The Mormon Worker - Issue 3 - Nov 07

“I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves” – joseph smith
THE
Mormon Worker
Issue 3 September 2007
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Don’t Torture in My Name
By Josh Madson
■ Don’t Torture in My Name By Josh Madson
■ Racism, Violence, and the United States,
On September 13, 2003, Alyssa Peterson tragically ended
Part 1: The Prison System By Spencer Kingman her life. The third female soldier to die in Iraq since the
■ Space Technology or Social Progress? By Bruce K. Gagnon invasion, Alyssa was a devout Mormon who had served
■ The Unattained Enlightenment By Gregory VanWagenen a mission in the Netherlands. Shortly after her religious
■ Palestinian / Israeli Conflict: A Cooperative Effort service, Alyssa volunteered to serve in the military. She
By Abdullah Mulhimone
■ The Zion/Babylon Dualism in Mormonism was adept at learning languages and was sent to Arabic
and Anarchism By Jason Brown training school. Alyssa later volunteered to go to Iraq in
■ The Fascist Roots of Corporate America place of another who did not want to go.
(And the Bush Family) By Stephen Wellington It was about this time in a conference room at the Pen-
■ The Iraqi Resistance, Al-Qaeda, and US Propaganda
By William Van Wagenen tagon that Donald Rumsfeld, frustrated from a lack of good
■ Wendell Berry’s “Gift of a Good Life” By Ron Madson intel, ordered the military to “gitmo-ize the situation" in
■ Lakotah Indians Declare Independence from Abu Ghraib and Iraq. Results of which we have all seen in
the United States of America By Jason Brown the photos and videos that emerged from Abu Ghraib. It
■ Peter Chelčický (c. 1390 – c. 1460)
By Kristen Kinjo-Bushman
was in this situation that Alyssa Peterson, then serving in
■ Commonwealth By Matthew Thomas Tal-Afar, Iraq, found herself shortly before her death. We
■ A Love Poem from Iraq By Jack Dawkins know that “Peterson objected to the interrogation tech-
■ Contributors
■ Navigation INDEX FULL SCREEN ►
The Mormon Worker Don't Torture in My Name 2
niques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after

only two nights working in the unit known as the cage.
A Note to Our Readers
Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe
The Mormon Worker is an independent newspaper/jour- the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say
nal devoted to Mormonism and radical politics. It is pub-
all records of those techniques have now been destroyed.
lished by members of the LDS Church. The paper is mod-
eled after the legendary Catholic Worker which has been ..." After a confrontation with superiors, she was put on
in publication for over seventy years. suicide watch and assigned to guard a gate. Alyssa “avoided
The primary objective of The Mormon Worker is to mean- eating with her interrogation team and spent time read-
ingfully connect core ideas of Mormon theology with a ing at her desk when she did not have other assignments.”
host of political, economic, ecological, philosophical, and Shortly thereafter, Alyssa was found dead in a field with
social topics.
her service rifle in the grass next to her.
Although most contributors of The Mormon Worker are “The reactions to the suicide were that she was having
members of the LDS church, some are not, and we accept
a difficult time separating her personal feelings from her
submissions from people of varying secular and religious
backgrounds. professional duties. That was the consistent point in the
The opinions in The Mormon Worker are not the official testimonies, that she objected to the interrogation tech-
view of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. niques, without describing what those techniques were.”
We may never know the specific reasons Alyssa ended her
In solidarity, life because the government is yet to release her suicide
The Mormon Worker
note. What we do know however is that Alyssa who had
spent 18 months of her life preaching the gospel of Jesus
Christ to complete strangers, seeing them as children of
THE MORMON WORKER God was later placed into a situation where she was asked
140 West Oak Circle to treat human beings as objects and torture them. Perhaps
Woodland Hills, UT 84653 she felt as Kayla Williams, a fellow soldier who talked
Subscribe to our print edition: to Alyssa one week before her death and also protested
www.themormonworker.org the techniques used at Tal-Afar, when she stated the real
themormonworker@gmail.com problem with such techniques is that it, “made me ques-
http://themormonworker.wordpress.com tion my humanity and the humanity of all Americans. It
was difficult and to this day, I can no longer think I am a
INDEX FULL SCREEN ►

really good person and will do the right thing in the right bombarded him with noise and lights, and deprived him of
situation.” sleep. At one point, the CIA had even began construction
In perhaps an even stranger irony, these techniques she on a coffin to bury Zubaydah alive. It is no surprise that
was asked to perform were in part reverse engineered by Dr. R. Scott Shumate, then chief operational psychologist
two Mormons known in the CIA as the “Mormon mafia.” for the C.I.A.’s counterterrorism center, packed his bags
James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen were part of a classified and left in disgust after witnessing Mitchell and Jessen’s
group known as SERE that trained US soldiers to withstand techniques.
interrogation techniques. Mitchell and Jes- Under these conditions, Zubaydah
sen were handpicked to reverse engineer began to “speak of plots of every vari-
communist interrogation techniques and
“The people who kill ety–against shopping malls, banks, super-
teach them to CIA interrogators. These and torture and tell lies markets, water systems, nuclear plants,
techniques included waterboarding, stress in the name of their apartment buildings, the Brooklyn Bridge,
positions, sleep deprivation, and others. It sacred causes...these are the Statue of Liberty.” Never mind that
was with the capture of Abu Zubaydah in never the publicans and Zubaydah was in fact mentally ill and not
March of 2002 that Mitchell and Jesse had the sinners. No, they’re the pivotal figure they believed him to
their first chance to use their “enhanced” the virtuous, respect- be. Zubaydah’s diary he kept for more
interrogation techniques. able men, who have the than a decade had three separate voices:
Zubaydah was a mess when he was finest feelings, the best a boy, a young man and a middle-aged
captured. Unable to eat, drink, sit, or con- brains, the noblest alter ego. Dan Coleman, the FBI’s top al-
trol his bowels, the FBI began the pro- ideals.” Qaeda analyst, stated, “This guy is insane,
cess of nursing his wounds. At one point, —Aldous Huxley certifiable, split personality,” and refer-
Zubaydah turned septic and nearly died. ring to the CIA stated, “They all knew he
While Zubaydah was being treated hu- was crazy.” Newsweek reported that one
manely by the FBI, he revealed one key intelligence detail: FBI agent “was so offended he threatened to arrest the CIA
the identity of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed. Shortly thereaf- interrogators.”
ter, the CIA interrogation team arrived and began the tech- More revealing is the testimony of John Kiriakou, the
niques designed by Mitchell and Jessen. Ronald Suskind CIA interrogator of Zubaydah, who when asked whether
reported that they strapped Abu Zubaydah to a water-board, he had legal authority for his actions in an ABC news
threatened him with certain death, withheld medication, interview stated, “Absolutely. Absolutely. I remember - I

remember being told when - the President signed the - the is whether it is better to suffer a nuclear attack than save
authorities that they had been approved - not just by the human life through morally compromised methods. At
National Security Counsel, but by the - but by the Justice what point are we justified in not only killing but torturing
Department as well, I remember people being surprised that another human being for the chance that they might know
the authorities were granted.” Zubaydah’s interrogation something that might save lives?
went on for months and we now know that the hundreds Torture has been used by a variety of unsavory groups
of hours of videotapes of his treatment were destroyed in and governments in history including our own. From the
November, 2005. In the case of Zubaydah we have direct tormenta de toca (water cure) used during the Spanish
involvement of top government officials, including the Inquisition to elicit confessions, sleep deprivation used by
president, barbaric forms of torture, and meaningless intel- Stalin to elicit confessions, the “VerschärfteVernehmung”or
ligence from an already mentally ill man. As Suskind writes, “enhanced interrogation” used by Nazis, and the Khmer
“the United States would torture a mentally disturbed man Rouge’s use of waterboarding on dissidents. The former
and then leap, screaming, at every word he uttered.” Prime Minister of Israel Menachim Begin described his
Soon these same techniques; first used in CIA blacks sleep deprivation torture by the KGB as “In the head of
sites and then used in Guantanamo found their way to Iraq the interrogated prisoner, a haze begins to form. His spirit
resulting in the atrocities of Abu Ghraib and in the crisis is wearied to death, his legs are unsteady, and he has one
Alyssa Peterson found herself leading to her death. Mean- sole desire: to sleep... Anyone who has experienced this
while, Mitchell and Jessen got paid more than $1,000 per desire knows that not even hunger and thirst are compa-
day plus expenses, tax free, for their overseas work and rable with it.” One individual who voluntarily submitted to
Mitchell finally purchased his dream house in Florida. It a waterboarding experiment described the complete loss
was Aldous Huxley who remarked that “the people who of control and willpower. It was not pain he remarked but
kill and torture and tell lies in the name of their sacred “at the time my lungs emptied and I began to draw water,
causes... these are never the publicans and the sinners. No, I would have sold my children to escape. There was no
they’re the virtuous, respectable men, who have the finest choice, or chance, and willpower was not involved.”
feelings, the best brains, the noblest ideals.” In our own history, US soldiers used a primitive form
Often the discussion surrounding torture concerns its of waterboarding in the Phillipine-American war, “water is
effectiveness. However, there is a much more fundamental poured onto his face, down his throat and nose ... until the
discussion that is needed when we address torture. If we man gives some sign of giving in or becomes unconscious
assume that torture works, then the decision we must face ... His suffering must be that of a man who is drowning, but

who cannot drown.” This is the same technique Japanese stood with one foot entirely upon appellant’s breast, and
soldiers used on US soldiers in WWII and were tried as the other foot entirely upon his neck. While in that position
war criminals and one Japanese soldier was sentenced to what is described as the “water cure” was administered
15 years of hard labor. This same technique later found it’s to him in an effort to extort a confession as to where the
way into police stations and military prisons particularly money was hidden which was supposed to have been taken
in the south. from the dead man. The “water cure” appears to have
In 1926 Mississippi’s highest court, in Fisher v. State, 110 consisted of pouring water from a dipper into the nose of
So. 361, 362 (Miss. 1926), ruled a murderer’s confession be appellant, so as to strangle him, thus causing pain and hor-
overturned because of “the water cure, a specie of torture ror, for the purpose of forcing a confession. Under these
well known to the bench and bar of the country.” This was barbarous circumstances the appellant readily confessed.”
based upon an earlier case, White v. State, 182, 91 So. 903, We should never forget that in the years from the civil war
904 (Miss. 1922), that overturned a murder conviction of to civil rights, thousands of people were tortured and many
a young black man whose hands “were tied behind him, killed by our own citizens. In one infamous lynching in
he was laid upon the floor upon his back, and, while some Paris, Texas, a crowd of 10,000 men, women, and children
of the men stood upon his feet, Gilbert, a very heavy man, took photos, ate popcorn, all the while a black man was
tortured and burned alive.
Torture does what the Russian writer Aleksander Sol-
zhenitsyn described in The Gulag Archipelago, it “befogs
the reason, undermines the will, and the human being
ceases to be himself, to be his own ‘I.’” All of these tech-
niques and methods share the same goal: to break the hu-
man will. How should we react as Christians and Mormons
to torture?
One of the fundamental values of Mormonism is the
idea that God believes in free will and respects each indi-
vidual soul. Mormons also believe that there was a deci-
sion made that free will was more important than using
compulsion to prevent countless tragedies whether it was
Bee Mill Print by Tyler Bushman genocide, rape, child abuse, or even the salvation of our

The Mormon Worker Racism, Violence and the United States, Part 1: The Prison System 6
eternal souls. If free will is so sacred to God, how can we so that no one else would have to be a victim again. When
every justify doing what even God himself will not do: we torture and when we kill victims, we deny the parak-
robbing a human soul of its will, its “I am.” It is a basic letos, the spirit. This is how we crucify Christ again and
Christian tenet that we are to love our enemies and do good deny the holy spirit (the parakletos), the call to defend the
unto those who hate us. It is not just in the generalities that accused. Stalin tortured men in the name of Russia, the
we are Christian, but in the particularities of turning the Inquisition in the name of the church, Hitler in the name
other cheek and enemy love. Christ is clear that this is how of German Nationalism, and our own government tortures
we become Sons of God. How we treat our enemies is an in the name of freedom and liberty. At the end of the day,
indicator of our level of discipleship. This says more about if we torture we are torturers and we deny the power and
our Christianity than any professed creeds or ideas. meaning of the cross.
There are things more important than saving human
life. This is not a question of self-righteous victimhood but
an issue of self-preservation. Torture is ultimately about
our own personal and national soul. When Peter learned of
Christ’s future suffering and death on the cross, he rebuked Racism, Violence, and the United
the Lord and tried to prevent it. It is wise to remember the States, Part 1: The Prison System
Savior’s words in response. He reminded Peter that we are By Spencer Kingman
to take up his cross and that if there are not boundaries
we will not cross even to save our lives, we may lose our Many Latter-Day Saints, while believing racism to be a great
very soul. The real question is what will we exchange for evil and a sin, assume that violent racism and racism as
our own soul, for our national soul? If we are willing to government policy are things of the past. In this article, and
torture and break another’s will, we may be as worthy of others forthcoming, I will explore the U.S. prison system,
Christ’s rebuke as Peter was, “Get behind me, Satan: you the practice of torture, and the wall at the nation’s southern
are a scandal to me: for you do not understand the things border as three particular projects that bely such an assump-
God, but those of men.” tion. I intend to show that, far from fading away or becoming
Before Christ left he promised he would send us the superficial, racism remains a vicious and violent a force in
comforter (parakletos). Satan is the accuser. The parakletos this country.
is the defender of the accused (Greek for defense attorney, It is appropriate to start with the prison system. Though
the defender of victims). Jesus was tortured and crucified less controversial than torture or the border wall, the pris-

ons lay the foundation for these projects. In practice and crime over these boom years. Many of the incarcerations
in language, they provide a laboratory for what happened fueling the rise of the prison industry result from either
at Abu Ghraib, a blueprint for the deadly architecture of drug offenses or mandatory minimum sentence require-
our border zones, and a business model for “Homeland ments legislated in the context of the “wars” on drugs and
Security.” crime.
In our lifetimes, the prison system has exploded in size Both of these so-called wars have ravaged communi-
and scope, swallowing up people, homes, and whole sec- ties of color, especially Black communities. In some cities,
tions of our cities. This rapid growth has little to do with over one half of young Black men are under some criminal
crime, and a lot to do with economics, racism, and social supervision, be it parole, probation, or incarceration. 2 Ap-
control. Unable to address and alleviate its savage inequali- proximately 44% of all prisoners are Black, though they
ties, the United States has instead found a way,through comprise only 12% of the U.S. population. 3
imprisonment, to make them into a perverted junk-growth The ease with which we ignore this cataclysm is re-
industry. As a country, we are feeding on our own dys- markable. It is commonly believed that the system works
function, relying on human misery as a profit center, and well, that we see high rates of Blacks and Latinos in the
stripping for parts those people for which we find no other criminal justice system because Blacks and Latinos com-
use. How can one talk of public safety when huge chunks mit most of the crimes in the United States. In some cases
of that public are being absorbed into such a dangerous this is factually wrong, for instance when it comes to drugs.
and violent system? How can “criminal justice” have any Drug use is equally common among Blacks, Latinos, and
meaning when the nation is so invested in criminality? Whites. Blacks constitute 13% of all monthly drug users,
Many are unaware of the rapacious growth of the but 35% of arrests for drug possession, 53% of convictions,
prison system since the early 1970s, and it is difficult to and 58% of prison sentences, and these drug convictions
fathom. The number of Americans who are currently in comprise a very large part of all prisoners. 4 In fact, more
jail or prison is over 2.2 million people, one fourth of the Blacks are sent to state prison for drug offenses than for
prison population of the entire world. This population has crimes of violence. 5
expanded from just 300,000 in 1972 and 1,000,000 in 1990. The assumption that people of color commit more
The United States also incarcerates people at a higher rate crimes than Whites is sometimes factually correct, but this
than any other nation (with the possible exception of North phenomenon is impossible to understand outside the con-
Korea). Increases for youth and females are even more text of persistent and widening discrimination, economic
dramatic. 1 There has been no corresponding increase in exclusion, or the predations of police.

