I’ve been trying to integrate all that I’ve been learning about Mutual Aid, #LANDBACK, Abolition, Religious Socialism, Ecosocialism, photography, forced assimilation and Indigenous worldview. There are many intersections among these. This is stimulated in part as I reflect on yesterday. It was a spiritual time when I stopped at Easter Lake to take photos there, despite, or because of the bitter cold. Then continuing to be with my Mutual Aid friends as we filled boxes of food to distribute in the neighborhood. To witness people coming together to share stories. Each moving from one friend to another. This is part of the future we (I) want that exists now. That is the wonderful thing about Mutual Aid, as the focus is on addressing survival needs in the present. As my friend Ronnie says, you work intensely for an hour and a half, and when you’re done you feel sweaty, tired and good.
As I hear so many friends expressing feelings of hopelessness and despair, I feel fortunate to be involved in a community that gives us a sense of doing something good together. Which is one reason I’m trying to get more people involved in Mutual Aid.
I heard some of this discouragement when those in the Quakers for Abolition Network met via ZOOM yesterday.
I’ve been working on a new diagram to help me visualize the relationships between the concepts mentioned at the beginning. The root cause of so much suffering is the capitalist economic system. Socialism is an alternative to capitalism. Ecosocialism is about how environmental devastation will be the end of capitalism. Or faith communities can help bring about socialism as an alternative to capitalism from a moral lens. Or both.
Mutual Aid is a framework to replace vertical hierarchies and the unjust power structures they enforce. LANDBACK, returning to Indigenous relationships with the land, and abolition of police and prisons are part of building communities that represent the future we want.
Yesterday I wrote about the Quakers for Abolition Network I am a member of. We will be meeting this afternoon, so I’m thinking of what I hope our network might do. There is so much that needs to be done.
My friend Jake Grobe, from Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI) was at our Des Moines Mutual Aid food distribution this morning. He doesn’t get to attend too often because of his organizing work. He told me about an upcoming action at MidAmerican Energy to demand that they shut down all their coal plants. Here is the story about a previous action.
They also want MidAmerican to invest in retrofitting homes for energy efficiency with a focus on families of color and low-income individuals.
Jake Grobe stood on a ledge wearing a bucket hat and a blue T-shirt with “REVOLUTION NOW” printed in all capital letters. He held a megaphone to his mouth, which was covered by a black and white bandana. (All the protesters wore masks.) Grobe asked the crowd who is most hurt by the effects of climate change.
“It’s Black, Indigenous, it’s poor working families that are unable to recover from flash floods, from droughts from wildfires. Climate crisis increases all inequalities,” he answered himself.
One of the things I love about Mutual Aid is how we network about each other’s work. I hadn’t known about the MidAmerican actions, but now I hope to attend the next one. He said it would be good if I could take photos there. This networking lets us know who has skills, like photography, which can help each other’s work.
Speaking of photos prompted me to share about a recent action at Chase Bank in support of the Wet’suwet’en peoples fighting against the Coastal GasLink pipeline. He hadn’t been aware of that.
Support for Wet’suwet’en at Chase bank
That also reminded me of going to SUMMIT headquarters in Ames, Iowa, recently. SUMMIT is one of the companies proposing to build carbon pipelines in the Midwest. My friends Sikowis Nobiss and Mahmud Fitil know of my photography and asked me to attend the gathering there.
Jake and ICCI are also working to stop CO2 pipelines.
We talked about how bad the Iowa legislature is. He said we need our own socialist party. I told him about the Central Iowa Democratic Socialists of America’s prison letter writing project.
He asked what I had been doing. I described the Quakers for Abolition Network, which interested him. He had been arrested three times last year at direct actions and said you don’t really know how bad prison is until you experience it yourself.
our response and an invitation that we allow the Spirit to awaken our imagination to build a world where we can all be safe(r) and flourish without threats of violence.
The call for the abolishment of police, policing and the police state is not a new call. For centuries, Black and Indigenous people have called for the end of violence enacted on their bodies and communities by police. They have been calling for other possibilities that move us from the appearance of safety to truly safe and whole communities. In the wake of continued high profile police shootings across the United States, many people in the church pushed for an Anabaptist-oriented response and resources that helped us to move as a church into solidarity with the pain and brutality being felt and witnessed on Black, brown and Indigenous people. This curriculum is our response and invitation that we allow the Spirit to awaken our imagination to build a world where we can all be safe(r) and flourish without threats of violence.
