CI{RTSTTAN COMMOT{WEALT H 85

@smry@rysffi@ffi&ehFor nearly five year$ now thispaper haq- borne on its raaethead

-.the sLoean I'For A ChristianCorunonwEalthil. Supposing for nowthat we know what a Christian is.,just what does the tenn common-' !

wealth mean? Once upon a timethere waq I huge powerful octoPusca1led tlie Bri[ish Enpire. Whenit, died it l-eft behtnd s. sLightl-yanemlc stiuid ca1l.eC the BritishCommonweAfth or Commonwealth of$;tions!. It is comPosed (or de-conposed) of some thirtY count-ries sne of which is Canada.This is not the sense in whichDigger uses ihe ?errn. Some ofthe-'Anerican states, notablYI'{assachusetts, Pennsylva.nia,Yirginia,and KentugkY c9l1 them-selves commonwealths. This is

'-'rot the sense in which Diggeruses therterm. In Cadrada--vre havee milk and water sociaJ.ist Partycalled the New Democrati.c PartYt' (NDP). ?hls party had its rootsj.n the preieetli4g Co-oPerative

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Cormronwialth Fed6ration whr ch was i oa real sociali,st PPrtYn )ffiIn seventeenth centurY Englandthe term meant literall"Y common-wealth and it was used ln a soc-iaL sense by such PoliQicaL llb-eral-s as ,Locke and Hopbes * Inthe wakp of the English eivi] warin which the king eomPl-etely losthis head. Ensland wa.s known asThe Com6r6nrveilth. BadicaL Chris*tians l-ike the founder of theDigger movement, Gerrand Winstan-le!*and the fouirder of FennsYl-vairia, HlLliam Penn used the term

!.rri: .;19-l;.

' ,--^Itil,lo AlI, aborrt the Ar{t'r

in both a poLitlcal and sPlritualwalo Thts- ls the sense in r'rhlchDilger uses the word. ',

In the nineteenth and earlY twe-ntieth century. Iabour used theterm commonwealth to mean a

labour tmion Llnes. The commonxrea- t

wealth of Labour and the conunonwea- i

lth of toil appear in manY old ;,

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III

uniol: asngs. This is the sense inrrhieli EiCiEer uses the term. In the183Ote an anarchist named Burnett*o lleskell edited en anarchist mag-azin"+ ca11ed Truth in San Franciscoanel heLped found a communlty in thel'*othills of the Sierras calLed theI{ar"rerrl; Kooperative Korumonveattb.fhere ln the giant redwood forest'b}:e;r named the largest tree the KarIHarx ttree" Today that tree is knownas thc GeneraL Sher^man tree. ft isin tirat spirlt (but without K's)that the Digger uses the term, andisnet, 'nice to know that the KKK wasei lo'ioing, humane, constr:uctiveccmmunlty before it was a right wingabomination?

?he Digger is t'For a ChristianCommcni.,'calthr' because we look for-r.rard tc a society based on commonweal-th, a soeiety with no PoverlYra *ocieiy with no oppressors oroppressed, a soeiety based on thelove fcr oae another that Jesustaug?:e. *s about and on absol-utefreedca for absolutely everyone.'!lie lask ferward to a ChristianAnarc!:isi society".{H@p*&

In the beginnlng all humanbeings $ere created free andequa1. EvlI men bY unjustofpression first introducedsiifdom against the wilL ofGod. Now-is the tirae givenby God when the common PeoPlec6u1d, if they would, cast offthe yoke theY have born solong. Thereiore tley sh-ould beof Eood cheer and like the goodhusEandman of the bible uProotand burn the tares vrhi-ch have.qhoked the good grain" ?hethe tares aFe the lords, judgesand lawyersrJohn Ball"1381

i};Sli TilS SHIP OF VILLAINY WINT DC'rilN

l'tri:e;r t:,:e ship of villany went downThe last officer, clinging to a mastheadSereairicd tlThere is no God!r'I figured it...Honest men were fools!T coil1d live by vi1"3"ainy all my life!And n"ou, t,his h6rrible situation proves it!Ti:er+ is no God! There is no God!

