 September 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. |
Short Takes
© 2001 Syracuse Cultural Workers/Melinda Levine, cut paper (for information on SCW, see p. 44) "September 11 changed the world. Our deepest fears now haunt us. Yet I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States. "I know that this use-of-force resolution will pass although we all know that the President can wage a war even without this resolution. However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. There must be some of us who say, let's step back for a moment and think through the implications of our action today--let us more fully understand its consequences. "In 1964 [with the Tonkin Gulf Resolution] Congress gave President Lyndon Johnson the power to 'take all necessary measures' to repel attacks and prevent further aggression. In so doing, this House abandoned its own constitutional responsibilities and launched our country into years of undeclared war in Viet Nam. "I have agonized over this vote. But I came to grips with it in the very painful yet beautiful memorial service today at the National Cathedral. As a member of the clergy so eloquently said, 'As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.'" --Rep. Barbara Lee (D, CA) on the floor of the House of Representatives, September 14, 2001. Excerpted. She cast the only dissenting vote in Congress' rush to endorse President George W. Bush's use-of-force resolution. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
American Friends Service Committee's Women's Program has launched a Welfare Voter! postcard campaign to tell Congress: Don't adjourn without passing a good welfare bill this year! The campaign aims to make Congress realize that welfare recipients and allies care deeply about economic security for low-income women and families, and that we vote! Congress has until October 1 to reauthorize the 1996 welfare reform law. The House passed a punitive bill in May; activists are trying to get the Senate to pass a more progressive version. A year-long push to improve education, childcare, domestic violence, immigration, and other provisions of the 1996 law stalled in July, as Congress focused on other priorities (including passing a $355 billion defense bill). If Congress doesn't reauthorize the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program this year, welfare justice faces an uncertain future in a new Congress dealing with rising deficits, state fiscal crises, and a war-time climate. The Welfare Voter! Campaign aims to flood each Senator's office with hundreds of postcards between August 26, the anniversary of women's suffrage, and mid-September. The preprinted card urges Senators to strengthen and vote for the bipartisan Senate Finance Committee welfare bill, and leaves space for a personal message. AFSC is distributing the cards through welfare coalitions and religious, women's, and child-advocacy groups. To order a pack of 50 cards for your friends, family, peace and justice networks, and Friends meeting or other religious community, send $3/per pack of 200 (to cover mailing costs) to Kathryn Kurtz, AFSC Community Relations Unit, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102, or contact her at 215/241-7125; kkurtz@afsc.org. _______________________________________________________________
Sometimes the conspiracies are real, and then time passes and it no longer matters. For example: In 1898, did the Spaniards blow up the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor? The answer is almost certainly no. But the belief that they had--manufactured by the cynical newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst--led the US into a bloody imperial war and the conquest of Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Was the passenger ship Lusitania illegally carrying weapons to Britain when it was sunk by the Germans in 1915, leading the US into World War I? Definitely. But we weren't sure Woodrow Wilson's denials were a lie until 70 years later, when a new high-tech submarine examined the ship at the ocean's bottom. Did Franklin Roosevelt conspire with the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor, leading the US into World War II? No, but he may have indirectly encouraged it to happen. Did South Korea goad the North Koreans to attack, leading the US into a war there that eventually involved China? Probably. Was John F. Kennedy killed by a conspiracy that may have involved the CIA? Still the debate of the last century. Was Martin Luther King killed by a conspiracy that may have involved at least tacit complicity from the FBI? Increasingly, the answer seems to be yes. Did the US invent a non-attack at the Tonkin Gulf in 1964, leading to the Vietnam War? Definitely. Did Richard Nixon sabotage Vietnam peace talks during the 1968 campaign, leading to his election? Definitely. Did Ronald Reagan sabotage Iranian hostage negotiations during the 1980 campaign, leading to his election? Highly likely, but still hotly debated. Did Enron deliberately create and manipulate the California "energy crisis" of 2001, giving the oil industry an excuse to draft the Bush Energy Plan? Definitely. Did George W. Bush violate the law when he failed to report that he made $848,000 by selling his shares in a money-losing company called Harken Energy, of which he was a director? Definitely, according to a memo from the SEC. Did Dick Cheney engage in illegal activities at the Halliburton Oil Company? Highly likely, though not yet proven, and the Department of Justice does not seem anxious to find out. Did Bush and Cheney conspire to have jets crash into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania on September 11? Not likely.
