the mormon worker - issue 2 - dec 07

8/8/2019 The Mormon Worker - Issue 2 - Dec 07

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Am I an Anarchist?By David Forrest

For a ew years now I have been giving much thought to

living o-grid and asking any amily and riends who

would want to join me to do so. I have elt that this would

urther separate me rom the world I am growing to dislike.

Coupled with that idea, I have very recently been coming

to question many things around me rom belies, to mate-

rial things, to science and government. I would imagine

that those who ounded this country had a much dierentvision than where we nd ourselves today. Not that they

were perect and inallible, but the Constitution indicates

that they were on to something important. I eel we are at

a point where the state is no longer serving its intended

purpose. To be completely honest, as I study the scriptures

more, I have begun to ask mysel i the state serves any

purpose other than ensuring its own survival. When Christ

returns, what type o government will He put in place? The

THE

Mormon Worker

I Teach Them Correct Principles and They Govern Themselves josephsmith

Issue 2 December 2007

Am I an Anarchist?

By David ForrestIn Defense of Blackwater, Gangs and Neocons

By Ron Madson, Attorney at Law

Borders from an Eternal Perspective By Tyler BushmanCooperation: A Common Principle of Mormonism

and Anarchism By Jason Brown

Economic Democracy and Mormon WorkersBy Warner Woodworth, BYU

Killing for Gain: American Intervention in IraqBy Will Vanwagenen

Nephis Vision Honesty in Time of War By Joshua MadsonA Brief History of Peasant Tolstoyans By Cory BushmanMeans and Ends in a Post 9/11 World By Joshua MadsonWhy I am Serving in Iraq By J. DawkinsContributors Navigation

Hold your mouse cursor on the name of an author to see

a brief bio and an introduction to his or her article

Click on the name of an article to go there


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2The Mormon Worker Issue 2

scriptures say that He will be our King and rule over the

whole earth; but will it really be a government in the sense

o what we see in the world today? Hardly. Christ having

had all things made subject to Him does not orce us to

submit. With that being so, why on earth would he change

that? The state rules by orce and coercion through ear.Christ operates on a much dierent requency. It brings

to mind a statement made by Joseph Smith, that we all are

amiliar with, that he made when questioned about how he

can govern such a great number o people:

I teach them correct principles, and they govern them-

selves.

With that being said, do we human beings have the

capacity to govern ourselves without intervention on the

part o the state? Does necessity really breed invention in

the case o the state? Are the current ills o society merely

a product o government rule and the states ability to con-

vince us o the necessity o its survival? I recall speaking

with a riend once on the subject o communism. He spoke

highly o it and even remarked that the intellectuals should

rule because they know whats best since they are smarterthan those they rule. I can understand why my riend and

others think communism is a good idea. Everyone has a

job, ood, clothes, shelter, etc. However, nearly all aspects

o your lie are controlled or owned by the state. There is

little to no room or ree will and what is a man without

his agency? It is the total embodiment o Luciers plan.

How can people progress or prosper under such a system?

Where can we nd true liberty and the total embodiment

A Note to Our Readers

The Mormon Worker is an independent newspaper/jour-

nal devoted to Mormonism and radical politics. It is pub-

lished by members o the LDS Church. The paper is mod-

eled ater the legendary Catholic Worker which has been

in publication or over seventy years.

The primary objective o The Mormon Worker is to mean-

ingully connect core ideas o Mormon theology with a

host o political, economic, ecological, philosophical, and

social topics.

Although most contributors o The Mormon Worker are

members o the LDS church, some are not, and we accept

submissions rom people o varying secular and religiousbackgrounds.

The opinions in The Mormon Worker are not the ocial

view o The Church o Jesus Christ o Latter-day Saints.

In solidarity,

The Mormon Worker

THE MORMON WORKER

140 West Oak Circle

Woodland Hills, UT 84653

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Am I an Anarchist?
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o the Fathers plan?

During the course o these thoughts, and in no way by

accident, I had been introduced to a new idea. I maintain

a blog and a ellow member o the church and blogger let

me a comment concerning one o my posts. Upon visiting

his site, something struck a chord in me. I had ound theanswer to the question I hadnt realized I was asking mysel.

The answer was Anarchy. Growing up in a system o state

unded and state controlled education, I had been given

the impression that anarchy was somehow a bad thing or

it was lawlessness and chaos. Maybe at one point in time,

or even rom someone elses perspective, that was true.

However anarchy, as what I have come to nd out or my-

sel, is merely the absence o the state. It is the epitome o

ree agency, but that does not mean it must be ree agency

without consequence. Law and order can still exist, just in

a dierent and more natural way than what we are used

to. I the state exists, it should only exist to protect the

liberty o its people and I think that was the original vision

o this country. The question to ponder though is: What

is the state doing or/to us? Is the state protecting ourliberty? Or, is it just nding new and cratier ways o tak-

ing it rom us without us knowing? I you wanted to steal

something rom me, the easiest way would be to distract

my attention away rom that which you are trying to take.

Could we be a prosperous people in this age o existence

without the state?

Even though our belies might dier, we can still nd

common ground as human beings who both acknowledge

the others ree will. How is it that we can send satellites

into the ar reaches o space, but we still rely on those who

are equal to us, not greater, to rule us? Even i I were to

believe that a person lives in sin, it is not Gods way, or will

or that matter, or me to try and orce that person, through

legislation or other legal means, to live as I believe. NowI can however share my belies in a loving manner and I

might even call that person to repentance, but nowhere in

the scriptures am I commanded to become that persons

ruler because o their views or way o lie. When it comes

down to it I alone will be held responsible or my behavior.

It says the ollowing in D&C 101:78-79:

That every man may act in doctrine and principle per-

taining to uturity, according to the moral agency which I

have given unto him, that every man may be accountable

or his own sins in the day o judgment. Thereore, it is not

right that any man should be in bondage one to another.

Now to the original question: Am I an Anarchist?

The more I study and ponder the subject I can comort-

ably say, Yes. While I do eel order is necessary, I do

not eel an ever increasingly intrusive orm o governmentis synonymous with order. Ruling people through ear is

not order. Order is peaceul, but people ruled by ear is

a volatile situation just waiting or the catalyst that will

surely erupt into chaos. I anarchy were to prevail, then it

is not to say that corruption shall be put to rest. However,

i all men are ree then one mans corruption will not have

the impact it has today. I do not believe that everyone in a

position o power is corrupt, but I do believe the corrup-

Am I an Anarchist?


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tion present, warrants a change in the way things are done.

I would say that many people dont want things to change

because they are araid o how they will be aected and

that change might require more than we are readily will-

ing to sacrice. Afuence makes humans lazy, but we have

the capacity to make dramatic changes and create history.History is oten the best promoter in the creating o itsel.

Humans have the power to change their environment i

they so desire. Although much like everything else in the

gospel, it requires action. Afuence and ease o lie has

created too many distractions to keep our ocus on things

that are not important. Anarchy might not be the medicine

to cure the sickness o the world, but I eel it is a step in

the right direction.

In Defense of Blackwater, Gangs andNeoconsBy Ron Madson, Attorney at Law

I am oering my legal services to the Blackwater pri-

vate security guards who allegedly shot and killed eleven

Iraqis civilians. In all modesty, the American legal proes-

sion innovatively comes up with the most novel, and yet

eective deenses to those charged with homicide. Take

or instance, the insanity deense. While the insanity

deense as to homicide was once traditionally dened in

English Common Law as a person being so lost to reality

that when that person was cleaving someones head into

two pieces with an axe, in their mind they were simply

slicing a head o cabbage in preparation or supper. How-

ever, thanks to the ingenuity o modern legal minds, the

traditional insanity deense has been extended to such

things as premenstrual cramps, moody Mondays ando course, the assassin o San Francisco Mayor Moscone

had the good ortune o having an attorney who could,

with a straight ace, successully argue that his client was

suering rom a diminished capacity brought on by a diet

o Twinkies and Coke.