The tragic news of the recent killings of police officers ratchets up calls for more policing. Demonizing those of us who call for defunding the police. New York City’s mayor refers to defunding the police as a bumper sticker.
President Joe Biden’s meeting with New York City Mayor Eric Adams on February 3, 2022, comes as cities across the U.S. face a rise in violent crimes and represents a politically awkward shift in how the Democratic Party is approaching policing and criminal justice.
As a Senator in the 1990’s, Biden was known to be tough on crime, and Adams, a former NYPD captain, has been vocal about his support for police and the criminal justice system. They both find their long-held positions on policing and crime back in the Democratic mainstream, as some mayors and elected officials have shifted their stance on crime and the “defund the police” movement over the past several months.
During his meeting with Adams, Biden expressed his opposition to defunding the police as he said, “the answer is not the defund the police, it’s to give you the tools, the training, the funding, to be partners [and] to be protectors.”
As an abolitionist, it feels like menace is in the air. I’m reminded of my teen days when I resisted the draft while the Vietnam war was raging. It was great to be living in the Scattergood Friends School community then.
Most people think about abolition in terms of what it is against. Against the institution of slavery, against police and prisons. I like to think about what abolition is for.
I am a member of the Quakers for Abolition Network. Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge and Jed Walsh have been organizing this effort. Following are two articles published in Western Friend. To join the Quakers for Abolition Network, email Jed Walsh (jedwalsh9 [at] gmail.com) or Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge (mbartonrowledge [at] gmail.com).
Mackenzie: Let’s start with: What does being a police and prison abolitionist mean to you?
Jed: The way I think about abolition is first, rejecting the idea that anyone belongs in prison and that police make us safe. The second, and larger, part of abolition is the process of figuring out how to build a society that doesn’t require police or prisons.
M: Yes! The next layer of complexity, in my opinion, is looking at systems of control and oppression. Who ends up in jail and prison? Under what circumstances do the police use violence?
As you start exploring these questions, it becomes painfully clear that police and prisons exist to maintain the white supremacist, heteronormative, capitalist status quo. The racial dynamics of police violence are being highlighted by the recent uprisings and the Black Lives Matter movement.
…
We are in the same place, with a call to imagine a culture radically different than the one in which we live. Abolishing police and prisons, like abolishing slavery, would change the structure of our society: dramatically decreasing violence and undoing one set of power relationships that create domination and marginalization. And in place of this violence, we could, instead, have care.
Perspectives from the Quakers for Abolition Network
In late 2020, the two of us wrote an article for this magazine, called “Abolish the Police.” Through writing the piece, we realized we wanted to convene a larger space where Friends with an interest in police and prison abolition could have conversations with one another. Quaker abolitionists today face major pushback from our Meetings; we hoped that drawing Friends together would support and strengthen our work.
In this context, the Quakers for Abolition Network is being born. We are a collection of Friends from at least five Yearly Meetings; we range in age from high school to our 80s; we are disproportionately queer and trans. While AFSC and FCNL staff are participating, this is a grassroots project without any formal connections to existing organizations. We are in the process of defining our mission statement, structure, and our methods for addressing white supremacy when it shows up in our work, while building relationships with each other as we go. Below, four Friends write about their approaches to abolition, their lessons, and their visions for where Quakers might be headed.
Jeff Kisling: Mutual Aid and Abolition
I grew up in rural Iowa, where there was very little racial diversity and interactions with police and the court system were rare. About ten years ago, I was blessed to become involved with the Kheprw Institute, a Black youth mentoring and empowerment community. I’ll never forget how shocked I was when a Black mother broke down in tears, explaining how terrified she was every minute her children were away from home. It was obvious that every other person of color in the discussion knew exactly what she was saying.
After retiring, I was led to connect with Des Moines Mutual Aid, a multiracial organization founded to support houseless people. For over a year, I’ve helped my friends fill and distribute boxes of donated food, while continuing to learn about the framework of mutual aid.
To me, mutual aid is about taking back control of our communities. Besides the food giveaway, we support houseless people and maintain a bail fund to support those arrested agitating for change. We also work for the abolition of police and prisons.
To join the Quakers for Abolition Network, email Jed Walsh (jedwalsh9 [at] gmail.com) or Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge (mbartonrowledge [at] gmail.com).
