Ethical Record The Proceedings of the South Place Ethical Society Vol. 117 No. 4 £1.50 April 2012 CONWAY CONFIDENTIAL GALA FUNDRAISING April 13th & 14th, 7pm CONCERT, 6 MAY 2012 www.conwaycollective.com A weekend festival of new performance at Conway Hall celebrating the hall, its history, and its neighbourhood, and launching The Conway Collective, the hall’s new artists in residence. Two days of fun and frolics where the possibility of “anything happening” becomes a reality. Conway Hall will be crammed to bursting point with a diverse mix of drama, comedy, installation, film, and music. Events inhabit every available corner of the building (including the Festival Bar), Timothy West performs complimented with workshops see pages 18, 24 asserting Conway Hall as a venue for innovative performance. PART I Friday 13th April 19.00 - 22.00 £7.00 PART II Saturday 14th April 14.00 - 17.00 £7.00 PART III Saturday 14th 18.00 - 22.00 £7.00 CONWAY CONFIDENTIAL - FESTIVAL PASS (all three parts) £14.00 To book tickets and get a full schedule and details visit www.conwaycollective.com

THE INFLUENCE OF QUAKER PERSECUTION ON PAINE Sybil Oldfield 3 RELIGION, IDENTITY AND PSYCHIC DETACHMENT: EXPLORING SOME CONSEQUENCES Rumy Hasan 11 SOUTH PLACE, SCANDAL AND – THE TITANIC? Jennifer R. Jeynes 16 GALA FUNDRAISING CONCERT Simon Callaghan 18 VIEWPOINT Barbara Smoker 18 HAITI – BUSINESS AS USUAL? Graham Bell 19 ETHICAL SOCIETY EVENTS 24 SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY Conway Hall Humanist Centre 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Main phone for all options: 020 7405 1818 Fax (lettings): 020 7061 6746 www.ethicalsoc.org.uk Chairman: Chris Purnell Vice-chairman: Jim Herrick Treasurer: Chris Bratcher Editor: Norman Bacrac Please email texts and viewpoints for the Editor to: [email protected] Staff Chief Executive Officer: Jim Walsh Tel: 020 7061 6745 [email protected] Administrator: Martha Lee Tel: 020 7061 6741 [email protected] Finance Officer: Linda Alia Tel: 020 7061 6740 [email protected] Librarian: Catherine Broad Tel: 020 7061 6747 [email protected] Hon. Archivist Carl Harrison [email protected] Programme Co-ordinator: Ben Partridge Tel: 020 7061 6744 [email protected] Lettings Officer: Carina Dvorak Tel: 020 7061 6750 [email protected] Caretakers: Eva Aubrechtova (i/c) Tel: 020 7061 6743 [email protected] together with: Angelo Edrozo, Sean Foley, Alfredo Olivo, Rogerio Retuerma Maintenance: Zia Hameed Tel: 020 7061 6742 [email protected]

New Members M Kinshott, Newham, London Mrs L H Lewy, Hendon, London Ms Catherine Maminska, Westminster, London Ms Nina McVeigh, Croydon Evan Parker, Hampstead, London Ms Linda-Marie Raby, Rotherhithe, London Terence Raby, Rotherhithe, London T C Snow, New Barnet, London James Walsh, St Albans Raymond Ward, Rotherhithe, London David Wilkinson, Leytonstone, London

SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY Reg. Charity No. 251396 Founded in 1793, the Society is a progressive movement whose aims are: the study and dissemination of ethical principles based on humanism and freethought the cultivation of a rational and humane way of life, and the advancement of research and education in relevant fields. We invite to membership those who reject supernatural creeds and are in sympathy with our aims. At Conway Hall the programme includes Sunday lectures, discussions, evening courses and the Conway Hall Sunday Concerts of chamber music. The Society maintains a Humanist Library and Archives. The Society’s journal, Ethical Record, is issued monthly. Memorial meetings may be arranged. The annual subscription is now £35 (£25 if a full-time student, unwaged or over 65)

CONWAY HALL EVENING CLASSES, 24 April 2012 Conway Hall is running evening classes developed for a general audience by members of the Humanist Philosophers’ Group: Brendan Larvor, Peter Cave and Prof. Richard Norman: To make a booking or for more information about dates, tutors and further details on course content, please email [email protected] or call 020 7061 6744 or look up www.conwayhall.org.uk/courses

2 Ethical Record, April 2012 THE INFLUENCE OF QUAKER PERSECUTION ON PAINE Sybil Oldfield, University of Sussex Lecture to the Society meeting at Conway Hall, 10 March 2012 Putting the World to Rights: The Presumptuous Audacity of Tom Paine How dared Thomas Paine, a man whose formal education had ended at 13 (Gilbert Wakefield, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, would call him ‘the greatest ignoramus in nature’) a man who had failed as a skilled craftsman, as a teacher, as a shopkeeper, as a street preacher, as a petty customs official in the Excise, dismissed more than once and a sometime debtor and bankrupt: how dared such a nobody, such a non-achiever even dare to think about the ends and means of government, about the basis of a just society, about the meaning we can give life ? Some of the fundamental questions that Paine pondered and tried to answer were: Are humans essentially anti-social animals, whose lives are, in the philosopher Hobbes’ words just ‘nasty, brutish and short’? Do we have to be ruled by some absolute, hereditary, hierarchical authority backed by force? Or should governments be representative and accountable – recallable through election? Is humanity capable of a more just, and therefore much more equal, distribution of the world’s resources and goods? Is humanity capable of instituting an alternative to war? Can any religion, even Christianity be true?

But Thomas Paine did not merely articulate such fundamental questions in his secret thoughts; he also talked about them and dared to write about them. Think of his audacity when he, an almost penniless, recently very sick, immigrant Englishman, not long off the boat, started telling the people of North America in print what they should all now do, first in relation to slavery (they should abolish it) and then in relation to Britain: He called on Americans to revolt against his own country, and even called it just for them to do so. Or think how Paine, a few years later, dared to take on Edmund Burke; Burke, the graduate of Trinity College Dublin, former barrister at the Middle Temple, former Private Secretary to the Secretary for Ireland and then Private Secretary to the Prime Minister and himself an MP. Paine told Burke that his reactionary championing of the ancient regimes of Europe after the fall of the Bastille was wrong. His answer to Burke in The was a trumpet call to ‘begin the world anew’: the British should abolish the hereditary principle of monarchy and aristocracy and substitute a just redistribution of wealth through graduated income tax. Paine did not engage only with Burke but also with many other dominant spirits of his age, including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, General Lafayette, Danton, Condorcet, Marat, even Napoleon. In his dedication of the first part of the Rights of Man to George Washington, Paine hoped that its principles of freedom would soon become universal. In his Dedication of the Second Part of his Rights of Man to General Lafayette, he urged the latter to export the French Revolution to the whole world – above all to the despotism of Prussia.

