The St. Louis Catholic Worker hopes to build a world where it is easier to be good, a world where each has according to their needs and gives according to their abilities, a world where interactions between peoples and communities is direct and personal and is governed by Love and concern for the common good rather than harmful institutions such as extractive capitalism or a militarized, carceral state.
To this end we advocate:
-Clarification of thought: to know where we are, how we got here, and where it is we should be going
-Mutual Aid: to share from our excess and receive in our need through direct and reciprocal interaction with our human family
-Resistance: to oppose oppression wherever it is found
The revolution we propose would be non-violent, decentralized, sustainable, soil based, abolitionist, personalist, communitarian, spirit led, and immediate. We hope that all people of goodwill might join this effort in their own place and context so that we might together help to build a new society in the shell of the old.
They said to be there at 6am. The cops were going to be there at the brink of dawn to remove people from their home and community. I was on donut and snack duty to ensure that people had something comforting to ease the trauma of another spring, another displacement. We rose early to hand out snacks and basic needs. We were there to stop state repression and its tools: dump trucks, patrol cars, bulldozers, and government officials who pretend to house humans displaced by the violence of eviction. Saint Louis city tries to evict the Riverfront Community every spring. When it was zero degrees this Christmas, the city left the camp alone. Mutual aid workers brought propane and warm layers around the clock. Yet, it never fails that when the leaves bud and the sun returns, so do camp evictions and the closure of shelters. This year when April arrived, three city funded shelters closed (Hope House, St. James, and Asbury). Because homelessness is only a winter problem. But homelessness wasn’t...