I cannot take credit or either the concept, or even the

name, o the innovative legal deense I am suggesting or

Blackwater. The ull credit goes to Vice-President Dick

Cheney or ormulating the One Percent Doctrine. Like

the insanity deense, Mr. Cheneys One-Percent theory

has extended the sel-deense strategy in ways that only

the insane genius could have considered. Mr. Cheney in

the case o United States v. Iraq succinctly stated his de-

ense o the Iraq invasion: i there is even a one percent

chance o a terrorist getting a weapon o mass destruction

the United States must now act as i were a certainty.

Growing out o that solid oundation were two unassail-

ably logical Cheney rules: First, that it is not about our

anaylsis...its about our response and secondly, Cheneys

Rule o Evidence making suspicion, not evidence is the

new threshold or action.

The outward acts o the September 16, 2007 Blackwater

incident, in which eleven civilians were killed and a dozen

In Defense of Blackwater, Gangs and Neocons


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or so injured, can appear challenging when one applies a

more traditional approach to a crime scene. Testimony o

survivors, eyewitnesses, and even a videotape tells a story

o the Blackwater security guards initiating the shooting

and killing o a husband, wie and their inant who were

in a small car, guilty o at least running past a trac cop,ollowed by the whole team o expertly-trained Blackwater

proessionals appearing to shoot at any and all civilians near

the intersectionin the process, killing a ten year-old try-

ing to run away and shooting his mother who came to his

rescue. Even the trac cop was shot and killed. This looks

like a tough case to a pedestrian attorney, but given the

Cheney Doctrine and its successul application by ellow

neoconservatives in Iraq, Blackwater need not despair.

Here is how I mount the deense o Blackwater:

First, a good attorney learns to rame the issue. Apply-

ing the One Percent Doctrine, the issue is not whether the

victims started the shooting or actually did something as

a direct threat. The only issue is whether the Blackwater

personnel believed in their gut that there was a one per-

cent statistical chance those civilians could possibly in the

near or distant uture shoot at them rst. Frankly, this part

o my case is easy. Recent opinion polls show that 50% o

all Shiites and 90% o all Sunnis approve o the killing o

Americans occupying Iraq. I would bet my legal license that

those civilians had to be either Shiite or Sunni and given

their proclivity or violence and these revealing polls, there

had to be at least a one percent chance that any particular

Iraqi civilian at any particular intersection might shoot at

my reedom-ghting clients.

Second, once the issue is properly ramed, the presenta-

tion o evidence begins. Rule o Law novices like President

Maliki and Iraqi jurists would keep trying to drag tedious

acts and evidence into the case. Isnt it obvious that the

Iraqis have not been properly trained by their neoconserva-tive mentors? The issue is not what actually happened, but

what could have happened in the minds o those security

guards ollowing the now well established (slightly modi-

ed) principle borrowed rom the O.J. Simpson deense

team: make the acts t, and then acquit.

Unortunately or Blackwater, this war, like all wars,

will end some day. But even as we have breakthroughs in

science rom the innovations that go into space exploration

that can be applied on planet earth, seemingly meaning-

less oreign wars can create wonderul domestic break-

throughs in the eld o ethics. Think o the whole new food

o legal deenses now available to the legal proession at

home. Gang warare could be deended on the pre-emptive

strike doctrine given the well-documentedor at least

perceivedpotential attack o a rival gang. The violence

cycle could go on orever as long as we make sure to arm

and assist any gang that appears to be unairly dominated

by the other. Think o the divorce law bonanza! It is well-

established that there is more than a one percent chance

your spouse may divorce you. Divorce him/her rst. Then

look around your neighborhood. Is there a one percent

chance someone will burglarize your home or shoot your

dog? I so, then rst identiy a home with stu you would

In Defense of Blackwater, Gangs and Neocons


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really like, starts some rumors based on solid neighborhood

gossip, ll in a ew acts, and then in coordination with

the coalition o the willing, shoot their dog, steal all their

good stu and trash their home. The whole neighborhood

will get the message that you are the winner. Regional/

neighborhood peace will surely break out.The legal proession takes their hat o to Dick Cheney.

To think that he could go hunting and shoot a riend in

the ace and then have that riend apologize to him or all

the trouble it caused Dick. The man is more than a legal

geniushe is truly a pioneer in legal doctrine that will pro-

vide generational protection and an ethical ramework or

many reedom-spreading neoconservatives that will surely

ollow in his ootsteps. And remember: it is not what you

do or what you appear to be doing, but rather what you

think you are doing that denes this truly insane deense.

So ater you have wielded you war battle axe and split open

a ew tens o thousands heads, and then are wrongully

charged with war crimes, remember to repeatedly mutter

as you drool on the witness stand I am splitting open cab-

bage heads and liberating them so they can enjoy peace,

security and reedom. It will make no sense at all---and

that is the beauty o it.

Borders from an Eternal PerspectiveBy Tyler Bushman

Growing up in the church I was always told to keep an

eternal perspective. This advice is meant to help us make

correct decisions, to better understand the context o situ-

ations, and to see the signicance o our choices in this lie.

I we live with a narrow understanding o ourselves and

our world, we may sacrice the things that matter most by

concentrating on the things that matter least. The eternal

perspective is sort o like an equation. We can take any

problem or situation and plug it in to the equation andcome up with the best resolution to any problem. Growing

up, continually getting this advice had an enormous impact

on me. It caused me to see the world dierently and ask

questions about topics that arent normally regarded as

ethical issues. I realized that there are several choices that

would be greatly infuenced i considered with an eternal

perspective choices ranging rom what eat to where we

shop. Considered with an eternal perspective, we realizethat international borders are ridiculous man-made arti-

ces. Separating amilies through immigration laws, pro-

moting pride under the guise o nationalism and creating

insurmountable economic restrictions, borders take away

our agency and thwart Gods plan.

Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke on the need or an

eternal perspective when considering the world situation.

Borders from an Eternal Perspective


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We mortals have a limited view o lie rom the eternal

perspective. By ocusing on and living the principles o

Heavenly Fathers plan or our eternal happiness, we can

separate ourselves rom the wickedness o the world. I we

are anchored to the correct understanding o who we are,

why we are here on this earth, andwhere we can go ater this mortal lie,

Satan cannot threaten our happiness

through any orm o temptation. I

we are determined to live by Heav-

enly Fathers plan, we will use our

God-given moral agency to make de-

cisions based on revealed truth, not

on the opinions o others or on the

current thinking o the world. The

plan o happiness is available to all

o his children. I the world would

embrace and live it, peace, joy, and

plenty would abound on the earth.

Much o the suering we know to-

day would be eliminated i people

throughout the world would under-

stand and live the gospel. As empha-

sized in this quote, the plan o happiness is or all o Gods

children but that happiness is only possible when we have

a correct understanding o who we are. International bor-

ders are created to maintain alse divisions that segregate

us rather than bring us together. Manuacturing a national

identity makes possible an attitude o prejudice toward

those who would otherwise be neighbors. I the wealthy

ruling class can maintain the idea that some vast moral/

cultural discontinuity occurs when we step rom one side

o a boundary to the otherthey can maintain the ear and

isolation necessary to start their strategic wars. By pitting

nation against nation, governmentsencourage us to see our brothers and

sisters as wholly other, ampliying

our cultural, economic and racial di-

erences. In The Lowest Animal,

Mark Twain explained: Man is the

only Patriot. He sets himsel apart in

his own country, under his own fag,

and sneers at the other nations, and

keeps multitudinous uniormed as-

sassins on hand at heavy expense to

grab slices o other people's countries,

and keep them rom grabbing slices

o his. And in the intervals between

campaigns he washes the blood o

his hands and works or "the univer-

sal brotherhood o man"- with his

mouth. Just as sexism, racism, and

classism orce us to segregate ourselves into hierarchical

ranks, nationalism becomes yet another tool o discrimi-

nation. But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his

countenance, or on the height o his stature; because I have

reused him: or the LORD aseeth not as bman seeth; or

man looketh on the outward cappearance, but the dLord


I , G I u ,

I v S -g w v-

u . A

w I v S u, I ?

Yu v w g I . I w

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G.