For people who have already been locked up, the barri- increased incarceration, with the other 75% perhaps result-
ers to re-entering civil society after their prison terms are ing from a growing economy, changing drug markets, com-
so numerous and extreme that many return to crime. With munity policing models, and other community responses
some variation from state to state, the average person con- to crime. Also, a decrease in the crime rate concurrent
victed of a felony will likely find themselves barred from with mass imprisonment says little about what couldhave
politics and voting, barred from gun ownership, have their been achieved with non-violent approaches. Numerous
drivers license suspended, prohibited by law from several studies have shown drug treatment, interventions with
occupations, and refused employment in most others. Ad- at-risk families, and school completion programs are far
ditionally they are “permanently barred from receiving more effective at reducing crime than incarceration, and
public assistance such as Temporary Assistance for Needy of course, far less costly.8
Families, Medicaid, food stamps, Supplemental Security However, the high costs of imprisonment mean large
Income,” as well as federal financial aid for education. They profits for some. They represent a grotesque development
are permanently barred from admittance to public housing opportunity for states and small towns, and the jobs they
and Section 8. The list goes on and on, including just about create are well-paying. The average salary for a member of
anything a person might need to get back on their feet. A the California Correctional Peace Officers Union is $73,000
shocking 6% of Americans have felony records. 6 dollars per year, far higher than, for instance, a teacher’s
Needless to say, incarceration also rips apart fami- salary. 9 Private prisons, of which there are currently about
lies and psyches, and the cumulative effect is crushing. In 300 nation wide, are often payed directly from tax revenue
California, which imprisons more people than any other on a per-inmate, per-day basis. States or private prisons
state, the recidivism rate is 70 percent; for children in the can generate large amounts of revenue by contracting
juvenile system it is 90 percent (recidivism is a word to with large corporations to provide prison labor, usually
describe the return to prison or criminality of an inmate at sweatshop wages. All of these various strategem for
who has ‘served their time’ and been released). 7 generating wealth have one thing in common: an absolute
Crime rates generally have dropped since the begin- reliance on the maintenance of high levels of incarceration
ning of the prison boom, but the meaning of this fact is and a steady stream of inmates.
contested. During the 1990s crime rates declined less dra- In the case of prison labor, the continuities with slav-
matically in states with high incarceration rates. A detailed ery are chilling. At the end of the U.S. Civil War, the 13th
2005 study by The Sentencing Project suggested that only amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery “except
about 25% of the drop in crime rates should be attributed to as a punishment for crime.” In the post-Reconstruction

South this loophole was used to reassert White supremacy for maintaining de facto segregation and mass exploitation
and exploitation of Black agricultural labor through the of Black people in the U.S., performing the same functions
chain gang. 10 The largest prison in the United States, the as the ghetto, Jim Crow, and slavery before it. Globalization
Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, resides on 18,000 and technological change have wiped out millions of jobs
acres of antebellum plantation land purchased by the state that used to be somewhat available to Black people living in
in 1905. It was called Angola because most of the ex-slaves the cities. The prisons provide a way for the state to control
in that area came from that African Country. Still today, the these unemployed or “surplus” people and exploit them in
inmates, 75 percent of whom are Black, perform the same a way that is competitive with overseas sweatshops. It also
labor as slaves did 200 years ago: harvesting cotton and provides a way for the country to absorb the Post World
sugar cane. It is estimated that 85 percent of the inmates War II/Civil Rights activism without really upending the
at Angola now will die there. 11 racial caste system. Just as Jim Crow undermined politi-
In the post-Civil Rights Era, convict labor has reached cal rights granted after the Civil War, the “felonization” of
full industrial blossom. All over the United States, inmates Black America undermines the civil rights victories of the
are assembling air conditioning parts, computer moth- 1960’s (and not without effect, as seen in Florida during
erboards, and clothing for companies like Microsoft, J.C. the 2000 Presidential Election).
Penny, Eddie Bauer, Victoria’s Secret, and Honda. They are The racialization of incarceration is not simply a re-
answering telephones for TWA and Best Western. 12 In the flection of a racism planted in some other arena of society.
summer of 2007, Colorado started sending female inmates On the contrary, the prisons, like racist institutions before
to harvest onions, corn, and melons on farms. 13 For many them, insidiously create and disseminate ideas about what
years, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has provided inmate it means to be “Black” and “White” in the U.S. White su-
labor to the Army, but in 2005 a new regulation authorized premacy has long required that Blackness be associated
the Army to create prison labor camps within military with criminality and violence, but the mass incarceration
installations. 14 Needless to say the wages for prisoners of Black people (a recent phenomenon) solidifies this as-
are deplorable. The average hourly rate at a prison camp sociation and lends it the appearance of social fact. In the
in Nevada is a mere $0.13 cents an hour. The pay rates for words of Randall Kennedy it supplies a powerful common-
federal prisoners are between $0.23 and $1.15 per hour. 15 In sense warrant for “using color as a proxy for dangerous-
Angola Prison in 1997, inmates were reportedly de-boning ness.” Hence “driving while Black” 17 or simply hanging-out
chickens for $0.04 cents an hour. 16 with other Blacks in public provokes regular harassment
The prison system is becoming a primary mechanism by police. As Black people are shut in to prisons and ghet-

tos, they are shut out of politics and jobs. Incarceration 8. The Sentencing Project. (2005). Incarceration and
helps do the symbolic work of mixing up cause and effect Crime: A Complex Relationship. http://www.sentencing-
here, hardening racist myths about the suburban world of project.org/Admin%5CDocuments%5Cpublications%5Ci
hard-work, self-control, and political responsibility as well nc_iandc_complex.pdf (13 January 2008).
as myths about its counterpart: a ghetto/prison world of 9. David Matlin, PRISONS: Inside the New America,
indolence, addiction, parasitism, and cruelty. (Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2005). p. xxii.
10. David M. Oshinsky. Worse Than Slavery: Parchman
1. International Centre For Prison Studies at King’s Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice, (New York: Free
College London. Prison Brief – Highest to Lowest Rates. Press Paperbacks, 1996).
http://www.prisonstudies.org (10 January 2008); Rose M. 11. Free the Angola 3 (2000) Lockdown at Angola: A
Brewer and Nancy A. Heitzeg, “The Racialization of Crime History of the Angola 3 Case. http://www.angola3.org/ (13
and Punishment: Criminal Justice, Colorblind Racism, and January 2008).
the Political Economy of the Prison-Industrial Complex,” 12. Kelly Patricia O’Meara, “Prison Labor is a Growth
American Behavioral Scientist 51 (2008); 628. . Industry,” Insight on the News. Washington: May 24, 1999.
2. David Matlin, PRISONS: Inside the New America, Vol. 15, Iss. 19; pg. 14, 2 pgs.
(Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2005), pp. xxiii, 13. Nicole Hill, “U.S. Farmers Using Prison Labor,”
xxviii.. Christian Science Monitor, August 22, 2007. pg. 14.
3. Human Rights Watch. (2003). Incarcerated America. 14. U.S. Army. (14 February 2005). Army Regulation
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/usa/incarcera- 210-35: Civilian Inmate Labor Program. http://www.army.
tion/us042903.pdf (April 2003). mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r210_35.pdf (13 January 2008).
4. The Sentencing Project. (2001). Drug Policy and the 15. Peter Wagner. (2003) The Prison Index: Taking
Criminal Justice System. http://www.sentencingproject. the Pulse of the Crime Control Industries. http://www.
org/Admin/Documents/publications/dp_drugpolicy_cj- prisonpolicy.org/prisonindex/prisonlabor.html (13 Janu-
system.pdf (13 January 2008). ary 2008).
5. Human Rights Watch. (April 2003). Incarcerated 16. Peter Gilmore, “Made in the USA... by Convicts.”
America.http://hrw.org/backgrounder/usa/incarceration/ Labor Party Press, July 1997, Vol. 2, Num. 4.
us042903.pdf (13 January 2008).. 17. Loüc Wacquant, “From Slavery to Mass Incarcera-
6. Ibid.David Matlin, PRISONS: Inside the New Amer- tion,” New Left Review, 13, January 2002.
ica, (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2005). p. xxii..
• RETURN
TO ARTICLE
The Mormon Worker Space Technology or Social Progress? 11
ing space technologies in order to give the U.S. “control

and domination” of space and the ability to “deny” other
Space Technology or Social Progress? countries access to space. It is important to remember that
By Bruce K. Gagnon when the U.S. and the UK launched the 2003 shock and awe
invasion of Iraq, 70% of the weapons used in the initial at-
As criticisms of U.S. “missile defense” (MD) technology tack were directed to their targets by space technology. So
increase around the world, it is interesting that the reac- whoever controls space militarily also controls the Earth.
tion of the Bush administration is to accelerate efforts to The Pentagon has also long maintained that Star Wars
deploy the system in as many countries will be “the largest industrial project” in his-
as possible. tory. Therefore huge infusions of tax dol-
At the present time the Bush admin- We have learned
lars must be moved into military budgets
istration is attempting to convince the to fly the air like in order for the aerospace industry to make
governments of Poland and the Czech Re- birds and swim the the kinds of profits they expect from a new
public to allow the Pentagon to establish sea like fish, but we arms race. (In 2008 the Pentagon budget
new MD bases in their countries despite have not learned the is well over $650 billion.) Star Wars will
strong opposition from the people of both simple art of living be so expensive that the U.S. can’t afford
nations to the plan. Poland would host mis- together as brothers. to pay for it on its own – even after they
sile defense interceptors while the Czech —martin luther king, jr. move funds from our few remaining social
Republic would have a Star Wars radar programs into the Pentagon budget. Thus
facility placed near Prague. it becomes crucial to get allies like the UK,
Missile defense has never been about protecting the Canada, Australia, Japan, and Italy to help pay for it.
public from attack by the “rogue” nations. As it turned But how can you convince people around the world
out Iraq had no WMD. Iran has none today. North Korea to help pay for MD unless you continually develop new
has no WMD capable of hitting the continental U.S. Even enemies? Why would the U.S. want new Star Wars radar
China has only 20 WMD’s capable of hitting the west coast facilities in the Czech Republic and MD bases in Poland
of the U.S. The U.S. now has over 7,000 WMD’s in our own unless the intent was to surround and provoke a new arms
“arsenal of hypocrisy.” race with Russia and China? Is it a coincidence that Russia
Star Wars has always been about offensive warfare has the world’s largest supply of natural gas?
in space. The Pentagon has long talked about develop- The Pentagon has been saying that under corporate

globalization every country is going to have a different We must call for an end to the militarization of American
role. They say that in the U.S. we won’t make cars, clothes, culture and instead work hard to keep social progress from
or other consumer goods anymore. It’s cheaper to do that being defunded as our human and physical infrastructure
in China. The Pentagon says that America’s role will be in the country decline. ◆ www.space4peace.com ◆
“security export.” Today the number one industrial export
product of the U.S. is weapons. And when weapons produc-
tion is a nation’s #1 export, what is your global marketing
strategy for that product line? Endless war!
The Pentagon also says that parts of the world are not The Unattained Enlightenment
now properly submitting to corporate globalization. They By Gregory VanWagenen
call it the “non-integrating gap”. They identify this gap as

the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and parts of Latin Introduction
America like Venezuela. (Note these also are places with
huge deposits of oil and natural gas.) The military says Calling oneself a socialist has always been a challenge, and
that our role will be to go into this “gap” and get them to it seems especially challenging to adopt that description at
submit to corporate domination. this particular time and place. Advocating the empower-
So Star Wars becomes the eyes, ears, and target direc- ment of a working class which seems profoundly conserva-
tion mechanism of this new high-tech military that will fight tive puts the socialist in one of two positions. Either she is
endless war. The allies, like the UK, will be asked to help an inconsequential pretender, taking a place on a stage that
fund the program and to give it political cover. National is watched by only a few other fellow travelers, or she is
health care in the UK, Canada, and other allied nations forced to subsume the conservatism of the working class
will have to be cut back in order to provide funds so that in an attempt to reach the subject of her concern.
the aerospace industry in those countries can get a piece Max Horkheimer is credited with the maxim: Truth
of the Star Wars action too. takes refuge in small groups of admirable individuals. If
The peace movement must begin to connect all the the socialists of the 21st century are to achieve anything
dots. The occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is about oil. substantive, barring the sudden and tragic impoverishment
The Republicans and Democrats alike believe in the U.S. of the average worker, it will surely begin with those same
Empire to benefit the corporate elite. Space technology admirable individuals chipping away at the false conscious-
will be used to tie this program of endless war together. ness of capital.

In order to effect meaningful social change, we must anism, where every individual assumes an opportunity to
know what our own values are, and how they differ from shape the future of his or her society. Socialism seems
the status quo. We must be able to communicate these handicapped by the very aspect which makes it so popu-
values honestly to our peers, acknowledging the inevitable lar. Socialism must be many things, and not one, because
questions and proposing the means to answer them. socialists are many, and not one.
Defining Socialism Social Justice

What is socialism? Most of us think we know, but find a Social justice can be described as an extension of the com-
concise definition difficult to draw. In spite of this defi- mon American tradition of legal justice to other facets of
ciency, the word itself is incredibly popular, and the con- social life. Most Americans have an instinctive, if limited,
cept itself remains popularly unpopular. Talk show hosts view of justice. If it is proper to see individuals as equal
and satirists daily label their ideological opponents as before the law, the argument for social justice contends
socialists, using the word as though it were self-evident that it is also proper to see them as equals in other social
and obviously insulting. relationships also.
Socialism is a complex phenomenon that defies a simple Social justice entails a freedom to think the thoughts we
definition. It encompasses science and philosophy, poli- want to think, a freedom to indulge in religion or to agitate
tics and economics. Sweden is a socialist country, and so against it, and a freedom to peacefully organize. These are
is Vietnam. Marxist-Leninists are socialists, and so are all conservative American ideals. Social justice goes further,
many anarchists. Jack London was a socialist, and so was and also entails a freedom from hunger, a freedom from
Leon Trotsky. Socialism is a broad movement with many reasonable fear, and a freedom from oppression.
competing theories. Some of these theories overlap and Social justice advocates a view of human beings as in-
some conflict. herently equal despite their inequalities. Every individual
There is even disagreement about the disagreement, is afforded an equal opportunity to partake in the process
with some socialists seeing the broad range of socialist of shaping their society, and an equal share of the wealth
interests as a fractious and confusing hindrance, while which that society produces.
others accept them as a rich diversity which enhances Ultimately then, socialists unite in the idea of an egali-
socialism as a whole. tarian society. There is much disagreement among social-
The idea of socialism is rooted in a romantic egalitari- ists as to the extent to which a society can abolish domi-

nation or eradicate inequality, but this is the one unifying witness today the product of a lifetime of conditioning by
idea which every socialist shares. the demands and pressures of capital?
Socialism, Science And History Socialism And Democracy
Socialism can be seen as economic and political theories, The existence of Sweden as a contemporary example of
supported by empirical research, dedicated to the creation democratic socialism at first suggests that socialist democ-
and maintenance of an egalitarian society. racies can be formed and endure. At the same time, the
Socialism can also be defined by its approach to history. idea of competing political parties suggests the possibility
In contemporary terms, a socialist would describe history of a group taking power and instituting inequality within
as interactive. Put simply: Socialists believe that human a socialist society. The United Kingdom is probably the
beings have the inherent capacity to shape their own fate, best example of a social democracy which has increased
and thus they become the subject of history, political and economic inequality through
rather than objects which are manipulated by democratic means in recent history, though
forces like “luck” or “fortune”. My country is there are others.
the world. My In some circumstances, it is theorized that
Cooperation And Central Planning countrymen are establishing inequality may lead to a greater M
standard of living for people on the bottom
One of the topics that socialists argue about all mankind.
tier of a society than could be reached in a
is whether a society could evolve without the —william lloyd more egalitarian society. Is it commensurate
need for any structural authority. Some so- garrison
with socialism to call for the eradication of
cialists believe that a truly egalitarian society
inequality if this lowers the standard of living
can only be established with the guidance of
for even the least fortunate? Is it appropri-
a central party, to oversee the maintenance of the society
ate to abandon egalitarianism if everyone benefits from
as a whole. Others believe that a party is not necessary and
inequality?
that people will achieve socialism simply by removing the
These are questions with no easy answers, but they
authority structures inherent in a capitalist system.
represent the questions socialists are commonly asked
We can deconstruct these arguments and conclude that
by their intellectual opponents and they deserve to be
this is actually a question about human nature. Are human
pondered.
beings inherently selfish, or is the universal narcissism we

The Relevance Of Socialism the benefit of humankind.

