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Harbor's recent justice work
It was an honor to be asked to speak at the 2024 Red Letter Revival - So Cal as a panelist for the faith rooted-organizing part of the weekend. I got to meet Shane Claiborne, the Co-Founder of Red Letter Christians, which was a lot of fun! It’s always so inspiring to meet faith leaders who are dedicating their lives to creating safe space for real people to work out faith questions and heal from spiritual trauma. If you’re interested in learning more about Shane’s work, click here.
The Revival also featured Lisa Sharon Harper, the Founder and President of Freedom Road which is a coaching forum that “designs experiences to help groups in multiple sectors do justice in just ways.” In other words, her organization is helping justice movements be more just in their own polities. This is an incredibly valuable offering that is needed in most justice work. If you are interested in learning more about her work, click here.
My part of the event was a panel on faith-rooted organizing. It was an opportunity to reflect on the work I’ve done over the last several years, organizing with CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice). It gave me an opportunity to reflect on the deepening work that Harbor is doing with CLUE. More and more of our community have had opportunities to participate in CLUE actions. In these experiences, we are able to see the power of solidarity and advocacy to create change in our own community. When interfaith partners join with unions and workers, we are able to more effectively and more quickly change unjust conditions for workers in our own community.
Speaking on this faith-rooted organizing panel reminded me of the importance of advocacy for the church. This is one of the best ways for us to leverage our time, our numbers, our prayer, and our presence in ways that dramatically improve the lives of some of the hardest working members of our community. If you feel yourself called to advocacy work, let us know. We’d love to invite you to the next action.
And I’m truly delighted that you will be gifted with Caroline’s reflection on an action she was able to participate in with CLUE this summer. This is another example of what it looks like to show up in the mess of justice work, to be ready to pray, and stand strong, and always speak truth–even to power, and feel absolutely terrified, and utterly amazed by the thread that binds us together, all of us. It’s an incredible experience to show up with our CLUE partners and to make a real difference in the lives of real people. It’s the kind of experience you don’t want to miss.
Caroline's CLUE Action
In Matthew 18:15 - 20 Jesus outlines how to deal with someone who has wronged you. First in private conversation, then with several witnesses, then take them before the entire community and if restitution still cannot be made, treat them as an outsider. (From the Quick and Dirty Translation of The Bible by Me)
Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to join our local chapter of Unite Here as a representative of CLUE Justice, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. We showed up at a fancy hotel less than a mile from my home. I had only ever been there for a convention years ago.
After introductions and prayer we were taken into the back house where not only did the decor change from opulent to dilapidated but the ceilings were low and the air was thick with heat and lack of AC, with one section smelling strongly of mold, in sweltering weather.
We were taken to a loading dock where we were shown a waste trailer in disrepair and told that the light had been unusable for a year and that when it rained the whole dock was dangerously slick (think thick black slime plus water). I cannot imagine emptying waste into the cavernous dumpster in the cold, wet, slippery, darkness. But this wasn't the biggest problem.
The biggest deal was that a member of the housekeeping staff several weeks before had lost a finger due to a door that had been disabled years prior to make it close very heavily after a guest had been robbed. The cleaning staff had been asking for over a year that the doors get fixed and it had finally resulted in an amputation. When OSHA came out, the workers alleged the manager had lied and said that the problem with the door had only just arisen but two other members of the staff, in solidarity, had told the inspector the truth, that the problem had existed for a long time and that management had shirked their duty to protect the workers. The workers: short, dark, Indigenous/Mexican, with little to no English.
These two workers were facing a hearing that morning and we were to accompany them to display the solidarity of the faith community in the area. There were horrible stories of the manager joking to another worker, “Why is she complaining, she still has nine fingers to make tamales?”, along with derisive comments to a woman who had recently given birth and lost the baby regarding her not being a mother, also of his taunting the workers in the dark hallways with mentions of the devil. Horribly racist and misogynist, this manager is also Mexican, though taller, lighter and with charming excellent English.
The manager evaded us. He failed to meet with the workers and we asked to speak with him until he called the police. I had the opportunity to lead us in prayer for the workers and the union just as the police arrived in a very fancy reception area. It was a surreal moment and I was uncomfortable, as I've had very bad experiences with officers in the past, though never while praying. The officers were respectful. We let them know we were just about to leave. We learned later that management terminated those workers' employment.
The union hopes to aid them in finding better jobs for these workers and continue to pressure the management at this hotel to treat every worker fairly and to make a safe working environment for everyone. It is uphill work. We must fight the “conjoined twins of racism and capitalism” as Dr Ibram X Kendi puts it, similar to the three evils Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr talked about, “racism, materialism and war”.
Our presence was important. The conditions present are the sort of thing I would not expect so close to my home, my safe little suburban life. To think, just on the other side of the opulent walls are scenes of danger, cruelty and disrespect. It's incredible the worlds that exist within worlds when we have the courage to examine them and show up.
It wasn't the first time I went out for worker solidarity with CLUE and it won't be the last. I believe this is what Jesus would have me do in seeking to build Gxd's Kingdom here on Earth. The workers went to the company and when they were not satisfied, they brought in a few people- that was us, if they are still unsatisfied perhaps there will be a very public action like a demonstration (that's what I did with CLUE last time) and if that won't work there could be a boycott (treating them like an outsider). It only works when we work together. Solidarity is sacred and taught in the book of Peter.
As in the Bible, so in the streets. Thank you CLUE Justice for inviting me to live my values with you, just blocks from my home.
That's what discipleship asks of me.
Pastor Janette's CLUE Action
Pastor Janette attended and gave the opening prayer for contract negotiations at a popular resort in Newport Beach with CLUE. To show up with prayer and encouragement is truly a gift. Harbor's work with CLUE over the last seven years has given us the opportunity to help improve working conditions for workers in our own community. But it has also allowed us to be a grounding and prayerful presence at each negotiation, each rally, each zoom call, each strike. Pastor Janette's presence at this contract negotiation helped keep conversations calm, and her presence represented the Harbor community. This is how we make real change in our own community. If you are interested in participating in a future CLUE action, meeting, or negotiation please talk with Pastor Sadie or Pastor Janette and they will get you started.
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