>> Quaker Eco-Justice, from page 2

Our opportunity: join the class struggle and
open the space for democracy and environmental sanity.

Oppressive systems are stifling. The U.S. right-wing propaganda plays on our people’s yearning for freedom. Freedom here is in short supply, unless by freedom you mean the variety of cereals on supermarket shelves. Social mobility is less in the capitalist U.S. than in the social democratic countries of Europe. U.S. Army recruiting is doing well these days; for so many people, there appears to be no other way out. Doors are closing. For many of us, including some Friends in our Meetings, life is getting tight.

Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT—pronounced “Equate”) is looking for an experience of abundance: the renewal of joy in struggle, the rediscovery of community, the lived experience of grace. We sing about laying our burden down by the riverside. We want to open space for ourselves at the same time as we open space for society.

In 2010 some Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Friends decided to end their frustration with non-action and create a new organization. Their sense of urgency about climate change led them to reclaim the radical Quaker heritage of nonviolent direct action. They believed they needed a new group to act boldly in community.⁶

In class terms, EQAT opens the space by reaching outside the conditioning that holds Quakers back. Brought up owning class? Great—bring the gifts (vision, big picture, aesthetics) often cultivated in the owning class, and let go of the isolation and need to control. Brought up middle class? Great—bring the gifts (optimism about making an individual difference, process skills, articulateness) and let go of both the obsession to fit in and conflict aversion. Brought up working class? Great—bring the gifts (directness, passion and willingness to fight) and let go of the deference to “superiors” and the old label of “ignorant.”⁷

To Friends and others from whatever class, experience abundance in your group by reaching across class lines so you maximize the gifts you need to be successful in the work for eco-justice. Just as Norway would still be stuck in poverty, inequality, and terrible environmental policies if it had been up to the Norwegian middle class, Quakers who stay in their middle class bubble guarantee the ineffectiveness of which they complain.

Sociologist Betsy Leondar-Wright’s study of U.S. social movements has shown that the more successful ones have been working-middle class coalitions; the less successful ones were single-class.⁸ One of the joys for middle class activists can be un-learning stereotypes imposed on us by class culture. Who was in the demographic most opposed to the Vietnam War? People who didn’t graduate from high school! Most college grads were very slow to figure out that the Vietnam War was wrong. What was the first mass membership organization to demand that the U.S. troops come home from Iraq? The AFL-CIO.⁹

Such facts raise the question, “But why do blue collar people make such a fuss about flags and patriotic bumper stickers when a new war starts?” The answer is that working class culture supports more active expression of one’s beliefs. By contrast, middle class culture supports fitting in, being restrained. It was hard for nurses and teachers historically, to form unions, because they didn’t want to appear “unprofessional” in the eyes of the world, since “professional” is performed by appearing smooth and not making waves.¹⁰

Even with the cliff edge of climate change staring middle class environmentalists in the face, most are reluctant to return to the strategy used in their biggest U.S. victory, which they won against all odds, the 1970s nonviolent direct action campaign against nuclear power.¹¹

The cultural differences between middle class and working class people often keep us apart, but already there are guidebooks that help us to learn to work together. Betsy Leondar-Wright’s book is abundant with quotes and anecdotes. Linda Stout comes from many generations of Quakers and now leads the organization, Spirit in Action. Her book Bridging the Class Divide, is inspiring.¹²

Early Friends loved to open space to make room for Spirit, and they modeled how to accomplish the impossible when they won their campaign against the religious intolerance of theocratic, Puritan Massachusetts.¹³ 18th century British Friends updated campaign technology to accomplish another impossible task: ending the slave trade on which an Empire appeared to depend.¹⁴ How could either of those victories have been won without the power that is mobilized through a nonviolent direct action campaign?

Today’s eco-justice Friends also face an “impossible” challenge. EQAT therefore turns to a strategic model that seems most promising, based on its track record—the nonviolent direct action campaign.

EQAT’s first campaign is Bank Like Appalachia Matters! (BLAM!), focusing initially on mountaintop-removal coal mining. It was carefully chosen in light of our strengths and weaknesses:

• EQAT is new. Allies are eager to help and teach us.
• We’re small. The issue is well defined and on its way to winning, so our increment might put the struggle over the top.
• We’re Quakers. A “Quaker bank,” based in our region, is a major funder of mountaintop removal in Appalachia, despite the bank’s branding as “a green bank.”
• We’re ready to fight. There’s a historic Quaker connection to Appalachia and now the Appalachian people are being hurt and killed by Big Coal. They need that legacy of Quaker nonviolent direct action.
• After seven months of campaigning, EQAT won a victory: PNC Bank promised to restrict its loans for mountaintop removal coal mining, and acknowledged that it did so under public pressure. EQAT worked with other important allies of the Appalachian people, especially Rainforest Action Network (RAN), and Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping.

In its first campaign Earth Quaker Action Team addresses class strategically: acting in solidarity with Appalachian working class families and targeting a bank rather than political officials. Middle class conditioning encourages loyalty to the super-rich and, therefore, a wish to reserve accountability to politicians, workers, and consumers—anyone but the most powerful. This strategy based on nonviolent direct action pushes middle class EQAT members out of their conflict-averse conditioning.

EQAT and the practice of Friends’ testimonies

In the course of the late-twentieth century Friends have developed some habits that are dysfunctional. EQAT is experimenting with acting outside those habits, which are probably products of class conditioning rather than leadings of the spirit. Some of these habits are:

Consumerism—going to hear a speaker on ecology and then telling oneself that one has done environmental action this week. For the most part, EQAT refuses invitations to give presentations, to avoid scratching Friends’ consumerist itch.