The Mormon Worker - Issue 4 - Jul 08

“I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves” – joseph smith
THE
Mormon Worker
Issue 4 July 2008
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a brief bio and an introduction to his or her article The Soviet Union Versus Socialism
►Click on the name of an article to go there
by Noam Chomsky
■ The Soviet Union Versus Socialism by Noam Chomsky
■ National “Flagophilia” by Ron Madson When the world’s two great propaganda systems agree on
■ Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified some doctrine, it requires some intellectual effort to escape
by Norman G. Finkelstein its shackles. One such doctrine is that the society created
■ Interview with Stanley Hauerwas by Lenin and Trotsky and molded further by Stalin and his
Interviewed by Joshua Madson for The Mormon Worker
■ Racism, Violence and the United States, Pt. II: successors has some relation to socialism in some meaning-
Torture and Lynching by Spencer Kingman ful or historically accurate sense of this concept. In fact, if
■ A Letter to the President by Abdullah Mulhim there is a relation, it is the relation of contradiction.
■ The Weapon Called the Word by Jeremy Cloward It is clear enough why both major propaganda systems
■ What Does It Mean To Follow Jesus Christ Today? insist upon this fantasy. Since its origins, the Soviet State
by Cory Bushman
has attempted to harness the energies of its own popula-
■ The Resurrection of May Day by Gregory Van Wagenen
tion and oppressed people elsewhere in the service of
■ Why Would We Go To War With Iran? by Stephen Wellington
■ To Towel or Not to Towel? by Emily Bushman the men who took ad vantage of the popular ferment in
■ A Brief History of US Efforts to Promote Civil War Russia in 1917 to seize State power. One major ideologi-
in Iraq by William Van Wagenen cal weapon employed to this end has been the claim that
■ Book Review: Building the City of God Community and the State managers are leading their own society and the
Cooperation Among the Mormons Review by Jason Brown world towards the socialist ideal; an impossibility, as any
■ Contributors ■ Navigation
INDEX FULL SCREEN ►
The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 The Soviet Union Versus Socialism 2
socialist—surely any serious Marxist—should have under-

stood at once (many did), and a lie of mammoth propor-
A Note to Our Readers
tions as history has revealed since the earliest days of the
The Mormon Worker is an independent newspaper/jour- Bolshevik regime. The taskmasters have attempted to gain
nal devoted to Mormonism and radical politics. It is pub-
legitimacy and support by exploiting the aura of socialist
lished by members of the LDS Church. The paper is mod-
eled after the legendary Catholic Worker which has been ideals and the respect that is rightly accorded them, to
in publication for over seventy years. conceal their own ritual practice as they destroyed every
The primary objective of The Mormon Worker is to mean- vestige of socialism.
ingfully connect core ideas of Mormon theology with a As for the world’s second major propaganda system, as-
host of political, economic, ecological, philosophical, and sociation of socialism with the Soviet Union and its clients
social topics.
serves as a powerful ideological weapon to enforce con-
Although most contributors of The Mormon Worker are formity and obedience to the State capitalist institutions,
members of the LDS church, some are not, and we accept
to ensure that the necessity to rent oneself to the owners
submissions from people of varying secular and religious
backgrounds. and managers of these institutions will be regarded as
The opinions in The Mormon Worker are not the official virtually a natural law, the only alternative to the ‘social-
view of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ist’ dungeon. The Soviet leadership thus portrays itself as
socialist to protect its right to wield the club, and Western
In solidarity, ideologists adopt the same pretense in order to forestall
The Mormon Worker
the threat of a more free and just society. This joint attack
on socialism has been highly effective in undermining it
in the modern period.
THE MORMON WORKER One may take note of another device used effectively
140 West Oak Circle by State capitalist ideologists in their service to exist-
Woodland Hills, UT 84653 ing power and privilege. The ritual denunciation of the
Subscribe to our print edition: so-called ‘socialist’ States is replete with distortions and
www.themormonworker.org often outright lies. Nothing is easier than to denounce the
themormonworker@gmail.com official enemy and to attribute to it any crime: there is no
http://themormonworker.wordpress.com need to be burdened by the demands of evidence or logic
as one marches in the parade. Critics of Western violence
► INDEX FULL SCREEN ►

and atrocities often try to set the record straight, recog- perversion of ‘socialism’ to the needs of the State priests,
nizing the criminal atrocities and repression that exist and allows us to comprehend the rapid transition between
while exposing the tales that are concocted in the service positions that superficially seem diametric opposites, but
of Western violence. With predictable regularity, these in fact are quite close.
steps are at once interpreted as apologetics for the empire The terminology of political and social discourse is
of evil and its minions. Thus the crucial Right to Lie in the vague and imprecise, and constantly debased by the contri-
Service of the State is preserved, and the critique of State butions of ideologists of one or another stripe. Still, these
violence and atrocities is undermined. terms have at least some residue of meaning. Since its ori-
It is also worth noting the great appeal of Leninist gins, socialism has meant the liberation of working people
doctrine to the modern intelligentsia in periods of conflict from exploitation. As the Marxist theoretician Anton Pan-
and upheaval. This doctrine affords the ‘radical intellectu- nekoek observed, “this goal is not reached and cannot be
als’ the right to hold State power and to impose the harsh reached by a new directing and governing class substitut-
rule of the ‘Red Bureaucracy,’ the ‘new class,’ in the terms ing itself for the bourgeoisie,” but can only be “realized
of Bakunin’s prescient analysis a century ago. As in the by the workers themselves being master over production.”
Bonapartist State denounced by Marx, they become the Mastery over production by the producers is the essence
‘State priests,’ and “parasitical excrescence upon civil so- of socialism, and means to achieve this end have regularly
ciety” that rules it with an iron hand. been devised in periods of revolutionary struggle, against
In periods when there is little challenge to State capital- the bitter opposition of the traditional ruling classes and
ist institutions, the same fundamental commitments lead the ‘revolutionary intellectuals’ guided by the common
the ‘new class’ to serve as State managers and ideologists, principles of Leninism and Western managerialism, as
“beating the people with the people’s stick,” in Bakunin’s adapted to changing circumstances. But the essential ele-
words. It is small wonder that intellectuals find the transi- ment of the socialist ideal remains: to convert the means of
tion from ‘revolutionary Communism’ to ‘celebration of the production into the property of freely associated producers
West’ such an easy one, replaying a script that has evolved and thus the social property of people who have liberated
from tragedy to farce over the past half century. In essence, themselves from exploitation by their master, as a funda-
all that has changed is the assessment of where power lies. mental step towards a broader realm of human freedom.
Lenin’s dictum that “socialism is nothing but state capitalist The Leninist intelligentsia have a different agenda. They
monopoly made to benefit the whole people,” who must of fit Marx’s description of the ‘conspirators’ who “preempt
course trust the benevolence of their leaders, expresses the the developing revolutionary process” and distort it to their

ends of domination; “Hence their deepest disdain for the as he made the transition from revolutionary intellectual
more theoretical enlightenment of the workers about their to State priest. Before seizing State power, the Bolshevik
class interests,” which include the overthrow of the Red leadership adopted much of the rhetoric of people who
Bureaucracy and the creation of mechanisms of democratic were engaged in the revolutionary struggle from below,
control over production and social life. For the Leninist, the but their true commitments were quite different. This was
masses must be strictly disciplined, while the socialist will evident before and became crystal clear as they assumed
struggle to achieve a social order in which discipline “will State power in October 1917.
become superfluous” as the freely associated producers A historian sympathetic to the Bolsheviks, E.H. Carr,
“work for their own accord” (Marx). Libertarian socialism, writes that “the spontaneous inclination of the workers
furthermore, does not limit its aims to democratic control to organize factory committees and to intervene in the
by producers over production, but seeks to abolish all management of the factories was inevitably encouraged
forms of domination and hierarchy in every aspect of social by a revolution which led the workers to believe that the
and personal life, an unending struggle, since progress in productive machinery of the country belonged to them
achieving a more just society will lead to new insight and and could be operated by them at their own discretion and
understanding of forms of oppression that may be con- to their own advantage” (my emphasis). For the workers,
cealed in traditional practice and consciousness. as one anarchist delegate said, “The Factory committees
The Leninist antagonism to the most essential features were cells of the future... They, not the State, should now
of socialism was evident from the very start. In revolution- administer.”
ary Russia, Soviets and factory committees developed as But the State priests knew better, and moved at once to
instruments of struggle and liberation, with many flaws, but destroy the factory committees and to reduce the Soviets to
with a rich potential. Lenin and Trotsky, upon assuming organs of their rule. On November 3, Lenin announced in a
power, immediately devoted themselves to destroying the “Draft Decree on Workers’ Control” that delegates elected
liberatory potential of these instruments, establishing the to exercise such control were to be “answerable to the State
rule of the Party, in practice its Central Committee and for the maintenance of the strictest order and discipline
its Maximal Leaders — exactly as Trotsky had predicted and for the protection of property.” As the year ended,
years earlier, as Rosa Luxembourg and other left Marxists Lenin noted that “we passed from workers’ control to the
warned at the time, and as the anarchists had always un- creation of the Supreme Council of National Economy,”
derstood. Not only the masses, but even the Party must be which was to “replace, absorb and supersede the machinery
subject to “vigilant control from above,” so Trotsky held of workers’ control” (Carr). “The very idea of socialism is

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 National "Flagophilia" 5
embodied in the concept of workers’ control,” one Men- of the Leninist model, has had a devastating impact on the
shevik trade unionist lamented; the Bolshevik leadership struggle for a more decent society and a livable world in
expressed the same lament in action, by demolishing the the West, and not only there. It is necessary to find a way
very idea of socialism. to save the socialist ideal from its enemies in both of the
Soon Lenin was to decree that the leadership must world’s major centers of power, from those who will always
assume “dictatorial powers” over the workers, who must seek to be the State priests and social managers, destroying
accept “unquestioning submission to a single will” and “in freedom in the name of liberation.
the interests of socialism,” must “unquestioningly obey the
single will of the leaders of the labour process.” As Lenin 1. On the early destruction of socialism by Lenin and
and Trotsky proceeded with the militarization of labour, Trotsky, see Maurice Brinton, The Bolsheviks and Work-
the transformation of the society into a labour army submit- ers’ Control. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1978, and Peter
ted to their single will, Lenin explained that subordination Rachleff, Radical America, Nov. 1974, among much other
of the worker to “individual authority” is “the system which work
more than any other assures the best utilization of human Originally published in “Our Generation,” Spring/Sum-
resources” — or as Robert McNamara expressed the same mer, 1986/Re-published by The Mormon Worker Collective
idea, “vital decision-making...must remain at the top...the with permission by Noam Chomsky
real threat to democracy comes not from over management,
but from under management”; “if it is not reason that rules
man, then man falls short of his potential,” and management
is nothing other than the rule of reason, which keeps us
free. At the same time, ‘factionalism’— i.e., any modicum National “Flagophilia”
of free expression and organization – was destroyed “in the by Ron Madson
interests of socialism,” as the term was redefined for their
In July of 2007 one hundred words waited anxiously to see if
purposes by Lenin and Trotsky, who proceeded to create
they would be included in the latest edition of the Merriam-
the basic proto-fascist structures converted by Stalin into
Webster dictionary—only twenty were inducted. Some
one of the horrors of the modern age. 1
words stood above the crowd such as “ginormous,” “perfect
Failure to understand the intense hostility to social-
storm” and “smackdown” while others were a credit to our
ism on the part of the Leninist intelligentsia (with roots
ever increasing cultural advancements—“crunk”, “speed-
in Marx, no doubt), and corresponding misunderstanding

dating” and our latest entertainment import—“Bollywood.” which includes this very article you are now reading. This
As if we needed another reason to support Operation Free- is a start. I would suggest the editors of Merriam-Webster
dom in Iraq, less than 5% of our annual national budget also consider a companion word coined by none other than
was spent on our Iraqi nation building exercise for which popular political commentator and television host Stephen
we had a whopping 10% return of the twenty new words Colbert of the “Colbert Nation” who proclaims himself as
added to our lexicon this past year thanks to our invest- the premier “flagophile.”
ment there— “IEDs” and “flex-cuff.” While the word and “Flagophilia.” The word “philia” is a common suffix
the device called “IEDs” can be found everywhere, you which means “an intense or higher level of love of some-
might think “flex-cuff” plays a second fiddle to IED’s, but thing.” There are hundreds of words followed by “philia”
just type in “flex-cuff” with the word “Iraq” on your search such as a Francophilia which means a “love of France
engine and you will find that there is a high probability that and French culture” (a word arguably disappearing from
“flex-cuffs” far outnumber “IEDs”—but I digress. America during recent years) to only slightly less savory
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary uses the following “philias” such as “necrophilia” for which I will spare the
criteria to determine if a new word should be added: “If a reader from my defining it here. But some things merit
word shows up enough in mainstream writing, the editors “philia” such as flags and nothing has been more evident in
consider defining it.” In a previous edition of the Mormon our nation the last seven years then a clear demonstration
Worker (Volume II) I offered to provide my legal services of “flagophilia” by a nation of “flagophiles.” Flagophilia
to Blackwater by providing a novel defense to acts of ag- has been around since mankind with the assistance of car-
gression introduced by our Executive branch called “the tographers decided to divide the earth into multicolored
one-percent doctrine.” I suggested that innovative “one line-divided nations.
percent” legal defense could be extended to gangs, domes- However, the United States having a healthy dose of
tic disputes, and criminal proceedings. I have had no takers. “nationphilia” went as far as institutionalizing a Pledge
However, I have lowered my sights to reach what I consider of Allegiance to our flag in our public schools during the
a very obtainable personal benefit from the Iraq adventure 1950s so we could easily sort out, as recommended by the
that I am hoping Merriam-Webster dictionary people will Honorable Senator Joseph McCarthy, those among us that
provide—the introduction of a new word to the American were real patriots, and not pretenders.
lexicon—“Flagophilia.” I am sending a courtesy copy of the However, since “9/11”—a word that also should be
Mormon Worker—surely by now a “mainstream” writing— “hung in the rafters” of any dictionary—“flagophilia” has
to the editors of the Merriam-Webster dictionary people reached a zenith of societal approbation. Since 9/11 the