Mackenzie Barton-Rowledge and Jed Walsh: Introducing the Quakers for Abolition Network, Western Friend, Sept 2021
I’m spending hours searching for information about religion and socialism since learning about the idea of Religious Socialism.
Socialism has a negative connotation for many that is related to Marxism and its support of revolution by any means.
In one of our nation’s best moments, the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, Christian socialists played major roles. A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin were very open about their socialism, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who praised democratic socialism both publicly and privately, stood on the shoulders of previous generations of socialist African American social gospel leaders.
These Christian socialists agreed with Karl Marx’s ground-breaking analysis of the devastating impact capitalism wreaks on working people. But they parted ways when it came to Marx’s antipathy to religion, and they rejected Marx’s exhortations to revolution by any means. For religious socialists, the instrument of revolutionary reform is a political one at the ballot box and nonviolently in the streets. That approach works. Consider the many nations comparable to the United States, particularly in western and northern Europe, where socialist advocacy within the democratic process has led to universal healthcare, progressive taxation, and comprehensive social services that assure safe housing and a minimum income. Compared to the United States, life there is far closer to the kingdom of God on earth.
I’ve long known evolving environmental chaos would be the end of capitalism. This chaos will increasingly lead to the physical destruction of the infrastructure that produces and distributes goods and the shops where they are sold, resulting in widespread financial ruin. The impact of severe drought and storms will significantly impact food production and supplies of clean water. These things will increasingly impact housing, energy, healthcare, education, finance, transportation, and other social and political systems.
We are finally at a place where the public can no longer refuse to recognize the impacts of climate change. The fear that generates, and the realization things will only get worse, is fueling social unrest. Movement toward authoritarianism, and domestic violence and terrorism.
I have become interested in religious socialism to create communities to support each other as current systems fail. This interests me as an opportunity to revitalize my Quaker communities. Or for more people to turn to whichever spiritual community meets their needs.
But it is unclear how many people will turn to spirituality, especially those who previously felt disenfranchised from churches and religious organizations.
As I’ve searched for information about religious socialism I’ve found a lot of information about Eco socialism, a term new to me. But which encapsulates what I’ve always believed about environmental chaos and the need for socialism to respond.
In the wake of Australian fire storms, global crop loss and catastrophic climate shifts, billions of people are recognizing the dangers to society and life itself presented by capitalism’s profit-driven despoiling of nature. At the same time, the last 40 years of deepening inequality inside virtually all nations have undermined their social cohesion, and increasingly, capitalism’s mechanisms are being blamed. Anti-capitalism is exploding across many political landscapes.
One broad socialist response to ecological crisis has produced a global eco-socialist movement and a rich set of eco-socialist writings. They rightly argue that a solution to the ecological crisis requires a transition from capitalism to socialism. Profit-driven capitalism is the problem that socialism can solve. Likewise, socialists argue, today’s extreme economic inequalities flow from capitalism. Socialism’s traditionally egalitarian focus on state redistributions of wealth and income has attracted mass interest and support.
Recently I described why Quakers should dismantle vertical hierarchies. The hierarchies that structure everything Western peoples live, work, and worship by. Every vertical hierarchy creates structures where one, or a select few, take power and benefit from those beneath them. We have been lulled into accepting these structures as the way things are. Such as a supervisor over workers. But the consequences of these hierarchies are more extensive and significant than often realized.
Des Moines Mutual Aid
Reflecting on what I last wrote, Hierarchy and Quakers, I realize I shouldn’t have made such a sweeping statement. When I wrote that means Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) don’t want to be associated with these Friends, I was speaking about the BIPOC people I know. By associate I meant there will be this awareness that there will be frustrations when those who are aware of hierarchies try to work with those who aren’t. Might make it impossible in some cases.
I say this from my two years of experience in a Mutual Aid community. This is not some theory I’ve read somewhere. This has changed me so much I now have trouble being in hierarchical situations myself.
I am a hierarchy resister.
I spend so much time praying and writing about Mutual Aid because I want to share what I am learning with Friends. I believe this can energize our peace and justice work. Mutual Aid is the framework that models the Beloved communities Friends strive to create. Gets to the roots of injustice. Some of the articles I’ve written about Mutual Aid can be found here: https://landbackfriends.com/mutual-aid/
My introduction to Mutual Aid was in response to a strong Spiritual leading.
Mutual Aid is NOT charity.
Maintaining a flat or horizontal hierarchy is what makes Mutual Aid work.
