A Pinch of Salt

Issue 24 A Pinch of Salt

2012-01-22T22:05:00.001Z

I've just put together Issue 24 of 'A Pinch of Salt'. If you're not subscribed but you'd like to be email me editor.apos[at]gmail.com and I'll send you a copy when it's back from the printers.

SOPA and PIPA

2012-01-18T15:02:00.004Z

Various internet sites, such as Wikipedia, have protested today with blackouts in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). There is a concern that these acts will impact freedom of information and government will abuse their new powers. How will this website be effected by these acts? Is the heyday of the internet over?

Common Sense - SOPA & PIPA from Border Row Productions on Vimeo.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Two ASBOs sought against Christian Peace Campaigners

2012-01-09T11:25:00.004Z

Chris and Martin with Sr Susan disarming AWE Aldermaston.

Following the recent announcement that the CPS* are seeking a ten year ban on Chris Cole entering the Westminster area Fr Martin Newell faces the same procedure.

Both Martin and Chris have a long history of direct action and public liturgy at places of violence. Both are likely to have ASBOs preventing them from going near to Westminster for ten years.

These ASBOs have particular implications because every citizen has a right to address her or his MP in Westminster.

Do you know of any similar ASBOs being handed out or attempted by the CPS?

*Crown Prosecution Service

St Paul, patron Saint of the Occupy Movement?

2012-01-03T09:56:00.001Z

If you live in or around London there is a workshop on Thursday at 1 pm at the Bank of Ideas you might be interested in. "Would St Paul the Tentmaker have camped with Occupy?" with Juliet Kilpin.

Since the movement in Britain has focussed around St Paul's Cathedral, and St Paul was an itinerant awning-maker who challenged the ideology of empire in his day, it's a question worth exploring.

Understandably folk are often put off by St Paul's letters, often verbose and sexist, but an increasing number of scholars are separating those early letters from the real Paul with later letters that bear his name. What they're finding is that the original Paul was far more radical than we have given him credit for.

If you haven't read it, I'd recommend 'The First Paul' by Crossan and Borg as an accessible and thorough introduction to the radical Jewish mystic who could easily be the patron saint of Occupations.

New Year Message from Dave Andrews

2012-01-01T23:57:00.000Z

www.daveandrews.com.au

Here's an excerpt from an inspiring New Year message from Dave Andrews. Dave works and lives in Brisbane, Australia. He is part of the 'Waiters Union' there, facilitating and celebrating community. Among other things, he has a particular enthusiasm for respectfully working with people of other faiths.

I’vebeen preparing to face the New Year by watching An African Answer, a documentary that traces the efforts of PastorJames Wuye and Imam Muhummad Ashafa, in bringing peace after the post-electionblood-letting in Kenya’s Rift Valley. Some of the best answers to questionsabout how we can create peace in the midst of war are being forged in Africa.

Ifirst encountered James Wuye and Muhammad Ashafa when The Imam and The Pastor told their story of moving from leadingmilitias killing one another to leading peace-making initiatives in Nigeria.They have visited Australia and they have become a model for the peacemakinginitiatives I am taking this year with Nora Amath, a Muslim colleague and closefriend.

Nora’s Mosque in Kuraby was the first one burntdown anywhere in the world after 9/11, so we have decided to reach out to allthe faith communities around the Mosque, in the hope of negotiating a Memorandumof Understanding to affirm a working relationship committed to personalrespect, mutual regard, community harmony and a willingness to address issuesof concern that may arise. It is our deepest prayer that all our faithcommunities will be sincerely committed to:

· Make aneffort to relate respectfully

to all people regardless of their faith.

· Listen towhat others have to say.

· Not tellother people what they believe, let them to tell us.

· Respectother’s views, even if we disagree with their views.

· Be honestand sensitive in what we say.

· Speakpositively of our faith, not negatively of other’s.

· Not try andforce people to agree with our own views.

· Not treatpeople as a spokesperson for their faith

· Not judgepeople by what other people of their faith do.

· Acknowledgeboth similarities and differences between our faiths.

· Share ourfaiths with sincerity, transparency, mercy and compassion.

· Be honest,if an event includes sharing our faith. Not bait and switch.

· Servewithout strings attached. Not exploit the vulnerability of people.

· Witness, butnot convert. Never try to induce or to coerce a conversion.

· Respect thechoice of faith others make. Accept them without resentment.

· Encouragepositive relationships between faith communities.

· Encourageconstructive relationships with the wider community.

· Useour wisdom, knowledge, skills and resources to serve people.

· Discussproblems arising face to face so we can solve them peacefully.

ASBO Activist Calls Time On War

2011-12-23T20:49:00.000Z

ASBO Activist Calls Time on War

ASBO to ban anti-war activist from City of Westminster for 10 years

Chris Cole, (Right) at Downing Street in October.

A Christian peace activist has been served notice by the Metropolitan Police that they are seeking an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) to exclude him from the City of Westminster for ten years.

Chris Cole (48) from Cowley, Oxford was served with papers as he attended a pre-trial hearing following a demonstration at Downing Street on October 7^th to mark the 10^th anniversary of the Afghanistan War.

Cole, along with Catholic Priest Fr Martin Newell face charges of criminal damage following the pouring of paint on the Downing Street pavement.

The ASBO seek to ban Cole from being in the City of Westminster except while passing through as a passenger on the London Underground; being in possession of any can of spray paint, tin of paint, marker pen, chalk or charcoal in any place outside the city of Oxford or being in possession of bolt croppers in any place outside the city of Oxford.

The application for the ASBO sites fourteen occasions over the past twenty-one years that Cole has been arrested at anti-war protests involving spray paint or bolt croppers.

Chris Cole said “Waging war is the great anti-social behaviour of our time. Thousands of people have been killed and injured in the great follies of the Iraq and Afghanistan war, while billions have been wasted on preparations for nuclear war and arms companies continue to make vast profits from hawking weaponry around the globe. Rather than spraying bullets in Iraq or spilling blood in Afghanistan, I have spilled paint on the Downing Street pavement and sprayed paint on the MoD walls. In all honesty, which is the real anti-social behaviour here?”

The application for the ASBO on Cole will take place at the end of his trial for the protest at Downing Street, a date for which is yet to be set. In 2005, a District Judge refused to impose an ASBO on anti-war activist Lindis Percy. District Judge Anderson said: "I am firmly of the view courts ought not to allow anti-social behaviour orders to be used as a club to beat down the expression of legitimate comment and the dissemination of views of matters of public concern."

Robin Hood seen in Birmingham's Banks

2011-12-07T18:10:00.001Z

On a cold December afternoona crowd of students and staff from the Queen'sFoundation, Birmingham, went into the Bull Ring shopping centre,hoisted the Queen’s banner, and launched into song.

The tune was that of ‘WhileShepherds Watched their Flocks by Night’ but the words were ‘While ShoppersShopped by Day and Night’. The old carol ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ washeard as ‘Slow Down Ye Frantic Shoppers’.

Queen's Foundation Students on Birmingham High Street

As the crowd swirled aroundus, stopping for a few moments to listen, ‘Jingle bells’ was transformed. Itbecame

Profits here, profits there,
profits everywhere
Christmas time isfunny
we smell money in the air.

People smiled, some joined in, others asked for copies of the song sheet. Leadby Robin Hood, waving their signs and placards, the party of about 25 processedto New Street where there is a line of banks.

We stopped outside Lloyds TSB, the horns blasted their call for attention,Robin produced a scroll and proclaimed

I, hereby dressed as Robin Hood,Do call uponthe government of this landTo actfor fairness, stability and the wellbeing of nation,To seize as tax onetwo-thousandth part of each Commercial Financial transaction – So small a partas barely to be noticed –And to use such funds for the good of those in need, So help me God (who cares for the poor, the marginalised, and theoppressed),And I call upon your support.Are you with me?

Robin’s supporters then shouted in unison“We’re with you, Robin!” and were joined by quite a few bystanders,some of whom cheered.

Robin Hood with three thenentered the bank itself, giving out chocolate coins wrapped in golden foil andleaflets describing the Robin Hood tax proposal. Smiling cashiers acceptedthese graciously and so did good humoured customers waiting in queues.

At the next bank, thingsseemed a little bit cooler, perhaps news of Robin’s approach had spread? Nowsome of the cashiers seemed a little nervous and a bank manager was seenpointing at the door.

Outside, the crowd seemed togrow with each proclamation of the scroll which was also greeted with thesinging of the Robin Hood tax song

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, justa tiny taxBanks can share, show they care, let’s just face the factsA change inthe law could help the world’s most poorRobin Hood, could do good, so weshould.

At the last bank pulled out his key intending to lock the front door of thebank, making Robin Hood and his merry men prisoners. But while he fumbled toget the key into the lock, the little band in true Hollywood style deftlyslipped through the doorway and made their getaway to the cry from outside‘We’re with you Robin’.

In the Queen’s Foundation, all students training for publiclyrecognised ministry, whether in the Church of England, the Methodist Church,the Church of God of Prophecy, the New Testament Church of God or the WesleyanHoliness Church are required to become familiar with social justice or, as itis often called, prophetic witness. The demonstration drawing attention to theneed for a Robin Hood tax was planned by trainee clergy and carried through bythem.

Mark Earey, Director of The Centre for Ministerial Formation(Anglican)
John M Hull, Professor of Practical Theology
5^th December 2011 Mark Earey, Director of The Centre for MinisterialFormation (Anglican)

On Civil Government

2011-12-06T20:14:00.005Z

On Civil Government: Its Origin, Mission and Destiny and the Christian's Relation to It (2011) by David Lipscomb

In this book David Lipscomb shows why Christians should not support, or rely upon, civil government. Lipscomb is a Christian pacifist who believes that war is the result of human government, as he explains:

"All the wars and strifes between tribes, races, nations, from the beginning until now, have been the result of man's effort to govern himself and the world, rather than to submit to the government of God." (page 14)

He believes that governments are ruled by Satan, executing wrath and vengeance, and thus Christians should have nothing to do with them.

"Every one who honors and serves the human government and relies upon it, for good, more than he does upon the Divine government, worships and serves the creature more than he does the Creator." (page 50)

Although Lipscomb does concede that human government is necessary and has a place in God's plan, in the same way there is a place called Hell.

"Human government, the embodied effort of man to rule the world without God, ruled over by 'the prince of this world,' the devil. Its mission is to execute wrath and vengeance here on earth. Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven." (page 72)

However he is also critical of Church institutions, believing they too have been corrupted by ambition and pride, just like civil governments. Lipscomb goes on to propose a Christian form of anarchism, where Christians should neither support human government nor use force to overthrow it.

"It is the duty of the Christian to submit to the human government in its office and work and to seek its destruction only by spreading the religion of Christ and so converting men from service to the earthly government to service to the heavenly one, and so, too, by removing the necessity for its existence and work. No violence, no sword, no bitterness or wrath can he use. The spread of the peaceful principles of the Savior, will draw men out of the kingdoms of earth into the kingdom of God." (pages 84-85)

This withdrawal of support for human government has been achieved by various Christian anarchists in the 20th century, including Ammon Hennacy who followed a lifestyle of simple living and voluntary poverty, thus reducing his taxable income.

First published in 1866 and nearly 30 years before Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You, On Civil Government is a ground breaking book.

The London Riots: a lamentation

2011-11-26T15:10:00.001Z

I've been trying to work out the lyrics to this track for a workshop I'm doing next week in Leicester. I'm nearly there but would value your help!

Here Mr Prime Minister, would you mind if I got a couple ofminutes of your time?

Why the fuck did you attack our wages when you never done adays work in your life?

And what the fuck d’you know of our business? I can waittill the day that all of you die!

And it’s funny how you keep your distance but send thepolice to fight the life of crime.

Were you travelling on London transport the day that thebombs went off?

How about you try an’ pay rent to the landlords earning shitmoney doing a labouring job?

Why we livin’ like shit in this country while you’ve gotyour feet up livin’ nice and comfy?

Well we got where the problem is, people acknowledge thisstand up to the politics!

Chorus from the original track by Muse:

They will not force us,

They will stop degrading us,

They will not control us,

We will be victorious,

So Come on.

They put cameras up ‘cause they’re mad at us and they stillwanna blame it on terrorism.

Newspapers talk shit don’t believe anything that you see onthe television.

And the thing is that people don’t listen they take awayyour rights and stick you in prison.

Well I’ll never forgive ‘em, their tax has risen, for fucksake check […]

Well I say we turn on ‘em now; let’s stick together and stankour ground; go outside and rip cameras down. Let the pricks no that we ain’tfuckin’ around.

Let’s reclaim the United Kingdom ‘cause I don’t wanna be aface in the distance.

(Fuck it) listen to my words of wisdom ‘cause all they do isfeed ‘em with fiction.

They will not force us…

I wanna get my hands on David Cameron and when I finish with‘im he won’t have any legs to stand on.

I’ll grab a knife and stick it in the pussy like a tampon.

And if you’re in a packed out tube and there’s never anyroom to breathe:

Pray to Allah out loud, people will scatter and then there’llbe plenty of seats.

Drive an RPG into all MPs in the houses of parliament.

I’ll make […] proud when I wipe every last single one of ‘em.

Fuck the government, I’ve had enough of ‘em especially nowthe beer price is doublin’.

Sacrificing the lives of soldiers […] never before.

They will not force us…

More Media Mulching of St Paul's Spot Light

2011-11-08T14:46:00.001Z

Perhaps Rowan Williams is right and the Church takes the vicarious role of having the ethical dilemmas on behalf of wider society. We all are part of the system, one way or another, a system that both traps and treats us.

But Ken Costa is not the Church he is representative of the way the 1% dictate the theology of the Church by bankrolling the notorious Alpha Course - a course which conservative evangelicals use to steam roller their nonsense into people's heads. The Guardian send him up brilliantly here.

Far better to listen to the debate on Radio 4, where the middle classes play out the ethical dilemma for us. I flag this up mainly because Jonathan Bartley is on and he's always got something to say that's worth hearing. So click here to listen to that.

Meanwhile, instead of getting people to play out the debate while we watch perhaps the rest of us should think about our own ethical dilemmas and comforting God-talk. Maybe we need to stop looking at the 14 carat gold speck in Ken Costa's eye and take a look at the plank in our own? Um.... Nah!

The French Government outlaws vegetarianism in schools

2011-11-03T14:58:00.002Z

I know the French like their meat but really...

A governmental order issued on October 2, 2011 has determined that all meals served in school canteens in France must contain animal products, and that meat and fish will be served at a certain minimum frequency. This implies that by law from now on no vegetarian can eat at any public or private school in France.

Six million schoolchildren are now forced to eat animal flesh, whether they wish to or not. For many families lunch at home is not an option. At best, a vegetarian student will be allowed to leave the meat on the plate, and consequently suffer from inadequate and imbalanced meals.

Following a law voted last year by the French Parliament, similar decrees will be taken shortly regarding almost all forms of catering from kindergarten to hospital, prisons and retirement homes. Vegetarianism will then have effectively been banned for a large part of the population.

These measures ostensibly aim at ensuring the nutritional quality of the meals. Animal flesh is imposed as the only source of good quality protein and iron and dairy products as the only sources of calcium, in disregard of the fact that all these nutrients can be obtained in adequate quantity and quality from plant and mineral sources. The internationally recognized fact that: "appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases [and that] well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes" (source: American Dietetic Association) is flatly ignored.

No practical considerations warrant a blanket prohibition of vegetarianism even in those canteens where the management is willing to offer vegetarian or vegan alternatives. These decrees are thus an arbitrary violation of the rights of the vegetarian citizens of France.

The European Vegetarian Union wishes to point out that the decision that many citizens have taken not to eat animals is not a mere dietary whim or a nonconsequential choice of lifestyle, but follows, for many of them, from deeply held beliefs about the way animals should be treated. A democratic government cannot arbitrarily restrict the beliefs of its citizens nor the practice thereof. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which is binding on member states including France, holds that: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes freedom to change religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or in private, to manifest religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance."

