A Quaker Action Group (AQAG) was founded in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

during the summer of 1966 to "apply

nonviolent Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

direct action as a witness against the war in Vietnam".

History

Founding member

Lawrence Scott Lawrence Scott FRSL (born in Trinidad, 1943) is a novelist and short-story writer from Trinidad and Tobago, who divides his time between London and Port of Spain. He has also worked as a teacher of English and Drama at schools in London and in ...

was a Quaker and radical pacifist who had worked for the

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends (''Quaker'') founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by Am ...

(AFSC) in the 1950s, but resigned in protest at what he saw as the AFSC's preference for words over action. AQAG, which was based in the peace committees of the

Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

' New York and Philadelphia

Yearly meeting Yearly Meeting is a term used by members of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, to refer to an organization composed of constituent meetings or churches within a geographical area. The constituent meetings are called Monthly Meetings in ...

s, aimed to renew the Society of Friends commitment to its historic peace testimony. In 1966, AQAG attempted to mail relief packages to

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

, only to have the US Postal Service refuse the delivery. When they collected money for the North and South Vietnamese

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

Societies, the Treasury seized the donated funds. In March 1967, members of AQAG sailed to North Vietnam in the yacht ''Phoenix'', carrying medical supplies for North Vietnamese wounded by American bombing. The protest generated wide media coverage. In 1971,

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

was attempting to break free from the government in West Pakistan; it would become Bangladesh. The overwhelming public sentiment in the U.S. was in favor of Bangladeshi independence. Very few Americans were aware that the US government was providing arms to Pakistan, which it was using to suppress the independence of Bangladesh. AQAG decided to take action to publicize the shipping of arms from Baltimore to Pakistan. On July 14, 1971, members of AQAG took to Baltimore Harbor in small boats and kayaks to blockade the Padma, a ship loaded with weapons the U.S. was secretly sending to Pakistan. Media coverage of this quixotic action made national news and led to the stopping of U.S. support of Pakistan against Bangladesh.

Legacy

In the early seventies, AQAG, having abandoned its goal of transforming the Society of Friends, evolved into the

Movement for a New Society The Movement for a New Society (MNS) was a U.S.-based network of social activist collectives, committed to the principles of nonviolence, who played a key role in social movements of the 1970s and 1980s. According to a description from the MNS pub ...

, a self-styled "transformational network" dedicated to spreading the practice of non-violent practices throughout the social change networks in North America, and which would play a key role in the

anti-nuclear movement The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, nationa ...

of the 1970s.

Other Quaker Action Groups

Following the pattern of AQAG, several Quaker action groups were formed in the UK in the late 1960s, most notably in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. These groups focused mainly on pacifist campaigns, community living, and local projects such as providing food and shelter for homeless people.

References

External links

Records of A Quaker Action Group, 1966-1971
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quaker Action Group Religious activism Quaker organizations based in the United States Anti–Vietnam War groups Nonviolent resistance movements Nonviolence organizations based in the United States

History

Legacy

Other Quaker Action Groups

See also

References

External links