MUTUAL is the key.
Removing the artificial hierarchies eliminates grouping people by race, class, gender, education, etc. There cannot be white supremacy, for example, if there is no vertical hierarchy.
Mutual Aid resists authoritarianism and colonization.
Mutual Aid represents a paradigm shift away from capitalism, white supremacy, insurance-controlled healthcare, militarized police and punishment oriented judicial system, prisons, education that resists teaching critical thinking and promotes white supremacy, and domestic and global militarism. Away from commodifying all natural resources and continued extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
Queries related to Mutual Aid
Do we recognize that vertical hierarchies are about power, supremacy and privilege? What are Quaker hierarchies?
Do we work to prevent vertical hierarchies in our peace and justice work?
What are we doing to meet the survival needs of our wider community?
How are we preparing for disaster relief, both for our community, and for the influx of climate refugees?
Are we examples of a Beloved community? How can we invite our friends and neighbors to join our community?
What Is Mutual Aid?
Mutual aid is collective coordination to meet each other’s needs, usually from an awareness that the systems we have in place are not going to meet them. Those systems, in fact, have often created the crisis, or are making things worse. We see examples of mutual aid in every single social movement, whether it’s people raising money for workers on strike, setting up a ride-sharing system during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, putting drinking water in the desert for migrants crossing the border, training each other in emergency medicine because ambulance response time in poor neighborhoods is too slow, raising money to pay for abortions for those who can’t afford them, or coordinating letter-writing to prisoners. These are mutual aid projects. They directly meet people’s survival needs, and are based on a shared understanding that the conditions in which we are made to live are unjust.
There is nothing new about mutual aid— people have worked together to survive for all of human history. But capitalism and colonialism created structures that have disrupted how people have historically connected with each other and shared everything they needed to survive. As people were forced into systems of wage labor and private property, and wealth became increasingly concentrated, our ways of caring for each other have become more and more tenuous.
Today, many of us live in the most atomized societies in human history, which makes our lives less secure and undermines our ability to organize together to change unjust conditions on a large scale. We are put in competition with each other for survival, and we are forced to rely on hostile systems— like health care systems designed around profit, not keeping people healthy, or food and transportation systems that pollute the earth and poison people— for the things we need. More and more people report that they have no one they can confide in when they are in trouble. This means many of us do not get help with mental health, drug use, family violence, or abuse until the police or courts are involved, which tends to escalate rather than resolve harm.
In this context of social isolation and forced dependency on hostile systems, mutual aid— where we choose to help each other out, share things, and put time and resources into caring for the most vulnerable— is a radical act.
Dean Spade. Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) (Kindle Locations 104-120). Verso.
This morning I’m struggling to understand why so few people engage in civic responsibilities, or the many injustices we face. I’m writing in terms of my faith community, Quakers. It is telling that I must explain when I say “Quakers” I mean white Quakers unless otherwise specified. Historically there was so little diversity among Friends in this country that nearly all Quakers were white. Tragically that hasn’t changed much today. Something is wrong.
I’m struggling to understand why more white Quakers in this country aren’t engaged to:
stop the rise of authoritarianism
agitate for peace
support Black Lives Matter
work for healing and reconciliation related to the Indian residential schools and the children abused or killed there
work for LANDBACK
help those who are impoverished, houseless and hungry
protect the water
protect Mother Earth from the rape of resource extraction
protect women
protect those who are LGBTQ
speak to spiritual needs
Why this profound, widespread malaise?
I’m pondering these things now in the context of putting beliefs into action, to work on matters of justice and peace.
Historically Friends have worked for peace. A number of Quaker men and their families chose to face imprisonment for refusing to participate in war, militarism, and the peacetime draft.
Historically, Quakers were also credited for work related to race. And yet, relatively few white Friends were actually involved in things like the Underground Railroad. Today we sometimes see Friends suggest they deserve some credit for what abolitionist Friends did. Which is wrong.
Indeed, some Friends were involved in the institution of slavery in the early days of this country’s colonialism. Our ancestors were settler colonists, building farms and communities on land stolen from Indigenous peoples. Some white Quakers were involved in the policies and implementation of forced assimilation of Indigenous children. Genocide.
Many white Friends today struggle to understand white superiority and privilege. Which means they continue to act as if they are privileged. And means Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) don’t want to be associated with these Friends.