The public debate regarding animal rights and the moral status of animals is active in France as in many other countries. Citizens are entitled to choose freely where they stand on these issues, and those who believe that they cannot, in conscience, accept to eat animals must not be discriminated against.

A government cannot settle a philosophical, ethical and political debate by restricting the rights of those who disagree with its own positions. For years, the official policy of the French government has been openly hostile to vegetarianism. The French agriculture minister, Bruno Lemaire, declared in January 2010 that the government's aim in determining its public nutritional policy was to defend the French agricultural model and specifically to counter initiatives such as those of Paul McCartney calling for a reduced consumption of meat.

The European Vegetarian Union demands that the recent governmental orders outlawing vegetarianism in school canteens be rescinded and that the French government respect the civil rights of its vegetarian citizens.

Renato Pichler
President
European Vegetarian Union

See here and here for more information.

For those interested here is the petition. I am never sure these things do anything but I have signed it anyway.

St Paul's Cathedral hires patronising free-marketeer

2011-11-01T13:38:00.003Z

The apparent 'U-turn' in policy from St Paul's, headed up by the bishop of London is nothing of the kind. They have brought in retired city-banker and conservative alpha-male Christian Ken Costa to deliver an ethical framework for a free-market economy.

On 28 October 2011, three days before his appointment by St Paul's, Costa wrote in the Financial Times. He called discussions among those camped out 'naive' and their protest 'of little consequence'. He defends the free market as having done nothing more than to have 'drifted' from its moral foundations.

We shouldn't be surprised by this appointment. Bishop Richard (London) has already denied that he wanted violence while refusing to rule out its use so why not claim to take the protesters seriously while simultaneously appointing an adviser who doesn't.

I have a feeling decisions from those with the most unwittingly wed to the ideology of the powerful will continue to lead policy at St Paul's by the nose, into one disastrous decision after another.

Ultimately it is the wedding of Church and State that has made it impossible for the Anglican Church leaders to properly understand the signs of the times and take seriously the hopes of the marginalised. These people were trained to ignore injustice and appointed because they don't rock the boat. These are not the people to come up with any useful solutions. Not now or ever.

Visions of tomorrow: This is what democracy looks like

2011-11-01T11:31:00.000Z

Those involved in permaculture know that it's on the boundary between environments (e.g. hedge meets the meadow) that the most productive signs of life are found.

So creating boundary places and stepping back is often enough.

The OLSX camp at St Paul's Square is doing just that and those people on the boundaries (established church, activists, bankers) can't help but be drawn into it. It catches them off guard to be drawn into the real world in this way.

But it's not just boundaries. It's bridges as well. Activists over the last couple of decades have been rediscovering the 'internationale' of radical politics. A soldier, in uniform, stood outside St Paul's and declared the soldiers as 'the 99%' being exploited in wars that only benefit the wealthy. What a source of truth!

And the OLSX began as an act of solidarity with the Adbusters call to Occupy Wall Street. UK government policy is often little more than an arm of US foreign policy so the demands of Occupy Wall Street to 'take the money out of politics' as concrete and direct implications for UK political life.

As with all big social changes a combination of unavoidable factors and social pressure create great changes. Slavery was abolished in Britain because of a change in economics as well as social pressure. Women got suffrage because of the Suffragettes but the reality of it became unavoidable when after the war women found they had been skilled up to do paid work and extending women's right became near impossible to avoid.

The US is losing it's super-power status bit by bit. We saw it in the decision by UNESCO to invite in Palestine against US/Israeli wishes. We see it in the economic changes that are taking place around the world. There is no better time to demand global and local change.

Luke Bretherton, writer on Christianity and politics and a participant in London Citizens, offers a wonderful and simple analysis of what is at play in St Paul's Square.

If you've had to face down the irritating "they don't even know what they're protesting about" bollocks that some people are parroting from the mass media then this might be helpful document to turn to for a less than straightforward but an extremely helpful response.

I don't want to summarise it because it's worth reading in full. So have a look here.

Giles Fraser makes a stand

2011-10-27T13:03:00.000+01:00

Giles Fraser is - sorry 'was' - the Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral in London. Today he resigned, with regret.

I don't know what a canon chancellor is so to that extent. Pffft! But I know who Giles Fraser is, he's one of the Anglican Priests willing to publicly engage with the politics of the gospel. And I know what St Paul's Cathedral is: it's a den of thieves that charges people to enter a place of worship built on the backs of the poor by the rich so they can celebrate their God given right to screw us all over. It's beautiful too.

Photograph: Alex Diaz/PA: Giles Fraser: when the protest arrived
he sent the police on their way. No he's being forced to do the same.

He resigned because the clergy and laity who run the show, including Bp of London Richard Chatres and high-powered finance folk, are plotting to remove peaceful protests by violence from St Paul's Square. Giles Fraser quite rightly sees what a mockery and self-parodying nonsense the Church becomes when it makes such decisions. He wants no part of it. In his own words here.

So we don't know when but we know that violence will be used and the Church of England will get it's hands dirty for a change instead of letting the state do its dirty work. The Church of England imagines itself a neutral or benign power in matters of politics so often. And happily blesses the violence of others (as many clergy will do next month on 11 November) without getting the blood on its own cassock.

The protesters arrived thinking they would camp at Paternoster Square and expose the violence of Capital as it is expressed by bankers. That didn't know that another imperious power would be exposed in the process.

Perhaps its time the Church made up her mind: God or Caesar? What belongs to God is all creation. What belongs to Caesar are the empty promises of capital. So why does the church give everything to Caesar and only empty promises to God?

Meanwhile Giles Fraser might need some help this week. He needs to pack, he needs to figure out what to do next. God bless him as he discerns his calling in a church he loves but not more than he loves the image of God in his neighbour.

A line from the Paternoster prayer might be a good conclusion: give us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Amen.

But if you want a better and funnier conclusion there's always the wonderful newsthump!

What's your message?

2011-10-20T16:48:00.001+01:00

Mainstream media outlets and commentators are complaining that the Occupy Movement has no message: "They don't know what they want", they cry. Of course this is not true and if there was a single simple change they'd probably be dismissed as naive and simplistic.

I wonder if the media in Jesus' time complained that he lacked a coherent message. Certainly 2,000 years later people are still unclear as to what exactly the Kingdom of God is about or where it is.

Jesus was interested in the questions, the parables, the dilemmas of his age and in presenting them to the 99% so that they could discover their own solutions.

Just before our last General Election I was invited, along with the other deacons, to a dinner at the Bishop's house. As we ate he casually turned to me and said, "So I hear you're telling people not to vote." This was a wonderful way to light the blue touch paper and watch the fireworks go off!

Among the comments and questions from those around the table I was asked what I would replace the current system with. I suppose I could have said a Swiss cantonement, a federation, Total localism, or any other thing that took power from the elite to the people. But I resisted that totalitarian urge within me. Because I know I don't have the answer.

The answer to the question 'If not this, what else?' lies in the space between I and Thou. It will emerge from our situations not from our text books. I don't want a blue print for a better world. I want to turn my mind to a parable, as the psalmist says. I don't want to be the answer but I want to be part of a generation that is willing to live the questions.

I also want corporations to stop buying politicians. ;-)

Sheffield Social Centre

2011-10-17T11:56:00.004+01:00

David Cameron would be proud. The Sheffield Social Centre are running a really free Free School event with a broad curriculum for spiritual activists, anarchists, and anyone with the imagination and curiosity to learn and create learning.

Their first day of term was Saturday 15 October. A one day event. I hope there are more to come and in future will post them here in advance. Follow this link to find out more.

Kind, True and Necessary

2011-10-15T20:57:00.000+01:00

I thought you may find this film interesting. Its the biographical story of a Mennonite couple, Ernie and Mary Lou Goertzen, who chose a life of art, pacifism, activism and simple living.

Kind, True and Necessary from Caneyhead Pictures on Vimeo.

War Tax Resistance

2011-10-09T21:19:00.009+01:00

Death and Taxes from NWTRCC on Vimeo.

Dave Andrews in the UK

2011-09-25T14:49:00.001+01:00

*events in bold are public events, events in feint print are not.

Mon 10 Oct	Tonbridge Baptist Church teaching event (evening event)
Tues 11 Oct	CUF training day (1-5pm) Birmingham, Booking and information: Contact andy.turner@cuf.org.uk www.cuf.org.uk
Wed 12 Oct	Tearfund staff reflections (10am-12pm) Teddington
Thurs 13 Oct	Be the Change: Christian community involvement day event (11-3:30pm) Leeds, Booking and information: www.communitymission.org.uk
Fri 14 Oct	Community Development for drugs and alcohol work at Matthew Project(day event) Norwich Community Development for agencies working for change in Norwich(evening event) Norwich Booking and information : Contact Julian Bryant onjulianb@uwclub.net
Sat 15 Oct	Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor enquirers day (day event) Southall, Booking: Contact Helen Sidebotham on uk@servantsasia.org www.servantsasia.org
Mon 17 Oct	All Nations Family Focus (day event) Hertfordshire Be the Change: Christian community involvement event (6:30-8:30pm) London, Booking and information: www.communitymission.org.uk
Wed 19 Oct	Love thy Neighbourhood- Livability 2.5 day residential Hothorpe Hall, Leicestershire, £195 single room, £165 shared room Booking and online payment: www.communitymission.org.uk
Thurs 20 Oct	Love thy Neighbourhood- Livability 2.5 day residential See above
Fri 21 Oct	Love thy Neighbourhood- Livability 2.5 day residential See above
Sat 22 Oct	Oasis event (day event) Kent

Turbulent Priest

2011-09-19T18:33:00.001+01:00

I visited an interesting bloke last week. An Anglican Priest, nearly 90, living in a middle-sized English village.

So far so good.

Of course he's not allowed to preach or preside at his local church and has been warned off by both Bishop and congregation for his unseemly outburst. Or as John Papworth himself puts it "I'm a an annoying old bastard, you see."

So what's so annoying about John? It could be his engagement in local politics. He organises a bread-making guild, maintains some common areas, and edits a village magazine among other things. It could be his engagement in global politics. John has written and campaigned extensively against the menace of 'Giantism' in all things and argues for a renewed localism in public life.

"Anything that can be done locally the national government should stop interfering with." John believes that the future is small and that small is powerful. And power needs wresting back from the powers.

Welcome to the village of Purton. Oh, and welcome to Purton University.

Christ? No! Jesus? Yes!

2011-09-17T12:29:00.015+01:00

Christ? No! Jesus? Yes!: A radical reappraisal of a very important life (2011) by Tom O'Golo

In this book the author puts forward a number of unorthodox theories about Jesus and Paul. The author proposes that:

Jesus was an anarchist who flouted religious and political conventions. "Jesus was living and promoting...anarchism: spiritual and political anarchism." (page 123)
Jesus was a radical, refining down the ten commandments to principally two: loving one another and loving God. The author states that there is no need to be dependent on dubious supernatural Gospel stories such as the virgin birth or his miracles. Jesus' radical message should be enough to follow him.
The first followers of Jesus (or "Jesuans") were communal-living anarchists. "There is little doubt that the earliest followers of Jesus, and all those who continued the monastic tradition into modern times, have adopted the anarchist principle of leading a simple, industrious, mutually self-supporting life." (pages 131-132)
Jesus' brother, James, was vegetarian.
Paul corrupted "Jesuanism" by making Jesus into a God, reducing salvation to a matter of belief in Jesus almost regardless of the Torah's demands and establishing a Church hierarchy to create and control the beliefs of its membership. "All that is good about Christianity stems from Jesus, and all that is bad about it stems from Paul." (page 199)
Jesus may have travelled to Britain during his lost years to study with the Druids.

This book is a revised and retitled version of Jesus, Antichrist, Anarchist, Economist and a Theist (1998). Tom O'Golo may be a pen name for Gordon Strachan but this is unconfirmed. Strachan was a radical Church of Scotland minister who died in July 2010, aged 76.

Best Christian anarchist books:
By the way, for those who are interested I have put together a list of my favourite Christian anarchist books. For those in the US see here.

Moved to action

2011-09-15T20:35:00.001+01:00

Sunday 25th September

Moved to action

Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16; Philippians 2:1-13; Matthew 21:23-32

We know we are supposed to take care of the environment (reduce, reuse, recycle) and we do our bit, but in our hearts all but the most ardent environmentalist knows that how we presently live is doing is more harm than good: too little, and a bit too late. Talk of the earth being God's creation, our responsibility to care for the environment, or how we are only looking after it for the next generation are more likely to produce guilt than motivation to change our habits.

So we carry on with a nod to environmental responsibilities when necessary, but with the same corporate inertia. If we're all so scared about what will happen to the planet – and what is already happening – then why don't we act? Why do we just talk about action? Our politicians are no better: international conferences like Kyoto and Copenhagen have sometimes done more harm than good and the recent promise that 'vote blue and go green' seems to have been unrealised as business continues as usual in the corridors and washrooms of power.

But what's causing this mismatch between what we know to be right and what we do? One of the problems is we receive mixed messages: even if we read newspapers with articles that urge us to act, the same paper will have far bigger more attractive adverts urging us to buy a big car and go skiing. Over £15bn pounds was spent in the UK last year telling us to buy more stuff – when was the last time your favourite TV programme was interrupted to remind you to knit your own hemp sweater? We can't rely on education to save the environment because the loudest voices have a vested interest in its degradation. And we can't rely on politicians to save the environment because every time they try vested interests trip them up.

What we can do is create virtuous circles of action and reflection instead of the inertia of feeling guilty because we said we would act but knew deep down that we wouldn't.

Jesus said, “A man had two sons.” It's a really simple parable that speaks to the heart of so many issues. Both children wanted to please the parent but only one actually did something. Only one of them put boots on, picked up a sickle, slapped on the factor twenty five, and went out into the vineyard to work. The only way to beat our complacency is to get outside and begin: a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And like any pilgrimage it's easier with company. We are stronger and more resilient if we walk this road together.

Steven Woods, Christian anarchist

2011-09-13T10:21:00.004+01:00

Richard Perry Esq. gets a huge applause when it is mentioned how many people were killed on his watch as governor of Texas. Richard Perry Esq. wants to be president of the United States of America, and as we all know, that is a position in which one can and will kill many people more - innocent or not.
Frankly I am lost for words about Steven Woods, whom I heard about a few years ago and attached to as attachments went on Myspace. And then Myspace went out of style and yes, I forgot about him.

As far as I know this Christian anarchist who has claimed innocence all along will be killed today, September 13th, because Richard Perry Esq. will want to prove that he is tough on crime.
One of the sites dedicated to Steven Woods' case.

update 14 September 0.30 British Summer Time
Steven's corpse has been released for his family to touch it "while it is still warm".

God's Commonwealth: each according to need

2011-09-07T18:15:00.000+01:00

Sunday 18th September

God's Commonwealth: each according to need
Matthew 20:1-16

No doubt the householder was a wealthy landowner: vineyards don't run at a profit until thy have been tended for many years and so represent a considerable investment for a luxury cash-crop probably for an international market. The presence of a steward – probably one of many – is another clue to the economic status of the householder or more literally “house-despot”.
We tend to assume that powerful figures in parables represent God even if, as in this case, they profit from the poorly-paid, sun-beaten and exploited day-labourers.

So let's throw aside the complicated allegorical readings of the parable, so loved by theologians-past and do two important things that may turn this story from a bit of Christian whimsy into something that actually matters. First let's take it at face value; this is a story about a God's values in relation to land and labour, second let's begin not with the most powerful figure but with the powerless.
The day labourers aren't quite the poorest of the poor but they aren't far off. Perhaps they once owned a little land; handed down from generations, but a few bad harvests and a couple of weddings later and they found themselves in debt and having to sell their livestock, land, and finally even their home to the big farming companies who turned the whole area over to cash crops and started hiring by-the-day.