Religion, in contrast, concerns itself with faith and
History illustrates many scenarios in which various par-
purpose. This is neither the domain of socialism, nor of
ties and groups seized power in the name of socialism,
any other scientific pursuit. While science reveals how,
only to function as a new incarnation of the ruling class
religion tells us why.
in an even more repressive totalitarian state. Recent his-
In this respect, socialism and faith do not contradict
tory has demonstrated a disturbing trend toward greater
one another, nor should they compete with one another.
concentrations of wealth in the hands of the few, particu-
Both ought to act in symbiosis, as complimentary agents
larly in Europe and North America. It is common to find
toward the achievement of a just and peaceful society.
socialism impugned as the worn out utopia of yesteryear,
Those who see one as inherently threatening to the other
rather than a vibrant idea which holds the promise of a
do so from a shallow understanding of either or both, or as
more equitable distribution of wealth and responsibility
a reaction to specific historical circumstances in which one
in the here and now.
or both of these vehicles were cynically used to tyrannize
or manipulate human beings.
Religion And Socialism
Can any individual reconcile God with dialectical mate- Conclusion

rialism? It was in Provo Utah that I first encountered Karl Marx.
We have already seen that socialism, in theory, is based My grandparents had a large and well-stocked library which
upon the application of the scientific method. Both science included Capital. I found it to be pretty heady stuff as a
and religion are vehicles which have great potential for the 12-year old, which is why I kept coming back to it over the
elevation of humankind, and yet they are so different as to years. By 16 I was discussing commodity fetishism in that
defy any meaningful comparison. same library, with the same grandparents, who probably
Science is a method by which men and women have the had some regrets that they had put such a book on the
potential to test their physical surroundings and approach shelf.
an objective observation of how the natural world works. One of the most beautiful gifts that Mormonism gave
Science is also a body of knowledge compiled by people to me (aside from grandparents smart enough to argue
who have used this method and arrived at conclusions such esoterica) was the knowledge of my own history and
which can be tested and repeated. Science serves to apply genealogy. Marx was certainly challenging from a literary
this knowledge to manipulate the environment, ideally for

The Mormon Worker Palestinian/Israeli Conflict: A Cooperative Effort 16
standpoint, but viewed from a Mormon perspective, Uncle

Karl didn’t seem as radical as my teachers made him out to
be. I had been raised with stories of Orderville, of cotton Palestinian/Israeli Conflict:
cooperatives in St. George, and had read journal entries A Cooperative Effort
describing collective farms (probably built on Menno- by Abdullah Mulhimone
nite, rather than Marxist models) in Southern Alberta. All
As the year 2008 begins and a new hope has emerged in the
of these progressive endeavors were initiated by people
Middle East peace process, one stands wondering which
with whom I shared immediate family bonds. Socialism, it
party, the Israelis or Palestinians, wants peace more, or
seemed, was in the blood of my people and was the foun-
if any of them want peace. Over the years it has become
dational theory behind the society I enjoyed.
clear to any one observing the peace process and the situ-
While historical experiments give socialists (Mormon
ation in the Middle East that Israel is more interested in
and otherwise) much to be proud of, they also reveal dis-
its security than in peace with its neighbors.
turbing examples of brutality and excess. The implemen-
This raises the question which one is more important
tation of a socialist model, inasmuch as it relies on the
peace or security? Is it possible to achieve both? And if so
centralization of power, has at times ended in disaster. It
which one comes first?
is heartening to find Mormon socialists honestly acknowl-
The Israelis have echoed for years that they are com-
edging the failures of the past, while lending their unique
mitted to peace but that security must be established first;
perspectives toward the search for solutions.
that the attacks targeting Israel must be stopped by creat-
In spite of the fact that the enlightenment remains un-
ing a method of punishment that will give Israel a sense of
finished, and despite the unanswered questions, I remain
revenge. This punishment must put fear in the attackers’
convinced that socialism is a necessary requirement for
minds that future threats will be prevented. It is assumed
achieving a true and lasting measure of equality and justice
that doing so will establish security for Israel and peace
between individuals, and I believe it stands as a prereq-
in the region. These methods of punishment are directed
uisite to any significant human progress. The realization
not only at the attackers, but also at their family members
of socialism entails the end of fratricidal wars for profit,
and the whole town that the attacker came from. For ex-
the end of exploitation, and the beginning of a new era in
ample the self-bombers punishment will be directed at the
human history. This is why I am a socialist, and why I’m
self-bomber’s family, by raiding their house in the middle
proud to join in spirit with the readers of The Mormon
of the night and then moving them out of the house and
Worker as we labor toward this common goal.

The Mormon Worker Palestinian/Israeli Conflict: A Cooperative Effort 17
forcing them to watch their house get destroyed. This By acting this way to every rocket attack that happens
punishment is also directed at the whole town that the self to a Jewish settlement, security will be achieved and then
bomber came from: because no Israeli soldier should be peace will follow.
sent into an unknown situation, the first thing that needs And if those measures are not enough in achieving that
to be done is prevent any possible attacks on the soldiers long dream of peace lets go ahead and build a fence around
as they enter the town. So you first conduct an air strike, the West Bank. That is, if we could call it a fence. It is not
and follow that with a full tank assault, killing dozens of a small fence like the one the US is trying to build along
people. This is justified because, let’s face it, these now the borders of Mexico it is more like a WALL. That is, if
dead Palestinians would anyway have turned out to be we could call it a WALL. It is not like the Berlin Wall that
self-bombers themselves eventually (according to Israeli divided not only a nation but the world. It is more like the
logic). The final step is to take the land that the house was Great Wall of China; but let’s make it even more humiliat-
on and build a Jewish settlement in its place. ing. Let’s not build it on the borders, but inside the West
By acting this way to every self-bomber attack that bank in order to confiscate as much Palestinian land and
happens inside Israel, security will be achieved and then water as a possible, because that is our real goal anyway;
peace will follow. Let’s build it all around the West Bank to give Palestinians
Then there is the issue of Palestinian rocket attacks hit- the feeling they are living in a massive prison.
ting the illegal Jewish settlements that have been built on By building this WALL security will be achieved and
Palestinian land taken by force by the Israelis, and which then peace to be followed.
continue to grow. The answer is simple: attack fire by fire. These are by all means not the only answers Israel has
But instead of attacking with the same small amount, start to achieve peace. There is also the measure of not allowing
with months of daily air strikes around the neighborhood more development projects in the Arab side of Jerusalem.
that the rocket came from, then follow that with a massive There are the road blocks between every city in the West
military invasion of the neighborhood that destroys and Bank, the denial of freedom of religion to the Muslims
levels every house to the ground, leaving almost everyone and the Christians in Jerusalem and many more security
homeless and forcing them to flee far from the borders. measures that help in establishing peace.
Then kill everyone suspected of having any knowledge Israel has followed these policies and implemented
of the attack, because the cost of detaining them is more them so well since the Six Day War that it had the world
expensive than the cost of a bullet that you don’t have to fooled into thinking that achieving security first will defi-
answer why to. nitely be followed by peace. The world thought this, instead

The Mormon Worker The Zion/Babylon Dualism in Mormonism and Anarchism 18
of realizing that those actions and measures have simply the occupier, and that it has to show some good faith to
left the Palestinian economy so crippled that more than its neighbors.
70% of the population is under the poverty line. They have
left Palestinian social life in absence of the most basic ele-
ments of a warm feeling of a stable home and family. They
have left the political scene so derailed that you can’t find
true leaders for the Palestinian nation. The Zion/Babylon Dualism
For Israel, peace in the Middle East does not need in Mormonism and Anarchism
partners all. What it needs is the right action to secure By Jason Brown
Israeli sovereignty in the region with by any means, even What sets the anarchist critique of society apart from other
if it leaves the other side, the Arab side, weak. It does not political projects is the view that, because the state is as an
need any type of political or economic partnership with inherently hierarchical, and therefore oppressive institu-
the Arab world as long as the Arab nations recognize the tion, the project of human liberation must necessarily do
existence of Israel and cooperate in providing the neces- away with all forms of economic and political oppression,
sary security for the State of Israel. not simply attempt to reform them or mitigate their dam-
These actions maybe effective for a short period of time; age. This critique of society can be easily compared to the
they may bring with them some security for the state of Zion/Babylon dualism found in Mormon scripture and as
Israel and maybe they will bring with them a short period elaborated by Hugh Nibley in his seminal and radical work
of peace, a fake peace. But because it will leave the Arab Approaching Zion.
side socially damaged with no dreams or hope for a better
tomorrow as long as they are oppressed and humiliated,
The Dualisms of State
it will be just a matter of time before this ticking bomb
explodes. I have often wondered, as the Mormon folk-belief goes,
For a true and lasting peace Israel has to recognize its that if communism is Satan’s counterfeit for the United Or-
existence in a region full of other nations. It has to look der, what is capitalism? Hugh Nibley believed that Satan’s
at the future for all of the Middle East. It has to recognize greatest trick was to take us down the wrong road and then
that security must be the entire region, including for both present us with a fork—it doesn’t matter which way we go
parties, the Israelis and the Arabs. Israel must realize that from there, we are still going down the wrong road. Indeed,
security is second to peace, that it is the oppressor and the 20th century has been marked by a battle between the

false choice of state communism and “free market” capital- possibilities to the people, not to the state or a wealthy elite.
ism; both of which are rejected by anarchism (and in my It gives ‘the little man,’ not a state bureaucrat or wealthy
opinion should also be rejected by Mormonism). In their capitalist, the freedom to control his destiny. It gives to
book Working toward Zion, LDS authors James Lucas and every child of God the freedom to make his or her own
Warner Woodworth outline the struggle between these freely chosen contribution to the work of God.
two narrow economic ideologies and argue that those of In Approaching Zion, Nibley’s scathing critique of capi-
us who are truly working toward a Zion society will seek talism, communism and “Babylonian” economics could,
the total liberation and dignity of all of humanity through without much exaggeration, be considered anarchist. In
cooperative principles such as unity, equality, and partici- a series of essays delivered at Brigham Young University,
patory democracy. Though they are not advocating an an- Nibley eloquently fleshes out the scriptural concepts of
archist revolution, they state that: United order principles Zion and Babylon, their place in biblical history and Mor-
encourage equality by entrusting economic resources and mon theology. He draws numerous parallels with contem-
porary North American society and harshly renounces
our fixation with wealth, competition, property, and the
ecological destruction these obsessions produce.
Zion
Zion is most commonly referred to in contemporary Mor-

monism as “the pure in heart” (D & C 97: 21). We rarely
speak of it in terms of a movement, or a community that
functions outside the world’s economy. The Zion of scrip-
ture was a type for the city of God, a place of refuge, equal-
ity, and peace; it is “any community in which the celestial
order prevails” “the order of Zion is such as will leave the
earth as near its primordial, paradisiacal condition as pos-
sible,” suggesting that it has little to do with the capital-
ist techno-industrial worldview we have hailed as being
God-sent. Zion is a blueprint for a truly Christ-like society
Science is Full Print by Tyler Bushman

and has rarely been achieved. In one such rare occasion, the individualistic, profit seeking, laizze-faire ideologies
the city of Enoch, described in the Book of Moses, there of capitalism which promise perpetual growth and ac-
“was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18). In the communi- cumulation and an endless supply of goods and services.
ties established after Christ’s resurrection and assent to Both Babylon and capitalism thrive on the stratification
heaven in both the New Testament and the Book of Mor- of society into economic classes. The earth and its riches
mon, believers attempted to separate themselves from are seen as raw materials for the generation of cash, or
the world by establishing communities in which residents as one author puts it, “for economic growth to continue
had “all things in common” and where there were no di- there must be a constant conversion of things that have no
visions by class or race (Acts 2:44-45, Fourth Nephi). So, money value into things that do. Human labor and land are
although Zion was and is symbolic of righteousness and commoditized, money becomes the universal standard of
purity, it was also a very real socio-economic order, one value and nothing escapes its potential appraisal. Although
which the Saints attempted to establish in Utah in the 19th state communism was an attempt to mitigate the inequali-
century. Anarchists have also attempted to put their ideas ties created by such a mind set, it did not stray far from
into practice, the Paris commune, Civil War era Catalonia the basic premise of capitalist production as a conversion
Spain, and the Zapatistas in Chiapas Mexico, are but a few of raw materials into wealth. The difference was, that in
examples of communities that have attempted to live with- the former case the means of production was owned by a
out hierarchy and class. In Catalonia, peasant communities capitalist elite, and in the latter, a government bureaucracy.
lived for three years outside of formal state jurisdictions Zion and Babylon are thus irreconcilable entities and econ-
and implemented cooperative factories, farming, and free omies. God warned the prophets of old and Joseph Smith
health care and education. in the Doctrine in Covenants that “Zion cannot be built
up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial
Babylon kingdom” (D & C 105:5). In other words, Zion is to be built
according to the purest of Christian principles and cannot
Beyond the Old Testament Empire, Babylon is a symbol
tolerate even the slightest corruption. As Nibley observes,
in the scriptures for the dark center of Satan’s power, the
“when we try to mix Zion and Babylon, Babylon has already
culmination of political might, a filthy place of dog-eat-dog
won the game.” This uncompromising purity resembles the
survival of the fittest where everything is for sale and in-
anarchist rejection of political reform, which is tantamount
trigue and corruption flourish. Babylon has two objectives:
to mixing Zion with Babylon. Anarchism has consistently
power and gain. It is not a far leap, to connect Babylon to
broken rank with progressive movements as soon as they

became too comfortable in the halls of power. Such was because the people wish it to be so, but because a certain
the case with state Communism in the USSR, and the labor set of men, the landowners, have appropriated the right of
movement in the United States. This uncompromising com- giving or refusing admittance to the land to the laborers.” D
mitment to virtue has necessarily alienated both anarchists & C 49:20 proclaims that “But it is not given that one man
and religious communities. The Essenes of Christ’s time, should possess that which is above another, wherefore the
the Mormon pioneers, the Amish and other utopian com- world lieth in sin,” and as Nibley writes “the old Jewish
munities of the 18th and 19th centuries teaching that Adam had a right only to
refused to participate in “the world” and that portion of the earth that he “quick-
separated themselves from it, literally The Mormon Church was ened” on which he labored by the sweat
fleeing from Babylon. born from revelation, of his brow” in other words, money has
resistance and dissent. nothing to do with our rights to the land
Labor and Property Its mutual assistance and its produce. Again from Tolstoy,
It would seem then, that both the an- “The laborer of today would not cease to
commitment to poor or
archist and Mormon view of the world, suffer even if his toil were much lighter...
otherwise needy Mormons
though framed in different terms, would [f]or he is working at the manufacture of
remains a marvel of
espouse similar values. Leo Tolstoy, the things which he will not enjoy,...working
organization and to satisfy the desires of luxurious and
Christian anarchist was adamant that
steadfastness. idle people...for the profit of a single rich
“living off the labor of others” was not
—ralph nader man, the owner of a factory or workshop
justified by Christian doctrines. D & C (alternative
42:42 states that, “He that is idle shall not commencement in particular.” In Nibley’s practically an-
eat the bread...of the laborer” to which 2007) archist critique of capitalist exploitation,
Nibley comments, “hailed as the fran- his essay ‘Work we Must, but the Lunch
chise of unbridled capitalism, is rather is Free’ is a heretical idea in capitalist
a rebuke to that system which has allowed idlers to live in ideology. In this essay, Nibley gives the example of a man
luxury and laborers in want throughout the whole course who gains control of the earth’s bounty or “lunch” by hard
of history.” Tolstoy states, “If the laborer has no land, if he work. He then considers himself benevolent for allowing
cannot use the natural right of every man to derive subsis- those he has denied access to this bounty to work for him
tence for himself and his family out of the land, that is not to get it back (and to make him money in the process).
According to Nibley, the bounty of the earth is a free gift,