“Red, White and Blue” can be seen everywhere from sport’s if so which flag should be given the highest place on our
apparel to bumper stickers to creative tattoos, and every flag poles?
size from “ginormous” flags at “ginormous” retail stores to
the tiny but fashionable flag pin worn on suits by all real Standard of Peace Flag
patriots. In fact, flag pins have become such a reliable in-
dicator of love of nation that this year when it was noticed As to choice of flags, in our generation it is a little known
that one of the dozens of Presidential Candidates had not fact that at the genesis of our faith an Ensign Flag was
been spotted wearing a flag pin there has been an unrelent- designed which was flown at Zion’s Camp, Nauvoo and
ing “smackdown” as to his faux pas—and every time I see then Ensign Peak. After persistent and violent attacks on
him it is hard to concentrate on the substance of what he the Saints in Jackson County, Missouri, Joseph received
is saying when he is not wearing a flag pin. from the Lord what is now canonized as Section 98 of the
I became a resident of Alpine, Utah in 2001. On nearly Doctrine and Covenants where the Lord tells his saints
every recognizable holiday if you drive through this small how to respond to enemies. The Lord commands us to
but growing town of 12,000 you will find almost every home “Renounce war and proclaim peace.” (D&C 98:16). To make
with an American Flag neatly placed along the street by that mandate clear to others, the Lord further commanded
the local scout troops. It is quite a sight. Like the politician us to “lift a standard of peace” (D&C 98:34) or as referred
flag pin, the only homes that stick out are those without to elsewhere the “Ensign of Peace”: “And again I say unto
a flag. Some quacky psychiatrist might characterize the you, sue for peace not only to the people that have smitten
need to have every home show their flag as community, you, but also to all people; And lift up the ensign of peace,
obsessive compulsive disorder—but I would prefer to call and make a proclamation of peace unto the ends of the
it “flagophilia.” earth; And make proposals for peace unto those who have
If ever a word deserves to be placed permanently in smitten you, according to the voice of the Spirit which is
our national lexicon it is “flagophilia.” What I wrote above in you, and all things shall work together for your good.”
will be sent to the Board of Editors for Merriam-Webster, Doctrine & Covenants Section 105:38-40.
but since the Mormon Worker addresses “Mormon” mat- In obedience to the Lord’s commands in Sections 98 and
ters, I will address two issues that arise among Mormon 105 a blue and white “standard of peace” flag was prepared
“flagophiles”: First, do we have a choice as to which flag and carried with Zion’s Army: “I gave orders that a standard
to adore and secondly, given our polygamous roots, is it be prepared for the nations” (Joseph Smith History 6:528)
possible to love more than one flag at the same time, and This flag stood in stark contrast to the “red flag” adopted

by the mobs in Jackson County, Missouri. The Lord did in mind, and of which they had frequently spoke en route,
intervene and fight the battles for His people as promised, was something larger and greater than any national flag
and “softened the heart” of their enemies through the power whatsoever; and what it was meant to represent was greater
and virtue of the words of peace, and then Zion’s Army than any earthly kingdom’s interest... This Ensign was in
made the final offer of peace by disbanding as commanded. the minds of the Mormon Pioneers concerned not with
When the mobs were forming in Nauvoo, Joseph instructed one nation, but all nations....not nationality but humanity
the church leaders that “a standard to be made and raised in its scope and concern. It was the sign of the Empire of
for the nations.” After Joseph’s death and the Nauvoo City Christ.”
Charter was repealed, Brigham Young used a blue and The Deseret News conference report of April 1853 re-
white flag as a signal and standard of peace and hoisted it ports that an LDS flag “a blue and white banner with stripes
above the temple, and then before arriving in Salt Lake City, and twelve stars encircling a single large star” representing
Brigham Young discussed his plans to raise the LDS flag the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His latter-day Kingdom was
on the top of Ensign Peak, which he had seen previously in displayed when the corner stones of the temple were laid.
vision: “The House of the Lord will be reared in the tops Brigham called this flag three names: “Flag of the King-
of the mountains and the proud banner will wave over the dom”, “Flag of Deseret” and most telling, “My flag.” The
valleys...I know where the spot is and I know how to make “Standard of Peace or the Standard of Truth” was unfurled
this flag, Joseph sent the colors and said where the colors “High on a Mountain Top.” (Joel Johnson, 1853 Hymn). The
settle there will be the spot (Lee, Diary, Church Archives, standard of truth had been erected and the Lord had laid
Historical Department, Salt Lake City). Then as Joseph F. a foundation of peace that would break up the patterns of
Smith noted this vision was fulfilled: vengeance and death spawned by the contracted feelings
“One 26 July 1847, just two days after Brigham Young of nationalism and ethnocentric tribalism. The Lord had
arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, he and others ascended a communicated through his latter-day revelations a new
dome-shaped hill north of the present Utah State Capitol way—a way of peace and that way now had a flag. We did
Building. He had seen this prominent peak in vision. As then and we continue to have a choice.
President Young raised a flag he also symbolically lifted That was the original flag of our faith—mandated by
the “ensign to all nations...” revelation and designed to unify us under a new message.
Brother B.H. Roberts taught the significance of this flag The question then arose when we were given statehood
that was unfurled: into our host nation—which flag would be placed the high-
The Ensign that these Latter-day Saint Pioneers had est on the flag pole? The verdict is in and Old Glory flies

alone. How that came about is a subject of another more stool; neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the Great
in-depth article. King; Neither shall thou swear by the head, because thou
canst not make one hair white or black. But let your com-
My Choice munication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay : for whatsoever is more
than these cometh of evil.” (Matthew 5: 34-37).
I believe I have a deep “philia” for our nation’s Constitution Is there evil that comes from pledging one’s allegiance
and Bill of Rights and the Anglo-Saxon traditions found in to a nation? The obvious danger or folly associated with
our Common Law. I revere the free- pledging allegiance to any politi-
dom we have in our nation to dis- cal entity no matter the country—
sent and learn from our critics even whether neutral Switzerland or Nazi
“But I say unto you, Swear not
within our nation. Thomas Jefferson Germany—is that you have given
at all; neither by heaven; for it is
understood that national justifiers or your conscience and potentially your
enablers should not be considered
God’s Throne; Nor by the earth,
agency to a group which can decide
as having a monopoly on the title of for it is his footstool; neither by
at any time to contravene the Gospel
patriot: “Dissent is the highest form Jerusalem; for it is the city of the
of Christ. In other words, I chose to
of patriotism.” That being said, here Great King; Neither shall thou
only sustain the law of the land to
is my flag preference: No national swear by the head, because thou the extent the law protects me in my
flag and no pledge of allegiance to the canst not make one hair white or inalienable rights—but no further:
flag of any nation. I recognize how black. But let your communica- “We believe that no government
offensive such a choice must appear tion be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for can exist in peace, except such laws
to those in our nation suffering from whatsoever is more than these are framed and held inviolate as will
“flagophilia” and I do not pretend to cometh of evil.” secure to each individual the free
require that anyone else even under- (Matthew 5: 34-37) exercise of conscience...We believe
stand much less respect my choice. that all men are bound to sustain and
However, my choice is tied to my un- uphold the respective governments
derstanding of my Christian faith. The only person I have in which they reside, while protected in their inherent and
Pledged My Allegiance to said this: inalienable rights...” D&C 134:2, 5
“But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; I sustain a law or government only to the extent it sus-
for it is God’s Throne; Nor by the earth, for it is his foot- tains my freedom of conscience and inalienable right to

withhold any personal support to any endeavors of my na- is that it does not in the oath or pledge itself reserve the
tion which I consider contrary to my religious conscience. right to withdraw support for any endeavor which I indi-
My religious belief is that I owe no oath or allegiance to vidually find contrary to my conscience. For example, my
a symbol such as a flag that might be waved in a manner Christian faith does not allow the killing of any innocent
defined by Merriam-Webster, to wit: “Flag Waving: Ardent life whether sanctioned by the state or not. In the words
or violently emotional appeal to or expression of patriotic of Howard Zinn, “there is no flag large enough to cover
or partisan sentiment.” While sometimes the appeal might the shame of killing innocent people.” I refuse to pledge
be considered noble, it is often, nonetheless, blind and all allegiance to a flag that represents any form of taking of
too frequently violent in the name of some “noble” cause. innocent life in the pursuit of any form of retaliation. (see
And partisanship and nationalism is a threshold removal D&C 98:24). Therefore, my first choice is that I pledge al-
from the Gospel and Light of Christ. legiance to no nation’s flag.
A statement from one of our recent Presidents reflects
the nature of national partisanship: “I will never apologize But If I Must
for the USA, I don’t care what the facts are.” George Bush,
Senior. I recognize that many if not most that wave flags On October 3, 2007 James Broussard, saw a Reno, Nevada
have noble and loyal intentions but my belief is that if an business establishment with a Mexican Flag hoisted above
endeavor or conflict is on its merits just and righteous it the American flag—the making of a “perfect storm”. Taking
needs no artifice beyond its justness, while the more du- his military knife he cut down the Mexican flag and threw
bious the endeavor the more it requires slogans and flag it on the ground. Interviewed by the news he explained: “If
waving. Two other dictionaries said it best: “patriotism is they want to fight us, then they need to be men, and they
the last resort of a scoundrel” (Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Dic- need to come fight us. But I want somebody to fight for me
tionary) to which Ambrose Bierce in his Devil’s Dictionary and for this flag.” To all the James Broussards out there I
responded: want to let you know that I do not want to fight you, I do
“Patriotism: Combustible rubbish read to the torch of not want to fight anyone, but if I must have a flag— that
any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson’s not being my first preference— I choose the “Standard of
famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort Peace” flag shown in this article. My wife and son can and
of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened lexi- should fly the American flag every Holiday and I respect
cographer I beg to submit that it is the first.” their feelings, but I only ask that the Standard of Peace not
The problem with a group pledge or oath to a nation be considered as an invitation to fight but an invitation to

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified 11
not fight under any national banner.

With the Standard of Peace flying on Ensign Peak Apos-
tle Heber C. Kimball expressed my sentiments best: Why an Economic Boycott of Israel
“I am not national or sectional, and God forbid that I is Justified
should be, for I have that spirit that delighteth in the wel- by Norman G. Finkelstein
fare and salvation of the human family. And when I have
that Spirit about me, can I be national? You never knew The recent proposal that Norway boycott Israeli goods has
that feeling to be in me for I abhor it. I will not bow my provoked passionate debate. In my view, a rational exami-
head to that national spirit, nor to any spirit that is not of nation of this issue would pose two questions: 1) Do Israeli
God.” (Heber C. Kimball JD 4:278). human rights violations warrant an economic boycott? and
I attended Glenn Dale Elementary School in Mary- 2) Can such a boycott make a meaningful contribution to-
land from 1960 to 1966. Every day we recited both the ward ending these violations? I would argue that both these
Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag as well as our prayers to questions should be answered in the affirmative. Although
the Virgin Mary and other Saints—this being a Maryland the subject of many reports by human rights organizations,
Catholic community. It did me no harm not knowing then Israel’s real human rights record in the Occupied Palestin-
the significance of anything I recited. But now I appreci- ian Territory is generally not well known abroad. This is
ate more fully the significance of pledges and oaths and I primarily due to the formidable public relations industry
refuse in good conscience to pledge any allegiance to any of Israel’s defenders as well as the effectiveness of their
nation and it’s flag no matter how noble that nation may tactics of intimidation, such as labeling critics of Israeli
perceive itself to be. Thank God I live in a country where policy anti-Semitic.
“flagophilia”, while widespread, is still optional and volun- Yet, it is an incontestable fact that Israel has commit-
tary. I will not burn a flag, I will not deny anyone the right ted a broad range of human rights violations, many rising
to wrap themselves in the flag, any politician the right to to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
tether their ambitions to the flag, or any military to use These include:
their flag to identify which team uses the IEDs from those Illegal Killings. Whereas Palestinian suicide attacks tar-
that employ the “flex cuffs.” geting Israeli civilians have garnered much media attention,
Israel’s quantitatively worse record of killing non-com-
batants is less well known. According to the most recent
figures of the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights

in the Occupied Territories (B’Tselem), 3,386 Palestinians up to three times more Palestinian civilians than Israeli
have been killed since September 2000, of whom 1,008 were civilians. Israel’s defenders maintain that there’s a differ-
identified as combatants, as opposed to 992 Israelis killed, ence between targeting civilians and inadvertently killing
of whom 309 were combatants. This means that three them. B’Tselem disputes this: “[W]hen so many civilians
times more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed and have been killed and wounded, the lack of intent makes
no difference. Israel remains responsible.” Furthermore,
Amnesty International reports that “many” Palestinians
have not been accidentally killed but “deliberately targeted,”
while the award-winning New York Times journalist Chris
Hedges reports that Israeli soldiers “entice children like
mice into a trap and murder them for sport.”
Torture. “From 1967,” Amnesty reports, “the Israeli se-
curity services have routinely tortured Palestinian political
suspects in the Occupied Territories.” B’Tselem found that
eighty-five percent of Palestinians interrogated by Israeli
security services were subjected to “methods constitut-
ing torture,” while already a decade ago Human Rights
Watch estimated that “the number of Palestinians tortured
or severely ill-treated” was “in the tens of thousands – a
number that becomes especially significant when it is re-
membered that the universe of adult and adolescent male
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is under three-
quarters of one million.” In 1987 Israel became “the only
country in the world to have effectively legalized torture”
(Amnesty). Although the Israeli Supreme Court seemed
to ban torture in a 1999 decision, the Public Committee
Against Torture in Israel reported in 2003 that Israeli se-
curity forces continued to apply torture in a “methodical
and routine” fashion. A 2001 B’Tselem study documented

that Israeli security forces often applied “severe torture” that “the pattern of destruction...strongly suggests that
to “Palestinian minors.” Israeli forces demolished homes wholesale, regardless of
House demolitions. “Israel has implemented a policy whether they posed a specific threat.” Amnesty likewise
of mass demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied found that “Israel’s extensive destruction of homes and
Territories,” B’Tselem reports, and since September 2000 properties throughout the West Bank and Gaza...is not
“has destroyed some 4,170 Palestinian homes.” Until just justified by military necessity,” and that “Some of these
recently Israel routinely acts of destruction amount to grave breaches of the Fourth
resorted to house demo- Geneva Convention and are war crimes.”
litions as a form of collec- Apart from the sheer magnitude of its human rights
tive punishment. Accord- violations, the uniqueness of Israeli policies merits notice.
ing to Middle East Watch, “Israel has created in the Occupied Territories a regime of
apart from Israel, the only separation based on discrimination, applying two separate
other country in the world systems of law in the same area and basing the rights of
that used such a draconian individuals on their nationality,” B’Tselem has concluded.
punishment was Iraq un- “This regime is the only one of its kind in the world, and
der Saddam Hussein. In is reminiscent of distasteful regimes from the past, such
addition, Israel has demol- as the apartheid regime in South Africa.” If singling out
ished thousands of “illegal” South Africa for an international economic boycott was
homes that Palestinians defensible, it would seem equally defensible to single out
built because of Israel’s Israel’s occupation, which uniquely resembles the apart-
refusal to provide build- heid regime.
ing permits. The motive Although an economic boycott can be justified on moral
behind destroying these grounds, the question remains whether diplomacy might
homes, according to Am- be more effectively employed instead. The documentary
nesty, has been to maxi- record in this regard, however, is not encouraging. The
mize the area available for Jewish settlers: “Palestinians basic terms for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict are
are targeted for no other reason than they are Palestinians.” embodied in U.N. resolution 242 and subsequent U.N. reso-
Finally, Israel has destroyed hundred of homes on security lutions, which call for a full Israeli withdrawal from the
pretexts, yet a Human Rights Watch report on Gaza found West Bank and Gaza and the establishment of a Palestinian

state in these areas in exchange for recognition of Israel’s of Palestinian life. It will also effectively sever the West
right to live in peace and security with its neighbors. Each Bank in two. Although Israel initially claimed that it was
year the overwhelming majority building the wall to fight terrorism,
of member States of the United the consensus among human rights
Nations vote in favor of this two- organizations is that it is really a
state settlement, and each year land grab to annex illegal Jewish
Israel and the United States (and settlements into Israel. Recently
a few South Pacific islands) op- Israel’s Justice Minister frankly
pose it. Similarly, in March 2002 all acknowledged that the wall will
twenty-two member States of the serve as “the future border of the
Arab League proposed this two- state of Israel.”
state settlement as well as “nor- The current policies of the Is-
mal relations with Israel.” Israel raeli government will lead either to
ignored the proposal. endless bloodshed or the dismem-
Not only has Israel stubbornly berment of Palestine. “It remains
rejected this two-state settlement, virtually impossible to conceive of
but the policies it is currently pur- a Palestinian state without its cap-
suing will abort any possibility of ital in Jerusalem,” the respected
a viable Palestinian state. While Crisis Group recently concluded,
world attention has been riveted and accordingly Israeli policies in
by Israel’s redeployment from the West Bank “are at war with any
Gaza, Sara Roy of Harvard Uni- viable two-state solution and will
versity observes that the “Gaza not bolster Israel’s security; in fact,
Disengagement Plan is, at heart, an Banksy, West Bank they will undermine it, weakening
instrument for Israel’s continued annexation of West Bank Palestinian pragmatists...and sowing the seeds of growing
land and the physical integration of that land into Israel.” In radicalization.”
particular Israel has been constructing a wall deep inside Recalling the U.N. Charter principle that it is inadmis-
the West Bank that will annex the most productive land sible to acquire territory by war, the International Court
and water resources as well as East Jerusalem, the center of Justice declared in a landmark 2004 opinion that Israel’s

settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory with compa-
wall being built to annex them to Israel were illegal under rable situations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, East
international law. It called on Israel to cease construction Timor, occupied Kuwait and Iraq, and Rwanda found that
of the wall, dismantle those parts already completed and Israel has enjoyed “virtual immunity” from enforcement
compensate Palestinians for damages. Crucially, it also measures such as an arms embargo and economic sanc-
stressed the legal responsibilities of the international com- tions typically adopted by the U.N. against member States
munity: all States are under an obligation not to recognize condemned for identical violations of international law.
the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the Due in part to an aggressive campaign accusing Europe of
wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and a “new anti-Semitism,” the European Union has also failed
around East Jerusalem. They are also under an obligation in its legal obligation to enforce international law in the
not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation Occupied Palestinian Territory. Although the claim of a
created by such construction. It is also for all States, while “new anti-Semitism” has no basis in fact (all the evidence
respecting the United Nations Charter and international points to a lessening of anti-Semitism in Europe), the EU
law, to see to it that any impediment, resulting from the has reacted by appeasing Israel. It has even suppressed pub-
construction of the wall, to the exercise by the Palestin- lication of one of its own reports, because the authors— like
ian people of its right to self-determination is brought to the Crisis Group and many others — concluded that due to
an end. Israeli policies the “prospects for a two-state solution with
A subsequent U.N. General Assembly resolution sup- east Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine are receding.”
porting the World Court opinion passed overwhelmingly. The moral burden to avert the impending catastrophe
However, the Israeli government ignored the Court’s opin- must now be borne by individual states that are prepared
ion, continuing construction at a rapid pace, while Israel’s to respect their obligations under international law and by
Supreme Court ruled that the wall was legal. individual men and women of conscience. In a courageous
Due to the obstructionist tactics of the United States, initiative American-based Human Rights Watch recently
the United Nations has not been able to effectively confront called on the U.S. government to reduce significantly its
Israel’s illegal practices. Indeed, although it is true that the financial aid to Israel until Israel terminates its illegal poli-
U.N. keeps Israel to a double standard, it’s exactly the re- cies in the West Bank. An economic boycott would seem
verse of the one Israel’s defenders allege: Israel is held not to be an equally judicious undertaking. A nonviolent tactic
to a higher but lower standard than other member States. A the purpose of which is to achieve a just and lasting settle-
study by Marc Weller of Cambridge University comparing ment of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 Interview with Stanley Hauerwas 16
Hauerwas: I’m not sure any of us know how that hap-

pened, other than the general subservience of the Christian
Interview with Stanley Hauerwas church in America to America. The general view of most
Interviewed by Joshua Madson for The Mormon Worker Christian Americans is they can let their children make up
their minds about whether they are a Christian or not but
Stanley Haurwas is a United Methodist theologian, ethicist, they don’t let them make up their minds about being an
and professor of law. He received a PhD from Yale Univer- American. Now that’s an indication that national identifica-
sity and a D.D. from The University of Edinburgh, and has tion has become more determinative for the way people
taught at the University of Notre Dame. He is currently the live than their Christian identification. Now I’m sure they
Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Di- will deny that if you suggest it, but ask them if they don’t
vinity School with a joint appointment at the Duke University believe that they ought to raise children to grow up to make
School of Law. up their minds and they will always say, yes of course. But
Q: How did you come to be a pacifist? then they don’t, when it comes to the issues of national
Hauerwas: Well, it was through the influence of John loyalty. They don’t let children make up their own minds;
Howard Yoder. I was educated in the work of Reinhold it kind of comes with the drinking water.
Niebuhr and I assumed that was the last word to be said Q: What evidence do you believe supports that con-
about pacifism. But I was also deeply shaped by the work clusion?
of Karl Barth and once Yoder’s Christological pacifism Hauerwas: Well I think generally that American Chris-
became known to me and I really studied it I became in- tians’ unproblematic support of war clearly supports that
creasingly convinced that Niebuhr had simply failed to ap- conclusion.
preciate the kind of nonviolence that Yoder had defended
Q: Do you believe that Christianity and patriotism are
as constitutive of discipleship and so I declared myself a
compatible?
pacifist although I had no idea what that really meant, but
I’ve grown into it. Hauerwas: It depends. I might well be a Ugandan pa-
triot. I’m sure you can’t be an American patriot. I wrote an
Q: In your essay “Sacrificing the Sacrifice of War” you
essay on this in which I use Alasdair Macintyre’s account
observe that nationalistic “patriotism” has become for many
of why patriotism is incoherent in the modern world be-
a substitute religion, and for Christians in particular. What
cause patriotism asks your support of nations that represent
has caused that to occur in your opinion?
freedom and equality and so those become abstract ideals

that are not interestingly enough nationally specific. That’s with our own nation?
the reason why patriotism in America is fundamentally an Hauerwas: Well I don’t think Romans 13; people read
imperialist position. But Macintyre argues that in the past Romans 13 and don’t read Romans 12. Paul would have
patriotism was loyalty to land with a history. Now that’s thought that the emperor should also forgive his enemies
more interesting and I think Christians want you to be loyal and so I think that chapter division is just a disaster. “Ren-
and supportive of the near neighbors who have made you der unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, unto God the
possible. So I think that might well be a kind of patriotism things that are of God.” I treat that in the new commentary
that Christians could support. that has just been published on the gospel of Matthew and
Q: In the scriptures we have statements such as Christ’s I think it’s pretty clear that that wasn’t saying, “Oh, well
“render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”, and we have Paul Caesar gets to do what Caesar does.” I mean you know
talking about the “powers that be.” How does the Christian when Jesus says let me see the coin, the very fact that the
faith draw the line between those statements and admoni- people that had asked him the question handed him the
tions with Christian teachings that are often inconsistent coin already indicated that they were complicit with Rome
in a way that was incompatible with being Jewish. So I
think that the assumption that, oh well Caesar is Caesar
and the church is church and we can get along, well you
know Caesar wants it all and I think the idea that we got
that straightened out by separation of church and state is
just crazy.
Q: If that’s the case, can Christians be engaged politi-
cally?
Hauerwas: Of course. It depends on the politics that’s
around but nothing about my position prevents Christians
from being engaged in politics as long as they are Chris-
tians. What bothers me is when they want to say well as
a Christian I couldn’t kill anyone but as a congressman or
senator I have to do it. Well I don’t think that works.
Q: How then should Christians be engaged politically?
Mural in the Denver Airport. Photo by C. Bushman What should we be doing as Christians?

Hauerwas: You shouldn’t let anyone tell you, you Q: A common complaint directed at pacifists and ad-
need to privatize your faith. You say: No, I’m going to vote vocates of nonviolence is that they have criticisms but no
this way because I’m a follower of Jesus and that’s what solutions. What should we be doing as Christians to change
it means to be a follower of Jesus. So that’s what I would the world or the approaches to war?
think is necessary. Hauerwas: By being who we are. People matter. For
Q: Does Christ demand any duties or loyalties of us to example, we live in a country now that is determined by
our government? fear. What would it mean for Christians to be a people that
Hauerwas: No. are not determined by fear? That makes possibilities open
Q: John Howard Yoder often discusses the problem of that otherwise would not exist.
associating with the system, becoming Herodians, that in Q: Could you elaborate on how we would live if we
the end we will end up supporting the government over our were not determined by fear?
Christian beliefs. How do we avoid that as Christians?
Hauerwas: It would mean that death didn’t hold sway
Hauerwas: By making sure we got good friends who over us in a way that we might well be ready to take risks
will tell us when we are doing it. You need people who that might envision the possibility you’ll have to die.
have been through the fire so to speak and can tell you
Q: In your essay or the call to abolish war, you discuss
when you may think you are just doing your duty but in
the struggle to end slavery and there is this comparison
fact you’re really collaborating with the devil.
with the struggle to abolish war. Do you see any trends
Q: One of the things in your appeal to abolish war you towards either a national or global rejection of war in the
discuss that we should no longer study war but instead same way we see a rejection of slavery?
study peace. What would we be studying if we studied
Hauerwas: No. I don’t. I wish I could say I do, but I
peace? How do we approach that?
don’t.
Hauerwas: What would it mean to envision what in-
Q: What will it take for Christianity or for the world to
ternational relations might look like if we don’t assume
reject war as universally as it has rejected slavery?
the necessity of war? What kind of nation would we need
to be in which war was not seen to be a necessity? Once Hauerwas: You just got to do the same kind of hard
you start down the road of just saying, you know, war is slogging, one person at a time convincing that I think is
just kind of a given then as a matter of fact you will make the heart of what our Christianity is about.
sure it is a given.

Q: In your essay “Why War is a Moral Necessity for Q: Do you feel that Christians in today’s world believe
America,” you state, “Christians confuse the sacrifice of in the Sermon on the Mount or follow the Sermon on the
war with the sacrifice of Christ.” In what ways does that Mount?
confusion make itself manifest? Hauerwas: No. Clearly we think that the Sermon on
Hauerwas: By the flag in the American church chancel. the Mount is an ideal we ought to strive for but you really
It’s everywhere. I think that that flag usually stands for the cant live it. You can’t forgive enemies. It’s just not going
sacrifices that were made in World War II and in many to work.
ways that’s a much more real sacrifice for most Americans Q: Why is it that we don’t embrace the Sermon on the
than the sacrifice of Christ. Mount then?
Q: Why do you think Christians confuse that with the Hauerwas: Because we don’t want life to be that com-
sacrifice of Christ? plicated or interesting. It puts us to much out of step.
Hauerwas: Because we haven’t faced up to the particu- Q: Is there anything Christians should be willing to
larity of Jesus as a Jewish Messiah and we instead turned kill for?
Jesus into a generalized savior rather than the one who
Hauerwas: No.
preached the Sermon on the Mount.
Q: Is there anything Christians should be willing to
Q: What is the central message of the Sermon on the
die for?
Mount?
Hauerwas: Everything.
Hauerwas: I think that to try to give it a central mes-
sage like you ought to love your neighbor or that you can’t Q: There is a quote in your article that states “Ameri-
serve God and mammon; I think that to try to seize on cans have rarely bled, sacrificed or died for Christianity
something central like that is to try to avoid the particular- or any other sectarian faith.” What is the significance of
ity of the Sermon on the Mount. So, I’m against trying to that quote?
give it a central message. Hauerwas: It’s a very important quote. It means that
Q: What do you feel the particularity of the Sermon exactly where Christians lose their faith is the overriding
on the Mount is? presumption that what you are willing to die for or have
your children die for is true and that means the country
Hauerwas: This is what it means to be disciple of
and it doesn’t mean the church. Mormon persecution is of
Jesus.

course, just as Christians say that our faith is built upon the Q: What would be your admonition or your call to
blood of the martyrs, your faith is also built on the blood Mormons? What should we be doing with our religion?
of your martyrs. Hauerwas: Of course I think you ought to read the
Q: In that Christians have a history of the blood of the New Testament more and the Book of Mormon less. I un-
martyrs and I would argue Mormons have a history of the derstand the debate within Mormons about whether you
blood of the martyrs. Why have we abandoned that tradi- are Christian or not. I understand it. I understand that there
tion and now it is the blood of the patriots and blood of is a debate. I don’t necessarily understand all the nuances
the Americans? of the debate. I think the more Mormons move towards
Hauerwas: Well because America has been very very classical Christianity, the better off you will be.
good to us and we are wealthy. Q: What makes someone a Christian in your mind?
Q: Do you see this allegiance as a monetary or material Hauerwas: That they have been baptized into the life
sort of allegiance? death and resurrection of Christ and that they are identified
Hauerwas: It certainly helps but no it’s deeper than by a body of people that hold them accountable.
that, it gives you identity. Q: Often times pacifists get marginalized when they
Q: If you were given a forum to address Mormons or identify themselves as a pacifist. Do you believe that self-
LDS what would you want to share with us? identifying as a pacifist marginalizes ones ability to be part
of the war debate?
Hauerwas: Well, I did it once. I addressed Sunstone
and they didn’t like it at all. Because Sunstone of course is Hauerwas: I try not to let it do that. Obviously I’m
the Mormon liberals and my critique of liberalism wasn’t pretty well. But if marginalization is marginalization its
to their liking. I was not a success. I think Mormons have better than the alternatives. My way of putting it is that I
proved to be extra loyal to the United States because they don’t think that I’m committed to Christian non-violence
know they are seen as religiously so weird. So a Mormon because obviously I’m a violent son of a bitch. But by cre-
can run for president just like a catholic ran for president ating the expectations in you I hope that you will keep me
and said, don’t worry I’m not going to take my theological honest of what I know is true. So that’s the way you got
convictions serious when it comes to running the country. to begin to think about what it means to be committed to
You know you’ve gone to hell in a hand basket when that Christian non-violence.
happens.

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 Racism, Violence and the United States, Pt. II: Torture and Lynching 21
yond the pale of human sympathy,” 1 a system that, by any

means necessary, worked them from cradle to grave, a
Racism, Violence and the United States, system that mangled their genealogy and hurled it, with
so many lives, into a great abyss of loss. For each of these
Pt. II: Torture and Lynching
exslaves, the past held tortured stories of annihilation
by Spencer Kingman
and rape, escape and revenge. It held the bitter smell of
In a previous article, I tried to expose the racist roots of the disease, the rough sound of unknown languages, and the
massive U.S. prison system and its continuities with slavery. naked crush of people in holds the size of crawl spaces.
I described a system that severs people from family and For every African slave that was actually imported to the
society, renders them invisible and untouchable, then puts Americas, there were perhaps five other Africans killed
the to work for almost no pay. This is indeed “violence,” in conquest, capture, or transport. 2 This statistic should
but it is so pervasive, and so deeply institutionalized, that speak not just to the unhinged destructiveness of the Eu-
it is sometimes hard to recognize it as such. Sometimes the ropeans, but also to the do-or-die resistance of Africans.
weight of “the system” can just roll over people without From buyer-to-buyer, branded and chained, those who
any identifiable villains or messy confrontations. survived this holocaust were sold out to farms in the U.S.
The violence of torture, on the other hand, is unmistak- south. Perhaps, with time, the brutality of capture receded,
able. It scars the defenseless body and wrecks the captive elongated and blunted by elaborate rituals of white pater-
mind. These days, our discussions of torture are too often nalism or the routines of back-breaking labor. But for 250
limited to what is happening in Iraq or Guantanamo Bay, years, the rapes and whippings continued. Slave work was
and we fail to connect these outrages to what occurs within demeaning and dangerous while the profits went to others.
domestic prisons or at the hands of police. We also fail to Rebellions ignited hysterical violence, and escapees braved
trace the racist lineage of all these practices. In this article, an ocean of hostility.
I will try to establish some of the historical links between But in some ways, black people were less vulnerable as
racism, prison, and torture all the way back through slav- slaves than they would become after emancipation. After
ery. In the next article, I will try to relate these things to all, as slaves, they “belonged” to somebody. As valuable
the present day situation. Reader be advised: this article property they could count on some protection from their
contains some disturbing descriptions of torture. owners against other whites, and their status was well
With emancipation in 1863, millions of black people defined. As free people, with the caste system in disarray,
stepped back from a system that tried to place them “be- they were held in near universal contempt by a defeated,

