Standing with the Marginalized: Anthony Manousos’s Call to Action

Anthony Manousos’s “We the People Have No King,” appears in the September 2025 issue of Friends Journal.

In this episode of the Friends Journal Author Podcast, Martin Kelley speaks with Anthony Manousos, a Quaker peace activist and author, about his latest article addressing the rise of authoritarianism and the importance of community organizing. They discuss the role of Quakers in social movements, the impact of ICE raids on local communities, and the significance of music in activism. Manousos shares his experiences in housing justice, immigrant rights, and addressing humanitarian issues, emphasizing the need for a united front against oppression and the importance of supporting marginalized communities.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Anthony Manousos
01:04 Concerns About Authoritarianism
03:13 Community Response to ICE Raids
05:36 The Role of Music in Activism
07:10 Quaker Contributions to Social Movements
09:24 Housing Justice and Community Involvement
12:22 Immigrant Rights and Personal Stories
14:01 Addressing Genocide and Humanitarian Issues
15:27 Conclusion and Future Activism

Bio

Anthony Manousos is a member of Orange Grove Meeting in Pasadena, Calif. He is the editor/author of numerous articles and seven books, the most recent being Howard and Anna Brinton: Re-Inventors of Quakerism in the Twentieth Century. He is a Quaker peace activist, workshop leader, retired college professor, and cofounder of the housing justice nonprofit Making Housing and Community Happen. Website: laquaker.blogspot.com.

Transcript

Martin Kelley:

Hi, and welcome to another Friends Journal Author Podcast. And I’m very happy to be with my old friend, Anthony Manousas. Welcome, Anthony.

Anthony G Manousos:

Thank you for inviting me.

Martin Kelley:

Yeah, so let me read your bio here. Anthony Manousis is a member of Orange Grove meeting in Pasadena, California. He is the editor, author of numerous articles, numerous, yes, very much, and seven books, the most recent being Howard and Anna Britton, Reinventors of Quakerism in the 20th Century. He is a Quaker peace activist, workshop leader, retired college professor, and co-founder of the Housing Justice Nonprofit, Making Housing and Community Happen.

Martin Kelley:

I was looking it up, Anthony, and I think we met in 1997 at that Quaker Volunteer Service Training and Witness Conference. Is that right? Have we known each other that long?

Anthony G Manousos:

That sounds right. At that time, I helped to start a service program for teenagers with the American Friends Service Committee in Southern California quarterly meeting. And we did service projects in Mexico and in the LA area, and that’s probably where I met you.

Martin Kelley:

Yeah. So it’s nice. We keep doing this work. It’s a service and witness and this is still important work. Tell me a little bit about your article, the latest article in the September issue, We the People Have No Kings. And what is that about?

Anthony G Manousos:

Yeah, thank you for asking that question. Well, I think all of us are really concerned about the authoritarian takeover of our country. I don’t think we’ve ever experienced anything like it. I hate to be hyperbolic, because that’s the language that this regime uses, but literally there’s been nothing like this that I’m aware of in times of peace. I think sometimes, like in times of war, there’s been repression.

Anthony G Manousos:

of dissent, but not in this kind of comprehensive scale where it feels like there’s really an effort to change the very nature of our government and in a permanent way.

Martin Kelley:

Yes, breaking norms or breaking previously established norms is how you the euphemism that the newspapers all seem to use and pretty much every article talks about that. And of course, it just means things are all the old rules are out the window, it seems.

Anthony G Manousos:

Right. Yeah.

Anthony G Manousos:

Absolutely. And we’re experiencing it directly here. I live in a neighborhood that was originally redlined in Pasadena. It was the African-American neighborhood. And my wife moved in here deliberately to be a good neighbor about 20 years ago. so we have a large number of Latinos who live in our area.

Anthony G Manousos:

And our Quaker Meeting House is located right in the heart of the Latino community. about two months ago, ICE invaded our city. I can’t think of a better word for it. They were literally prowling around the streets. And we have very strong movement in our city. The National Day Laborers Organizing Network or ENDLON.

Martin Kelley:

You

Anthony G Manousos:

that works with religious groups like the Clergy Community Coalition, and to sort of monitor what ICE was doing. And then one morning at 5.30 a.m., ICE agents swooped down on three day laborers who were waiting for the bus about 100 yards away from our Quaker meeting. And they were abducted.

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Anthony G Manousos:

And a couple hours later, some of us went down to where that happened. We have a rapid response. And another ICE agent pulled up in a car and someone tried to take a picture of the car and that agent leaped out with a gun and pointed it at a group of people who were in the parking lot in front of the Mexican supermarket. That was a shocker for our city.

Anthony G Manousos:

our mayor’s Latino, our city manager Latino. so, yeah, so, right, right, right. So, so to give you an idea of our city is very, I think, well organized in many ways because of the Andalan. By six o’clock that night, we had 4,000 people gathered at the site.

Martin Kelley:

Yeah, traditionally, yes, you can take photos. I mean, that’s a basic and any protester knows. Yeah, you get out your camera. You can film anything that’s going down.

