July-August 2000
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. |
The State
of Our Libraries
As a librarian in New Hampshire and a resident of Maine, I have occasion to use library databases in both states -- efficient, useful systems to access almost anything one wants to locate and read. What I discovered during two experiences prompted further investigation.
First, I traveled to the Millions for Mumia rally in Philadelphia. I was among a group of mostly young people catching the bus at 2 AM in Portsmouth, NH's Market Square, as the police circled the square frequently and watchfully. We traveled all night to arrive bleary eyed but proud of our substantial effort to join in world-wide rallies on that day. I didn't know a great deal about Mumia Abu-Jamal at the time, but I did feel that his trial had seemed incredibly unfair, and the effort put in by the state to kill him seemed highly irregular and questionable. I wanted to know more. The second experience was a presentation by Michael True, whom I had recently met at a Raytheon Peacemakers rally. Michael's presentation was about people in American history who have spoken out for nonviolent solutions to conflict. He demonstrated that there was a long, rich tradition though one would never know about it from reading our news today. He provided a selected bibliography of books and media on nonviolence. When I started looking for information on Mumia and the books Michael had recommended, I had two state databases easily available to me and yet there were hardly any books to be found. Death Blossoms, Mumia's recent book written from prison, was not available at all. Here is a list of books that I suggest you offer to your local public, school, and university libraries as a Peace and Justice Collection. Given the state of our corporate media and the fact that book publishers are now part of that group as well, it seems to be up to us to educate our communities by making these books available ourselves. Books could be given in honor or in memory of family and friends, in place of giving them "stuff." We will need to ask each library individually, but this seems like a vital task in each community. Cynthia Riley is a librarian and a Peacework reader,
who offers this story and resouce list for the use of other readers
and activists. Selected PEACE AND JUSTICE bibliography, with thanks to Michael
True Abu-Jamal, Mumia:Death Blossoms, Plough Publishing 1998 &Live
from Death Row, NY, Avon, 1996 Ackerman, Peter & Christopher Kruelger: Strategic Nonviolent
Conflict: the Dynamics of People of Power in the 20th Century, Westport,
CT Praeger, 1994 Berrigan, Philip: A Punishment for Peace, NY, Macmillan, 1969 Brock, Peter: Pacifism in the US from the Colonial Era to the First
World War, Princeton U Press 1968 & Twentieth Century Pacifism,
NY Van Nostrand 1970 Cooney, Robert & Helen Michaelowski: The Power of the People:
Active Nonviolence in the US, Culver City, CA Peace Press 1987 Cook, Jack: Rags of the Time: A Season in Prison, Boston, Beacon
Press 1972 Day, Dorothy: The Long Loneliness,NY HarperCollins & Selected
Writings, ed. Robert Ellsberg, Maryknoll, NY Orbis Books 1983 DeBenedetti, Charles & Charles Chatfield: An American Ordeal:
The Antiwar Movement in the Vietnam Era, Syracuse U Press 1990 DeBenedetti, Charles: Origins of the Modern American Peace Movement,
Millwood, NY, KTO Press, 1978 & The Peace Reform Movement in
American History, Indiana U Press, 1980 Dellinger, David: From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral
Dissenter, NY, Pantheon, 1993 Finn, James, ed: Protest, Pacifism and Politics: Some Passionate
Views on War and Nonviolence, NY, Random,1967 Goodman, Paul: Drawing the Line, NY, Random House, 1974 Hennacy, Ammon: The Book of Ammon & The One Man Revolution
in America SD, Fortkamp/Rose Hill Publications King, Martin Luther, Jr.: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings
of ML King Jr., NY, Harper & Row, 1986 Lens, Sidney: Labor Wars: From the Molly Maguires to the Sitdowns,
NY, Doubleday, 1974 Lynd, Alice & Staughton, eds.: Nonviolence in America: A Documentary
History, Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1995 Matthiessen, Peter: Sal Si Puedes: The New American Revolution.
NY, Random House, 1969 Mayer, Peter, ed.: Pacifist Conscience, NY, Holt, 1966 McAllister, Pam, ed: Reweaving the Web of Life: Feminism and Nonviolence,
Philadelphia, New Society Merton, Thomas: The Nonviolent Alternative, NY, Farrar Peltier, Leonard: My Life is my Sundance, NY, St Martin's,
1999 Powers, Roger S & William B Vogele, ed: Protest, Power, and
Change: Encyclopedia of Nonviolence from Act-Up to Women's Suffrage,
NY, Garland Pub, 1997 Sharp, Gene: The Politics of Nonviolence, Boston, Porter Sargent,
1973 True, Michael: An Energy Field More Intense than War: The Nonviolent
Tradition and American Literature, Syracuse U Press 1995 & To
Construct Peace : 30 More Justice Seekers, Peacemakers, Mystic,
CT, XXIII Pub, 1992 Weber, Daniel R., ed: Civil Disobedience in America: A Documentary
History, Cornell U Press, 1978 Weinglass, Leonard: Race for Justice: Mumia Abu-Jamal's
Fight Against the Death Penalty Monroe, ME, Common Courage, 1995 Young, Alfred F., ed: Dissent: Explorations in the History of American
Radicalism, DeKalb, N. Illinois U Press, 1974 Zinn, Howard: A People's History of the United States,
NY, Harper, 1980
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