fearful white population. Within a short time, rifle clubs and Instead, the prisoners were forced to construct “rude huts”
groups like the Ku Klux Klan formed to terrorize blacks and and “scour the woods” to eat. They soon met with starva-
cancel their newly won rights. Instead of voting, learning, tion, exposure, scurvy, dysentery, pneumonia, and malaria.
owning land and holding office, exslaves, poor and poorly To keep them working, overseers rained whips down on
armed, were whipped, burned, and run to death by dogs. their backs, and some were left hanging by their thumbs
The line between vigilantism and court justice was thin. from trees, leaving them with hands “resembling the paws
Juries and judges were nearly always white. At the end of of certain apes.” Only 27 of 72 survived. Other leased-out
the Civil War, the population of southern jails promptly convicts constructed the precious railroads. They were
flipped from mostly-white to mostly-black and multiplied moved and housed in “rolling iron cages,” twenty men
four-, five-, even ten-fold as people were locked up for shackled together with a bucket for waste and a tub for
trivial crimes: stealing food, “trouble-making,” “disrespect.” bathing in a space the size of a small U-haul truck. One
Soon there were far more black convicts than the states observer called it “an oven... a small piece of hell.” 4
could handle. As a solution, states started leasing black One did not survive more than a year or two on these
convicts out to entrepreneurs (white convicts remained in jobs, but there were other jobs that were slightly less deadly.
the state jailbeds). In return for taking on the responsibility Some black convicts even found themselves doing agri-
of feeding, clothing, and holding the black inmates, these cultural labor on the very same land they had worked as
businessmen were allowed to work them as hard as they slaves. No matter where black convicts were farmed out
pleased. In many cases the conditions and work were far to, their work-broken bodies were subject to emaciation,
more dangerous than during slavery. disease, swift punishments for minor slips, and the sadism
As one southern employer put it in 1883, “Before the war of guards or fellow prisoners. When torture was applied,
we owned the negroes. If a man had a good n-----, he could the techniques were medieval: the lash, the rack, the coffin-
afford to take care of him; if he was sick get a doctor. He sized “sweatbox.” Many were simply shot down trying to
might even put gold plugs in his teeth. But these convicts: escape. Once incarcerated, the average life of a convict in
we don’t own ‘em. One dies, get another.” 3 Big farming, Texas was 7 years. In Georgia, no convict was expected to
logging and mining companies all rushed to drink from this survive longer than 10. 5
poison well, acquiring convicts for their most dangerous Southern blacks who managed to avoid the chain gang
and expensive projects. In 1876, one group of leased-out were nonetheless subject to the terrors of lynch law. Whites
convicts was put to work clearing a path through the jun- could explode with rage over the slightest breach of racial
gles of Florida. There were no provisions for shelter or food. etiquette, and white-on-black crime went unpunished. Any

black who tried to break out of debt-poverty or hesitated town-to-town. He was eventually burned to death, but not
to bow to white power could be beaten to a pulp or have before the crowd tortured him for seven hours. 7
their house burned. Those unlucky ones suspected of rap- Thousands of black people were lynched between
ing or murdering a white person were hung, drowned, or emancipation and the civil-rights era, but not all victims
dragged from automobiles. Picture postcards of their last were black, and not all mobs were southern. In the west
moments were passed around by whites and sold at local and mid-west hundreds of Mexicans, Chinese, and Ameri-
stores.(Some of these can be viewed online at www.with- can Indians were killed by mobs. Irish, Jews, and whites
outsanctuary.org). could also be targeted. As LDS readers
By the late 1890’s, lynchings were know, Joseph Smith and other Mormons
becoming large, morbid spectacles, dis- fell victim to earlier mob violence. The
plays of white supremacy that could largest mass lynching in U.S. history
attract thousands of people. In 1893, an- involved 11 Italian immigrants killed
ti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells wrote in New Orleans in 1891, and just three
to President McKinley: “Masks have decades later, the Ku Klux Klan was a
long since been thrown aside.” 6 Men major force in cities as far west as Port-
and women were castrated or mutilat- land, Oregon and as far north as Detroit,
ed. Fingers were chopped off and dis- Michigan. However, nowhere but the
tributed as souvenirs. In 1893, Henry south was racial dictatorship so total, so
Smith, a black man, was tortured for fifty violent, or so deeply written into law.
minutes with red-hot irons before be- It would also be a mistake to char-
ing burned in front of a cheering crowd acterize white society as unified in its
of 10,000. In 1904, Luther Holbert and support of lynching. Local officials and
his wife, suspected of killing a white, media often supported the killings, but
had chunks of their bodies removed in most places the killings elicited hor-
with a corkscrew before a huge Mis- sissippi crowd. In ror and condem- nation. Even within the back country of
1928, when Charley Shepherd, a black mentally-retarded southern states, there were divisions among whites. Public
prisoner escaped, killing a white guard and kidnapping lynchings were an act of war by the most extreme elements
his daughter, a raiding party of five-thousand men hunted of society. They were opportunities to intimidate white
him down. After he was captured, he was paraded from opponents and enlist poor rural whites in further white

power activism or terrorism. As lynching spread through some of the social functions of lynchings. In 1940, the state
the late nineteenth century, the penal system was evolv- of Mississippi hired Jimmy Thompson, a former hypnotist
ing. Convict leasing had been a profitable solution to the in traveling carnivals, to perform executions with an elec-
unmanageable number of black prisoners, and it upheld tric chair that he carried around in the back of a pickup
white supremacy during the transition from slavery to Jim truck. Most of the executions were held inside county
Crow. But it pushed down the wages of poor whites and jails, but newspapers printed large photographs with grisly
made a mockery of the law. It was also extremely brutal, descriptions. One observer recalled a 1942 electrocution
and reformers were busy exposing it. The system was performed by Thompson in Philadelphia, Mississippi: “A
abandoned in the early twentieth-century and replaced by crowd gathered late at night on the courthouse square with
large state-run farms. Some, like Angola Farm in Louisiana chairs, crackers, and children, waiting for the current to
or Parchman Farm in Mississippi, still exist today. These be turned on and the street lights to dim.” 8
prisons presented themselves as more humane and more We tend to associate torture with secrecy, and this is
accountable to the law, but in many ways, they merely mostly accurate. When the public eye is active and critical,
institutionalized the brutality and racism of prior systems. torturers hide their work and adopt non-scarring methods.
They centralized more prisoners in larger institutions far- However, African slaves, early prisoners, and black share-
ther from the public eye, a trend that continues to the croppers were often subjected to torture that was explicitly
present day. public. It was meant to intimidate people, de-humanize
The inmates were still mostly black, the conditions still them, and force them into extremely exploitative labor.
those of slavery, or worse, and the primary form of punish- Public torture lynchings served these purposes and more.
ment was still public whipping: for fighting, for “disrespect” Seized with fears of losing status and economic security
to white officials, or for simply failing to work fast enough. and drunk on the hard-core racism that went with slav-
Lynching was also slowly brought under the auspices of ery, whites turned their wounded rage on imagined black
the law. In the nineteenth century, local police might sim- “brutes” and “rapists.” Through public torture lynchings,
ply hold a victim until the mob showed up. Or they might extremist whites dragged their communities into fantasies
prefer to hold a speedy little trial and perform the hangings of total mastery and domination, delusions of unity, violent
themselves, but legal executions played mostly the same demonstrations of a will to power. The dimensions of this
role as illegal ones; they attracted the same festive town torture, as usual, were political, economic, racial and erotic.
crowds. Even as executions became more impersonal and Cloaked in the rhetoric of crime and punishment, refus-
orderly, legal capital punishment continued to perform ing to accept the personhood of blacks, lynchers believed

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 A Letter to the President 25
that they were protecting women, protecting Christian-

ity, even protecting democracy. 9 Determined long-term
anti-racist activism put an end to most of these activities, A Letter to the President
but echoes of this past inflect our modern-day supermax by Abdullah Mulhim
prisons, regular police brutality, and even what happens
in the “war on terror.” Dear President,
As you embark on four years in office, facing major
1. Ida B. Wells’ phrase. issues, attacking obstacles, and trying to find solutions to
2. Anderson, S. E. The Black Holocaust: For Beginners. domestic and international problems, I would like to offer
New York: Writers and Readers, 1995. my help in resolving one of the major problems that has
3. Oshinsky, David M. Worse Than Slavery: Parchman faced us in the past century and which continues to be a
Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice. New York: Free puzzle in finding a solution to. I would like to advise you
Press, 1995. 55. on the Middle East problem. I understand that I am not a
4. Ibid. 59. political advisor, I understand I lack experience in interna-
5. Ibid. 61-3. tional diplomacy, and I am not a Harvard or Yale graduate,
6. Voices of a Peoples’ History of the United States. but as a young Palestinian who grew up in the Middle East,
ed. Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove. New York: Seven I lived under the harsh and difficult circumstances of the
Stories, 2004. 232. Israeli occupation, and I witnessed failed negotiations and
7. Oshinsky 118, 101-2, 141-2; also Garland, David. “Death, a peace process that neglects one of the main parties in
Denial, Discourse: On the Forms and Functions of American this conflict: the young generation of Arabs.
Capital Punishment.” Crime, Social Control, and Human Since the days of the Lyndon Johnson administration,
Rights. Devon, UK: Willan, 2007. 148. the U.S policy toward the Middle East has been to build a
8. Oshinsky 205-6. full partnership with Israel, while the continuous call for
9. Garland, David. “Penal Excess and Surplus Meaning: democracy in the Arab world has in fact been followed by
Public Torture Lynchings in Twentieth-Century America.” blind US support for authoritarian Arab regimes that don’t
Law and Society Review. vol.39 n.4 (2005). threaten American interests in the region. It is a policy that
has been effective until now, despite its major flaw, namely
ignoring the ambitions of a generation of young Arabs,
who have their own dreams and goals of a better social
► • RETURN
TO ARTICLE
The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 A Letter to the President 26
and economic situation. This policy, given the events of These steps will draw the young Arabs away from radi-
September 11th, the failure of the peace agreement between cal movements which have flourished under the current
the Palestinians and the Israelis, and the unstable situation US policy. These groups offer young Arabs, who see their
in Iraq, needs to be rethought. It requires an overhaul of dreams as unachievable in the current situation, a hope
the State Department’s views toward the Middle East. The for a better life, even though these young Arabs disagree
policy I propose asks the new administration to choose the with the tactics and goals of these groups in changing the
young Arabs as a partner and for the first time to truly fol- current regimes and guards of the region. Those radical
low up on previous demands for full democracy and human groups have shown the failure of the US policy in achiev-
rights in the region. It asks the President to dump the old ing stability economically or socially for the region. Their
guards of the Middle East, such as the current Egyptian, success highlights the fact that poverty has grown to its
Jordanian and Saudi regimes, and to put full pressure on highest level among Arabs. That the region is not devel-
Israel, economically and military, to fully withdraw from oping economically, as most Arab countries are becoming
Palestinian lands occupied in 1967. These actions require more and more consuming markets, without any source of
courage and would be difficult, but are necessary to assure agriculture or production income. That freedom of speech
a better future for both the United States and the Middle is just a dream. These radical groups cherish the current
East. US policy and the current situation, as they sell young
Arabs the hope, that with them, change will happen in the
region. These changes, they say, despite being unclear of
what they are, will bring a new hope and a fresh start that
might help brighten the future that we all dream of.
The past ten years those young educated Arabs have
been crying for change as they protested in Egypt, went
to the streets in Lebanon, participated in free elections in
the Palestinian territories, and used the limited free media
outlets available to them in Saudi Arabia. As they asked
for changes and said enough to current conditions, they
extended their hand to the US and the world for help in
their cause. Those actions went ignored by the US and the
West, however, who instead launched more attacks on the

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 The Weapon Called the Word 27
Palestinians and Iraqis, supported the Egyptian regime’s

detention of Muslim Brotherhood candidates running for
election, and published humiliating pictures of the prophet The Weapon Called the Word
Mohammad. These events further showed the ineffective- A song of the righteous is a prayer unto me.
ness of the current Arab regimes ability to support and by Jeremy Cloward
protect their own people. Actions that the US could have
Greetings. Allow me to introduce myself, My Name is Jer-
avoided, they instead promoted, and stood firm with their
emy Cloward. I am a new member of the Mormon Worker,
authoritarian allies in the Middle East, giving those radical
a devout member of the Mormon Church, and a hardcore
groups more fuel and power in recruiting ambitious young
anarchist. I owe that to, not just the punk bands the Sex
Arabs looking for a better future and self respect.
Pistols or The Dead Kennedys, but the actual Kennedys.
Mr./Mrs. President I ask you when you take office not
I was raised to think that the Kennedys were the primo
to continue the current policy, but to have a different vision
breed of the United States, and that if we had a royal family,
for the Middle East, knowing that the majority of Arabs are
they would be it. When I began listening to Punk at age 12,
young, ambitious individuals, who, like every other young
I heard the Dead Kennedys singing songs like, ‘We’ve got
person, hope for a decent life under good social, economic,
a bigger problem now,” citing lyrics such as:
and political conditions. They are in search of self respect,
freedom and the realization of personal goals. They hope Welcome to 1984
for equality and a better future for themselves and their Are you ready for the third world war?!?
kids. They are in search of a peaceful region empty of cor- You too will meet the secret police
ruption. They are in search of leaders that give them hope. They’ll draft you and they’ll jail your niece
I ask you to take active steps toward the realization of Arab
You’ll go quietly to boot camp
interests. Those actions will help in securing the interests
They’ll shoot you dead, make you a man
and future of the US, and will weaken those radical groups
Don’t you worry, it’s for a cause
and limit their recruiting abilities.
Feeding global corporations’ claws
Die on our brand new poison gas

El Salvador or Afghanistan
Making money for President Reagan
And all the friends of President Reagan

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 The Weapon Called the Word 28
Since I liked Reagan at the time, I at first thought, “wow, This Issue: The Levellers. Based on the historical move-
that’s offensive,” but I was getting into the punk world more ment of anarchists in the 1600s, John Lilbourne, or as he was
and more. I later read an article pointing out the fact that titled “Freeborne John,” led a splinter group from Crom-
the real Kennedys were an elitist bunch of corrupt slugs, well’s New Model Army. They were originally called the
and that the Dead Kennedys took their name based on the “Diggers,” and later the name of the “Levellers” stuck.
mockery of the American dream and to say that political The modern day punk band called the Levellers hail
power was attained by sleazy means. I did more research from Brighton England. I was first exposed to them in 1992
to find out that they were far worse in their lust for power in Phoenix AZ at the 4th of July fest. I went down to see
than I could have believed. All the research pointed to the Peter Murphy, who was headlining, but the Levellers were
view that we were all one of the 9 bands scheduled to play that day. I met 3 of
duped into worshiping them hanging out in the audience right after the Machines
the modern day King of Loving Grace set. I met John Sevink, the fiddle player,
Herod’s. I went all one of the techies, and Charlie Heather the drummer. They
through high school were polite, told me about the band, their history, and what
being taught differ- they were doing around the states. I was kind of shocked
ently than what really to hear that they had a fiddle player. He explained it was
happened in history. I a kind of fiddle I had probably never heard before. They
was soon not to trust came out a while later, plugged in, and pumped out some
governments, or what incredible sounds, full of energy, anger, hope, love and a
I was told at face value vast challenge to the world as it stands. The song that stood
by the media, and the politicians. I embraced anarchism out the most was “One Way:” “There’s only one way of life,
for the pure version of what the Lord wants for us, a highly and that’s your own. “ Belting out some incredible melodies,
organized system, with a complete absence of power. Only but sounding like nothing I had ever heard before, they have
people clinging to the righteous values the Lord has given since become one of my all time favorite bands. They are
us. I am going to hopefully be contributing regularly to the an earthy folk band, that took a bass guitar and bashed the
paper and the movement, for now I will start the music Sex Pistols into the fundamental sound. They sound like
column for the paper. I am a music addict, and have spent a The Alarm, meets New Model Army , meets The Water-
better part of my life going to shows and collecting albums, boys. Imagine folk fiddle played Metalllica speed, with all
and live concert recordings. the roar of pure anarchist lyrics riding on top delivering