Upon ',*itich (he dreamt or maybe- saw)The el:y unzipped like a tent {1"PA'nrl, e-. lusky iirap - p€rhaps a NewfoundlanderL*ol;*C thru to sayn' i

trB r yellcw trr,ts lt yerre comPlainlng?Har.en?t ye lived by vil"lainYAll ;,r*r life?!rt

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ffiBeB6meq fficornMilton Acorn r,r'as born in t9Z3in Char,..lottetown prince EdwardIsland. His famil_y had 1ived herefor several generations (',One of

rny great-great-grandfathers was acarpenter. He r+as also a noble-xnan. A great-grandfather on adifferent line went to sea at aIoung age as a ships carpenter.I was born poor. I also-became aca.rpenter. f am from what voumlght call a Bed Tory breed-.,,)

gbfore he r.ras twenty, Acornenlisted in the &ffiyr and-suffer-

ryay_ ovgrseas. He iipent a year inEngland and Scotland, and ihenreturned to Prince Edvrard Island.I{e worked at various jobs andtraineci as a journeyman carpenter,hls principal trade during iheseyears. In 1956 he moved to liton-trea1. He privately publishedhis first colleetion of verse,In Lave and Anger, with drarrringsby Bobert Bousil, Jrt this timehe met-frving LayLon, AI Purdyand cther poets * lle sold hiscerpenters tools to devote him-self full tirne to r.{riting poetryand jolned the Communist"pirty.-itlith A1 Purdy he started a smaLtpoetry.magazine called Moment.

fn 196O, The Bnains The Tar-getr a'colleition of verse writt-en betr^reen 1956 and L950 was pub-l1sheo. In L962 Acorn rnoved ioToronto and married Gwendolyn :

IlacEwar!, this mamiage ended afterabout qne year. In 1953 Jar,.rbreak-ers was published and he moved tofancouver. Here he rnet Bill Bissettand Red Lane and joined a group ofTrotskyites and protested the warin Viet Nam in the late sixti.es.He feII out with the, {rot,skyitesand helped found the' famor.ls .under-ground magazine Ceorgi.a Strait.Euring the t50ts Acorn was deeplyinvolved in political activity-anain public readings of poetry. Atthe end of the sixties he movedback t,o ?oronto.

rn_1969, r've Tasted tdy Bloodwas published. Itrhen this book waspassed over for the Governor Gen-erals award for poetry, a group ofpoets caIled a meeting at Crosi-mans tavern i_n Toronto. whereAcorn was awarded the is yet uniqueCanadien Poet Award, on the reyerseside were inscribed-the v,rordsTHE PEOPLES POST, r.rhich remainedhis nom-de-guerce.

I* 7972 More poems For peoplewas published and'"Acorn appearedin the 7972 r'Spirit of 3?- Festivalas an actor and r'eader, He did aradio program t,tr{ilton Aconrs fsland',for the CBC. In 7975 ,'The fslandI{eans Minago won for him the Gov-ernor Generals Award for poetry.7n -4977_ Jackpine Sonnets appeaiedand a play The Road To Chaiiotte-town was produced by Acorn andCedric Smith, In 198f Milton Acornreturned to Frince Edrard fsland. '

He died there in 1"986.

Although he ealled himself aIUarxist Lenninist and worked with?rotskyites, it seems to me that,Ac-orns personal polltical phil_os-ophy could not be hernmed iir byparty semantics. He u,as a pragma-tist tlho could worl," with anyoneqn any project as long as need be.HIQ Foems are strong and evocativeand many are politiial and lr'e woulddo very well to pay more attentionto them today.

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IIIDTNG UITH JOE HENSBT

H,ieling with Joe Hensby in a ten speed traiDown 401 the cab so high werre on a flyingNo need to worry of traffic, it wories of?he fungle trails clear when the elep[iant

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Thirty tons of steel behind, fifty miles an hour:No needlto worry - if we got stopped suddenAnd all that metal" came crashLng throughYou could spread us on a sandwieh and wetd never kpow.

