naked grab for power and not even a pretense of working for the people. Of armed groups intimidating state governments. Threats to election workers.

Support for the armed insurrection of the US Capital. To the normalization of political violence.

Of the mounting evidence of the political crimes of the last president. Of the even greater polarization and violence likely to occur when the case is presented to the public. Between those who demand justice, and those of the large political base of the last president.

I don’t think any of this is news to people today.

What prompts this now is my belief that we will never again have a free and fair election. Not even looking to the 2014 presidential election, but this year’s midterm elections. There will not be even a semblance of a functioning government when there is conflict regarding who won the elections at all levels. Social safety nets, Social Security and other benefits could cease.

And who will control the military? How will all of this affect the standing of this country on the global stage? Couldn’t this political chaos be exploited by other countries militarily? Of course other countries will have these problems themselves.

I admit I could be wrong about some of this. But most of these things are playing out now.

That is why I believe it is urgent for us to prepare for disaster. Building Mutual Aid communities is the way to do so.

Usefulness of Mutual Aid Against Our Failing Government

There are times when I’m afraid to write certain things. When I fear those I care about will be hurt by what I write. Afraid they will think poorly of me.

That was the case yesterday when I wrote “what this means for me is I don’t worry about the dysfunction of the political system. The culture and identity wars.”

For me this means rethinking whether we can influence government, which no longer serves us. Trying to engage with government officials has been one of the main ways Quakers and many others have worked for change. In earlier times, remarkable changes sometimes resulted.

I know many Friends will disagree when I say I believe this is no longer true.

Previously I wrote we need to rethink the stories we tell ourselves. Let go of the stories we have discovered were not, or no longer are true. Rethink stories of our past, of other cultures. To seek and really listen for Spiritual guidance. Act on that guidance. Question everything. Create new stories.

What I pay attention to, what I can actually help with are the survival needs of my community.

Your local Anarchists, Communists, and Black Liberations organized a mass evacuation of the houseless camps to hotel rooms paid for by the community. We have turned no one away in this polar vortex. We keep us safe, the government is incapable of doing so.

Des Moines Mutual Aid

The Mutual Aid work I’m most involved with is the free food project, which is a continuation of the Black Panther program mentioned below, that has existed in Des Moines since that time in the early 1970’s. I was there this morning. The wind chill was -11. Several of us mentioned we couldn’t see because our masks (which everyone wears) fogged up our glasses. Each time we would laugh about that. As always, we enjoyed being and working together.

We have only so much of ourselves that we can invest in work for justice. We can’t afford to waste that on things that will not result in change. The effort put into ineffective processes is effort that will not be available for other things, such as Mutual Aid.

I would ask what your stories are.

  • What is your justice work?
  • What has that work accomplished?
  • Have you developed deep, new friendships? New community?
  • Does that work excite and fulfill you?

Too little attention is paid to how justice work affects those doing the work. Too often I see those who want to make a difference go from committee meeting to meeting. Too often feeling dissatisfaction and fatigue. That isn’t going to do anyone any good.

That’s what Jason Laderas meant when he wrote mutual aid focuses on the root of community problems, rather than their symptoms. We bring the Beloved community into existence when we realize that with Mutual Aid, we are that community.

mutual aid focuses on the root of community problems, rather than their symptoms. 

Jason Laderas

Now more than ever, it is clear to me that there is not much of a difference between the Democrats and Republicans in America.

While the Democrats may seem to favor human rights more than the Republicans, they have failed to deliver the type of change that could transform our society and lift millions out of suffering.

This whole two-party system is a facade. Neither party has the average person’s interests in mind. It’s about what benefits the billionaire corporations the most; it’s about serving the wealthy elite and leaving everyone else behind.

It’s not surprising that during this past year of COVID-19, where millions of people became unemployed, thousands of people died and millions were at risk of eviction, that the billionaires in the United States gained about 1.3 trillion since March of last year, according to inequality.org.

It doesn’t surprise me because this is just how our capitalist system is supposed to be working — the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer.

For far too long, our government has failed to vastly improve our material conditions. While people of other countries have enjoyed monthly government payments to help deal with COVID-19, the U.S. has only issued three direct payments.

It really makes me think, are we really the best country in the world?

If we cannot depend on our elected officials to deliver change that is going to benefit the overwhelming majority of this country, it is self-explanatory that the people may have to take matters into their own hands.

All massive changes in the history of America have started with everyday people banding together for a cause that they believe in. It does not start with the government. In the push for civil rights for Black people in the ’60s, change came to be with grassroots organizing.

The same can be applied to the changes that we want today. Since we cannot depend on our government, we have to depend on each other.

The Usefulness of Mutual Aid Against Our Failing Government, By Jason Laderas, slice of culture,  

If we cannot depend on our elected officials to deliver change that is going to benefit the overwhelming majority of this country, it is self-explanatory that the people may have to take matters into their own hands.

Jason Laderas

One of the most famous examples of mutual aid is the Free Breakfast for Children Program of the Black Panthers. The Panthers took notice that poor black children often could not learn to the best of their ability because of poverty and hunger, so they took it upon themselves to feed the children. 

They served free breakfast and lunch daily, also intaking donations from other organizations within the community like churches and other businesses.

This program spread all around the Black Panther chapters across America, eventually reaching 36 cities by 1971. In 1969, 20,000 children were fed across America through this program. 

It was admitted during a 1969 U.S. Senate hearing in California, that the Panthers did a better job of feeding poor children than the state did. 