The Mormon Worker The Fascist Roots of Corporate America (And the Bush Family) 22
and each of us has a right to “lunch” regardless of class, property, or classes; a world where the human family holds
race, or disposition. This analogy is squarely in line with all things in common.
anarchist and radical environmental critiques of capital-
ist notions of private property, means of production, and
commoditized labor. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, the famous
French anarchist, famously wrote that “property is theft,”
referring not to property in a general sense, but to capi- The Fascist Roots of Corporate
talist ownership of the means of production. This idea is America (And the Bush Family)
mirrored by Nibley’s assertion that the root of the words Stephen Wellington
“private” and “property” have the same meaning “what is “The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not
privatum or proprium is therefore peculiar to one person safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to
alone (not a corporation),” and refer instead to things es- a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic
sential for one’s survival. “One may not accumulate prop- state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of
erty, for then it ceases to be property and falls into the government by an individual, by a group, or by any other
forbidden category of power and gain. Oil under arctic seas controlling private power...Among us today a concentra-
or mahogany in unexplored jungles can be neither private tion of private power without equal in history is growing.”
nor property, save by a theory of possession cultivated in Franklin D. Roosevelt
another quarter” i.e. Babylonian economics.
From the above citations, it would seem that Hugh
The White House Coup of 1933
Nibley, Leo Tolstoy, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Joseph
Smith were reading from the same celestial cliff notes. The introductory words by FDR are extremely profound
Humans have no right to exploit one another just because given the history of his term in office. On November 24th,
of the artificial power of capital. And though I make no 1934, Marine Corp Major General Smedley Butler testified
claim that the similarities between anarchist and Mormon to the McCormack-Dickstein Committee that from July 1933
thinkers overlap in all areas of theoretical discourse, the to September of 1934 he was petitioned by Jerald McGuire,
above statements illustrate that to a remarkable degree, a New York City Broker, to lead a private army of World
we are all working toward the same society: one where War 1 veterans to overthrow American democratic rule and
there would be no wage labor (living off the labor of oth- establish a fascist government in the White House. The
ers), hierarchical economic or political institutions, private New York Times Headline on Nov 24th 1934 read:

“Gen. Butler Bares ‘Fascist Plot’ To Seize Government unemployment problems during the great depression and
by Force; Says Bond Salesman, as Representative of Wall a way to deal with the growing power of the unions that
St. Group, Asked Him to Lead Army of 500,000 in March were pressuring the Wall Street Bankers to relinquish their
on Capital—Those Named Make Angry Denials” hold on wealth.“He [McGuire] had a very brilliant solution
Jerald McGuire, was not alone in his desire to be a part of the unemployment situation...He [Mcguire] had seen it
of a fascist Coup d’Etat. McGuire was backed by some of in Europe. It was a plan that Hitler had used in putting all
the wealthiest capitalists in America at the time. John Bu- of the unemployed in labor camps or barracks-enforced
chanan, a specialist on right-wing movements in the 1930’s labor. That would solve it overnight, and he[McGuire] said
said, “These super wealthy capitalists wanted to pose such that when they got into power, that is what they would do;
a threat to Roosevelt that he would step aside and if he that that was the ideal plan”
would not they would execute him.” Just as Mcguire said, the American Liberty League was
When petitioning General Butler to become a part of formed a few weeks later, and was on the front page of most
this ‘superorganization’ McGuire said, “Did it ever occur New York and Washington D.C. papers. The American
to you that the President is overworked? We might have Liberty League read like a who’s who of corporate America.
an Assistant President, somebody to take the blame; and if Some prominent capitalists that backed the American Lib-
things do not work out, we can drop him ...You know the erty League were J.P. Morgan, The Warburg banking fam-
American people will swallow it. We have got the newspa- ily , General Motors President John J. Rascob, President of
pers. We will start a campaign that the President’s health is Heinz inc. Howard Heinz, Irenee Du Pont, Nathan Miller
failing. Everybody can tell that by looking at him, and the from US Steel and many others. The plot was to receive
dumb American people will fall for it in a second.” financial backing particularly from J.P. Morgan banking.
The funding would come from bankers and business- Now this is where the Bush Family comes in. Later
men who would step out of tenebrous Wall Street poli- in the McCormack-Dickstein Committee Hearings the
tics and into a crypto-fascist quasi-american lobby group Hamburg-American Line was accused and found guilty
called the ‘American Liberty League’. “We need a Fascist of providing free passage to Germany of U.S. Journalists
government in this country to save the Nation from the to write favourable reports on Nazism and is alleged to
communists who want to tear it down and wreck all that have brought Nazi spies and fascist sympathizers to the
we have built in America,” said Mcguire. United States. Interestingly, the executive manager of the
However, the fascist overthrow of government was pri- Hamburg-American line was none other than Prescott Bush,
marily seen by private power as a way of solving the mass the grandfather of George W. Bush.

After hearing the McCormack-Dickstein Committee steal the livery of great national ideals to serve discredited
Press Release on November 24th of 1934, General Butler special interests....This minority in business and indus-
accused the committee of editing out the names of the busi- try...engage in vast propaganda to spread fear and discord
ness people he had linked to the plot in his testimonies. In among the people. They would gang up against the people’s
a radio interview on the 17th of February, 1935 Butler said liberties....They seek the restoration of their selfish power...
of the committee, “Like most committees it has slaugh- Our resplendent economic aristocracy does not want to re-
tered the little and allowed the big sharks to escape. The turn to that individualism of which they prate, even though
big sharks weren’t even called to testify. They were all the advantages under that system went to the ruthless and
mentioned in the testimony, why was all mention of these the strong. They realize that in 34 months we have built up
names suppressed from the testimony?” new instruments of public power. In the hands of a people’s
Of the American Liberty League, Roosevelt said, “They government this power is wholesome and proper. But in
the hands of political puppets of an economic aristocracy,
such power would provide shackles for the liberties of the
people. Give them their way and they will take the course
of every aristocracy of the past – power for themselves,
enslavement for the public.”
Scholars, economists, & politicians (i.e. Ronald Rea-
gan being a good example) believe that even though FDR
voiced opposition to the American Liberty League, ele-
ments of fascism were incorporated into The New Deal as
a form of ‘soft’ fascism. Herbert Hoover also acknowledged
the influence of corporations on Roosevelt as he tried to
cooperate with big businesses in an attempt to bring the
country out of economic depression. Regarding Roosevelt’s
attempts to assuage the business community Hoover stated,
“Among the early Roosevelt fascist measures was the Na-
tional Industry Recovery Act (NRA) of June 16, 1933...this
stuff was pure fascism; that it was the remaking of Mus-
Richard Nixon and Prescott Bush solini’s ‘corporate state...” In this case, the NRA was part of

FDR’s New Deal reforms, that on a critical note, not only involved with the financial architects of Nazism. By the
ended regulation of Wall Street at this crucial time but it late 1930s, Brown Brothers Harriman, which claimed to be
allowed heads of industry greater political and economic the world’s largest private investment bank, and UBC had
monopoly which was contingent on providing workers bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, fuel, steel,
with suitable work conditions and wages. coal and US treasury bonds to Germany, both feeding and
The McCormack-Dickstein Committee agreed that financing Hitler’s build-up to war.”
there was indeed a real threat of a corporate fascist coup, Trading with the Nazi’s during the 1930’s was not il-
however the newspapers downplayed the findings of the legal although it began to defy the economic provisions
committee and unbelievably, no legal proceedings were of the Treaty of Versailles due to Hitler’s remilitarization.
taken. It is interesting that Hoover feels that Roosevelt Rockefeller’s Standard Oil and the DuPonts were respon-
acquiesced with the conspiratorial corporate elite. This sible for a “marriage” cartel with I.G. Farben, a major Nazi
shows that FDR’s definition of fascism comes from politi- conglomerate in the 1930’s. Interestingly, the DuPont family
cal experience. Interestingly, Historians believe that deals were also at the centre of the fascist plot as was J.P. Morgan
were made around this time between Roosevelt and the who was linked with the Rockefeller family by marriage
economic establishment so that they would cooperate and business.
with his New Deal reforms and in return FDR would turn Six days after Pearl Harbour was attacked by the
a blind eye to their foiled coup. In summary John Spivak Japanese, FDR signed the Trading With the Enemies Act
states, “The class basis of social forces is nowhere more (TWEA) making any economic trade with the Nazi’s il-
clearly revealed then in this situation [the white house legal. In the fall of 1942 all of Prescott’s business assets
plot] – capitalists, including Jews, making common cause with Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. were seized by the
with anti-Semitic fascist and potentially fascist organiza- American government under the TWEA.
tions, in an effort to crush labour.” A conversation between John Buchanan and John
Loftus, a former Justice Department War Crimes Pros-
The Bush Family as Part of Corporate Fascism ecutor is as follows:
Buchanan: Should Prescott Bush, George Herbert
The story of Prescott Bush’s involvement with the Nazi’s Walker and the Harrimans have been tried for treason?
goes much deeper than the Hamburg-American Line. The Loftus: Yes, because they continued to support Hitler
Guardian newspaper in London has recently corroborated after the U.S. entered the war. As a former prosecutor, I
that “a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was could have made that case.

Buchanan: What were they most guilty of after the class considerations are more important than the rule of
U.S. entered the war? law, justice and every other kind of consideration, includ-
Loftus: They shipped gold through axis countries after ing racial and religious ones.” Prescott Bush was eventually
the U.S. entered the war. That certainly was treason, be- given his holdings back (~$1.5m) and was elected to the
cause it gave aid and comfort to the enemy, and assisted Senate. He has had an influence upon the development
them economically. of the modern “corporate-state” model that is seen today.
Naomi Wolf, the author of “The End of America: Letter He has not only influenced pre and post-WW2 Presidents
of Warning To A Young Patriot” and “Fascist America: 10 but has had two Sons who have carried his legacy of war
Easy Steps” and Amy Goodman, the radio host of Democ- criminality and insidious corporate crypto-fascism into the
racy Now recently hinted to the reasons why Prescott Bush 21st century. Noam Chomsky has said, “If the Nuremberg
was not convicted in the Nuremberg Trials: laws were applied, then every post-war American president
Namoi Wolf: Prescott Bush, Bush’s grandfather, was would have been hanged.” In this case Chomsky justifies the
making millions in consolidation with Krupp, Thyssen, inclusion of George H. W. Bush, due to his “unlawful use
and it’s very interesting to me, because in the Nuremberg of force” as Vice President in Nicaragua and the invasion
trials they went after these industrialists like Krupp, and of Panama with the verdict coming from the International
so there was a moment at which the Nuremberg trial was Court of Justice.
about to identify supporters of these war crimes who were George Monbiot, a journalist with the London Guardian,
US collaborators. in an article on October 17th 2006 entitled, “The Courts Are
Amy Goodman: But they didn’t. Starting To Accept that the War in Iraq is a Crime” (cit-
Naomi Wolf: But they didn’t. But I think it’s interesting ing recent British court cases) has said that,” These cases
that there is that historical memory in the family. cannot reverse the hideous consequences of the crime of
Amy Goodman: It’s the question of who controlled the aggression (the “supreme international crime”, according
trials, right? It’s the question of who controlled the trials to the Nuremberg tribunals) that Blair and Bush committed
and not wanting their own people to be involved. in Iraq.” On September 16, 2004 the then Secretary General
Prescott and his business associates were never tried of the United Nations Kofi Annan said, “I have indicated
for war crimes. This, along with The White House Coup, it [the Iraq invasion] was not in conformity with the UN
is firstly, a demonstration to the American people that the charter. From our point of view, from the charter point
true threat to their liberty and justice comes from within. of view, it was illegal.” Even Benjamin Ferenccz, a former
And secondly, it also shows that financial and economic chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials and expert in

international law and war crimes has said that “a prima taxation. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires
facie case can be made that the United States is guilty of were made in the U.S. during the [First] World War.” Has
the supreme crime against humanity, that being an illegal the tactic and reasoning to get America into “entangling
war of aggression against a sovereign nation.” The point alliances” changed much since 1935?
here is that a very good case can be made for the last 3 key Fascism appealed to some nations of the 1930’s because
Bush figures being guilty of war crimes with George W. of the increased security it promised in a time of poverty
Bush being tried for the supreme crime against humanity. and depression. If the people of the Great Depression would
There are striking similarities between Hitler’s invasion of be willing to sacrifice their liberty for security, could it
Poland and Bush’s invasion of Iraq (both pre-emptive wars also be possible for that to occur in our day? Benjamin
for the sake of National Security) bringing us to the real- Franklin reportedly said, “Those who would give up es-
ization that good American patriots like General Smedley sential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve
Butler are needed to bring balance when its leaders and neither liberty nor safety.” This maxim was paraphrased
financial elites are quick to use jingoism and warmongering much during the American Revolution where the right to
to prey on the good will and money generating capabilities battle against tyranny is embodied in the Declaration of
of its own people. Major General Smedley Butler, back in Independence.
1935, wrote of American foreign policy and war, “It is con- Herbert Hoover noted how a loss of security and liberty
ducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the might happen, “Every collectivist revolution rides in on a
very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes... Trojan horse of ‘emergency’. It was the tactic of Lenin, Hit-
it is dressed up into speeches about patriotism, love of ler, and Mussolini...This technique of creating emergency is
country...This [WW1] was the “war to end all wars.” This the greatest achievement that demagoguery attains.” There
was the “war to make the world safe for democracy.” No are echoes here of the ‘emergency’ rescinding of Habeas
one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their Corpus and other human rights since September 11, 2001
going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No in the form of the Patriot Act.
one told these American soldiers that they might be shot Considering the unethical and alleged illegality of Bush
down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one family business practice and political conduct one must
told them that the ships on which they were going to cross ponder on how they have come to dominate American poli-
might be torpedoed by submarines built with U.S. patents.... tics over the last 60 years. Mike Gravel, a U.S. democratic
but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket and are safely presidential candidate for 2008 has said in regards to the
pocketed...Who provides the profits...we all pay them in new President’s role in restraining ‘corporate America’,

The Mormon Worker The Iraqi Resistance, Al-Qaeda and US Propaganda 28
“Congress could do a good job, theoretically, but it can’t.

