Eco-Justice (Fall 2009)

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CONTENTS

Cover theme: Eco-Justice

Grassroots dispatches

  • Teamwork, advocacy and service – Bre Woligroski recounts her experience at the United Nations
  • Remarkable, not perfect – Charlene Sayo reflects on martial law and her SCM father

SCM movement updates

Departments

From the editors

Welcome to SCM’s issue on Eco-Justice! And it comes not a moment too soon — with international climate talks approaching, a global movement mobilizing to address links between oppression of people and of the Earth, and the environmental crisis at, well, crisis proportions.
Admittedly, as you’ll see in our Letters to the Editors section, SCM Canada has been slow to take up issues of eco-justice. A gross oversight on our part? After all, environmental issues are at the top of media, political and educational agendas—and where they’re not, they should be.

We arrive on the eco-scene at a time when, in the media and popular discourse, “eco-friendly” and “green” have certainly become buzz words, but to what effect and for what reason? “Greenwashing,” a marketing tactic which either fabricates or inappropriately over-emphasizes a product or company’s environmental friendliness, is becoming de rigeur. But are we consumers really educating ourselves about ecological issues, or simply “consuming” a company’s spin on them without challenging our often environmentally damaging North American consumer habits? Is “eco-justice” (with implications of fairness, informed decisions, and righting wrongs) a more useful discourse?

This issue is a response to these questions. As you’ll see inside, the Earth is fundamentally a matter of justice. It is blatantly unjust for us to exploit and harm Creation, since it is God’s gift to us. But also, the effects of our economic system’s devastation hit hardest on the poorest and most marginalized among us. Mitchell Anderson writes about how he sees a “just transition” from an Earth-destroying to a liberating economy with justice for all. Pro-environmental changes in the world economy must happen, and quickly, but we must also ensure that the necessary widespread changes do not leave people jobless or unable to afford the necessities of life.

Eco-justice is not about only talking about how others should change their ways, although systemic change is essential. It’s about actually trying out experiments with other ways of living, for instance pedal power as in Maggie McBride’s opening article, ‘I want to ride my bike,’ and Johan Boyden’s appeal for a strategy and tactics to combat climate change rooted in coalitions. Eco-justice can be challenging but incredibly rewarding. It can be very difficult—thinking critically about our individual and societal attitudes and habits, and negotiating new ways of living out our justice values. Sometimes these new ways of being will require sacrifices, at least perhaps at first: of finances, time, and long-held habits. Sometimes, we may be pleasantly surprised at how easy and advantageous these changes can be. What people are becoming increasingly aware of, as individuals and groups, is that change is necessary, and is happening already; but the change is often in negative ways now, whether we choose to act or not.

This issue is about exploring alternatives to exploitative, damaging ways of living. In the end, we’re all on this beautiful Earth together so communal sharing and cooperation is a must. May the articles help you question what eco-justice means to you; may you be inspired to find ways to live out eco-justice in your own life!

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I want to ride my bicycle
Maggie McBride tells us about 28 days with Otesha Project

The star-strewn sky was never more beautiful to me than on the night of August 15th, 2009.

I was sitting around a fire with 14 of my closest friends, hungrily munching on a corn cob. I felt fantastic. As the night sky had begun to close in on us, the last of our frightful 15 had trickled in. I was relieved. That morning we had woken up at 5:15 am to hastily pack up, eat and begin our longest bike ride yet; from Kennetcook to the Lorax Woodlands (a farming cooperative about 10km outside of Wolfville).