I know it is upsetting for white Friends to be reminded of these things. But that unease is nothing compared to the harm that was and continues to be done. Such trauma is passed from generation to generation. People today are deeply affected by this trauma. Both the victims and the perpetrators. For example, the growing numbers of the remains of native children located on the grounds of the institutions of forced assimilation are profoundly disturbing. Where is the outrage from white people, white Friends?
We must bring these things to light to understand why they happened. Whether they continue today. And ensure they don’t happen again. As the beginning of processes of truth, reconciliation, repatriation, and healing.
I intentionally use the phrase ‘bring these things to light’ because the Light, or Inner Light is one way we speak of spiritual guidance.
I’ve been blessed to have made friends in several different communities over the past few years. What I am learning is giving me new insight. One is being reminded that white Quakers have not spent significant time in communities outside the meetinghouse. Building relationships in oppressed communities by being present there is the most important thing we must do if we want to be effective allies. Nothing else we do will be meaningful if we don’t have these relationships.
From my Indigenous friends I’ve seen traumas that most white Quakers often don’t know about, let alone experience. My friends have relatives, some still living, who were in those institutions of forced assimilation. Some who have family members who are among the missing and murdered Indigenous relatives, related to the man camps at the sites of pipeline construction.
I’ve seen their love of the land as we walked together for ninety-four miles over eight days. They pointed out the changes in vegetation. The water standing in fields disturbed by the Dakota Access pipeline.
Another community I am blessed to belong to is Des Moines Mutual Aid, a diverse community that includes some Indigenous friends. Here I’ve been learning about the fundamental differences between a community based on a flat or horizontal hierarchy, and the vertical hierarchies that structure everything white people are involved in.
Learning this has revealed to me why white Quakers have been unable to understand or do anything about the problems of white supremacy. Why non-white people don’t become involved in our white Quaker communities.
As I wrote yesterday, it was interesting, but not surprising, to hear this also expressed as part of the Indigenous worldview.
A key principle is to live in balance and maintain peaceful internal and external relations.
This is linked to the understanding that we are all connected to each other.
The hierarchical structure of western world views that places humans on top of the pyramid, does not exist. The interdependency with all things, promotes a sense of responsibility and accountability.
This new awareness of the vertical hierarchies of white culture in general, and our white Quaker communities specifically, has given me insight into the list of things at the beginning of this that white Quakers have not in general been able, or perhaps willing, to engage with.
I’ve been very discouraged about Friends’ lack of engagement in a number of things over the years. Have I lost faith in what we will do? Does it mean Friends have lost faith in what they could do? Have they lost faith more generally? Do we believe we can discern the Inner Light? Will we do what the Light reveals?
What can we be?
We can be driven by the Inner Light.
We can dismantle vertical hierarchies.
We can be present in our wider communities.
Regarding the following, I recently wrote about calligraphy – a sacred tradition What follows is definitely not calligraphy. I was having more trouble getting ink to flow than getting any writing done. But it has been interesting to use a felt tip pen to write by hand.
I’ve begun the course Indigenous Canada offered by University of Alberta. This is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from the Faculty of Native Studies that explores Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada. I’ve already learned a great deal and recommend it. This is a free course described at the end of this post. https://www.coursera.org/learn/indigenous-canada
For years I’ve been praying for ways to bring about Beloved community. I’ve gone through many iterations of this diagram to help me visualize our current circumstances and what might be done to move toward such a community.
I’ve been blessed to become friends with and learn from Indigenous people. A common thread throughout my life has been to protect Mother Earth. For a long time, I looked for opportunities to make such connections because it was obvious that native peoples had always lived and continued to live in ways that protect Mother Earth.
The physical infrastructure of Beloved community was easy to see, but what I had trouble with was spirituality and governance, which are tightly bound together. I could see that Beloved community would not work with the mindset of capitalism and dominance. White people would have to learn to abandon those systems.
Two years ago I was blessed to become involved in a local Mutual Aid group which has been transformative. This is a model that teaches how to reject capitalism and dominance. A key is to leave the vertical hierarchies of power and decision making and instead use a flat or horizontal structure that gives everyone a voice. And encourages critical thinking and self-motivation. https://landbackfriends.com/mutual-aid/
I was fascinated to see this discussed in the Indigenous Worldviews course. “The hierarchical structure of western world views that places humans on top of the pyramid, does not exist. The interdependency with all things, promotes a sense of responsibility and accountability.”