He p1-ays the gears Like a man ,at a pianoCursing every time - two or three seconds apart;At no one in particularlie lives the road."ohe Lives the abstract world of his curses.Somel;imgs I cone into his consciousness, but no one clea

But w}.en t,hat stream of vehicles clogs, r'e slow:sitting up there Like conioint kiTg:

One of usis got to Point a moral; ano rThe official Poet€-

, "Jesus Christ JoeThere's,ten *iiiion dollars of equi.prrent in sight

-hew is it werre Poor?tt

call it a machi.ne, ca3.1 lt a beast, call it a kind of a hand

For it beconnes an extension of the rlarlel{hen it roars itrs we together are the lion:And treli're like lions

aften. years

i'riilton Acorn

moving, often *'ai"tingto pounce.

THE BTC SAW

l.{anyr s the time when I was on the iobThe sahrrnan came to me:ttYourre abLe - And you can work fast.Why dontt you handtr-e the big saw?r'

Upon which I'd holC uP mY hands?humbs and fingers sPreed out:t'Look. Count. tem. Ten isntt there?Thatf s how m'any there's going to be!t'

Milt,on Acorn

SAVHNG Sq-HNffiAVAs if the stranglehold of con-

sumerism was not tight enoughr w€now face the prospeet of Sundayshopping. Cloaked in the tfreeenterprlset J.ingo, store ownersargue for the right, to deter.ninetheir own store hours which wouldinclude the unrestricted right toopen for businees on Sundays. Asyou probably have already guessed,I am opposed to lossening the Sun-day shopping.laws.

- Firstly, I think of the plieghrof the small independent store own-ers who have t,o corrrpete trith largeretail chains. Their havi-ng thevirtual monopoly on Sundays has act-ed as a kind of affirmative actionthat has allor.red a l"imited survival*f :,5ggs smal-l entreperiuers. Ciran-1ng ine restrictions on Sunday storeopenings would spell the end of manysr-:.ch stqres and woul-d take us everdeeper in"r,o this oligarchleal eeo-nomic quaguire.

Seeondly, there i* the labourissue to consider. Sararnon sense re-=.r€sls that the stated assurances-*irac working on Sundays would be op-tional for retail employees is lu-tiicrouso Even if they legislatedilhat working Sundays in a store mustbe voluniary, such a law would haveno teeth. People rvould be fined forrefusing. to work Sundays and any ex-cuse coul-d be glven fbr t,he reasonof ter"mination. Appl5.cants wouldalso be judged on their rriLlingnessto work Sundays. Hiring and firingis totally at the empLoyers discrei',tion and no law designed to protectemployees not wanting to work Sun-days would affect 'ohat " Erren ifemployers do not overtLy demand thattheir employees work Sund"ays, therewould always .be a motre subtLe pre-ssure. .,tsnp1oyees refusing to workSundays wouLd be judgbd as havinga pcor motivation level- v.r-hich wouldeffect their chances for advance-ment n Even if sorue emp)"oyers wouldnot aet t,his wayr roarly employeeswould sti1l work $undays for f,earof affeeting their work situation.

. As an anarchist I am reluctant tobe writing an articLe in defense ofa la*, but the present gross ineq-uality between workers and ownersdoes not alLow for a just and balant:ced negotiation process as onewould envisi'on to be the case in ahumane society. We presently needwhat littIe protection that thepowers that be have granted us.

My third reason for being opposedto Sunday shopping is related to theo.uality of family ).ife. As the eco-+omy presently stands, breadwlnners(be they slngie parents, husbands,wives, lovers what ever) are forcedto spend far "r"oo much of their timeaway from their l-oved ones r,qhiletrying to make a living. Up to norrrtne vast ma;arity *f Canacij-ans haveat least had the security of alwayshaving Sundays off and to be abLeto reJ-y on their partl:€rs to havethat same da3' 694 to spend togetherif they so chocse* Shauld the lawchange, tl:is secu,rity erould begone for many peeple" &gain hunanhappiness woulC .be sacrificed atthe altar of consunerisrn and bus-iness. Ig is not" surprising thatwomen loho fomn the buLk of retailemployees will suffer the.mostshould this law be changed. Womenr*ho need this one Cay cff wouldfind even fevrer emploprent poss-ibilities in a job nrarket that isalready to cl"osed to thern.

One of uhe loudest Lobbyingcries from those r,rhcr favour Sundayshopping is the jobs this w111 cre-ate. Firstly I think it wiII leadmostly to extending the hours ofexistlng empS-oyees* not to newjobs" Also wtth the extra day ofshopping even more rfloney r.rill be,spent on even more wort,hless itenseausing us to work mone to keep'uPwith our eost).y eonsr.lmerj.smo Andmostl-y I do not think that thevlctimizat,ion of existing retai.lworkers is justifieci to create newjobs.

