Mutual Aid Case study 1

Things at our weekly Mutual Aid free food project didn’t go as usual. Which is a good illustration of how and why Mutual Aid works so well.

Every Saturday morning my Des Moines Mutual Aid group comes to Trinity Las Américas United Methodist Church in downtown Des Moines, Iowa. There we continue the free food program that was started by the Black Panthers in the 1960’s. see: Feeding the hungry

When I arrived, there were a number of people already in the basement, none of whom I knew. And the tables were set up differently. Someone asked me if I was with Des Moines Mutual Aid, introducing himself as Alejandro Alfaro-Santiz, pastor of the church. Several months ago Ronnie James asked if I knew Alejandro, saying he was an amazing organizer (which was something coming from someone who is a great organizer himself).

Alejandro told me they were running a COVID vaccine clinic this morning. And that he had spoken to Ronnie about the change. Just then Ronnie arrived and said Alejandro was going to show him where to find the tables for us to use.

Now this is a small thing but illustrates the flat hierarchy that is the basis of Mutual Aid. Rather than Ronnie telling me to come with him, he started up the steps with Alejandro. It was up to me to decide if I should go along. I went with them to the THIRD floor where the tables were. We began to fold up the legs and carry the tables down. Others joined us as we went back up for more. They laughed when I said we were getting our cardio workout.

We set these tables up in the yard of the public school across the street from the church, eventually setting up about 25 of them. Although it had rained earlier we were blessed the rain held off for the rest of the morning.

It’s kind of magical how the food boxes are created. When we begin there might be about a dozen empty boxes. So we put the food that will eventually end up in a box in piles on the table itself. Then as each box of food to be distributed is emptied, that becomes a box to fill with one of the piles of food sitting on the table. Eventually there are usually enough boxes for all the piles of food. In the rare times that hasn’t worked out, plastic bags are used for the remainder.

There are often a few minutes of rest between the arrival of food to be distributed from various sources. We share our stories, getting to know each other better. We’re all wearing masks, so it can take a second to figure out who you’re talking to. You have to be careful about what you share on social media because law enforcement scans for that kind of information.

I met person 1 four or five months ago. He had been otherwise occupied and hadn’t been at the church for some time. But I read about the work he was doing for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. And I’d seen him “like” my photos sometimes. This morning he said he enjoyed the photos of the deer I posted on Facebook yesterday. He introduced me to a young person who wanted to become involved in Mutual Aid. I later heard from someone else, who themselves (person 2) had been arrested at a Des Moines City Council meeting, that person 1 had been arrested, also. And that he had been hurt in the process.

Person 2 said the police were much rougher than they needed to be. She was targeted for arrest because she was videotaping what was going on. When I asked if they took her phone, she told me she had arranged for another person to take it if it looked like she was going to be arrested. So the police didn’t get her phone. Good to plan ahead.

Despite the fact that we needed to totally rearrange our process, we were ready for the cars to come down the line to pick up the food at the designated time of 10 o’clock.

While the food was being distributed, some of us began to clean and fold up the tables, and carry them back up to the third floor of the church.

As I was getting ready to leave, Ronnie asked if the tables had gotten back to their original locations. Just checking that we all had done our part in cleaning up.

I hope this shows how we stay connected through multiple means.

This is how Mutual Aid works. Being able to adapt. Taking your own initiative. Maintaining a flat hierarchy. Sharing stories. Sharing the joy.

Eviction

The failure of the US Congress to act to address the crisis of those who face eviction is a glaring example of our broken political, economic and social justice systems. Politicians who objected to renewal of the moratorium on evictions should have come up with an alternative. But did not. Conservative estimates show between 50,000 and 65,000 people face eviction in Iowa in August (Des Moines Register).

Everyone has the right to food, water and shelter.

This is another example of the importance of Mutual Aid. Another example of not waiting for help from the government. 50,000 evictions cannot be handled by one Mutual Aid group like my Des Moines Mutual Aid group. But Mutual Aid groups in every community would. Think about starting your own Mutual Aid group. In the meantime, please donate here.

Des Moines Mutual Aid

July 25 · Applications have re-opened… but we need your help to keep them that way.
Please donate to the fund so we can continue to provide relief to our neighbors in the form of rent, utilities and more.
DONATE Venmo: venmo.com/desmoines_mutualaid
PayPal: bit.ly/dsmblmrentrelief
APPLYbit.ly/dsmrentrelief

May be a cartoon of text that says 'APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN. DONATE SO WE CAN CONTINUE TO PROVIDE RELIEF TO OUR NEGHBORS. DONATE Venmo: @DesMoines_MutualAid Cash app: $DSMBLMRentRelief Paypal: Ly/DSMBLMRentRelief APPLY MOINES bit.ly/dsmrentrelief RENT RELIEF FUND MOILD' — (18) Des Moines Mutual Aid | Facebook

How to find help if you’re facing eviction
For renters who may get an eviction notice, the first piece of advice experts say is: Stay put.
A tacked-on notice from your landlord does not mean your family must leave your apartment, said Eric Burmeister, executive director of the Polk County Housing Trust Fund. Only a judge can order a notice to vacate. The process can take 30 to 60 days.
Experts say it’s better to call for help before a formal eviction notice is filed with the courts. Many nonprofit organizations can help with finding assistance and negotiating a payment plan with your landlord to avoid a court order.
It’s also important not to skip the eviction hearing. If a renter does, the judge can issue a default judgement in favor of the landlord.
There are several numbers to call for help:
United Way: 211
Iowa Legal Aid: 800-332-0419
Iowa Rent and Utility Assistance Program: iowahousingrecovery.com, 855-300-5885
Polk County rental assistance, IMPACT Community Action Partnership: 515-518-4770
The federal freeze on evictions ends Saturday. Thousands of Iowa renters could be at risk by Ian Richardson and Kim Norvell, Des Moines Register, July 30, 2021

Resist

Resistance is a powerful concept.