Hebe C. Kimball ( J .D, 4 :278)


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looketh on the eheart. (1 Sam. 16: 7)

Ignorant compliance is the price o nationalism because

it creates the illusion o a unied ront, while inormed

dissent is always labeled anti-national. Creating this alse

identity distorts our understanding o who we truly are

and what it means to live in a democracy; patriotism meanssuppressing our agency and replacing our intrinsic identity.

Arrogantly displaying our American heritage, we orget our

spiritual heritage. However, to label an anti-nationalist as

an anti-American is to misunderstand the point. Loving

the beautiul mountains where you grew up, or the ocean

that you swam in as a child does not mean that you have to

support the state. A true anarchist sees any state-instituted

border as a capricious division which is intended to ma-

nipulate, subjugate and segregate. Ultimately borders are

destructive to communication, equality and individual au-

tonomy. Arundhati Roy has commented on these senseless

dichotomies. To call someone 'anti-American', indeed, to

be anti-American, (or or that matter anti-Indian, or anti-

Timbuktuan) is not just racist, it's a ailure o the imagina-

tion. An inability to see the world in terms other than those

that the establishment has set out or you: I you're not a

Bushie you're a Taliban. I you don't love us, you hate us.

I you're not Good you're Evil. I you're not with us, you're

with the terrorists. Basically there is a logical breakdown

o justication when it comes to any orm o national pride.

Im proud to be an American, is just as silly as saying

that you bleed green because youre a Green Bay Packers

an. I the act that you are American means that you have

inherited a mind-ramework and culture (or lack thereo)

that revolves around consumerism, greed, and apathy then

these tendencies should be revealed or what they are. But

to imagine that your identity as an American is who you

really are is indeed mindless acquiescence to the terms

given to you by the establishment. In Cats Cradle, KurtVonnegut places nations among those unnatural abstrac-

tions he calls granalloons, which he denes as "a proud

and meaningless association o human beings." You do not

bleed green. Or purple or yellow or brown or that mat-

ter. I you think that your only choices are between being

a Red blooded Republican or a True Blue Democrat, you

truly have orgotten what it means to be human, to believe

in equality, and to live in a true democracy. Howard Zinn

stated, Surely, we must renounce nationalism and all its

symbols: its fags, its pledges o allegiance, its anthems, its

insistence in song that God must single out America to be

blessed. We need to assert our allegiance to the human

race, and not to any one nation. We need to reute the idea

that our nation is dierent rom, morally superior to, the

other imperial powers o world history. Waving a fag is

like faunting your narrow-mindedness, proclaiming to the

world that you do not recognize your complicity to the

human amilys predicament. It is like claiming that choco-

late ice cream is inherently better than vanilla ice cream.

Flags are bits o coloured cloth that governments use to

rst, shrink wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial

shrouds to bury the dead. (Arundhati Roy)

In the scriptures, we are taught that divisions and in-



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equality do not come rom God, who is the ather o us

all. For none o these iniquities come o the Lord; or he

doeth that which is good among the children o men; and

he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children o men;

and he ainviteth them ball to ccome unto him and partake

o his goodness; and he ddenieth none that come unto him,black and white, ebond and ree, male and emale; and

he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God,

both Jew and Gentile. (2 Ne. 26: 33) By creating articial

divisions among us, whether it be in terms o race, class,

gender or borders, we are restricting the blessings that

God would reely give to us. In the Book o Mormon, we

read about the kind o society which was built when these

physical and psychological borders were destroyed. And

it came to pass that there was no acontention in the land,

because o the blove o God which did dwell in the hearts

o the people. And there were no aenvyings, nor bstries,

nor ctumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor

any manner o dlasciviousness; and surely there could not

be a ehappier people among all the people who had been

created by the hand o God. There were no robbers, nor

murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner

o -ites; but they were in aone, the children o Christ, and

heirs to the kingdom o God. And how blessed were they!

For the Lord did bless them in all their doings. (4 Nephi

1:15-18)

Leaders o the Church have repeatedly spoken about

the importance o the amily unit as the primary compo-

nent o society. Conversely, immigration laws (which are

one o the ruits o international borders) have divided

millions o amilies. Jim Reed rom the Tampa Tribune

reported this month, No one knows how many immigrant

amilies in the United States are divided because a parent

was orced to leave the country. The National Immigration

Forum, however, reports that 3 million children born inthis country have at least one parent who is undocumented

and at risk o deportation. The Family Proclamation states

the churchs stance on the evil o breaking up the amily.

Husband and wie have a solemn responsibility to love and

care or each other and or their children. Parents have a

sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteous-

ness, to provide or their physical and spiritual needs, to

teach them to love and serve one another []The amily

is ordained o God. Children are entitled to []be reared

by a ather and a mother. Further, we warn that the disin-

tegration o the amily will bring upon individuals, com-

munities, and nations the calamities oretold by ancient

and modern prophets. We call upon responsible citizens

and ocers o government everywhere to promote those

measures designed to maintain and strengthen the amily

as the undamental unit o society.

Ultimately the Christian, eternal perspective o borders

is the same as the anarchist view o them. It is not pos-

sible to love ones neighbor as onesel, be orgiving and

charitable and be a patriot. A man can be a Christian or

a patriot, but he can't legally be a Christian and a patriot--

except in the usual way: one o the two with the mouth, the

other with the heart. The spirit o Christianity proclaims



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the brotherhood o the race, and the meaning o that strong

word has not been let to guesswork, but made tremen-

dously denite- the Christian must orgive his brother man

all crimes he can imagine and commit, and all insults he

can conceive and utter- orgive these injuries how many

times?--seventy times seven--another way o saying thereshall be no limit to this orgiveness. That is the spirit and

the law o Christianity. Well--Patriotism has its laws. And

it also is a perectly denite one, there are not vaguenesses

about it. It commands that the brother over the border shall

be sharply watched and brought to book every time he does

us a hurt or oends us with an insult. Word it as sotly as

you please, the spirit o patriotism is the spirit o the dog

and wol. The moment there is a misunderstanding about

a boundary line or a hamper o sh or some other squalid

matter, see patriotism rise, and hear him split the universe

with is war-whoop. The spirit o patriotism comes easy to

mans nature or it is jealous and selsh, but the spirit o

Christianity is not so easy.

Sincerely looking at the world with an eternal perspec-

tive has really made me an anarchist. As Paul in Hebrews

11 describes the aith o Abraham, Sara, and Enoch who

were pilgrims on a strange earth, we, as Mormon anar-

chists, declare that we too strive to build a world where

no human is illegal, where we are not separated rom our

amilies because o the artices o property and wealth, and

where the label o nationality does not stick. Seeking to

build Zion, we strive or justice and equality or all o Gods

children without regard to the worlds articial borders

Ave Et Vale

and alse divisions. For they that say such things declare

plainly that they seek a acountry. But now they desire a

better acountry, that is, an heavenly: whereore God is not

ashamed to be called their God: or he hath prepared or

them a city. (Hebrews 11: 13-16)

Ave Et Valeby Voltairine De Cleyre

Comrades, what matter the watch-night tells that a

New Year comes or goes? What to us are the crashing

bells that clang out the Centurys close?

What to us is the gala dress? The whirl o the danc-

ing eet? The glitter and blare in the laughing press,

And din o the merry street?

Do we not know that our brothers die in the cold

and the dark tonight? Shelterless aces turned toward

the sky will not see the New Years light?

Wandering children, lonely, lost, drit away on the

human sea, While the price o their lives in a glass istossed and drunk in revelry!

Ah, know we not in their easting halls where the

loud laugh echoes again, That brick and stone in the

mortared walls are the bones o murdered men?

Slowly murdered! By day and day, he beauty and

strength are ret, Till the man is sapped and sucked

away, and Human Rind is let!


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A Human Rind, with old, thin hair, And old think

voice to pray or alms in the bitter winter air--A knie

at his heart alway.

And the pure in heart are impure in fesh or the

cost o a little ood:

Lo, when the Gleaner o Time shall thresh, Let

these be accounted good.

For these are they who in bitter blame eat the bread

whose salt is sin; Whose bosoms are burned with the

scarlet shame, Till their hearts are seared within.

The cowardly jests o a hundred years will be

thrown where they pass tonight, Too callous or hate,

and too dry or tears, the saddest o human blight.