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 What Does it Mean To Follow Jesus Christ Today? 29
the message. If you can imagine that, then you understand noted Vocal anarchist) in 1997 to put together a sort of
the Levellers. opera telling the story of Freeborn John, and the original
The band has become disenfranchised with the United Levellers. They also became disillusioned with the festival
States and does not play here much anymore. I saw them Circuit in the UK, and founded their own festival of music.
again in Paris in 1997, with a full arena of fellow anarchists, It is called “Beautiful Days”, celebrating and promoting
enjoying the music, and speed of an intense folk band play- Anarchism, and environmental causes. At times joining
ing to a large mosh pit. The first album called “The Weapon them in the festival is at Alabama 3, New Model Army, The
called the Word,” is the one of the few albums never to Stranglers, Echo & the Bunnymen, Billy Brag, and many
chart, and still go platinum. The band hates music press, more.
and for the most part record companies, because even The band sings of things that resonate in my heart, to
something as holy and pure as music, has been capitalized, music that I can just enjoy, I recommend them to everyone
and making money has become more important than good I can. The wisdom in the music is pure, timeless, and most
music and the message getting out. The Levellers have important, wise. “All the problems in the world, won’t be
tackled issues such as heroine addiction, housing projects, solved by this guitar.”
and crime, all catching people in a vicious cycle because of For more info on the band, see www.levellers.co.uk
poor social programs and laws not protecting individuals
but corporate greed instead.
Everyday I look at you

Dressed up in your ties of blue What Does It Mean To Follow
Saying there’s not much you can do Jesus Christ Today?
To help the kids on Hope Street by Cory Bushman
They don’t seem to even care
That it was you that put them there “Christ’s teaching to live each day as if it were your last is
You seem to think they like it there much smarter than the world’s teaching to get more and
more money for the future. Both sides will die, but only one
Hanging out on Hope Street will die prepared and happy. Disciples of Christ will be poor,
From the song Hope Street off the album “Zietgeist” but that does not mean that they will be sad. It may mean
The Levellers joined forces with Rev Hammer (another that they will live out on the land or sleep under the stars,

that they will be hungry three times a day (just before each Hapgood, here you are, you’re a graduate of Harvard. Why
meal), that they will be so tired at night that they will fall would anyone with your advantages choose to live as you
asleep easily and sleep right through the night, that they will have?” Hapgood answered the judge: “Why, because of the
use their time to listen to and help others, and that when they Sermon on the Mount, sir.”
die, their death will have meaning.” Recently I was given a gift of a small box with the
—Leo Tolstoy (What I Believe) words, “Plans for the Overthrow” wood burned into the top.
Inside of the box is a copy of The Sermon on the Mount.
Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. These radical words literally tell us exactly what we must
D&C 18:10 do in order to overthrow chains of oppression and follow
<
Christ.
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye,
The Sermon On The Mount and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist
not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek,
The late American novelist and humanist Kurt Vonnegut turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee
expressed the importance of The Sermon on the Mount in at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke
his last work, A Man Without A Country. Vonnegut wrote, also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with
“How do humanists feel about Jesus? I say of Jesus, as all him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that
humanists do, If what he said is good, and so much of it is would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard
absolutely beautiful, what does it matter if he was God or that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and
not? But if Christ hadn’t delivered the Sermon on the Mount, hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies,
with its message of mercy and pity, I wouldn’t want to be bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you,
a human being. I’d just as soon be a rattlesnake.” pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
In A Man Without A Country, Vonnegut tells of a man you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is
by the name of Powers Hapgood who was born to a middle- in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on
class family in Indianapolis, Indiana. Hapgood became the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.” (St.
involved in organizing to gain better pay and safer working Matthew 5:38-48)
conditions for his working-class brothers. Powers Hap- Aware of the label of insanity given to those who chose
good was arrested in a picket line and brought before a to live the teachings of Christ literally, Tolstoy wrote,
judge. The judge, knowing Hapgood’s history asked, “Mr. “What will sound most crazy in the future will be when

they tell how we had a Teacher who showed us clearly broidered at the neck, the sleeves, and round the bottom
and simply what we needed to do to have a better life, and of the skirt. When it was finally finished it was dampened
we all said that his rules were too difficult.” We have read, down and carefully folded. The fortunate possessor slept
reread, shared and committed to memory the Sermon on on it at night. Believe it or not, but when it was produced
the Mount, but has it penetrated our hearts? Has it caused in the morning, it was really delightful; it would not have
a stirring of the soul and a desire to change the way we live disgraced the window of a fashionable dress shop.”
and to obey the teachings Christ? In the Book of Mormon, Emma Goldman, a famous Jewish anarchist and out-
the prophet Alma asks us this same question. spoken atheist, had a similar prison experience, which was
“And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye recorded in her biography, Living My Life. “Christmas was
have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to approaching and my companions were in nervous wonder-
sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel ment as to what the day of days would bring them. Nowhere
so now?” (Alma 5:26) is Christianity so utterly devoid of meaning as in prison.”
Due to their circumstances, few of the women had outside
Three Saints family and friends who would remember them on Christ-
mas day, but Goldman stated that her inmates “clung to the
Kurt Vonnegut referred to saints as “people who behaved hope that the day of their Saviour’s birth would bring them
decently in a strikingly indecent society.” We are sur- some kindness.” Long before Christmas, Goldman began
rounded by saints. In Anne Applebaum’s Pulitzer Prize to ask “family, comrades, and friends” to send her gifts
winning book, Gulag, she includes an account of Margarete including; bracelets, earrings, necklaces, rings, brooches,
Buber-Neumann’s arrest and imprisonment at the Butyrka and other trinkets. Goldman was allowed to store these
prison. A fellow inmate had been arrested while wearing “a items in her cell and on Christmas Eve, while the rest of
light summer dress which had turned to rags”. Applebaum her prison mates were attending the cinema, the gifts were
tells of Margarete and her fellow cell mates determination distributed, with the help of three of her neighbors and
to make this woman a new dress. They used rough towels, the prison matron. Goldman recorded, “When the women
and burnt ends of matches to mark the pattern. Lighted returned from the cinema, the cell-block resounded with
matches took the place of scissors, and the thread used to exclamation of happy astonishment. “Santa Claus’s been
sew the dress together was removed from existing cloth- here! He’s brung me something grand!” “Me, too! Me, too!”
ing. Margarete wrote of the finished product; “The towel reechoed from cell to cell.” Goldman wrote of that Christ-
dress...went from hand to hand and was beautifully em- mas in the Missouri penitentiary as the Christmas which

brought her “greater joy than many previous ones outside.” arranged a flight for the woman and encouraged others in
She continued to express her gratitude for friends who al- line to assist her, but he also took the time to pick up the
lowed her to “bring a gleam of sunshine into the dark lives child and calm her. When all was made right, President
of (her) fellow-sufferers.” Kimball moved on.
Another saint, who was caught “behaving decently in This is an experience that President Kimball most likely
a strikingly indecent society” was President Spencer W. did not remember, until he received a letter years later
Kimball. During one of his many layovers at an airport, from a returned missionary. The letter told the story of
he noticed a young pregnant woman with a small child the airport, that he was the baby that the expectant mother
standing in a long line. The woman had been advised by gave birth to, and that through President Kimball’s kindness
her doctor not to pick up her child unless it was absolutely and example, the family became acquainted with the LDS
necessary, which caused onlookers to criticize her parent- church. Mother Teresa said that, “following Jesus is simple,
ing skills. President Kimball, then an Apostle of The Church but not easy. Love until it hurts and then love more.”
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the first to ask the The women of Butyrka prison, Emma Goldman and her
woman if she needed assistance. President Kimball not only cellmates, and our beloved Prophet Spencer W. Kimball
are all great examples of saints. It is important to note that
their actions, their great acts of service, are all things that
each one of us are capable of. We can all behave decently
in a strikingly indecent society.
Entertain Strangers
In Hebrews 13:2 it reads, “Be not fearful to entertain strang-

ers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
In September of 2003, I saw a young boy sitting on the
sidewalk, in the shadows of the Salt Lake Temple, holding
a sign which read, “talk to me.” The boy wasn’t accepting
food or money, just conversation. I was struck by the lone-
liness and isolation that the world offers, that would cause
one to beg for human interaction on the street.

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 The Resurrection of May Day 33
On moving into an apartment in a populated area, I must learn to live lives

was given a packet of community information. Included in of meaning, lives that Even when they call us
the packet was a pamphlet discouraging residents to give not even death can de- mad, when they call us
to panhandlers. I was struck by the information found in stroy. Tolstoy said that
subversives and commu-
the pamphlet, and immediately my thoughts turned to The if Christ were here to-
nists and all the epithets
Sermon on the Mount and what the Savior would think of day he would plead,
the promotion of neglecting His children. Mother Teresa “For thousands of years
they put on us, we know
stated that “In the poor we meet Jesus in the most distress- you have been doing it
we only preach the sub-
ing disguises.” It is easy to help those who we feel deserve your way. Now try my versive witness of the
help or who we can relate to, but that is not what Christ way.” Beatitudes, which have
has asked us to do. Catholic Worker Dorothy Day wrote, Even when they turned everything upside
“The true atheist is the one who denies God’s image in the call us mad, when they down.
‘least of these.’” call us subversives and —OSCAR ROMERO
communists and all the
Death with Meaning epithets they put on us,
we know we only preach the subversive witness of the
Leon Gieco urgently wrote, “All I ask of God is that I not Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down.
be indifferent to suffering, that parched death does not find —Oscar Romero
me empty and alone without having done enough.” We
should all have such fear, fear that we will not do all that
God has asked of us, that we will not relieve the suffering
of the world, that we will find ourselves having not done
enough. We will all die. We are all mortal beings. Each of us The Resurrection of May Day
must make the choice to live a life that will give our death by Gregory VanWagenen
meaning. It is that simple. There is a Russian peasant saying
For 120 years, May Day has been synonymous with Inter-
which states, “If you drink, you’ll die, and if you don’t drink,
national Worker’s Day. As the name implies, the first day
you’ll die. Better drink and die.” This is what it means to
in May is a holiday celebrating the achievements of the
follow Christ today, to drink of life, to walk in the path of
world’s working people in their historic struggle for social
Christ, and to live a life which will give death meaning. We
and economic justice, and a day to organize and network

as we continue the long march toward universal equality.

The worker is sent to war,
There remains a common misconception in the United
so that he can become brave and self-less.
States and Canada that May Day is a foreign holiday, sym- Why and for whom is not revealed to him,
bolizing concepts which are inherently hostile to our way for him it is not to know.
Damn your war! Make it on your own!
of life. In reality, May Day is as American as apple pie, and
We’ll turn the guns around,
as Canadian as the maple leaf. The holiday began humbly, And make another war
with a resolution passed unanimously on 1 May 1884 by That will be the right one.
the Federation of The worker goes into the earliest graves,
Organized Trades The generals stay behind.
and Labor Unions And when the higher-ups have eaten,
It could be that he also finds something.
of the United States
Damn your war! Make it on your own!
and Canada. We’ll turn the guns around,
The resolu- And make another war,
tion demanded an That will be the right one.
8-hour workday The worker builds the war machines for them,
and an end to child And recieves a bad reward
So that they can use them to kill,
labor in the facto-
Some other working-class mothers’ sons.
ries and farms of Damn your war! Make it on your own!
North America. It We’ll turn the guns around,
And make another war
provided a gener-
That will be the right one.
ous 2-year win-
dow for industry The worker pays in defeat
The worker pays in victory.
and agriculture to Therefore they plan from now until judgement day
make the necessary transitions, and promised no stoppages To use him in still more bloody wars.
or slowdowns in the interim. Damn your war! Make it on your own!
We’ll turn the guns around,
May Day 1886 approached with no concessions from
And make another war,
capitalists and landowners. In the weeks before the deadline, That will be the right one.
workers and intellectuals in the U.S. and Canada prepared —BERTHOLD BRECHT
to strike despite threats from the ruling class in Britain

and America. The strike took place peacefully across the alone saw 400,000 protesters, with small groups of strikers
continent with little fanfare, with one notable exception. celebrating in places as far-flung as Sandpoint, Idaho and
In Chicago, the general strike was brutally suppressed by Homestead, Florida.
city police and private security, leaving several dead and On May Day 2008, The International Longshoremen
dozens wounded. The widespread injuries and deaths re- and Warehouser Union (ILWU) made good on a promise to
main infamous today as the Haymarket Massacre. walk off the job and into the streets to protest the ongoing
In 1891, the Second International honored the heroic aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the day long
workers and farmers of North America with a declaration general strike, longshoremen from Seattle to San Diego
that the first day of May was henceforth an annual holiday successfully brought American shipping and international
for working people in all countries. It caught on almost trade to a standstill, calling for an end to the war and an
immediately, with strikes in Europe and South America amnesty for undocumented workers in the United States.
becoming common, and local resolutions being passed In the strike of 2008, the ILWU expressed solidarity
worldwide. Cleveland, Ohio saw a series of demonstrations with the General Port Workers and the General Union of
on May Day 1894, as workers rose up to protest widespread Oil Employees, two large Iraqi unions which had been strik-
unemployment. May Day of 1919 featured demonstrations ing since 2004 in response to the increasingly desperate
brutally suppressed throughout the American industrial plight of working people in their own countries. “We’re
mid-west. Dozens were imprisoned in Pennsylvania, Ohio standing down on the job, standing up for America, sup-
and Ontario. In 1971, Washington DC was the site of a May porting the troops, and telling politicians that it’s time to
Day strike which was estimated to include over 50,000 pro- end the war now!” declared the ILWU. The union went on
testers opposing the ongoing war in Vietnam. The strike to express frustration with neoliberal American politicians
shut down the capitol of the United States for nearly a from establishment parties, who had been supported by
week, and required 10,000 armed soldiers before it was the American working class with a mandate for ending the
finally quashed. aggression in South Asia, but who had refused to take any
In 2006, 2 million people marched in the United States decisive action after being elected. In their heroic expres-
and Canada to protest the injustices faced by migrants on sion of direct action, timed to support their brothers and
all sides of the continent’s frontiers, and to express solidar- sisters on the other side of planet earth, the ILWU attested
ity with the Latino and Haitian workers who continue to to the solidarity of class interests across national, religious,
keep America’s farming and industrial economies solvent ethnic and cultural lines. In doing so, the strikers were
despite being subject to raids and deportation. Los Angeles celebrating the concepts of worker’s solidarity which were

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 Why Would We Go To War With Iran? 36
the hallmark of the actions taken 12 decades earlier. May Day has been reborn as a workingclass tradition which
The most groundbreaking aspect of the resolution of cuts across all the meaningless divisions and borders which
1884 was the concept of a working-class unity which tran- have traditionally separated common men and women.
scended national boundaries. The resolution was passed International Workers Day is a living testimony to
by an association of unions in both the United States and a the true power of society’s laborers and thinkers. The
British dominion, and as such it inherently recognized the ability of workers to transcend the petty divisions of race,
nature of class distinctions as they existed (and still exist) language, nationality and religion is the first step toward
in every country of the world, among people of all races, ending the cruel occupation of Iraq today, and the key to
nationalities and religious persuasions. The structure of real and lasting social justice in the world for generations
capitalism is homogeneous, despite the cultural trappings to come. As it was in the beginning, May Day is once again
that differ from place to place. It is imperative to recognize our holiday, and it reminds us that we have nothing to lose
the inherent solidarity of workers everywhere, as we all but our chains.
struggle for a civilized life in the face of increasing eco-
nomic injustices.
The unity of American workers of all backgrounds, and
the increasing solidarity with their brothers and sisters in
other nations is a promising development, and one which Why Would We Go To War With Iran?
is long overdue. It reminds us of Marx’s critique of 19th by Stephen Wellington
century racial and national chauvinism, when he optimisti- “The need for oil certainly was a prime motive [in Hitler’s
cally wrote: “Labor with a White skin can not emancipate decision to invade Russia]...
itself where labor with a Black skin is branded and owned —Albert Speer’s testimony at Nuremberg War Trials,
outright; but with the death of slavery a new and vigorous German Minister for Armaments and War Production,
life has sprung. The first fruit of the American civil war 1941-1945 1
included the agitation toward an 8-hour workday, and this
was a movement which moved instantly from the Atlantic To understand if there will be a war with Iran we must
to the Pacific.” first understand why we went to war with Iraq. In my view,
Throughout the cold war and into the turn of the 21st the petrodollar warfare hypothesis explains one reason
century, American labor was lulled into thinking that it was for our invasion and occupation of Iraq. US attempts to
an aristocracy unto itself. Now, after an 80 year absence, control Iraq’s fairly young and untapped oil supply (in a

world of peaked oil fields), as well as the influence of lobby current account is in a $747 billion deficit in its trade to
groups such as AIPAC, are also factors to be considered. other countries. 2
However, in this article we will focus on the petrodollar
hypothesis of the Iraq invasion and its implications for a What is a Petrodollar and what is
war with Iran. Petrodollar Recycling?
A petrodollar 3 refers to the dollars that oil exporters re-