Ethical Record, April 2012 3 Finally, in his Age of Reason, Paine took on God himself and denied the divinity of ‘Christ’ whom he called simply ‘a virtuous and amiable man’: ‘I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church’. Where on earth did Paine get his audacity from? It was not unexampled. The Epistle of James, the most radical, angry exhortation to social justice in the whole of the New Testament, would resonate repeatedly among the Early Quakers, those of the recent persecution 1650 – 1690 and in Paine’s own writings. Moncure Conway, Paine’s first serious, sympathetic biographer wrote – ‘[Had] there been no Quakerism there would have been no Paine’. [1] Was he right? Who Were the Quakers? Had there been no Civil War or ‘Revolution’ as Paine himself called it, in England between 1642 and 1651 there would have been no Quakerism, which began as a collective movement in 1652. The world had just been ‘turned upside down’ in Britain by that very recent war in which people had been asking – and killing each other over – fundamental questions about how to be a Christian and what kind of society Britain should be. The Parliamentarian ‘Roundheads’ believed they were fighting against royal tyranny and ungodliness; the monarchist Cavaliers believed they were fighting against mob anarchy and against hypocrites out to usurp power under the fig leaf of religion. Each side, of course, believed very sincerely that God was on their side. This English Civil War, called ‘The Great Rebellion’ by the Royalist Cavaliers, and ‘The Good Old Cause’ by their Puritan Roundhead opponents, had actually been the English Revolution – culminating in the trial and execution of the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1645 and of King Charles I in 1649. The men and women who would be converted to Quakerism just three years later at the beginning of the 1650s had sympathised with the Puritan, Roundhead side. Some (though not George Fox) had even fought for Cromwell and Parliament against the King. They saw themselves in the tradition of the Protestant Martyrs burned at the stake under ‘Bloody Mary’ a century earlier – for instance Margaret Fell, ‘the Mother of Quakerism’, born Margaret Askew, was believed by some, mistakenly, to be actually descended from the famous Protestant martyr Anne Askew. During the Civil War they had often called themselves ‘Independents’. Once the war had been won by Cromwell’s New Model Army and the Parliamentarians, many of these ‘Independent’ men and women remained restless ‘Seekers’, looking for spiritual leadership that might help them towards personal and social salvation. Hence that great assembly of a thousand Westmoreland Seekers near Sedbergh, in Whitsun 1652 when George Fox taught they had no need of a church or a parish priest but that they should all live their Christianity, emulating the ‘primitive’ Christians as a Society of Friends. The ‘Valiant Sixty’ among those who heard Fox, then attempted to do just that, spreading their message of ‘the inner light’ in every man and woman from the North down to London, South, West and East – to Norfolk, the county of Thomas Paine.

4 Ethical Record, April 2012 The new congregations of ‘Friends’ in the 1650s emerged from the turmoil of the Civil War. George Fox had been moved to begin preaching a gospel of brotherly love since 1646, in the middle of it. These very earliest Quakers were fired by a defiant, millenarian vision; they too wanted to turn the world upside down – but this time by wholly non-violent means. Following George Fox, the Quakers also opposed slavery and capital punishment. If Quakers were peaceable, why were they so persecuted between 1650 and 1690? Arrested just for meeting to worship in silence in one another’s houses, or for refusing to attend their local church, they were heavily fined, imprisoned, stripped, whipped, stoned, even transported as slaves. 13,562 Quakers were arrested and imprisoned; 198 were transported as slaves; at least 338 died in prison or as a result of their injuries. It was in this same period that Bunyan, the unlicensed Baptist preacher, was in Bedford Jail, where he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress and Richard Baxter, the Presbyterian Minister who would not conform to the 39 Articles, was tried in his frail and sick old age by the infamous Chief Justice, Judge Jeffreys who wanted the old man publicly whipped. Reasons for the Persecution Quakers were seen as a threat to the given social order into which they had been born because they had many subversive beliefs and practices. In addition to their refusal to bear arms they refused to take their hats off in respect to ‘their betters’ or to bow courteously or to use the polite terms of address. They called everyone the familiar ‘thou’ and would not use ‘Your Majesty’, ‘My Lord’, ‘Your Honour’, ‘Sir’, ‘Lady’ or even Mr, Madam or Mrs. Everyone was addressed directly as ‘Friend’ even Cromwell when Lord Protector of England. Nor would Quakers swear any oath in a court of law because Christ had said, ‘Swear not at all’. Quakers should tell the truth at all times anyway. Quakers refused to have any parson or minister, believing instead in their own Inner Light – that which is of God in every one; they therefore refused to go to the established church to be baptised, married or buried and would not even attend Anglican church services, let alone pay their local Anglican parson his ‘tithes’ or church rates, no matter how often and how grossly their own goods were thereupon ‘distrained’. Perhaps worst of all in the eyes of their contemporaries, there even were many women Quakers, who followed their own Inner Light and preached in the streets as public missionaries. When they were not in prison they travelled indefatigably throughout Britain and even the world, broadcasting the Quaker message of ‘that of God’ existing in every human being – including women. Thus 17th century Quakers seemed to be threatening the creation of an alternative, much more egalitarian society, one that even included the spiritual equality of men and women. Quakers would not conform to church or state. And they were making thousands of converts. Where might it not end if almost everyone turned Quaker? Social Revolution? By 1660 in their first 8 years, there had been at least 20,000 converts. Alarmed, the Presbyterian Major-General Skippon, then in charge of London, had said in Parliament already in 1656: “[The Quakers’] great growth and increase is too notorious, both in England and Ireland; their principles strike at both ministry and magistracy”. It is not surprising, after all, that peaceable though they were, the Quakers were ruthlessly persecuted. Ethical Record, April 2012 5 Quaker History of the Persecution From the moment that they were persecuted, the late 17th century Quakers chronicled that persecution and their own immutable non-violent resistance. They wrote and printed pamphlets and letters to one another, above all to Margaret Fell, herself often imprisoned and appealing eloquently to the Magistrates, to King or to Parliament. In 1660 Richard Hubberthorn wrote ‘[If] any magistrates do that which is unrighteous, we must declare against it.’ Thus the Quakers judged the magistrates and their social ‘superiors’ - not the other way round. In 1664, after the Conventicle Act, that sought to banish Quakers to the West Indies, George Whitehead, who has been called possibly the most influential advocate of religious liberty in Britain [2] ‘shewed the Judges their duty from the law and Magna Carta’. Every single example of arrest and punishment of Quakers was documented by a local Friend who could write a clear hand, naming both the local Sufferers and the local Persecutors on facing pages of their records. Thus Quaker solidarity and continuity was achieved through the creation of their own written accounts of individual and collective persecution. And it was upon these many local records, in addition to trial transcripts, that the amazingly comprehensive collective narrative compiled by Joseph Besse was based - The Sufferings of the People Called Quakers for the testimony of a Good Conscience 1650-1689 (1723 and 1753). Thomas Paine was born precisely half- way between these dates, in 1737. Just to give one vivid example of the persecution of a woman Quaker in Sussex there is the case of Mary Akehurst as summarised by Besse in his volume on Southern England ch. 34, pp.711-712: 1659... Mary Akehurst, a religious Woman of Lewis [sic], going into a Steeple- house there, and asking a Question of the Independent Preacher, after his Sermon, was dragg’d out by the people, and afterward beaten and puncht by her Husband, so that she could not lift her Arms to her Head without Pain. She also suffered much cruel Usage from her said Husband, who bound her Hand and Foot, and grievously abused her, for reproving one of the Priests who had falsly accused her. Her Husband also kept her chained for a Month together, Night and Day. Mary Akehurst’s neighbours won her release by pinning a written protest about her treatment on the Church door. It was men like George Fox, Francis Howgill, Edmund Burroughs, Richard Hubberthorn, George Whitehead and Robert Barclay; women like Margaret Fell, Ann Blaykling, Mary Fisher and Mary Akehurst, who were Thomas Paine’s fearlessly radical 17th century forerunners, speaking out for justice and civil liberty, including liberty for (non-violent) non-conformity. Paine’s own Quaker Background Paine’s magisterial biographer John Keane stresses that Paine was the child of a mixed marriage – half Anglican, half Quaker and suggests that that must have led to his having a balanced, even a detached, view of both orthodox and heterodox Christianity and hence to his championing of toleration. I myself see no reason to think that young Paine felt himself to be equally Anglican and Quaker. He is generally agreed to have been much closer to his Quaker father to 6 Ethical Record, April 2012 whom he was apprenticed at thirteen than he was to his Anglican mother. And he actually recounts in how shocked and alienated he had been when he was 7 or 8 years old, on hearing his Anglican aunt’s orthodox Anglican religious teaching of Original Sin and redemption through God’s allowing the crucifixion of his own son. Instead, when young Tom Paine attended Quaker meetings in Meeting House Lane, he would have heard Quaker neighbours testifying not to sin or damnation but to their feelings of love and unity and to the working of God’s mercy in their own lives; he would also have absorbed the practical mercy that Thetford Quakers gave out towards the needy, suffering Members of their Meeting. For in Thetford, Quaker collective self-organization had already been established soon after the start of the first Friends’ Meetings there. Through democratic ‘Quaker discipline’ that included ‘elders’ and ‘overseers’ and Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Meetings as well as Women’s Meetings, taking care of the poor, the sick, the old, the widowed and the orphans had been the Quaker way from the first. [3] Their path-breaking schemes of providing accommodation, weekly allowances, legacies and gifts of fuel and clothing gave Paine a lifelong Quakerly ‘feeling for the hard condition of others’ as he himself would write in his letter to the town of Lewes later. We should also note that Quakerism is, and has always been, an outward looking faith. They believed from the first that Quakerism is something to be lived out in the world and this bonded them in shared efforts at humanitarian intervention. For the Quakers have never been short of others’ ‘Sufferings’ that need addressing – the sufferings of slaves, prisoners, the disenfranchised, the starving, refugees, the victims of war and persecution. Paine’s Schooling Quakerism already had an influence on Paine’s schooling, between the ages of 7-13. His father said he must not learn Latin ‘because of the books thro’ which that language is taught’ – think of the semi- divine status claimed for the founding of Rome in the Aeneid or the deity accorded the later Roman Emperors or Caesar’s triumphalist history in his account of his conquest of Gaul. Simone Weil called history ‘believing the murderers at their own word’. What would young Thomas Paine have read or been told about the treatment of Quakers, including his own kin, in Thetford, in Norwich and elsewhere in Norfolk, before he was born? And how would he have reacted? In February 1665 at the Quarter Sessions held at Norwich Castle, Henry Kettle and Robert Eden both of Thetford, and two others, were convicted of the 3rd offence in meeting together (see Conventicle Act) and were sentenced ‘to be carried from thence to Yarmouth, and from that Port to be transported for seven years to Barbados’ (i.e. as slaves). When Kettle returned after seven years, he was again arrested and imprisoned. In 1676, William Garnham, Mary Townsend and Robert Spargin of Thetford were distrained of their goods worth £2.5 shillings. One Captain Cropley molested them and attempted to disperse their religious meetings by Force of Arms. And when they asked for his commission so to do, he showed them Ethical Record, April 2012 7 his rapier. And one of them not going at his command, he beat him on the Head with his Stick and kickt him on the Back to the endangering of his Life. 1678 ‘George Whitehead and Thomas Burr were taken at a meeting in Norwich. Charles Alden, a Vintner and one of the Singing Men in the Cathedral, rushed in calling out ‘Here’s Sons of Whores; Here’s 500 Sons and Daughters of Whores. The Church Doors stand open but they will be hanged before they will come there.’ And whilst George Whitehead was speaking, [Alden] cryed out ‘Put down that Puppy Dog! Why do you suffer him to stand there prating? ‘

