Quaker action at St Paul’s

Turning the Tide staff facilitate a workshop for protesters outside St Paul's

Protesters camped near St Paul’s Cathedral were given an experience of Quaker activism last week, when Friends provided a workshop to help them think through their aims.  Turning the Tide, a scheme run by Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), sent two staff to facilitate a session held outdoors between the protesters’ tents. Around thirty people turned up to consider the ‘big picture’ behind the protest.

The camp, run by the ‘Occupy London’ movement, was set up outside the cathedral after police prevented campaigners from protesting any closer to the London Stock Exchange. It was inspired by the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests in New York and began on the same day as similar nonviolent occupations around the world, many of them in financial districts.

‘Turning the Tide works with people who are wanting to make the world more just and peaceful and this seems to be exactly that,’ explained QPSW’s Steve Whiting. He found that ‘a really broad spectrum of people’ were attracted to the protest camp.

Turning the Tide was asked to run the workshop by one of the protesters who had heard about Friends and was keen to know more, particularly about the business method and the peace testimony. The facilitators found an interest in Quakerism among several participants.

‘There’s a commitment to nonviolence [at the camp],’ explained Steve, ‘We didn’t even have to talk about that.’

Several left-wing Christian organisations have endorsed a ‘statement of Christian solidarity’ with the occupation. A number of religious groups are holding acts of worship on the cathedral steps, in an expression of support for the occupation. A multifaith event is planned for Saturday. The Friend understands that Quaker activists are hoping to hold a Meeting for Worship at the camp.

The protesters’ nine-point statement of principles includes a description of the current economic system as ‘undemocratic and unjust.’ They insist: ‘The world’s resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.’

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