Such labourers are still around today so it doesn't take too much imagination: we have our eastern European seasonal workers on illegally poor wages in English mega-farms, we have our Chinese cockle-pickers risking their lives in our unforgiving seas, we have our agency workers in warehouse offices able to be dismissed at a moment’s notice. And we have pension funds, supermarkets, the Queen, insurance companies, and the Church of England – owning or buying up greater amounts of land from family farmers and squeezing every penny of profit from the soil to devastating effect on wildlife and on communities.

So let's picture the scene that Jesus paints for us. A group of landless men and women gather at dawn at the town gate. All of them are desperate to work, all of them are a few meals away from starvation. Naturally the youngest and fittest will be chosen first because they will be the best value for money. The least able and the elderly will be left standing through the heat of the day waiting for landowners to get desperate enough to give them work. It's these folk who are at the very bottom of the spiral of poverty: the weaker they get the less they earn, the less they earn the weaker they get. This is a meritocracy: each is given according to his or her ability. It's fair and just in a secular logic: if you work you earn if you don't work you don't earn.

But Jesus' story has a twist in the telling. Because in Jesus' economy things are different: there are no undeserving poor. There are only needs and the loving desire to meet them. It is the rich who are undeserving in Jesus' economy because they take more than they need and merit is no excuse for greed while others starve in the kingdom of God.

What Jesus was suggesting in this parable: that God wants to give us all we need rather than just what we deserve was nothing short of scandalous, even blasphemy. But is it so different today?

There are at least two challenges in this parable. First, the challenge to see needs and meet them regardless of merit or reward. The second, to begin to ask the questions about how these people came to be in such a vulnerable position in the first place and who benefits from keeping working people vulnerable to poverty and exploitation.

The seventeenth century visionary and theologian Gerard Winstanley called the earth a “common treasury” belonging to God and gifted to us all. He recognised the profound link between economy, ecology, and theology. Drawing on that other visionary who described for us in the Old Testament 'the jubilee' he reminds us that we give it all back to God or we imperil first our worth and then our very lives.
The Kingdom of God is like.... What is it like? What sort of world does Jesus describe and how can we proclaim it for our land and our county.

Religious anarchism - the paperback

2011-09-02T11:45:00.005+01:00

The paperback edition is out now!

Table of contents (and authors):
- Preface
- Introduction by Peter Marshall
Part I: Christian Anarchist Pioneers
Chapter One: The Pelagian Mentality: Radical Political Thought in Fifth Century Christianity by Richard Fitch
Chapter Two: A Theology of Revolutions: Abiezer Coppe and the Uses of Tradition by Peter Pick
Chapter Three: Religious Dissenters and Anarchists in Turn of the Century Hungary by Bojan Aleksov
Chapter Four: A Dead Seed Bearing Much Fruit: The Dutch Christian Anarchist Movement of the International Fraternity by André de Raaij
Part II: Christian Anarchist Reflections
Chapter Five: Love, Hate, and Kierkegaard’s Christian Politics of Indifference by Richard A. Davis
w Chapter Six: Responding to the State: Christian Anarchists on Romans 13, Rendering to Caesar, and Civil Disobedience by Alexandre J. M. E. Christoyannopoulos [Available here.]
Chapter Seven: Building a Dalit World in the Shell of the Old: Conversations between Dalit Indigenous Practice and Western Anarchist Thought by Keith Hebden
Chapter Eight: The Church as Resistance to Racism and Nation: A Christian, Anarchist Perspective by Nekeisha Alexis-Baker
Part III: Buddhist, Daoist, and Muslim Anarchism
Chapter Nine: Anarchism or Nihilism: The Buddhist-Influenced Thought of Wu Nengzi by John A. Rapp
Chapter Ten: Kenneth Rexroth’s Integrative Vision: Anarchism, Poetry, and the Religious Experience in Post-World War II San Francisco by Michael T. Van Dyke
Chapter Eleven: To Be Condemned to a Clinic: The Birth of the Anarca-Islamic Clinic by Mohamed Jean Veneuse
Chapter Twelve: Imagining an Islamic Anarchism: A New Field of Study Is Ploughed by Anthony T. Fiscella
Contributors
Index

The introduction by Peter Demand the impossible Marshall is a good review of "the field" and the author identifies with religious (transcendental) anarchism himself. It can be read here. [pdf]

Anarchy and Apocalypse

2011-08-23T20:18:00.066+01:00

Anarchy and Apocalypse: Essays on Faith, Violence, and Theodicy (2010) by Ronald E. Osborn

This book consists of eleven essays Ron Osborn wrote between 1999 to 2010. He covers a wide range of subjects such as the Holocaust, President Obama's Christian Realism and the death of the Seventh-day Adventists as a peace church (Osborn was raised as an Adventist). All the essays bar one were written in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Jesus called his followers to not resist evil but turn the other cheek. The US government contradicted this command by retaliating to 9/11. Osborn explains that such a response only serves to create more violence. To break the cycle of violence it is necessary to return good for evil.

In reading Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You and Noam Chomsky's The Chomsky Reader, Osborn was led from pacifism to Christian anarchism. Tolstoy viewed the state as a violent and deceitful institution that has no place in a truly Christian society.

Anarchy and Apocalypse is a great book for all those who believe Christianity is not merely a faith but a radical way of living.

The world's largest "defence and security" fair

2011-08-21T09:35:00.003+01:00

Arming repressive regimes. Boosting arms company profits. Displaying the latest killing technology. It’s an event you don’t want to miss.

The world’s biggest arms fair – DSEi – is coming to East London this September. Unless we stop it.

This year we’ve witnessed more of the horror that comes when the UK arms repressive regimes — armoured vehicles used to suppress protest in Libya and Bahrain were sold by the UK, along with crowd control equipment and tear gas.

With over 1200 companies exhibiting, and military delegations from all over the world, DSEi 2011 is back and bigger than ever, selling everything from F16 planes to unmanned drones.

There are also training sessions happening across the UK in the run up to DSEi.

Stop The Arms Fair coalition have called a day of action on 13th September and there’s loads of other actions planned…

Further reading.

What goes around comes around

2011-08-20T08:22:00.010+01:00

It Shoots Further Than He Dreams (1918) by John F. Scott

This cartoon reminded me of Jesus' rebuke to Peter, "Put your sword back in its place, for all who live by the sword will die by the sword." (Mathew 26:52).

For more anti-war cartoons see here.

I guess it was bound to happen one day

2011-08-15T08:38:00.005+01:00

Yesterday, Sunday afternoon, I saw a young lady, obviously going to the city centre here in Amsterdam, carrying a black linen shopping bag with an encircled A on it. That, unfortunately, may be part of the modern marketing mix of rebellion (think of Levi's advertising a riot just in the days of the #ukriots).
This A within an O was different however. It had an extra vertical line through the horizontal line of the A, making it a cross symbol.

She walked verry hurriedly, as if not wanting to miss a second of the modern day Sunday worship of buying, so I could not take the opportunity of stopping her to ask what this printed symbol was supposed to mean.

Search engines yield no significant results.
Christian anarchism cannot possibly be that hip, can it?
Especially when you think that it is supposed to be critical of consumerism.
If anyone sees one...

Updates

Here is some commercial "offering" but it is the Alpha-Omega type.
This comes closer to what I saw, see the illustration. The thing I saw yesterday was a bit more modestly looking.
Don't know if I should laugh or cry now.

Christian pacifists

2011-07-29T18:43:00.010+01:00

There have been many Christians who have courageously followed Jesus' teaching and example over the last two thousand years, but these two Catholics have just caught my eye:

Franz Jägerstätter was an Austrian conscientious objector during World War II. At the time he was criticized by his countrymen, especially Catholics who had served in the military, for failing in his duty as a husband and father. Jägerstätter was sentenced to death and executed in 1943, aged 36.

If you think this sort of thing could never happen in the US or UK, think again...

Ben Salmon was an American conscientious objector and outspoken critic of Just War theology. During World War I the Catholic Church denounced him and the The New York Times described him as a "spy suspect." The US military (which he never joined) charged him with desertion and spreading propaganda, then sentenced him to death (this was later revised to 25 years hard labour).
For more on Ben Salmon see here and here.

Plowshares action today

2011-07-21T10:16:00.001+01:00

Bryan Law, anti-war activist has been arrested today following an action at Rockhampton, Australia. He was riding a tricycle down the run way and carrying a mattock! That's all I know at the moment.

Christian pacifist and anarchist artwork

2011-07-16T13:14:00.007+01:00

Blessed are the Peacemakers (1917) by George Bellows

The Deserter (1916) by Boardman Robinson

Jesus wanted poster

2011-07-16T11:28:00.008+01:00

Cartoon by Art Young. First published in The Masses in 1917.

Report from the ash heap

2011-07-14T09:29:00.014+01:00

Hannah Arendt's book about Eichmann in Jerusalem was close to where I laid my head to sleep, alongside Dutch author Harry Mulisch's report on the Eichmann trial. Arendt and Mulisch were present at the trial and wrote about it - the phrase "the banality of evil" was coined. Arendt had already written the monumental Origins of totalitarianism, Mulisch was on the way of becoming the monument he eventually was as himself.

Evil indeed is trivial, banal.
It does not prevent your telling the world that you like to travel and to eat out. That you watch Gray's anatomy (!) and are interested in the solitude of prime numbers. Place a picture of yourself in the inevitable blue jeans, legs wide open, sitting on a sofa in a tank top, and - screenshot saved from Google-cache - yourself (on a holiday presumably) near a waterfall.
The signing tag of your email tells you are a "case manager dwelling fraud" which looks important. You did not finish your study of the French language, your curriculum vitae as published out in the open leaves a gaping hole but who will care - you are on Facebook.
Someone gave you the key to the appartment of the only student of Christian anarchism in that country of yours which prides itself of being governed by a regime to the right of the nazis. The building corporation you represent is led by a former secretary of War, member of one of the brown coalition parties. "This key seems to circulate in the building - odd," she tells you. But it was convenient to walk into the premises and decide you were SHOCKED SHOCKED about the mess and you decided he - well, it is about me, so let me say: I - did not live where I was supposed to live. She got the address she phoned to from snooping through "the mail" as she in a mixture of stupidity and honesty tells.
She concludes I have not been there for two years.
I am stunned by the brazenness of telling you walked into somebody's place and ask him about it, using the phone number of his (my) beloved. "I don't know if it is just accidental I should find you here."

She will call back to this number later in the week. She does so on the day my mother is unexpectedly admitted to hospital, a nightmarish series of events which ends in her death on the 12th of February this year.

The case manager however kept on pushing for a conversation about my living conditions or however you should translate this bureaucratic phrase emanating from the Fourth Empire. To me it was like answering questions about your sex life to your rapist so I did not comply. THEY do not like that.

Let me cut this short now.
On Monday 11th of July I was thrown out of the house which I have rented (and for which I automatically paid every month) for more than 27 years. Someone representing the Community of Amsterdam decided there was nothing of any value in my house so everything could be rightly destroyed.
It was thrown out of the window in a finite but long-lasting waterfall of plastic bags. I lived on the third floor, just to give you an idea.
My vinyl collection (a lot of Northern Soul and rare British Beat), my library (books revised for a second edition by the author himself), the books I have written myself (there were about four boxes of them around) - nothing of any value.

I did not have a flatscreen television set or anything else which presumably would be considered "of value". "What you consider to be of value does not count," I am told.
Culture is garbage, the regime decided somewhere in the autumn, no money should be spent on it at all and if you have anything which testifies of any intelligence beyond some hospital soap and a crime novel everyone but me seems to know THEY will gladly throw it on the dust heap. Along with your miserable self.

I had to laugh when I saw a broken set of dentures of mine rolling along the pavement. The ridiculous side of aggression against your intimacy. To make a picture of it I put it on some plants I keep in a garden house where I shall spend some future days. Look and be horrified...

- to be continued, I fear - Jobe did not have a laptop but I have -

P.S. I beg for some leniency about forgetting to tell that the lady who had given herself permission to snoop around very recently ended her facebook entry (that is why the screenshot was taken from the cache), I gather she expected some negative publicity coming from someone who did not keep anything of any value.

Lost Religion of Jesus

2011-06-28T13:35:00.005+01:00

Lost Religion of Jesus is a Christian anarchist community for those committed to Christianity, pacifism, anarchism and vegetarianism/veganism. I started the Yahoo group back in 2005 and took the name from Keith Akers' book on simple living and nonviolence. Please feel free to join, your input would be appreciated.

I also set up a Google group for Christian anarchists called Christian anarchism last year. Again your input would be appreciated.

Watch out for those vegetarians

2011-06-28T11:06:00.002+01:00

The state of Missouri grants Christian anarchists the honour of having to be spied upon:

Christian vegetarians are apparently something to be feared, at least by Missouri officials, who fail to explain how being a vegetarian deserves a mention on a police watch list.

Here’s what Missouri officials say:

“Christian anarchists have opposed war and other ‘Statist’ aggression through nonviolent tax resistance. Many Christian Anarchists were vegetarian or vegan.”

What would Jesus Smash?

2011-06-19T22:27:00.000+01:00

On March 26th alongside the sedate TUC anti-cuts protest in London anarchists also protested though in a more dynamic, confrontational fashion. Included in their version of protest was the deliberate targeting of banks, The Ritz and other sites that symbolise financial oppression, exploitation, exclusion and inequality for property damage.

The damage was symbolic protest, a physical cry of resistance, an expression of ‘the scream’ that Holloway refers to (in ‘Change the world without taking power’). No one imagined it would bring down capitalism it was, as protest often is, to do with symbolism and communication of ‘if only’.

As I thought about the protests, the smashing of a bank window, I realised that it was very similar to the acts of Jesus in clearing the temple. You know the incidents; they are recorded in all 4 gospels. Jesus deliberately, as an act of protest and resistance, carries out property damage at a site of financial exploitation. He temporarily disrupts the exploitative system associated with temple worship while knowing his actions wouldn’t bring it to an end. It was confrontational but he was angry that what should have been a place of prayer had been turned into a place of financial exploitation with inflated prices being charged for sacrificial animals and temple currency.

On the second occasion Jesus says “It is written ‘My house will be called a house of prayer’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers’” (NIV Mt 21:13). Some would dispute the comparison between 21st century anarchists and the 1st century Jesus emphasising that his actions were an expression of anger over the corruption of temple worship.

Both include anger at a system that was exploiting the poor, an anger that was the consequence of knowing what should be. The anarchists were expressing their hostility towards a corrupt system that causes misery, suffering and deprivation on a global scale, Jesus was expressing a more localised version of the same while including the added dimension of concern over spiritual corruption also. To paraphrase a famous question ‘What would Jesus smash?'
by Tim Foster

Amos' message to the Government

2011-06-16T10:20:00.002+01:00

On 15th September Baroness Warsi 2010 addressed the college of Bishops of the Church of England about how the government proposes to centre the “Big Society” around the contribution of faith and faith communities. My following text would be addressed to the gathering after Baroness Warsi had retaken her seat. Some of the events mentioned in the text have happened since her speech but they are included under artistic license.

______________________________________________________________

Hear me oh you Woman of gentry, who charms the Bishops into silence with your bank of Mammon, are you searching for an Augustine to compose a theology for your Empire? How blind you are, thinking you will find me in the company of religious leaders, believing your time with them is divine, open your eyes I am amongst the poor and the powerless, the ones whom you demonise. I am amongst those whom you make homeless, the refugees you reject at your locked door.

Listen to this Pelagian shouting in the street. I am not ordained by the church, I have no institutional collar to choke or project my voice. Yet I dare to raise it - for I am ordained by God to cry out in the streets to “Let my people go.”

Oh ye shepherds heed my call and stay true to your calling. Let your bishop’s crozier be an oaken staff to guide and protect your sheep from the evils that surround them, not a bejeweled crook to punish and oppress the poor. Do not be afraid to “look strange or weird”, remember I called you to be in the world but not of it. Cling to my message of justice and remember how my prophets have always been treated, you are not called to media popularism. Overcome the desert demons of power, treasure and fame, for power corrupts and money speaks but not in my language.