Do we orget them, these broken ones, that our

watch tonight is set? Nay, we smile in the ace o the

year that comes, Because we do not orget.

We do not orget the tramp on the track, Thrust

out in the wind-swept waste, The curses o Man upon

his back, And the curse o God in his ace.

The stare in the eyes o the buried man ace down

in the allen mine; The despair o the child whose bare

eet ran to tread out the rich mans wine;

The solemn light in the dying gaze o the babe at

the empty breast, The wax accusation, the sober glaze

o its rozen and rigid rest;

Begone and have done, and go down and be dead

deep drowned in your sea o tears! We smile as you die,

or we wiat the red morn-gleam o a hundred-years

That shall see the end o the age-old wrong--the

reapers that have not sown--The reapers o men with

their sickles strong who gather, but have not strown.

For the earth shall be his and the ruits thereo and

to him the corn and wine, Who labors the hills with

an even love and knows not thine and mine.

And the silk shall be to the hand that weaves, The

peral to him who dives, The home to the builder; and

all lies sheaves to the builder o human lives.

And none go blind that another see, Or die that

another live;

And none insult with a charity that is not theirs

to give.

For each o his plenty shall reely share and take

at anothers hand: Equals breathing the Common Air

and toiling the Common Land.

A dream? A vision? Aye, what you will; Let it be to

you as it seems: O this Nightmare Real we have our

ll; Tonight is or pleasant dreams.

Dreams that shall waken the hope that sleeps and

knock at each torpid Heart Till it beat drum taps, and

the blood that creeps with a lions spring upstart!

Ave Et Vale


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For who are we to be bound and drowned in this

river o human blood? Who are we to lie in a swound,

Hal sunk in the river mud?

And we not they who delve and blast and hammer

and build and burn? Without us not a nail made ast!

Not a wheel in the world should turn!

Must we, the Giant, await the grace this is dealt by

the puny hand o him who sits in the easting place,

While we, his Blind Jest, stand

Between the pillars? Nay, not so: Aye, i such things

were true, Better were Gaza again, to show what the

giants rage may do!

Bet yet not this: it were wiser ar to enter the east-

ing hall and say to the Masters, These things are Not

or you alone, but all.

And this shall be in the Century that opes on our

eyes tonight; So heres to the struggle, i it must be,

And to him who ghts the ght.

And heres to the dauntless, jubilant throat that

loud to its Comrade sings, Till over the earth shrills themustering note, And the World Strikes signal rings.

Philadelphia, 1 January 1901

Voltairine De Cleyre (1866-1912) was a gited poet, radical

thinker, and public speaker. De Cleyre was a member o

the Workmens Circle brance, the Radical Library in Phili-

delphia and took great interest in the Mexican revolution.

De Cleyre was deeply aected by the Haymarket Tragedy

(1886) and in 1912 at the time o her death was buried in the

Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago, near the Haymarket mar-

tyrs. Physically, she was considered tall at 55, was slender,

had brown hair and was considered to be

a very attractive woman who alwayslet an impression. De Cleyre was

remembered with great reverence

as a beautiul, elegant, and poetic

individual, who had a mellifuous

voice and smelt o lavender.

(Inormation taken rom: Anar-

chist Voices; Paul Avrich)

Cooperation: A Common Principle ofMormonism and AnarchismBy Jason Brown

In the late 1800s, the Mormon pioneers, exiled to the

Utah territory, implemented one o the largest experiments

in cooperative living that the United States has ever known.

They wanted to create a society with no rich and no poor.

This society would be built, among other things, on the

principle o cooperativism. Cooperation is the simple no-

tion that when people work together as opposed to com-

peting with one another, they can achieve economic and

political goals without backbreaking work, or the stratica-

Cooperation: A Common Principle of Mormonism and Anarchism


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tion o society that the capitalist system requires.

The value o cooperation can also be ound in much o

the political theory o anarchism which, as a body o ideas,

is probably one o the most misunderstood in mainstream

society. The most common misconception is that anarchists

advocate chaos, and that an anarchist organization is anoxymoron. Anarchism is also associated with violence,

and media portrayals o anarchists seem to suggest that

we are simply a rag-tag group o black-wearing-stone-

throwers who relish the opportunity to vandalize corpo-

rate property during anti-globalization rallies. Anarchist

ideas have a long and vibrant history in the United States,

much o which is non-violent. In anarchist writings there

is a stubborn utopianism that continues to push humanity

in a direction o greater equality, solidarity, and dignity.

Even a cursory glance at anarchist literature and practice

reveals an uncompromising commitment to reedom, sel-

determination, cooperation, and social justice.

Though Mormonism and anarchism are hardly thought

o as compatible world views, they both hold a deep com-

mitment to community, solidarity, and cooperativism. Be-

low, I will briefy outline cooperation rom the perspective

o both Mormon history and anarchist practice.

The Mormon Cooperative Movement of the 1800s

Robert Owen is best known or the popularization o

Cooperativism, who ormed The Rochdale Society o Eq-

uitable Pioneers in 1884. This society attempted to allevi-

ate the pressures o the English industrial revolution and

promoted the principles o sel-reliance, equality, solidarity,

and democracy. What is sometimes overlooked, though, is

that around this same time, Mormon pioneers were prac-

ticing cooperation in the Utah territory with astounding

success.A cooperative can take many orms; member-and work-

er-owned are the most important or our purposes. Both

types o co-ops are owned by the people that benet rom

them, worker-owned by the workers, member owned by

the members. Member-owned co-ops are typically stores.

Member-owners elect a board o directors, and the board

usually hires an executive director. Worker-owned co-ops

tend to be run by the workers themselves depending on

the size.

Ater intense persecution in Missouri, Mormon pio-

neers began a mass migration to what is now the state o

Utah, which was then part o Mexico. It is interesting to

note, that these Mormon Pioneers let the United States,

or as they saw it, feeing rom Babylon, an ironic act con-

sidering contemporary Mormonisms zealous patriotism.

In the late 1800s, a variety o member-and worker-owned

cooperatives were an important tool o the Mormon united

order movement or promoting equality and attempting

to put the brakes on expanding American capitalism in

the Utah territory. It is estimated that between the years

o 1868 and 1884 over 200 cooperative enterprises were

ormed under the direction o Brigham Young. At this time

there was a growing ear o outsiders and the prolieration



14/51

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o trading companies, about which Brigham Young states

there is a class o men who are here to pick the pockets o

the latter-day saints and then use the means they get rom

us to bring about our destruction (Arrington, 294). Church

leaders eared that the growing gentile merchant trader

class was charging too much money or their goods, andthreatening the sel-reliance o its membership. Church

policy was aimed to ensure that no one person was making

exorbitant prots, which created an early stigma attached

to anyone dubbed a proteering saint.

These enterprises were, rom the beginning, ormed

to protect and promote equality, community sel-reliance,

and community unity; to encourage maximum produc-

tion through home industry as opposed to consumption

and trading. Cooperatives were created to ensure that

the wealth that was generated rom trade was equally dis-

tributed among the people and was used or the building

up o the kingdom o god. As Brigham Young states, thepurpose o cooperation was to bring goods here and sell

them as low as they can possibly be sold and let the prots

be divided with the people at large (Arrington, 298) and to

guard against the development o a moneyed class among

the latter-day saints themselves which would rend the

social abric and destroy cohesion and unity (Arrington,

295).

In 1869, The Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution

(ZCMI) was established as a joint stock company in Salt

Lake City or a member-owned cooperative. By church

mandate, ZCMI then became the central distributor o all

goods imported into the territory, with each settlement

charged to establish similar cooperatives at the local level.

Members were admonished to only do business with the

ward and community cooperative stores. Brigham Young

believed that ZCMIs monopoly on regional trade was

justied due to its public ownership, low prices, and the

importance given to production over distribution. In other

words, it was a measure to keep what was perceived as

Babylon rom enslaving the saints. Despite the centralized

control o ZCMI, at the local level provisions were made

so that anyone could own stock, and some co-ops even

limited the amount o stock that could be owned by any



15/51

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one individual, some even maintaining the classic one-

member-one-vote system or electing its board o directors

(Arrington, 304). Ater ZCMI was established, cooperative

industry was encouraged in practically every aspect o

economic lie. Enterprises such as iron-working, arming,

butcher shops, molasses mills, shoe manuacture, woolmanuacture, urniture makers, textiles, cotton, and tanner-

ies all ormed under cooperative principles and structures.