As I pray and learn about atrocities and injustices, the courage of resisters in all struggles, through all time, inspire me.

My own first experience with resistance came when I was 18 years old and faced the decision regarding registering for the draft (Selective Service System). The stories of, the example of many Quaker men I knew, helped me immensely to decided to resist the draft. My friend and Quaker mentor, Don Laughlin, collected stories of Quaker resistance: Young Quaker Men Face War and Conscription

It was an act of resistance when we walked and camped along the route of the Dakota Access pipeline, from Des Moines to Fort Dodge, Iowa, for a week in 2018. You can read the many stories, and see the photos of this sacred journey here.
First Nation-Farmer Unity – First Nation peoples and farmers working together (firstnationfarmer.com)

I spent many years resisting other fossil fuel pipelines, including the Keystone XL pipeline. And was peripherally involved with the Wet’suwet’en peoples’ resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Now I am involved with those who are resisting colonial capitalism and white supremacy. As we build Mutual Aid communities. As we work for LANDBACK.

I don’t know what I will write each morning, as I wait in quiet and pray. The following poem triggered this today.

Resist

Brandy Nālani McDougall

^{Qawem ya sha’abi, qawemhum. Resist my people, resist them.
—Dareen Tatour

Hawaiians are still here. We are still creating, still resisting.
—Haunani-Kay Trask}

Stand in rage as wind and current clash
rile lightning and thunder
fire surge and boulder crash

Let the ocean eat and scrape away these walls
Let the sand swallow their fences whole
Let the air between us split the atmosphere

We have no land No country
But we have these bodies these stories
this language of rage left

This resistance is bitter
and tastes like medicine Our lands
replanted in the dark and warm there

We unfurl our tangled roots stretch
to blow salt across
blurred borders of memory

They made themselves
fences and bullets checkpoints
gates and guardposts martial law

They made themselves
hotels and mansions adverse
possession eminent domain and deeds

They made themselves
shine
through the plunder

They say we can never— They say
we will never—because
because they—

and the hills and mountains have been
mined for rock walls the reefs
pillaged for coral floors

They say we can never—
and the deserts and dunes have been
shoveled and taken for their houses and highways—

because we can never— because
the forests have been raided razed
and scorched and we we the wards

refugees houseless present-
absentees recognition refusers exiled
uncivilized disposable natives

protester-activist-terrorist-resisters—
our springs and streams have been
dammed—so they say we can never return

let it go accept this
progress stop living
in the past—

but we make ourselves
strong enough to carry all of our dead
engrave their names in the clouds

We gather to sing whole villages awake
We crouch down to eat rocks like fruit
to hold the dirt the sand in our hands

to fling words
the way fat drops of rain
splatter off tarp or corrugated roofs

We remember the sweetness We rise from the plunder
They say there is no return
they never could really make us leave

“‘Resist’ was inspired by Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour’s courage to stand against the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and ethnic cleansing of her people. In 2015, for the poetic line ‘Qawem ya sha’abi, qawemhum’ (Resist, my people, resist them), she was imprisoned on charges of ‘incitement to violence’ and sentenced to five months in jail and years under house arrest. This poem ‘Resist’ reflects on both the militarized violence and creative decolonial connections between Palestine and Hawaiʻi, which was an independent country prior to the U.S. military-backed overthrow in 1893 and the subsequent illegal annexation to the U.S. in 1898. Our own continued struggle as Kānaka ʻŌiwi includes protecting our lands and waters from U.S. military bases and testing, bombing, dumping, housing, and recreational sites, and protecting our people from related health hazards, poverty, and hopelessness. We will forever resist the destruction of our homelands and how they are being used to test weapons that bring horrific violence to others. I intend ‘Resist’ to be a poem of solidarity for the Palestinian people.”
Brandy Nālani McDougall

Intertwined threads

Writing is a spiritual practice for me. Sitting at the computer, I try to quiet my mind to hear what I should write. In times past a writer would sit in front of a blank page. This morning there are intertwined threads.

There are many reasons news of the remains of Native children profoundly affects me.

My career began with five years in neonatal intensive care. The rest doing research at that children’s hospital. I was blessed to be immersed with children everyday. I attempt to retain childlike qualities. Children are my heroes. I love the idea of children as sacred beings.

In almost every indigenous language of what is now known as the Americas there is a word for children that translates to English as sacred beings. Acknowledging in thoughts, words and actions that our children are sacred beings provides not only the necessary healthy intention and consciousness that will benefit our children; this acknowledgement reminds us as parents to once again be open with our own hearts.
Knowing children as sacred beings brings forth a healthy and healing strength of humility from within us as parents and adults. The youth are our teachers with a profound message for this world. When we as parents and adults acknowledge the Sacredness within ourselves it becomes difficult to not acknowledge this within others – especially our children. We have all been manifested as sacred beings, and although we are able to forget, we are unable to change the truth of what we have been created as, and always will be.
For parents who struggle to see themselves as sacred beings, simply allow your children to remind you of what you’ve forgotten. At birth through their newborn cries the children sing a song to their parents and the world. At this very moment hundreds of sacred beings, answered prayers, messengers of light are manifesting in all cultures and languages. They’re all entering this world singing a song of a sacred contract that can never be broken, only temporarily forgotten. The children’s song is reminding us. Listen…
Raising Sacred Beings, by Anthony Goulet, The Good Men Project. August 29, 2014

One of this morning’s threads relates to brutal honesty. I’ve often thought of the following quote. I haven’t always been but will try to be brutally honest in what follows.

