Men Like Fish on Fire

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“A LETTER TO OUR FELLOW CHRISTIANS

This Christmas season we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace while our country drops bombs on our brothers and sisters in North and Sound Viet Nam. As the New Year begins, while we celebrate in the comfort of our homes, our own young men fight to their death with poorly-fed villagers in South Viet Nam this Christmas, while we spend our money on food and fun, highways and bridges built with the sweat and sacrifice of the people of North Vietnam over the last 10 years are being systemically destroyed by our country’s bombs.  

We know that the blame for this war must be shared by the enemy, but we are equally certain that it is our responsibility as Christians to “examine the beam in our own eye.”An honest reading of the history of the past 10 years in Southeast Viet Nam has made more certain the support of communist-led forces by the people. Our pouring in of billions of dollars in military supplies to keep the Saigon governments in poser while basic land reform and other human needs were being neglected made war more likely.  

We see little sigh that our government has learned the lesson of history. We continue to try to stop a bad political system by using means that are even more evil--organized mass violence-- while the evil we are trying to stop feeds and grows on our own neglect of human need. With every bomb we drop on the people of Asia they become more convinced that communist leaders are right in their campaign of hatred for American power.

Christ gives the answer to this problem, We can destroy our enemies by making them our friends . We can defeat the enemy’s hate campaign by doing the opposite that is unjust, but we can so alter our approach to him as to change the acceleration of hatred and violence into an acceleration toward reconciliation and peace.

We can announce a change in American policy away from war. some of the steps in this new policy would include” 1. The stopping of bombing of North and South Viet Nam and of all offensive action by our military forces while we seek to use the office of the United Nations to start negotiations with the Viet Cong and other parties involved; 2. State our willingness to seat Mainland China in the United Nations; 3. Strengthen the peacekeeping power of the United Nations  so that international forces could protect small countries from aggression; 4. Channel some of the billions we are now spending on military power into helping all people, whether communist of non-communist to attain a better standard of living’ 5.Follow these initial steps wiht a program of total world disarmament supervised and enforced by the United Nations.

Fantastic? -- Idealistic? -- It seems idealistic only because we Christians have thus far railed to obey our charge from Jesus Christ. As we celebrate Christians in the comfort of an affluent America, while our sons and brothers die from hunger and bombs across the sea, we can hear the angry voice of Christ crying across the ages, ‘Ye hypocrites!”

Let us put on the whole armor of Christ and begin to wage war against hate and injustice and war itself. We begin by speaking out to our fellow Christians and to our government.

SACRAMENTO MEETING, RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS (QUAKERS) Richard Derby, Clerk Gordan Healton, Chairman, Peace and Social Action Committee

For reprints and additional background   information and ideas on how you can help in your own church phone GL1-1581”

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“AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE   New England Regional Office 48 Inman St. , Cambridge, Ma. 02139

PROPOSAL FOR A “COMMONWEALTH ASSOCIATION”  

The following is what one group has developed after studying DEMOCRATIZING THE WORKPLACE and a lot of talking about how to get from ideas to action:

The basic idea is that thee would exist in a given geographical area (say a city of a country) a Commonwealth  Association (or Community and Worker Service Association, Whatever) that would consist of voluntarily associated member workplaces which would meet certain criteria of worker and community control and ownership.  The purpose of the Association would be to provide mutual aid and support in the effort of building strong democratized workplaces. Specifically, this could mean sharing of experience in problems of creation real worker and community control of the workplace; forming a board of advisers (legal, finical, technical, organizational , community relations, social change): organizing a political force to influence legislation in favor of democratized workplaces building strong relations with unions; pooling such services as advertising, health and fire insurance, capital amortization, book-keeping and clerical activities, legal services, child care, food co-ops and buying clubs, pension plans, medical care, management and group process training, market planning, ect.  

Some of the above-mentioned specific functions of the Commonwealth Association will need research and, perhaps experimentation to test their feasibility. But the basic idea of an association for mutual aid and support in dealing with problems of economic democracy should be rather straightforward. Community development corporations, the Ithaca Project, and some diversified co-ops have proven successful as associations of mutual aid and support in their approaches to building economic alternatives. Because of close worker and community involvement,

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Commonwealth Association members would hopefully offer clearly superior goods and services at reasonable prices and would therefore naturally attract clients; their democratic organization would be a strong additional selling point to humanitarians and other concerned people. Like the early Quakers and Methodists, who became well-known as honest merchants and tradespeople, Commonwealth Associations would establish new standards for quality and service.