What we thought was going to be an 80 km bike ride turned into 100 km, with the last 3 km up what we affectionately called “murder mountain.” My crew hit the road at about 7 am and arrived at around 8 pm, biking through peak heat which must have been about 30 degrees Celcius. We only took a few stops including one to pick up food for supper. As I sat there in the cool evening breeze, I was filled with gratitude. I was so thankful that we had all made it safely. I also was very proud. I was proud because in my heart I knew that if 15 strangers from all over Canada could bike that far together on one day for social justice and the environment then anything was possible.
This summer from August 1st to 28th I was part of the Otesha Project’s Rising Tide Tour. We biked from Moncton, New Brunswick to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We rode along the coast of the Bay of Fundy and then down the south shore to stop, perform and learn in many small eastern communities. Otesha is a youth-run non-governmental organization that empowers young people through performance to make more sustainable every day choices. During the length of our tour we acted as a mobile community that tried to be the change we were so avidly promoting. We operated on consensus and had a food mandate that pushed us to try and eat as vegan, local, organic and gluten-free as possible. The tour made me really begin to re-conceptualize what eco-justice means to me.

I realized that living integrally with humanity and the environment in an ecologically just way is a lot more than adopting a hairy, smelly, tree-hugging, Bob Dylan-loving, hippie lifestyle. As the tour unfolded I met the bright shining faces of many community gardeners, played with the children of a revolutionary cooperative, watched a biodynamic farmer affectionately feed her deer, listened to a man passionately talk about alternative releases of serotonin rather than the conventional candy and TV and unpacked the stories of some of the other cool cats that were biking with me. I began to understand eco-justice as something quite larger than I ever could have imagined. It was no longer a title behind which radical outcasts took refuge. Eco-justice was this beautiful canopy full of tradition and hardship which gracefully entwined those who chose to be a part of its community.

To be cocooned in this canopy was a privilege and an honor. Practicing care for the environment actually meant pushing myself, pushing myself to live to my full human capacity. Whether that be biking up a seemingly endless stream of hills between me and my destination just so that I could know that at least for that trip I wasn’t completely dependant on fossil fuels, or maybe it simply meant compromising personal desires for the good of the community because I knew that in the end that was what was important. I could not fully explain to you what happened to me on my trip but it was radical – radical in that it brought me back to the root of eco-justice and of myself. Who I am now is a lot more a reflection of what I believe than ever before. Maybe that is what eco-justice and the spirit of community really are: letting yourself be, loving, feeling and looking at the stars.

Maggie attended her first SCM General Conference & Pilgrimage in 2009. She lives in Camrose, Alberta.

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Let’s start talking about climate justice
by Chris Hrynkow

The 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that even societies with high capacity for adaptability, are vulnerable to events such as the 2003 heat wave in Europe and Hurricane Katrina in USA. However, these examples also point to how capacity is not evenly distributed around a society, as it is people on the economic margins in those societies that bear the greatest cost of climate change. There is a great deal of injustice accompanying this fact. While embracing principles of social justice, the lens of eco-justice also exposes another dimension to this malaise.

Examining the global distribution of wealth and suffering, Dennis Patrick O’Hara argued in his Student Christian Movement lecture in Winnipeg this spring that it is not just an act of suicide that we are committing as we use up the Earth’s resources, but also an act of homicide. This statement is true because it is those human beings on the periphery of both global and local societies that pay the ultimate price for our military industrial model of consumption and its manifestations in the climate and ecological crises. In this sense, the late Brazilian bishop Dom Hélder Câmara was correct to speak of poverty as a horrible form of violence akin to a bomb.

As such, despite the resistance of Câmara’s successor, it understandable that in continuing Câmara’s legacy of praxis-based work with people affeced by economic injustice in North Eastern Brazil, ecofeminist liberation theologian, Ivone Gebara, connects the suffering of people living in poverty with the suffering of the Earth community.