Why? It’s owned lock, stock, and barrel by corporate Amer-
ica. So you think you’re going to become president and The Iraqi Resistance, Al-Qaeda
you’re going to turn to the Congress and say, “Let’s really and US Propaganda
straighten out corporate America.” This is foolishness. It’s By William Van Wagenen
fantasy.” One must reflect on Gravel’s words and ponder
In reporting on the violence in Iraq, most news organiza-
back on Roosevelt’s definition of fascism. Could it be pos-
tions tend to focus on attacks carried out by the Al-Qaeda
sible, that although the Corporate Fascist White House
in Iraq organization (AQI), which largely consist of suicide
Coup was foiled in 1933, that the more subtle parts of the
bombings targeting Shiite civilians. Similarly, when brief-
plans of the economic elites have somehow succeeded in
ing the press on its military activities, US army spokes-
the long-term?
persons focus almost exclusively on operations directed
I propose that they have and that it poses a real and
at AQI. One thus gets the impression that the war in Iraq
treacherous threat to the sovereignty of constitutional
today consists of largely two sides: the US-led coalition
government. The possibility for democratically chang-
forces and the Iraqi security forces on the one hand, and
ing the insidious fascism of corporatism, as premised by
AQI militants on the other. Because Americans view AQI
Roosevelt’s definition of fascism, within the current United
as the primary armed group resisting the US presence in
States political climate is all but impossible. If there is any
Iraq, we easily assume that the US Army must remain in
civil unrest or major socio-political protest about the cur-
Iraq until the AQI threat is eliminated. A US withdrawal
rent hegemonic corporate rule then the Federal Emergency
from Iraq would allow AQI to take over a resource-rich
Management Agency (F.E.M.A.) internment/detainment
country, and use it as a staging ground for further attacks
camps and the REX-84 program can be used along with
against American personnel and interests in the region, if
the “suspension” of the U.S. Constitution. It will be at this
not further attacks on the American homeland itself. Ad-
time that the U.S. populous, and most likely the Western
ditionally, the US Army remains in Iraq at the request of
World, realizes that the rope on which the U.S. Constitu-
and in order to help the “Iraqi people,” who overwhelm-
tion hangs has been surreptitiously frayed by the elites who
ingly desire a long term American military presence in
stupefied them into being content with fast food, lifestyles
their country to protect them from AQI and the outbreak
of leisure, and cheap Chinese commodities.
of full-blown civil war. Such a view further suggests that
the primary goal of the American military in Iraq is fighting

terrorism and establishing a sovereign, democratic Iraqi groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the pri-
government. mary root of the violent differences among them, and see
These ideas were reinforced in the western media in the the departure of “occupying forces” as the key to national
late summer of 2007, as US officials lauded the success of reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for
the “surge” in reducing sectarian violence and the forma- the U.S. military last month.” 3
tion of “Awakening Councils” among members of Sunni Thirdly, there have been, since the first year of the US
tribes in Anbar province, which began to cooperate with occupation, a variety of groups who have engaged in armed
US forces in fighting AQI. The US military asserted that the struggle against American forces who strongly condemn
entire Sunni population in Iraq was now firmly supportive the tactics used by AQI, such as kidnappings, killing hos-
of the US military presence in the country. President Bush tages, and targeting civilians generally. Some, though not
and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s recent attempts most, even condemn the killing of any Iraqi, even if he/
to sign a long term US-Iraqi security agreement, which will she is a collaborator with the foreign occupier, namely the
authorize the presence of US troops in Iraq for the next de- Iraqi Army and Police.
cade, are supposedly based on the above assumptions. 1 An example of such a group is the Islamic Front for
Such a view of the conflict in Iraq diverges from real- Iraqi Resistance (JAMI). According to the foreign policy
ity on several grounds, however. First, most Iraqis do not think tank Global Policy.org, JAMI, “first announced its
support the US military presence in their country. Accord- existence on May 30, 2004. JAMI is believed to have been
ing to polls conducted by BBC news in august 2007, the formed by a number of smaller Sunni resistance groups
majority of Iraqis (some 57%) continue to support attacks brought together by common political goals. The groups’
on US troops (including 90% of Iraqi Sunnis), while 79% activities and attacks on coalition forces are primarily cen-
of Iraqis either somewhat or strongly oppose the presence tered in the Ninawa and Diyala governorates. Statements
of coalition forces in Iraq (26% and 53% respectively). This issued by the group have claimed responsibility for dozens
does not mean that Iraqis support AQI, since the same poll of attacks carried out by the military wing of JAMI. The
indicates that 0% of Iraqis support AQI attacks on civil- Salah-al-Din and Sayf-Allah al-Maslul Brigades of JAMI are
ians, and that only 2% of Iraqis support AQI efforts to take also believed to be responsible for shelling coalition com-
control of local areas. 2 mand operations headquarters and the Mosul and Al-Faris
Secondly, the US presence is not preventing civil war airports. JAMI has also targeted U.S. Intelligence members
and sectarian conflict. The Washington Post reported in in Mosul and have killed at least one U.S. soldier in the
December 2007 that “Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic Diyala governorate.” 4 In early March 2005, JAMI stated

that “We prohibit targeting civilians, slaying hostages and country. The Islamic Army in Iraq, the Mujahideen Army
spilling the blood of Iraqis whether civilians or members of and Ansar al-Sunna (Sharia Council), an offshoot of the
police and national guard forces, under any pretext,” while established Ansar al-Sunna group, said they would avoid
urging its fighters to “avoid fighting the occupiers inside spilling civilian blood, according to an Internet statement.
the cities,” to avoid jeopardizing the lives of civilians. 5 ‘The Jihad and Reform Front ... pledges to continue with
Another prominent Iraqi insurgent group that targets the duty of jihad in Iraq until all objectives, including the
US forces while also condemning attacks on Iraqi civil- complete withdrawal of the occupiers in all their guises
ians is the 1920 Revolution Brigades (also known as Iraqi- and the establishment of God’s religion .... are met,’ it said.
Hamas), their name being a reference to the Iraqi uprising ‘The military actions of the mujahideen will target the
against British colonial rule in 1920. The 1920 Revolution occupiers and their collaborators and will not target the
Brigades describes itself as a “nationalist Jihadist move- innocents whom jihad aims to lead to victory.’” 7
ment” which first appeared in June 2003, roughly three In October 2007, these three main insurgent groups, the
months after the US invasion. According to the MIPT Ter- Front for Jihad and Reform, Iraqi Hamas, and JAMI, an-
rorism Knowledge Base, “the group employs tactics com- nounced the formation of a new “political council” for the
mon to other Iraqi insurgency groups such as roadside “liberation of Iraq.” According to the International Herald
improvised explosive device (IED) attacks on military Tribune, “the council appeared to be a new attempt to or-
vehicles, suicide bombings, and mortar and rocket attacks. ganize and assert the leadership of the multiple insurgent
Unlike some Jihadist organizations, the group has stated groups, which have moved to distance themselves from
that it prohibits the targeting of public areas and oil facili- another coalition of insurgent factions led by al-Qaida in
ties and generally forbids the killing of Muslims. . . . The Iraq.” The council’s spokesperson stated that, “the occupa-
1920 Revolution Brigades continues to target U.S. troops in tion is an oppression and aggression, rejected by Islamic
Iraq. In a statement issued on 13 February 2006, the group Sharia law and tradition. Resistance of occupation is a right
vowed to ‘carry on jihad until the liberation and victory or guaranteed by all religions and laws.” 8
[until they are] martyred.’” 6 In addition to fighting US forces, these nationalist,
Another major Sunni insurgent group is the Front for Iraqi insurgent groups have often fought against AQI as
Jihad and Reform, which according to Reuters news agency, well. In an interview with a Qatari newspaper, Ibrahim
is itself a coalition of three Sunni Islamist groups that Al-Shammari, a spokesperson for the Islamic Army in Iraq
work “to expel U.S.-led forces from Iraq and appeared to referred to Al-Qaeda actions as “sins and crimes,” and
distance itself from al Qaeda-linked organizations in the mentioned that Al-Qaeda operatives had assassinated many

well-known members of the Islamic Army. Al-Shammari All of these goals must be accomplished against the wishes
stated that the Islamic Army’s previous policy of patience of the majority of Iraqis, particularly the privatization of the
toward AQI had ended, and that that the Islamic Army was country’s oil industry, which is opposed by 66% of Iraqis
now replying “in-kind” to AQI attacks. 9 and could lead to hundreds of billions of dollars of lost
That the US government narrative focuses almost solely oil revenue for this already impoverished country. 11 To
on AQI, while ignoring the more prominent resistance overcome this opposition the excuse of fighting terrorism
groups that do not use terrorism (targeting civilians) as a must be used. However, if the US were to withdraw from
tactic, suggests that this blurring of distinctions between Iraq, any justification Al-Qaeda might have for remaining
terrorist groups and legitimate resistance groups is a de- in Iraq will be gone. The Sunni armed groups in Iraq will
liberate misrepresentation of the conflict, promoted by no longer tolerate an Al-Qaeda presence, and there will be
the US government as part of its psychological operations little motivation for Arab recruits to leave their homelands
activities. So while Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Abu Musab Al- and come fight in Iraq. For an end to the war in Iraq to take
Zarqawi are household names in the US, virtually no one place, all foreign forces need to leave the country, whether
knows even the names of the other Sunni armed groups American, Iranian, or Al-Qaeda. As Americans it is impor-
in Iraq, which carry out the majority of the attacks against tant for us to see through US government misinformation,
US soldiers. and press our elected representatives for a complete US
In my view, the US government is attempting to mis- military withdrawal from Iraq.
represent the nature of the conflict in Iraq in order to dis-
credit the legitimate Iraqi resistance groups, in an effort to
justify a prolonged US presence in the country. And why 1. Bush, Maliki Sign Pact on Iraq’s Future. Washington
is the US trying to maintain a long-term presence in Iraq? Post, November 27, 2007., http://www.globalpolicy.org/
Rather than keeping Americans and Iraqis safe from terror, security/issues/iraq/resist/2007/09bbciraqipoll.pdf
promoting democracy, or preventing civil war, US planners 2. All Iraqi Groups Blame US Invasion for Discord,
are trying to de-nationalize Iraq’s oil industry and bring it Study Shows. Washington Post, December 19, 2007.
under US corporate control, establish permanent bases in 3. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/
Iraq to project US military power in a region deemed im- iraqi-resistance-islamic-front.htm
portant to US economic and strategic interests, eliminate 4. http://www.infowars.com/articles/iraq/resistance_
regimes which provide assistance to Palestinian armed distances_itself_from_civilian_blood.htm, http://www.
groups resisting Israeli colonization of the West Bank. 10 prisonplanet.tv/articles/march2005/080305civilianblood.
htm
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The Mormon Worker Wendell Berry's "Gift of a a Good Life" 32
5. http://db.mipt.org/Group.jsp?groupID=4438 Goddess of Earth, he found that the more his body was
6. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/ attached to the soil the greater his strength, and as Hercu-
idUSL0335362520070503 les discovered, Antaeus’ strength could only be rendered
7. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/11/africa/ powerless by removing Antaeus from the soil.
ME-GEN-Iraq-Insurgents.php This essay is a tribute to a latter-day literary Antaeus ,
8. http://arablinks.blogspot.com/, January 1, 2008. Wendell Berry, who was born in Henry County, Kentucky
9. http://www.icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx, http:// in 1934. He was raised on a five-generation family farm.
www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-01-10-iraq- After receiving his BA and MA in English at the University
thursday_N.htm?POE=click-refer of Kentucky, he attended Stanford University’s creative
10. The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, Walt and writing program under a Wallace Stegner Fellowship Pro-
Mearsheimer, 2007. see the chapters on “The Lobby and gram. He began teaching creative writing at the University
the Iraq War.” of Kentucky in 1964. Just one year later he purchased and
11. Mission not yet Accomplished: How Iraq Figures in moved onto a farm that eventually grew into a 125 acre
Big Oil’s Dreams. By Linda McQuaig, The Walrus, January homestead. He began writing for Organic Gardening and
4, 2008. http://www.zmag.org/ Farming and The New Farm. Drawn to the land he resigned
from teaching in 1977 and returned to teach a decade later
for a brief time before withdrawing permanently to his
land. From his native soil he continued his prolific writing
that now has reached twenty-five books of poems, sixteen
Wendell Berry’s “Gift of a Good Life” volumes of essays, and eleven novels and short story col-
By Ron Madson lections. His writing are firmly rooted to his family and
community and the land upon which they are planted.
“What I stand for is what I stand on” Wendell Berry’s writing skills are unmatched. He writes
with a primal force that resonates the deepest cords that
As vividly portrayed in Walden’s Pond, Henry Thoreau was tie us to our family and the earth. A sample of a few titles
engaged in an epic struggle with his “bean field.” Needing of his collected essays are revealing: “The Gift of Good
strength he called upon the gods: “They (the beans) at- Land,” “Home Economics,” “What are People For?” “Citi-
tached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antaeus.” zenship Papers,” “Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community”
Like the Greek god Antaeus, son of Poseidon and Gaea, the and perhaps my favorite is his personal biography of his
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and his wife’s love affair with their home and land found Weighing the effects of any technology on one’s fam-
in “The Long-Legged House.” He combines the simple and ily and community:
persuasive eloquence of CS Lewis; the zion-like passion Wendell drives a car, uses a chainsaw and flies in air-
and discipleship of his friend, Hugh Nibley; and the wit of planes, but as to him, his family and community he care-
Henry Thoreau. But his real power of expression is rooted fully considers what effect each tool, equipment or latest
in his living the fullness of his words. He is, in my opinion, technology has on his family and community. When he
a Thoreau with a family and a Hugh Nibley with an actual started faming again he was faced with the choice—a team
farm. All of his writings, philosophy and theology springs of horses or a tractor? In his essay “Horse drawn Tools;
out of his devotion to his family, his land, and his com- and the Doctrine of Labor Saving” he does not reflexively
munity which are for him inextricably intertwined to each chose the tractor before carefully weighing the costs in
other and from which grows his perfectly demonstrated every respect:
loyalty—“that if you make a commitment and hang on until “How large can a machine be before it ceases to serve
death, there are rewards.” people and begins to subjugate them?”
Wendell Berry has been called the “prophet of rural “As farmers became more and more dependent on fossil
America” and preaches the virtue of loyalty to family, land, fuel energy, a radical change occurred in their minds. Once
community and growing out of that loyalty and passion focused on biology, the life and health of living things, their
some basic fundamentals thread through all his writings thinking now began to focus on technology and econom-
which can summarized into first, the constant weighing ics. Credit for example, became as pressing an issue as the
of the siren call of progress and technology against the weather, for farmers had begun to climb the one-way ladder
negative effects on the land, the family and the community; of survival by debt. Bigger machines required more land, and
second, the denunciation of all violence or wars that de- more land required yet bigger machines, which required yet
stroy families and communities; and third, the generational more land, and on and on—the survivors climbing to precari-
preservation of one’s land, family and community; To tackle ous and often temporary success by way of machines and
all these themes with any depth in this review would be mortgages and the ruin of their neighbors. And so the farm
overly ambitious. However, here are a few samples of his became a factory where speed, efficiency, and profitability
writings on these three themes: were the main standards of performance. These standards,
of course, are industrial, not agricultural.” (Gift of Good
Land, page 131).