These Norfolk Quakers were then sent to prison in Norwich Castle and again in 1680 for refusing to take the oath. On his release George Whitehead went straight to Hampton Court to plead with the King on behalf of his fellow- prisoners left 27 steps below ground in Norwich Castle dungeon -’They are burying them alive’, he told the King, whom he just addressed as ‘King’, ‘They are poor harmless people, poor Woolcombers, Weavers and Tradesmen, like to be destroyed.’ The prisoners were only released two years later. In 1682 Anne Payne was committed to prison for ‘absence from National Worship’. (Many other Paines, or Paynes, in Norfolk suffered the seizure of their goods and imprisonment). The persecution continued in Norfolk up to 1690. Such things are not soon forgotten. Whether or not young Thomas Paine, born in 1737, read a copy of Besse, so many were the oral accounts of the persecution period that he must have heard many examples from his father, from his paternal grand-parents and from other Thetford Quakers. It was still living memory and there can be no doubt at all on which side he and his father were on. It would simply not have been possible for him as a sensitive, spirited, indignant child and youth to have been equally pro- Anglican, on the side of the punishing ruling class as on the side of their victims, the heroes and heroines of Quaker dissent. Paine’s Writing on Quakers and on Quakerly principles. 1768-1775, Paine in Lewes. Thomas ‘Clio’ Rickman, who would become Paine’s closest English friend and first devoted biographer (Paine would write part of the Rights of Man in his London home) first attached himself to Paine as his inspiring mentor when he was a youth in Lewes. Clio Rickman was a ‘birthright’ Lewes Quaker on both sides of his family – the Rickmans being the dominant family in the meeting there. Their common Quaker heritage and knowledge of Quaker persecution history would have been one of the bonds between the radical debating Paine of the Lewes Headstrong Club and his young admiring convert to radicalism, Rickman. Clio Rickman himself would be disowned by the Lewes meeting for ‘marrying out’ but eventually died as a Quaker in London and would be buried in the Quaker burial ground in Bunhill Fields. He would publish Paine and give him sanctuary in London – and himself suffer as a publisher for his Paine connection. 1775-1787, America. 1775-80 Paine worked with Philadelphia Quakers in the first anti-slavery society in America, founded by the Quaker John Woolman. He 8 Ethical Record, April 2012 wrote his first essay there asking the Americans to ‘discontinue and renounce African Slavery in America. 1775. In his Thoughts on Defensive War, he wrote, “I am thus far a Quaker, in that I would readily agree with all the world to lay aside the use of arms, and settle matters by negotiation: but unless the whole will, the matter ends, & I take up my musket” i.e. against the troops, including Hessian mercenaries, being employed by the British to put down the American struggle for colonial independence – ‘laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword.’ (Common Sense) Therefore, in 1776 in his Appendix to Common Sense, Paine opposed those conservative, ‘Tory’, non-resisting Philadelphia Quakers who, in 1776, advocated reconciliation with the British King. Paine accused this group of rich Quakers, who, he said, did not represent all Quakers, of being not really neutral and peacefully above the conflict as they claimed but de facto partisans on King George III’s side, when they argued against resistance. Had Paine known of the actual degree of American Quaker economic collaboration with the British then going on behind the scenes, he would have been even more incensed. [4] Xmas 1776. . First essay by Paine advocating total resistance even unto death: “These are the times that try men’s souls...Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered;... ‘show your faith by your works’” (Epistle of James) November 1778. 7th Crisis essay. Paine coined the phrase ‘Religion of Humanity’ – i.e. humanity is the true religion. ‘My religion is to do good’. 1789-1790 and 1792-1795, France. 1793 attacked by Marat re: clemency for the King, denounced for being a Quaker and therefore against death penalty! 1794-6, Paine on Quakers and Quakerism in The Age of Reason. Conway: Introduction: ‘Paine’s Reason is only an expansion of the Quaker’s “inner light”’. Paine was a spiritual successor of George Fox. He too had ‘apostolic fervour’. Part 1, Ch. 1. The author’s profession of faith: ‘I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.’ ‘My own mind is my own church.’ 1797, Letter to Camille Jordan. ‘The only people who, as a professional sect of Christians provide for the poor of their society, are people known by the name of Quakers. Those men have no priests. They assemble quietly in their places of meeting, and do not disturb their neighbours with shows and noise of bells. ... Quakers are equally remarkable for the education of their children. I am a descendant of a family of that profession; my father was a Quaker; and I presume I may be admitted as evidence of what I assert. ... Principles of humanity, of sociability, and sound instruction for advancement in society, are the first objects of studies among the Quakers... One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.’ 1804 Prospect Papers. It is an established principle with the Quakers not to shed Ethical Record, April 2012 9 blood. The Quakers, who are a people more moral and regular in their conduct than the people of other sectaries, and generally allowed to be so, do not hold the Bible (i.e. the O.T) to be the word of God. They call it ‘a history of the times’. Paine not a Quaker Because he was not a Christian and the Quakers were Christians, however unorthodox and radical. Nevertheless, his Quaker heritage from his father gave him a birthright example of principled, fundamental criticism of the corrupt, caste-ridden, unjust society into which he was born. The persecution history, in particular, of his Quaker forebears transmitted to Paine both by word of mouth and in print in his youth, must, I believe, have been truly inspirational ‘strengthening medicine’ as he in his turn dared to ‘speak truth to power’. And Paine, like the early Quakers, would also face trial for ‘sedition’, would be exiled by a fearful aristocratic government and would be imprisoned and risk death for his convictions – the latter, ironically, at the hand of revolutionary extremists. Paine helped start the American Quaker campaign in Philadelphia to abolish slavery and the Slave Trade. Paine remembered the Society of Friends’ organization of care for its weakest members as a template for the possibility of organized national social welfare that he would expound in The Rights of Man. His allusions to Quakerism and the practices of the Quakers in his writings whether in America, in France or in England, were overwhelmingly respectful, even at times reverential – ‘I reverence their philanthropy’. So far I have implied that the influence of Quakerism on Paine was as positive as it was profound. But was it wholly positive? Perhaps we should consider the comment on Paine made by the 80 year-old portrait painter James Northcote, himself a political liberal, as reported in Hazlitt’s First Conversation with Northcote, in 1829. “Nobody can deny that [Paine] was a very fine writer and a very sensible man; But he flew in the face of a whole generation; and no wonder that they were too much for him, and that his name is become a bye word with such multitudes, for no other reason than that he did not care what offence he gave them by contradicting all their most inveterate prejudices. It was not so much Paine’s being a republican or an unbeliever, as the manner in which he brought his opinions forward (which showed self-conceit and a want of feeling) that subjected him to obloquy. People did not like the temper of the man.” The first Quakers had certainly known how to get up the noses of their late 17th century persecutors. Was Paine too much like those earliest Quakers, forfeiting persuasiveness in the certainty of his own exclusive rightness – and so ‘[meeting] an unkind reception’? 1. Conway, Moncure, Life of Thomas Paine.... 1892, vol.1, p. 11. 2. See Oxford DNB entry on Whitehead.See Public Record Offices for the earliest mss. Quaker archives, listing local ‘Sufferers’ and ‘Perpetrators’ on facing pages, month by month, year by year, 1652-1690. 3. Keane p. 24: they believed their mutual aid enabled them to return in Spirit to the grace of the earliest ‘primitive’ Christians. 4. See Conway vol 1. pp.76-77 {Edited by JRJ} 10 Ethical Record, April 2012 RELIGION, IDENTITY AND PSYCHIC DETACHMENT: EXPLORING SOME CONSEQUENCES Rumy Hasan, University of Sussex Lecture to the Ethical Society, 11 March 2012