You are to be the servant not the master of my people. Replace your mitres for crowns of thorns, for you are meant to have headaches in this world. Take off your gilded robes and re-dress in sackcloth and ashes. End your love affair with royalty, power and pomp. You privileged cling so tightly to the royal skirts yet ignore the children of Ignorance and Apathy hidden beneath them. Oh Bishop of Westminster remember you are called to amplify my voice into the world and not to be the voice of the temple beside your home, where people say “we’ve never had it so good” and ignore the suffering of the majority. They pride themselves on their political plans, thinking that their “fair society” is one of gospel justice yet they are turning my justice into poison. They are Babylonians putting their own people into exile with their “City Clearances”. They are fools, for the Godless one has more holy thoughts than they could ever imagine. Listen to me and live.

Oh my Bishops look at your Palaces. They should be lit up with my glory and warmed by my love yet they have become towering monstrous gargoyles devouring life from the world. Your ceremonial meals from silver patens steal food off poor peoples’ plates and your holy wine in silver chalices sucks water from their lips. Your maintenance schemes pour rain onto people's hopes. Oh how the world pays to maintain your glorious history. Stop dwelling in the past and allow the poor to live today. Look to me and live.

Oh my clergy how I am sick of your worship. Your electronic systems are deafening the silence in which you really can find me. Your sermons of academia lack the heart of my wisdom your arms reaching up to embrace me and yet refuse to embrace the neighbour at your side. Your performance worship that makes you and not me into the main attraction. Oh how you have polluted my gospel with the message of “Prosperity”, You cannot buy my indulgences with mammon, only with a contrite heart and a broken spirit. How can an altar where only some can afford the cost of membership be divine? I hate your religious festival when you celebrate the presence of superficial tat and tradition and not the incarnation of my Son. You share your expensive gifts yet forget the most precious gift of all. You huddle around your festive tables and turn your back on me outside, cold and hungry on the streets of the world. Seek me and live.

You bankers enclosed in your glazed vegetable, how loud were your lamentations when your city of Mammon fell yet you still have not repented for your sins and continue stealing from the poor to strengthen its crumbling foundations. Beware you who sell for a quick profit. You will be ruled by foreigners who will transfer your livelihoods leaving you redundant and homeless. You shall find foreign coins in your Christmas puddings, at the very heart of your institutions, taken over by Babylonians shattering your communities. How deafening were your cries for the innocent when your twin towers of Babel collapsed, yet how deaf you are towards the innocents you kill because of your tongue of capitalism and your unjust monetary laws.

Fallen is Britannia never more to rule the waves as she watches you elders make your own offspring into slaves to maintain your lifestyle. How dearly they must pay for the sins of their Fathers as they walk a long and weary path through life burdened down with the chains of debt that you have placed around their necks. Hear me you war lords who prefer to send your children and block their path into knowledge, how your children will hate you. Hear them cry out on the streets at your injustice and return to you in body bags.

Woe to you complacent couch potatoes, lazing around on your settees gazing at your gods of fame voting for your idols whilst retailers sigh “When will the programmes be over so that we can sell our impossible dreams and line our pockets?” Then you watch the suffering of the world with hardened, over-stimulated hearts - don’t just flick channels, wake up, you are watching your living and dying brothers and sisters, not a film. Your hearts should be aching; I made them of flesh not computer chips.

You adulterers lying on your beds, you do not ponder on my words. Remember the joy and fulfillment I used to give you before you turned your back on me. Oh how I yearn for you to repent and turn to me again. It breaks my heart to see you making love with your other gods of fame and mammon. They will give you no rest, no sleep. You will rise in the morning exhausted from a night's labour, not re-energised in my word and strengthened in my love.

O You devilish bitches of Prada who murder to make yourselves beautiful.. Who say “Bring me fresh ingredients from all corners of the globe - now.” without considering the cost to the earth. The time will come when you topple off your heels of superiority and cry in pain with your broken bones of depravity.

My prophets speak to you in so many ways, in art, music, word, nature and websites yet so often you stifle, suppress and silence those that dare to speak truth to power and dare to hold up a mirror to reflect your sins or project your gossip to the world. I invoke you to harden not your hearts but hearken to my voice. Look at the visions I have laid before you - Van Gogh’s starry night with its darkened church or his bible with the unlit candle. Walk through my gallery of life and open your heart to the meanings of the visions you find within it.

I called you not to be caretakers of your palaces but caretakers of creation, the real temple of this world. Instead you abuse it and fight over its treasures like spoilt children. How dare you call yourselves the greatest of my beings, you simpletons know as much as only one grain of sand on the beach of my creation. Look up beyond your manmade street lights to the stars in the heavens where my light streams to you from thousands of light years away. You think you control the skies and are free to drive your manmade paths yet see how the blast of just one of my volcanoes stopped you in your flight and one flurry of snow trapped you in your chariots. At any time my power can force you to remember your vulnerability. Yet it was you I chose to make for my companion, it was you I chose to become when I relinquished my heavenly powers and became a baby in your arms. It is you who I longed to be with when I reopened the pathway between our worlds. Oh my people recognise the truth that I am found in faith and not just “The Faith”, for my children are to be found in all creeds and cultures, how I love you all and long for us to be united. But I urge those of you who desire my second coming to stay true, for if you allow injustice to any of your brothers or sisters or do not take care of my creation to make my coming earlier, I will judge you and punish you for your wicked acts, not praise you for your impatience. Seek me in the unexpected places and times and I will surprise you with my presence with you now and always.

Was Jesus an anarchist?

2011-06-10T13:13:00.002+01:00

I thought you may be interested in this interview Alexandre Christoyannopoulos gave recently to the BBC's Will & Testament.

You can read the interview here.

Interested in Intentional Community in Britain?

2011-06-03T11:06:00.000+01:00

This is a new googlegroup set up for people in Britain genuinely interested in being part of Christian Inentional Community.

It came out of a facebook conversation but was set up outside of fb so that it could include more people.

It's not expected that if you join you want to be in community with those people necessarily but you may find that it allows you to form a smaller group that want to take things further.

Anway.... here it is.

Dalit theology and Christian anarchism

2011-05-31T12:47:00.000+01:00

My new book is now available. There are links to where you can buy it from at the related blog here. It's RRP is £50 but I've seen it for as little as £37.50 already.

This book is as much my journey into anarchism as anything and it's how I got started on Christian anarchist dialogue. I was writing a PhD on Dalit theology with a supervisor with expertise in postcolonialism and the Bible. The more I looked at Indian liberation theology the more two important questions presented: Why has liberation theology stalled? What is a western response to all these theologies from the margins?

As a white, western, privileged man I found most of my answers to these to questions in the radical theology of the anarchists and the historic peace Churches.

I think it's a unique contribution but I hope it's a helpful one.

Fire in Cairo: an Egyptian anarchist talks about the January 25th revolt | libcom.org

2011-05-30T13:26:00.000+01:00

Fire in Cairo: an Egyptian anarchist talks about the January 25th revolt | libcom.org

Fast and Pray

2011-05-17T13:04:00.001+01:00

Susan Clarkson, Martin Newell, and Chris Cole are three Christian peace activists, part of the Catholic Worker movement in the UK. They will be in court on Tuesday 24 May from 9:30 at Newbury Crown Court to face trial for an action last September, whereby they cut a hole in the fence at AWE nuclear weapons factory and proclaimed it "open for disarmament."

Original news article here: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/97586

The Catholic Worker movement is made up of Christians committed to Jesus' radical call to peacemaking, and live this out by acts of community, solidarity with the poor, and nonviolent resistance.

If you can't make it to Newbury on the day but would like to support them please join in this fast. How you take part in the fast is up to you.

If you leave a message for them as a comment here the messages will be gathered up and given to them the day before the hearing.

Gustav Landauer in translation

2011-05-03T07:44:00.003+01:00

A few times I have written about Gustav Landauer at this spot - an anarchist who should not and cannot be overlooked in any discourse on religious anarchism.
Unfortunately very little has been translated into English. His most important manifesto (in my opinion), For socialism probably has been out of print for a while (don't let the cover fool you, or perhaps you would like to be fooled by it). Or maybe it can still be bought.

For some months now there has been a reader around which might introduce the Anglophone world to his ideas: Revolution and other writings - a political reader, more about it here.
Hopefully it will not take much longer before his mystical writings will be translated too (his mysticism can be found back in all his writings, though).
Highly recommended...

Civil Religion and identity

2011-04-30T21:52:00.000+01:00

National civil religions are concerned primarily with creating a sense of national identity and unity, of reaffirming national mythologies, of reinforcing the elite’s narrative of the nation. It uses rites, stories, ceremonies, symbols (Parsons,2002, p.5-6) It is one of the ways a nation is represented to itself by the elite, part of ‘the spectacle’ referred to by the Situationists. Civil religion has been facilitated by almost universal access to television (in the UK), now events experienced in the immediate location by a few thousand can be participated in by the entire population (Dayan and Katz, 1988, p.162). In 2000 89% of prime time UK TV viewing was on only 4 channels therefore State television as a means of perpetuating and reinforcing civil religion is still very effective(Burton, 2005, p.218). State sponsored or hijacked events are occasions when national unity is reaffirmed- and therefore transnational identity (eg working class/faith based identity) is undermined, this serves the interests of the national and international political/economic elite as it maintains artificial and false divisions between the exploited and militates against transnational working class solidarity, it also hinders the realisation that the interests of those in power and the interests of those ruled over are mutually hostile. There are many events that are televised that perpetuate this sense of “imagined community” (Anderson, 1991 in Pittaway, 2003, p.163) including ‘Last Night at the Proms”, international football tournaments, coverage of internal and international conflicts and ROYAL WEDDINGS, in these dissent or anti-nationalism is absent, marginalised or demonised. All these and other televised civil religious events involve the deliberate re-presentation of ‘the nation’ to itself by the State/elite reaffirming their values, interests and legitimizing existing social hierarchy even presenting it as ‘God ordained’ when the institutionalised church plays a submissive, co-opted role. When these events are televised the immediate audience is recast in an affirming role for the television viewer. However we are not in ‘1984’ yet so the transmitting of these events into households allows room for private interpretations of, or dissent against, these events that are not able to be controlled by the elite irrespective of their power to promote propaganda(Dayan and Katz, 1988, p.162-8 citing Durkeim).

Bibliography.

Anderson, B. (1991) ‘Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and spread of Nationalism’, 2^nd edn., London/New York, Verso quoted in Pittaway, M. (2003) ‘Language, identity and nation’ in Chimisso, C. (ed) Exploring European Identities, Milton Keynes: The Open University, pp.149-182.

Burton, G. (2005) ‘The media and new technology’ The effects and implications of technologies for the media and their consumption’ in Burton, G. Media and Society, Critical Perspectives, Maidenhead: The Open University, pp. 197-223

Dayan, D. and Katz, E. (1988) ‘Articulating consensus: the ritual and rhetoric of media events’ in Alexander, J. C. (ed), Durkheimian Sociology: Cultural Studies, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 161-86.

Parsons, G. (2002) ‘Introduction: the concept of civil religion’ in G. Parsons Perspectives on Civil Religion, Aldershot: Ashgate/Milton Keynes: The Open University, PP.1-10.

Silent Disorder

2011-04-26T10:21:00.000+01:00

SPEAK Monastic Weekend: The Silent Disorder

Dates: 29^th April- 2^nd May

All welcome.

Where?Catholic Worker Farm, nr London.

How?We will be camping, so bring a tent if you have one. The weekend will be handmade by those who come along, so bring yourself, stories, musical instruments and please bring food to share.

RSVP to speak@speak.org.uk

Ciaron O'Reilly - Election Campaign Ireland 2011 (part 1)

2011-04-15T14:53:00.002+01:00

Foolish Children on behalf of Mistreated Parents

2011-04-02T23:32:00.008+01:00

A minute silence dedicated to your mother who died due to care provided in an old people's home - a gripping experience.
One of the organisers of the manifestation tells it with tears in his eyes. He had heard my story on national radio. We arrived a bit too late at the manifestation to be present for the silence..

Dwaze kinderen, foolish children - the phrase refers to the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, called Madres locas by their adversaries supporting the military regime - these foolish children demonstrated for the first time against the abominable state of care for the elderly or disabled in so-called care homes in the Netherlands.

I should hesitate to mention it, having heard that conditions are worse in most British care homes. But then again, if that is so, stand up and be counted and raise your voices.

Back in the Netherlands: hearing about someone's mother who was sedated by unknown "prescription" drugs, who was wheeled to the mortuary where she eventually died of hypothermia - you are not supposed to call it murder... but how else should you call it?

As for me, I still do not know what was done wrong with my mother. It is bad enough to have to deal with so-called care managers, inhouse gp's without any real knowledge or capability, first the phone call about her death on Saturday morning and a few hours later a second call: "Cannot you take IT away, IT is getting smelly".
"We have our planning to work by", reply after we noticed that all her earthly possessions had been robbed from the room where she died. They had allegedly been demolished but some pieces could be found back and others presumably were put on ebay or elsewhere by your friendly care workers.
So my mother died according to plan.
I will not tell the full story, especially since there are still so many questions about her death.

[If you read Dutch: the story can be found here (to be read in reverse order) and here (reverse order again).
The organisation behind the manifestation: here and here where an English translation is provided sometimes.]

But "mistakes were made, we offer an apology, please give your bank account number" says the new CEO of the Care Corporation, tastefully called Osira, combining Catholic, social democratic and humanist houses in one corporation. As if the robbing of tangible pieces of memorabilia (amongst which my own wedding picture) can ever be expressed in money.

That is why we were in The Hague, near the government buildings, as Foolish Children.
And we shall be there again every first Saturday of the month. And who knows - it may be the Dutch equivalent of Tahrir Square somehow, some day...

Osiris, the Egyptian god of death and resurrection - in the highly probable case you did not get the distaste of the name "Osira".

2011 Census: How to bugger it up for Lockheed Martin

2011-03-26T15:05:00.001Z

The arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin US makes Trident nuclear missiles, cluster bombs and fighter jets and is involved in data processing for the CIA and FBI. It has provided private contract interrogators for the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Lockheed Martin has the UK Government contract to collect the process the data for the 2011 census in March.
(Observer, 20 February 2011).

A boycott would only make the enterprise more cost-effective for L.M. and will land you with a fine or even a brief prison sentence.

But Peace News have come up with a better idea...
Make the processing of forms more expensive for L.M. thus reducing their profit margin.

DO NOT FILL IN YOUR CENSUS SURVEY ON LINE

1. Block out some of every bar code on every page.
Do this discretely and it will delay the process and mean the identification info will be manually entered.
2. smudge and smear.
In other words, fill the form in when you're having a cup of tea and a nice piece of marmalade on toast.
3. fill in some text up side down. Not only will this confuse the machine it will also slow down whoever subsequently manually inputs the date.
4. Be creative
If you've got a few empty boxes you might want to doodle a little.
5. Crease and crumple
Don't give those scanners an easy time of it.
6. Be an individual
Write to "Free post 2011 Census, Processing Centre, UK" and ask for individual questionnaires for each person in your household and repeat 1 - 5 for each of these.

Thank you Peace News!

Joining the twitter revolution

2011-03-19T12:06:00.004Z

Well, no, I do not believe the hype, but it is a medium that proves its - erm - pinch of salt during the non-violent revolutions in the South, and who knows - spring is coming along in the Northern hemisphere - in the North as well.
A Pinch of Salt on Twitter.
Felix Ortt immediately knew how to find it...

Global day of listening coming up

2011-03-19T10:52:00.004Z

Kathy Kelly, member of a delegation of non-violent activists reporting from Afghanistan:

On March 19th, in Kabul, Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers will hold a candlelight commemoration, remembering the children recently killed in Afghanistan. Following this ceremony they will plant saplings as a symbol of their dedication to a nonviolent future. Their compassion extends beyond Afghanistan to young people in other lands, some of whom they will connect with through a "Global Day of Listening," a 24-hour Skype communication which they’ll host on the first day of spring, Afghanistan’s "Nau Roz" (New Year’s Day) holiday. Colorado College students, on their spring break, plan to participate.