Being brutally honest does not necessarily mean you are correct.

Well, I have to tell you something, and you may not like to hear it. But if you struggle with the art of being frank, you need to hear this. It will make you a better person, a better communicator and a better blogger.
So here it is …
You’re a coward.
If you can’t be brutally honest with people, especially when you know it’s in their best interest, you’re a coward.
You’re not doing anyone a favor by withholding a truth from them, even if it’s difficult for them to hear.
The only person you’re protecting is yourself. Because you’re afraid of the consequences to you.
But it’s not about you.
Being honest is about making sure your audience has the information they need to make good decisions. That includes information they may not like.
THE BRUTALLY HONEST GUIDE TO BEING BRUTALLY HONEST by Josh Tucker, SmartBlogger,Jan 30, 2019

I’ve stepped away from the Quaker community that has supported my spiritual life, my whole life. I’m not certain this is not just an emotional response to the atrocities of forced assimilation. I continue to pray to see if this is a true spiritual leading.

I wonder if I can remain a Quaker.

For the past several years I have been led to opportunities to become friends with a number of Native people. It takes much more than attending conferences or powwows or serving on committees to accomplish this. One opportunity was walking and camping for 94 miles along the path of the Dakota Access pipeline with a small group of native and non-native people. Through experiences like that, I’ve been blessed to come to some understandings through a gentle process of integration. But I am just at the beginning of this journey.

The word En’owkin in the Okanagan language elicits the metaphorical image of liquid being absorbed drop by single drop through the head (mind). It refers to coming to understanding through a gentle process of integration.
Jeanette Armstrong

What follows are generalities. But my understanding, expressed as brutally honestly as I can. When I refer to Quakers I mean white Quakers in the lands called the United States and Canada. That distinction is necessary because much relates to white supremacy.

Indigenous peoples have always lived in balance with nature.
Quakers are not and should immediately do everything possible to stop using fossil fuels.
We should immediately ramp up installation of local renewable energy sources.
Environmental chaos will only worsen. Extremely rapidly.
Indigenous ways are the only way to slow down the impending chaos.
I have grown spiritually from my experiences with Indigenous peoples. In ways I hadn’t as a Quaker.
White Quakers are too integrated into the culture of white supremacy and capitalism.
Friends need to understand how white culture continues to oppress and interfere with our relationships with black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC).
Friends should be physically present in BIPOC communities so healing and reconciliation can occur. To understanding through a gentle process of integration.
Friends should literally be on the front lines of BIPOC actions for justice.
Quakers should reject vertical hierarchies of power. Vertical hierarchies are the only way White supremacy can exist.
An alternative is Mutual Aid which is based upon a flat hierarchy. Quakers should participate in, and create Mutual Aid communities.
Quakers should learn about and participate in Land Back. The model for returning to Indigenous practices for community and stewardship of the land.
Hundreds of thousands of Native children were forcibly taken from their families to institutions of assimilation.
Thousands of children died in those schools, or during their escape.
Quakers were involved in various ways in forced assimilation.
Quakers should discern a response and act on it now. This is urgent. Rapidly increasing numbers of children found is devastating Indigenous communities. Should be devastating to Quakers.

In our way we are always told not to ask for anything. We are always told in our community, as a practice, that when we have to start asking for something, that’s when we’re agreeing that people be irresponsible. Irresponsible in not understanding what we’re needing, irresponsible in not seeing what’s needed, and irresponsible in not having moved our resources and our actions to make sure that need isn’t there, because this is the responsibility that we, and the people that surround us, mutually bear. So in our community we cannot go to a person and say, “I want you to do this for me.” All we can do is clarify for them what is happening and what the consequences are for our family, or for our community, or for the land. We must clarify for them what needs to be done and how it needs to be done, and then it is up to them and if they fall short of that responsibility, at some point they will face the same need themselves.
Indigenous Knowledge and Gift Giving by Jeanette Armstrong, syndicated from gift-economy.com, Jul 13, 2021

The website LANDBack Friends has many resources to help Quakers learn more about, and how to do these things. https://landbackfriends.com/

I have tried to clarify for Quakers what needs to be done and how it needs to be done, and then it is up to them and if they fall short of that responsibility, at some point they will face the same need themselves.

I thought of this photo I took yesterday when I read coming to understanding through a gentle process of integration in the quote above. The image was basically black, but by the gentle process of editing, the shapes and rainbows of colors emerged.

Gentile process of integration. Jeff Kisling

Caught in a trap

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.
Albert Einstein

I don’t know how many times I’ve read this quote. I would think, that sounds good, and then move on. That’s the very thing I am asking you to not do. We hear so many people talking about so many things, so many crises, we end up tuning them out. Basically give up. Continue living as best we can. Don’t change ourselves or the world.

Please don’t just move on.

We cannot afford not to change. We will not survive if we do not change now.

We are witnessing the collapse of so many systems. Our environment, political and economic systems, social safety nets, healthcare and education. Many are dealing with broken families, mental and physical health problems, addiction, not finding a faith community or spiritual support.

