Promoting Peace and Progress at the Local Level
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In the lead-up to the most recent invasion of Iraq, at least 159 US cities and towns passed ordinances condemning the impending war. These efforts to officially express dissent represent a significant watermark for a new form of social protest.
Since 2003 over 74 additional anti-war initiatives have passed. A project of the Institute for Policy Studies that was called Cities for Peace and is now called Cities for Progress (CFP), has been instrumental in keeping the ball rolling. In 2003, a web site was established which provides comprehensive toolkits for community groups interested in getting anti-war ordinances passed, as well as the space to construct a national network of local activists and politicians working on passing initiatives and getting referendum questions on state ballots.
In 2005, as their name change implies, the project began to branch out. New campaigns have been undertaken to get local initiatives passed promoting universal health care and international debt relief, and to boycott products made with sweatshop labor.
According to CFP coordinator Karen Dolan, the project is working to “house toolkits for other groups,” providing web-space for organizations like Jubilee 2000 and Global Exchange to exchange strategies and tips on how to get resolutions passed or get referendum questions on state ballots. The kits provide comprehensive step-by-step instruction, including tips on building coalitions and communicating with the media as well as information on how to word resolutions and how to get Secretaries of State to approve referendum questions.
While as Dolan pointed out most local resolutions are “symbolic,” mounting a resolution campaign at the local level “gives the average person the opportunity to participate in the civic arena at the local level, and it gives local organizers a concrete goal to strive for as they work to raise awareness around specific issues.”
While CFP has constructed an impressive resource, it is unclear how much use the site is getting for campaigns outside of the peace movement at this point. Anti-war resolutions are still the majority of successful actions listed on the site, and there is not much evidence that other kinds of campaigns are making use of CFP’s resources.
Dolan is expecting CFP to make its presence felt more dramatically in the near future, however. “We are just setting up the infrastructure to expand beyond Peace resolutions,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Stay tuned!!”
And there is plenty afoot on the anti-war front. In Wisconsin, 24 towns and cities (including Madison) passed anti-war resolutions this spring. George Martin, Program Director of Peace Action Wisconsin who is leading efforts to include a referendum on the war on Milwaukee’s November ballot said that he “drafted the referendum question based on the model of Philadelphia’s question,” which he researched at CFP. Philadelphia adopted a resolution demanding rapid troop withdrawal from Iraq in September 2005.
Cities for Progress is currently tracking anti-war ordinance campaigns in Charlottesville, VA, Fort Collins, CO, Laguna Beach, CA, Los Angeles, CA, New York City, NY, St. Petersburg, FL, Tampa, FL, and Toledo, OH.
For more information on grassroots legislative campaigns going on around the country or tools for starting up your own campaign, check out www.citiesforprogress.org.
To learn about a statewide campaign for an anti-war referendum in Massachusetts, see facing page!