The Black Panthers breakfast program is a prime example of just how mutual aid can benefit communities. They took notice that the government was not doing their job to adequately educate, feed and house Black people in America, so they did it themselves. 

The Usefulness of Mutual Aid Against Our Failing Government, By Jason Laderas, slice of culture,  

https://www.greatplainsaction.org/newyearnewiowa

Bridge over Troubled Water

I feel so much sorrow for the pain I see all around.

“Bridge Over Trouble Water” came to me today as an expression of how to “ease your mind”. I believe Mutual Aid can be a bridge over troubled water for us.

we need to radically rethink the stories we tell ourselves

James Allen

Simply put, Mutual Aid is a radical departure from the structures most of us live with. Structures based upon vertical hierarchies, where those above control those below. Structures causing so much harm today.

Mutual Aid works with no hierarchy. Everyone in the community has a voice and is expected to think for themselves. To use their creativity to figure out what needs to be done, then do it. Not wait for someone to tell them what to do. To be active, not passive.

The problems before us are emergent phenomena with a life of their own, and the causes requiring treatment are obscure. They are what systems scientists call wicked problems: problems that harbour so many complex non-linear interdependencies that they not only seem impossible to understand and solve, but tend to resist our attempts to do so. For such wicked problems, our conventional toolkits — advocacy, activism, conscientious consumerism, and ballot casting — are grossly inadequate and their primary utility may be the self-soothing effect it has on the well-meaning souls who use them.

If we are to find a new kind of good life amid the catastrophes these myths have spawned, then we need to radically rethink the stories we tell ourselves. We need to dig deep into old stories and reveal their wisdom, as well as lovingly nurture the emergence of new stories into being.

Pontoon Archipelago or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Collapse. By James Allen, originally published by Medium, June 18, 2019

How do we rethink the stories we tell ourselves? We let go of the stories we have discovered to be untrue. Rethink stories of our past, of other cultures. To seek and really listen for Spiritual guidance. Act on that guidance. Question everything.

What this means for me is I don’t worry about the dysfunction of the political system. The culture and identity wars. What I pay attention to, what I can actually help with are the survival needs of my community. Every week I join my Mutual Aid friends to distribute food to those in need. Others in this Mutual Aid community help those who need shelter. These things get done NOW. Done in a way that doesn’t stigmatize those in need, who have been failed by systems that should be helping them. We know we ourselves might someday need the help of our Mutual Aid community. As my friend Ronnie James says:

I’m of the firm opinion that a system that was built by stolen bodies on stolen land for the benefit of a few is a system that is not repairable. It is operating as designed, and small changes (which are the result of huge efforts) to lessen the blow on those it was not designed for are merely half measures that can’t ever fully succeed.

So the question is now, where do we go from here? Do we continue to make incremental changes while the wealthy hoard more wealth and the climate crisis deepens, or do we do something drastic that has never been done before? Can we envision and create a world where a class war from above isn’t a reality anymore?”

Ronnie James

These are links to more I’ve written about Mutual Aid.
https://landbackfriends.com/mutual-aid/
https://jeffkisling.com/?s=mutual+aid
https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/mutual-aid/

our conventional toolkits — advocacy, activism, conscientious consumerism, and ballot casting — are grossly inadequate and their primary utility may be the self-soothing effect it has on the well-meaning souls who use them

James Allen

Bridge Over Troubled Water

When you’re weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them all
I’m on your side
Oh when times get rough
And friends just can’t be found

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

When you’re down and out
When you’re on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you
I’ll take your part
Oh when darkness comes
And pain is all around

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

Sail on, silver girl
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way
See how they shine
Oh if you need a friend
I’m sailing right behind

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind

Simon and Garfunkel

Break up with Canada

Last night I attended the “Fighting to stop oil and gas pipelines and start building a better world!” updating what is happening in Wet’suwet’en territory.

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Sleydo, Molly Wickham, spoke about the Coastal GasLink pipeline. I hadn’t realized that pipeline was supposed to be the proof of concept that multiple pipelines could be built to transport fossil fuel through Wet’suwet’en territory, to the west coast to be loaded onto oil tankers. It’s called the “carbon corridor”. Which is why the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are working with the fossil fuel industry to force construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Sleydo said RBC has invested $400 million in the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Iowa Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en

On December 22, 2021, we went to Chase bank in Des Moines to protest the bank’s funding of fossil fuel projects. In support of the Wet’suwet’en’s calls for solidarity.

First Nations land defenders on Monday filed a submission to the United Nations detailing how their territory and human rights are being violated by Canadian and British Columbian authorities in service of a fossil fuel corporation’s gas pipeline.

“We are intimidated and surveilled by armed RCMP, smeared as terrorists, and dragged through colonial courts. This is the reality of Canada.”

The submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council was filed by the Gidimt’en—one of the five clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation—who for years have been fighting to stop the construction of Coastal GasLink’s pipeline through their territory in northern British Columbia.

The filing notes that “ongoing human rights violations, militarization of Wet’suwet’en lands, forcible removal and criminalization of peaceful land defenders, and irreparable harm due to industrial destruction of Wet’suwet’en lands and cultural sites are occurring despite declarations by federal and provincial governments for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.”

Submission to UN Human Rights Council. “Wet’suwet’en is an international frontline to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples and to prevent climate change.” by Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, February 7, 2022

One way you can support the Wet’suwet’en is to purchase music donated by artists.

https://wetsuwetenhibicin.bandcamp.com/releases

Purchase TINY HOUSE to support Wet’suwet’en. I purchased TINY HOUSE and others. https://wetsuwetenhibicin.bandcamp.com/track/tiny-house