Membership would be open to new and existing workplaces, co-ops, work collectives, ect. Criteria for membership would be worked out by member workplaces and would be open to change as needed. The overall approach of a Commonwealth Association would be open-ended, friendly , and co-operative; hopefully there would not be a distinction made between management and workers - - all would be worker members of the Association.   But how to get from here to There??? First it would be best to start with people around us -- talking with people at workplaces which are or are becoming democratized. Then would come building outward, reaching workplaces and people with DEMOCRATIZING THE WORKPLACE and other literature, organizing study groups, showing films and slide shows (at least one is in preparation at this time), and reworking this proposal and writing others, The Economic Alternatives Program at the American Friends Service Committee in New England will have two part-time workers in Worcester Co., Mass. working on workplace health and safety, workers’ self-management, and committees of work; their energies and experience should prove helpful. Other supportive organizations would be the Center for Community Economic Development in Cambridge, People for Self-Management at Cornell, the Boston Area Inter-university Seminar on Self-Management, the Ithaca Project, Vocations for Social Change, and some labor unions.

Workers’ Self-Management Group, AFSC Economic Alternatives Program November 30, 1973”

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“PEACE AND SOCIAL ACTION PROGRAM NEW YORK YEARLY MEETING of the RELIGIOUS SOCIEY OF FRIENDS   217 Second Avenue New York  

February 12, 1968

Is violence essential to the American way of life?

Rapp Brown seems in tune with the times when he says that “violence is as American as cherry pie.” No one can deny the violence of Vietnam nor the increasing violence of our cities. Less obvious, but surely no less devastating, is the extent to which our social institutions quietly oppress people,  with as destructive an effect as overt violence.

Out concern as Quakers is to find actions that challenge such violence and show alternatives to it. The Peace and Social Action Program is an attempt to venture into areas of conflict, rather than fly from them, and to experiment with new dimensions of our traditional concern for peace. We know that violence begets violence, and therefore believe that violent response to a violent act is not the most constructive one, We feel it is more efficient to fight fire with water than with fire.  

Some of our experiments in creative response are described in the enclosed pages. We are sing role-playing in training police to keep the peace with minimal use of force and equal protection for all citizens. We have put disciplined civilian peace squads in tense city streets to help maintain a sense of community amidst rising racial and political animosities. We have organized street rescue patrols to preserve the bonds of humanity between and meet the needs of homeless people. We are endeavoring to preserve the bonds of humanity between people at war though medical relief to sufferers on all sides of the Vietnamese conflict.  

These and other projects are being conducted by various committees under the supervision of a Steering committee approved and appointed by the membership of the New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious society of Friends.

I hope you will help us demonstrate that there are alternatives to violence compatible with the American way of life. If only certain parts of the Program appeal to you, you are free, of course, to earmark your gift for specific projects only, All gifts are tax deductible. Yours sincerely   Newton Garver, Chairman Peace and Social Action Program”

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“This meeting of Quakers is for prayer and for witness, Witness that God still speaks to the world: to rulers and governments to the people of Britain to each man and woman; He calls for a radical change of attitudes, a new standard of values, a non-violent revolution. “

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“QUAKER STATEMENT ON SOCIAL JUSTICE

In this time of crisis, The Religious Society of Friends calls on all people to recognize that the policies being perused by the Ontario Government are dangerous and destructive.  

They increase the gap between the rich and the poor. They erode the bonds of trust and respect on which our sense of community is based they impoverish our spiritual lives through loss of compassion for others and endanger the well-being of present and future generations.  

We realize that many among those who have initiated and who support the policies have done so in the belief that the ends they seek are good ones. But the means to those ends are unacceptable to the conscience of honest citizens. And as Quakers we believe that whee the means are flawed, so too are the ends. not only that but the means will fail to achieve the desired ends.

At least as disturbing as the substance of these policies is there spirit, the spirit of meanness, vindictiveness, and blaming the poor for there poverty which has become so prevalent today. This is against all that Jesus taught. It is contrary to Quaker beliefs and practice, and to the whole Judaeo-Christian tradition.  

We can be part of a combined voice which sees the present crisis as an opportunity to transform and economic and social system based on greed and disparity into a community which cares for all and includes all.

We also call on our own community of look within our hearts, for, as Friends we believe that the seeds of the present policies have nourishment in our attachment to possessions, our complacency, and even our unrecognized greed.

A Quaker anti-slaver once asked, “Can we be both silent and innocent spectators?” We urge concerned people to speak and act now. We will never have a better opportunity to witness to our faith in the precious value of everyone of us, equally children of God.

“We are all the poorer for the crushing of one... since the dimming of the light anywhere darkens us all.”

Approved by the Toronto Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) on May 21, 1996″