Anthony G Manousos:

with clergy, praying, community leaders speaking. And when all the speaking was over, Endelon has a band called Jornaleras del Norte. And it’s in a big truck. And the truck has one side that’s been hollowed out. And so they were playing cumbia. And we all danced in the street till nine or so at night. And I bring that up because

Anthony G Manousos:

What we were practicing is what Pablo Alvarado, the director of Endalon, calls joyful resistance. And he believes that music plays an important part in the organizing work. And it does. I mean, it historically has. mean, think about this peace movement of the 1960s. And you think of, shall overcome, we shall not be moved, how many roads must a man walk down, and on and on.

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Anthony G Manousos:

It’s music that helps to really to encourage and strengthen the movement. And it takes people out on the street.

Martin Kelley:

Sure.

Anthony G Manousos:

So with that in mind, was encouraged by the No Kings Day event that took place. And one of the things that really encouraged me was seeing how young adults who’ve been flocking to our Quaker meeting decided to organize their own meeting for worship in downtown LA in front of the federal building, only about

Anthony G Manousos:

10 yards, 15 yards away from the Marines who were guarding it. And it was a beautiful meeting for worship. I felt it was really gathered and people spoke out of the silence. And I was so proud of our young adult friends for organizing it all on their own. And then, as I mentioned in my article, something very tragic occurred. One of the members of that group

Anthony G Manousos:

went down to take pictures because that’s what he does for a living. And he was shot in the face by an LAPD officer. They had come in riot gear to disrupt a very peaceful protest. And he was just chronicling what happened. And LAPD has been targeting journalists. That’s been documented. So I think they thought he was a journalist, which is absolutely the wrong reason to shoot him.

Anthony G Manousos:

and he lost a vision in his right eye. And he’s been coming to meetings regularly since, and I’m so glad that he has a support group at the meeting of young adults who totally love him and give him the support he needs during this really hard time in his life.

Martin Kelley:

Wow, it’s just shocking. mean, the escalation of this and shooting protesters, you know, even if it’s just rubber bullets, it still can cause lifelong damage.

Anthony G Manousos:

Yeah.

Anthony G Manousos:

Yep, yep. So we’re in different times. This is not normal, and it’s only six months in. And so I wrote the article because I think we need to organize with a plan and a vision and a strategy, assuming that this is going to be a long struggle, at least for another three years, probably much longer.

Martin Kelley:

What are some of the others?

Anthony G Manousos:

and that I think we as Quakers have always played a significant role in this kind of movement and I think we really need to prepare ourselves to play a role now and that’s why I the article.

Martin Kelley:

So what are sort of two questions. What are some of the skill sets that Quakers have that they can bring to this work? And two, what are the ways that Quakers need to sort of get out of the way and embrace other forms of styles of protest?

Anthony G Manousos:

Well, I think one of the important ways, that’s a very good question, one of the important things that we bring is our way of worship. And our way of worship helps to bring the temperature down. I think what the current regime wants is a violent movement opposing them. That plays out what they want. And certainly the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Anthony G Manousos:

plays into that scenario. What Quakers bring is a commitment to peaceful protest. And when we’re around, we can be that strong, committed, peaceful presence. And that’s important.

Martin Kelley:

great. And what about the ways that we should get out of the way and let other forms of protest or I just don’t want to you know Quaker is coming in and like we know everything we’ve got it all fixed so tell me I love the the dancing and the music and the coalitions that you’re been talking about.

Anthony G Manousos:

Okay, yeah. No, no, I mean, I’ll tell you. Exactly. Well, I think. Right. Exactly. Well, absolutely, Martin. I think.

Anthony G Manousos:

What I see right now is the immigrant community playing a role similar to what the black community played in the civil rights movement. And that movement really transformed our country. It was not just a civil rights movement. It was transforming our country in so many ways that the conservatives have been trying to push back ever since.

Anthony G Manousos:

So the leadership, think, for the movement that we’re going to see in the next few years is going to come from the immigrant community. And what we can do is be, when I say we, you and me are white males. And not all Quakers are white. We have people of color in our meeting. But those of us who are privileged and white can be there as a support. I think the leadership will come.

Martin Kelley:

Hehe.

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Anthony G Manousos:

from the margins. That’s historically always been true. Transformative leadership from marginalized people lead the way, and we who are privileged can be a strong support for them. And that’s why the Civil Rights Movement was successful. And that’s why I think we, Wakers, can be part of this transforming movement that’s happening now.

Martin Kelley:

Great. Well, I’m very glad for your article and you have five things that we can do to try to prevent a kingship from taking hold here in the US. Supporting Quaker organizations, backing progressive groups, but also rallying behind progressive leaders, which sounds like some of the coalition work you’ve been talking about and standing in solidarity with the marginalized communities. What’s next for you? What are you

Anthony G Manousos:

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Martin Kelley:

doing with this work? Tell me some of the, I know you do a lot of housing work. What does that entail these days?

Anthony G Manousos:

Right. Well, the three things that I’m really involved with are housing justice work, and there’s been a huge pushback from the current regime on housing. The budget for HUD has been cut, and I just was reading today that the Fair Housing Act enforcement

Anthony G Manousos:

arm of HUD has been gutted. So there really is a need to address that concern. mean, lack of affordable housing is one of the biggest drivers of poverty in America. And a lot of, there still is a lot of racial discrimination going on in housing. So, you know, that’s a cause that I believe in strongly and encourage.