Setting the Scene-The Stagflation of the 1970s ceive from selling oil. In 1971 and 1973, a highly confidential
Stagflation, a period where there is stagnation in the econ- meeting between an American ambassador, most likely
omy and inflation in prices, is a major multifactorial eco- Henry Kissinger, and the Saudi royal family, resulted in
nomic problem. Our economies are built upon Keynesian Saudi Arabia, and thus OPEC 4, trading oil in US dollars.
macroeconomic models that assume that inflation and The US arranged a deal with the Saudi royal family, in
stagnation do not occur together. They also assume infinite which it would bring Saudi Arabia into the 20th century
supply of energy which is impossible from a finite energy as a major world player, keep the Saudi royal family in
source such as fossil fuel. The stagflation of the early 1970’s power, and sell them expensive weapons for defense, as
was partly due to the economic warfare waged by the Saudi’s long as the Saudis traded oil in US Dollars and reinvested
against the West in response to US support of Israel. OPEC the money in US banks. This reinvestment of US Dollars,
restricted oil supplies which caused the economies of the which were originally used to buy oil, in the US treasury
West to come to a grinding halt. Another reason for the and US banks, is known as Petrodollar recycling.
stagflation of the early 1970s was the excessive amounts Petrodollar recycling acts as a double loan effectively.
of dollars in the reserves of oil exporting countries. The The first part of this double loan means that the US is able
more dollars that are in circulation, but not reinvested, to print dollars to pay for oil without having to produce
means that even more dollars have to be printed by the goods and services in exchange for it. These goods and
Federal Reserve and this decreases the value of each dol- services are then acquired when OPEC decides to use these
lar in circulation. The early 1970s was the first time in US dollars. The second part comes from all other economies
history where the US current account, the account that that have to pay dollars for oil but cannot print dollars in
shows the balance of trade between countries, was in the their central banks. This puts the United States at an incred-
red which signified that the country as a whole was begin- ible advantage economically, as other countries effectively
ning to live beyond its means. Interestingly, today the US pay an indirect tax as their dollars in reserve decrease in

value due to inflation. At the same time the US can print attacks on 9/11 took place. 10 Immediately after the US
new dollars to cover expenditures, in particular military invasion of Iraq, the new US-backed Iraqi government
expenses. However, it also means that the United States conveniently started selling oil in dollars again. 11 Although
has effectively been living on the backs of the oil exporters John McCain has recently commented that the war in Iraq
who have been selling oil in dollars since the Post World was about oil 12, there are no official government docu-
War II era. The positive side for the oil exporting countries ments that specifically state that the Iraq War was about
is that they receive a financial return on the money they re-establishing US dominance over its oil supply. However,
invest in the US economy, as well as access to American back in June 2003 when asked why a nuclear power such
technology and weapons. Nevertheless, all this debt makes as North Korea was being treated differently from Iraq,
the US economy extremely fragile, fragile enough for the where hardly any weapons of mass destruction had been
Dollar to be deposed as the World Reserve Currency if found, the Deputy Defence Minister Mr. Wolfowitz, an
OPEC were to abandon trading oil in US dollars. 5 architect of the Iraq war, said: “Let’s look at it simply. The
most important difference between North Korea and Iraq
Saddam Abandoned the Dollar is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The
country swims on a sea of oil.” 13
Saddam, under pressure from the Oil for Food Program
and angry at the United States for their duplicity over the
Rumaila oilfield in the first Gulf War 6, was the first to Iran abandons the Dollar
announce that he would trade oil in Euros in September Although it had been selling oil in Euros for years before,
2000. 7 By trading oil in Euros, Saddam threatened the Pet- in December 2007 Iran completely stopped selling oil in
rodollar Recycling system, and was thereby able to triple the U.S. dollar through a Euro and Yen based Oil Bourse
Iraq’s savings account from $10 billion to 26 billion in 3 on the island of Kish to exchange commodities, particularly
years 8. This threatened US hegemony and contributed to petroleum. 14 This was confirmed on May 2, 2008 by Hoj-
the weakening dollar. “If most other Organisation of Pe- jatollah Ghanimifard, an oil ministry representative, who
troleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) followed the Iraqi said “The dollar has completely been removed from our
and Iranian example, the stability of the US dollar would oil trade...Crude oil customers have agreed with us to use
be at stake,” says Ranjit Singh Kalha, an ambassador to Iraq other currencies.” 15
during the first gulf war 9. It is now common knowledge
that the United States intended to attack Iraq before the

An Attack on Iran pleased as would be the residents of California were they

to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese
The US and Israel planned to originally attack Iran after
Fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles. The ships of
Iraq in 2003/2004 16.The neoconservatives in the Pentagon
our navy, it can be seen, should be specifically limited, by
made contingency plans for an attack against Iran by the
law, to within 200 miles of our coastline. Had that been
Israeli Air Force in 2005.17 Although the Pentagon slightly
the law in 1898 the USS Maine would never have gone to
has altered the contingency plans they remain in place and
Havana Harbour. She never would have been blown up.
have been on the verge of being instigated each year for
There would have been no war with Spain with its attendant
the last 5 years.18 The plans consist of a 3-day blitz against
loss of life. 200 miles is ample, in the opinion of experts,
1,200 Iranian targets and military bases.19 Should there
for defence purposes.”23
be an attack on Iran, it will be interesting to see if the Oil
One can only imagine that some sort of manufactured
Bourse on the island of Kish will be a target.
pretext for war such as the Gulf of Tonkin or USS Maine
There have recently been two incidents where the
incident will occur. It may be planned and provoked and
US has fired warning shots at Iranian speed boats in the
would result in a significant loss of life. In fact, the recent
Gulf of Hormuz20 and the US
trouble in Lebanon in May 2008 seems to have been a
has positioned another aircraft
pretext set up by the West for a bombing raid on Lebanon
carrier just a few miles off the
and Iran which never came to fruition.24 And what is it
coast of Iran.21 Information
all for? If one takes the petrodollar war theory into ac-
has recently come out that the
count in a world where most oil fields have peaked, then
British naval troops captured
of course one can claim that it is necessary to remain
by the Iranians in 2007 were
in Iraq, and to attack Iran, in order to defend American
in fact in disputed waters, in
opposition to the lies the Brit-
ish government was telling the
CONSUME! interests. American economic and strategic interests are
dependent on continued world demand for oil and that it
will be bought in dollars. And the unfortunate reality for
public when the sailors were captured.22 The words of
the United States is that neither of these two factors, that
General Smedley Butler, the greatest US anti-war General
allow current US economic debt imbalances, is sustainable
of our time, from 1936 are haunting: “The Japanese, a proud
even through the use of unilateral violence. And perhaps
people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see
more importantly, even if such policies could be sustained
the United States fleet so close to Nippon’s shores. Even as
through violence, it is necessary to point out the immoral-

ity of killing innocent Iraqis and Iranians for the sake of 11. Financial Times: Iraq returns to international oil
American economic gain. market
12. You Tube: John McCain: Oil is Only Reason for U.S.
1. Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Wars in Middle East
Money and Power, Free Press 1991, p.334 13. The Guardian: Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil
2. Rank Order: Current Account Balance, CIA Fact 14. RIAN: Iran stops accepting U.S. dollars for oil
Book 15. UPI: Iran gives up on dollars in political move
3. Coined by Ibrahim Oweiss in 1973 16. The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy: An inter-
4. John Perkins Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: view with John Mearsheimer and Steve Walt
The Shocking Story of How America Really Took Over the 17. Centre for Research on Globalisation: Planned US-
World, Ebury Press, 2006 Israeli Attack on Iran
5. William R. Clarke, Petrodollar Warfare, New Society 18. The Times Online: Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan
Publishers, 2004, p. 118 for Iran , Interview with Ex-CIA Analyst Ray McGovern
6. According to Ranjit Singh Kalha in his new book 19. US 'Iran attack plans' revealed, The Times Online:
The Ultimate Prize, he states that the US approved of Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran
Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. (http://newspostindia.com/ 20. US-contracted ship fires on Iranian boat: report
report-48375) 21. The Guardian: Deployment of aircraft carrier a US
7. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_ 'reminder' to Iran, says Gates
asia/1550366.stm 22. The Telegraph: MoD account of Iranian kidnap in
8. William R. Clark interview with The Peak Oil and doubt
Global Warming Channel (http://ldscooperative.com/ 23. Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket: The Antiwar
node/47) Classic by America’s Most Decorated Soldier, Feral House,
9. India Times: Saddam made two strategic 'mistakes' 1936
to invite US wrath, India Today: Two strategic mistakes 24. The Real News Network: What is really happen-
Saddam made ing in Lebanon?, Press TV: US plan for Lebanon attack
10. CNN International: O'Neill: Bush planned Iraq in- revealed, The Jerusalem Post: White House denies Iran
vasion before 9/11 attack report
► • RETURN
TO ARTICLE
lution was that I should use cloth towels to clean up these

frequent messes. This increased how often I did laundry
and therefore increased how much water and energy I
To Towel or Not to Towel?
used. It was beginning to look hopeless. Was I doomed to
by Emily Bushman
live a wasteful life?
For years I have been faced with an earnest and sincere Then my second child was born. Yes, that’s right. I
question. Are paper towels evil? Are thousands of trees have two children that are 25 months apart. Yes, I have
being cut down every year because I want an easy clean- heard of birth control. Any responsible environmental-
up option to everyday spills and less time wasted letting ist knows it is unwise to bring another adorably wasteful
air blow on my hands in the restroom? child to this already crowded planet, but I did it anyway
It may seem like I’m being facetious, but this question and I don’t regret it. It’s true. I don’t care about anything
really does haunt me and has ever since I decided to have else but my own happiness and comfort, so I deserve this
children. For those who don’t have children, let me explain guilty conscience. In response to my guilt, I started buying
just how wasteful I began to feel shortly after my daughter paper towels made from recycled materials. Paper towels
was born. There were mountains of disposable diapers that were now a necessity of life. I justified that it was okay to
had to be thrown away; my only other option was cloth use them because I no longer had time to use the shower
diapers and my fear of touching baby excrement soon every day and balanced my conscience on the water and
convinced me that disposable diapers were the way to go. energy savings. But we lived in Canada, it still wasn’t quite
I guess I could have created my own brand of newspaper good enough for my friends that came over and eyed that
diapers, but I’m pretty sure my phobia of feces would still roll of paper towels and sadly shook their heads when they
not have been entirely silenced. Then there were the tiny thought I wasn’t looking.
glass jars of baby food that can’t be recycled, soon followed I decided to do some research. Paper towels are made
by the slightly larger plastic containers of baby food that the same way all paper is made. Paper derived from virgin
can’t be recycled. My solution to this was to make my own wood pulp carries a double environmental burden. Defor-
baby food, aka feed my daughter what I was eating only estation and indiscriminate logging damages ecosystems,
mashed up. That idea actually worked and made me feel causing flooding, erosion and silting. It is estimated that
better until the time she decided that the food I ate was the average American uses 50 pounds of paper tissue per
yucky and needed to be thrown all over the kitchen floor. year and that 40% of trash found in our landfills are paper
This increased my use of paper towels immensely. My so- products. Tissue paper (paper towels, toilet paper, etc.)

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 A Brief History of US Efforts to Promote Civil War in Iraq 42
cannot be recycled, therefore buying recycled products is sistently met with the objection that a sectarian/civil war
essential. Look for goods with the highest Post Consumer will immediately erupt between Iraq’s three main ethnic
Waste (PCW) content and also any products that are Pro- groups, the Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds. Those who object to
cessed Chlorine Free (PCF). PCW refers to the amount of a US withdrawal contend that the US military is the only
pulp derived from paper that was used by consumers and obstacle preventing the unleashing of centuries old ethnic
then recycled. PCF means no additional chlorine or chlo- and religious hatreds between Iraq’s various peoples. To
rine derivatives have been used to bleach the final recycled withdraw would be morally unacceptable, leaving Iraq to
product. Some labels will say they are Elemental Chlorine collapse into chaos and even genocide. We have an obliga-
Free (ECF) which sounds good, but actually means a chlo- tion, the logic goes, to stay the course and help Iraq’s dif-
rine derivative has been used to bleach the paper. ferent ethnic groups reconcile their differences and create
Now that we all agree paper towels have their place a peaceful, stable democratic state.
in this world, I have thought of a few fun ideas for those Such a view is incorrect however. The US military
who would like to practice environmentally conscious presence in Iraq has caused ethnic discord rather than
paper towel use. Instead of stationary, why not write your prevented it, as the US has consistently supported the
friends and family a line or two on a sturdy recycled paper most sectarian parties in return for their support for the
towel? Tired of overpriced art paper and all you want to occupation, while attempting to eliminate the nationalist
do is sketch? Recycled paper towels average at $0.03 per armed opposition, whether Sunni or Shia, who strongly op-
sheet! So go crazy with your paper-towel self! But please pose the occupation and whose ideologies promote ethnic
remember moderation in all things. We still have a planet unity. Additionally, there are so many armed groups in
to look after. Iraq, of varying ethnicities and ideologies, that to describe
any military or political actors in Iraq as simply “Sunni” or
“Shia” obscures the true dynamics of the conflict, especially
given the fact that much of the violence has been Sunni
A Brief History of US Efforts against Sunni and Shia against Shia. In fact, as Raed Jar-
rar points out, much of the intra-Iraqi violence has been
to Promote Civil War in Iraq
between the so-called “separatist” parties on the one hand,
by William Van Wagenen
and the “nationalist” parties on the other. 1
Proposals suggesting an immediate US withdrawal from In Iraq, the “separatist” parties advocate splitting Iraq
Iraq, or even of setting a timetable for withdrawal, are con- into three parts, with each ethnic group controlling a por-

tion of the country through a system of federalism; the pation and consider “expelling the occupier” as a central
Kurds in the north, the Sunnis in the west, and the Shia in duty. These groups do not discriminate on the basis of
the south. The separatists include the four main political ethnicity, favor a strong central government, and con-
parties constituting the US-backed government of Prime demn the “sectarian” policies of the pro-US parties, such
Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, also known as the “Green Zone as federalism, which they view as an attempt to partition
parties.” These include: the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan the country. Additionally they oppose US attempts to pass
(KUP) led by the current president of Iraq, Jalal Talibani, the “New Oil and Gas Law,” which will privatize much of
the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), the Dawa party (a Iraq’s oil industry. 3
Shia party led by Al-Maliki), and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi On the nationalist Sunni side are the resistance groups
Council (SIIC) a Shia party led by Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim engaged in armed struggle against US forces. Though also
(previously known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic religious in their orientation, these groups speak of target-
Revolution or SCIRI). Each of these parties has their own ing the “occupiers” and their “agents,” rather than “infidels”
militia, many members of which have been incorporated and “apostates,” as AQI does. Some of the more prominent
into the Iraqi Army and police. Strange as it may seem, Sunni nationalist resistance groups are Ansar al-Sunna, the
these pro-US parties are also close allies of Iran. The top Islamic Army of Iraq (IAI), the Mujahideen Army, the Is-
leadership of SIIC and Dawa, including Hakim and Maliki, lamic Front for the Iraqi Resistance (JAMI), the Rashideen
spent the two decades before the 2003 war in exile in Iran, Army, and the 1920 Revolution Brigades. As of mid-2007,
while their militias received training from the Iranian Revo- these groups had coalesced into two main coalitions, name-
lutionary guards. The most famous of these militias is the ly the Front for Jihad and Reform (Jabhat Al-Jihad wa
Badr Organization, the militia of the SIIC party. The Kurd- Al-Islaah), and the Front for Jihad and Change (Jabhat Al-
ish leadership, particularly Jalal Talabani, is also friendly Jihad wa Al-Tagyeer). 4 Harith Al-Dhari, secretary general
with Iran. 2 In addition to the pro-US separatist parties of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMSI), is widely
must be added Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which, unlike the considered the spiritual father of many of the nationalist
other separatists, opposes the US presence, but also has a resistance groups. Al-Dhari’s grandfather helped lead the
sectarian outlook and is seeking a partition of the country Iraqi Intifada, or uprising, against the British occupation
to establish an Islamic state in the Sunni dominated west of Iraq in the 1920’s. Al-Dhari has strongly condemned the
of Iraq. US occupation since the invasion in 2003, openly calling
In contrast to the separatists are the nationalist parties, for armed resistance. Additionally, he has consistently
both Sunni and Shia, which strongly oppose the US occu- condemned the killing of civilians, including of Shiites and