The weblog of the delegation here, the article on a more stable and quotable site.
Another weblog associated to the delegation, and one for another journey.

Revolutions of the hearts

2011-02-21T21:12:00.004Z

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

(Letter to the Galatian Church, ch. 5)

Revolutions, like number one hits, look to the outsider like they come out of the blue. But the young anti-fascist organisers of Egypt's capital city have been working on this for three years. Much of the planning and preparation has been to do with self-disicpline and training in nonviolence. Gene Sharp's "Albert Einstein Institute" have copies of his most recent publication free to download in various languages including arabic and his strategies have been behind many nonviolent revolutions over the past few years.

Tactics used by the Egyptian protestors included setting up decoy protests while walking the streets elsewhere to set-up the protest-proper which the police didn't have the resources to halt before it was too late; standing arms-out infront of police and taking tear gas cannisters to the body, kneeling - half naked - before riot police (who then retreated in confusion).

That this has been a middle-class techo-friendly revolution has been much publicised. But even this is not entirely true - the protest that lit the blue touch paper began in a slum, albeit organised by middle-class agitators.

The real ingredients have been patience, nonviolence, self-sacrifice. Against such there can be no law.

A Just Church

2011-02-15T21:10:00.000Z

The Fresh Expressions movement – an Anglican and Methodist venture – is often fresh in form only. But in Bradford city centre the JustChurch and SoulSpace are reimagining the church in exciting new ways. Chris Howson, city centre priest, was radical in thought and action long before his ordination and has managed to shape ministry around an ongoing critique of the systems that oppress and steal. His first book, 'A Just Church' is the beginning of that story told with both practical examples of speaking truth to power and useful tools for the reader to go and re-imagine the church for her or himself.

Part one tells some of Howson's own story, which he relates with characteristic energy, gregariousness, and deep reflectivity. His description of worship shows a genuine commitment to participatory pedagogy through oracy, play, and a sharing of leadership. It seems he intends to find a balance in Church life between corporate worship and prophetic ministry, creating an environment where community activism and campaigning are sustained in prayer.

In Part two Howson introduces the reader to some of the global and local issues the Church has faced, including the misguided regeneration of a city centre, the government's endless love of war-making, and the struggle of the Burmese people for self-determination. Stories of solidarity with those seeking sanctuary in Britain show how the rhetoric 'bogus asylum seekers' affects real people's lives. Each chapter ends with suggestions that invite the reader to find her or his own story of non-violent resistance to empire in God's love.

I would recommend this book to anyone who hasn't given up on Church but longs to build a new world in the shell of the old. I hope it inspires a new generation of Church leaders to be fresh, radical, and authentic in their expressions of the Church proclaiming the kin-dom of God.

A Just Church: 21st Century Liberation Theology in Action

Christian anarchism: now in paperback.

2011-02-13T20:22:00.002Z

A review on this site can be found here.

Now in paperback!

Practical Liberation Conference.

2011-02-07T15:56:00.000Z

Chris Howson, a Anglican priest and city missioner in Bradford is hosting a Liberation theology conference for July 23/24 2011.

He writes, "If you have read Jesus 'proclaiming good news for the poor' and realised that the church often fails to live up to his teachings, then come on this conference. (It will also be fun and include curry eating!)"

I met Chris first at the Christianity and anarchism conference in 2006 and his church hosted teh second conference in 2008 (I think!). The conference is likely to be both reflective and aimed at real practical responses and challenges to the unjust systems we face.

To find out more or register an interest contact Chris on 01274 727034.

And you can now by his book too!

Peace - 2

2011-02-07T13:32:00.002Z

The Obama regime is playing the Fundamentalist Muslim Card to discredit the revolutionary Egyptians. An old story.

Sunday prayers at Tahrir Square, Cairo, 6th February, remembrance of the martyrs of the current liberation sruggle.

Noam Chomsky: Uprising!

2011-02-03T12:59:00.000Z

Noam Chomsky: “This is the Most Remarkable Regional Uprising that I Can Remember”

Peace

2011-01-31T18:54:00.003Z

Picture from Al Jazeera: 31 January 2011

Windsor Hill Wood

2011-01-28T14:02:00.001Z

I was pointed towards this example by Simon Cross, author of 'Totally Devoted' a book about New Monasticism in Britain.

Windsor Hill Wood seems Tolstoyan to me: they found a woodland in an abandoned quarry which they have bought and now live in. They are inspired by the Pilsdon Community and use permaculture and woodcraft. They have chosen the Sermon on the Mount as their inspiration and labour and rest as their means.

From here they live, partly sustained in mutuality with the ecosystem. From here they offer hospitality to those who come and a taste of stability to those still travelling. They offer a place of choices have been made instead of fawned over; or as they put it:

"Choice – that once seemed empowering – has made us powerless. It has made us sad and rootless, prone always to want to keep our options open."

The setting is stunning but behind the romanticism their must be a harsh reality in the isolation and precacity of living. They're a conventionally shaped family in an unconventional life: Tobias Jones, who writes on behalf of the community has written a series of articles for the Observer.

Common Wealth: An estate parish response to Big Society

2011-01-25T14:56:00.000Z

A small council estate on the edge of Gloucester is beginning to find out what Big Society really means. Facing cuts to public and third sector care the churches begin to try and unravel, with the community, what is really happening?

Israel and Palestine and the people of peace

2011-01-24T10:22:00.001Z

"If we had given ground on the refugees and made such concessions, why hasn't Israel agreed to sign a peace accord?" The words of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in response to Al Jazeera's leaked documents from the PA revealing formally the extent of the concessions made on the Palestinian side and the intransigence of the Israeli state powers. Like we didn't know all this already!

So the Palestinians are denying it all and the Israeli's so far are quieter on the matter. If either side knew the meaning of the word 'shame' they would be ashamed of their exposure. But everything illuminated becomes a light (Ephesians 5: 12 - 14) and so with these leaked documents.

We are reminded of what is already known but rarely spoken of: the power-elite can play their games in secret rooms, pretending to negotiate peace but only really negotiating shares of power of Israeli's who have been cowed by their own government and narrative and Palestinians who do not know where to turn because they've been offered the wrong myths of redemption.

A two state solution? A One state solution? Choose your masters people! Do you want Palestinian corruption and neglect or Israeli/USA corruption and neglect?

But the good news is that most Israeli's want and work for peace and most Palestinians long for justice. So peace and justice are possible. The dickheads just need to get out of their secret rooms and go out into the street and start clearing rubble instead of whispering sweet nothings in Imperial ears in the dark.

Tony Blair: "The West is too apologetic and not egocentric enough"

2011-01-21T16:22:00.001Z

In his response to the Chilcot enquiry Tony Blair - consummate politician - threw in the usual vagaries and emotive rhetoric to disguise his complete inability to grasp, or at least confess, what's going on. Over the years I've come to think that Blair really does believe the stuff he says.

Today he claims 'the west' should stop apologising and being wretched about the situation in Iran; it's not Britain's fault. We didn't create an unstable middle-east. We didn't?! Did they close down Tony's public library first? Does he know nothing of the history of Iraq and Iran. Britain has always been directly involved in shaping the territories and politics of Iraq/Iran/Kuwait/Palestine. Since British Petroleum was in short trousers we've been in their up to our arses in Arab blood and oil and doing very well out of it, thank you very much.

But no! Not for Tony Blair who seems to be the only one who knows what's really going on and has to patiently explain it to the rest of us thick-heads. Poor dear. Tony Blair claims that Iranian foreign policy is based on their unexplainable, irrational, and aimless dislike of 'our way of life'. This rhetoric was all the rage when W. Bush was US President - it was stupid then and it's stupid now.

In Tony-Blair-Land Britain is an innocent victim of a psychotic bullying Islamic Orient that - no matter how lovely he is - doesn't like him. He's terribly hurt. Blair is like the school yard bully who hits other children then complains to the dinner lady that no one will play with him. .... Except Blair could do it with tanks and rockets and whole 'kin countries.

That man needs a strong sedative and a quiet, soft-walled room.

Facing prison without regret

2011-01-16T22:13:00.000Z

From King 5:

by TONYA MOSLEY / KING 5 News

NWCN.comhttp://www.nwcn.com/news/washington/Bangor-protestors-face-prison-with-no-regrets-113825804.html

Posted on January 15, 2011 at 5:51 PM

Updated yesterday at 6:05 PM

POULSBO, Wash. - At the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action on Saturday there was a celebration of what Martin Luther King Junior stood for, and a celebration of the Bangor 5.

Eighty-four-year old Anne Montgomery is the oldest of the "Disarm Now Plowshares," convicted in December of breaking into the Kitsap Bangor Naval Base outside of Bremerton.

Now in their golden years, they face 10 years in federal prison with no regrets.
"We take responsibility, we don't walk away, and prison comes out of that," said Montgomery.

For decades they stood outside of the base - protesting the storage of nuclear weapons. But two years ago, they cut through barbed wire and onto the base.
The five were charged with trespassing and destroying property.
"We have a responsibility and we're grateful we had that opportunity to speak out the atrocities that exist on the other side of the fence here," said Lynne Greenwald.

Whither Jesusradicals?

2011-01-15T18:09:00.004Z

Mention Yahweh wherever you can.
The name is not biblical and it is considered very offensive by Jews to use this phrase.
Perhaps that is why it is done over here.
If this reflects the (new?) editorial line of Jesusradicals I for one will not spend any thought or connection to this site any more.

Opportunity for PhD funding in anarchist history, politics or theory.

2011-01-12T13:04:00.000Z

What to do a PhD in Anarchist thought and practice?

Applications should be received by Monday, 7 March 2011.
The Department is home to an Anarchism Research Group and there are currently five PhD students in the Department working on aspects of anarchism.

For further information about the Department click here.

Tolstoy's unmarked grave

2011-01-12T12:48:00.003Z

Chris Floyd, former columnist for the Moscow Times, now an independent journalist, speaks out as a closet Tolstoyan. Welcome!

To the Editor:

It is marvelous to see how Leo Tolstoy continues to have a disturbing effect on the power structures of church and state (“For Tolstoy and Russia, Still No Happy Ending,” front page, Jan. 4). This has always been the case, from czardom through Communism and now in Russia’s “managed democracy.”

For example, despite its promotion of his novels, the Soviet regime repressed vast swaths of Tolstoy’s work, especially his thoughts on nonviolence, the evils of state power and — ironically, given the Orthodox animus — his heartfelt religious writings. The “Tolstoyans” themselves were persecuted by the Bolsheviks.

I doubt if Tolstoy would want “forgiveness” from the Orthodox Church today, or marks of distinction from the state. But he would doubtless be pleased that his turbulent ideas are still alive, still radical and still troubling the powerful long after he was laid in his solitary, unmarked grave.

Chris Floyd
Oxford, England, Jan. 4, 2011

The article in the NY Times about the battle around Tolstoy's excommunication, to which Floyd is referring.

Digger's Agape

2011-01-11T15:01:00.000Z

Digger's Agape a model of worship developing in Gloucestershire

London calling: war is over

2010-12-25T22:57:00.002Z

May this Christmas inspire you to fight the good fight...

Hope to be conquered

2010-12-19T13:05:00.005Z

We are told about the disdain displayed by the US regime towards all the rest of the world, which should behave according to the directives given from Washington DC. If you are poor you still can be robbed even more, downtrodden, occupied, tortured, plagued with disease that should have disappeared from the earth ages ago.

We are told that the only person "they" can find responsible for the "leaks" at the moment and whom they could get hold of is being tortured.
We take it for granted, because we have been getting used to it.

Looking outside from a country that is ruled by a government proud to be to the right of the nazis I can only envy the Irish, Italians, Greeks, English... who still protest out on the streets even though the protests are stifled in legislation which quickly leads to the question: what is next?
Are you fighting for the hope that prevailed under so-called neoliberalism which is being trashed by the same neoliberal rulers these days?
There is a hope beyond this, but how can you describe it, let alone how can you try to reach its realisation for perhaps even a tiny part only.

Some thoughts to be read:

The riot is as much about dreams that have yet to become possible as they are over the loss of existing entitlements. There are hopes that lie dormant or hidden that speak of different ways of being; of different kinds of dreams and futures. The crisis of hope and the coming scarcity of the future for many people is a betrayal that makes possible a different kind of hope – a hope against hope, violently against aspiration and cold conformity.

Further reading.

Please have a look here too.

Sing We a Song of High Revolt!

2010-12-14T12:25:00.000Z

Sing We A Song of High Revolt - For article click here.

Why not give the World Service back its old and proper name?

2010-12-08T07:54:00.005Z

Sometime in the late 'seventies I discovered a very loud and clear broadcasting station on the medium wave. The programme was the UK-top-20 presented by Paul Burnett. He used to do that on Luxembourg but I stopped listening, loyal as ever to Caroline that seemed to have grown up together with me.
I learned Mull of Kintyre had been kicked off the top spot by a Jamaican sounding tune the lyrics of which escaped me completely (still do not understand most of it), Up town top ranking, yet it was a pleasant dance floor number.
I developed the habit of listening to the news bulletins and some excellent reporting. BBC World Service made me a witness of the revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua, and was at the shipyards in Gdańsk a year later. Reporting struck me as being rather fair to all sides but not especially impartial: no-one shed a tear about the shah or Somoza or Gierek (had to look for that forgotten name...).

The World Service was not exclusively about news though. There were short sharp programmes on all kinds of music, it taught me a lot about classical music (ah! the days of the Greenfield Collection) and jazz and I heard familiar voices from the offshore radio days, like Paul Burnett and Tommy Vance and John Peel - Ian Anderson turned out to be not the Geronimo/RNI-man so my surprise about the loss of his Scots accent had no good foundation - and more... There were enjoyable other music presenters like Andy Kershaw and Charlie Gillett.
There were programmes on literature, religious broadcasting - especially in the days when there was no offshore alternative it was my main outside source of information.
Now I get the impression the BBC utters a sigh of relief about the death of Peel and Gillett. The last two remnants of better days.

Where and when did it go wrong?

*

Newsnight, Tuesday December 7th.
What actually motivates Julian Assange? Kirsty Wark quotes the Enemy of the World quoting Gustav Landauer:

The State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of behavior; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently toward one another... We are the state, and we shall continue to be the state until we have created the institutions that form a real community and society of men.

Since Modern High German can perfectly differentiate between Human Beings (Menschen) and Humans of the male gender (Männer) I bet this is a bad translation. Yet it is a lovely quotation from a specific religious anarchist, slaughtered by proto-nazis as more of them were.
With a face expressing the officially prescribed loathing Wark concludes Assange may be an anarchist. She turns to a specialist on political theory, studying anarchism, Carl Levy.
I know this man! They will not call me for an interview, I know that, but why him? Anyway, he did not have anything weighty to add, apart from giving the impression Assange might be an anarchist.
An anarchist wanted for sexual assault and rape. Wark works out the government sponsored Half Hour of Hate with an interview with the man behind a journalists organisation, Frontline, which harboured Assange until he went to the police station where he was locked up. We have been treated with the stories about this assault and rape and the only thing I can think is: cannot they keep that for themselves?
There is an air of police framing about this Two-in-One-Week love affair without any mutual love. Wark hammers on the rape accusation without mentioning what it seems to amount to and the Frontline man is pictured as a friend of a rapist.
Of course we are not supposed to think the Swedish accusation, which has been withdrawn by the prosecutor in Stockholm, to be re-opened by a colleague in Gothenburg for no apparent reason, is a framing operation to hand Assange over to the US regime.
Even though it is known one of his fake lovers was run by the CIA. This typically is not told by Wark either.