Here’s the thing: These reflections — these emergencies — are all connected. The colonial mindset that claimed a God-given right to steal children, land and resources was the same logic that built an economy based on limitless extraction and consumption, creating the climate catastrophe.
It’s urgent that we see these connections clearly. Because we need transformative change in this country, and we need to get to work on it immediately.
Here’s how it might start: For more than 150 years, settlers have taken the riches of this stolen land and turned them into money. In the 21st century, we simply can no longer afford that 19th-century thinking. We need to build a new economy in a hurry.
That means we need a fundamental change in the values that govern our society.
Fires, graves and reflections on a new story for Canada By Avi Lewis, Canada’s National Observer, July 9th 2021

https://twitter.com/quakers_seekers/status/1413492040780984321?s=20

I know so many well intentioned people. And my heart breaks every time I fail to get them to understand they are caught in a trap. As long as they think and work in the context of current systems, nothing new can happen. Remaining in the systems perpetuates those systems.

This is a diagram I’ve been working on to conceptualize current systems and alternatives. We have to reject capitalism, and move to Mutual Aid, LANDBACK, abolition of police and prisons, and renewable energy now. These things are discussed in detail on the new website, LANDBack Friends. https://landbackfriends.com/

Change is difficult, scary. But I imagine you find the situation we are in now frightening. So many people have lost their idealism. Do you remember how that felt? To be searching for who you are? Believe you could change the world?

This is the time to begin again to search for who you are. Then you will change the world.

Tensions between Native peoples and Christian religions

There is growing sorrow and anger in Indigenous communities now. Related to the awful and expanding discoveries of the remains of children, thousands of them, found on the grounds of former Native residential schools.

A good friend told me he is trying to not let rage get in the way of his mourning. I know his son, and can’t imagine the conversations they might have had about this news.

It is so traumatic to imagine the terror of the children, who had to know about at least some of these deaths at their school. To have been abused in so many ways. Punished if they spoke their language. Not even be allowed their practices that might give comfort. Alone, isolated from their families. Knowing they could die themselves.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced Tuesday that she is launching the Federal Indian Boarding School Truth Initiative, a first-of-its-kind comprehensive review of the “devastating history” of the U.S. government’s policy of forcing Native American children into boarding schools for assimilation into white culture.
Deb Haaland Launches Review of ‘Devastating’ Native American Boarding Schools. The Interior Department probe will identify Indigenous children who died at schools the U.S. government forced them into for assimilation into white culture By Jennifer Bendery, HuffPost, June 22, 2021

Quakers were involved in some of these schools. Not to say they mistreated the children. But the concept of trying to assimilate Native children into white culture is by definition cultural genocide.

What is our accountability today?

From our twenty-first-century vantage point, we know (or can learn) how Native people suffered and continue to suffer the consequences of actions that Friends committed 150 ago with the best of intentions. Can we hold those good intentions tenderly in one hand, and in the other hold the anguish, fear, loss, alienation, and despair borne by generations of Native Americans?
Native organizations are not asking us to judge our Quaker ancestors. They are asking, “Who are Friends today? Knowing what we know now, will Quakers join us in honest dialogue? Will they acknowledge the harm that was done? Will they seek ways to contribute toward healing processes that are desperately needed in Native communities?” These are my questions, too.
Quaker Indian Boarding Schools. Facing Our History and Ourselves By Paula Palmer, Friends Journal, October 1, 2016

I belong to the spiritual communities of Quakers and of my Native friends. There is great tension between these communities. The article below, “why we’re burning Bibles” describes a Native view of Christian religions. This was written by the Great Plains Action Society, where I have many friends. I am sure some Friends will object to these ideas. But we don’t have the right to pass judgement.

This is a confusing time for me. I’ve been learning and telling others about the Native boarding schools for years. I have spoken about this and apologized to each of my Native friends for the Quaker involvement in the residential schools.

Below is an Epistle to Friends Regarding Community, Mutual Aid and LANDBACK in which I write more about these things. My Native friends tell me the best way I can help them is by teaching others about the concepts of LANDBACK. So I’ve recently created the website LANDBACK Friends. There is a lot of information about the Native boarding schools there.

When I began to learn of the verification of the remains of Native children at those schools, I wondered how that might affect how Native peoples view Quakers, view me now. I am touched by them telling me I am still welcome to work with them.

Native organizations are not asking us to judge our Quaker ancestors. They are asking, “Who are Friends today? Knowing what we know now, will Quakers join us in honest dialogue? Will they acknowledge the harm that was done? Will they seek ways to contribute toward healing processes that are desperately needed in Native communities?”
Paula Palmer

Why We’re Burning Bibles

Stand with First Nations Peoples on Cancel KKKanada Day and burn your bibles for the rape, torture, and murder of Indigenous children. Use #bibleburner and post your video or pic online or on the event page.

In the wake of over 1300 unmarked/mass graves that have recently been uncovered on reservations such as the Cowessess and Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nations in Canada, we demand truth, justice, and healing from genocidal policy set forth by the US and Canada that allowed Christian clergy to neglect, rape, torture, and murder Indigenous children. We also demand redress and reparations to the fullest extent as we know that there are thousands of Indigenous children also buried here in the US—and the search hasn’t even begun.

For now, we will start by expelling the codified christian text that is the blueprint behind our genocide. The Christian bible has proven to be the deadliest of all human-made weapons. It has been the permission slip for all of the atrocities following colonization. The cost of building the global Christian Empire is an ongoing and immeasurable loss that we can never truly have a full accounting for, as the newest discovered mass graves of our relatives painfully remind us today.

As we mourn the loss of our loved ones and relatives, murdered and discarded after being violently stolen from us, we don’t forget the who or the why. For over 100 years the churches have used these schools to destroy us, to “kill the indian to save the man”.

This has never been a secret.

This is why we reject the entire premise of the Christian faith and its supportive texts. The Bible remains a supportive tool to persecute Indigenous people. Rejecting this tool is vital to the continuation of supporting Indigenous people and our livelihood. We ask our supporters to join us in burning the Bible as an act of solidarity and to send a message to Christian faiths that we will no longer allow this tool to exist in our spaces.