- . ^l,astlyr I _dread to think of h.owiife will suffer if we lose the onerealJ.y peaceful day of the week wenave J.efto On $unday we can takea.igisurly nalk throirgh the stre"tswlthout the hustle and bustle of!r":, shoppers and r*cing cars. Sun_

FEI|, 3'ff":n: fi[*.1',,:#"ii-3"f: .

chatn ?he streets are quiet enoughto thlnk" Driving UeconiJs feisuriyrld. enjoyall.e raa[er than-a panic-"strieken effort to survive aia iitgu,r"'/ive. On this one day we areafforded the lrrrury of -iifrafin!-a

liut,l-e- less carbon-mo"oii.i" withevely breath ne bake. Why in ther,sorlci would we ruarit to chint; ;il :t,haB?

Richard Hanilton

Ha:;e faith j-n the forever unknown,And bless what eo&es t,*-1.,e;I?jii_ i* a gifr to v*ake io,:'csicr.r.or., cones easi-1y*

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Ujarcus Jckinen

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TA&16 frmOUT S,lrJ*ffilHow sweet of President Bush. Itis his thanksgivlng speech to the

American public in 1989. r'Firstly,we begin our thanksgiving off witha-parayer (obviously not-to the Godof the poor) . Then- we think withthankful hearts of the democracy(demo-crazy?) we install in the-wor1d.THE DAY OF IHE DICTATOE IS OVER,.Our muscle power frees those bound!f cgqrryuniq*. We applaud peopledemandirig freedom. -Look at thosefree eleetions (isnrt it wonderful).ltle see freedom in West Gerrnany anddespair.,in East, Germany. But- nowpolgr and freedom brings doun thewa1L.. Our economics expertsl loansand grants and investments are pen-ecrating the countries of Hungaryand Poland. NOW! their hard.woikr"r111 PAY OFF. Our fight for freedomand- demoqracy succeeds throughout thelirorld. ,The exceptlons belng-panama,Suba and. Nicaraugua" ?he two latteikeep resisting freedom and democracy.

"f want Ivlikhaif to know where we$ta3rd on the i.ssue cf freedom .andderaocracy. Of the five points Iplan to discuss wlth hlm, one is the*eed to rrespect human rilht,s. Lastly:ry deqr *merican fantily, -remember

::l'lat security does not dome from em-Iri{e and, doninationn. Excuse netttls/rlr"s/iss Reader, it I s time to get backio reality. f must telI you-that theahcve is. AU{0S! an exact iednditionof Bushils Thanksgivirr{g speech. NeedI say mofe. This is 5 very good int-roductj-on to the toplc of rnil.itarycontrol- of the economic systems inmuch of the wor1d" Bush presupposbs anumber of things. The means is-thecordial gesturing of terrorism.

And what of this supposed EREEDOIVIfLoating abcut so tenaiiously amid.stthg perpetual dlstortions heavilyiaden particulars? I. am amazed - nomade to feel like a. cpt rushi.ng in,i:obling her morsels and re gobSlingto tlr.e point of mere exhaustion andexu.'heratlon. Our UNITY ( prevent my re-ovulation gobbulation please) ts direct:jlgX. notice motorcyclist: beep, wave -we are a tea&r w€ lgg ri.ght. Secondly

buying j"nvokes a morality of ob-stinance! 1,re are what we buy"our goal isto buy. our life isto buy. HENCE the adom.work_buy consum%die.

Remember rmerry christmasrwhatdoes that mean? it meansi-fyou are stupid]-T6 - brain dead- there is a distlnetion - tobe made; ie. brain vrashed. acceptall custom, traditions. ie. gothrough life wishing you weresomeone else, somevrhere e1se,nith someone else ( lf you ari: for-tunate enough to have friends) orsurrounded by something e1se. itis fair to lnterject some

value to personal acts. 'lrlhatever happened to fun? sittinghome (no place to go) reading,writing, playing a guitar (nat-urally i-n a natural'manner: notbrain dead: not in the tradit-ionel manner! not as expected; notthis chord that chord: FOR FUNFOR YOURSEIF' NOf FOR ACCEPTANCE

l{0? ro THPRESS FOH YOU....