*

Apparently Newsnight is considered such a pinnacle of excellent journalism these days that I hear the rotten interviews again on The world today on the World Service in the morning. Another highlight is an item about a televangelist operating from a mosque somewhere in Yemen, preaching against Al-Qaida.
A TELEVANGELIST? You mean a pink skinned closet gay preaching hate of gay practice and forgiveness for the sinning gays? An adulterer whining about family values, drawing millions of listeners in YEMEN? At the World Service there is no-one willing to think of the use of a proper label for this preacher, a religiously sensible one. This obviously coincides with shamelessly using the words America and American whilst referring to the USA, especially to please all the listeners on a continent stretching from Green- to Fireland. Yeah love it or leave it.

My better half told me I should be attentive how US-biased news bulletins are nowadays.
It is not a sample yielding scientifically tenable results but for me it is telling enough: an analysis of two six minutes bulletins at 6am GMT on the World Service.

On December 7th there were two items in which the US or "America" were not mentioned. One about aspirin which prevents cancer. We heard that garbage before, is there no real news?
The other one was a landslide in Colombia, obviously in the US backyard but the victims are not being helped by the USA - at least, we are not told so. So two items without the US being mentioned.

On December the 8th there was an item on a taxi murder in South Africa. That's all.
All the other parts of both bulletins involved the opinion of a US minister, a US ambassador or the USA in general, or were about the USA.

In 1965 the British Empire Service had its name changed into BBC World Service.
It is high time the name Empire Service were properly revived.

2010-11-26T09:57:00.002Z

A wonderful description of spontaneous disorder from Guardian writer Laurie Penny (shame about using the word 'crusade' though).

Incredible irony that the key policy issue for Liberal Democrats (and one they had privately conceded even before entering the Con Dem Alliance) has become their first Achilles heel.

New Catholic Worker House in East London

2010-11-25T19:31:00.005Z

The opening of the of the 'Guiseppe Conlon House' on November 22d was attended by around 200 people including a wide mix of refugees, advocates, punks, hippies, vicars, activists, lawyers, squatters, academics, Muslims, Christians, atheists, Buddhists, musicians, locals and internationals. The internationals introduced themselves in a welcoming ceremony with representatives from Outer Hebrides to Japan, Kosovo to France, and Sweden to Uganda among many others.

The house has already been functioning as a refuge for undocumented refugees and others in need of shelter and support, but the main building (originally a Methodist church, then taken over by Roman Catholics and more recently disused for two years) has now been officially opened both as a continuing shelter and as a community facility.

The new centre is named after Guiseppe Conlon, who was the father of Gerry Conlon, who at the age of 21 was one of the four Irish men wrongly convicted for the Guildford bombings in the early seventies. despite no connection to the IRA, and sound alibis for Gerry and one of the others, it took until 1989 for human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce to finally get them released, and another 16 years until the British government offered an apology when for political reasons Tony Blair made a surprisingly unreserved statement.

Gerry was beaten in police custody until he made false confessions implicating completely innocent members of his family, and as a result Guiseppe, an ex-marine, was arrested in London where he was trying to find a solicitor for his son. He was not a well man, and died, a convict, in prison in 1980. His widow Sarah was charged £3500 to fly his body home, and the home office billed her for his repatriation - his body was flown back and forth four times as the press shamed him, before he finally rested.

He was the only one from the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six, and Maguire Seven, who didn't live to be vindicated and see his freedom. his treatment remains a terrible blot in the dark history of Irish repression.

The Catholic Worker communities, as well as offering shelter to people suffering injustice and violence, are also pro-active in seeking out and confronting the roots of those injustices. Catholic workers have been involved in acts of challenging civil disobedience, and one of the organisers at the new centre was imprisoned for 13 months in the US for taking a hammer to a B-52 bomber. The hammer was returned on his release and was later used against BAE in the UK, returned once more, and used again in a recent ploughshares action.

After an opening welcome ceremony and a song from Irish singer/songwriter Joe Black, the human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce took the stage to wish the project well and to movingly describe her experience of the lies and corruption around the Guildford Four and Gerry Conlon's family, the Maguires, and Guiseppe.

After more music from local duo, Lovers Electric, Ciaron O'Reilly spoke more about the project and the difficulties he has faced as an anarchist catholic - untrusted by the left as a catholic and untrusted by the catholic establishment due to his anarchist way of doing things and his past incarcerations in various nations round the world for acts of non-violent civil disobedience.

Poet Stephen Hancock then provided some excellent conscious and political verse, before Angolan journalist, Rosario Miranda, spoke about the campaign for justice for Jimmy Mubenga. Jimmy was the man who during a forced deportation was killed at the hands of GS4 security aboard a passenger flight to Angola. Passengers, though concerned by the blood, his screams for help, and the violence of the guards, were either too intimidated or too disempowered to intervene. Rosario compared the media attention some woman got for putting a cat in a bin - the cat survived, the woman was hounded, she lost her job, she was prosecuted and she was vilified. In contrast, the GS4 officers remain in work, no-one was prosecuted, and the newspapers have forgotten the matter. He asked poignantly whether the cat was more precious than a black man?

Joe Black, who traveled from Dublin then provided a full set of songs, including a special one written to celebrate the opening and to commemorate Guiseppe Conlon, and finally local singer Raz ended the formal entertainment.

Before and after the timetabled events, there was a huge spread of donated food and drink, and more entertainment from the 'Bow Creek Ramblers String Band'.

The Guiseppe Conlon House intends to continue its work with homeless refugees, and to act as a hub for non-violent resistance to the war machine.

For more information, including news of the current campaign to close down the "army shop" recruiting centre in a shopping mall in Dalston, see the London Catholic Worker website.

Nothing New: even baby cham and whispa bars are embarassing come-backs

2010-11-24T22:12:00.000Z

A Police van trashed,

students scaling buildings and smashing office windows,

Librarians picketing outside schools,

Nurses re-entering unions,

Churches condemning government moral bankruptcy,

Exercise off the curriculum, fees on the syllabus,

Royal Wedding Fever buries real news of death tolls and immovable governments.

"What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1: 9)

Especially if you vote for the fucking tories!

issue 22 and looking ahead to issue 23

2010-11-08T21:05:00.000Z

Issue 22 has been posted out so if you were expecting a coy and haven't had it yet (and live in the UK) let me know. If you live in Europe or USA please give it another week and then let me know.

For future issues I intend to send pdf's only to people outside the UK as postage for internationals is becoming the lion-share of costs.

Issue 23
The next issue will be an art / cartoon extravaganza! So however great or humble your artwork please email me your contribution. I'm also looking for written reflection on iconic images within the Christian anarchist tradition.

Yeah! Dorothy Day is a real human being

2010-11-08T12:34:00.007Z

Not being a Roman Catholic I do not like the idea of beatification of Dorothy Day, even though I respect the feelings of our Catholic brothers and sisters who would love to see her canonised. Remember, we are all called to saintly behaviour (even though we do not succeed - I remain a staunch Protestant in this respect).

There is one aspect of her biography which I specifically disliked: the sudden separation from her non-believing husband/man/partner (however you want to call him).
And now the indispensable Robert Ellsberg comes up with the story of Day who apparently still loved the man she seemed to have discarded for Rome.
For me it is a reason to rejoice a bit about her and put aside my feelings of doubt about the episode of her conversion.

DOROTHY DAY IN LOVE

Generally speaking, there is not much to say about the sex lives of the saints. Yes, they were great lovers of God, and if Bernini’s famous sculpture “St. Teresa in Ecstasy” is any evidence, one can appreciate that such love was not merely platonic. But what about passionate, erotic, physical love between flesh-and-blood humans? Even if one looked carefully at the lives of the virgin martyrs and the celibate monks, priests and religious who dominate the religious calendar, it would be hard to fill a page on the subject of sex and holiness.

New letters reveal the frank sexuality of a possible saint.

Robert Ellsberg

Generally speaking, there is not much to say about the sex lives of the saints. Yes, they were great lovers of God, and if Bernini’s famous sculpture “St. Teresa in Ecstasy” is any evidence, one can appreciate that such love was not merely platonic. But what about passionate, erotic, physical love between flesh-and-blood humans? Even if one looked carefully at the lives of the virgin martyrs and the celibate monks, priests and religious who dominate the religious calendar, it would be hard to fill a page on the subject of sex and holiness.

There is St. Augustine, who writes about his youthful search for “some object for my love.” In different forms and persons, including his mistress of many years, he evidently found it. But in every case Augustine wants to show how the “clear waters” of love were invariably spoiled by the “black rivers of lust.” Augustine describes his relationship with his unnamed mistress, the mother of his son, in these unflattering terms: “In those days I lived with a woman, not my lawful wedded wife, but a mistress whom I had chosen for no special reason but that my restless passions had alighted on her.”

Dorothy and Forster

It is striking to compare Augustine’s treatment with a similar passage in The Long Loneliness, the memoir of Dorothy Day, the American-born co-founder of the Catholic Worker. There she introduces the story of her love affair with Forster Batterham, and the role he played in hastening her spiritual journey: “The man I loved, with whom I entered into a common-law marriage, was an anarchist, an Englishman by descent, and a biologist.” They met at a party in Greenwich Village in the early 1920s and soon thereafter began to live together—as she put it, “in the fullest sense of the phrase”—in a house on Staten Island.

Among their bohemian set there was nothing scandalous about such a relationship. It was evidently Dorothy who liked to think of it as a “common-law marriage.” For Forster, who never masked his scorn for the “institution of the family,” their relationship was simply a “comradeship.” Nevertheless, she loved him “in every way.” As she wrote: “I loved him for all he knew and pitied him for all he didn’t know. I loved him for the odds and ends I had to fish out of his sweater pockets and for the sand and shells he brought in with his fishing. I loved his lean cold body as he got into bed smelling of the sea and I loved his integrity and stubborn pride.”

Wait a minute! Day is here describing, without any hint of Augustine’s obligatory shame or regret, her physical relationship with a man to whom she was not married. Needless to say, she was not yet a Catholic. Yet her point is to show how this lesson in love, this time of “natural happiness,” as she called it, awakened her thirst for an even greater happiness. She began to pray during her walks and started to attend Mass. This religious impulse was strengthened when she discovered she was pregnant—an event that inspired a sense of gratitude so large that only God could receive it. With that came the determination that she would have her child baptized, “come what may.”

As a dedicated anarchist, Forster would not be married by either church or state. And so to become a Catholic, Dorothy recognized, would mean separating from the man she loved. “It got to the point where it was the simple question of whether I chose God or man.” Ultimately, painfully, she chose God. In December 1927 she forced Forster to leave the house. That month she was received into the church.

The New Letters

So goes the familiar story recounted in her memoir. But it is not the whole story. In editing Day’s personal letters, All the Way to Heaven, I was astonished to read an extraordinary collection of letters to Forster dating from 1925, soon after their first meeting, until December 1932, the eve of her new life in the Catholic Worker.

The early letters certainly reflect the passionate love described in The Long Loneliness. In her first letter she writes: “I miss you so much. I was very cold last night. Not because there wasn’t enough covers but because I didn’t have you.” In the next, “I think of you much and dream of you every night and if my dreams could affect you over long distance, I am sure they would keep you awake.” Separated for some weeks, she writes Forster: “My desire for you is a painful rather than pleasurable emotion. It is a ravishing hunger which makes me want you more than anything in the world and makes me feel as though I could barely exist until I saw you again...I have never wanted you as much as I have ever since I left, from the first week on, although I’ve thought before that my desires were almost too strong to be borne.”

The letters skip over the time of Tamar’s birth and Dorothy’s conversion, but after her parting from Forster they resume with poignant intensity. Despite the implication in Dorothy’s memoir that her conversion had marked an end, once and for all, to their relationship, this was far from the case. In fact, the letters continue for another five years, as Dorothy pleaded, cajoled and prayed that Forster would give up his stubbornness and consent to marry her.

In vain, she assured him that he would be “involving [himself] in nothing” if he married her. “Religion would be obtruded on you in no way except that you would have to see me go to church once a week, and five times a year on various saints’ days. I would have nothing around the house to jar upon you—no pictures and books. I am really not obsessed as you think I am.”

At times she could not hide her frustration: “Do I have to be condemned to celibacy all my days, just because of your pig-headedness? Damn it, do I have to remind you that Tamar needs a father?” Her tone fluctuated between tenderness and bitter reproach: “I am not restrained when I am lying in your arms, am I? You know I am not a promiscuous creature in my love.... But it is all so damned hopeless that I do hope I fall in love again and marry since there seems to be no possibility for a happy outcome to our love for each other.”

By the fall of 1932 Dorothy was living in New York. In December she traveled to Washington, D.C., to cover the Hunger March of the Unemployed. There on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, she offered a prayer that God would show her some way to combine her Catholic faith and her commitment to social justice. Immediately afterward she would meet Peter Maurin, the French peasant philosopher who would inspire her to launch the Catholic Worker and whose ideas would dominate the rest of her life. Whether there was any relation between the opening of this new door and the decision finally to close the door on her hope of marrying Forster, Dorothy’s letter to him of Dec. 10 would be her last for many years.

After describing her strong commitment to the prohibition of sex outside of marriage, she writes: “The ache in my heart is intolerable at times, and sometimes for days I can feel your lips upon me, waking and sleeping. It is because I love you so much that I want you to marry me.” Nevertheless, she concluded: “It all is hopeless of course, tho [sic] it has often seemed to me a simple thing. Imaginatively I can understand your hatred and rebellion against my beliefs and I can’t blame you. I have really given up hope now, so I won’t try to persuade you anymore.”

But even this did not mark the end of their relationship. Over the years they remained connected through Tamar. There would be friendly notes, the exchange of gifts and visits in the hospital. In Dorothy’s final years Forster took to calling every day. He was present at her funeral in 1980, and later at a memorial Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

More Fully Human

So what, in the end, do these newly published letters reveal? They certainly confirm the deep, passionate love described in Dorothy’s memoir, thus underscoring the incredible sacrifice she endured for the sake of her faith. That sacrifice lay at the heart of her vocation; it was the foundation for a lifetime of courage, perseverance and dedication. It marked her deep sense of the heroic demands of faith. But in no sense did it represent a conflict in her mind between “merely” human love and “higher” religious aspirations. “I could not see that love between man and woman was incompatible with love of God,” she wrote. And if she had had her way, she would have embraced a happy family life with Forster and the many children she dreamed of.

Although, as Dorothy reported, some of her radical friends insinuated that her turn to God was because she was “tired of sex, satiated, disillusioned,” her true feelings were quite different. “It was because through a whole love, both physical and spiritual, I came to know God.”

If Dorothy Day is one day canonized, these letters will provide a fairly unusual resource. They serve to remind us, if that were necessary, that saints are fully human—perhaps, as Thomas Merton put it in Life and Holiness, more fully human: “This implies a greater capacity for concern, for suffering, for understanding, for sympathy, and also for humor, for joy, for appreciation for the good and beautiful things of life.”

Dorothy considered her love for Forster to be one of the primary encounters with grace in her life, one for which she never ceased to rejoice. That insight and that witness are among her many gifts.

*

Some letters - it may look like voyeurism, but it may also be comforting for the doubtful...

The angelic preaching of Christian anarchism

2010-11-01T15:59:00.004Z

A must-see if you do not want to read about Christian anarchism: A peace of the anarchy.

London Anarchist Bookfair

2010-10-24T17:12:00.000+01:00

Michael Albert was said to be the big name speaker at this year's London Anarchist Bookfair. One could give him credit for consitency - he is saying the same things and telling the same anecdotes (the left is out of touch with reality and won't even go to football games) that he has for years. His vision for a particpatory economy was hopeful but a bit old-school and when gently challenged by a primitivist he showed no desire to enter into sensible conversation. Shame.

There were talks about the Con-Dem cuts, a debate on Chomsky between a Peace activist and a radical anthropologist, a great talk by Milan Rai on deconstructing Gandhi and much more.

