 December 2001/ January 2002
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Honoring the Peace-Building Work of Rob Read Peter Barrer is an environmental activist and occasional Peacework contributor. Rob Read, longtime peace activist, died unexpectedly on September 3. Those in the peace movement who did not know him personally have nevertheless been affected by his creativity as a social change innovator. Those who had personal contact with Rob knew how much his life affected others, through his love, insight, caring, and commitment for a peaceful world. In the early 1970s, Rob worked in an AFSC-sponsored collective Vocations for Social Change (VSC). VSC published "The People's Yellow Pages," a series of directories of social change groups in the Boston area. The idea caught on in other cities around the country and other local editions appeared, helping movements, organizations, andindividuals to connect. A former collective member recalls that one Christmas Day a local newspaper featured VSC's work; the following day, the VSC phone rang off the hook with people wanting to change their work lives. Rob saw an opportunity, and started organizing "mid-career professional" mutual support groups. Although the Vocations collective had no identified director, the group relied on Rob's organized energy to pull people together and to stay focused on completing practical tasks. Rob knew how to honor the visionary collective concept of a work group. His continuing flow of ideas helped the collective develop its mission, from opening its storefront workplace to participating in a national conference. In the late 1970s and early '80s, Rob and a few friends took part-time work so that they could have significant child-raising responsibility, and formed a fathers' group to support each other and share child care. Their innovation eased the start of similar groups and thereby cleared a path for men who want to claim more complete definitions of manhood and fatherhood.
Rob preferred to work through groups, usually taking responsible
leadership to see that things would go well, without claiming
a position of authority. His achievements and contributions to
social change, consistent with his commitment to peer cooperation,
usually took the form of cohesive group efforts. Rob learned how
to use understanding and humor to keep individuals with disparate
points of view working together smoothly. Above all, Rob Read
knew how to translate visions of the future into realistic steps
for practical action in the moment. 
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