Martin Kelley:

Hmm.

Martin Kelley:

Hmm.

Anthony G Manousos:

friends to get involved with as well, especially at the local and the state level. And then, yeah, yeah.

Martin Kelley:

And it’s something that everyone can kind of relate to. Housing, just because, I mean, I, you know, my local politics in my state, everyone’s talking about the high cost of living and the increasing housing. So it’s something that can bring together disparate groups. you know, middle-class, but also people who are more housing insecure.

Anthony G Manousos:

Yeah, and exactly, Barton, it’s one of those issues that brings together a whole spectrum. mean, everybody virtually wants to see homelessness end. You know, we all agree on the end. Right. And so we all agree on that. We just disagree on how to get there. But because there’s a universal, almost universal agreement on this need, we can bring together a coalition that’s broad-based. And that’s what we’ve done in our city.

Martin Kelley:

And everyone wants to have a house. Yeah.

Anthony G Manousos:

you know, very conservative Christians and we have very liberal churches all working together with a common goal. And we’ve been able to reduce our homelessness count by 50 % in Pasadena because we’re united around a common goal. So that’s the number one. I’m very committed to immigrant rights. Actually, I have a personal stake in it because my dad was an undocumented Greek immigrant who came over in 1923 when there was a quota that kept Greeks out of our country.

Martin Kelley:

and I’m to

Anthony G Manousos:

And he only became a citizen in 1943 because he was given the choice, get drafted or get deported. And so he joined the service and that was fortunate for me because he met my mom in England and he fought in Normandy in the Battle of the Bulge, earned his citizenship the hard way and became a very patriotic American. So there, I grew up in an immigrant neighborhood. I love the diversity of America.

Martin Kelley:

Great.

Martin Kelley:

Right? Yeah.

Anthony G Manousos:

It’s an issue that really touches me deeply and I live in an immigrant neighborhood today. So I think that’s another issue, another area where there’s so much we can do. We can stand with our immigrant brothers and sisters in demonstrations. We can become involved with rapid response teams going out to where ISIS had raids. We can visit detainees. I used to do that at Atalando.

Anthony G Manousos:

detention center. We can go to the courthouses when immigrants are being brought there because that’s where ICE is targeting people today. So there’s a lot of things we can do to support immigrants. And the third thing for me is I cannot not mention that a genocide is going on in Gaza. And we’ve really worked hard in our city to

Anthony G Manousos:

to lift up this issue. Last year we had hundreds of people come to our city council meetings calling for a resolution for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid and return of hostages. And the city council held a meeting at the convention center and 600 people showed up. 600 people showed up. had 200 people speak for one minute each. And it was a powerful, powerful moment of

Martin Kelley:

Bye bye.

Anthony G Manousos:

bringing the community together and the city council unanimously approved a resolution calling for a ceasefire and for humanitarian aid and release of hostages. And now we’re trying to get the city council to boycott companies that profit from the genocide. I think this is one of the big moral issues of our time. We are funding a genocide and we are responsible and in our demonstrations we have Jews, Muslims and Christians all

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Anthony G Manousos:

people of faith who are committed to saying never again, never again do we want to see Vantanicide. So that’s another issue that I’m involved with that I think is worth supporting.

Martin Kelley:

Yeah, the situation is just keeps getting worse. You keep thinking the Israeli occupation can’t get any worse and then it just does. So, yeah, hopefully all this pressure can change things.

Anthony G Manousos:

Yeah. And what’s worse is that there’s also trying to prevent this from being discussed. know, the project Esther, which influenced this administration, had called for crackdowns on the universities, and we’ve seen that. Universities are being pressured not to discussions of…

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Anthony G Manousos:

what’s happening in Israel-Palestine, that any criticism of Israel is considered anti-Semitic. And then universities can lose their funding for science and medical research, which is crazy. And in our state, legislators are voting on a bill that would create an office to monitor anti-Semitism in the school system, which again, I mean, this is like the McCarthy era.

Anthony G Manousos:

So, yeah, so we’re seeing, and that’s why I’m really appreciative of Friends Journal, because we need independent journalism, because right now the very concept of free speech is under attack. As you know, our president has said free speech isn’t free if it’s critical of the Trump regime. If it is, it’s illegal. So we need to, we need to,

Martin Kelley:

Mm-hmm.

Martin Kelley:

Right.

Martin Kelley:

Well, I’m glad we’re here. Yeah.

Anthony G Manousos:

Yeah, I’m certainly glad too, Martin. Yeah.

Martin Kelley:

So, well, wonderful. Thank you for all you’re doing for bringing these issues to your community and also to the French rural community. And I’m sure we’ll be hearing from you again for more articles on this whole service and witness and activism and the work continues and hopefully we’ll be making some progress in the next few years.

Anthony G Manousos:

Thank you. Thank you, Martin.

Martin Kelley:

All right, thank you so much, Anthony.

Anthony G Manousos:

Have a great day.