 October 2000
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
From the editor's desk As we sat in our stalled car last evening waiting for Triple A to come, we took the occasion while the light still lingered to read a broadside we picked up at a Quaker gathering: "John Woolman and the Global Economy." What, you say, does an 18th Century eccentric itinerant minister know about corporate globalism in the 21st? Quite a lot, it turns out. Woolman is best known for his opposition to slavery at a time when many of his co-religionists held slaves. The tale is told of a Quaker burgher sitting in a gathering in the great meetinghouse in Newport, Rhode Island, who was called out of meeting for worship because a shipload of slaves that he owned had arrived in the harbor. Less known is Woolman's 1793 pamphlet "A Plea for the Poor": Wealth desired for its own sake obstructs the increase of virtue, and large possessions in the hands of selfish men have a bad tendency, for by their means too small a number of people are employed in useful things, and some of them are necessitated to labor too hard, while others would want business to earn their bread. David Morse, author of the broadside, holds up Woolman's example--his search for the roots and causes of slavery, his rigorous refusal to participate personally in any benefits derived from it, and his life-long, patient efforts to persuade his fellow Quakers. Woolman's witness is revered among Friends; he's as close as we get to a saint. Morse also scrutinizes Woolman's economic analysis and compares it to the analysis of today being spelled out in the streets of Seattle, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and now Prague. It's a complex critique--the erosion of environmental standards, consumer health, and human rights which results from a global economy run amuck while public opinion and democratic process are manipulated by a corporate-led media. Tough to put that on a banner. But some people are beginning to get it; hence, the so-called "blue-green alliance" of workers and environmentalists, the turtle/teamster nexus. Woolman went a step further: ...where that spirit works which loves riches, and in its working gathers wealth...it still desires to defend the treasures thus gotten. This is like a chain, where the end of one link encloseth the end of another. The rising up of desire to obtain wealth is the beginning; this desire, being cherished, moves to action; and riches thus gotten please self; and while self has a life in them it desires to have them defended. Wealth is attended with power...and hence oppression, carried on with worldly policy and order, clothes itself with the name of justice...so the seeds of war swell and sprout.... Oh! that we who declare against wars, and acknowledge our trust to be in God only, may walk in the light, and therein examine our foundation and motives in holding great estates! My we look upon our treasures, and the furniture of our houses, and the garments in which we array ourselves, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions... Wealth/power/ oppression masked as justice/war. That's John Woolman, and that's a revolutionary message. All of this lends coherence to the wide-ranging reports in the pages of the October Peacework. We start off with the punch line--a warning about preparations for war from a distinguished Indian journalist--and move backward to examinations of the consequences of our possessions. Professor Bandarage sees the workings of global political and economic forces in the anguish of her country. A generation is dying in Africa while market forces ration care. In Colombia and Indonesia, the play of power and control make mockery of the environment and human rights; while in Iraq, sanctions continue a war sparked by that ultimate possession--petroleum--and political boundaries drawn by the victors of WW I to protect its control. This is stuff we have to know about. It's part of the message that people who want to change things must understand, and must figure out how to deliver effectively. Jean Hardisty reports on the health of the progressive movement engaged in this task and offers some prescriptions for rebuilding. And our Peacework colleague Sara Burke gives us a users' manual on effective delivery.
So what's with the stalled car? It may just be that we
will have to figure out how to manage without it. John Woolman
probably would have. 
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