Why We’re Burning Bibles

#everychildmatters
#bibleburner

An Epistle to Friends Regarding Community, Mutual Aid and LANDBACK

Dear Friends,

The measure of a community is how the needs of its people are met. No one should go hungry, or without shelter or healthcare. Yet in this country known as the United States millions struggle to survive. The capitalist economic system creates hunger, houselessness, illness that is preventable, and despair. A system that requires money for goods and services denies basic needs to anyone who does not have money. Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) are disproportionately affected. Systemic racism. The capitalist system that supports the white materialistic lifestyle is built on stolen land and genocide of Indigenous peoples, and the labor of those who were enslaved in the past or are forced to live on poverty wages today.

Capitalism is revealed as an unjust, untenable system, when there is plenty of food in the grocery stores, but men, women and children are going hungry, living on the streets outside. White supremacy violently enforces the will of wealthy white people on the rest of us.

It has become clear to some of us who are called Friends that the colonial capitalist economic system and white supremacy are contrary to the Spirit and we must find a better way. We conscientiously object to and resist capitalism and white supremacy.

capitalism has violated the communities of marginalized folks. capitalism is about the value of people, property and the people who own property. those who have wealth and property control the decisions that are made. the government comes second to capitalism when it comes to power.

in the name of liberation, capitalism must be reversed and dismantled. meaning that capitalistic practices must be reprogrammed with mutual aid practices.
Des Moines Black Liberation Movement

Mutual Aid

How do we resist? We rebuild our communities in ways not based upon money. Such communities thrive all over the world. Indigenous peoples have always lived this way. Generations of white people once did so in this country. Mutual Aid is a framework that can help us do this today.

The concept of Mutual Aid is simple to explain but can result in transformative change. Mutual Aid involves everyone coming together to find a solution for problems we all face. This is a radical departure from “us” helping “them”. Instead, we all work together to find and implement solutions. To work together means we must be physically present with each other. Mutual Aid cannot be done by committee or donations. We build Beloved communities as we get to know each other. Build solidarity. An important part of Mutual Aid is creating these networks of people who know and trust each other. When new challenges arise, these networks are in place, ready to meet them.

Another important part of Mutual Aid is the transformation of those involved. This means both those who are providing help, and those receiving it.

With Mutual Aid, people learn to live in a community where there is no vertical hierarchy. A community where everyone has a voice. A model that results in enthusiastic participation. A model that makes the vertical hierarchy required for white supremacy impossible.

Commonly there are several Mutual Aid projects in a community. The initial projects usually relate to survival needs. One might be a food giveaway. Another helping those who need shelter. Many Mutual Aid groups often have a bail fund, to support those arrested for agitating for change. And accompany those arrested when they go to court.

LANDBACK

The other component necessary to move away from colonial capitalism and white supremacy is LANDBACK.

But the idea of “landback” — returning land to the stewardship of Indigenous peoples — has existed in different forms since colonial governments seized it in the first place. “Any time an Indigenous person or nation has pushed back against the oppressive state, they are exercising some form of landback,” says Nickita Longman, a community organizer from George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The movement goes beyond the transfer of deeds to include respecting Indigenous rights, preserving languages and traditions, and ensuring food sovereignty, housing, and clean air and water. Above all, it is a rallying cry for dismantling white supremacy and the harms of capitalism.

Returning the Land. Four Indigenous leaders share insights about the growing landback movement and what it means for the planet, by Claire Elise Thompson, Grist, February 25, 2020

What will Friends do?

It matters little what people say they believe when their actions are inconsistent with their words. Thus, we Friends may say there should not be hunger and poverty, but as long as Friends continue to collaborate in a system that leaves many without basic necessities and violently enforces white supremacy, our example will fail to speak to mankind.

Let our lives speak for our convictions. Let our lives show that we oppose the capitalist system and white supremacy, and the damages that result. We can engage in efforts, such as Mutual Aid and LANDBACK, to build Beloved community. To reach out to our neighbors to join us.

We must begin by changing our own lives if we hope to make a real testimony for peace and justice.

We remain, in love of the Spirit, your Friends and sisters and brothers.

Support the BIPOC struggle in Iowa

People ask me how they can support local oppressed communities. Showing up tomorrow is a great way to do so. Organizers “would love to see a mass turnout to support the BIPOC struggle in Iowa”.

Tomorrow, July 4, 1-3 pm, an event I previously wrote about will take place at the Iowa State Capitol. Stop Whitewashing Genocide & Slavery!!!

Additional organizations are supporting the event, including my Des Moines Mutual Aid group. Again this morning I helped with the food giveaway. A friend and I talked a little about this event as we put together boxes of food.

On July 4th, stand with Great Plains Action Society, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Ní Btháska Stand Collective, Des Moines Black Liberation Movement, Humanize My Hoodie, Revolutionary Action Party, Quad Cities Interfaith, Iowa Coalition for Collective Change, and Des Moines Mutual Aid!

Indigenous Led | Great Plains Action Society I United States

Bring Back Critical Race Theory & Remove Monuments to White Supremacy!

Some additional topics have come up related to new legislation.

Demand that the new law, House File 802, which goes into effect July 1 be repealed. The legislation targets teaching critical race theory and other concepts in government diversity training and classroom curriculum.

Demand that Iowa legislators do their job and follow their own laws by abolishing monuments to white supremacy, which depict hate speech and promote discrimination. Kim Reynolds herself has stated that “Critical Race Theory is about labels and stereotypes, not education. It teaches kids that we should judge others based on race, gender, or sexual identity, rather than the content of someone’s character.” If this is the case, then statues depicting friendly “westward expansion”, busts of Columbus, and murals depicting manifest destiny are stereotyping European setter invaders and not depicting the true nature of their character. Columbus was a genocidal, rapist, slave trader, and Indians were forced to give up their land–it was not friendly.