Indigenous ways of knowing are based on the idea that individuals are trained to understand their environment, according to teachings found in stories.
These teachings are developed specifically to describe the collective lived experiences and date back thousands of years.
The collective experience is made up of thousands of individual experiences, and these experiences come directly from the land and help shape the codes of conduct for Indigenous societies.
A key principle is to live in balance and maintain peaceful internal and external relations.
This is linked to the understanding that we are all connected to each other.
The hierarchical structure of western world views that places humans on top of the pyramid, does not exist. The interdependency with all things, promotes a sense of responsibility and accountability.
Thriving in the harsh Arctic climate, Inuit people relied heavily upon each other for survival.
Each person had value and contributed to the community.
This reliance established codes of ethics and behaviors, or Maligait. Maligait has many meanings and translations, but to Inuit people it means, things that had to be done, and includes four main principles:
work for the common good
respect all living things
preserve harmony and balance
plan and prepare for the future
The hierarchical structure of western world views that places humans on top of the pyramid, does not exist.
Indigenous Canada is a 12-lesson Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from the Faculty of Native Studies that explores Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada. From an Indigenous perspective, this course explores key issues facing Indigenous peoples today from a historical and critical perspective highlighting national and local Indigenous-settler relations. Topics for the 12 lessons include the fur trade and other exchange relationships, land claims and environmental impacts, legal systems and rights, political conflicts and alliances, Indigenous political activism, and contemporary Indigenous life, art and its expressions.
Thank you for signing up for Indigenous Canada. This course examines the historical and contemporary lives, identities, cultural expressions, rights, and goals of Indigenous peoples in Canada. In this course, we have worked to bring Indigenous voices and perspectives to inform your learning experience.
The course material will be covered in twelve modules. Each module offers a series of videos communicating Indigenous experiences of history and current events. Topics covered include: the fur trade and exchange relationships, land claims and environmental impacts, legal systems and rights, Indigenous political activism, and contemporary Indigenous life, art, and its expressions. Together, these modules provide a basic familiarity with Indigenous perspectives as well as Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations.
We are excited to have you with us and be a participant in these learnings. Spread the word of this unique education experience by telling a family member, a friend, or a colleague. We hope that Indigenous Canada will serve you well and offer new insights. Thank you and take care, Dr. Paul Gareau
Much of my work and writing last year has been related to Mutual Aid. This has solidified my conclusions that our hope now is to continue and expand Mutual Aid projects across the county and world.
The greatest driver to build mutual aid groups is we will soon have no choice. It is increasingly clear our political system has failed us. Capitalism has failed us. Our healthcare industry is failing despite the valiant efforts of front-line health workers. And most of all, environmental chaos will rapidly worsen.
It has seemed our faith bodies are failing us, too. Where is the church in helping us through these increasingly trying times?
We can take advantage of skills that we cultivate within our faith spaces—such as mindfulness, active listening and servant leadership—to build multi-faith, multi-tendency, and multi-generational coalitions for systemic change
Ty Kiatathikom
For example, I’ve worked my entire adult life to convince Quakers to stop owning personal automobiles. And failed to do so. I’m aware this could be related to mistakes I’ve made in communicating.
I’ve been discouraged, but not surprised, at the lack of response I’ve been getting when trying to convince people of the evils and failure of capitalism. (See Evils of Capitalism). But I know it will require spiritual guidance to help us through the coming times. I still have faith the Inner Light will show us the way.
I am intrigued by the idea of Religious Socialism that my friend Fran Quigley told me about. Fran is director of the Health and Human Rights Clinic at Indiana University McKinney School of Law and has published the book Religious Socialism: Faith in Action for a Better World.
In the following Lucy Duncan writes “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?”
Ty Kiatathikom writes about Religious Socialism. And there is information about an eight-week course, “Re-Envisioning Community Safety. Exploring Policing and Alternatives”.
Early Friends understood the Inner Light not only as a beacon shining from each person’s soul but also as a searchlight exposing the knots and blocked or wounded places in ourselves, the spaces requiring reckoning and real repair. I would argue that these stories of White Quaker complicity (which do not in any way diminish the stories of individual and collective Quaker courage) implicate us in the harms of slavery and incarceration in deep ways. They implicate us as perpetrators but also as wounded ourselves.