These industries ormed a network o economic solidarity

and mutual support that rivaled that o any other territory

or region on the continent.

In 1882, John Taylor stopped ocial church sponsor-

ship o the cooperative movement, but voiced his emphatic

support o the principles o cooperation. Eventually local

business men began to gain control o the co-ops and the

stock ell into ewer and ewer hands. In addition, the

ridicule and pressure rom the US laizze-air system be-

came too much or cooperativism and they have practically

vanished without a trace in the ormal economic sector,

though LDS communities practice a vibrant tradition o

mutual aid and cooperation.

One interesting parallel o the church trading system

that succeeded united order movement was its resemblance

to the recent emergence o air trade, a system o third party

certication that provides producers o such commodities

as coee, tea, and bananas, with the assurance o a decent

wage and air labor conditions. The Zion Central Board o

trade was ormed in 1878 by Brigham Youngs successor,

John Taylor. This program was designed to adapt to the

rapidly changing national economy and growth that had

contributed to the ailure o the United Order movement.

Its stated principles were ormed to avoid hurtul compe-

tition, peddlers and middle men and to support home

industry, and a system o living prices or the ruits o a

mans toil, and nally to oster capital and protect labor(Arrington 343). These principles, though not entirely coop-

erative, were adapted to what was seen as an unstoppable

US economy, and were designed to adapt cooperation to

the US system o capitalist trade.

Anarchism and Cooperation

Though the cooperatives o the Mormon United Order

were not models o anarchist organization, they demon-

strated the deep commitment o a Christian community to

cooperation and to creating a society ruled only by love.

Worker-owned cooperatives have been looked to by many

anarchists as viable institutional alternatives to capitalist

and communist tyranny because they place the means o

production, decision making power, and prot in the hands

o the workers. The Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin,along with many other anarchist writers and agitators, has

looked to the cooperative as a minimum requirement or

economic democracy. Almost every anarchist experiment

in the 20th century has used some sort o cooperative model

or running economic enterprise, rom the Paris Commune,

to the Spanish anarchists o civil war era Spain. Peter Kro-

potkins 1902 Mutual Aid arms that, despite Darwinian no-

tions o survival o the ttest competition, most communi-



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ties o species are webs o symbiotic relationships. Mutual

Aid is an attempt to debunk the then-pervasive notion that

competition and individualism are human laws o nature.

Kropotkin states, that it is not love to my neighborwhom

I oten do not know at allwhich induces me to seize a

pail o water and to rush towards his house when I see iton re; it is a ar wider, even though more vague eeling o

instinct o human solidarity and sociability which moves

me (Kropotkin, xiii). Kropotkin points to the cooperative

nature o indigenous peoples and even medieval Euro-

pean villages beore their absorption by nationalist state

structures as viable examples o human communities with

cooperative economies. During the enclosure movements

o the 16th century, European villages struggled against

state encroachment just as Mormon Pioneers did in the

Utah territory. These communities though diverse, used

the power o community to meet the needs o everyone,

with little emphasis on individual gain.

The economics o anarchism, though varied between

the dierent anarchist schools, emphasize mutual aid and

cooperation as a common principle. Human economic rela-

tions should be undergirded by meaningul relationships

and respect. Communities should not seek to compete with

one another, but to distribute the earths abundance equi-

tably according to need not ones ability to pay. Although

there are not wide scale examples o an anarchist economy,

anarchists and other socially progressive groups around the

world are creating alternatives to capitalist exploitation and

market dominance by starting community currency, experi-

menting with git and barter exchange, and starting ood

not bombs locals. Organic and diversied permaculture

arms are also a part o the movement to localize economic

relationships and support small, ecological arm operations

that resemble pioneer-era and indigenous arming prac-

tices. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) createsa cooperative relationship between armers and the com-

munity by eliminating the middle person, and even oering

participants a work-trade option on the arm in exchange

or ood. Anity groups, collectives, and worker-owned

cooperatives all work under the premise o distributing

wealth among workers, reducing coercion and hierarchy,

and promoting the value o cooperativism. One interest-

ing example o cooperative principles being used to create

alternative spaces to capitalism is the Argentinean actory

take-over movement that has occurred since 2001. During

the presidency o Carlos Menem, deregulation led to an

economic crash, which prompted many business and ac-

tory owners to abandon their actories, leaving literally

thousands without jobs. Many workers, disgusted at the

practices o their employers began to occupy and start the

actories up again creating cooperative structures without

the bosses. To date, there have been over 200 take-overs

in Argentina. These take-overs have been hailed as a great

success in workplace democracy, and are just one example

o cooperative principles being employed by contemporary

social justice movements.



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Conclusions

At the turn o the century, Mormonism called an un-

easy truce with Babylon. One reason was simple: survival.

From that point on, Mormonism has uriously striven or

acceptance by the world so that the world in turn might

accept its sacred message o salvation. While I am not call-ing or a confation o anarchist and Mormon ideologies,

I do think that meaningul discussion could be produced

around the common goal o a world without inequality

and poverty. Although Mormons may not have all things

in common with the revolutionary anarchist vanguard,

we can draw on our theological instincts and heritage in

cooperation to help build a more equitable world. While

the ideal society will come or anarchism through revolu-

tion, and in Mormonism it may take Gods intervention;

we both seek to establish meaningul alternatives to the

worlds economy though solidarity, unity and cooperation.

In working toward justice and an ideal society, Mormonism

could do well with a little healthy dissent, and anarchism

with a little more aith.

References:

Arrington, Leonard J. Great Basin Kingdom Economic

History o the Latter-Day Saints 1830-1900 Urbana, IL Uni-

versity o Illinois Press, 2005

Kropotkin, Peter Mutual Aid Extending Horizons Books,

Boston, 1955

Economic Democracy and MormonWorkersBy Warner Woodworth, BYU

Well-known French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once

declared that Until you have marched to the barricades

with the workers o the world, lie has no meaning. In my

years as a proessor at the Marriott School, Brigham Young

University, Ive experienced the meaning he articulated as

Ive marched in solidarity with tens o thousands o work-

ers in my travels around the globerom New York to Los

Angeles, rom France to India, rom Brazil to Kenya. Wevecalled or justice, protested against oppression, ought or

better wages, and countered racial discrimination.

Latter-day Saints should become aware o the range o

tools and methods that have been implemented around the

globe over the past decades to develop stronger economies,

empower workers, and uel greater productivity. These no-

tions t well with the Prophet Joseph Smiths management

style that was based on teaching people correct principles

so they could govern themselves. Such strategies have

been used to develop economies in transition such as the

Third World, as well as redesign the new societies emerg-

ing rom the ormer USSR and its satellites. Many o those

lessons also bode well or economic renewal in the United

States. While many individuals worry about the negative

eects o globalization and Big Business spreading its ten-

Economic Democracy and Mormon Workers


18/51

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tacles around the world, there are also signs o resistance

and sel-determination. While the World Bank, the World

Trade Organization, and the World Economic Forum meet

annually to plan or expanded trade that well benet rich

nations, alternative groups gather in even larger numbers

to strategize about more humane options such as the WorldSocial Forum.

With the disastrous policies and practices o the Bush

administration in recent years, the need to change course

is obvious. What weve witnessed is greater concentrations

o economic power and wealth in the hands o the rich.

While the wealthy have beneted rom tax cuts, the masses

have experienced a widening chasm between the rich and

the rest o us. The abuses on Wall Street have exacteda heavy toll on American workers and their amilies

rom the Enron, Tyco, and dozens more cases o corporate

corruption in high places in recent years to the Golden

Parachute that the head o Merrill Lynch, who was red

this month, received through his $200 million severance

package. The current subprime mortgage crises is costing

billions in losses to thousands o amilies who are suer-

ing rom home oreclosures, victims o unscrupulous rms

ripping o buyers. Working class amilies are struggling

rom skyrocketing gas prices, while the power o the dollar

has allen to record lows against global currencies. At the

same time, the number o new millionaires has accelerated

in a nation that seems unwilling to cover health insurance

or poor children.