After World War 2, increasing numbers of migrants began to settle in Britain. Though they came from many countries, the great majority were from former colonies – especially from the Caribbean and the Indian sub-continent. Migrants invariably settled in certain parts of towns and cities, often adjacent to certain industries in which they worked (such as mills and foundries) where there was affordable housing. There were, however, ‘choice’ and ‘constraint’ factors in this decision. In regard to the former, quite understandably, new migrants often chose to live in close proximity to those from a similar background (this is a common phenomenon of immigrants the world over); but they were also often prevented from living in certain parts of towns by racist councils, landlords, and estate agents (the ‘constraint’ factors) which were eventually outlawed by the Race Relations Act of 1976 introduced by the Labour government. It appears that for many religious-ethnic minorities, the ‘choice factors’ have long been dominant; a consequence of which is that neighbourhoods in which they reside have become larger and concentrated, that is to say, where those not of the same ethnicity or religion have left the area. Accordingly, these areas can be termed ‘mono-cultural’, ‘mono-faith’ communities Psychic detachment In my book Multiculturalism: Some Inconvenient Truths (2010), I provide a novel theory to explain the phenomenon of people (especially some ethnic minority communities) leading highly segregated lives with few points of contact with mainstream society. I give this the term ‘psychic detachment’. At its extreme it can be seen as immigrants’ mode of thinking, belonging, living, as being rooted elsewhere: that is, their alienation from the host society is such that they might as well be living in another land. The components of psychic detachment are described as follows (pp. 102-103):The key foundation for psychic detachment is segregation into invariably deprived minority communities from a religious-ethnic background ... for reasons of ‘choice’ or ‘constraints’. Segregation facilitates the formation of a heightened religious identity. Key to this is the influence of religious and cultural values, beliefs, and attendant practices from community and religious ‘elders’ and ‘leaders’ (for example, the role of imams in mosques, priests in Hindu temples and Sikh Gurdwaras is crucial in Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh communities respectively). As their value systems are often strongly at variance with, and even shun, those of the largely secular mainstream society (and invariably also those of other religious-ethnic minorities), this gives rise to ‘normative’, that is ideological, detachment. Segregation, compounded by normative detachment, engenders ‘social detachment’. For children, as a direct consequence of segregated schooling, this arises because of very few points of contact with children from the majority society, and indeed also with those from other minority backgrounds. We can hypothesise that schooling in a religious ‘faith’ school intensifies religious identity and accentuates normative and social detachment. Ethical Record, April 2012 11 Dis-identification Growing up in a segregated community and attending segregated schools contributes to socio-economic detachment (that is, working only within one’s ‘own’ community, which could be described as a ‘ghetto economy’, particularly if qualifications obtained are minimal). Compounding social detachment is the enormous pressure not to marry out of the faith and community. Indeed a cogent case can be made for this being a key determinant of genuine integration (Accordingly, identification with the host society reduces to very low levels or there is, as Dutch researchers Verkuyten and Yildiz have described it, ‘disidentification’. It is the combination of normative detachment, social detachment, and disidentification that determines psychic detachment. The greater are the levels of these three contributory factors, the stronger is the likelihood of psychic detachment. There is good reason to think of a continuum of psychic detachment – this will be low for those who are well-integrated, and high for those who are not, that is to say, are highly segregated so leading, in effect, ‘parallel lives’. The proposition I wish to put forward is that high levels of psychic detachment of Muslims are contributing to the alienation of, and arousing negative feelings among, many non-Muslims, in particular significant numbers of the majority White society. This has had – is having – political consequences, the most worrying of which is that far right groups are exploiting such alienation to their advantage. The British National Party Exploited Multiculturalism There is evidence to suggest that over the past decade and a half the British National Party (BNP) has gained politically from this phenomenon. As a rule, segregation along racial/religious lines is a recipe for acrimony, division and resentment which the BNP has relentlessly whipped up and exploited. This cuts against the grain of what has come to be known as ‘social’ or ‘community cohesion’. What has been neglected in research on support for the far right is the tribalism emanating from religious-ethnic groups and the powerful assertion of faith identities which, in turn, hinder the fostering of commonalities. This has been grist to the mill of the ‘divide and rule’ politics of the BNP which has availed itself of this electoral opportunity. Indubitably, ‘us and them’ identities and polarities favour those who strongly proclaim fighting for ‘us’ (indigenous whites) against ‘them’ (migrants), especially if ‘them’ are considered foreigners with alien values. In crude terms, this has been the crux of BNP’s political strategy under the leadership of Nick Griffin. The creation of mono-culture, mono-faith communities caused all three main political parties to view citizens residing within such communities in de facto sectarian terms and to make promises and allocate resources on such a basis. Thus became entrenched the British version of pork-barrel politics which ineluctably accentuated divisions along religious and ethnic lines. This was, informally, the recognition of Britain as a ‘multicultural’, and later, a ‘multifaith’ society. This thinking and outcome was an unintentional political gift to the BNP as it facilitated its political campaigning in local elections on the basis of 12 Ethical Record, April 2012 preferential treatment being accorded by the main political parties to non-whites (especially Muslims) over the indigenous white population. The invasions of, and wars against, Afghanistan and Iraq have (as predicted by many, including intelligence agencies) resulted in actual and planned acts of terrorism by Islamists; the peak of which was the 7 July 2005 suicide bombings in London. The BNP also opposed these wars but strove to make political gain from the added scrutiny of Muslim communities. The BNP’s arguments against Islamist terrorism resonated among many in White working class estates and, accordingly, generated support at the ballot box. In the May 2009 European elections, the party registered nearly one million votes which translated into the election of two MEPs, the first time it had members elected to the European Parliament. However, it did not win a seat at the 2010 general election, and lost many council seats. What the political establishment, the media, and the academy did not properly consider was that, in its defence of cultural norms of the ‘indigenous’ British population, the BNP was utilising a key demand of multiculturalism, that the culture of groups ought to be ‘recognised’ and ‘celebrated’. What is good for the goose should surely be good for the gander but such an impeccable logic and consistency of argument was much too discomfiting to mainstream politicians and commentators for whom the principle applied only to migrant settlers and not to the indigenous white population. There is some evidence for these arguments in research conducted for the Equality and Human Rights Council: Understanding the Rise of the Far Right: Focus Group Results (2010). The aim of this research was to identify the reasons for the rise in support of far right groups in three deprived localities (Blackburn and Darwen in Lancashire; and in North West Leicestershire). The focus group survey found three ‘threats’ to the lives of respondents: ‘economic decline and migrant workers taking what they saw as ìBritishî jobs; the disintegration and segregation of communities that were previously ethnically mixed; and white British people reportedly receiving a raw deal in the provision of jobs and services. The research further highlights that many in the focus groups are worried by the threat of the ‘apparent erosion of traditional British ways of life, church, community, employment for local people ...’ ‘There is the perceived failure of the main political parties to represent white British social and economic interests, so they are looking for a political alternative’; hence support for far right groups such as the BNP. What has been neglected and insufficiently researched is that those settlers who insist on a separate, distinct, identity and are unwilling to integrate – as is the case with so many Muslims in Europe – can become a campaigning target for xenophobic politics. That is to say, migrant settlers who robustly assert their ‘difference’ or ‘foreignness’ can readily risk the ire of those resentful of their presence in their midst. Militant Islam and the Rise of the English Defence League During the course of 2009, a new political phenomenon came to prominence in England – the English Defence League (EDL). It is a novel organisation in that Ethical Record, April 2012 13 its raison d’Ítre is explicitly to oppose militant Islam. The group’s origins are in Luton with a significant Muslim population. The founder of the EDL, a young man and former BNP member called Stephen Yaxley-Lennon who uses the nom de plume Tommy Robinson, has stated (in an interview given to the BBC’s Newsnight programme on 1 February, 2011) that the EDL is a ‘symptom’ of the failure of UK governments to tackle Muslim extremism. Yaxley-Lennon states that he formed the group because of a protest organised by Islamists in Luton directed against British Army soldiers returning from Iraq, where slogans such as ‘Butchers of Baghdad’ were shouted against them. He had also been concerned by the campaigning of Al Muhajiroun and its successor group Islam4UK (both now proscribed) and by their demands for Sharia law to be implemented in Britain; and by the fact they were not being opposed. He was also outraged by a ‘road show’ which the jihadist Anjem Chaudhury took to towns and cities with a view to convert people to Islam. What he found particularly inflammatory was a public ceremony (in June 2009) in which an eleven year old white boy was shown converting to Islam. These acts were the catalyst for Yaxley-Lennon to start his group – which he duly did by targeting football fans in Luton. Very quickly, the EDL was mobilising hundreds of supporters and organised protests in several towns and cities in England – and began to attract support from other parts of the UK and Europe. The EDL a Populist Movement The most detailed study of the EDL has been conducted by the Demos think- tank; its findings, published in November 2011, reject the notion of the EDL being a fascist, or even a far right, organisation. Instead, it is deemed to be a populist movement with some ‘illiberal and intolerant elements ... [but] many members are in an important sense democrats’. Nonetheless, the report of the findings points to significant far-right sympathy as evidenced by a third of EDL supporters voting for the BNP. Another important characteristic which is thoroughly at odds with the history of British fascism is that the EDL welcomes not only Jews but members of non-white ethnic minorities. However, if not in content, the form of EDL protests is certainly akin to fascist parties such as the National Front and BNP of yesteryear given that the vast majority of those who attend are young white men behaving in a menacing demeanour. The Demos report estimates that by early 2011, that is, some 18 months after its formation, the EDL had organised over 50 demonstrations and that the total size of its active membership is between 25,000-35,000 people; an astonishing growth rate for a grassroots organisation that is so universally reviled. Though its rise can be considered an extreme response to militant Islam, evidence suggests that the gap between the EDL’s ideology and mainstream society is not so large. This is attested by the British Attitudes survey of 2010 which highlighted that of all the major religions in Britain, only Islam generated an overall negative response. Further evidence is provided in a Populus opinion poll, considered the largest survey into identity and extremism in the UK: 52 per cent of respondents agreed with the proposition that ‘Muslims create problems in the UK’.

