Ruth Weston maternity activist and alumni of the UTU book and phd group gave a reading from her book Born Stroppy, which will be published in February next year. She read the part where she explains the Liberation Theology methodology that underlies her activism and her attitude to making change happen. Here she reflects on the session and the take-aways from it:
In my presentation I talked about the liberation hermeneutic or methodology that underlies my maternity activism which runs like this:
- Use a small cameo or short story to encapsulate the predicament or issue
- Use historical eco-social analysis to unpick what is going on asking such questions as: Where does the power lie? And, How did that occur? Whose interests are served in this scenario? and so on.
- Turning to scripture we look for biblical stories that reflect something of the story and analysis.
- And then we take a practical action for change
We evaluate the action we have taken, using the first three steps above to plan our next action, so the process is a spiral of action, analysis and reflection. And this process can be undertaken at every strategic level whilst trying to effect change.
I then reminded them of the words of Jim Wallis : change does not necessarily happen by exchanging one wet-fingered politician for another but by changing the way the political wind blows. And so we reflected on how sometimes that involves catching a favourable wind when it turns, putting the sail up and going with it: Opportunistic action. In my practice I have been ready to jump in when an opportunity arises to make change or gain publicity for my cause. By contrast, what do we do when the wind is blowing against us? And we reflected on how we might be tacking back and forth to make progress against the wind.
We also talked about at the grassroots how, sometimes, people are satisfied with the progress made for now even if not ideal or structurally changing things. We also talked about the role of active observer or witness, how the solidarity of those who cannot act in the situation is appreciated by those who are: an example was given of a session/training on sexual harassment where the online observers were thanked for being willing to participate as observers of the event. This reinforces the truth that there are many different ways and roles in activism and the most important thing is to do what you can when you can and take the opportunities when they arise. We need to acknowledge and hold the tension of taking the action we can, in the context of also recognising the wider structural injustices that cause the injustice and frame and limit our ability to act. And when the wind is against you keeping tacking! Or observe the Palestinian practice of samud – the non violent resistance of steadfastness and hope in the face of oppression and your own powerlessness.
You can pre-order Born Stroppy! Ruth’s book, here: https://ruthweston.co.uk/books/