This link between ecology, poverty, and violence is all around us. Hence, the importance of a vision of the future that Arthur Walker-Jones has discerned as operative in the Psalms in which “social justice is interrelated with the well-being of Earth.”
When moving beyond the social, the IPCC report also lends statistical support to moral vision of connectivity put forth by these theologians. The report demonstrates that not only will less wealthy human communities and particularly those in high risk areas be especially vulnerable as a result of the impacts of future anthropogenic climate change, but simultaneously the report notes:

that approximately 20 to 30% of plant and animal species assessed so far are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if increases in global average temperature exceed 1.5 to 2.5°C over 1980-1999 levels. Confidence has increased that a 1 to 2°C increase in global mean temperature above 1990 levels (about 1.5 to 2.5°C above pre-industrial) poses significant risks to many unique and threatened systems including many biodiversity hotspots. Corals are vulnerable to thermal stress and have low adaptive capacity. Increases in sea surface temperature of about 1 to 3°C are projected to result in more frequent coral bleaching events and widespread mortality, unless there is thermal adaptation or acclimatisation by corals. Increasing vulnerability of Arctic indigenous communities and small island communities to warming is projected.

These effects on the larger life community are yet other reasons that we can speak of the ecological crisis as a moral crisis. We can do this in the spirit of liberation theologians who called to our attention the need for a preferential option for people living in poverty, in order to overcome social injustice. Given the current effects of the climate crisis we might also now speak of the need for a preferential option for the earth made poorer by human abuse.

Chris Hrynow was SCM Manitoba co-coordinator last year. He teaches in Ottawa, Ontario.

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Teamwork, advocacy and service
SCM’s North America representative, Bre Woligroski, attended the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She recounts her experience.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat down to write this article. My recent experience in advocating for women’s rights at the United Nations with a team of SCM members from every region of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) was very large, very all-encompassing, and very difficult to put into words . . .

The United Nations’ 53rd Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) took place in March 2009 in New York, USA. I was part of a team of six WSCFers from all around the world – Sara from Norway, Facia from Liberia, Veronica from Argentina, Chai (originally from India, but studying and living in New York), Charite (the WSCF Global Intern), and myself. We were also working as part of a larger team of World Council of Churches staff-people, as well as other organizations under the larger delegation of Ecumenical Women (www.ecumenicalwomen.org). Ecumenical Women is an international coalition of church denominations and ecumenical organizations which holds ECOSOC status (a recognition within the UN’s Economic and Social Council) and works together to further the cause of women’s issues at the United Nations. My WSCF team, as well as the rest of the Ecumenical Women delegation, were at the CSW to ensure that the voice and perspective of the Christian Ecumenical Worldwide community had a strong role within the Commission’s process and negotiations. At the end of the CSW, each of the participating countries signed onto a final document called the “agreed conclusions” – a set of intentions and commitments by the governments involved to recognize and further the rights of women within their respective countries. This is a powerful document that can be used by countries and non-governmental organizations on the global stage to keep these governments to their promises. The final document can be downloaded at www.un.org.

The two weeks that we spent at the CSW were extraordinarily busy – our time was spent in formal UN sessions, meeting with our government officials, participating in and planning panel discussions and other events, worshipping with the other Ecumenical Women, faxing, phoning, photocopying, participating in caucuses, leading caucuses, crafting formal statements, riding the subway, trying to find sleep, etc. Every day we had new tasks and new adventures, and every day included moments of teamwork, intimidation, and joy.

As in so many incidences of my life, I have been changed by this experience. This is where I find it difficult to adequately describe how my time in this program has affected me—in very personal and spiritual ways. I will do my best.

I am changed by the positive influence of the fantastic people which I was given the honor of working with. My team of SCMers is an incredible group of people. It has been six months since the CSW, and I still feel so connected to them in very significant ways. I have grown and have learned so much by being a part of this team. Charite taught me about grace. Facia taught me about strength of spirit. Veronica taught me about passion, unapologetic advocacy, and claiming cafeteria space. Sara taught me steadfastness. Chai taught me about compassion. Not only did I learn and grow because of my interactions with my WSCF team, I grew because of my relationship with countless Ecumenical Women who have such a strong passion and love for God and justice. I remember fondly the worship times that we were able to share. I remember being claimed as an honorary Anglican by the welcoming Anglican priests. I remember the support and passion of the Ecumenical Women, how I felt so loved and valued by them. I remember how strange and empowering it felt to sit around a table as an equal with people who were infinitely more knowledgeable and prepared for the CSW than I was – people who have been working at this high level of advocacy for years and people who opened a place for a wide-eyed and unsure student like myself because they valued my unique perspective. For me, the major highlight of the CSW was in interacting with and learning from these extraordinary women. They have given me significant gifts from their strong characters which I will remember, always.