Well did Brigham Young and his associates warn o the

concentration o wealth in America in the hands o a ew.

As Latter-day Saints our task today must be to reverse the

nancial losses o recent years, and the ways to do this

must center on empowering workers and their amilies to

regain control, not just over politics, but over the workplace.

Europe has models o potential use or our uture. We maysee that many trends signicant to American industry today

are to be ound in Europe. It is rom there that we derive

our rootsthe Judeo-Christian ethic, our major theories o

political democracy, economic development, and indeed,

most o the underpinnings o our contemporary culture.

Below I highlight several organizational and economic

changes in Europe and the U.S. which suggest ways or

workers and citizens to regain clout and rebuild their eco-nomic lives. I will explore several ideas or restructuring

organizational power that have emerged and discuss their

implications or changing the world.

European Worker Empowerment

Ater 200 years, Europe is again giving birth to a new

industrial age. The rst was a technological revolution, anera o mechanization and mass production, o assembly-

line organizational logic and the triumph o the machine.

The second revolution going on now is a transormation

o power, a shiting o economic and political control in

society, rom the ew to the masses, rom the owners to

the producers o labor, rom the haves to the have-nots.

The results are yielding signicant outcomes as the social



19/51

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structure is altered, as political expectations change, as a

new psychology o entitlement emerges, and the nature o

work itsel is redened.

Instead o merely reporting to work and receiving or-

ders or the day, the new workers role is one o decision-

maker and policy setter. The experiments o the 1970s and1980s have been institutionalized in the 1990s and into the

current decade o 2000. The past decade, especially in

Eastern Europe, can be characterized as the most sweeping

economic reorm o the 21st Century. While the arguments

rom the political let and right vary on how to distribute

the ruits o labor throughout society, the debate about

whether to share the benets o production more widely

is all but over.The impetus or this began immediately ater World

War II when France launched the drive toward economic

democracy by establishing mandatory works councils in

1945 wherein trade unions and top managers established a

collaborative process or joint decision-making. Germany

went urther in 1947, allocating to workers one-third o the

board o directors seats in the coal and steel industries.

Since then, an explosion giving rise to ull-fedged eco-

nomic democracy has culminated in over thirty changes

in corporate-union relations among some ten countries.

Today in many advanced countries o Europe, a job no

longer means simply arriving on time, operating a machine,

and producing ones quota o quality products. Work has

been inused with the notion o individual rights, the qual-

ity o working lie, and the democratizing o corporate bu-

reaucracy rom the shop foor to the boardroom. Whether

the national rhetoric is capitalistic or democratic socialism,

the underlying thrust is a push or participation and power.

For millions o workers across Europe, these new institu-

tional orms have been created in order to guarantee the

redistribution o power.In attempting to mitigate a rebirth o Nazism ater

World War II, the West German government attempted

to democratize the economy by giving workers board o

directors representation in key industries. Since then, the

percentage o workers board seats has grown rom 33 per-

cent to parity (50 percent) in Germany. Similar legislation

is now on the books in the Scandinavian countries, France,

the Netherlands, and Austria. Over the past decade theEuropean Union has recently been implementing a two-

tier board system or all European companies in which

the top level has equal representation or workers and

executives, with a second-level board consisting wholly

o upper management, accountable as a group to the top

board. Foreign rms such as those rom the U.S. are not

exempt rom these power-sharing arrangements. Some na-

tions mandate co-determination only in certain industries,

and only in large companies. On the other hand, Sweden

requires labor representation on the board o all rms

employing 25 or more people.

Beyond works councils and board seats, European

worker ownership has emerged as another tool or eco-

nomic well-being. During the 1980s in Poland the heroic

trade union, Solidarity, demanded as one o its core eco-



20/51

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nomic reorms a program o workers sel-management and

ownership. That eort helped bring down the Iron Curtain,

and eventually led to the unions leader, Lech Walesa, being

democratically elected as the rst president o a ree Polish

society. Since then the ownership strategy has spread. For

instance, backed by a number o government initiatives inthe UK, today there are thousands o worker-owned busi-

nesses and producer cooperatives laboring in everything

rom construction to manuacturing, plastics to sotware.

Perhaps the best known and nancially successul case

o European ownership by labor is the Mondragon Coop-

erative complex in Spains northern Basque region. From its

humble launch by ve young men, it has expanded to over

60,000 employee-owners presently who operate actoriesthroughout the region and beyond. With ownership o stock

in 200-plus enterprises, they do $6 billion dollars o busi-

ness annually. They elect their peers to seats on company

boards, control the use o prots, and decide where and

how to invest their capital in a multi-billion dollar system

which emphasizes a deep commitment to no layos and

increasing integration o education, enterprise, and evena workers bank with some 300,000 depositors.

Mondragon seems a perect t with the counsel o

Apostle George A. Smith who told early Provo pioneers

to cooperate together and build a actory which would

be their own, rather than let the cotton lord and the mil-

lionaire come here to hire you to build actories.... His

goal in early Utahs Zion was to develop cooperation and

unity, and share the prots o the group among all, ratherthan have only a ew amilies become rich. Ultimately the

vision was that o the United Order, a system in which

equality and unity were chie characteristics.

U.S. Workers Clout

While the shits toward worker participation have per-

haps been more dramatic in Europe, the American caseduring the recent past also suggests the seeds o economic

empowerment or the blue collar sector o society.

For instance, dramatic alterations are appearing in

the old manuacturing industries o the Northeast United

States. To combat community deterioration caused by o-

shoring jobs, capital fight to non-union regions, conficts

and strikes, and low productivity, dozens o cities have

created area labor-management committees. Among the



21/51

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most widely heralded successes are those o Muskegon,

Michigan and Jamestown, New York, where union ocials,

industrial owners and managers, and elected representa-

tives o the public have created regional councils engaged

in cooperative power sharing and problem-solving.

In many cases such eorts have led to reduced workstoppages, improved health and saety records, the reten-

tion o once-threatened jobs, and revitalization o the re-

gional economy. These new orums or anticipatory joint

planning, rather than post acto reactions to a crisis, have

resulted in job guarantees, improved percentages o cor-

porate bids on new work, redesign o plant layouts, and

community-wide commitment to a better quality o lie.

In the labor concessions o recent months during 2007it was not so much a period o union givebacks, but a

tradeo. In numerous cases workers agreed to not de-

mand huge wage increases, and even to accept changes in

health and other benets which minimize costs to the rm.

However, labor also sought and gained power in exchange

or such agreements, illustrated by new contracts at Ford

and General Motors where agreements with the United

Auto Workers led to decisions to not close down assembly

plants, and to reduce outside competitive buying o parts.

Likewise, American Telephone and Telegraph agreed to

consult electrical workers technological change com-

mittees beore any innovations were implemented that

previously would have resulted in job losses. Elsewhere,

workers at several airlines have gained seats on their rms

boards o directors so they could monitor corporate per-

ormance and have access to critical nancial data.

American Worker Ownership

Perhaps one o the most undamental signs o the new

industrial revolution in America is the shit toward work-

ers sel-management and employee ownership. Sharingin the ruits o ones labors has been an evolutionary idea

or some years, illustrated by the prolieration o prot-

sharing schemes, Scanlon plans, and newer programs like

Improshare. However, more recently, employee stock own-

ership plans (ESOPs) have mushroomed. As a strategy or

economic democracy, in some cases, the workers simply

obtain stock through special company arrangements, il-

lustrated by Hallmark Card, Ben & Jerrys, and Hewlett

Packard. In hundreds o cases during the last decade, small

business entrepreneurs have also turned their rms over to

their employees upon retirement. In other instances, work-

ers and communities have ought imminent plant closings

through the tactic o a worker buyout, and thousands o

jobs have been salvaged.

