Friends Volunteer Service Mission as a model for NewCO

The Friends Volunteer Service Mission (VSM) was a Quaker project in the early 1970s in inner city Indianapolis, which demonstrates the processes proposed by the new concept of NewCO (new conscientious objector).

1. From VSM to NewCO How the Friends Volunteer Service Mission (VSM) Modeled the Concepts of the New Conscientious Objector (NewCO)

2. The "Old" Witness (Negative) The traditional Conscientious Objector (CO) stance was a "negative" witness. It was a courageous "No" focused on refusal (of the draft, of killing) and maintaining individual moral innocence. The "New" Witness (Positive) The New Conscientious Objector (NewCO) framework demands a "positive" witness. It shifts the focus from "What must I refuse?" to "What must we actively build?" It is a "Yes" to collective repair and liberation. The Evolution of Conscience

3. Immersion Volunteers lived full-time in the neighborhood. This constant, authentic presence broke down "helper/helped" barriers and built deep community trust. "Wait and See" A radical departure from pre-planned programs. Volunteers practiced "active discernment," trusting the community's wisdom to see what needs emerged. Emergent Activities Activities grew organically from relationships. A youth's interest in photography led to a 4-H club. This fostered agency, not just participation. VSM's Success: The Tactics

4. Charity (Top-Down) A transactional model that reinforces power imbalances between a "giver" and a "receiver." It is hierarchical, symptom-focused, and often allied with state power. Solidarity (Horizontal) A relational act of collective care. It is horizontal, root-focused, and builds "people's infrastructure" for liberation. It is a political act of prefigurative justice. The Foundational Shift

5. The New Conscientious Objector A New Diagnosis for a New Praxis

6. Christian Ideology The ideological engine. Provides the "moral license for conquest" (e.g., Doctrine of Discovery) to justify land theft and assimilation. Colonial Violence The political project of settler-colonialism, aiming for the permanent replacement and elimination of Indigenous sovereignty and culture. Capitalist Violence The economic engine fueled by land theft, resource extraction, and exploitation. It requires the other two pillars to function. The New Diagnosis: CCV

7. Borrowed Tactics (The VSM) The NSC adopts the field-tested, successful tactics of the VSM: • Immersion • "Wait and See" Philosophy • Emergent Activities The New Praxis (The NewCO) But it embeds these tactics in a new, radical strategy. A "Symmetrical Antidote" to CCV: • LANDBACK • Mutual Aid • Abolition The NSC: A Blueprint for Repair

8. Integrity LANDBACK Antidote to Colonial Violence LANDBACK is the direct, material antidote to colonial violence. It is not a metaphor but a concrete political project demanding the literal return of ancestral lands and the full restoration of Indigenous sovereignty. It is the only honest expression of Integrity. The Symmetrical Antidote: Pillar I

9. Equality Mutual Aid Antidote to Capitalist Violence Mutual Aid is defined by "Solidarity, Not Charity." It builds horizontal networks of collective care to de-commodify survival and dismantle the scarcity mindset essential to capitalism. It is the living expression of Equality. The Symmetrical Antidote: Pillar II

10. Peace Abolition Antidote to State Violence Abolition expands the Peace Testimony to include the state's domestic instruments of violence: police, prisons, and surveillance. It is a dual strategy: systematically divest from harm, and invest in community care. It is the 21st-century expression of Peace. The Symmetrical Antidote: Pillar III

11. What does conscience demand in this moment of fused violence? A refusal to participate, or a revolutionary commitment to build? — The New Conscientious Objector " " The Call to Build

12. Friends Volunteer Service Mission Indianapolis 1971