Yet Another Polemic For Organizing Pagan Labor Temples

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https://www.reddit.com/r/pagan/s/KEpLEyegKy

I could definitely see Pagans and religious minorities in general forming part of a coalition for building a political party or organization of some kind, alongside racial and sexual minorities we have a vested interest in protections against racist, capitalistic, heteronormative, colonial states which are often de jure or de facto Christian supremacists.

outside a very robust Proportional Representation system I doubt Pagans in particular work as an identity for electoral organizing but there is a fairly large overlap been pagans, witches, and religious minorities on the one hand and anarchists on the other. anarchists favor direct action, community building, mutual aid, collective self defence, etc which are compatible with principles held by many pagans and witches. there's also historic precedent with civil liberty orgs like the satanic temple.

an interesting project I myself am hoping to help start when I move to a new city is to organize a pagan-anarchist coalition coalition around building a Labor Temple. Labor Temples used to be more common in the US and Canada; they were built by local union branches working together to create spaces for community events and often included office space for union functions, rent controlled housing, and a press for publishing union bulletins and newsletters. such temples were designed to be highly defensible as they were often the HQ for general strike committees who often faced both legal and illegal repression from the police and needed to be owned by the unions directly so that they wouldn't lose their building if a landlord decided to raise rents.

because of the community orientated nature of labor temples, the could be used to provide cheap or free spaces for working class people to hold weddings, funerals, holiday celebrations, and also provided free shelter for homeless people and disaster victims during storms, heat waves, and other disasters (which given climate change are only becoming more common and more deadly).

the advantage of a labor temple providing these needs as opposed to the government or churches is that governments often refuse to provide such resources to historically underserved populations (especially racialized people, the unhoused, and working class people) and most churches tend to only offer such services if you agree to attend their sermons and adhere to rigid puritanical rules against queerness, self medication, etc.

I also think a pagan led Labor Temple open to all people regardless of faith or background would also be of particular value to pagans and other people who have a hard time renting church halls or other spaces for pagan ceremonies or queer weddings, since on average we are more likely to have our applications rejected for going against the owners religions as well as being often unable to afford to rent such spaces in the first place.

your city might even already have a labor temple, in which case, you may be able to get involved and host pagan events for little or no cost, especially if they bring in people potentially interested in organizing their workplaces!

as for those still interested in pagan electoralism, organizing with labor temples could be a great way to build a base of community mutual support which could then be leveraged into a run for city council or higher offices.