14 Ethical Record, April 2012 Findings such as these suggest that the formation and rapid growth of the EDL is a consequence of not only militant Islam but of high levels Muslim self- segregation that has engendered a strong Islamic identity and attendant psychic detachment. The Example of the Netherlands A further example of the political consequence of a strong Muslim identity and attendant psychic detachment comes from the Netherlands. A survey by Paul Sniderman and Louk Hagendoorn in 1998 (i.e. before 9/11 and the war on terror) showed that half the Dutch population thought ‘Western European and Muslim ways of life are irreconcilable’. In 2002, erstwhile academic Pim Fortuyn’s LPF party campaigned strongly on an anti-Islamic programme. He was assassinated before the election but his party won 17% of the vote. In the 2010 Dutch general election, 16% voted for the PVV party of Geert Wilders which also campaigned explicitly on an anti-Islamic programme to become the 3rd largest party. From the evidence available, it would be mistaken to think that unease with many aspects of Islam is confined to the far right margins of society; on the contrary, it appears to be widespread. Accordingly, we cannot reasonably consider negative sentiments regarding Muslim beliefs and practices as being based on some generalised, irrational, ‘Islamophobia’ – an epithet suffused with racial connotations given that most Muslims in Europe are non-white; or on a wilful misunderstanding or ignorance of the religion as is invariably asserted by Islamists and their apologists. Our understanding of political and social reality will be greatly improved if Islamic beliefs and practices are seen in ideological terms, the strict adherence to which leads to high levels of psychic detachment. This, in turn, can generate alienation and hostility by many of the indigenous population who are not motivated by racism but which can, nonetheless, provide a useful campaigning tool for xenophobic, far right organisations. It is therefore imperative that the focus of public policy be on increasing integration which necessitates the loosening of religious identities and reduction of psychic detachment. Moreover, this is a sine qua non for social cohesion which is so universally desired.