I have changed because I have learned so much about the UN and about the vital role non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play within its walls. Though at times we felt frustrated and as if our hands were tied too tightly to truly do good at this Commission, those feelings of inadequacy did not last very long. It took us a few days to learn our footing, and to learn the special place we held within our delegation and within the walls of the UN. But once we found our place, once we discovered our voice, we used it loudly with both joy and passion. Our presence made a difference at the CSW; I can say that without hesitation. In many cases, our presence made a difference in very tangible ways – a number of our group priorities, as well as our suggested language, found its way into the final conclusions. These priorities involved education for women, property rights for women, gender equality in matters of caregiving, and more. The stand that we took as SCMers and as Ecumenical Women was powerful and was heard at the UN. Women worldwide will be touched, empowered, and changed in some way by what we did as a delegation.

Ecumenical Women and the other NGOs have an impact at the UN – a strong one. The agreed conclusions would not have been so strong or as justice-oriented had we not been present; I saw that time and time again in very personal and real ways. Our team of advocacy workers kept the governments accountable to their words and to the world. Though there were a number of closed door meetings and negotiations into which we were not allowed a physical presence, we continued to brainstorm and strategize as to how to have a strong impact using creative ways. NGOs keep the governments to their words, intentions, and to their promises. Without the NGOs, the cause of women would not go far at the international level.

Finally, I am personally changed because of the opportunities that I was provided with to serve the Ecumenical Women and the UN. We were given a number of tasks to complete which I found very scary and intimidating – meet with government officials, participate and speak in caucuses and UN events, stand and tell my personal story to others who I knew would react negatively. These were all areas of discomfort for me. But I faced them – with as much bravery as I could muster, and with the affirmation and strength of the SCMers and Ecumenical Women behind me. And now I have learned to be a little more bold, a little less scared, and a little more aware of the special place and calling that God has on my life.

When I think back to the Commission on the Status of Women, I am still overcome by the waves of different feelings which I experienced there – a mixture of nervousness, excitement, teamwork, joy, accomplishment, anger, a sense of purpose, weariness, and overwhelming support. It was a very special place for me, and I am so thankful for this experience. I am also thankful for its influence in molding me into a stronger, more confident, and more compassionate woman of God. I am changed. The World Student Christian Federation is changed. And, through God’s grace, the world is changed as well.

_ Bre Woligroski is SCM Canada’s representative to the North American Regional Committee of WSCF. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts – this time in Women’s & Gender Studies – at University of Manitoba._

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All of creation groans
Mitchell Anderson

“Creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the children of God. We know that from the beginning until now all of Creation has been groaning in one great act of giving birth. We too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.” – Romans 8:19, 22, 23b

We find ourselves, as we always do, in a transformational time, one full of promise and hope and possibility, of challenge and despair and limitation. An economic and fiscal crisis has challenged many of the assumptions of decades of neo-liberal thought, a continuing environmental crisis is still largely unaddressed, but people continue to both seek and live out hope. How, then, do Christians respond to this challenge? Increasing secularisation has created a decentred Church, one where Christians can no longer assume to have social privilege. Despite the reduced ability to influence opinion and discourse, it remains the duty of the churches to use their remnant power to continue to work, in whatever ways that they can, for the Reign of God.

The transition from where we are to a sustainable economy is one that has the potential to be a tremendous change. Given the potentially adverse effects of this transition on many people, groups have called for a “just transition,” one where the effects of a transition to a sustainable economy are mitigated. I am offering one vision of this, seeking to articulate those values that I believe in, which are progressive and are Christian. This is not to say that there are not progressive people or Christians who would disagree but here is where I stand: I am a progressive and a Christian, and so I believe in a just transition to a sustainable economy.