Can’t stop, won’t stop.
Don’t be a bystander to white supremacy.
#SmashWhiteSupremacy

Organizers would love to see a mass turnout to support the BIPOC struggle in Iowa

Join us on “Fourth of He Lies” to demand that the Iowa legislators remove whitewashed monuments to white supremacy in Iowa. Organizers will present a petition demanding that all racist, misogynistic, homo/transphobic, whitewashed historical depictions be removed from all state grounds and facilities. These monuments fall into the realm of hate propaganda and make folks feel unwelcome in public spaces. So, we need legislation that removes all monuments, murals, and depictions of white supremacist persons, acts, and ideologies from all Iowa state grounds and state-funded institutions.

In response to police brutality and racial injustice, monuments to white supremacy are being removed all over the country but People of the World Majority are being forced to put their safety on the line to carry out this long-overdue purge. Folks have been shot, arrested, and targeted. We are an Indigenous-led coalition who do not want any more People of the World Majority to put their bodies on the line so this is a permitted event with the intent of making the state–the colonizers–do their job.

To start, we insist that the following statues and mural be removed from the Iowa State Capitol Building and grounds.

On the West Lawn, there is a 15-foot bronze statue on a large pedestal that stands in front of the Iowa State Capitol Building. According to the Iowa State Government website, the statue depicts “The Pioneer of the former territory, a group consisting of father and son guided by a friendly Indian in search of a home. The pioneer depicted was to be hardy, capable of overcoming the hardships of territorial days to make Iowa his home.” The father and son settler invaders are standing tall and proud, looking west, as the “friendly Indian” sits behind them in a less powerful, dejected position.

Inside the capitol is a piece that overwhelmingly encompasses this sentiment called the Westward Mural, which covers a massive wall. The artist writes that “The main idea of the picture is symbolical presentation of the Pioneers led by the spirits of Civilization and Enlightenment to the conquest by cultivation of the Great West.” He also speaks about overcoming the wilderness with plowed fields–as if the current Indigenous inhabitants, such as the Ioway and the Meskwaki, had not already created capable and efficient land management systems.

On the South Lawn, there is a Christopher Columbus Monument that was celebrated in 1938 by five thousand people who showed up for the dedication of the statue on Columbus Day. The statue was put up just a couple years after the Columbus Club of Iowa successfully lobbied to have Walker Park renamed to Columbus Park and have a Columbus monument placed there.

*This is a peaceful event led by Indigenous Folx. Please do not take actions that will put Brown and Black folx in jeopardy

Replanning Human Life

A common theme of my thinking, praying and writing, is the fundamental injustice, evil, of capitalism. What is the alternative?

My experiences with the Kheprw Institute (KI) in Indianapolis showed me how a community can not only exist, but thrive, with practically no money. I saw this as an example of Beloved community. With my current work in Mutual Aid, I can now see KI is also a Mutual Aid community.

I now see the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March I was blessed to be part of could be seen as creating a Mutual Aid community. We walked, camped and shared stories for the eight days it took for our sacred journey. Other than buying food prior to the start of the March, we didn’t need money for anything. Being together, often in trying circumstances like rain and heat, began the process of getting to know and trust each other. Which is the foundation of Mutual Aid. Although we separated geographically after that journey, we have worked together in many ways since.

I’m excited to be part of the Des Moines Mutual Aid community for many reasons. It is a Beloved community. I’ve made many good friends, and they are teaching me about Mutual Aid.

Now I understand Mutual Aid is what should replace capitalism. But that has led to some frustration. I tell anyone who will listen Mutual Aid is the path forward. I’m having trouble convincing those living in the capitalist system why they should work for alternatives. To build Mutual Aid communities where they are.

Mutual Aid is premised on people in the community being together, physically. It is not a difficult process. The hurdle is getting people to decide they want to do this, then begin. I was fortunate to find a Mutual Aid community already in existence.

Another part of the process is learning how to live in a community with a flat, or horizontal structure. Not the vertical hierarch we are used to living in.

Finding and building alternatives to capitalism will soon no longer be a choice. The system is already breaking down.

I’m glad to have found the article cited below, based on the work of Jeremy Rifkin, an American economist, social theorist, and activist.

Rifkin’s latest book is “The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth.” After predicting the collapse of the current fossil-fuel regime, he formulates a new economic model and guides readers in the construction of a post-carbon world.

But, where to begin? Great economic paradigm shifts in history can point us in the right direction when replanning human life on Earth.
Three defining technologies have emerged and converged simultaneously, changing the way society manages, powers, and moves its socioeconomic life.
The first is communication, which helps us bring our species together and organize ourselves.
The second is energy, which powers our social life, allowing us to continue living together on this planet.
And the last is mobility, which offers us a way of logistically organizing ourselves.
Together, these three pillars form our infrastructure, functioning much like cells in a living organism.
What Comes After Capitalism? Forget communism, socialism, and capitalism — the days ahead are green by Vitoria Nunes, medium.com, June 8, 2021

Rifkin says there have been two industrial revolutions that demonstrate these ideas. The first was led by the British. Two new methods of communication were steam powered printing and the telegraph system. Coal was the energy source, and steam driven locomotives for mobility.

The second industrial revolution took place in the United States. The telephone, radio and television became forms of communication. Texas oil the energy source. And Henry Ford revolutionized transportation with the internal combustion engine.