All told, today there are over 10,000 worker-ownedrms across the country, employing at least nine million

worker-owners whose stock is valued at over 400 billion

dollars. In the United States, when one speaks o worker

ownership, the idea is oten rejected as socialism. Curi-

ously, however, congressional legislation reveals the no-

tion o employee ownership to have widespread bipartisan

support in Congress, and even in the White House. As

billionaire Leland Stanord, ounder o the university that



22/51

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is now his namesake, put it: Labor can and will become

its own employer through cooperative associations....They

possess sucient intelligence...to enjoy the entire benets

o their own labor.

So today worker ownership is growing, rom plywood

cooperatives in the Northwest to an insurance companyin Washington where workers elect their own managers.

From Okonite, a premier quality wire and cable rm with

six operations rom coast to coast to the Springeld Re-

manuacturing Company in Missouri, which was bankrupt

and shuttered, but is now a healthy business; rom Par-

sons, a Pasadena-based engineering business with 12,000

worker-owners to Science Applications International in San

Diego with 41,000 employees; rom large-scale agriculturalco-ops such as Sunkist to new wave collectives in light in-

dustry, crats, and other economic alternatives. Likewise,

some 143,000 employees now own the majority o shares in

Publix supermarkets, headquartered in Floridaenjoying

signicant economic clout as working shareholders o a

hugely successul $21 billion supermarket chain, one which

is among the ten largest in America.

Conclusion

What we need among Mormon workers today, whether

in America, or around the world, is to unite in pressing or

systems o economic democracy in which they hold seats

on company boards o directors, have a voice in decision-

making, and seek to overcome the split between capital

and labor. As John Taylor put it over a century ago, we

should become co-adjutors and co-laborers with God

and men.

This also means that LDS executives and those who

control the worlds wealth need to change their managerial

values. In the words o George Q. Cannon, apostle and longterm member o the churchs First Presidency, The time

has come when the talents o the men o business shall be

used to benet the whole people...not or individual benet

alone, nor or individual aggrandizement alone, but or the

benet o the whole people, to uplit the masses....

Whether we can do these things and transorm not only

the workplace, but the larger society, is a real question.

But we have the models or doing so. Both in Europe andthe U.S. there are highly successul and protable rms

which liberate not only workers, but management as well.

In addition or Mormons, we possess the scriptures and

teachings o modern prophets to provide the vision and

spiritual values or changing the world o work. Apostle

Erastus Snow was emphatic in this heavenly view, empha-

sizing that we need to be sel-reliant and understand and

manage the costs o production. He called or a new order

that embraces labor as well as capital, and it designs to

make the interests o capital and labor identical. Such is

the call to action or the modern Mormon Worker!

The author has drawn rom several sources or this

article including unpublished manuscripts and his book,

Working Toward Zion (1999), co-authored with James

Lucas.



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Killing for Gain:American Intervention in IraqBy Will Vanwagenen

Since the US invasion o Iraq in 2003, American Mor-

mons have been among the staunchest supporters o the

war, as well as its executor, President Bush. As a Mormon

who has lived in Iraq and witnessed rst hand the tragedy

that has beallen that country, such support or the blood-

shed amongst my ellow Mormons, whom I know to be

otherwise good-hearted and kind, is saddening. It is my

hope that the ollowing review o US military activitiesin Iraq rom 1991 to the present will cause at least some

members o the LDS Church to reevaluate their current

position in support o ongoing US atrocities against the

people o Iraq.

Ater Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990,

the US/UK imposed a blockade and sanctions on Iraq

through the UN. The Washington Post reported that the

sanctions were meant to both infict serious pain on Bagh-dad o the kind that would change Saddams behavior1

as well as to incite Iraqi citizens to rise against the Iraqi

leader.2Because Iraq depended on Western parts and sup-

plies to maintain electrical, water treatment, and sewage

treatment plants, embargoing the importation o such sup-

plies gave the US considerable leverage against Saddams

regime, as well as the Iraqi population generally. The US

Deense Intelligence Agency (DIA) predicted that Saddams

regime would seek to circumvent the sanctions because

Failing to secure supplies will result in a shortage o pure

drinking water or much o the population. This could lead

to increased incidences, i not epidemics, o disease and to

certain pure-water-dependant industries becoming inca-pacitated, including petrol chemicals, ertilizers, petroleum

rening, electronics, pharmaceuticals, ood processing,

textiles, concrete construction, and thermal power plants.

Iraqs overall water treatment capability will suer a slow

decline, rather than a precipitous halt. . .3

Because the blockade would include ood imports,

upon which Iraq was heavily dependant, the Post, ater

interviewing a top administration ocial about the em-bargo, thought it useul to wonder how long the blockade

would have to be imposed beore Iraqs available reserves

o wheat, rice, and corn would run out, causing the Iraqi

population to begin to starve. 4The Posts administration

source admitted however, that attempting to starve the

Iraqi population may not be eective because, Electricity,

desalinization, inrastructure. . . ood shortages all will

aect Kuwait rst. . . I dont think anyone thinks people

will starve to death in Iraq. I they start starving it will be

in Kuwait. The same administration ocial goes on to

say that, I dont think we have a clue what Iraq can sus-

tain, which is urther problematic because, in the Posts

words, ocials acknowledge that the United States will

have diculty holding together the embargo, particularly

i oil supplies run short and cause public discontentment

Killing for Gain: American Intervention in Iraq

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in the participating nations.5

In addition to spreading mass disease among the Iraqi

civilian population through sanctions, US planners initiated

a massive bombing campaign against Iraq in order to kill as

many o Saddams conscripted soldiers as possible, as well

as destroy Iraqs civilian inrastructure once the Gul War

nally began in February 1991. Rather than simply orcing

an Iraqi withdrawal rom Kuwait, the decision was made,

in the words o Assistant Secretary o State or Politico-

Military Aairs Richard A. Clark, to eliminate Saddams

army once and or all.6Consequently, Clark asked a

member o his sta, John Tritak, to explain to the US gener-

als the unconditional surrender logic that Churchill had

insisted on in World War II. When convoys o Iraqi troops

were retreating rom Kuwait along the lone desert highway

back to Basra in Iraq, US aircrat bombed the deenseless

soldiers mercilessly. Clark laments this, but only because

o its negative impact on US public relations eorts. Hecomments that, the pro-war tenor o U.S. news report-

ing began to change. American television carried stories

o American aircrat slaughtering retreating Iraqi troops.

Returning pilots were interviewed plane-side talking about

turkey shoots.7As a result o the decision to eliminate

Iraqs army once and or all, the Sunday Mail reports that,

a senior allied ocer in Riyadh estimated that 60,000 to

80,000 Iraqis were killed by the relentless allied air strikesbeore the ground war started, most o them buried alive

when their bunkers collapsed on top o them. It was likely

an additional 15,000 to 25,000 Iraqi troops were killed in

the our days o combined air and ground attacks. In the

same article, the Mail reports that General Schwarzkop

was hesitant to give an exact toll o the dead, assuring us

only that it was a very, very large number. A Deense

Intelligence Agency ocial noted that an exact death toll

was dicult to determine because, the guys in the eld

just werent counting. They still arent. They just poured

them into common graves and covered them. So, as a

senior ocial commented, A ballpark gure o 100,000

is about as good as we can do or now.8

Turning now to the destruction o Iraqs civilian inra-

structure, one US ocer who played a central role in the


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air campaign against Iraq explained that strategic air bomb-

ing is meant to strike against not only military targets, but

also against "all those things that allow a nation to sustain

itsel."9 Iraqi power-generating plants were among the

main US targets, as they produced the electricity needed

to keep water and sewage treatment, medicine production,and hospitals running. US orces few 215 sorties against

the power-generating plants, using primarily laser-guided

GBU-10 bombs. US bombing damaged seventeen o Iraqs

twenty generating plants, eleven o which were destroyed

completely, and none o which could be repaired without

signicant Western assistance. Ater a ew days o the

air war, one US target planner commented that, "Not an

electron was fowing," rom any Iraqi generating stations.Four months ater the war, pentagon analysts estimated

Iraqi electricity production had only returned to 1920 lev-

els, a time beore water and sewage treatment relied on

electricity.10

The logic o destroying civilian inrastructure was ex-

plained by Col. John A. Warden III, deputy director o

strategy, doctrine and plans or the Air Force: "Saddam

Hussein cannot restore his own electricity. He needs help.