Christians, resulting from terrorist operations generally at- ther, the martyr Mohammad Sadiq Al-Sadr, a famous Shiite
tributed to AQI. Al-Dhari has chosen to condemn instances cleric allegedly assassinated by Saddam Hussein in 1999.
of killing civilians specifically, rather than condemning After the fall of Saddam’s regime in 2003, the huge Shiite
AQI itself, due to the belief among many Sunnis that in slum in Baghdad known as Saddam City was renamed Sadr
fact the U.S. intelligence agencies carry out many of the City, and is where Sadr has strong support. Sadr has strong
bombings attributed to AQI. Al-Dhari stated in 2007 that, nationalist credentials because he remained in Iraq despite
“We – and others like us that recognize the legitimacy of the killing of his father (and uncle and brothers) by Saddam,
resistance and the right of nations to resist against their while other Shiite political and religious leaders took exile
enemies and occupiers – believe that resistance should be in Iran (such as Maliki and Hakim as mentioned above).
against the occupying enemies and their obvious agents When the US invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003, there
that cooperate with, support, and fight with the occupiers. was no sign of intense sectarian hatred between Sunni and
Those who target innocent and peaceful Iraqis from all Shia. Feelings of nationalism and brotherhood were strong.
sects, denominations, and faiths are condemned criminals Intermarriage between ethnic groups was common. The
that trespass against Islamic Jurisprudence (Shari’ah) and Baath party itself included many Shia, even though Saddam
are outside the law and the national values. They are like held most top government positions for Sunnis, particularly
the enemies and occupiers of the homeland regardless of those from his tribe and hometown of Tikrit.6 Though the
to which sect or faction or faith they belong.” 5 days after the invasion were chaotic, as a result of looting
On the nationalist Shia side is the Sadr Movement and and attacks by the nascent resistance against occupation
its accompanying militia, the Mahdi Army, both led by targets, there was no significant sectarian violence. Resis-
Muqtada Al-Sadr. Sadr is a young Shia cleric who inherited tance to the US occupation in Baghdad centered on the
a religious network of charities and mosques from his fa- Abu Hanifa mosque in the Sunni district of Adhamiya.7
Though publicly denying the ex-
istence of a legitimate insurgency,

US commanders realized that the attacks on US forces locally recruited and newly trained Iraqi troops sent to lay
after the end of major combat were gaining strength, and siege to Falluja in April 2004, in order to defeat the resis-
that American efforts to halt these attacks were clumsy tance groups centered there, deserted en masse, leaving
and ineffective. Army and Marine units began indiscrimi- the assault of the city to the Marines. Nir Rosen reported
nately detaining large numbers of Iraqis, while US inter- from Falluja that, “The American-trained Iraqi Army had
rogators were told to use increasingly brutal and sadistic mutinied, refusing to fight in Falluja on the grounds that
methods in order to obtain better intelligence about future they had joined to defend Iraq, not kill Iraqis.” 10
attacks, though these techniques were largely unsuccess- By this time, co-operation and mutual sympathy be-
ful as well.8 In 2004, the inability of the US to defeat the tween the Shiite Mahdi Army and the Sunni resistance
fledgling insurgency led the Americans towards a policy reached its apex. Both groups had a common nationalist
of “Vietnam-ization,” namely beginning to train a new agenda to liberate the country from occupation. For ex-
Iraqi army and police to take over the fight against the ample, the Sadr movement declared in early 2004 that they
anti-occupation resistance groups. The New York Times “reject the American presence in Iraq. . . and demand the
Magazine reported that: withdrawal of occupation forces and the establishment of
“Until [2004], the United States military tried to defeat a timetable for the date of their exit from the country.” 11
the insurgency on its own, with Iraqi forces playing only Sadr put his words into practice by sending fighters
a token role. The effort did not succeed. For every Iraqi from his Mahdi Army to cut US supply lines near Abu
detained by G.I.'s, 10 more seemed to join the insurgency, Ghraib, in an effort to help the Sunni resistance groups
thanks to questionable American tactics: shooting at the defend Falluja from US forces laying siege to the city. 12
whiff of a threat, yelling at civilians, detaining Iraqis in- Mahdi Army clashes with American forces intensified that
discriminately, placing hoods over the heads of detainees. summer when CPA head Paul Bremer shut down Sadr’s
With insurgent attacks becoming more frequent and also official newspaper, and when US forces killed several Iraqi
more gruesome in the spring of 2004, American generals civilians in the subsequent pro-Sadr demonstrations. Fight-
realized that they needed to create, or find, effective Iraqi ing in Najaf, primarily in the city cemetery, between US
forces.” 9 forces and the Mahdi Army was particularly intense. Sunni
This strategy introduced the first aspects of civil war, resistance groups sent fighters in support of Sadr, causing a
pitting Iraqis willing to collaborate with the American oc- known pro-insurgent Sunni website to comment that, “the
cupiers against those Iraqis who were fighting against the Sunnis were the first to stand with Sadr and his followers
occupiers. Initially, however, the strategy was a failure, as in the battle of Najaf. 13

This nationalist spirit soon began to deteriorate how- US-backed Iraqi government, allowing it to be dominated
ever, as the Americans adopted a new strategy, namely by the pro-Iranian Shia and Kurdish parties, giving the
bringing in Iraqi Army units composed of Shiites from the government an unmistakably “sectarian” character. 15
south of the country to help fight alongside US troops in the The Sunni resistance groups now began to speak of
Sunni province of Anbar. This introduced the second, or two occupations, namely the American occupation, and the
sectarian, aspect of civil war, namely Shia fighting against Iranian occupation. The American occupation consisted
Sunni, and laid the foundation for the future sectarian ha- of the 130,000 US troops in the country, while the “Iranian
tred now taken for granted in Iraq by the western media. occupation” consisted of the new US-backed government
The two pro-Iranian Shia parties, Dawa and SIIC, lacking and security forces, controlled by the pro-Iranian parties
significant popular support, were eager to join the US- Dawa and SIIC. The Sunni resistance began to refer to
installed government and incorporate their militias, par- pro-Iranian Shiites within the government as “Safavids” a
ticularly the Badr Organization, into the newly formed Iraqi pejorative word for Iranians harking back to the historic
security forces. The sectarian civil war deepened as Badr Safavid Empire based in modern day Iran, which had in-
Organization-dominated Iraqi army units fought along- vaded Iraq centuries before.
side US troops to suppress the Sunni uprisings throughout Another significant factor in the rise of sectarian hatred
Anbar province, in cities such as Falluja, Ramadi, Hit, and was AQI, whose militants flooded across the Iraqi border
Haditha. US general Barry Mcaffrey defended the use of from neighboring Arab countries after the 2003 invasion in
Shia Iraqi police and army units in Sunni Anbar province, order to fight the Americans. In addition to attacking US
stating that, “It's not likely that you're going to recruit an troops, AQI militants began carrying out brutal bombings
Iraqi police commando battalion of Sunni Muslims to put against Shia civilian targets, such as markets and religious
down the insurrection in Fallujah.” Mcaffrey did not expect festivals. AQI militants hated the Shia partly because those
such tactics to result in civil war, but noted that this was from the Dawa and SCIRI parties were collaborating with
“risky business.” 14 the occupation, and partly because AQI’s religious ideol-
The US attempted to smash the anti-occupation Sunni ogy labeled the Shia infidels for their veneration of the
resistance groups in preparation for the Iraqi elections in Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein. AQI militants
January 2005. After the second siege of Falluja in November became known as “Takfiris” or “those who excommunicate,”
2004, Sunni anger at the US was particularly high, resulting because of their declaration that anyone, and especially
in a Sunni (and Sadr) boycott of the elections. This boycott Shiites, who did not adhere to AQI’s version of Islam were
left Sunni’s and nationalist Shia under-represented in the not true Muslims. This hatred of Shiites was something

the indigenous Iraqi resistance groups did not share, as to the occupation, and their operations increasingly took
they focused their efforts on attacking US troops and their on a sectarian character, targeting primarily Sunnis. The
collaborators, while refusing to distinguish between Sunni “Wolf Brigade” was the most feared of these special com-
and Shia. As the death toll of Shia civilians targeted in AQI mando units, and became known for abducting, torturing,
attacks mounted, however, many Shia in Iraq, including the and killing Sunnis.19 By the summer of 2005, scores of
nationalist followers of Muqtada Al-Sadr, began to view Sunni corpses were turning up each month on the sides
most Sunnis as “terrorists,” failing to distinguish the ac- of roads or in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, often with
tions of AQI from the actions of the other Sunni resistance “bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and
groups. At the same time, in an effort to maintain unity, holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills.
the Sunni resistance groups were not vigorous enough in Many have simply vanished.”20
condemning AQI, even though they disagreed with AQI’s Despite many attempts by Sunni and Shia religious
brutal tactics. authorities to stress unity and brotherhood regardless of
In 2005, with the US realizing that it now faced a popu- religious sect, the violence resulting from US recruitment
lar Sunni insurgency, it turned to the “El Salvador option” of the pro-Iranian Shia parties into the new Iraqi security
of using death squads to break the resistance groups. The forces to fight anti-occupation Sunnis and the brutal tar-
Times of London reported that, “The Pentagon is consider- geting of Shia civilians by the Sunni AQI, was enough to
ing forming hit squads of Kurdish and Shia fighters to target tear apart the fabric of religious and ethnic coexistence in
leaders of the Iraqi insurgency in a strategic shift borrowed Iraq. Finally in February of 2006, with the bombing of the
from the American struggle against left-wing guerrillas Askari mosque in Samarra, allegedly at the hands of AQI
in Central America 20 years ago. 16 John Negroponte and militants, popular anger took over, leading to all out sectar-
James Steele, veteran overseers of the dirty war against ian war. Members of the Shia Mahdi Army began attacking
leftists in El Salvador that killed roughly 70,000 civilians, Sunni mosques and violently cleansing neighborhoods of
were sent to Iraq as the new US Ambassador to Iraq and Sunni residents.
military advisor to these newly formed commando units Harith Al-Dhari, speaking for the nationalist Sunni re-
respectively. 17 sistance, condemned the bombing of the shrine, implying
US advisors organized these death squads as Iraqi Min- that it was destroyed by Iraqi government forces loyal to
istry of Interior commando brigades, consisting primarily the pro-Iranian Shia, and refused to blame Sadr himself
of members of the Badr organization. 18 These special com- for the violent response of the Mahdi Army, stating that,
mando units began abducting and killing Iraqi’s opposed “the masses, who attacked and sabotaged Sunni mosques

on the second and third days, did not adhere to the calls stage of sectarian violence, Sunnis began to see even the
by Shiite religious authorities because they were driven nationalist Shia Mahdi Army as “Safavids” and part of the
by their emotions. In addition they were directed by some “Iranian occupation.”
parties who took advantage of the masses’ outrage.” To By the time of President Bush’s “surge” in early 2007,
calm the situation, Al-Dhari stated that the “Al-Sadr trend most of the ethnically mixed neighborhoods in Baghdad
met with other national forces participating in the anti- had been cleared of the minority ethnic group, leading to a
occupation Iraqi National Constituent Conference to act drop in the levels of violence, as the two warring commu-
quickly to contain the problem” and that the Association nities were now basically separated. Intra-Sunni violence
of Muslim Scholars had made bi-lateral agreements with increased as AQI began assassinating leaders of the Sunni
the Sadr movement.21 resistance groups for refusing to pledge allegiance to Abu
The US-backed Shia parties in the Iraqi government Omar Al-Baghdadi, the emir of AQI. Those assassinated by
(Dawa and SIIC) countered this call for restraint among AQI included several leaders of the Islamic Army, and a
the anti-occupation nationalist groups, however, by push- commander in the 1920 Revolution Brigades who was also
ing Mahdi Army supporters in the ranks of the Iraqi police the nephew of Harith Al-Dhari of AMSI. 23 Some Sunni
and army to take revenge. Awan newspaper reports that, resistance factions and tribes, already disillusioned with
“during the sectarian war which broke out powerfully in AQI’s targeting of civilians and extremist interpretations
February 2006, and especially within Baghdad, the Shia of Islam, began responding to AQI attacks “in-kind.” 24
parties encouraged the Sadr movement to take revenge As the Sunni conflict with AQI continued, growing
against the other sect [Sunni] and continued to push [the Iranian influence over the US-backed Iraqi government
Sadr movement] toward it so that the Mahdi militia par- caused some Sunnis began to see the “Iranian occupation”
ticipated in the ugliest sectarian killing Iraq has seen in as more dangerous than the American occupation. The US
previous centuries. The government of Jaafari and Maliki, took advantage of this mood to try to expand its network of
and the ministers who are followers of Hakim were ap- collaborators. It formed “Awakenings Councils” consisting
plauding Sadr and providing him with government cover of Sunni tribes and former resistance fighters, whom the
for the Mahdi Army to be transported in police cars and Americans provided with weapons and $300 per month in
carry official papers and licenses for them and weapons.” 22 salary per fighter, in exchange for ending attacks against
Sunni resistance groups responded by defending their own US forces and fighting against AQI. This caused a split in
neighborhoods, while killing or expelling the Shia residents the Islamic Army, one of the most prominent resistance
in areas under their control. As a result of this intense new factions, between those who insisted on continuing to fight

the Americans and those who joined the Awakenings Coun- Shia separatists against Shia nationalists. On March 25th,
cils, who argued for a temporary truce, or hudna, with the and shortly after visits to Baghdad from Dick Cheney and
Americans in order to counter the Iranian threat. 25 This Iranian President Ahmedinejad, Prime Minister Maliki or-
split in the Islamic Army was accompanied by allegations dered the Iraqi Army to begin military operations to disarm
that the 1920 Revolution Brigades had begun collaborating Mahdi Army elements in Basra. Despite Iraqi government
with American forces to fight Al-Qaeda, and that several claims that the operations simply targeted militias operat-
Brigades units had therefore formed a new organization ing “outside the law,” in practice the operations targeted
called Iraqi-Hamas, in order to continue fighting the Ameri- Sadr’s Mahdi Army only. The Iraqi Army operations in
cans. Basra received US backing in the form of air strikes and
Despite the bad blood between Sadr and the Sunni a simultaneous siege on Sadr City, which became neces-
resistance factions, Sadr did not abandon his nationalist sary when over 1,000 Iraqi soldiers refused to fight, appar-
agenda, and continued to demand a timetable for the with- ently out of sympathy for the Mahdi Army. 28 The fighting
drawal of American occupying forces, which was rejected spread to Kut and Hilla as well, where US air strikes and
by Prime Minister Maliki and the other Shia parties in the raids killed 100 on March 27th. 29 Iranian support for the
government. Sadr (and the Fadhila party) responded by attacks came in the form of pronouncements by Iranian
withdrawing their support from the United Iraqi Alliance state television stating that the Iraqi government offen-
(UIA), the main Shiite bloc and ally of Iran in the Iraqi Par- sive was justified since only government forces should be
liament. Further, Sadr considered a political alliance with armed. 30 On April 23rd a Sadr spokesperson stated that
two Sunni political parties, the Sunni Accord Front, and in the previous three weeks, US and Iraqi forces had killed
the Dialogue Front led by Saleh Al-Mutlak. 26 In addition, 400 and injured 1720 in Sadr City alone. 31
Sadr organized his own national reconciliation conference, When asked why Mahdi Army elements were being
which was attended by the 300 Sunni and Shia tribal sheikhs, targeted, the Sadr representative gave a simple answer:
and which called for a timetable for the withdrawal of US “The most important reason for the escalation in the posi-
forces from the country. 27 tions against the Sadr Movement was the announcement of
With Sadr challenging Washington (demanding a US [our] intention to participate in the elections for provincial
withdrawal), and challenging Tehran (withdrawing his councils,” which the Sadr Movement is widely expected
support from the pro-Iranian bloc in parliament, under- to win in many of the Shia provinces. 32 Sadr gains in the
mining Maliki), the stage was set in early 2008 for the US provincial elections would be disaster for the US, as it
to initiate the third stage of the civil war, namely pitting would weaken the hold of its allies over the Iraqi govern-