As ever with these events the highlight is wandering the stalls meeting old friends and making new ones. The London Catholic Worker's had a stall full of home made organic preserves, t-shirts and books. The Cunningham Ammendment were as hospitable as ever and it was great to see Jonathan from Anarchist Voices and Alex Christoyanoupolos with Anarchist Studies Network.

The bookfair gets bigger year-on-year and this year there were around 100 stalls so thousands of visitors, many new to the fair. And of course a wild-eyed, suited and booted Christian stood outside rantily denouncing us to fast moving traffic.

London Anarchist Bookfair

2010-10-20T11:47:00.000+01:00

This weekend. Post here if you are going to the London Anarchist Bookfair and would like to meet up.
http://www.anarchistbookfair.org.uk/

Diggers Agape

2010-10-11T09:13:00.001+01:00

Diggers’ Agape

“The earth is the common treasury of all”

(Gerrard Winstanley)

Sunday November 7th

5.00-6.00pm Barton Street Methodist Church,

Barton Street, Gloucester GL1 4EN

From 4.00pm bring ingredients which we will put together for a shared meal and worship at 5.00pm – or just come at 5.00pm.

All ingredients should be from the “common treasury” i.e. either food you have grown yourselves, or gathered locally (not bought).

Or you could bring something else from the commons to share - a song, a poem, a piece of art, a story or just yourself.

Future Dutch government proud to be to the right of the nazis

2010-10-06T19:20:00.006+01:00

The hunting parties in France directed at Roma have faded from the news. Quite probably there is still need to be alarmed. But then, do we know a place in Europe that is providing good or hopeful news these days?
The new parliamentary season in Iceland started with the members having to run the gauntlet, around one per cent of the population of the island republic attending in the demonstration. The xenophobes in Sweden were left out of the government, that is still a consoling piece of news. Standards have been lowered rather drastically. Still two countries to escape to. Perhaps the Isles west of the North Sea might be an option too.

Hope has been given to us for the sake of the hopeless. The Roma. Those about to be on the losing side because of the "austerity measures" planned by the several European regimes - the poor who will be getting poorer since riches only look good if there are enough poor not enjoying the spoils of imperialism. The European Muslims, main aim of xenophobia, apart from the Roma. Apart from the wars the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is performing in such typically Atlantic countries as Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iran is next on the list.

These are rather strange days in the Netherlands. The so-called Christian-democratic party - resembling a real old style Eastern European communist party since its earliest days - has decided to form a government together with xenophobe extraordinaire Wilders - a one man party filling a sixth of the seats in the Second Chamber ("the Commons"). Yes, it is incredible, he has not got a party, only 23 obedient followers who take their time calling names to everyone they consider to be on the left or Muslim or both. A good partner for Christian Democrats. If all will still end in the regular way this will be the good thing about this episode: the end of these hypocrites in power and the end of that party in general. Yet there is no light at the end of this tunnel we in this country have not even entered yet.

The hunt is on.The most important this government has to decide immediately is prohibiting wearing burqas. There are about two thousand women in NL wearing this piece of garment, so this is an important matter as you will agree. Furthermore there will be tough measures against any immigrant from "non-western" countries who might still think it a good idea to enter the Netherlands. I can assure you, it was not and it will be even less. Highway speeding will be up, state support for the arts will be scrapped (they are left wing hobbies, we are told, even though NL has never had anything like a left wing government in the first place). Official education will teach that Muslims organized the "holocaust" and that Hitler was a socialist. This regime is proud to be on the right to the nazis.

Well, you have been informed for the time being. As illustrations I chose a "autochthonous" actress demonstratively wearing a headscarf telling she belongs to the "hard-headed" people.
The other day a male journalist put on a burqa in the southern city of Eindhoven and went his way through the mad shopping crowd. "They ought to be shot" was about the first and gentlest of responses he got. So I leave you now with two French female political science students who ventured on the busy streets of Paris combining a niqab with hot pants. More on their findings here.

Jesus Radicals

2010-09-21T15:21:00.002+01:00

The merger between Jesus Manifesto and Jesus Radicals has taken place now, so a final salute to the JM logo and a welcome to the new Jesus Radicals.

State and anti-capital

2010-09-15T20:08:00.004+01:00

I want to share this short blog comment from Free Dissen t here because of a couple of recent conversations.

There's a bloke - nice bloke - called Graham, who's been along to some of a few of the recent Christianity and Anarchism conferences and after each one I hear back third hand criticism of them from him.

His most recent criticism was of the conference at the gathering held at the London Catholic Worker Farmhouse. Undaunted by the fact that he wasn't even there he told one of the organisers that that there wasn't enough anti-capitalist at the event.

I know that in some of the small groups our conversations about emotional attachment to the state led naturally to finding ways to challenge the current economic system - alternatives to insurance, pensions, and the health service were discussed and some people shared examples from their own experience (not me!).

Graham is going to host a conference on Christianity and anti-capitalism, or so Adam Dickson tells me. Great idea: let a thousand flowers bloom. As soon as I get the details they'll be posted up here.

But a caveat from Free Dissent.

One reason why anti-capitalists NEED to be anarchists.

Capitalism needs the State to survive. Remove the State and Capitalism will die. Damn all forms of coercion. However, markets are independent from capitalism. Equating voluntary trade and mutual aid (such as barter) with state monopoly capitalism is false. Capitalism is industrial feudalism backed up by the guns of the State. The forcible transfer of wealth from the masses to the politically connected elite. This is why the Soviet system was nothing but state capitalism

.

It isn't enough to be an anti-capitalist as one can easily be such and still rely on the coercion of the state. It's tempting after all to lobby the state to coerce us into not being fascists, or into professionalising / depersonalising care. But this is just socialism or state communism. Like Conservatism and Liberalism these ideologies have been thoroughly tested and found wanting.

So you anti-capitalists: why not try anarchism. Because you're worth it. .... x

A Mormon introduction to Christian Anarchism [1/7]

2010-09-13T21:04:00.001+01:00

London Catholic Worker

2010-09-07T14:21:00.005+01:00

Three Christian peace activists were arrested at AWE Aldermaston after opening the base for disarmament.

Fr.Martin Newell (43), Passionist Priest from the London Catholic Worker, Susan Clarkson (63) of the Oxford Catholic Worker, and Chris Cole (47) father of three - also from Oxford, cut a doorway into the outer fence of nuclear base. The group then attached a sign saying ‘Open for Disarmament: All Welcome’.

The three then entered the base, through the new gateway knelt and prayed.

In a statement the three said: “We come to the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston to open a new gateway into this tightly guarded factory of death. We come inspired by the message of Jesus to love our enemies, to be peacemakers and to live act nonviolently at all times."

All three have been involved in several non-violent direct actions and been jailed as a result over the years and have their prophetic witness rooted in their personal commitment to marginalised people in their own communities.

Susan and Martin have been part of the Christian anarchist conferences over the years. Chris Cole is Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, based in Oxford.

Notes from a future pariah state

2010-09-06T17:22:00.005+01:00

A beautiful Saturday afternoon in a small provincial town.. That’s how you are supposed to call it, but a glance on the map of Holland (the western part of the Netherlands) shows one urban agglomeration form North to South, from Haarlem to beyond Delft. This part of Holland actually is one large urban area with some rectangle patches of green jotted in between, nonsensically named The Green Heart, “the dunes” and some more.
In this small town most people know each other, which gives it a village feel. The adjacent street terraces are crowded and there is continuous mutual greeting going on. I do not exactly know how we fit into this, but we do not feel excluded. With a goblet of Augustine triple in the sun the world does not look all that bad.

Yet we are discussing the seriousness of the situation in NL. A party seems to be coming to power which yearns for Guantánamo-style concentration camps, which wants to ban the Book of about a million faithful (and more, since I want to be able to read the Qur’an too), a party expressing loads of contempt for some of these faithful who are covering their hair which the party pretends to be able to tax (“headragtax”), and much more. The Netherlands can easily and perhaps inevitably become a pariah state in Europe. Since the fourteenth century this river delta country has depended mostly on trade and so the ruling class should prevent the xenophobic crowd from coming to power. After a long time of commitment to anarchism I will have to count on the ruling class to protect me...

We are seriously discussing the possibility of having to emigrate and ask for asylum somewhere, in the near future.. What exactly seems to indicate the danger? In any police state you can sit perfectly on a pavement and drink in the sun, you only should not talk too loud about certain things. The above-mentioned one man xenophobic “party” wants a special state brigade that shoots on sight those “everyone knows to be the wrong types”. And at night you may expect the bang on the door. It is the leftists wot brought the mooslims over here, you see, and now NL is shaking off sixty years of lefty dictatorship, that is his story. History is what he makes of it. Escaping to – Germany, Sweden, Britain, Ireland – in Belgium a similar party seems to be just a hair’s width from state power too. You hardly can imagine you have to consider these things seriously.

How to explain NL A.D. 2010 to non-Dutch? That a sixth of the electorate feels attracted to a man with a baby head and a bleached coiffure wanting to resemble images of Mozart? Not a charismatic man with a dangerously attractive twinkle in his eyes like Fortuijn – it was not a reason to vote for him but you could imagine people being charmed by him. The baby head is only grouching in parliament, supported financially from Tel Aviv and dubious so-called think tanks in the USA. Chewing the rag is a favourite pastime for quite a lot of Dutch. A friend who escaped southward a long time ago described this typical Dutch mentality as “badgering is obligatory, hitting is forbidden.” The moooslims will be badgered, it does not matter if it be legally allowed or not, someone has to be the main object of badgering. A sixth of Dutch voters thinks this is a way to live life to the full. And if one may believe the opinion polls their numbers are rising all the time. And badgering is bad enough, but will that be all in the future?

Two men dressed in jellaba put away their bikes near the café where we sit outside. They walk along, seemingly to the mosque, wherever that may be, there is no minaret in sight. In the neighbourhood in which I grew up the building of the pes control service has been turned into amosque without much external changes to the building. Humiliating muslims “in finibus” is not a new feature of the Netherlands. I notice there are quite a few men passing by, dressed like this along the pavement. It is ramadan, how could I forget.. Nobody takes notice of them, maybe I am the only person sitting outside giving them any thought. What is there to worry about?

And then there is a female passer-by attracting many glances. High-heeled, wearing a tube skirt reaching just under her knees. Her pantyhose may be flesh-coloured or absent, I cannot tell. She radiates elegance not in tune with sitting outside a café in the sun, but that would not necessarily attract attention. Her hair is the remarkable thing about her.
Her hair is completely packed in a knot, covered y a piece of textile generally called a bandana, a headscarf. The muslim headscarf. The young woman puts on a sullen look – if she knows her way around she must know there are three cafés in a row with pavement arrangements, crowded in the sun, and she is bound to know she will draw attention. Her whole look is giving out a statement and it must be purposeful, even though she puts some anger on her face. In bigger towns it can be seen increasingly – young women combining the muslim headscarf with miniskirts, yet they will wear dark tights. It is a remarkable appearance. These girls to me embody the hope that all may still be well with the Netherlands, even thought the usual cantankerous types will not enjoy it at all.

We had been spending some time in a news free zone, back in the world we hear that the “Brown” coalition of so-called liberals, so-called christian-democrats and fundamentalist protestants with the fascists seems to have been blown off by the Blonde Xenophobe himself. I do not know if that really is a relief.
To quote a famous Dutch hymn: There will be lots of struggle ahead.

Crossing the line "in a time of war"

2010-09-06T14:03:00.005+01:00

A federal grand jury in Tacoma has indicted five anti-war protesters, including prominent members of the anti-nuclear-weapons movement, on charges of conspiracy, trespass and destruction of government property for entering a secure area at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor complex last November.

The charges carry penalties of up to 10 years in federal prison.

The indictment names two well-known Jesuit priests — 81-year-old William Bichsel, of Tacoma; and 60-year-old Stephen Kelly, of Oakland, Calif. — and two nuns belonging to the Society of the Sacred Heart, 83-year-old Anne Montgomery, of New York; and 65-year-old Susan Crane, of Baltimore. The fifth defendant is Bremerton social worker Lynne T. Greenwald, 60.

The five are accused of using bolt cutters Nov. 2 to breach three chain-link fences surrounding the so-called Main Limited Area of the base, which is home to part of the Pacific nuclear submarine fleet. That area is patrolled by armed guards, who confronted the invaders at gunpoint, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"All citizens are free to disagree with their government," said U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan. "But they are not free to destroy property or risk the safety of others."

Durkan said the group — dubbed the "Bangor 5" in the news release — entered the naval base "during a time of war" and went into an area clearly marked as off-limits.

"They endangered themselves and prompted military personnel, who are duty-bound to guard the area, to quickly make a decision over the use of force," Durkan said. "These defendants quite literally cross the line and must be held accountable."

According to news accounts, several of the defendants have been arrested for, or charged with, similar actions over the years.

Montgomery spent time in jail in the 1980s after she and other protesters breached security at Martin-Marietta Aerospace Corp.'s defense plant in Orlando, Fla. Court documents indicate they entered a building where they "hammered and poured blood onto both nuclear and conventional missile launchers and components belonging to the United States Army."

She recently accepted the 40th annual Peace Award of the War Resisters League — an honor she now shares with Father Daniel Berrigan, the Jesuit war protester who was jailed in the 1960s and co-founded the anti-war and anti-nuclear Plowshares Movement.

Source.

Further reading (for example), video.

Dave Andrews on Waiters Union

2010-09-05T09:14:00.001+01:00

Bristol Anarchist Bookfair: meet-up?

2010-08-25T13:34:00.004+01:00

Hidden Costs of modern life

2010-08-25T12:41:00.004+01:00

Reading this article reminded me that the Marxist understanding of cost and value needs to be developed in away that Marx just wasn't aware of but is vital to our peak oil times.

Free Dissent writes:

"Mutualists (or non-vulgar market anarchists) accept that products have natural values. Each product on average commands a certain amount of time and energy to produce. The average amount of labor put into a product directly determines its cost. For example, technology and labor-saving devices have made farming much more efficient to produce. Due to this, food is more abundant and cheap. Producing 500 apples requires a lot less labor today compared to 300 years ago. This is exactly why the natural value of an apple is much lower today than in the past. The Labor Theory of Value helps explain this very clearly. It is the natural values of varying products that drive the economic engine."

Before going into the dynamics of cost and value it is important to flag up the problem of hidden cost. This makes no difference to the thrust of the article quoted above but it matters anyway. We think that by reducing labour and relying instead on machinery we are reducing cost but all that happens is we are hiding several costs that involve less labour and land: the production of fossil fuels.

Finding, processing, and delivering fossil fuels are not part of the hidden costs. The farmer pays money for these things and has to make them balance. But the millions of years forming gas, oil, and coal are real costs that are not included. Likewise the future costs to the farmer of changes in climate due to use of fossil fuels is not calculated - these are costs hidden in the future.

I sat in the pub sith someone the otehr day who said -as though it was a given - that we tend to ever greater efficiency therefore supermarkets must be more efficient that community agricultre. But that's because our inefficient, or costs, are hidden under the ground and in the air.

Thus the profit margin is increased efficiently. Ta da!

Okay, now we can think about surplus labour...

Protest against nuclear weapons plant under construction

2010-08-19T10:19:00.003+01:00

Singing choruses of “We shall not be moved” while scattering sunflower seeds, 14 activists were arrested in Kansas City, Missouri, Aug. 16 after blocking an earth moving vehicle on the site of a proposed nuclear weapons manufacturing facility.

The acts of civil disobedience came at the end of a three-day conference which drew peace activists here from around the nation. The efforts were aimed at building awareness of and resistance to the construction of the weapons plant, which will replace an existing plant here.

The new plant, which will make non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons, is set to be the US' first new major nuclear weapons production facility in 32 years.

Before their arrest the protesters walked onto a soybean field being plowed by several earth moving vehicles as part of the plant building preparation effort. The group, walking in a single file, held hands; some carried large signs. They approached and surrounded one of the vehicles, forcing the driver to stop her work, and eventually leading 20 other vehicles to halt theirs as well.