I there are political objectives that the U.N. coalition has

[ater the war], it can say, 'Saddam, when you agree to do

these things, we will allow people to come in and x your

electricity.' It gives us long-term leverage." And i Saddam

still reused to comply, this leverage could be used against

the Iraqi people themselves. Another Air Force planner

explains why: "Big picture, we wanted to let people know,

'Get rid o this guy and we'll be more than happy to assist

in rebuilding. We're not going to tolerate Saddam Hussein

or his regime. Fix that, and we'll x your electricity.' "11

US targeting o Iraqs civilian inrastructure caused the

inant mortality rate among Iraqis to increase signicantly.

Conrming the predictions o the DIA noted above, a studysponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNI-

CEF) concluded that, There were approximately 47,000

excess deaths among children under ve years o age dur-

ing the rst eight months o 1991. The deaths resulted rom

inectious diseases, the decreased quality and availability

o ood and water, and an eneebled medical care system

hampered by the lack o drugs and supplies.12While in

May o 1991, an investigative team rom Harvard MedicalSchool reported that due to the destruction o Iraqs civilian

inrastructure, "at least 170,000 children under ve years

o age will die in the coming year rom the delayed eects"

o the bombing.13

Responses varied among US war planners regarding

later accusations that targeting Iraqs inrastructure during

the 1991 Gul War was unjustied, though all conrmed

that the eects on civilians were deliberate. As one US

ocial stated, "People say, 'You didn't recognize that it

was going to have an eect on water or sewage. Well, what

were we trying to do with [United Nations-approved eco-

nomic] sanctions -- help out the Iraqi people? No. What

we were doing with the attacks on inrastructure was to

accelerate the eect o the sanctions." 14 One senior Air

Force Ocer elt targeting Iraqi civilians in this way was


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acceptable because, ater Saddams invasion o Kuwait,

"The denition o innocents gets to be a little bit unclear.

They do live there, and ultimately the people have some

control over what goes on in their country."15Satised

with the way things turned out, then Secretary o Deense

and current Vice President Dick Cheney commented that

all US targets in the bombing o Iraq were legitimate and

that, "I I had to do it over again, I would do exactly the

same thing."16

At the end o the bombing campaign, US orces stopped

short o going on to Baghdad, calling instead on Iraqis to

overthrow Saddam. The Iraqi Shiites and Kurds responded,

rising up against Saddam en masse, with the expectation

o receiving US support. Much to the Shiites and Kurds

horror, US troops instead stood by and watched as Saddam

mercilessly crushed the uprising. Richard A. Clark com-

mented on this event as well, explaining that the rst Bush

administration allowed Saddams elite republican guard

divisions to remain intact ater the 91 war, and that, at

the request o the Iraqis, the no-fying rule was amendedto permit the Iraqi army to fy its helicopters. As a result,

Clark continues, Saddam used his surviving Republican

Guard units to massacre those who did rise up against

him, notably the Shia, the marsh Arabs in the south, and

the Kurds in the north. Iraqi helicopters mowed down the

rebels. US orces stood by. The bodies o those massacred

by Saddams republican guard during these uprisings con-

stitute the vast majority o bodies in the mass graves dis-covered ater the 2003 US invasion o Iraq. Clark explains

that the US allowed the massacres because the Arab nations

did not want to see the Shia Muslim majority take over

Iraq and set up a pro-Iranian regime.17Richard Perle, a

ormer member o the current Deense Policy Board, as

well as one o the main architects o the 2003 US invasion,

commented that:

The rst Bush administration had its reasons or hold-

ing back in 1991. When it had called or an uprising, it had

something very dierent in mind: a coup in Baghdad by

one o Saddams Sunni henchmen. This was and remained

the remedy or Saddam recommended by the Central Intel-

ligence Agency. The CIA contended that the mass uprising

in the south might bring to power Shiite extremists who

would then tilt toward Shiite Iran.18


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Once Saddam was successul in suppressing the Shi-

ite and Kurdish uprisings, the Bush administration was

content to leave Saddam in power and urther punish the

Iraqi people by maintaining the sanctions regime. Thomas

Friedman, the State Departments semi-ocial spokesper-

son at the New York Times indicated that, The Presidentelt that Mr. Hussein and his army were broken and no

longer represented any external threat, especially since

Mr. Bush contentedly assumed that his intelligence re-

ports were correct and that all o Mr. Hussein's nuclear

capabilities had been destroyed. Sooner or later, Mr. Bush

argued, sanctions would orce Mr. Hussein's generals to

bring him down, and then Washington would have the best

o all worlds: an iron-sted Iraqi junta without SaddamHussein. In the meantime, the oreign policy expert in Mr.

Bush said: Ignore him.19

President Clinton kept the sanctions regime in place

upon taking power in 1993. In 1996, as the number o dead

Iraqi children due to the sanctions continued to rise, Clin-

tons secretary o State Madeline Albright was conronted

with the moral dilemma o killing children to achieve po-

litical ends. Citing a 1995 U.N. Food and Agriculture Or-

ganization report, 60 Minutes reporter Leslie Stahl asked,

We have heard that a hal million children have died. I

mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And,

you know, is the price worth it? Secretary o State Mad-

eleine Albright, not contesting the number estimate o dead

children, replied: I think this is a very hard choice, but the

price we think the price is worth it.20

By 1998, however, ormer members o the Bush ad-

ministration who orchestrated the 1991 destruction o Iraq,

including Donald Rumseld, Paul Wolowitz, Richard Per-

le, and Elliott Abrams, wrote an open letter to President

Clinton explaining the sanctions were not working well

enough. The letter states that they are convinced that cur-rent American policy toward Iraq is not succeeding, not

because too many innocent children were dying with no

eect upon Saddam, but because, we can no longer depend

on our partners in the Gul War coalition to continue to

uphold the sanctions or to punish Saddam when he blocks

or evades UN inspections. Our ability to ensure Saddam

Hussein is not producing weapons o mass destruction,

thereore, has substantially diminished. It was importantthat Saddam not acquire these weapons because, the saety

o American troops in the region, o our riends and allies

like Israel and the moderate Arab states, and a signicant

portion o the worlds supply o oil will all be put at haz-

ard. They go on to ask President Clinton to implement a

strategy or removing Saddams regime rom power that

will require a ull complement o diplomatic, political and

military eorts.21

When George W. Bush became president in 2001, those

people who ought the rst Gul War and in 1998 were ad-

vocating another war against Iraq returned to oce. Thus,

a renewed assault on an already decimated Iraq became

an objective o American oreign policy beore 9/11, long

beore there was any talk o an Iraqi threat to the home-

land, and beore anyone was paying any real attention to


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Osama bin Laden. With 9/11 came the pretext and ability

to mobilize public opinion or an invasion. Even though

the propaganda barrage ocused on the issue o weapons

o mass destruction, this was not a threat to America it-

sel, because, as the recently appointed Secretary o State

Condoleeza Rice explained in late 1999, I they [Iraq] do

acquire WMD, their weapons will be unusable because any

attempt to use them will bring national obliteration.22

Despite the act that Iraq was a weak country posing no

threat to any o its neighbors, the Bush administration and

the US media jointly led the American public to believe that

a second 9/11 was imminent, courtesy o Iraq. This belie

provided President Bush with strong public support or a

new war on Iraq.

Beore the war began, the Bush administration declaredthat the strategy o Shock and Awe bombing would be

used to assault Iraq. Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid

Dominance was written by researchers at the National

Deense University in 1996. The authors noted that with

the all o the Soviet Union, we nally enjoy the luxury

o the dominance and superiority o American military

power, unencumbered by the danger o an external peer

competitor, thus providing a valuable opportunity to testnew strategic conceptions o war. The goal o Shock and

Awe is to apply our resources to controlling, aecting,

and breaking the will o the adversary to resist. For this

to be successul psychological and intangible, as well

as physical and concrete eects beyond the destruction

o enemy orces and supporting military inrastructure,

will have to be achieved (my emphasis) in the hope that

t

the mormon worker - issue 2 - dec 07

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