Peace: making a difference

A look at the varied and innovative work of Quaker Peace & Social Witness

What does it mean to have a commitment to peace in a world which is faced with climate change, environmental destruction and resource depletion?’ asks Sunniva Taylor of Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW).

She’s not short of tough questions. As manager of QPSW’s peace and sustainability programme, she’s charged with encouraging Friends to draw links between peace, economics and the environment. ‘We as humans are only one part of the Kingdom of God,’ she insists.

Helen Drewery, QPSW general secretary, believes that this is a sign of how Quaker peace work is responding to changing needs: ‘We’re always trying to find the new thing to do and to go on being innovative’. She says that decisions about QPSW’s work take account of where Quaker strength lies and argues that when it comes to sustainability, the Quaker strength lies in linking the issue with questions of peace and security.

A lot has changed since Quaker relief work earned Friends the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947. The emphasis has shifted from short-term relief to building up peace over sustained periods. ‘We’re in it for the long term,’ insists Helen.

QPSW’s work includes conciliation, lobbying at the United Nations, advocacy work in the UK, training in nonviolence, ecumenical accompaniment in Israel-Palestine and supporting Friends in Britain to take action. It is a vast amount of work for a department with only twenty-seven staff in Friends’ House, complimented by voluntary speakers, committee members and a small number of people in temporary placements.

They include four peaceworkers recruited each year to be placed with charities or campaigning groups. They are paid by Britain Yearly Meeting and trained by both QPSW and the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.

‘The scheme provides valuable skills to people who have a strong interest in peace but limited experience,’ says Hannah Brock, who is placed with the Oxford Research Group, ‘It supports often under-resourced peace organisations. And it enables QPSW to strengthen links with the peace movement. So it’s win-win-win.’

Hannah is drafting a briefing on sustainable security, an approach which involves tackling the root causes of conflict such as poverty and climate change. Other peaceworkers in recent years have been placed with the Campaign Against Arms Trade, the Christian-Muslim Forum and the Alternatives to Violence Project.

‘We do our best to nurture and resource the peace movement,’ explains an enthusiastic Sam Walton, QPSW’s peace and disarmament programme manager. He speaks passionately about the use of Friends’ House for activist events and points to QPSW programmes such as Turning the Tide, which provides training to campaigners and community groups.

Turning the Tide manager Steve Whiting says the scheme promotes ‘the understanding and use of nonviolence to bring about structural, political and social change’. The project covers skills ranging from decision-making and campaign planning to conflict resolution and nonviolent direct action. Clients in 2010 included the Student Christian Movement, Trident Ploughshares, an organic food co-operative and a school in Market Harborough.

Several QPSW staff are keen to draw my attention to a groundbreaking new development: the provision of Turning the Tide training in Kenya. British Friends have long worked with Kenyan Friends, who recently asked for help in responding nonviolently to injustice. On hearing of Turning the Tide, they told Steve: ‘That’s exactly what we need’. A pilot project in the autumn saw twenty Kenyans trained in skills which they are now applying in their own campaigns and passing onto others.

Kenya is one of several areas to witness the effects of Quaker work in recent years. QPSW are running peaceworker placements in Burundi and at the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva, and doing conciliation work in north-east India. Marigold Bentley, assistant general secretary, said the motivation for the Indian work was ‘entirely about local people saying: “You make a difference if you’re here”’.

Helen Drewery adds that a decision to leave an area is often difficult. When this does happen, ‘We try to hand the project to local people rather than just walk away’. She explains that QPSW was one of the first NGOs to work in northern Uganda. Once other agencies arrived, QPSW concluded that their work was no longer distinctive and decided to leave. In contrast, local people in the Balkans appreciated their presence for some time after most other agencies had left.

As I listen to these details, one question keeps coming back to me: What is distinctively Quaker about all this work? What are QPSW doing that others are not?

There seem to be two answers: one clearly religious, the other more pragmatic. Practically, the Quaker name carries a lot of weight. NGOs, police and international agencies know that Quakers are committed to nonviolence. ‘People trust our motives,’ explains Helen. This reputation means Quakers can be relied on where others might not be, such as in conciliation between two sides in a violent conflict.

But there is also a deeper, more spiritual, answer. For Marigold, QPSW’s work is ‘only authentic if it comes from genuine experience – Quaker corporate experience’. Steve Whiting is convinced that Turning the Tide’s work is ‘very strongly rooted in the radical Peace Testimony of early Friends’ who wanted ‘to confront and challenge that which was not of God in the world’.
How aware are Friends in Britain of the extent of QPSW’s work? Helen admits that ‘most Friends are surprised when you tell them about the full breadth of the work’.

Sam Walton puts it more bluntly: ‘It’s impossible to be aware of the full extent of the work. I work here and even I’m not aware of all of it!’

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