BRAIN OF BRITAIN Ray Ward, SPES member and regular at many SPES, NSS, BHA, CFI and other events at Conway Hall and elsewhere, became Brain of Britain 2012 after winning the final of the very long-running (since 1953!) BBC Radio quiz, broadcast in March. Ray is a quiz veteran, having been on Brain of Britain three previous times as well as Mastermind twice, University Challenge and many other broadcast quizzes. He has also played in hundreds of quizzes in quiz leagues, the civil service, work quizzes and Mensa quizzes (he has twice won Brain of Mensa, a general knowledge contest for members of the high-IQ society), etc.

The views expressed in this Journal are not necessarily those of the Society. Ethical Record, April 2012 15 SOUTH PLACE, SCANDAL AND – THE TITANIC? Jennifer R. Jeynes

Why would South Place be associated with the disaster of the sinking of the mighty RMS Titanic, largest ship in the world when launched, pride of the White Star Line and its Harland and Wolff ship yard in Belfast, after a particularly unfortunate collision with an iceberg on its maiden voyage to New York? Some senior members of the Ethical Society and readers of Ethical Record will no doubt have an inkling but as we approach the centenary of the ship’s loss on 15 April 1912, it seems an opportune time to investigate this connection for newer readers. Among the many myths associated with the sinking, one that seems particularly prevalent is that as the ship went down, the ship’s orchestra played, ‘Nearer My God To Thee’. Could this actually be true? Was there room for an orchestra on deck among the melee of 2,200 passengers divided into first (plus servants), second and third classes not forgetting the crew, gradually realising with presumably increasing panic that they needed to find their way to the top of the 10 decks only to find there were insufficient life boats? A Band of Eight Musicians In fact there were eight musicians, all second class who formed a band. The bandmaster, Wallace Henry Hartley was a violinist from Colne, Lancashire who was reluctant to leave the Mauretania on which he had amassed 80 transatlantic crossings and was not able to see his fiancée before the sailing. The two pianists, Percy Cornelius Taylor and William Theodore R. Brailey were from Clapham and Walthamstow respectively. One of the cellists was French, Roger Marie Bricoux; the other was John Wesley Woodward from West Bromwich who played at the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne. John Law (Jock) Hume was a violinist from Dumfries and Paris-born Georges Alexandre Krins had studied violin at the Liege Conservatoire and recently played at the Ritz Hotel. The 8th musician was double-bass player John Frederick Preston Clarke who had played at Liverpool’s Kardomah cafe. The men divided into a quintet who played formal concerts and performed at mealtimes and for the church service and a trio who entertained outside the first class restaurant and the Cafe Parisien with operettas, waltzes and ragtime. On Sunday 14 April the quintet had finished excerpts from the Tales of Hoffman at 11 pm. The iceberg struck 40 minutes later. At midnight the eight played in the first class lounge which had one of the pianos. As the evacuation continued the strings group moved to the boat deck and then near one of the lifeboats. Witnesses said they played continuously for two hours, including Alexander’s Rag-Time Band, until waist deep in water. Most reports agreed that Nearer My God To Thee was played last. However no mention is usually made of who wrote the hymn and who set it to music. These were two talented sisters, composer Eliza Flower (1803-1846), regarded by Robert Browning as a composer of genius, and poet Sarah Flower Adams (1805- 1848) who regularly attended South Place Chapel, built 1825. Their mother died early and their father in 1829. Scandal ensued because the attractive Unitarian 16 Ethical Record, April 2012 Sarah Flower Eliza Flower Poet and Hymn writer Composer

Minister of the Chapel, William Johnson Fox was appointed their guardian and though married, became very close to Eliza. He eventually left his wife to set up home with Eliza and split the congregation though the more progressive section stayed loyal to him. There are charming portraits of the sisters above the fireplace in the Humanist Library, one either side of William Johnson Fox. In this portrait one can see how good looking and charismatic he clearly was. The portrait of him in the National Portrait Gallery and in his Dictionary of National Biography online entry dates from the year before his death and he appears old and worn. In fact the National Portrait Gallery did not know of our portrait when I enquired. So I recommend a visit to the Library to admire it and ponder life and fate.

THE HUMANIST LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES The Humanist Library and Archives are open for members and researchers on Mondays to Fridays from 0930 - 1730. Please let the Librarian know of your intention to visit. The Library has an extensive collection of new and historic freethought material. Members are now able to borrow books from the Library. Readers will be asked to complete a Reader Registration Form, and must provide photographic ID, proof of address and proof of membership. They will be issued with a Reader’s card, which will enable them to borrow three books at a time. The loan period is one month. Journals, archive material, artworks and other non-book material cannot be borrowed. Full details of the lending service are available from the Librarian. Cathy Broad, Librarian Tel: 020 7061 6747. Email: [email protected]

Ethical Record, April 2012 17 GALA FUNDRAISING CONCERT Simon Callaghan – [email protected] A highlight of our Sunday concert series this year will undoubtedly be our gala fundraising concert on May 6th. Featuring our patrons Timothy West and Hiro Takenouchi and other world-class performers, it promises to be an evening of high-quality music making. This year we will be going on a new adventure as we welcome a harpsichord into the hall for an exhilarating performance of Vivaldi's timeless classic, The Four Seasons. In total contrast, the second part of the concert will begin with the UK premiere of a suite from 'The Two Pigeons' by Messager, a ballet that saw particular success in its performance at the London Coliseum in March. For the grand finale of the concert we are delighted to be joined once again by the distinguished actor, Timothy West CBE, who as one of our patrons most generously gives his expertise and wonderfully inspiring performances in support of the concerts each year. Saint-Saens's colourful Carnival of the Animals needs no introduction of course but suffice it to say that by the end of the evening, the hall will be full of music and each member of the audience will leave with a smile on their face! This concert is invaluable to us in that it raises money to secure the future of Conway Hall Sunday concerts and we are constantly overwhelmed by the generosity of our loyal audience, without whom there would be no concerts. We are also indebted to all the performers in this gala concert for their support. This promises to be an unmissable evening!

VIEWPOINT Multiculturalism Chris Purnell’s letter (ER March) defending multiculturalism is misguided. In my experience, multiculturalism is a euphemism for non-integration on the part of immigrants, together with politically correct tolerance of the intolerable on the part of the host community. Between the wars, European emigrants to the USA eagerly accepted American culture through the ‘melting pot’, and it’s a tragedy that Britain has ditched the same expectation of immigrant integration in favour of multiculturalism, especially when it comes to exemptions from laws enshrined in sex equality and other hard-won precepts. The Labour Party, in particular, has gone down the multicultural road, and I remember how, when in government, ministers like Jack Straw and Roy Hattersley, wanting the Muslim vote, leaned over backwards to conciliate Islam – though Hattersley changed his tune when promoted to the unelected second chamber. One instance is that when the European Parliament made it mandatory for halal meat, cruelly produced without pre-stunning, to be labelled as such, so as to allow consumers to avoid it, Britain – capitulating to Muslim pressure – opted out of this European law. Far from lubricating community relations, the more we give way to Islamic demands the more they demand. In parts of the country, sharia family law, with its inherent mysogyny, is already practised as an alternative to our own laws, and there is a strong demand for its extension. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury said it was ‘unavoidable’ – though justice surely depends on a universal legal system. Barbara Smoker - Bromley, Kent 18 Ethical Record, April 2012 HAITI – BUSINESS AS USUAL? Graham Bell