Then turning to the domestic front, there came a time I treasure.” (What are People For ?, page 171)
when he was faced with choosing to own and use a com- Then Wendell slyly adds: “If the use of a computer is a
puter or continue doing his writing with pencil and pad new idea, then a newer idea is not to use one.”
of paper? Given his prolific amount of writing one would
assume he chose the computer, but he did not and has con- The Denunciation of Wars that destroy families and
tinued for decades to take with him his pencil and some communities:
paper in the woods and write. His reasons are many, but
In February of 1968 Wendell Berry spoke at a Kentucky
here are two stated reasons why he did not buy a computer
conference and commenced his address by recognizing
and still has not:
that he was perhaps only one of four people in the entire
“A computer I am told...will help you write faster, easier,
state of Kentucky that believed he should give his speech
and more....Do I, then, want to write faster, easier, and more?
denouncing our nation’s involvement in the Viet Nam
No, my standards are not speed, ease, and quantity,. I have
Conflict. Founded on his Christian faith and the logic that
already left behind much evidence of that...I have written
grows out of it, he professed a stance from which he has
too fast, too easily, and too much...Going off to the woods I
consistently argued from Viet Nam to the present:“I have
take my pencil and some paper....and I am as well equipped
come to the realization that I can no longer imagine a war
for my work as the president of IBM.” (What are People For
that I would believe to be either useful or necessary” and that
?, page 190)
every conflict is by definition a “failure of imagination.” He
And then applying the most important principle of
then argues:
“how does this affect my relationships at home he consid-
“That is why it sickens me to see us so willing to fight in
ers the long practice in his home of his wife and him care-
order to influence the conduct of other nations. Why should
fully reviewing and editing together his handwritten notes
we, who have splendid ideals and powerful arguments, rely
and organizing the same it a very intellectually intimate
primarily on violence rather than persuasion and example?”
dialogue:
(The Long-Legged House, pg 68).
“It is very well understood that technological innovations
Then in his inimitable style Wendell then turns the
always requires the discarding of the ‘old model’—the ‘old
argument back on the reader by answering intimate ques-
model’ being not just our own old Royal standard, but my
tions that we are compelled to also introspectively ask
wife, my critic, my closest reader, my fellow worker....In order
ourselves:
to be technologically up-to-date as a writer, I would have to
“Here is the other question that the predicament of modern
sacrifice an association that I am dependent upon and that

warfare forces upon us: How many deaths of other people’s Preservation of land, communities and families:
children by bombing or starvation are we willing to accept
One cannot read several of Wendell Berry’s essays with-
in order that we may be free, affluent, and (supposedly) at
out coming to understand that the nurturing, preserving,
peace? To that question, I answer pretty quickly: None. And I
and retention of one’s own native soil is directly linked
know that I am not the only one who would give that answer:
to preserving one’s community and family. The land also
Please, No children. Don’t kill any children for ‘my’ benefit.”
becomes holy as an individual and family participate in
(Citizenship Papers, pg. 29).
creation and self-sufficiency:
And to drive the point to our own front porch:
“As a father, I must look at my son, and I must ask if there “To live we must daily break the body and shed the blood
is anything I possess—any right, any piece of property, any of Creation. When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully,
comfort, any joy—that I would ask HIM to die to permit me reverently, it is a sacrament.” (Gift of Good Land, pg. 281)
to keep. I must ask if I believe that it would be meaningful— In his collected essays in his book, “The Gift of Good
after his mother and I have loved each other and begotten Land” Wendell travels to, lives with and learn from cul-
him and loved him—for him to die in a lump with a number tures as far away as the mountain of Peru and as close as
hanging around his neck. I must ask if his life would have the nearby Amish farms. Practical and applied charity is
come to meaning or nobility or any usefulness if he should found in these communities:
sit—with his human hands and head and eyes—in the cockpit “Charity is a theological virtue and is prompted, no doubt,
of a bomber, dealing out pain and grief and death to people by a theological emotion, but it is also a practical virtue be-
unknown to him. And my answers to all these questions is cause it must be practiced...Real charity calls for the study
one that I must attempt to live by: No.” (The Long-Legged of agriculture, soil husbandry, ...making of monuments, and
House, page 75). pictures and songs, and stories. ...How can you love your
Wendell uses many voices in his writings to persuade: neighbor if you don’t know how to build or mend a fence, how
Christian moralist; philosopher; statesman and pragmatist. to keep your filth out of his water supply and poison out of
But it is his voice as a member of his community and most his air; or if you do not produce anything and so have noth-
importantly, as a father, brother and individual that gives ing to offer, or do not take care of yourself and so become a
rise to his greatest persuasion. burden?” (Gift of Good Land, pages 274 &275).
It is in the self-sufficiency and nurturing of one’s own
land that the family unit coalesces in a way that modern
culture cannot easily replicate. In his essay “What are

People For?” Wendell considers the many consequences no sense, for it requires the ruination and displacement of
of industrialization and agri-business replacing the family neighbors. A farm cannot be increased except by the decrease
farms: of a neighborhood.”
“The ecological damage of centraliza- In conclusion if there were two
tion and waste is thus inextricably in- books of Wendell Berry that I would rec-
volved with human damage. For we have, ommend reading first it would be “Sex,
as a result, not only a desecrated, ugly, Economy, Freedom and Community” in
and dangerous country in which to live that it provides a comprehensive survey
until we are in some manner poisoned by of his thoughts on family, community
it, and a constant and now generally ac- and the implications for our nation and
cepted problem of unemployed or unem- world, but my favorite to date is “The
ployable workers, but also classrooms full Long-Legged House” which reveals Ber-
of children who lack the experience and ry’s love of his wife, his family, and his
discipline of fundamental human tasks, land in an intimate and personal way.
and various institutions full of still capa- He describes the bond he has with his
ble old people who are useless and lonely.” native soil. The memories of family and
(What are People For?, page 128). community he finds everywhere indel-
Ex-secretary of Agriculture Earl ibly etched in the landscape. Through
Butz repeatedly spoke of his own Dar- the land He is more profoundly bound to
winistic approach to the farmers of his mother, father, grandparents, uncles,
the United States in his “Butz’s law of aunts, cousins and neighbors who cul-
Economics” based on his oft-repeated tivated and were succored by the same
mantra: “Adapt or die.” And so decades of dying occurred. land, and he is equally wed to the lives of present and future
Impeaching that philosophy Wendell counters with another generations to which he feels an unspoken affinity. A jour-
law: nalist interviewing Wendell on his land was struck by this
“The practice of Christianity, which instructs that one’s comment from Wendell as they surveyed his homestead:
neighbors are to be loved as oneself. To farmers who give “What I am going to do here is grow an old growth forest.
priority to the maintenance of their community, the economy It will take about two hundred years, and I won’t live to see
of scale (that is the economy of large scale growth) can make it, but there will be some nice trees here, if somebody does

The Mormon Worker Lakotah Indians Declare Independence from the United States of America 37
not cut them down.” (Interview Jordan Fisher-Smith, Autumn brings on the grass.
1993, Orion) In the labor of the fields
Wendell Berry has the long view in both directions and Longer than a man’s life
his land is the prism through which he sees more clearly I am at home. Don’t come with me
both the past, present and future. All of his philosophy You stay home too.”
and religion is channeled to more perfectly loving and
preserving his family, community. His land becomes the
instrument through which this is most effectively realized,
thereby, cementing his loving loyalty to preserving all
healthy and virtuous expressions that flow from it. Though Lakotah Indians Declare Independence
having traveled some, Wendell’s only desire now is to be from the United States of America
home and savor each moment from his land: By Jason Brown
“It seems to me that our people are suffering terribly from “After 150 years of colonial enforcement, when you back people
a sort of spiritual nomadism, a loss of meaningful contact into a corner there is only one alternative. That alternative is
with the earth and the earth’s cycles of birth, growth, and to bring freedom back into existence by taking it back - back to
death. They lack the vital morality and spirituality that can the love of freedom, to our lifeway.” Canupa Gluha Mani
come only from such contact; the sense, for instance, of their On December 19th 2007, delegates from the Lakotah Na-
dependence on earth, and the sense of external mystery sur- tion held a press conference to announce that “the Lakotah
rounding life on earth, which is its ultimate and most disci- formally and unilaterally withdraws from all agreements
plining context.” (The Long-Legged House, pg. 86). and treaties imposed by the United States Government
Wendell’s love of family, home, land and community on the Lakotah People.” Representatives stated that they
gives him an eloquence that moves those that have hearing were now a sovereign nation, and, bolstered by the recent
ears and understanding hearts to also go home, attach to UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, have
some land and give their heart and mind to it. Wendell has sought recognition from the governments of Venezuela,
returned home, and he invites us in his poem “Stay Home” Bolivia and others.
to do the same in every sense of the word: Russell Means, the Native American actor/activist
“I will wait here in the fields stated that “we are no longer citizens of the United States
to see how well the rain of America and all those who live in the five-state area that

encompasses our country are free to join us.’’ The Lakota swath of claimed territory, but said they would begin to
Sioux are the tribe of famous chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy issue liens on properties that they dub illegal, because, ac-
Horse, and are spread throughout the states of Wyoming, cording to Lakotah spokespersons, the U.S. government
North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Montana. They has encouraged illegal homesteading on Lakotah lands in
do not intend to force Anglo residents to leave the vast recent years.
The Lakotah cite numerous injustices committed against
them after what Means calls the “U.S. invasion and occupa-
tion of Indian lands,” beginning in 1803 when the U.S. made
the 828,000 square miles Louisiana Purchase from France,
er
v
Ri
ow
sto
ne
which included Lakotah territory. In subsequent years, Na-
Ye l l
tive populations were subjected to Homestead Acts, which
allow whites to settle on their lands; Allotment Acts, which
Mis forced private property ownership; and the Citizenship Act,
ou
which effectively made all Native Americans citizens of the
s
ri
Riv
er
No
rt
United States, but according to Means, without the same
h
Pl
at
te R
ive
rights. Means compares actions by the U.S. government
r
to those of Israel against Palestinians, Nazi Germany, and
apartheid South Africa, suffering forced relocations and a
reservation system that resemble labor camps.
LakotaOyate
The new Nation of Lakotah will issue its own passports,
driver’s licenses, and will allow anyone to live there tax
free provided they renounce their citizenship to the United
States. Means describes the new Republic as designed to
save the rural lifestyle of America, one that will empha-
size “individual liberty though community control.” Each
community will be a mini-state, ruled by consensus and
public assembly, linking rural and urban communities in
a federation.
The Lakotah declaration comes with robust legal sup-

port. The Vienna Convention of Treaties and Article Sixth 800% higher than the U.S. national average.
of the US Constitution, makes treaties binding law of the • Alcoholism affects 8 in 10 families.
land. The Lakotah entered into treaties with the United
• Median income is about $2,600 to $3,500 per year.
States government after several violent skirmishes over
Lakotah territory. The Treaty of 1851 and the Treaty of • 1/3 of the homes lack basic clean water and sewage
1868 at Fort Laramie which sought to build a road through while 40% lack electricity.
Lakotah territory, expressly recognized the Lakotah as an • 60% of housing is infected with potentially fatal black
independent nation, and promised to treat them as such. molds.
These treaties were repeatedly violated, and when gold • 97% of Lakota people live below the poverty line.
was found in the Black Hills, billions of dollars in gold
• Unemployment rates on our reservations is 85% or
have since been mined from Lakotah territory. The Lako-
higher.
tah have been waiting since the treaties were signed for
the U.S. to comply with their stipulations and have grown • Federal Commodity Food Program provides high sugar
tired of waiting, said Means. It remains unknown what foods that kill Native people through diabetes and
form this newly declared autonomy will take, but since the heart disease.
declaration, millions of people have visited their website • Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S. na-
to express concern, outrage, and solidarity. tional average for this group.
Here are some shocking facts about the Lakota avail- • Our Lakota language is an Endangered Language, on
able at the website wwww.republicoflakotah.com: the verge of extinction.
• Lakota men have a life expectancy of less than 44 years,
lowest of any country in the World (excluding AIDS)
including Haiti.
Sioux Chiefs
• Lakota death rate is the highest in the United States. Edward R. Curtis,
photographer
• The Lakota infant mortality rate is 300% more than
circa 1905
the U.S. Average. Library of Congress,
• More than half the Reservation’s adults battle addic- Prints & Photographs
Division
tion and disease.
• The Tuberculosis rate on Lakota reservations is approx

The Mormon Worker Peter Chelč ický (c. 1390 – c. 1460) 40
of birth to the manner in which he earned a living. Al-

though his works have made him the most famous Czech
Peter Chelčický (c. 1390 – c.1460) philosopher of the medieval period, events surrounding
By Kristen Kinjo-Bushman
his personal life have sadly been confined to historical
obscurity. Scholars do agree, however, that he was born no
As the Protestant Reformation swept through Europe, later (though perhaps earlier) than the year 1390 during the
John Wyclif’s teachings inspired Jan Hus, a reign of King Václav IV of the Luxembourg
Czechoslovakian, to initiate reform in his Dynasty. Most believe that he was raised in
own country. During the years of 1415-1419, Chelčice, a village near Vodniany, though all
Jan Hus organized the Czechoslovakians agree that he lived most of his later life there.
in a movement that would be known as the He proclaimed that he was a peasant, though
Hussite Revolution. Hus, in turn, inspired that has also been disputed; several believe
several others including Martin Luther and that his identification with the lower class
Peter Chelčický to question the Catholic was ideological rather than literal. Others
Church’s deviation from Christ’s teachings. have suggested that he was everything from
The Hussites published the heretical Four a priest to a cobbler, a squire or a nobleman.
Articles of Prague, which were a kind of Chelčický’s limited understanding of Latin
forerunner to Luther’s 95 theses. The four implies that he lacked formal education, and
articles included: 1) Freedom to preach the taught himself to read and write simply be-
Word of God, 2) Celebration of the Lord’s cause he desperately desired to express his
Supper (bread and wine to priests and lay- convictions. His opponents tried to dismiss
persons alike), 3) No secular power for the Peter’s radical thoughts by scoffing at his
clergy, and 4) Punishment for the mortal humble academic background; but frankly,
sins. After the martyrdom of Jan Hus, the they could not ignore his persistent passion
Protestant Reformation movement splin- for history and the issues of the day, which
tered and quickly became violent. In this turbulent social proved him a formidable, though unconventional, agitator.
and political context, Peter Chelčický was born. One scholar has written, “Though he was not a master of
Most specifics surrounding the life of Peter Chelčický the seven arts, he certainly was a practitioner of the eight
remain disputed –everything from his exact date and place beatitudes and of all the divine commandments, and was

The Mormon Worker Peter Chelč ický (c. 1390 – c. 1460) 41
therefore a real Czech Doctor, versed in the law of the

Lord without aberration from the truth.”
Brief Descriptions of Chelčický’s Major Ideas
Born with a deep desire to reconcile his religious life
and beliefs with his understanding of the political and ANARCHISM
ethical turmoil of Bohemia, he eagerly read John Wyclif,
“He who obeys God needs no other authority.” As the quote
Jan Hus, Thomas of Stitny, and others of the Waldensian
mentioned in the brief biographical sketch illustrated (re-
tradition. However, Chelčický’s more radical reading of the
garding the pope and the emperor –taken from The Net
New Testament compelled him to renounce the reformist
of Faith), Chelčický believed that Christ’s kingdom had
views of his predecessors and proclaim that, “You cannot
deteriorated from the power and majesty of its humble
improve society without first destroying the foundations
beginnings to a self-righteous secular empire that ruled na-
of the existing social order.” In his most famous work, Sieť
tions with Christianity as a false banner. Chelčický believed
viery, or The Net of Faith he denounced the pope and the
that Christ’s authority and His laws were preeminent and
emperor as, “whales who have torn the true net of faith.”
sufficient to rule true believers. Supporting state authority
Claiming that both the church and the state had corrupted
only weakened man’s connection to Christ and deferred
Christ’s teachings, he became a medieval Christian anar-
to manmade artifices of political and economic ranks. He
chist who would be revered years later by Leo Tolstoy.
asserted that even taking part in the government was sin-
Chelčický had many radical and interesting views about
ful –as one was then complicit to the wars and injustices
pacifism, economics and any kind of church authority. He
of which the state was guilty. As far as criminal justice
unabashedly wrote, “This Net of Faith was written by me,
was concerned, Chelčický believed that no man or earthly
Peter, amid the confusions of Bohemia and Europe, at the
power was qualified to judge another, and that God would
time prophesied in the Second Woe of the Apocalypse,
judge righteous judgment of sinners –for us, it was given
when Satan, whose one horn is Protestant and the other
to simply forgive. Most of his opinions regarding govern-
Catholic, shall be loosed upon the earth.” He chose to
ment agree with fellow Christian anarchist Leo Tolstoy.
break from both the traditional orthodox church as well as
In fact, Tolstoy venerated Chelčický and referenced his
the oftentimes violent rebellion of the reformed churches.
works in his book The Kingdom of God is Within You, and
Perhaps for this very reason, of his 56 known works, very
admitted that he was very much influenced by his writings.
few have been translated into English.