After about a 45 minute shut down, police arrived, announcing the protesters had two minutes to leave the privately-owned grounds. The flurry of activity stopped all work at the site for over an hour.

In a statement to the press before they began their action, the activists called the new facility a “crime against peace” and a “crime against humanity.”

This is the second time that people have been arrested for civil disobedience to the plant in two months. On Aug. 6 a local activist, Jane Stoever, was sentenced to eight hours of community service for having blocked the entrance to the current facility, known simply as the Kansas City Plant. Her action took place in June.

Currently a part of the Bannister Federal Complex, located about 13 miles south of the city’s downtown area, the Kansas City Plant is responsible for the production and assembly of approximately 85 percent of the non-nuclear components for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The plant is due to be relocated in 2012 to the “more modern facility.”

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a division of the U.S. Department of Energy, has said the new facility will carry an estimated price tag of $673 million for construction and $1.2 billion over the next 20 years.
Activists Joshua Armfield and Gina Cook of Kansas City, Mo. link arms while blocking a construction vehicle working on the new Kansas City Plant facility Aug. 16.Activists Joshua Armfield and Gina Cook of Kansas City, Mo. link arms while blocking a construction vehicle working on the new Kansas City Plant facility Aug. 16.
Coming from 15 states and three countries by bus, train, airplane, and caravan, anti-nuclear activists gathered here to attend the weekend conference leading up to the civil disobedience in a local Methodist church.

Recalling her 30 years working at the current site of the nuclear weapons facility, Barbara Rice told those in attendance that she had lost count of how many of her colleagues had died of cancer after 110 passed away from various kinds of the illnesses.

While she said she couldn’t prove that the deaths were related to chemical exposure at the current facility, Rice remembered one instance when a pipe burst at the plant and her supervisors told her to “go home immediately and destroy her clothes.”

At the same event, Jay Coghlan, executive director of the watchdog group Nuclear Watch New Mexico, said the new plant in Kansas City is only one of several projects underway to increase U.S. nuclear weapons production capability.

Coghlan said that while the international community thinks the U.S. is working towards nuclear disarmament, "the reality is that we’re building 3 new sites: one to process uranium, one to process plutonium, and one to create the non-nuclear parts of the weapons such as triggers and fuses.”

The three sites Coghlan referred to are the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the new Kansas City Plant.

While the new facility in Kansas City is expected to continue production of non-nuclear parts for nuclear weapons, the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project at Los Alamos plans to increase U.S. capability to produce plutonium pits, the core of a nuclear weapon, according to Coghlan. Meanwhile, the facility at Oak Ridge plans to reinvest in its capability to produce uranium components for the weapons.

In the original proposal for the Kansas City project, CenterPoint Zimmer LLC — the company which won the bidding process to design and build the plant for the NNSA — said the new facility would simply modernize operations for nuclear weapons parts production while ensuring the continued employment of “a minimum of 2,100 workers at the campus in good ‘quality jobs.’ ”

The day before the arrests the activists visited the two Kansas City Plant sites for prayer and reflection.

After walking with the rest of the activists on the side of a busy street where the current plant is located, Japanese native-born Mercedarian Sr. Filo Hirota told those gathered that she envisioned a new world order in which the “principle of nonviolence is translated into the way how the world is organized.”

Hirota, who is the international relations officer for the Catholic Council for Justice and Peace of the Episcopal Conference of Japan, asked in a prayer following her brief talk for an economy “that creates communion in equal and just relationships.”

Arriving in a caravan at the field where the new facility for the nuclear weapons plant is under construction, activists came together there near idle bulldozers where they blessed the land and asked forgiveness in view of its future use.

Tom Kascoli, a Native American of Apache and Navajo background, blessed each of the assembled, waving an eagle’s feather over a burning sage stick while chanting a prayer in his native tongue.
[National Catholic Reporter]

A thought for the day, August 6th

2010-08-06T00:50:00.000+01:00

This is an elaboration of an introduction I wrote earlier on, elsewhere. It is in the spirit of Herbert Marcuse's One dimensional man, a book that deals in its entirety about the unbearable situation of living "as if normal" whilst the human-made death of all of humanity is being prepared. The metaphors of generation etcetera fulfill a certain ideological function: it further "normalizes" living alongside mass murder. Also cf. "sitting duck" and "barrel of fish" as references to the bombing drones.

Until I started writing this piece I did not know about a "mother of the bomb".
Killing machines apparently also have cousins and other family members.

When you ask the internet search engine for the “father of the bomb” you get the incredible result of around six million hits. One of the first results you may get reads: “Trinity and the birth of the bomb”, which indeed goes on about the “father of the bomb”. There is a good chance you will accuse the writer of the text you now see of blasphemy when you are kindly reminded of the combination of the words trinity, birth and father. Words used in connection with a device that killed about a hundred thousand people in one instant, and another hundred thousand in the slow aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima.

When such a combination yields about six million hits this must mean “we” have accomodated to these weapons. Generally they are called weapons of mass destruction these days, which refers to damage done to buildings and other lifeless things. You do not hear the phrase weapons of mass killing. And apparently “we” accept the idea of these weapons “having been born”, they have “a father” and they have to be modernized once in a while. Then we hear about the next “generation of nuclear bombs” (about one hundred thousand hits in the search engine). Born, father, generation – all words referring to life, the ending of which is the specific aim of these weapons. If you think it unfair that the “mother of the bomb” is not mentioned you are right: she “only” gets three million hits in the search engine.

Since it refers to an insect it probably will be even harder to see the full obscenity of a killing device, the unmanned aerial vehicle, named drone. The main task of drones, male bees, is indeed: fathering. We are up to see a new generation of drones, which will be more stealthy than the present day unmanned killing device.

Let us be aware that bombs and unmanned bombing devices are directed against fathers and mothers, against those who are born and against generations. And let us remember that the most obscene about these things is still not the words used about them. It is the fact that they exist at all, that they are used or that using them is even being considered.

Slaughtering anarchists by the myriads

2010-08-05T20:52:00.004+01:00

A story that came across to me by chance, as it goes with the net. It is not "news". But it is a story that leaves you devastated in the metaphorical sense. And it is fitting to this season of
remembrance .

The commission estimates at least 100,000 people were executed, in a South Korean population of 20 million. That estimate is based on projections from local surveys and is "very conservative," said Kim. The true toll may be twice that or more, he told The Associated Press."

In 1945, as the Japanese Empire finally went into retreat, the Korean people were left without an occupational authority for the first time in decades. In that brief moment something amazing happened. The Korean Anarchists, long the champions of the resistance struggle, came out of the woodwork and formed a nationwide federation of village and workers councils to oversee a massive project of land reform. Korea graduated from feudalism overnight. Aside from some struggles with the Socialists and Nationalists, the peninsula was at peace.

When WWII concluded, however, the "responsibility" of securing peace and order in Korea was assigned to the Americans and Soviets. By all accounts in this instance the US actually had no imperialist intentions. While the Soviets moved quickly to deploy their forces and occupy the North, the Americans took their time showing up, and were largely content to let the South Koreans manage themselves.

The Koreans, culturally steeped with anti-authoritarian values, were fond of America and openly despised the Soviets. While a few socialists fled North hoping that the Soviets would give them a hand against the Anarchists, they were overwhelmed in numbers by a mass migration south. Everyone assumed the Americans would assist or at least respect their autonomy.

This did not last.

The Americans Military commanders who eventually arrived had trouble understanding or dealing with the anarchy they found. They had no protocol for dealing with regional federations and autonomous communes. So they helped the dispossessed aristocracy form a military government. In order to make the map "simple." In order to "get things under hand."

Most importantly they did not understand that the Korean Anarchists and Anti-Authoritarian activists that saturated the countryside were different than--and in fact vehemently opposed to--the Communists, going so far as to organized and launch insurrectionary attacks on the Soviet Occupation before the Americans arrived.

The Americans couldn't understand "anarchists". But "leftists", they knew, meant Soviets. And they had the gall to ignore or resist their puppet military government. So they started killing them.

By the start of the Korean War, the slaughter was in full swing. Having arrested every anarchist organizer or sympathetic peasant they could get their hands on, they started executing them en masse.

The Korean Anarchist movement was, historically, one of the strongest in the world. It survived half a century of brutal occupation and economic exploitation. It survived a three way assault by the Chinese, Japanese and Soviets. It has survived many, many massacres and exterminations. It is even still around today. So strong that in the last few years they've been known to evict the police from the streets. But the worst injury it ever suffered was initiated and orchestrated by the United States military. In a single campaign so horrific it borders on genocide.

This was truly, objectively, one of the worst things the US has ever done. And there are some big ffing contenders.

Most North Aamerican papers ran front-page stories this Monday about the latest mass graves being uncovered while I was riding the "Empire Builder" from St. Paul to Portland. I found a copy wedged between Amtrak seat cushions. And there was an ancient photo of piled corpses as far as the eye could see. The papers euphemistically used the term "leftists." But I know the history, I did the research.

They were almost all anarchists.

However lovely America may be. Remember, the US government is not our friend. It will never be. It can never be.

(Written May 2008 by William Gillis).

Youtube channel for the blog

2010-07-27T14:09:00.006+01:00

Because of the new short videos from the conference I've started up a youtube channel to partner this blog.

http://www.youtube.com/user/beyondtolstoy

You might also want to check out Anarchist Voices which shows short interviews with British Anarchists. It comes from the editor of the magazine of the same name (formerly Total Liberty)

http://anarchistvoices.wetpaint.com/

Why Christianity and anarchism?

2010-07-25T23:39:00.003+01:00

Food speculation

2010-07-22T00:34:00.003+01:00

In The Great Hunger Lottery, the World Development Movement has compiled extensive evidence establishing the role of food commodity derivatives in destabilising and driving up food prices around the world. This in turn, has led to food prices becoming unaffordable for low-income families around the world, particularly in developing countries highly reliant on food imports.

Nowhere was this more clearly seen than during the astonishing surge in staple food prices over the course of 2007-2008, when millions went hungry and food riots swept major cities around the world. The great hunger lottery shows how this alarming episode was fueled by the behaviour of financial speculators, and describes the terrible immediate impacts on vulnerable families around the world, as well as the long term damage to the fight against global poverty.

In the report we describe how the current situation came to pass, the risks of another speculation induced food crisis, and what specifically can be done by policymakers here in the UK as well as in the US and EU to tackle the problem.
To download the report.

You are requested to call the FSA - we are even giving you an example how to do it - on food speculation.

What if...

2010-07-19T12:45:00.009+01:00

Years ago I published a manifesto in which I tried to elaborate what would have happened, had "we", the anarchists, "won" in Spain, somewhere in the late 'thirties. The manifesto was taken over by a zine and that was more or less it - I never read any other thoughts about this matter.

One good reason why this would have been impossible - apart from the fact that it turned out to be impossible because it did not happen - would be that "anarchism in one state" is a logical impossibility. That is one of the reasons why anarchism looks like a long term project: as long as there is still one state the whole of humanity is not free.
(It need not be: the miracle - something we can watch and wonder about, the original meaning of "miracle" - might happen - without optimism no anarchism. Or no Christianity, for that matter).

But "we" had won in Spain.
First "we" had to do away with the fascists. Obviously. The liberals should be silenced too.
Then the social democrats, the bolsheviks and the trotskyists had to be dealt with.
Of course the Roman Catholics still standing behind the episcopate and the Vatican could not be spared.
Then unfortunately "we" would have to deal with all these dissident anarchists who did not like the way all the enemies were treated.

Can you imagine an anarchist police state, a concentration camp at the size of a country which had not even done away with its African colonies too? Not immediately granting independence to these colonies was the main mistake of the Spanish republic - which is hardly ever mentioned since imperialism and racism are so very much taken for granted as normal.

The defeat in the Civil War spared "us" from the horrible reality of anarchism in one country.
But again, it could not have gone any other way.
The relative blessing of defeat.

Anarchism is a set of ideas about ordering human society in the broadest sense of the word. It is not one set of ideas. Peter Maurin has an idea about the solution of the Social Question different from Peter Kropotkin's, not to mention John Zerzan or Murray Bookchin.
Apart form being about order it is very much an idea about justice. Alex Christoyannopoulos makes this very clear in Christian anarchism.
Simply put: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" goes for anarchists in general, whether religious (Christian) or not. It cannot be any other way, because if you do not adhere to the Golden Rule you cease to be an anarchist.
Thinking about the consequences of an "anarchist victory" forces to think of it as a victory for humanity, not for "anarchy", "anarchism" and certainly not for "anarchists". Christian or not, it makes no difference.

tbc

About being counted out

2010-07-16T12:21:00.003+01:00

Praise for Alex Christoyannopoulos' Christian anarchism. It is the first (and hence) the best in its kind. No doubt about it and I shall give a review elsewhere and perhaps over here too (I know it has been reviewed already, but a second, third [or more] time will not do any harm).

Yet - I was a bit upset about the idealtypischen Christian anarchist Alex sketches in his summing up chapter.

Christian anarchist thought is (..) a unique form of anarchist thought, The main difficulty for other anarchists will be that Christian anarchism is adamantly Christian. Worse (from a secular anarchist perspective) many of its thinkers advocate anarchism to Christians only, and accept that the state may have some sort of (though highly imperfect) ordering role for non-Christians. Then again, they insist that worship of the state is idolatry...

At p.294.
If there is one thing about being adamantly Christian in my view it is that you never pride yourself on being Christian.
In fact, I cannot stand people's saying in public (or in private, for that matter) "I am a Christian".
In Songs of praise they know where to find those Christians. "What do people say about your being a Christian and being an officer in Afghanistan"? Etcetera. That is why I stopped watching it.

If there is one thing that belongs to being adamantly Christian it is modesty.
For this I have to quote a very embarrassing sentence:

And in the same way, you masters must treat your slaves right. Don't threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.

No favourite. Eph. 6:9 was used by Dutch Christian anarchists in 1898 to protest the enthronement of the new queen. We do not need a queen. We are all equal.
Those calling themselves Christians and those who do not call themselves Christians.
Especially people who are not and never will be.

If Christian anarchism implies being a t***er (aka w***er) dribbling that s/he does not need the state, but that for the unchosen it works out fine, I will be on the side of the unchosen.
And as for me, I would never call this anarchism. Nor Christian.

TBC

Only Days to Go!!!

2010-07-13T15:20:00.004+01:00

Only a couple of days to go before the Christianity and anarchism conference at the Catholic Worker Farmhouse in Hertfordshire. Ooooh!

Always an incredible mix of people, it's always the unexpected things that I end up learning about and it's nearly always the incidental conversations that make the difference. I can't wait.

Hopefully people have taken up Adam's challenge to make banners and stuff to help create an atmosphere and to take to the service on Sunday. I've just found a huge read piece of sail material and some black strips of cloth so I will be having a good think about what to do with all that.

I'm going to bring some other craft stuff and paint to the event and make a space for people to be arty if they want to.

Most of the sessions will be without specialist or speaker but rather an invitation to explore some fairly open but focused lines of thought. However, there will be a session on the Sunday where anyone who wants to put something on can and those who don't can join in or not with those things.

There are different ways of doing this conference thing and we've yet to find a way that suits everyone. Getting consensus from a geographically dispersed community was one way. Getting a few people together to host a broadly open spaced event is another. We're trying the latter this weekend. And since around 40 people are registered it seems plenty of people are okay with that. Although we will find out what people are / aren't okay with in due course.

Interview with David Buer OFM

2010-07-07T11:32:00.005+01:00

At my Blogtalk Radio Channel you can hear a short interview (cut in two pieces) with David Buer OFM, peace acitivist and carer for the Illegal Alien in the Arizona/New Mexico desert. On the same channel - in case you do not know - the interview on Pacifica with Alex Christoyannopoulos about Tolstoy as a Christian anarchist can still be heard.
So tune in...

Brother David does not call himself a Christian anarchist, though he is interested in the idea. He is a follower of Christ. That is the right spirit.