What precisely this means is, of course, debated. However, I believe that we who are progressive and Christian have a few principles to add to this debate. The first that I would suggest is the preferential option for the poor, marginalized and oppressed. This principle is contained in countless acts throughout Scripture, from God’s liberation of slaves in the Exodus from Egypt, through the powerful condemnation of oppression contained in the prophets speaking on behalf of God, God’s solidarity with the poor as embodied in Jesus, and the continuing work of the Church as empowered by the Spirit to make real God’s Reign. Another principle is the innate dignity of all persons (Gen. 1:27), which Christians are called to affirm and support. Finally, beyond simply managing or alleviating the worst of injustices, we are called to create “abundant life” for all, which requires an active and aggressive effort.

Therefore, as a progressive and as a Christian, as one who seeks to create the possibilities for everyone to live in dignity and abundance, I believe that a progressive agenda for a just transition must be one whose central value and goal is empowerment: creating the ability for people and communities to exercise meaningful control over their own lives. In order to live out God’s preferential option for the poor, marginalised and oppressed, a just transition must include support for those most adversely affected by a transition, and those who the former society had forgotten or discarded. In keeping with the inherent dignity of all humanity as created in the image of God, a just transition must include that which is necessary in order to live a life of dignity. In keeping with the goal of abundant life spoken of by Jesus as His aim and God’s aim, a just transition must include the creation of meaningful opportunities for everyone to not just exist or live, but to truly thrive in the new economy. An abundant life is more than subsistence; it is one of joy, of self-actualisation, where people are able to fully participate in their society in every way.

When I speak of businesses I am not talking about the massive transnational corporations which have caused many of the social, economic and environmental problems with which we currently struggle. Rather, I am referring to human-scale enterprises: cooperatives, small businesses, and other small and medium-sized enterprises. Small and medium enterprises provide employment, are locally-owned and controlled, with profits staying in their communities. They are essential to healthy communities and neighbourhoods, and to a strong, thriving middle-class. As well, I talk about people as they are affected by economic power systems. A person is not, of course, simply a worker, a consumer or an entrepreneur. However, the structure of the economy is such that people become entangled in powers beyond their immediate control. It is progressive to refer to people as workers, consumers and entrepreneurs insofar as they are affected by economic power. This is not to limit a person’s identity to their economic role, but it recognises the importance that economic power plays in lives.

A progressive agenda of empowerment for a just transition should, in my view, include increased education and innovation. Workers who are displaced from their jobs by the shifts in employment patterns created by eliminating unsustainable industries should be protected. This means generous unemployment insurance, skills training and retraining and access to post-secondary education. As we move to a knowledge economy where well-paid work is increasingly about ideas and innovation workers must become lifelong learners. The state must actively work to ensure that post-secondary education is accessible for all people, including those who have been historically under-represented in our universities and colleges. Sadly, the current shift from union jobs with benefits and a family-sustaining wage in the manufacturing sector are being replaced by service jobs which are often quite low paying and non-unionised. We see the effects of this in Canada’s auto crisis, where many workers have been laid off. They deserve generous employment insurance, adequate to sustain their families until they can locate new jobs. This is especially important in those families where there is only a single earner. Access to post-secondary education is essential in moving workers into the knowledge economy. Working and middle-class families deserve the same abundant life as anyone, and it is the duty of the state to ensure this through the transition to a sustainable economy.

As we transition from an economy whose energy is supplied by the exploitation of non-renewable resources to the new energy economy, massive research into solar power, wind power, hydroelectric, geothermal, tidal and other renewable sources of energy is necessary. Training our workers for the new energy economy will be able to provide life-sustaining jobs for Canadian workers, as well as creating the innovation to make Canada a leader. While their immediate efficacy is unknown, continuing research into carbon capture and storage, clean coal and other technologies to diminish our impact are important, even if in the end they fail to produce meaningful results. The severity of the climate crisis is such that we must put all efforts into combatting it.