The Mormon Worker Commonwealth 42
manipulate borders and increase property. “Wars and other

PACIFISM kinds of murder have their beginning in the hatred of the
enemy and in the unwillingness to be patient with evil.
Chelčický was a strict pacifist –preaching forgiveness rather
Their root is in intemperate self-love and in immoderate
than retaliation. He denounced a standing government mili-
affection for temporal possessions. These conflicts are
tary, offensive and defensive war, capital punishment, and
brought into this world because men do not trust the Son
violence of any kind. He stated, “God never revoked His
of God enough to abide by his commandments.”
commandment ‘You shall not kill’.” He believed that Chris-
tians should refuse to serve in the military, arguing that if the
poor refused to fight the king’s wars, noblemen would have
no one to go to war for them. Refusing to condone murders
committed in wartime, Chelčický asserted that soldiers were Commonwealth
just as guilty for shedding blood as any common criminal. Matthew Thomas
His decision to follow the Prince of Peace entailed personal
pacifism as well as the desire to spread his convictions. “Our Modern democratic republicanism, in all its varieties, theo-
faith obliges us to bind wounds, not to make blood run.” retical or realized, be they liberal, social democratic, or
even anarchistic 1, took root in the events surrounding the
ECONOMICS English Revolution (1642-1652), and the establishment of that
short-lived republic, the Commonwealth of England. The
Taking Christ’s teachings (regarding service and charity) precedent set by this revolution was of great importance to
absolutely literally, Chelčický was a Christian communist; the subsequent American and French revolutions because
he believed in complete economic equality. He believed the absolutism of monarchial authority was not only ques-
that true Christians would never consent to live in wealth tioned, but challenged, and ultimately overthrown.
while their brothers and sisters lived in poverty. He main- Aside from religious strife and political revolution in
tained that social stratifications were a tool used by the England, 17th Century Europe was in the midst of a larger
State to subjugate the poor and create status among the social transformation, politically and commercially, which
noblemen. Any artificial divisions among God’s children might be reckoned the early emergence of “bourgeois soci-
were merely products of pride and selfishness. He also ety.” Additionally, many philosophers were challenging the
denounced war as an economic device merely meant to belief systems which had prevailed, and finding expression

in schools of thought called “rationalism,” and “empiricism.” embracing as they do a certain legal principle known as
This era was known as the Age of Reason. And the politi- imperium, that is, the right to “use force in maintaining
cal philosophies which emerged from this age, and from law,” 2 all laws. The liberal democratic state is merely Le-
the subsequent Enlightenment, form the basis of modern viathan’s refined and oftentimes mild-mannered brother,
political thought and practice. Behemoth. It is this observation which is central to the
Following the English Civil Wars, two dominant world- anarchist’s critique of political life.
views came into being; one, from the modern perspective, True, the English Revolution had no self-styled anar-
radically conservative, and the other, radically liberal. Po- chists of any significance 3, but Gerrard Winstanley (1609
litical parties emerged from these, the Tories and the Whigs. - 1676) was a forerunner of Christian communism, and
The first, that of radical conservatism, was expressed by the True Levellers (associates of Winstanley), in their ac-
Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1689). Fully aware of the bloodshed tions, behaved in a manner very much befitting anarchists
and grief engendered by civil strife, Hobbes believed that — these “squatters” reclaimed the commons and planted
in a state of nature, man’s life was “brutish” and “short.” vegetables on the lands of the English gentry, declaring the
He believed that in order for men to live they needed to free use of the Earth was man’s natural inheritance. For
form a social contract, under which they would surrender this, they became known as the “Diggers.”
themselves to a terrible sovereign, an absolute authority,
the allegorical “Leviathan.” John Locke (1632 - 1704), how- The Roundheads and Cavaliers
ever, championed “natural law,” believing that in a state
The English Revolution has frequently been referred to as
of nature, human beings acted freely and rationally, and
the Puritan Revolution, and with good reason. The Puritans
only chose to form a social contract to complement exist-
feared the “High Anglicanism” of King Charles I was merely
ing order. In this one sees liberalism’s roots.
the platform upon which Catholicism would be restored in
Liberalism is the cornerstone upon which modern con-
England. Their fears were heightened by the fact that his
stitutional regimes are built. Liberal democracy — despite
Queen, Maria Henrietta, was a French Catholic. And the
its rhetorical concern for individual rights and freedoms, its
English did not want to see an absolute Catholic monarchy
programs instituted by progressive and socialist legislators
established in England as existed elsewhere in Europe.
to ameliorate the evils of poverty, and so forth — despite
Charles I, like his father, James I, was a proponent of
all these — retains an unfortunate family resemblance with
the notion that kings ruled by divine right. Charles I had,
its near relative, “Leviathan.” All states, regardless of their
after all, ruled without an assembled Parliament for eleven
constitutional peculiarities, are fundamentally the same,

years (“The Eleven Years’ Tyranny”). Parliament 4 was, Parliament. And so, with these acts — seen as Parliament’s
therefore, justifiably distrustful of Charles I; they feared usurpation of the Crown’s royal prerogative — Charles I
his arbitrary rule. They also worried he would unite the sought to arrest John Pym and four others.
kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, apply High The attempt to arrest the leaders of Parliament caused
Anglicanism throughout the Realm, and forever change a schism in the government which could not be bridged.
the character of the English monarchy. But his religious Parliament sent Charles I a list of nineteen demands which
reforms in Scotland, and the introduction of the Book of effectively would have left the Sovereign powerless. Par-
Common Prayer there, led to outright rebellion, the Bish- liament demanded the Crown relinquish command of the
ops’ War. army and its right to appoint judges and ministers. It pro-
In 1640, Charles I had no choice but to call for the as- posed the abolition of the Catholic Church, too. In response,
sembly of Parliament, for it was only they who could raise Charles I raised an army. Parliament raised its own. On
the taxes necessary to end the Scottish rebellion. John Pym October 24, 1642, at Edgehill, the two armies met on the
5, the leader of Parliament, used this opportunity to address battlefield, and the First English Civil War began.
grievances against the Crown. Charles I took great umbrage “Indeed the government of kings is a breeder of wars,”
at being challenged and had Parliament dissolved three wrote Gerrard Winstanley to Oliver Cromwell nearly ten
weeks after it was called. The dissolution of the so-called years later, “because men being put into the straits of pov-
“Short Parliament” proved a disaster for Charles I, however. erty are moved to fight for liberty, and to take one another’s
Without the support of Parliament and lacking funds, the estates from them, and to obtain mastery. Look into all
king’s war was lost, and the Scots occupied Durham and armies, and see what they do more, but make some poor,
Northumberland. some rich; put some into freedom, and others into bondage.
In November, 1640, Charles I was again forced to call And is not this a plague among mankind?”
upon Parliament. His relationship with the “Long Parlia- The struggle was not simply between Parliament and
ment” was more difficult yet. Above voicing grievances, the Crown over issues of governmental prerogative, of
Parliament acted, according to its own authority, declaring course, but one which embroiled all of society, just as Win-
that it must meet at least once every three years and the stanley had stated. There was turmoil not only in England,
Crown could not dissolve it without its consent. Ireland but in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland as well; it was a struggle
then rebelled against English rule and, as a result, anti- of nations. Conflict between Catholics and Protestants (and
Catholic sentiments flared again in England. Charles I came between Protestant sects) divided the country. And there
to believe his wife, the Queen, would be impeached by was a class struggle, too. A small merchant class sought

to extend its political power. The peasants, landless, and as Officers and Ministers under them for the good of the
impoverished desired better lives and greater freedom. People and that without any King or House of Lords.”
And the aristocracy and gentry feared both these. Despite the proclamation of the Commonwealth, Roy-
The Royalists lost the First Civil war and Charles I was alists fought on. The Third English Civil War effectively
surrendered to Parliament by the Scots in 1647. But the king started and ended with the defeat of Charles II (who had
found refuge in exile on the Isle of Wight. There he man- been crowned King of the Scots) at the Battle of Worcester
aged to negotiate with both the Parliamentarians and Scots. in September, 1651. Charles II then fled to France, and the
He reached an agreement with the Scots in December, 1647, Commonwealth went, more or less, unchallenged.
and exploited rebellions in Kent and Wales. The Second The government of the Commonwealth was riddled
English Civil War started in the Spring of 1648. This time with problems, however, not the least of which was divi-
when Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentary “Roundheads” de- sions between the classes. There were major and minor
feated the Royalist “Cavaliers,” further negotiations were factions, including, among others: The Grandees, the landed
futile. That faction within Parliament which did not fully gentry, and seniors officers in Cromwell’s New Model
support the army was expelled, leaving a “Rump Parlia- Army, which desired suffrage be granted only those men
ment” to govern. Charles I was charged with treason and owning significant property; the Levellers, a faction which
executed (Jan. 30, 1649). desired suffrage be expanded either to freemen or to men
owning at least some property; various conservatives and
The Commonwealth remaining monarchists; the Presbyterians; the Fifth Mon-
archy Men, who believed the Fifth Monarchy, following
On May 19, 1649, Parliament established the English Com-
allusions made in the Book of Daniel (Danl 2:31-45), would
monwealth: “Be it declared and enacted by this present Par-
be the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ on Earth estab-
liament and by the Authoritie of the same That the People
lished in the year 1666; and the True Levellers, a radi-
of England and of all the Dominions and Territoryes there-
cal Christian faction, who pronounced and elaborated a
unto belonging are and shall be and are hereby constituted,
proto-democratic-communist platform in the interest of
made, established, and confirmed to be a Commonwealth
“universal liberty.”
and free State And shall from henceforth be Governed as a
In April 1653, Cromwell expelled the Rump Parliament
Commonwealth and Free State by the supreame Authoritie
and created the “Barebones Parliament,” or Nominated
of this Nation, the Representatives of the People in Par-
Assembly, modeled, roughly, on the ancient Judæan San-
liament and by such as they shall appoint and constitute
hedrin at the request of the Fifth Monarchist Thomas Har-

rison (1606 - 1660). Harrison suggested the assembly have half. Thomas Fairfax, commander of the army, spoke to
seventy members, but the Council of Officers raised its Gerrard Winstanley, and believing the “Diggers” posed
number to 140, allowing for representatives from Scotland no substantial threat, ordered the matter be settled in the
and Ireland as well. This Parliament was not well respected, courts.
being one of men of lowly social station and lacking politi- The Diggers were not permitted to speak in their own
cal expertise and experience. defense before the court, and were ordered to vacate the
When the “Barebones Parliament” was dissolved, Oliver land upon which they were squatting. Broken, they did so
Cromwell governed as Lord Protector until he died in 1658. in August, 1649.
This Protectorate resembled a military dictatorship in many Other Digger communities were established at Little
respects, despite the occasional meetings of a Parliament. Heath, Cobham, Surrey; Willingborough, Northampton-
Thereafter, his son Richard ruled briefly as Lord Protector, shire; and Iver, Buckinghamshire. In all these places they
but resigned in May, 1659. The government passed then to were harassed and forced to abandon the communities they
the Rump Parliament again. established. By 1651 the movement was undone, having no
more than two hundred members at any one time.
Gerrard Winstanley and the “Diggers” Nevertheless, on November 5, 1651, Gerard Winstanley
wrote to Oliver Cromwell, imploring him to consider the
Because political life in England had been disrupted and the
reorganization of the Commonwealth according to prin-
old social hierarchy upended, many Englishmen sought to
ciples which might be called today “Christian socialism.”
reorder society upon a more level foundation. Perhaps the
The Law of Freedom in a Platform was written in 1650, but
True Levellers were those with the greatest foresight.
it was not for another two years, when matters had settled
The True Levellers settled on the commons of St.
some, that Winstanley believed the government might look
George’s Hill, Weybridge, Surrey in April, 1649, and there
favorably upon his proposal.
began to plant vegetables and to build common build-
The egalitarian political program Winstanley advanced
ings. They issued a proclamation inviting peasants to join
was justified by his belief that all of humanity was of a single
them in the reclamation of the commons and pull down
essence, “members of one Family,” which “looking upon
all enclosures, not only at St. George’s Hill, but, ultimately,
each other, as equals in the Creation,” were the sons and
throughout England. The lord of the manor was alarmed
daughters of a benevolent “Maker.” This “great Creator
by their activity, had them harassed and beaten, and finally
Reason” was “no respecter of Persons, but equally loves his
called upon the New Model Army to intervene on his be-
whole Creation, and hates nothing but the Serpent, which

is Covetousness, branching forth into selvish Imagination, while a king, had the power of life and death in them?” —
Pride, Envie, Hypocrisie, Uncleanness.” And he believed, he failed to make a deeper criticism of state power, and a
from his reading of the Bible, a commonwealth such as condemnation of this “power of life and death.” Much less
the one he envisioned for England had existed in the land did he suggest imperium, the death penalty, and the state
of Canaan before the Children of Israel had the prophet itself should go the way of the Charles I and his “Norman”
Samuel anoint a king, namely Saul, to lead them. The Isra- tyranny. He stated simply: “Government is a wise and
elites only “began to complain of oppression [when] kingly free ordering of the earth and the manners of mankind by
government rose up, which is the power of covetousness observation of particular laws or rules, so that all the in-
and pride.” And so it was in England under the reign of habitants may live peaceably in plenty and freedom in the
“that Norman power.” land where they are born and bred.” Even so, he believed
Belief that the English labored under the “Norman Yoke” the laws of a commonwealth should be “short and pithy”
prevailed among many peasants and freeholders, and this so as to be readily understood by the public. Tyranny was,
notion figured prominently in Winstanley’s writings. The he reasoned, facilitated by the public’s general ignorance
revolution against Charles I was, therefore, a revolution of law. “Kingly law” was often written in French or Latin
to free England from the legacy of William the Conqueror. for precisely this reason, to maintain ignorance, to incite
For “[w]hen William Duke of Normandy had conquered contention amongst the commoners, and thus protect the
England, he took possession of the earth for his freedom privilege of the gentry and nobility. “But now if the laws
and disposed of our English ground to his friends as he were few and short, and often read, it would prevent those
pleased, and made the conquered English his servants, to evils;” Winstanley wrote, “and everyone, knowing when
plant the earth for him and his friends.” In order to rectify they did well and when ill, would be very cautious of their
this ancient wrong, Winstanley argued the English people words and actions; and this would escape the lawyers’
should “recover the freedom of our land again, from under craft.”
that yoke and power,” because “[t]rue commonwealth’s The legal regimen was to step away from English Com-
freedom lies in the free enjoyment of the earth.” Free oc- mon Law and establish Civil and Statute Law in its place.
cupancy, the land held in common, was the birthright of Common law was arbitrary, literally and figuratively, and
all English, to work, to use, to enjoy — the Earth was, in “in many courts and cases of law the will of a judge and
short, “a Common Treasury.” lawyer rules above the letter of the law.” But Statute Law
And while state authority was rightly perceived by was entirely just because it was enacted with the public’s
Winstanley — “[f]or do we not see that the laws of a king,

consent and according to their understanding. “The bare bottom of this divining spiritual doctrine: and the more
letter of the law established by act of Parliament shall be the I searched, the more I was at a loss; and I never came to
rule for officer and people, and the chief judge of all actions.” quiet rest, and to know God in my spirit, till I came to the
It was thus not subject to, and dependent upon, a judge’s knowledge of the things in this book [The Law of Free-
interpretation, or precedents set in a similar fashion. dom],” as knowledge was to be gained in the thoughtful
The second pillar upon which monarchial authori- observation of Creation itself.
ty rested, following the judicial system, lawyers, judges, Tyranny had to be entirely uprooted; “kingly law” and
and all those officers who advanced “kingly law,” was the the church, as a state institution, were to be disestablished,
church and clergy, who advanced “divinity.” While Ger- for if these remained, albeit behind a republican façade,
rard Winstanley’s desire was to see the “Spirit of Christ, monarchy would surely reemerge, and the people of Eng-
which is the Spirit of universal Community and Freedom land would find themselves no longer free, but subjects
is risen” until “the Well Springs of Life and Liberty to the once more. In order to achieve “common freedom,“ it was
whole Creation, do over-run” and “drown those banks of necessary that the economy, and not just government, be
Bondage, Curse and Slavery,” and his philosophy was firmly reorganized. For it was all and good that the law should be
grounded in Christian sentiments, the clergy were viewed remade, but man, being a material being, required material
with particular distrust. “[T]heir work was to persuade means in order to maintain and improve his existence.
the multitude of people to let [the heirs of] William the “True freedom lies where a man receives his nourish-
Conqueror alone with a quiet possession and government ment and preservation, and that is in the use of the earth,”
of the earth, and to call it his and not theirs, and so not to Winstanley wrote. “For as man is compounded of the four
rebel against him” by means of “divine doctrine” which is materials of the creation, fire, water, earth and air; so is he
“not to advance knowledge, but to destroy the true knowl- preserved by the compounded bodies of these four, which
edge of God.” are the fruits of the earth; and he cannot live without them.
He believed the clergy were guilty of contriving such For take away the free use of these and the body languishes,
abstractions which merely “blind the reason of man.” In- the spirit is brought into bondage and at length departs,
variably one who loses himself in the clergy’s sophistry and ceaseth his motional action in the body.”
while he “strives and stretches his brains to find out the In order to combat the thralldom inherent in want, the
depth of that doctrine and cannot attain to it: for indeed it True Levellers proposed that every unattached individual
is not knowledge but imagination.” Winstanley continued, and every family had a common right to occupy the land,
“For my own part, my spirit hath waded deep to find the to use and work it in common, but that each should own