ment (Dawa and SIIC) and bring to power an anti-US vide security for Ahmedinejad during his visit to Baghdad
party demanding the withdrawal of US forces, much like due to fears that Shia police in the Ministry of Interior loyal
Palestinian elections brought Hamas to power in Gaza. to Sadr could not be trusted to protect him. 33
The US-backed Further, when Maliki and the US began operations
attacks on Sadr were against the Mahdi Army, Iran officially blessed the attack,
The Leader will explain
accompanied by accu- as mentioned above, stating that, “The Islamic Republic of
sations by the Bush ad-
to you: The war will last Iran provides the strongest support to the Iraqi government
ministration and else- four weeks. When fall and the political process and thus it is illogical to accuse us
where that Iran was comes, you will all be of supporting terrorist groups there.” 34 The Wall Street
supplying elements home again. But fall will Journal accusation that, “Iran is engaged in a full-up proxy
of the Mahdi Army, come and go, And come war against it in Iraq. Iranian agents and military forces are
the so-called “special and go again many times, actively attacking U.S. Forces and the government of Iraq,”
groups,” with weap- And you will not be back is useful because it plays on Sunni fears that Sadr is an
ons to attack US troops. The Leader will explain Iranian agent, thus preventing national reconciliation and
This was in spite of the to you: The machines a united Shia/Sunni front against the occupation. Perhaps
fact that Iran’s closest will accomplish it for us. more importantly, it provides justification for a possible
allies in Iraq are US Very few will have to die. US military strike against Iran, since the American public
favorites Maliki, Ha- But you will die in the is likely to support such a strike only if they think Iran is
kim, and Talabani. All killing US troops. 35
hundreds of thousands,
of these pro-US Iraqi Because of the violence of the past few years, the Shia
more than any has seen
politicians gave Ah- nationalist factions and the Sunni nationalist factions are
die before. When I hear
medinejad a warm wel- still embittered against one another. Whether they can put
come when he visited
you are at the north past grievances behind them and unite to expel the Ameri-
Baghdad, while Sadr pole, or in India, or in cans and remain independent of Iranian influence is unclear.
and the Shia religious Romania, I will only American forces, however, have methodically fomented
establishment in Najaf know where your graves sectarian divisions through their attempts to recruit Iraqi
refused to meet him. can one day be found. parties to support the US presence, and through their use
The Sunni Kurdish —Berthold Brecht of these parties to suppress the nationalist, anti-occupation
Peshmerga had to pro- resistance groups, whether Sunni or Shia. Because the US

has been the cause of so much sectarian division in Iraq, it 5. Killing Innocent Civilians is not Jihad. Interview with
is impossible to imagine that a continued American pres- Harith Al-Dhari, Secretary General of the Association of
ence in Iraq will foster any kind of national unity that can Muslim Scholars (AMSI), accessed online April 9, 2007,
allow Iraq to once again be a nation where differing ethnic http://heyetnet.org/en/content/view/198/34/.
groups can live peacefully with one another. Rather, if 6. Raed Jarrar points out in the article cited above that,
the US presence continues, Iraqi society will continue to “The myth that the former Iraqi government was a “Sunni-
fracture, leading to warlordism and civil war for decades led dictatorship” was created by the U.S. government. Even
to come. the Iraqi political regime was not “Sunniled,” let alone the
Special thanks to Badger, who blogs at www.arablinks. rest of the public sector. A good way to debunk this fairy
blogspot.com, for calling attention to many of the articles tale is through a close look at the famous deck of cards of
I referenced in this article. the 55 most wanted Iraqi leaders. The cards had the pic-
tures of Saddam, his two sons, and the rest of the political
leadership which most Iraqis would recognize as the heads
1. Jarrar, Raed, “The Iraqi Civil War Bush and the Media
of the political regime. What is noteworthy is that 36 of
Won’t Tell You About,” Foreign Policy in Focus, March
the 55 were Shiites. In fact, the two vice presidents were a
24th 2008. Accessed online at: The Iraqi Civil War Bush
Christian and a Shiite Kurd.”
and the Media Don't Tell You About. Jarrar blogs at Raed
7. For a history of the early development of the in-
In the Middle Blog.
surgency, see the film “Meeting Resistance.” www.meet-
2. The Kurds protested strongly, when in late 2006,
ingresistance.com.
U.S. forces raided the Iranian embassy in the Kurdish city
8. Lagouranis, Tony. Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interro-
of Arbil and detained an Iranian diplomat suspected of
gator’s Dark Journey Through Iraq. New American Library,
directing Iranian intelligence operations.
New York, NY, 2007.
3. Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) News,
9. NYT Magazine, “The Way of the Commando” by
Fatwa: It is Forbidden to Approve “Law of Oil and Gas.”
Peter Maass, May 1, 2005.
July 5, 2007, accessed online at www.Heyetnet.org/en/.
10. Rosen, Nir. In the Belly of the Green Bird, Free Press,
4. “Yaqeen News Agency interview with Nasser Al-
New York, NY, 2006, pg. 144.
Deen Al-Husni, Official Spokesperson of the Front for Jihad
11. Sadr Al-Iraq Al-Thalith; Ahdafuhu, Mawaaqifuhu,
and Transformation,”10/07/2007, accessed online at http://
Mashru’uhu, pg. 8,9. Al-Sayyid Muhassan Al-Nuri Al-Mu-
www.yaqen.net/?p=1207.
sawwi, Markaz Wali Allah lildirasaat waltawjih walirshad,
2004, my translation.
► • RETURN
TO ARTICLE
The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 Book Review: Building the City of God 52
12. Rosen, Nir. In the Belly of the Green Bird; The Tri- 24. Al-Arab newspaper, Jan 1, 2008, summarized at
umph of the Martyrs in Iraq. Free Press, New York, NY arablinks.blogspot.com.
2006, pg 158. 25. Al-Hayat Newspaper, Feb. 26, 2008.
13. Accessed online at www.76news.net/news. 26. Awan Newspaper, March 27, 2008.
php?id=7491, my translation. 27. Aswat Al-Iraq (Voices of Iraq), March 24, 2008.
14. Ethnic divisions threaten cohesive Iraqi army, ana- 28. Al-Qabas Newspaper, March 27, 2008.
lysts say. The Dallas Morning News, Nov 30, 2005. By 29. Al-Hayat Newspaper, March 28, 2008.
Richard Whittle. 30. Iran backs Iraq’s crackdown on ‘armed groups.’
15. Chehab, Zaki. Inside the Resistance: The Iraqi In- Tehran Times, April 24th, 2008.
surgency and the Future of the Middle East. Nation Books, 31. Aswat Al-Iraq (Voices of Iraq) Newspaper, April
New York, NY, 2005. 23 2008.
16. El Salvador-style ‘death squads’ to be deployed by 32. Al-Hayat, March 27 2008, my translation.
US against Iraq militants, The Times, January 10, 2005. 33. Al-Qabas Newspaper March 5, 2008.
17. NYT Magazine, “The Way of the Commando” by 34. Iran backs Iraq’s crackdown on ‘armed groups.’
Peter Maass, May 1, 2005. Tehran Times, April 24th, 2008.
18. Anbar Province and Emerging Trends in the Iraqi 35. The Second Iran-Iraq War, by Kimberly Kagan, Wall
Insurgency, by Mahan Abedin, Global Terrorism Analy- Street Journal, April 3, 2008.
sis, the Jamestown Foundation, volume 3, issue 14, July 15,
2005.
19. New York Times, Q&A: Iraq’s Militias, June 9th
2005.
20. Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Military of Kidnappings and Book Review: Building the City of God
Slayings, By Dexter Filkins, New York Times, Nov. 29, Community and Cooperation among the Mormons
2005 by Leonard Arrington, Review by Jason Brown
21. Al-Zaman newspaper, March 14, 2006. If there is one book that every Latter-day Saint should read
22. Awan newspaper, March 27, 2008, my translation. (besides of course the scriptures) it would be Leonard
23. Al-Qaeda loses an Iraqi Friend, Time Magazine, Arrington’s Building the City of God. In his practically en-
May 14th 2007. cyclopedic coverage of early Mormon cooperative efforts,
► • RETURN
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The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 Book Review: Building the City of God 53
Arrington lays out the good, the bad and the ugly of Zion church. According to Arrington, implementation of the Or-
Building in the American West of the 19th Century. der was inhibited and shaped by existing land tenure laws
Arrington begins his book by laying out the histori- and the unwillingness of some saints to consecrate their
cal context in which Joseph Smith emerged as a religious properties. Unfortunately, these early attempts to live the
leader. In a United States where religious pluralism and Law of Consecration under Joseph Smith’s leadership were
laizze-faire individualism were boiling over, the 19th cen- mostly a failure. Intense persecution of Mormon communi-
tury saw an explosion of utopian and apocalyptic communal ties, first in Ohio and then Missouri, made implementing
religious societies; what might today be called intentional the United Order difficult as well.
communities. There were so many experimental communi- However, by the time Brigham Young attempted to
ties during this time, that Ralph Waldo Emerson famously establish consumer cooperatives (like ZCMI) in the 1860s,
stated “we are all a little wild here with numberless proj- and re-implement the Law of Consecration by creating
ects of social reform. Not a reading man but has a draft of United Order communities in the 1870s, the social upheaval
a New Community in his waistcoat pocket.” that was characteristic of Joseph Smith’s time was giving
In this context, Joseph Smith began to assemble the way to a capitalist economy, in which anything communal
elements that would become Mormonism. He envisioned or cooperative was looked down upon. What is striking
a social and economic base in which followers would be about Brigham Young’s United Order Movement is the
of “one heart and one mind,” and where there would be fiery anti-capitalistic instinct that Young exhibits. He was
no poor among them (and not just because the poor would vehemently opposed to imports into the Utah territory by
be excluded). According to Arrington, many Mormon con- what he called “the merchants of Babylon” fearing that if
verts came from more radical Christian backgrounds that Latter-day Saints grew to depend on outside imports, they
envisioned a communal society more in line with the teach- would become slaves to “gentile” merchants who profited
ings of primitive Christianity. at their expense. He refused to let Utah become a supply
The revelation that enunciated the Law of Consecration of raw materials to the United States, and pushed saints
and Stewardship, or the United Order, was revealed in 1831. to set up their own cooperative home industries so that
In it Smith calls for the consecration of all personal property the territory would become a net exporter of value added
to a ward Bishop, which would then be redistributed to the goods. In addition to his economic policies, Young carried
steward according to his/her needs. This system allowed a deep commitment to social justice and believed that the
for individual creativity and freedoms, while at the same Saints were preparing the earth for the return of Christ,
time providing for the numerous poor that were joining the and were therefore charged with building a Zion society,

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 Contributors 54
one in which all lived in harmony and equality. and A New Generation Draws the Line. Chomsky’s efforts
Arrington takes the reader through Cooperative and for greater democracy are celebrated by peace and social
United Order Experiments in over twelve Latter-day Saint justice movements worldwide.
communities, expounding on the detail and drama of for- Ron Madson served an LDS mission to France-Switzer-
mation, trouble shooting, and dissolution of each. Most land. Ron received a bachelors degree in English from
communities relied exclusively on voluntary compliance of BYU and a Juris Doctorate from the J. Reuben Clark Law
members through ecclesiastical persuasions and each had School in 1981 and has practiced law in Nevada and Utah
to deal with balancing the leveling impulses of the Order for the past 27 years.
with the desire for individual freedom and creativity. As
Norman G. Finkelstein received his doctorate in 1988
Arrington illustrates with firsthand accounts of members of
from the Department of Politics, Princeton University, for
the order, it was a time of great unity among the Saints.
a thesis on the theory of Zionism. He’s currently an inde-
Though the United Order has failed in leaving any real
pendent scholar. He has written numerous books, including
institutional legacy, the spirit of solidarity and unity that
Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, The Rise
prevails in Latter-day Saint communities is pointed out
and Fall of Palestine, and The Holocaust Industry.
by Arrington as being a strong feature of contemporary
Mormon culture. As Mormon social and environmental Stanley Haurwas is a United Methodist theologian, ethi-
activists, this volume is an essential collection of case cist, and professor of law. He received a PhD from Yale
studies to analyze, test, and reformulate into new ideas as University and a D.D. from The University of Edinburgh,
we contemplate making a Zion society in our day, through and has taught at the University of Notre Dame. He is cur-
institutions of voluntary association and cooperation. rently the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics
at Duke Divinity School with a joint appointment at the
Duke University School of Law.
Spencer Kingman is a member of the LDS church and an
anti-war activist. He lives in Provo, Utah where he studies
Contributors math education at Utah Valley State College and works with
Noam Chomsky is a world renowned political activist, disabled people at a recreational program called RAH.
writer, and professor of linguistics at Massachusetts In- Abdullah Mulhim is a Palestinian Muslim from Ramal-
stitue of Technology, where he has taught since 1955. His lah in the occupied West Bank. He received a degree in
works include Manufacturing Consent, Profit Over People, Finance from Arizona State University.

The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 Navigation 55
Jeremy Cloward is a member of the LDS Church and hopes to dedicate his life to the principles of solidary, sus-
works as a computer programmer in Salt Lake City. tainability, and cooperation. He can be contacted at jason-
Cory Bushman is a peace and human rights activist, a brown644@hotmail.com
member of the LDS church and lives in Salt Lake City.
Gregory Van Wagenen 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 Navigation
volunteer for the New Democratic Party in the Burnaby-
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The Mormon Worker ◆ Issue 4 Mother’s Day Proclamation 57
Mother’s Day Proclamation Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence
indicate possession.
by julia ward howe (1870)
As men have often forsaken the plough and the

Arise, then, women of this day!
anvil at the summons of war, let women now
Arise, all women who have hearts, leave all that may be left of home for a great and
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears! earnest day of counsel.
Say firmly: Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and
commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take
counsel with each other as to the means where-
“We will not have great questions decided
by the great human family can live in peace,
by irrelevant agencies,
each bearing after his own time the sacred im-
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with press, not of Caesar, but of God.
carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
In the name of womanhood and humanity,
all that we have been able to teach them
I earnestly ask that a general congress of women
of charity, mercy and patience.
without limit of nationality may be appointed
We, the women of one country, will be too and held at someplace deemed most convenient
tender of those of another country and at the earliest period consistent with its
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.” objects, to promote the alliance of the different
From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice nationalities, the amicable settlement of interna-
goes up with our own. tional questions, the great and general interests
of peace.
It says: “Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder
is not the balance of justice.” www.themormonworker.org
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“I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves” – joseph smith

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Die on our brand new poison gas

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Everyday I look at you

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as we continue the long march toward universal equality.

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A petrodollar 3 refers to the dollars that oil exporters re-

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An Attack on Iran pleased as would be the residents of California were they

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