"So often, social change workers think in militaristic terms - strategy,
conquering, winning, losing. Maybe if we look to more natural phenomena
for how to think about our work and how to do it, we will find new ways.
I want to be so like water that I can fit into any vessel, flow anywhere,
move with the grade, not only in my own way.
Think like water! Fluid. Not limited by ideology, concepts; fresh in
every moment. I wish to think and act like water - powerfully working
with other drops of water to wear away resistance drop by drop. Wear
away the stones on which poverty and suffering rest. Always looking
for the deepest way to flow, and to allow the world to flow through
me. Cleaning, sparkling, bubbling. Think like water!"
from Heart Politics Revisited
Fran
Peavey is a bold, humorous and deeply caring woman whose way of working
has emerged from her experiences in social change campaigns across several
continents and four decades - the early civil rights struggles, anti-apartheid
movement in South Africa, the clean-up of the Ganges River, the Middle
East conflict and the refugee crises in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Fran is
founder of Crabgrass (www.crabgrass.org),
a non-government organisation in San Francisco that works locally and
globally on environmental and human rights issues. Fran is author of
"Heart Politics" and "By Life's Grace: Musings on the Essence of Social
Change".
Her latest
book, "Heart Politics Revisited", is an inspiring
account of how powerful changes can come about by the cumulative effect
of many small and life-affirming actions made by ordinary people.
Fran is
in Australia from July 23 to August 14 to share her experiences in heart
politics, social change methods, Strategic Questioning, effective campaign
processes and support / self-care systems for activists, volunteers,
environmentalists and social change workers.
Events
are organised for Perth, Bunbury, Adelaide,
Canberra, Melbourne,
Sydney, Hawkesbury
and Brisbane ~ please click on the regional
links for details
For more
information on Fran's tour at a national level, contact Rodney Vlais
on ecoheal@iinet.net.au or
(08) 9337 7217.
from Heart Politics Revisited, Pluto Press,
2000 ISBN 1864031050
Some time
ago, a woman came to see me from an ashram in Auroville, in the south
of India. She was wearing a light purple dress, I remember, and had
shoulder-length hair. She said she had come specifically to invite me
to that ashram and to bring me a story. As we sat in my living room
drinking tea, she graciously told me this story, waving her hands in
the air as she spoke.
"There
is a legendary bird, the huma bird, which lives its entire life flying
in the atmosphere high above the earth. Never does that huma bird
land on earth. When it comes time to lay its egg, it lays its eggs
in the air. The egg begins to fall to the ground, while inside the
baby bird begins to peck its way out of the egg. Even as the egg falls
to the ground, it is not known whether the beak will harden sufficiently
to open the shell of the egg, whether the wings will dry enough for
the bird to fly back up into the atmosphere to join the other members
of its species. Will the bird mature in time to avoid being crushed
by the ground?"
"Is this
not the condition we human beings are in at this time?" she asked.
"Will
we mature soon enough to put away our dangerous habits of ego and
mindlessness in order to live sustainably on the earth?"
"If
this species of human birds continues, that must mean that enough
birds get out of the egg before being dashed upon the earth and fly
back up into the atmosphere. If it's sustainable for the huma, maybe
there's hope for our species, too."
It's just
a story, but like all stories it may have a gift for us, wherever we
find ourselves working - in NGOs, in corporations, in government, in
our families and neighborhoods. Heart Politics Revisited
is my story of trying to mature enough to be of service.
Heart politics
is an oxymoron, like military intelligence or cruel kindness. It is
the marriage of opposites. Politics is the development and exercise
of power, sometimes thought of in terms of strategy or scheming. It
is a word that connotes hardness or toughness and is definitely a brain
word. In a traditional sense, it is a male word. Power is the capacity
or ability to act or perform effectively, but in connection with politics,
it is also thought of as the possession of control, authority, or influence
over others.
Heart,
on the other hand, is a soft word involving feelings, tenderness, questions,
and openness. Heart in politics does not accept alienation in organizing
and always recognizes a deep relationship of all beings. It is a female
word. Strange, fresh options arise when these two words - heart and
politics - sleep in the same bed.
I have
been working on social change projects in many parts of this world,
including my home in the San Francisco Bay Area, for the past thirty
years. I've worked person to person, in community social change, and
finally in countries other than my own. When I published the first edition
of this book in 1985, I had only begun to sense the dynamism and value
in combining these two words -- heart and politics -- and the concepts
they represent in work for social change.