Creating well-paying jobs for workers is an important policy goal to operate alongside the transition to a sustainable economy, ensuring that all workers have the opportunities to live full lives, lives of dignity and meaning, lives of the abundance they deserve, lives lived in respect with Creation.

Businesses as well require support in order to succeed and flourish in the new economy. Education and innovation benefit everyone; they are foundational to a thriving economy and a strong society. That means that research and development should be supported with targeted tax credits designed to encourage innovative and challenging research and a patent and legal regime that removes barriers to innovation. As well, a coordinated plan for research should be implemented, ensuring that all stakeholders, the public, industry and the university community are working together to produce the innovative research needed to transition to a sustainable economy. In making the transition to a sustainable economy, certain industries may require government support in restructuring in the form of low-interest loans, state guarantees of debts, or, in extreme cases, temporary public ownership. The crisis facing Canada’s auto sector is one of these, where there is tremendous need to transition to a sustainable model of development, and where the market alone has been insufficient to produce a just transition. A just transition is necessary; in some industries the market alone has proven insufficient to shift to sustainability or to even meet shifting consumer demand. When the market fails, it is the duty of the state to intervene. Finally, a thriving private sector is only possible with a strong, vibrant and targeted public sector; the illogic of neo-liberalism cannot produce a just transition to a sustainable society. Strong and sustainable businesses providing good paying jobs for today’s families are a precondition for lives of dignity and abundance for all people.

Consumers require tremendous support through a transition to a sustainable economy. The effects of pricing carbon will fall most heavily on those already neglected by society. Those living on fixed incomes will see their purchasing power eroded. For those who already struggle to heat their houses, increased heating costs will be damaging. Seniors who live on pensions deserve to see those pensions increased in line with inflation or higher. Low-income families deserve increased financial support. A program of affordable, sustainable social housing should be offered for working and middle-class families. In short, the progressive project of creating a welfare-state capable of sustaining meaningful social justice must be completed. Low-interest loans should be offered to retrofit our houses and workplaces to become more efficient and to save money. Targeted tax and subsidy policies should make living a sustainable life easier for the hard-working majority; a progressive policy of using both state and market forces to achieve a just transition is necessary.

Consumers, workers and businesses, and among these especially the most vulnerable, are in need of support and empowerment during the transition to a sustainable economy. This necessitates the redistribution of wealth and power, an active and aggressive policy to encourage education and innovation, and the expansion of social and economic rights. Progressive values, made real by commitment and action, are what is necessary to create a transition to a society of sustainability and justice, where social exclusion, poverty and inequality are being actively tackled. The transition to a sustainable economy can and should be a just one. Equally so, we can say that the transition to a just economy can and should be a sustainable one. The two goals operate side by side, and committed, progressive, Christian activists and organisations can take part in this project.

Mitchell Anderson is an SCM member in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and attending university.

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In memoriam: Muriel Duckworth
A new generation of SCMers honours a radical voice that defined not only SCM but the Canadian peace movement, writes David Ball.

(b. October 31, 1908; d. August 22, 2009)

“We will remember her words: ‘WAR IS STUPID! Only love can save the world.”

What more fitting headline could we imagine for Muriel Duckworth, a pioneering and radical member of the Student Christian Movement, peace activist, feminist, war tax resister, Quaker, anti-racist and fearless advocate for oppressed people? Even in her obituary headline, Muriel was fomenting dissent, and challenging the status quo.

On August 22, renowned activist Muriel Duckworth died at 100. Muriel saw peace and justice as intrinsically linked, and she summed up her views in a pithy statement: “War is stupid.”

Muriel Duckworth, born Muriel Helena Ball, attended McGill University in the early 1920s, and got involved in Bible studies run by the Student Christian Movement, which took the radical approach of letting students decide for themselves how to interpret the Gospels.