their own home and have their own livestock and goods, wood, hammers, and nails for builders; raw materials, etc.
though such goods be acquired from a “common store- There were to be stores in every village, town, and shire,
house.” The family, although patriarchal, was the basic each for its given purpose, and finally national stores to
social unit in the democratic community they envisioned; facilitate trade between England and the other nations of
it was the essential working-group in the social produc- the world.
tion of goods. In this common right to occupy and use the earth, there
Winstanley believed in the fundamental equality of was lacking any notion that the earth should be state prop-
humanity, and between the sexes, stating it was unreason- erty, or property of any kind for that matter, but only that
able that “one branch of mankind should rule over another,” its occupation should be established reasonably so as to
being that “[e]very single man, Male and Female, is a per- see it well-used and not despoiled. Institutionally, if any-
fect Creature of himself; and the same Spirit that made thing, this free use of the earth might be likened, loosely,
the Globe, dwels in man to govern the Globe.” In educa- to usufruct, for one had every right to enjoy the fruits of
tion, marriage and in the enjoyment of the fruits of labor, the earth and one’s labor. Such a formulation regarding
men and women were held to be equals. “Every man and common rights in occupancy, use, possession, and the in
woman shall have the free liberty to marry whom they love, creation and maintenance of a community of goods, would
if they can obtain the love and liking of that party whom be seen again in the writings of the Russian anarchist Petr
they would marry; and neither birth nor portion shall hin- Kropotkin as he expounded upon the values of “Free Com-
der the match, for we are all of one blood, mankind; and munism” two-hundred-fifty years later.
for portion, the common store-houses are every man and Gold and silver should be used primarily in the cre-
maid’s portion, as free to one as to another.” ation of ornaments, cups, utensils, etc., for it was not to
The common store-houses were to be open to all, to be be stamped coinage, except in the case of foreign trade
supplied for by every member of the community, and in where it was to be stamped with the Coat of Arms of the
which there would be neither buying nor selling, but free Commonwealth so that foreign traders might have access
trade as a kind of indirect barter. There were to be stores to English common stores, and the English to foreign mar-
from which personal goods might be obtained: Foodstuffs, kets, where direct barter was not feasible. It was never to
clothing, shoes, gloves, furniture, etc. And there were to be be used traded domestically, for it was believed such buy-
stores from which supplies might be taken for the produc- ing and selling would signal the reintroduction of “kingly
ers themselves: Leather and awls for shoemakers; lathes government,” tyranny, bondage, and class-rule.
and saws for carpenters; bolts of cloth for tailors; stores of The Commonwealth was to be centralized in that Par-

liament would be vested with the authority to legislate all members of parliament, were to hold office for only one
national laws, but that each community should be autono- year. “When public officers remain long in place of judi-
mous in the execution of the law, and particularly in the cature,” wrote Winstanley, “they will degenerate from the
ordering of production. Further, each town and city should bounds of humility, honesty and tender care of brethren,
send “two or three” representative to Parliament. And each in regard the heart of man is so subject to be overspread
shire should have it own “senate.” Adult male suffrage was with the clouds of covetousness, pride and vain-glory: for
to be universal, but the franchise should be divided. The though at the first entrance into places of rule they be of
first half of that division was the right to choose officers public spirits, seeking the freedom of others as their own;
and representatives. In this, all men over the age of twenty yet continuing long in such a place where honours and
should have the right to choose. However, in the second greatness is coming in, they become selfish, seeking them-
portion of the political franchise, that of being eligible to selves and not common freedom; as experience proves it
run for office, it was extended to men over forty, because true in these days, according to this common proverb.”
“youths” were deemed “wanton.” Nevertheless, a young Above all, and in common with modern anarchists, the
man of noteworthy industriousness and/or moderation True Levellers valued self-government, democracy’s foun-
might be deemed worthy of office-holding should his fel- dation, as can be seen when Winstanley wrote: “the flesh
lows so agree to elect him. of man being subject to Reason, his Maker, hath him to be
Of particular interest was the office which Winstanley his Teacher and Ruler within himself, therefore needs not
called the “overseer.” The overseer was a village or town run abroad after any Teacher and Ruler without him”. In
official who oversaw the various family industries for the other words, Winstanley believed humanity had within it-
sake of economic efficiency and proper land stewardship, self certain innate moral and social instincts, each sufficient
to offer professional advice, and according to his own in reason, to allow for self-government and participation
expertise. In each village there would be several over- in public deliberation.
seers. The overseer was also to see to it that youths were Should the Law of Freedom in Platform be enacted,
well-employed and that their creative impulses should not Winstanley believed that, in time, the English Common-
be stifled, particularly with those showing genius. These wealth would be a “lily among the nations of the earth,”
overseers were also to act as a peacemakers, to arbitrate and the law of “perfect freedom” would “go forth from
and resolve disputes, so as to avoid the courts whenever England to all the nations of the world,” so in the place of
possible. monarchies, commonwealths would arise, and peaceable
All officers, from judges, overseers, and clergymen, to

relations between all peoples would flourish. James II. In a bloodless coup d’état, James II was displaced.
Following the English Revolution, unfortunately, the In 1689, the English Bill of Rights was passed, thus consoli-
Commonwealth was too unsteady and divided to fulfill dating anew many of the gains Parliament had earlier made
its promise. To keep the conquests made its earlier kings, under the republican Commonwealth government.
England invaded Scotland and Ireland. And the Common- Gerrard Winstanley had written to Oliver Cromwell,
wealth’s government degenerated into that of the Crom- in preface of his The Law of Freedom: “There is no middle
well’s Protectorate. Under such circumstances, it can be no path between these two [republic and monarchy], for a man
surprise that Winstanley’s proposal should go unheeded. must either be a free and true commonwealth’s man, or a
Gerrard Winstanley became a Quaker in 1654, and he monarchical tyrannical royalist.” It is ironic perhaps then
and his first wife, Susan, accepted a gift of land, near Cob- that the English got just that, a “middle path,” following
ham, from his father-in-law. Throughout, he remained a the Glorious Revolution and the enactment of the Bill of
Christian universalist, believing all men would be saved, Rights, in the creation of the quasi-democratic6 constitu-
“though some at the last hour.” tional monarchy in existence today.
Republicanism is not a dead letter in the United King-
The Restoration, Glorious Revolution, and Beyond dom, however. Laborite Tony Benn, an active socialist poli-
tician, presented a bill before Parliament first in 1991, and
In all, republicanism was short-lived in England, and the
several times again until his retirement in 2001, called the
monarchy was reinstituted with the ascension of Charles
“Commonwealth of Britain Bill.” It would, in effect, create
II in 1660. The Restoration saw the final suppression of the
a democratic, federal, and secular republic in Britain, with
revolutionists with the arrest and execution of the theo-
separate parliaments for England, Wales, and Scotland, the
cratic Fifth Monarchy Men, some of which they termed
abolition of the monarchy, the creation of a presidential
regicides, because Thomas Harrison, one of their number,
office, the disestablishment of the Church of England, and
signed the death warrant for Charles I. But the absolutism
an end to British jurisdiction over Northern Ireland.
of the English monarchy died with Charles I. For when the
Gerrard Winstanley died in 1676; his ideals persist.
avowed Catholic James II, the son of Charles II, took the
throne, the English feared, once more, the rise of an absolute
Catholic monarchy. In 1688, Parliamentarians of both par-
Notes:
ties, the Whigs and Tories, sought out William III of Orange
Republic, from Latin res publica, means the “public
to sit upon the English throne with Mary II, daughter of

matter.” In the larger sense an anarchy would still be a the Crown.

republic, but one of a peculiar sort — a stateless demo- I say quasi-democratic because the United Kingdom
cratic and socialist republic. The Russian anarchist Mikhail is a monarchial state, the Crown is legally sovereign, the
Bakunin referred to anarchy in two ways: the “Republic- people have very little say in the actual formulation of
Commune” and “Republic-Federation,” depending on the state policy, and the method by which representatives are
scale of its influence. elected yields skewed results where mere electoral plurali-
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edi- ties lead to governing majorities.
tion, 2000, IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., Foster City, Cali-
fornia.
Sir Robert Filmer (1588 - 1653), a Royalist, expressed Sources:
the idea in his writings that any check on the absolute
The True Leveller’s Standard Advanced: Or, The State of
authority of a monarch was to invite “anarchy.” In this
Community Opened, and Presented to the Sons of Men.
way, Royalists regarded all “Commonwealth Men,” that
Gerrard Winstanley, 1649.
is, republicans, simply anarchists. The “Ranters” were
particularly regarded as such, and charged especially with http://marxists.org/reference/archive/winstan-
being sexual libertines. Neveretheless, the Ranters — pro- ley/1649/levellers-standard.htm
vided they were not a figment of that age’s conservative The Law of Freedom in a Platform. Gerrard Winstanley,
propaganda — were “anarchistic” only in the sense that 1651.
they were antinomial, believing they communed with God http://marxists.org/reference/archive/winstan-
directly, without any need to obey church authority or ley/1652/law-freedom/index.htm
observe holy writ or law.
Wikipedia —
Parliament legally consists of the Crown, House of
Lords, and House of Commons, but common usage has left http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_civil_war;
it to mean the House of Commons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggers;
John Pym (1584 - 1643), an English Puritan, was the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanley;
leader of Parliament during its struggle with King Charles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Commonwealth;
I. His shrewd management allowed Parliament to finance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levellers;
their war against the Royalists, and, ultimately, overcome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Monarchy_Men

The Mormon Worker A Love Poem from Iraq 53
beneath a sun
that rules the burnt horizon
A Love Poem from Iraq on a chariot of reeling winds
By Jack Dawkins peeling our skin
written somewhere south of Baghdad, September 2007 laughing our wins
to laugh our loses as no sum
last we spoke on the phone for everything it levels in the end
you asked before the signal died
why I haven’t written you a poem how could I write home
what would I write when
and I have thought and sought and sifted the very stars have crossed
the reason from the remains and conspired to separate
coursed the grains of sand and as sand and sea stand between
roaring gravel when the meanest of men piece
to roam in unraveling battle through Babel together the policies that rule me
to build it in a day while sectarian strife is making civil
to word this in a way that wont hurt: hands to be unclean
where cell phone signals are weak
this desert with fair Verizon where we lay our scene
has dried up all my ink so when we speak our waves don’t meet
before my heart could spill like wax but crash in static and defeat
our time zones eight hours out of sync
upon the page so calling me each evening
and all my passion wakes my whole platoon every 4:00 am
all my rage the more I am here the less I adhere
all my love to the plan we set to steer us safely
all my hate through the waters of this arid
evaporate desolation
this nation

The Mormon Worker A Love Poem from Iraq 54
this cradle of still born civilization from land into the sea
this rocking me listlessly to sleep where they arrive on distant shores
listing to love less lest I give the mess I live to find you
to you, I wouldn’t dream
the words are these:
yet I am weary in not writing you a poem
My dear,
too many reasons under the sun
when you stand there on the beach
so I rise facing east
and steal the silence your eyes toward dawn
from the night know I am here
to find my words (eight hours ahead)
walking barefoot through a wilderness to brave each sunrise alone before you
dipped in drowsed sleep hoping someday one may
where dust and palm fronds sigh with ease hold just long enough
beneath a pale and half-moon light for me to ride into the sky
that lays to earth so soft a yarn to rise and fall with it west
it paints a parchment white landing me on the pillow
there I kneel where you rest your head
weapon to side
branch in hand that I may catch you in time
to write your poem to kiss your half-closed eyes
into the sand in the early morning moments
parting dust to mark the words just before you rise
to trace the thought grain by grain when all dreams and waking
waiting for the winds to blow the words all our wanting and waiting
with sand into my eyes all combine
til I cry the tears that wash those words and intertwine

The Mormon Worker Contributors 55
to find you and me

together
at last Contributors
again. Abdullah Mulhimone is a Palestinian from Ramallah in
the occupied West Bank. He received a degree in Finance
beneath reeling winds from Arizona State University.
that subsume the noon sun
Jason Brown served an LDS mission in the Dominican
from horizon to horizon
Republic and graduated from BYU in anthropology. He
laughing at our wins
hopes to dedicate his life to the principles of solidary, sus-
to laugh our loses as no sum
tainability, and cooperation. He can be contacted at jason-
for everything is leveled in the end.
brown644@hotmail.com
Tyler Bushman served an LDS mission in Pueblo, Mexico
So I fall asleep in debt to no rest
and is a welder by profession. He spent the summer of 2008
on dusty earth
doing Human Rights monitoring in Chiapas, Mexico and is
for dreams too feverish now to allow
a distributor for the Zapatista Women’s Collective.
your image berth
I stopped imagining your fair features Jack Dawkins is an active duty soldier in Iraq.
weeks ago Bruce Gagnon is the coordinator of the Global Network
Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. He lives in
the memories of your slow kisses seem Bath, Maine. www.space4peace.org
out of place amidst the sickness I now
Spencer Kingman is a member of the LDS church and an
know
anti-war activist. He lives in Provo, Utah where he studies
math education at Utah Valley State College and works with
disabled people at a recreational program called RAH.
Kristen Kinjo-Bushman served an LDS mission in Hun-
gary. Kristen is currently a student of philosophy and an
avid lover of the outdoors.

The Mormon Worker Contributors 56
Joshua Madson served an LDS misson to Marilia, Brazil.

He has a bachelors degree in History from Brigham Young
University and a Juris Doctorate from the J. Reuben Clark
Law School. Joshua currently serves as an Elder’s Quorum
Instructor.
Ron Madson served an LDS mission to France-Switzer-
land. Ron received a bachelors degree in English from
BYU and a Juris Doctorate from the J. Reuben Clark Law
School in 1981 and has practiced law in Nevada and Utah
for the past 27 years.
Mathew Thomas lives and works in Salt Lake City.
Gregory VanWagenen is a secular Mormon. In the past
he organized for the Militant Labor Forum in Salt Lake
City and Los Angeles. He has also worked as a campaign
volunteer for the New Democratic Party in the Burnaby- Anarchism (from the Greek, contrary to authority),
Kingsway (British Columbia) riding. He has three chil- the name given to a principle or theory of life and
dren. conduct under which society is conceived without
Will Van Wagenen served an LDS mission to Frankfurt, government—harmony in such a society being ob-
Germany. He has a Bachelors Degree in German from tained, not by submission to law, or by obedience
Brigham Young University, and a Master’s degree in Theol- to any authority, but by free agreements concluded
ogy from Harvard. Will spent seven months in Iraq doing between the various groups, territorial and profes-
human rights work. sional, freely constituted for the sake of production
Stephen Wellington is from England. He served an LDS and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the
mission to Capetown, South Africa. He is currently study- infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized
ing Medicine at the University of East Anglia. Stephen being. Peter Kropotkin
grew up in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and lived there during
“anarchism,” the encyclopaedia britannica, 1910
the First Gulf War.

The Mormon Worker Navigation 57
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“I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves” – joseph smith

►Hold your mouse cursor on the name of an author

niques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after

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ing space technologies in order to give the U.S. “control

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call it the “non-integrating gap”. They identify this gap as

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Defining Socialism Social Justice

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Socialism, Science And History Socialism And Democracy

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The Relevance Of Socialism the benefit of humankind.

Can any individual reconcile God with dialectical mate- Conclusion

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standpoint, but viewed from a Mormon perspective, Uncle

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Zion is most commonly referred to in contemporary Mor-

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“Congress could do a good job, theoretically, but it can’t.

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of birth to the manner in which he earned a living. Al-

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therefore a real Czech Doctor, versed in the law of the

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manipulate borders and increase property. “Wars and other

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matter.” In the larger sense an anarchy would still be a the Crown.

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