THIS IS strange ta1k. strange-nes's"'breeds a.-kind of grain un-familiar. why thls ls so? firstlycausing ar+kwardn€ss e NO'#I! this *being harsh. reality is such. hencethe anti-thesis BE POLfTE -: ..: .- .."'.IN THE P]RAMIDYOU HATE,.. BENTCESI,IILEALL THETIME. ..SMTLE AS THECOPHITSYOU OVER THEHET.D..ORi PLEASETHANK YOU FOR, FASSTNG THE SALT OFEXTINCTION, no sfunplicity excluded'BUT EXCLUSION: is the result.alone crying when stepping out ofthe shower or off the toilet fornoapparent r€&$onr but the pervad-ing shattering of the dream onceheld. and this is just thebeginning of truth.

X'ony Hendry

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And Samuel tol-d all the wordsef i:he Lord unto the people thatasked of him a king. And he said!'fhis lsill be the manner of theking iliat shall reign over you:i{e wll"l, take your sons, end a.pp-cint them for himself, for hisci:a::iotsn and to be his horsemen;anrJ scme sirall run before hlschari+ts. And he ui1l appointhim eaptains over thcusands, andeapiains over fifties; and hev;ili set th*m to eer his ground,.qnd to feap hi-s hanrest, and to'in;.ke hi.s insirurremts cf ner, andiRs*ruments of his ehariots" Andtte Hili.take yCIur daug!:ters ao bec$nfeetisnaries an* to be ccoksand t* be bakers. And he willf,a!';.e )ropr f,:elds a:ici Your vine-yard= arrd your oliveyards, eventhe besi; of them, and give thernto his se!"vantso .&nd he wilLtake the tenth of your seed, andaf your v:i-neyarcls and give to hisl:ificev's, and to his servants.

ents, arrd your nraidservants andi'our goodllest men and yCIur asses*nd put them to his trork. ller*iii tahe the tenbh of yourrheep: And ye shal-I be hj"s $er-".iants" And ye shall cry out inihau day because of your king',.rh1ch ye shaLL have:chosen you;and tlte Lord will not hear youin that day. Nevertfrel"ess thepe+ple refused to obey the v'ticeof, J,*.,::=1 and they said t '*lJay"bub 1.,'e sha11 have a king over llsot'

x Sanuel, I

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The most vexing problem of theAnarchis& plan was the question r

of, an accountlng of the valuesof goods. and seivj.ees. According ito the theoriee of Proudhon andBakunin, everyone rsould be paldln goods in propor0j.on to whatthey produced. But his requlreda body t,o establish values and dothe accountj.ng, an authority,which was anatherna to I pure r an-archy. As resolved by Kropotkinand }ialatestan the solution wasto assurne that everyone vrouldwant Eo wonk for the good of thewhole, and sj.nee all work rrouLdbe agreeable and dignified, every*one woul-d contribute freely andtake from the coynmunity store-house free)"y without the necess-ity cf accountJ.ng.In proof Hropotkin evolr'ed hlstheory of $rnutual aidE to showt}:at Anarchlsm hed a sej-entifiebasis in the Lavrs sf na'oure"D*:*rlcr.* thesis, he ergued, hadbeen perverted,by chpitalist :

thinkersn }iature was not, infect, red in tooth and ilaw noranimat,ed l:3' the instinct of eachliving t,hing tc survive at the costof its feJ}-ow but* on the contra::yby f,he instinct of eaeh to pre-serve I"he species thnough tmutuel

-assj-st,ancet o I{e drew examples frcrthe ants ayrcl the bees and fromwild horses and cattle - who forma ri"ng when attaclced by wolvesand f rom the Mldd)-e Ages.ani from t']re communal f1e1d and''rilIag:e }1fe of people in themiddle ages. He greatly admiredthe ra"bbit, which, t,hough defence-less and adapted to nothing inparticular, yet survived and multi-p).Led. The rabbit symbolized forhira thp- durabil"ity of the meek, whoan earlier Preacher Frad ;laimedwouiei inher-it fihe earth.

from ?he Proud ?otrer by tsarbaraTuchn:an i