 August 2005
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Sara Burke, Jaime Lederer 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. Editorial material in Peacework is published under a Creative Commons Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Highlights from the AFSC Film & Video Library Penny Adams is a social worker and a volunteer with the AFSC Film and Video Library. AFSC-NERO, 2161 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140, 617/661-6130. Two Talks by Arundhati Roy: each followed by Conversations with Howard Zinn, DVD, 150 mins. 1) Come September 2002 (40 mins). The remarkable Indian author provides an incisive critique of the US war on terror and US globalization policies. She begins her discussion by detailing the "other September 11," the US-CIA-sponsored overthrow of President Allende of Chile in September 1973. She condemns the US push for profits, corporate globalization, and the increasing gap between the rich and poor. 2) Instant Mix - Imperial Democracy 2003 (60 mins). Roy gives another stinging rebuke of the US empire, the illegal invasion of Iraq, and US greed for oil fields and profits. She decries the corporate controlled media and the Patriot Act. She fears the paranoid aggression of both George W. Bush and the terrorists Bush claims to be fighting, but hopes the growing fury in the world against both of these reactionary forces will lead to resistance and world revolution. Roy reads her intense lectures with beautifully crafted language and Zinn is thoughtful and sensitive in his responses. Inside the Pentagon, NOW video, Dec. 5, 2003, 50 mins. Bill Moyers interviews Chuck Spinney, who has worked at the Pentagon for over 25 years. Spinney says that Pentagon spending is "out of control." The US fear of terrorism drives production of high-tech super weapons which are deployed without realistic testing. The M16 used in Vietnam frequently jammed. The missile defense system, unrelated to terrorism, is a failure. Oversight is displaced by a culture of "overlook" and secrecy. Spinney discusses the self-perpetuating web of contractors, lobbyists, and politicians: the "congressional-military-industrial complex." CEO's now have inflated salaries. Taxpayers and soldiers have no impact on decision makers. Spinney claims the Pentagon is a dysfunctional "moral sewer" and is corrupting national ethics. Poisonous Stew, video, 2002, 15 mins. An intense and terrifying CBS Frontline investigation into the storage of radioactive nuclear waste projects. Tanks containing waste in Washington and Idaho are leaking and in danger of contaminating the Columbia and Snake rivers. A facility in South Carolina leaking benzene was closed after 13 years of attempted repair work costing $1 billion. These projects are run by unsupervised contractors. What are the implications for the high level nuclear waste to be stored under Yucca Mountain? The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai`i, video, 10 mins. This is an AFSC trailer about the US military presence in Hawai`i and the increased military "land grab" since September 11, 2001. The US military invaded Hawai`i in 1893, "an unprovoked act of war", and the US is now destroying land and dispossessing people. The many US military stations are listed, including the 749 contaminated sites in the Pearl Harbor Naval Complex, the nuclear weapons storage site, the Star Wars defense test launch site, and the NSA spy facility. Some sites are located on sacred Hawai`ian land. To the Editors: I protest! Surely, you might have chosen a more appropriate image than "WAR: Women Against Rape," from the Design of Dissent exhibit, for the cover of Peacework (June-July 2005). The WAR image is regressive because it offers us, as peacemakers, no real inspiration for change; it's an ugly image that is unclear/confusing in its message (without a line drawn through WAR, it might even be taken as an endorsement of war). It's like courses (I taught one, before learning better) that are anti-war, but say nothing about nonviolent alternatives, resistance, or peacemaking. Compare the WAR graphic, for example, with the strong image for the UN Decade for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence, (two strong hands clasping, each person giving a thumbs-up sign). Poets have given us some marvelous poems conveying the dynamics of peacemaking - visual artists have been less imaginative. Pictures of war's horrors are important; but they haven't prevented us from killing one another with increasing efficiency and enthusiasm. I urge the editors of Peacework to choose transformative images of peacemaking, rather than regressive images that echo rather than challenge a violent culture. Michael True, Worcester, MA
To the Editors: A popular slogan for those opposing the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq has been, "War is not the answer." But if war isn't the answer, what is? When I asked several people that question, the first response was, "peace." But, for me, peace is more an absence of conflict than a way of resolving it. So, I was glad to see several articles in the May issue about Gene Sharp's newest book, Waging Nonviolent Struggle. In both the peace movement and society at large, we don't focus enough on how to resolve conflicts and gain freedom and justice on a regional, national, or international scale. Whether we call it nonviolent action, people power, satyagraha, or nonviolent struggle, too few of us see these approaches as an answer and realistic alternative to war. Our knee-jerk argument against invading Iraq should have been: "Look at what happened to Milosevic in Serbia. He was a dictator overthrown by a nonviolent revolution, and no one was killed." There is also a tremendous lack of material dedicated to teaching students about people power. I have never seen a curriculum focused on nonviolent action geared toward high school youth, let alone younger students. I am aware of Colman McCarthy's work teaching about pacifism in high schools, and would love to see Robert Cooney and Helen Michalowski's The Power of the People used in schools, but we need more. If anyone knows of a curriculum, please contact me. If we want peace, we've got to know how to get there. Sharp's various books have at least provided a direction. Thanks for making them known to Peacework readers.
Larry Dansinger
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