Incidentally, these paradigm shifts alter our economic model, and that’s how capitalism took center stage. Previous industrial revolutions centered around fossil fuels, the most expensive to extract, ship, and refine (along with uranium). Pre-existing monarchic systems wouldn’t have been able to finance these processes. Enter the capitalist stockholder corporation, characterized by wealthy players’ investments in coal, gas, and oil.
From the start, industrialization was engineered to be a centralized, top-down system. And other industries followed, bolstering the absurd levels of wealth concentration we can all witness these days.
Vitoria Nunes

A third revolution is emerging now.

Engineered differently from the first two, a third industrial revolution is on the rise. A new era of enlightenment is upon us, as more people begin to realize that together we are much more agile than the vertical organizations that have been seeking world domination.
Digital communication, energy, and mobility are converging to form yet another paradigm shift, a true internet of things. Millions of people — in the form of SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises), communities, farm associations, and cooperatives — are already consuming energy from the wind and sun and sharing it on a renewable energy internet. Solar- and wind-powered vehicles are emerging on a digitized mobility internet and are predicted to be autonomous in the next decade.
The same digital technology we use for communicating with each other will become the cornerstone of how we power and move our social life in just a few years. And it will change our economic system, allowing for the emergence of one that is compatible with a new infrastructure.
As marginal costs drop, thanks to more efficient, costless energy consumption, the sharing economy will gain new strength, taking us into a world that is in equilibrium with the finite natural resources the Earth has to offer.
None of this is sci-fi; the cost of solar and wind power just dipped below the cost of every other energy we use (nuclear, coal, and oil), giving power to the people.
Vitoria Nunes

The first two industrial revolutions were built with centralized, top down systems.

This third revolution will be built with Mutual Aid concepts. Local communities fight climate change locally.

Central governments don’t have the capacity to handle a task of this magnitude. Power originates from local regions; with every community taking responsibility for its biosphere.
By recruiting everyone — from large institutions and universities to high schools and local businesses— to join in, we can come up with the roadmap to scale up our local infrastructure. We must step to the floor and get this done. We must be fearless, turn to our communities, run for political assemblies, and create the infrastructure to make it happen. There’s no other way of getting it done.
Vitoria Nunes

This article was based on a conference Jeremy Rifkin held at Sciences Po in October 2019. To view the full lecture, click here.

Proximity and perspective

This is likely to be a kind of stream of consciousness. Exploring proximity of distance, of time, proximity to the Spirit. How proximity changes our perspective.

I’m floundering. I seem to have become unmoored from the Quaker faith community I was raised in and chose to remain part of my entire life.

Throughout my life there have been tensions between us. One related to the profligate use of fossil fuels. I had hoped when I was led to live without a car, other Friends might also. Had hoped other Friends would be draft resisters. Find ways to join communities of color. Ways to be accountable for settling on Native lands. For participating in the cultural genocide of institutions of forced assimilation.

There have been some Friends who have done some of those things.

A number of things contribute to my current condition. One is realizing the inherent racism, evil of the colonial capitalist economic system. How have we become immune to the hunger, houselessness, disease and despair of millions of people? To endless wars? To the utter devastation of Mother Earth? All predicated on capitalism and white supremacy.

The vast majority of Quakers in the United States are white and relatively well off financially. Benefactors of capitalism and white dominant culture. Many avoid looking at the evils of the capitalist economic system they/we live in. Which, I would contend, is why we don’t have a diverse membership. Why many of us have trouble comprehending racism and privilege.

My perspective has radically changed over the past decade. First when I was blessed to become part of the Kheprw Institute community in Indianapolis. A black youth mentoring and empowerment community. I was mentored myself in the process. I learned there is no substitute for spending a great deal of time in oppressed communities. Justice work is founded on relationships. Without this development of friendships, no meaningful work can be done. This is the proximity of physical distance.

Over the past four years I have been similarly blessed to build relationships, friendships with Native people in Iowa. This was another example of the proximity of physical distance, which was the intention of the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March I am profoundly grateful to have been part of. For a week in September, 2018, a small group of about 15 Native and 15 non-native folks walked together, and camped along the route of the Dakota Access pipeline. Walking down rural gravel roads, we shared our stories with each other. Began to build friendships and trust. Since then, there have been numerous occasions when we worked together.

For over a year now I have been so grateful to become part of Des Moines Mutual Aid. My good friend Ronnie James, an Indigenous organizer with more than twenty years of experience, has been generously, patiently mentoring me about Mutual Aid and activism in Iowa. I spend several hours every Saturday morning with a very diverse group of friends as we put together and distribute boxes of food for those in need. Another example of proximity of distance. Over these times together we share our stories. Get to meet family members. Share our joy of being with each other. My perspective relative to Quakers and black, indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) has changed significantly as a result.

What has brought about my crisis of connection with Quakers has been the recent verification of the remains of Native children at residential schools in Canada. Verification because Indigenous peoples knew children were buried there.

A problem for me was Quaker involvement in some of these schools in the land called the United States. I doubt those Friends harmed the children physically. But looking back from our perspective today, grievous harm was done by forceful attempts to assimilate the children into white culture.

I knew I could not have honest relationships with my Native friends if this wasn’t brought up. So I did. Those stories are for another time.

There are Quakers and many others who contend this was done in the past. Not something that needs to be dealt with today. Not a close proximity of time.

But that is not true. Some of those schools were still in operation until around the 1970’s. And the traumas that occurred at these residential schools have been passed from generation to generation. A close proximity of time. Native peoples suffering now.

Some have suggested we aren’t accountable because there were not residential schools close to us geographically. Proximity of distance.