As Wendell Berry so eloquently put it, we carry the mirror image of the harm we’ve caused in our souls. This “hidden wound” is ever present and disrupts our ability to be fully intact, fully grounded, and human. We render ourselves in some ways obscure to our own history and to a full knowing of who we are.
I tell the stories of early White Quaker relationships to slavery because slavery was never really abolished. If we can reckon with the full truth of our connection to slavery and its afterlives, perhaps we can begin the healing necessary to fulfill the promise of the Religious Society of Friends of Truth.
We as White Quakers like to think of ourselves as ahead or better than dominant culture, but we have been complicit in a system and mindset that are ubiquitous. Claiming the full truth of our history and committing to repair the harms done are deeply spiritual acts of healing our own wounds of disconnection. I would argue it is the pathway upon which we can, perhaps for the first time, discover and invigorate our faith with its full promise.
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?
Where do religious socialists fit into that struggle?
Every religion teaches the power of redemption. In every faith, there are stories about human beings redeeming and being redeemed. Siddhartha Gautama renounces his status as a prince to live and die as an ascetic, and in doing so, escapes from the cycle of life and death entirely. The Abrahamic religions call on their adherents to answer for their misdeeds by doing virtuous acts and asking forgiveness from God. Universally, our faiths extol the importance of understanding that our actions in this life define us and carry us on over to the next, and that no person is ever beyond redemption for their vilest act.
We can take advantage of skills that we cultivate within our faith spaces—such as mindfulness, active listening and servant leadership—to build multi-faith, multi-tendency, and multi-generational coalitions for systemic change. Relationship-building is a foundational step in birthing a revolutionary culture, and abolitionist culture is no different. As religious socialists, we have the potential—and therefore the responsibility—to nourish the culture that connects us within and without prison walls.
One example of religiously informed abolitionist organizing is Abolition Apostles, a national jail and prison ministry based in New Orleans. Serving thousands of incarcerated people across the country, Abolition Apostles connects them with pen pals, material support, and advocacy for their parole and re-entry.
We cannot claim to live in a moral society until we have achieved the permanent abolition of the prison-industrial complex. The words echo in religious and socialist texts: Hebrews 13.3: Remember those who are in prison as though you were in prison with them; the Dhammapada: Whoever, being pure, forbears with punishment, bondage, and abuse, having the strength of endurance, having an army of strengths, that one I say is a brahmin; Eugene Debs: While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
From October through December 2021, I led a course for Friends from Multnomah Friends Meeting and West Hills Friends Church (both in Portland, OR) based on the Mennonite Church, USA curriculum about police abolition. https://www.mennoniteusa.org/abolition-curriculum-intro/ This Portland Quaker gathering was sponsored by Multnomah’s Peace and Social Concerns Committee and Friends for Racial Justice.
After spending nine weeks exploring these issues and obtaining feedback from course participants, I feel led to widen the discussion to a broader community. I am hoping that additional Friends will join me for an exploration of this topic – and that Friends will forward this opportunity to friends who are not Quakers who may be interested.
Below is the course announcement. Unfortunately, the timing of the course (6:30 – 8:30 pm PST) only works for West Coast, or possibly Mountain Time people.
Please get in touch if you have questions, suggestions, or are interested in participating.
Religious Socialism is fundamentally about the many injustices that are consequences of the capitalist economic system. It is difficult to come to terms with the evils of this system we dwell in. But we must have the moral courage to reject capitalism.
But our moral lag must be redeemed; when scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men. When we foolishly maximize the minimum and minimize the maximum we sign the warrant for our own day of doom. It is this moral lag in our thing-oriented society that blinds us to the human reality around us and encourages us in the greed and exploitation which creates the sector of poverty in the midst of wealth. Again, we have diluted ourselves into believing the myth that Capitalism grew and prospered out of the protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice, the fact is that Capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – both black and white, both here and abroad. If Negroes and poor whites do not participate in the free flow of wealth within our economy, they will forever be poor, giving their energies, their talents and their limited funds to the consumer market but reaping few benefits and services in return. The way to end poverty is to end the exploitation of the poor, ensure them a fair share of the government services and the nation’s resources. I proposed recently that a national agency be established to provide employment for everyone needing it. Nothing is more socially inexcusable than unemployment in this age. In the 30s when the nation was bankrupt it instituted such an agency, the WPA, in the present conditions of a nation glutted with resources, it is barbarous to condemn people desiring work to soul sapping inactivity and poverty. I am convinced that even this one, massive act of concern will do more than all the state police and armies of the nation to quell riots and still hatreds. The tragedy is our materialistic culture does not possess the statesmanship necessary to do it.
