From Jo
The following are excerpts from a letter Jo Saunders wrote to her constituency in November 2021, upon retiring from the job of International Liberation Reference Person for Owning-Class People.
I asked a Jewish leader if there was something I should do before handing owning-class leadership over to Ali Bourne. Their reply was to write a love letter to owning-class Jews. So, this letter is first to the Jews. Then it is to owning-class people targeted by racism, and then to my whole owning-class constituency.
Why first to the Jews? The owning class has been the cradle of anti-Semitism. I took my line from the Danes who saved Jews from being taken out of Denmark: “We took care of our own.”
Anti-Semitism is a trip wire for Gentiles, made all the worse because it is so invisible to us, and is the age-old, well-worn mechanism by which owning-class Gentiles safeguard their wealth. So I prioritised creating a safe place for currently rich Jews and Jews with a heritage of wealth.
To owning-class Jews: You and your people have become my dearest loves, my tutors, and my guides. You have given me your trust and risked acknowledging where you are oppressors. You have shared with me your culture and expected me to step up to the plate [meet the challenges] for you and correct my actions and policies every time I have faltered. Never once have you stopped loving me. How many Gentiles have had riches like that offered to them? Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
To those targeted by racism: You have made me acutely aware of the imperialism of the British Empire. You have given me your hearts, shared the joys of your heritages, forgiven me repeatedly for my racism, and taken responsibility for your own oppressor role in being owning class. You have been so generous, so loving, so brave and dear! You make my heart full.
To my whole constituency: I have been able to show and share with the RC Community how good we owning-class people are and how willing we are to face our responsibility for the horrors of classism.
What a fantastic bunch of people I was given to lead! Loving you, knowing you, having you walk in step with me, has given me meaning and challenge and deep satisfaction for over forty years.
The best part is that I am going to stay with you! I am merely handing the baton over. I am not dying, not leaving—just facing a different task: how to back [support] Ali, how to give up control, how to stay in touch with all of you whom I love so much, without a name written on my hat.
Nobody has ever had a job like mine. I’ve had the opportunity to think about how the owning class can contribute significantly to the transformation of society.
I have not succeeded in my goals, but I have not failed either, and that is because you have chosen to travel with me and do this, too.
We know that we who are owning class have been deeply hurt by not having been allowed to show how much we care, by our loved ones not showing how much they cared for us, and by not being connected to one another. Yet you and I have managed to deal those distress recordings serious blows! I care for you deeply and have shown it as best I can. You in your turn have shown how much you love and care for me, and I have known it.
Between us we have done real damage to owning-class conditioning!
Winchester, Hampshire, England
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of owning-class people
(Present Time 206, January 2022)