More what I meant by the proximity of distance relates to physical presence. Because I am often in the presence of my Native friends, I see the great pain this latest news of the Native children has caused. This totally informs my perspective.

I don’t know how often my Native friends think about it, but I imagine our conversations about Quaker involvement come to mind.

There are calls now to look for children’s remains at all the residential schools. They will undoubtedly be found. Very likely found at schools Quakers were involved with. The numbers are already staggering, with over 800 children found at just two schools. Heightening tensions between Native and non-native peoples.

So there is proximity of time. Here and now. For some Quakers there is also proximity of distance. In various ways some of us are physically in touch with Native people. Close in terms of relationships with each other.

Don’t be a bystander to white supremacy
Christine Nobiss

I know I am fortunate, and many other Friends don’t have such relationships. That needs to change.

There are several reasons I have, hopefully temporarily, created distance from Friends. Many don’t acknowledge our responsibilities in this tragic history. Contend we don’t have accountability because these schools operated in the past. Don’t feel a proximity of time. Don’t realize the depths of the pain of Native peoples, because these Friends don’t have physical proximity.

So how can Friends find ways to be present with Native people? One way is to show up for Native gatherings. One such opportunity will be this July 4th, 2021, 1 – 3 pm. West terrace Iowa State Capitol. Stop Whitewashing Genocide & Slavery!!! Bring Back Critical Race Theory & Remove Monuments to White Supremacy in Iowa!

My friend Christine Nobiss is asking for a large turnout to support the removal of such statues in Iowa. She writes, “Don’t be a bystander to white supremacy. Fight back!” For more information: Stop Whitewashing Genocide and Slavery

I pray for proximity of the Spirit for all of us. Extremely trying days lie ahead of us. There will be an increasingly desperate need for Quakers learn about all this. So we will be prepared for what the Spirit will ask of us.

The intention of the website, LANDBACK Friends, is to help us learn and share about Quakers and Native peoples, about the Native boarding schools. Learn about the concepts of LANDBACK and Mutual Aid. LANDBACK Friends

Space between stories, worlds

I’ve been broken by the latest calamity, the verification of the remains of 215 Native children on the grounds of what was a residential school in British Columbia. More tragic is knowing hundreds of other Indigenous children died, or were killed, in these institutions of forced assimilation in the lands called Canada and the United States.

I’ve known about forced assimilation for years. But this is raw, because I see how devastated my Native friends are. And I know Quakers were involved in some of these institutions.

The trauma for Native families has been passed from generation to generation. Some of my Native friends have shared how this affects them and their families today. The news has re-opened deep wounds in Native communities. Many have been triggered by this atrocity. One of my Native friends wrote that she was NOT OK. Another told me, “I’m trying not to be enraged in my mourning.”
[see: Time for a Reset]

I’m deeply troubled. I feel caught between my Native relatives and my Quaker community. To the extent that I’ve said I need to “step away” from my involvement with Quakers for a time. Even though I’m not sure what that means, or what will allow me to return.

What I am not getting Friends to see is capitalism is the root of the problem, for reasons I’ve explained in detail elsewhere.
[See: capitalism | Quakers, social justice and revolution (jeffkisling.com) ]

It is frustrating to know all the work, the good intentions of Friends and others, will not lead to needed solutions as long as that work is done within the context of capitalism. [See the diagram below]

What it would take for me to return to Quaker justice work would be for Quakers to see capitalism must be abandoned. And to actively search for alternatives.

I’ve tried to explain this in An Epistle to Friends Regarding Community, Mutual Aid and LANDBACK. If you are so led, you are invited to sign the letter.

We do not have a new story yet. Each of us is aware of some of its threads, for example in most of the things we call alternative, holistic, or ecological today. Here and there we see patterns, designs, emerging parts of the fabric. But the new mythos has not yet formed.

We will abide for a time in the “space between stories.” It is a very precious — some might say sacred — time. Then we are in touch with the real. Each disaster lays bare the reality underneath our stories. The terror of a child, the grief of a mother, the honesty of not knowing why. In such moments our dormant humanity awakens as we come to each other’s aid, human to human, and learn who we are.

That’s what keeps happening every time there is a calamity before the old beliefs, ideologies, and politics take over again. Now the calamities and contradictions are coming so fast that the story has not enough time to recover. Such is the birth process of a new story.

The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, Charles Eisenstein

I am in that very precious, sacred time Charles Eisenstein describes. Abiding in the “space between stories”. The teachings of my Native friends have awakened the honesty of not knowing why.

I invite you to be open to new ways of being, such as LANDBACK and Mutual Aid. And pray we can hold onto the space between stories before the old beliefs, ideologies, and politics take over again. There is an urgency to this.

It is instructive that Eisenstein is expressing the concept of Mutual Aid when he writes “in such moments our dormant humanity awakens as we come to each other’s aid, human to human, and learn who we are.“

What we have is each other. We can and need to take care of each other. We may have limited power on the political stage, a stage they built, but we have the power of numbers.
Those numbers represent unlimited amounts of talents and skills each community can utilize to replace the systems that fail us. The recent past shows us that mutual aid is not only a tool of survival, but also a tool of revolution. The more we take care of each other, the less they can fracture a community with their ways of war.
Once we envision that world our ancestors want for us, finding our role is natural.
My friend and mentor Ronnie James, The Police State and Why We Must Resist

Friends express this as seeking what the Inner Light is asking of us.

I urge us to discern whether there are circumscribed limits we might not be aware of, that hold us back from venturing into a new story.

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Resist

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An Epistle to Friends Regarding Community, Mutual Aid and LANDBACK

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Bring Back Critical Race Theory & Remove Monuments to White Supremacy!

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