In Viewpoints (ER March), Beatie Feder writes that two years after the earthquake, half a million Haitians are still rotting in makeshift camps with many dying of cholera. $3.6bn reconstruction aid has been pledged but USA is claiming one third of this for military services rendered. The Haitians receive only 2%. The remainder largely goes to NGOs and private companies with Haitians having little input into how this money is to be spent. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose! Arguably Haiti has been the most severely put upon country in history. Its problems over the centuries have been almost entirely the product of external greed and geopolitics but also of its internal social structure. A quick review of Haiti’s history is crucial to understanding its current social, economic and political crises. 1492. Haiti’s problems can be dated back to 1492 when Columbus, on his first voyage, landed on the northern coast of what is now Haiti. He claimed the large Caribbean island for Spain, giving it the name La Isla Española (Spanish Island), which subsequently became corrupted to Hispaniola. He described the local Arawak people as ‘lovable, tractable, peaceable, gentle, decorous.’ Bartolome de Las Casas, a Spanish priest with a conscience, chronicled in graphic detail the savagery meted out by his countrymen on native populations as they attempted, but with little success, to enslave them for work on plantations and in mines. Horrified, Las Casas agitated for the abolition of native slavery. The Arawak population in the Caribbean collapsed from a probable 2 or 3 million to only a few thousand by the early 16th century; by the end of that century, the Caribbean Arawak were extinct. This catastrophic mortality rate was due to the introduction of European diseases (to which the Arawak had no immunity), damage to the Arawak’s food supplies, Spanish brutality and enslavement and Arawak suicide. To solve this problem, in 1503, a mere 11 years after its ‘discovery’, the first African slaves were brought to Hispaniola. They later arrived in flood proportions as the plantation economy was extended. However, Spain partially lost interest in her Caribbean colonies as richer pickings were to be made by plundering the resources of the Aztec, Inca and other peoples on mainland America. In 1625 the French began to settle in northwestern Hispaniola naming their colony Saint-Domingue. In 1697, Spain ceded the western third of Hispaniola to France. The remaining Spanish eastern portion of the island, San Domingo, was to become the future Dominican Republic. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. St Domingue became la perle des Antilles, providing two-thirds of the France’s overseas trade, arguably the most profitable colony in history but also the most brutalised. By 1789, it produced three- quarters of the world’s sugar and led the world in the production of coffee, cotton, indigo and rum. This rested on the labour of some 500,000 slaves. The political turmoil of the French Revolution was replicated in St Domingue with fierce debates as to who should represent whom in Paris. The colony’s 40,000 white and 30,000 mulatto population was politically and socially destabilised. The Africans, encouraged by the Enlightenment ideals of liberty, equality and

Ethical Record, April 2012 19 fraternity, stole the moment and rose. The protracted rebellion, which was by turns slave revolt, anti-colonial war and race war, lasted over 12 years. Not only France but Spain, Britain and the Netherlands, fearful of copycat rebellions in their own colonies, intervened in a vain attempt to put the revolt down. At one stage, Britain, then at war with France, tried but failed to seize St Domingue for its own, with many thousands of British soldiers killed by rebels or by disease. With the rebels sometimes changing alliances, the details are difficult to follow. They can be read in C. L. R. James’ classic account, The Black Jacobins. In 1802, Napoleon sent 20,000 reinforcements to put down the rebels now led by Toussaint L’Ouverture and to restore slavery. After a few short bloody battles, the French essentially controlled St Domingue. But it was a Pyrrhic victory. The French in effect had two enemies - black rebels and yellow fever. The impact of yellow fever on the French was staggering. In the rainy season, it killed about 80% of French soldiers and sailors. The rebel revolt failed to attenuate despite L’Ouverture being tricked into attending a meeting where he was arrested, finally to die in a prison in France. In 1803, in a final attempt to subdue St Domingue, Napoleon sent a further 20,000 troops, but in vain. On 1 January 1804, the French finally departed St Domingue. The victorious former slaves declared the Independent Republic of Haiti, giving their land its original Arawak name. Haiti became the only case in history ‘of an enslaved people breaking its own chains and of using military might to beat back a powerful colonial power.’ Haiti, the Black Republic The world’s other colonial powers and the US sided with France against the self- proclaimed Black Republic, which declared itself a haven not only for all runaway slaves but also for indigenous peoples. Haiti’s leaders were desperate for recognition since revenues could only be generated by the overseas sale of sugar, coffee, cotton and other tropical produce. But France and Britain maintained a trade boycott because they wanted to avoid the threat of Haiti becoming a good example for their colonial possessions to emulate. Finally, in 1825, under threat of another French invasion and the restoration of slavery, Haitian officials signed what was to prove to be the beginning of the end of any hope of autonomy: France agreed to recognize Haiti’s independence only if the new republic paid an indemnity of 150 million gold francs ($65bn in today’s money) and consented to the reduction of import and export taxes for French goods. This indemnity was to compensate former plantation owners and merchants for their ‘loss of property’ – mainly slaves – but the indemnity was rather more than twice the value of all former French resources in Haiti. When in 1838 it became clear that Haiti could not possibly repay this amount, the indemnity was reduced to 90 million gold francs. Haiti had to borrow the money from French banks. Repayment of the reparations debt stretched out over decades and had a devastating impact on the Haitian economy. By the end of the 19th century, 80% of Haiti’s national budget was being spent on debt repayment and interest. In 1922, seven years into a nineteen-year US military occupation of Haiti, the US imposed on the Haitian government a large loan from US banks for it to pay off its debt to France. This US loan was finally paid off in 1947. Haiti was left virtually bankrupt, its workforce in desperate straits. The Haitian economy has never recovered from the financial havoc the French and US

20 Ethical Record, April 2012 impositions wreaked upon it to punish it for ending its own enslavement and for establishing the first black independent republic in the Americas. The US refused to recognise Haiti and maintained a trade embargo until 1862, nearly 60 years after the founding of the free Haitian Republic. Until then the US was fearful of the existence of a successful nation governed by freed black slaves and their descendents while 13% percent of the people living in the US were black slaves. With the US civil war under way and the Emancipation Proclamation about to be announced, Haiti’s liberation of slaves no longer posed a barrier to recognition. Indeed, President Lincoln saw the possibility of Haiti absorbing ex-slaves that could be induced to leave the US. (Liberia was recognised the same year for the same reason.) According to official US records, between 1849 and 1913, US navy vessels entered Haitian waters 24 times to ‘protect American lives and property’. After the 1915 invasion of Haiti the US military stayed until 1934. This was despite the professed idealism of President Wilson whose Fourteen Points, drawn up in 1917 and later proposed to the Paris Peace Conference following World War One, emphasised the self-determination of peoples and nations. Note that when Haiti was invaded in 1915, the Philippines and Nicaragua were already subject to a long-term US military rule. The Haitian parliament refused to accede to the US demand that it accept a US-written constitution that permitted the access of Haitian land and resources to US corporations and investors. The US disbanded parliament. A referendum was held in which only the 5% Haitian elite was allowed to vote. 99.9% of this wealthy minority voted for the new constitution. A US-trained National Guard serving the interests of the Haitian elites was established that mercilessly hunted down opponents. It is estimated that 15,000 Haitians were killed. A form of forced labour was introduced on plantations. When the US marines left after 19 years, Haiti was in ‘safe’ hands. A succession of US-compliant semi-dictators maintained themselves by means of rigged elections and the National Guard. The most notorious of these dictators was ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier who came to power in 1957 and in 1971 was succeeded by his son, ‘Baby Doc’. The elder Duvalier suspended all constitutional guarantees and declared himself president for life. His dictatorial regime instigated military and governmental purges, mass executions, and the institution of curfews, all enforced by the dreaded Tonton Macoute, a notorious police and spy organization. Meanwhile, the economy of Haiti not in the hands of US corporations declined severely, and 90% of the population remained illiterate. Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In 1985 the Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide and others began the organisation at grassroots level of protest movements against the ‘Baby Doc’ regime resulting in the dictator being deposed and forced to flee to France. In 1990, Haiti held its first free election since 1804. Aristide was elected president with 67% of the vote. The US-approved candidate, a former World Bank official who monopolised resources and had the full support of the wealthy elites, gained only 14% The reform programmes proposed by Aristide threatened both the interests of the Haitian elites and US corporations and he was overthrown in September 1991. The US restored Aristide as president in