Martin Luther King, Jr. The Three Evils of Society, August 31, 1967, National Conference on New Politics, Chicago
Capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor
An Epistle to Friends Regarding Religious Socialism
Dear Friends,
The measure of a community is how the needs of its people are met. No one should go hungry, or without shelter or healthcare. Yet in this country known as the United States millions struggle to survive. The capitalist economic system creates hunger, houselessness, illness that is preventable and despair. A system that requires money for goods and services denies basic needs to anyone who does not have money. Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) are disproportionately affected. Systemic racism. The capitalist system that supports the white materialistic lifestyle is built on stolen land and genocide of Indigenous peoples, and the labor of those who were enslaved in the past or are forced to live on poverty wages today.
Capitalism is revealed as an unjust, untenable system, when there is plenty of food in the grocery stores, but men, women and children are going hungry, living on the streets outside. White supremacy violently enforces the will of wealthy white people on the rest of us.
It has become clear to some of us who are called Friends that the colonial capitalist economic system and white supremacy are contrary to the Spirit and we must find a better way. We conscientiously object to and resist capitalism and white supremacy.
capitalism has violated the communities of marginalized folks. capitalism is about the value of people, property and the people who own property. those who have wealth and property control the decisions that are made. the government comes second to capitalism when it comes to power.
in the name of liberation, capitalism must be reversed and dismantled. meaning that capitalistic practices must be reprogrammed with mutual aid practices.
Des Moines Black Liberation Movement
Mutual Aid
How do we resist? We rebuild our communities in ways not based upon money. Such communities thrive all over the world. Indigenous peoples have always lived this way. Generations of white people once did so in this country. Mutual Aid is a framework that can help us do this today.
The concept of Mutual Aid is simple to explain but can result in transformative change. Mutual Aid involves everyone coming together to find a solution for problems we all face. This is a radical departure from “us” helping “them”. Instead, we all work together to find and implement solutions. To work together means we must be physically present with each other. Mutual Aid cannot be done by a committee or donations. We build Beloved communities as we get to know each other. Build solidarity. An important part of Mutual Aid is creating these networks of people who know and trust each other. When new challenges arise, these networks are in place, ready to meet them.
Another important part of Mutual Aid is the transformation of those involved. This means both those who are providing help, and those receiving it.
With Mutual Aid, people learn to live in a community where there is no vertical hierarchy. A community where everyone has a voice. A model that results in enthusiastic participation. A model that makes the vertical hierarchy required for white supremacy impossible.
Commonly there are several Mutual Aid projects in a community. The initial projects usually relate to survival needs. One might be a food giveaway. Another helping those who need shelter. Many Mutual Aid groups often have a bail fund, to support those arrested for agitating for change. And accompany those arrested when they go to court.
LANDBACK
The other component necessary to move away from colonial capitalism and white supremacy is LANDBACK.
But the idea of “landback” — returning land to the stewardship of Indigenous peoples — has existed in different forms since colonial governments seized it in the first place. “Any time an Indigenous person or nation has pushed back against the oppressive state, they are exercising some form of landback,” says Nickita Longman, a community organizer from George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada.
The movement goes beyond the transfer of deeds to include respecting Indigenous rights, preserving languages and traditions, and ensuring food sovereignty, housing, and clean air and water. Above all, it is a rallying cry for dismantling white supremacy and the harms of capitalism.
Returning the Land. Four Indigenous leaders share insights about the growing landback movement and what it means for the planet, by Claire Elise Thompson, Grist, February 25, 2020
What will Friends do?
It matters little what people say they believe when their actions are inconsistent with their words. Thus, we Friends may say there should not be hunger and poverty, but as long as Friends continue to collaborate in a system that leaves many without basic necessities and violently enforces white supremacy, our example will fail to speak to mankind.
Let our lives speak for our convictions. Let our lives show that we oppose the capitalist system and white supremacy, and the damages that result. We can engage in efforts, such as Religious Socialism, Mutual Aid and LANDBACK, to build Beloved community. To reach out to our neighbors to join us.
We must begin by changing our own lives if we hope to make a real testimony for peace and justice.
We remain, in love of the Spirit, your Friends and sisters and brothers,
Quakers and Mutual Aid 