But if they keep shredding the Constitution while feeding our
billions to their corporate buddies, it'll be hard to argue
otherwise. --excerpt from "It's a Conspiracy," by Harvey Wasserman, originally published in Columbus Alive <www.columbusalive.com> on July 11, 2002 _______________________________________________________________
Voices in the Wilderness is a campaign to end the US/UN economic sanctions against the people of Iraq. VitW, 1460 W. Carmen Ave, Chicago, IL 60640; www.nonviolence.org/vitw; info@vitw.org; 773/784-8065 Mirror of Truth Tour Voices in the Wilderness will join Pax Christi New York on September 12 , 2002 for the "Mirror of Truth Bus Tour." The caravan leaves New York City on a three-month trip calling for disarmament at various locales where the US develops, stores, and sells weapons. Contact G. Simon Harak, SJ at 917/662-5790, gsharaksj@ yahoo.com or Mary Ann Muller at 718/859-9009, brooklynbluebird@yahoo.com for more information. Iraq Peace Team Voices plans an "Iraq Peace Team," seasoned nonviolent activists to take up residence in Iraq before and during any US attack. Application and information available at our wesite. Pledge of Resistance Voices will be circulating the Pledge of Resistance which aims to engage grassroots communities across the country in a new commitment to join nonviolent civil disobedience actions should the US military launch a new attack on Iraq. _______________________________________________________________
September 6-15, 2002 September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and AFSC have organized a national speaking tour of family members of September 11 victims and other victims of war. The tour will include members of Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Japanese Hibakusha, and others.
Philadelphia, Sept. 6 Additional visits were still being planned as Peacework went to press. Contact Joe Gerson, AFSC, 2161 Mass. Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140; 617/661-6130 _______________________________________________________________
This is abridged from a speech Zayed Yasin delivered at Harvard University's commencement,June 6th. Its original title, "My American Jihad," sparked a protest from students angry about the use of the word Jihad. The title was changed to "Of Faith and Citizenship: My American Jihad," but Mr. Yasin did not change the content of his speech. Yasin, a graduating senior and biomedical engineering major from the Boston area, plans to work in Pakistan before attending medical school. I am one of you. But I am also one of "them." When I am told that this is a world at war, a war between the great civilizations and religions of the earth, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. "What about me?" I ask. As a practicing Muslim and a registered voter in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, am I, through the combination of my faith and my citizenship, an inherent contradiction? I think not. Both the Qu'ran and the Constitution teach ideals of peace, justice, and compassion, ideals that command my love, and my belief. Each of these texts, one the heart of my religion, the other that of my country, demand a constant struggle to do what is right. The word for struggle in Arabic, in the language of my faith, is jihad. It is a word that has been corrupted and misinterpreted, both by those who do and those who do not claim to be Muslims, and we saw last fall the results of this corruption. Jihad, in its truest and purest form, the form to which all Muslims aspire, is the determination to do right, to do justice even against your own interests. It is an individual struggle for personal moral behavior that exists on many levels: self-purification and awareness, public service, and social justice. On a global scale, it is a struggle for control of the Big Decisions: not only who controls what piece of land, but more importantly who gets medicine, who can eat. So where is our jihad, where is our struggle as we move on from Harvard? Worthy adversaries are innumerable. We can turn our struggle to the war against oppression, poverty, and disease. But before looking outward, we must first look inward. Before deciding what we are against, we must decide what we are for. On one level it's simple: everyone wants the same things that we do. The true American Dream is a universal dream, and it is more than a set of materialistic aspirations. It is the power and opportunity to shape one's own life: to house and feed a family with security and dignity, and to practice your faith in peace. This is our American Jihad. As a Muslim, and as an American, I am commanded to stand up for the protection of life and liberty, to serve the poor and the weak, to celebrate the diversity of humankind. There is no contradiction. Not for me, and not for anyone, of any combination of faith, culture and nationality, who believes in a community of the human spirit. Some of this is a mantra that has been spoken at myriad graduations. What is new was taught us by last fall's tragedy and carnage. The status quo is shattered, and we have now been forced to engage more closely the troubles of this world. We are in a privileged position to shape a more just, peaceful, and honorable global society. So let us struggle, and let us make our mark. And I hope and pray that our children, our grandchildren, and those who take our seats in the years to come, will have cause to be proud. _______________________________________________________________
Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, Number V, York-Town, March 21, 1778, styled as a letter from "Common Sense" to General Sir William Howe, in his Collected Writings, Library of America, 1995 When we take a survey of mankind we cannot help cursing the wretch, who, to the unavoidable misfortunes of nature shall willfully add the calamities of war. One would think there were evils enough in the world without studying to increase them, and that life is sufficiently short without shaking the sand that measures it. The histories of Alexander and Charles of Sweden, are the histories of human devils; a good man cannot think of their actions without abhorrence nor of their deaths without rejoicing. To see the bounties of Heaven destroyed, the beautiful face of nature laid waste, and the choicest works of creation and art tumbled into ruin, would fetch a curse from the soul of piety itself... If there is a sin superior to any other it is that of willed and offensive war. Most other sins are circumscribed within narrow limits, that is, the power of one man cannot give them a very general extension, and many kinds of sin have only a mental existence from which no infection arises; but he who is the author of a war, lets loose the whole contagion of Hell, and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death. Reprinted from The Acorn, a free digest of news, comments and ideas; available by mail and email. Send an email with "Subscribe" in the subject line to TheAcorn@earthlink.net or write to Richard B. Parker at 68 Washington Street, Camden, ME 04843 _______________________________________________________________
Resisting Washington's Endless War October 11 and 12, Simmons College, Boston, MA
The 'War on Terrorism' and US Hegemony --What
We Have Learned
Partial list of speakers:
Conference co-sponsors:
For information:
Excellent resource for workshops, conferences, study groups, classes
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