Key
Concepts in the Original Heart Politics
- Working
from a connection across differences deepens and broadens one's work
for social change. Connectedness to other humans as well as to animals,
rivers, and all life helps make the heart accountable.
- Power
is not power over but power with other humans and with nature. Power
is a natural state, and is only absent when it has been stolen by
those who have an interest in domination.
- Arrogance,
self-righteousness, and even self-confidence are not necessary components
of work for social change. Shy, self-doubting, and unsure people are
also needed to work from their perspective.
- Listening
is an important attitude for a social change worker.
- Cultural
literacy is a key skill in making social change. Without it, true
collaborative action with people and cultures different from one's
own is difficult.
Additional
Concepts in Heart Politics Revisited
- There
are ways to listen that help move individuals and groups from passivity
and cynicism to action.
- Reflection
is an important activity for an activist.
- We can
expect ourselves to make mistakes and to change in the process of
lifelong social change work.
- We do
not have to be 'right' to work for social change. In fact, the arrogance
that comes from assuming we are right creates resistance to our goals.
- In this
time of shifting and consolidating power, with millions of others
we co-create history one step at a time.
- For
sustained development, slow social change is usually preferable to
rapid change.
- Social
change workers are responsible for organizing our own support system
(financial and emotional) and must take care that rest and reflection
are included in our work plan.
- Working
at a human scale on problems -- even those with enormous roots - is
important. Large-scale problems have small-scale responses in our
communities, in our personal consumption habits, and in our economic
and spiritual lives.
- When
we ask others to work on a project for the health of the world, we
are giving them an opportunity to do something meaningful in their
lives.
- It is
a human's right to work for social change; action is as natural as
breathing.
- Action
relieves despair and brings us into community. The best response to
despair is to acknowledge it and to join with others moving into action.
Together we will give accountability to our actions, meet other great
people, and cheer each other on. Action is the best antidote to fear,
anger, and sorrow.
I've examined
how individuals change, how they experience change in their lives, and
how they resist change. Simultaneously, I have worked in my community
on social change: how to resist changes I viewed as dangerous to life,
and how to build a movement to create positive change.
I have
come away from these campaigns and experiments with a few ideas and
many questions. I
have not arrived at my theories conceptually, but through my practice
of looking at the ground for ways to make social change without violence.
I have looked at the violence in myself, the violence in my community,
and the economic violence in the way we live. I have been alive in a
social sense.
This book
is about sharing what I have learned in these campaigns and in my meditations
on the meaning of life as a social change worker. It is about the people
who work for change, and what those struggles look like from the inside.
Please don't expect large theoretical models for campaigns. I'm not
sure I have discovered any large answers, but I have a few small ideas
and questions. Nonviolence, which is at the heart of my work, is itself
a large idea and one I am only beginning to understand.
Maybe you
wonder who I am to write such a book. Well, to tell you the truth, I
am nobody. To my family, my friends, and my community, I am a small
somebody. Someone whom they trust to do my work, to tell them what is
happening, and to guide others. To a few dear friends, I am a special
person. I feel adequately treasured and honored in my context. The truth
is, I am one ordinary person who has made many small decisions on her
life path to do what she could to nurture life all around me. I do not
aspire to celebrity.
In this
book, you will meet other ordinary people. I have worked with street
people, with renters being evicted from their homes, with and for rivers,
refugees, and antiwar forces. Sometimes, in the face of war, I have
only been able to find a little tenderness to bring to those affected.
My gift is small, but it is what I am inspired to bring to the battlefield.
I protest the use of aggression and violence as powerfully as I can.
In this book, I have recorded what this life of social change has been
like, what I have seen in others as I faced the horrible times of eviction,
government and corporate terrorism, and violence.
This book
is based on a tremendous respect for the common people in all societies
who join with others to work for the common good. Sometimes they work
alone for some time before others see their way to join in a campaign.
The ordinary people together are usually much wiser than their leaders,
so much more willing to find peace and make change.
This book
is for these social change workers - or for those who want to join them.
Whether you are young and learning about how things work and testing
your social change wings, or thirty-five to sixty years old and stepping
into leadership roles, or older and in the time of mentoring, there
is lots of room in this world for more activists. As the spirit of service
catches on, change workers can increasingly be found in corporate offices
and in government itself. A wind is carrying this urge to do service
in the common good to all corners of the earth.
WA EVENTS | QLD
EVENTS