“Looking back over the years,” she told Marion Douglas Kerans in her 1996 biography, A Very Active Pacifist, “I’ve felt always that the experience of the SCM was the most important thing that happened to me, probably the most important aspect of my college life, more important than any of the courses that I took.”

“This question of free and open discussion, that everything needed to be challenged, to be questioned, to be talked about, that was completely opposite to the authoritarian approach in the church… This was the beginning of my adult search for truth, and my sense that all things must be open to me.”

As she became more and more involved in the radical social justice organizing and theological reflection that characterized the SCM – formed only a few years earlier in 1921 – she met Jack Duckworth, an SCMer and gifted preacher. The two got engaged, and headed to Union Theological Seminary (UTS) in New York City, a bastion of the Social Gospel movement which turned North American theology on its head and proclaimed a new social order based on justice and peace.

At UTS, Muriel was inspired by the example of Eugene Debs, one of the U.S.’s most prominent socialists and co-founder of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or Wobblies), a revolutionary, even anarchistic, union devoted to “building a new society in the shell of the old.” Debs was jailed for war resistance, and ran for President from inside prison. For decades afterwards, Muriel kept one of Debs’ quotes on her wall:

“While there is a lower class, I am in it
While there is a criminal element, I am of it
And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

Some other prominent achievements of Muriel’s: In 1960, she founded Voice of Women, Canada’s first women’s peace organization, which became one of the key pillars of the Canadian anti-Vietnam war movement, and later anti-nuclear & peace movement. She was a dedicated supporter of Oxfam, where a major fund was named in her honour at her 1000-person 100th birthday party in Halifax earlier this year.

She gained notoriety for refusing to pay a portion of her income tax which supported the Army. She was also the first woman in Halifax to run for political office. And Muriel continued attending protests against today’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan until the end of her life; she took opposition in stride.

“Halifax is very much a military town, and I’ve always had crank letters and phone calls,” she said in 2004. “People wouldn’t speak to me on the street.”

In the words of fellow Voice of Women activist Hattie Prentice:

“She can confront, comfort, enlighten all of us
war-torn refugees, hate-torn kids,
timid well-wishers, the hopeful people
and sometimes, even, the spite-filled ones
with no hope at all.
All of us,
From her own inner well
Of tranquility and strength
Her self-found peace.”

Though raised in the United Church of Canada, Muriel was infuriated by that denomination’s slowness to condemn the Vietnam War, and left to join the pacifist Quakers in the 1960s. She remained a very active and faithful Friend to the end. In 1996, she co-founded the Halifax chapter of the Raging Grannies, a singing, dancing, song-writing group of older women activists. She continued to inspire social change activism in her actions, and in her words:

“Voices like ours are needed now more than ever for peace, for civil rights, for children, for a life on this planet, for our grandchildren. War is stupid. To bring about the changes we need in society, all of us must speak out and act.”

In the 2000s, a new generation of SCMers got the privilege of learning about Muriel Duckworth from former Board member Gillian Strong, an SCMer in Halifax, who regularly visited Muriel for tea and shared stories of the early SCM and one of the radical voices that defined it.
When asked by writer Scott Neigh what wisdom she would offer today’s young activists, here’s what Muriel had to say:

“Stick to it. [laugh] That’s what I would say to them. Keep it up. Because I think there’s so much, so much opposition to the violence, to the poverty, to the misuse of power, amongst young people. Everywhere, everywhere young people are not happy about what’s going on. Probably we all need to know more. There are some wonderful young people giving leadership. And to keep up their belief that somehow they can make a difference. Somehow or other we all have the responsibility of changing the social organization so that they can have access to power, which they feel very cut off from. Anything that the older generation’s going to do to help them to get access to power is worth doing. Keep singing and dancing and loving.

“Most of us can’t do much alone. We need the strength of others who share our concerns. We help each other to understand the issues and figure out how to deal with them.”

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Diversions from the Struggle: Wordsearch

Spoiler alert (scroll down)




























The answer is “COMMUNITY IN DIVERSITY”

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