Ethical Record, April 2012 21 1994 on condition that he adopt a harsh neoliberal regime similar to that of the US-approved candidate of 1990. Aristide confronted many intractable social and economic problems upon his return. In 1996 he stood down from the presidency as required by the constitution despite having served three years of his term in exile. The opposition boycotted the 2000 presidential election in which Aristide won a landslide victory with almost 92% of the vote. The harsh neoliberal policies that Aristide was forced to implement drove the country into chaos and violence. In 2004 the US and France spirited Aristide out of the country and into a second exile. Haiti fell back into the hands of its traditional elite leadership where it remains until the present. Until recently Haiti’s debt stood at $1.3bn, 40% of which was run up by the two Duvalier dictators who between 1957 and 1986 stole part of these loans for themselves, and used much of the rest to repress the population. The nature of their regimes was well known at the time the loans were made, but as the Duvaliers were anti-communist and all too happy to follow the economic policies prescribed by the West, their misdemeanours were overlooked. The IMF restructured the loan When a developing country like Haiti cannot repay a loan, the IMF and World Bank might restructure the loan – make it payable over a longer period and therefore at a lower annual repayment rate - provided the debtor nation agrees to Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs). These might involve the transforming of the economy for products for export rather than local consumption, the rollback of social programmes such as free education and medical services, lower import duties for foreign products and the right of foreign corporations to locate manufacturing plants in the country and to purchase agricultural land. As part of the economic conditions laid down by the World Bank and IMF in the 1980s and 1990s, Haiti was forced to slash its tariff on imported rice from 35% to 3%. Subsidised rice grown in the US has flooded the country. A country that was once self-sufficient in rice has become dependent on foreign imports – at the mercy of global market prices. The American ready- made meal and fast food industry uses white chicken meat much more than red, so US meat producers have dumped cheap red chicken meat on the Haitian market, thus undermining Haitian chicken production. Much the same can be said for some other food products. Some of the best agricultural land is being used to produce luxury crops for export to the US and Europe instead of foodstuffs for local consumption. Many formerly self- sufficient agricultural workers are being forced out of the countryside and into the already crowded towns where the unemployment rate might be 80% and they cannot afford to eat or be housed adequately. Haitians traditionally cook using charcoal. Many impoverished people have for years been scouring the countryside near towns for wood to make charcoal to sell in local markets in order to survive. The result that hillsides near towns have become denuded of woodland cover, an ecological disaster. Not only is there is widespread erosion but following torrential rains or hurricanes, there is the possibility of massive mudslides enveloping poor people in their shacks. With World Bank assistance, Haiti has agreed to set up 17 Export Processing Zones (EPZs, also known as Free Trade Zones, FTZs). EPZs are zones within 22 Ethical Record, April 2012 which goods may be landed from abroad, handled, manufactured or reconfigured, and re-exported without the intervention of the customs authorities. EPZs allow foreign corporations to employ local labour, almost extraterritorially, at low cost with the minimum of responsibility to local employees and any social problems created. In her book, No Logo, Naomi Klein has documented from many parts of the world the problems created by EPZs. In the case of Haiti as has happened elsewhere, without regulations or planning, it is almost inevitable that shanty towns without good water supplies and sanitation will develop near EPZs. Working conditions could be unhealthy and working hours sometimes excessive so that contracts can be fulfilled on time. Had another book by Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, been written four years later, it might well have contained a chapter devoted to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. This book gives examples of how people with power and corporations cash in on chaos and disaster such the 2004 tsunami. Many such examples were apparent following the Haiti earthquake. Some Good News on Debts Following concerted action from campaigners across the world following the January 2010 earthquake, world leaders finally agreed to the full cancellation of Haiti’s debts. However, the SAPs imposed when these debts were rescheduled by the IMF and World Bank have not been removed so the benefits that foreign corporations gained at the expense of the local population persist. Also, campaigners have been totally unsuccessful in another area. Haiti’s calls for the restitution of $40bn for the indemnity extorted virtually at gunpoint have been consistently rejected by successive French governments. At the time of the earthquake, there was little discussion in most of the mainstream Western popular media as to why Haiti is so impoverished as to be completely unable to cope with the aftermath of the earthquake disaster. Some resorted to a failed state ‘explanation’ with little or no historical analysis of who or what was responsible for this status. Some tended to blame the victims for their plight. Needless to say, some analysis contained elements of truth – for example, the greed and corruption of government officials and the higher echelons of the military over the years and lack of investment in social services and infrastructure. Several religious commentators even went as far as attributing Haiti’s failure to its adherence to Voodoo! What was lacking overall was the history of Haiti’s socio-economic plight from the time of independence in 1804 to the present, the crippling burden of the indemnity imposed by France and maintained with the help of the US for 112 years. The way that Haiti’s ruling elites monopolised trade while the peasant producers in the interior remained isolated from the outside world. The two-way interaction whereby the local elites in effect served as compradors and agents for foreign powers and corporations while the latter in turn helped to protect the elites in their high standard of living and opportunity from the exploited poor. The debt apart, this situation persists into the present and most aspects of Haiti’s plight will continue until its socio-economic system becomes significantly more equitable. In Viewpoints, Beatie Feder concludes, ‘The international community has proved it can’t do the job. Now it’s time the Haitians were given the chance to help themselves.’ Oh that life could be that simple! Business as usual is a more likely prospect. Ethical Record, April 2012 23 PROGRAMME OF EVENTS AT THE ETHICAL SOCIETY Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, WC1R 4RL. Tel: 020 7405 1818 Registered Charity No. 251396 For programme updates, email: [email protected] Website: www.ethicalsoc.org.uk Admission to Sunday morning lectures is free for members of SPES and £3(£2conc) for non-members. For other events, no charge unless stated. Sunday meetings are held in the Brockway Room. APRIL 2012 Sunday 15 WHAT SHOULD CHILDREN KNOW? 1100 John Tillson Sunday 22 ‘THE UNHOLY MRS. KNIGHT’ AND THE BBC: 1100 Secular Humanism and the threat to Christianity. Callum Brown Sunday 29 BEING GOOD 1100 Alom Shaha, author of the much acclaimed 'Young Atheist's Handbook', talks about how to be good without God. MAY Sunday 6 THE ETHICS OF REPRODUCTION ON A FINITE PLANET 1100 Roger Martin, chair of Population Matters, discusses the numerous ethical implications of population growth. Sunday 13 THE NEUROBIOLOGY AND ETHICS OF VOLUNTARY AMPUTATION 1100 Mo Costandi details the neurological origins and ethical issues arising from Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), Sunday 20 APES LIKE US: TOWARDS AN EVOLUTIONARY HUMANISM 1100 Volker Sommer asks whether evolutionary theory must always lend itself to worldviews that embrace materialism and atheism.

SPES’s CONWAY HALL SUNDAY CONCERTS 2012 Tickets on the door (£8/£4 concessions). 18.30pm Full details on: www.conwayhallsundayconcerts.org.uk APRIL 15 1730 Recital KlouDuo, 18.30 Concert:Barbican Trio 22 1830 Navarra Quartet 29 1830 Carducci Quartet MAY 6 Gala Concert Featuring our patron - the actor Timothy West, virtuoso violinist Thomas Gould and other distinguished musicians. – Vivaldi: The Four Seasons – – Messager: Suite from 'The Two Pigeons' (arr. Palmer) [UK Premiere] – – Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals – £12 tickets on the door (free entry for under-16s), box office opens at 17.30 MAY 13 1830 Revolutionary Drawing Room 20 1830 Piatti Quartet

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