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by Sharon Grimes, W A M M
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Peace Wins
Many peace and justice candidates won in the recent elections, including 97 graduates of Wellstone Action (headed by former WAMM director Pam Costain) who won in 24 states.
Kevin Killer, 28-year-old Oglala Lakota, was elected to the South Dakota legislature.
Monisha Merchant and Joe Neguse took two of the three seats on the Colorado Board of Regents.
Peter Oldmark defeated timber giant Weyerhaeuser to become Washington state’s commissioner of public lands. Denise Juneau, the first Native American elected statewide in Montana, will be the state superintendent of schools. (The Hightower Lowdown, December 2008)
Project SALAM
Project SALAM (www.projectsalam.org), Stop Accusations and Lies Against Muslims, aims to document each case in which a Muslim was framed by the government; identify government tactics used to entrap Muslims or fabricate evidence; identify the agents and government lawyers who perpetrated illegal acts resulting in Muslims being framed; compensate the victims for their suffering and unjust prosecution; and document the post-9/11 breakdown of the rule of law and its impact on the Muslim community.
Three dozen people launched the project in August 2008 at the Albany School of Law to monitor and document the post-9/11 prosecution of Muslims on terrorist-related charges. (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 2009)
Jewish Counterweight to AIPAC
A centrist lobbying group, J Street (www.jstreet.org), was founded in August 2008 by a number of prominent Jewish Americans to counter the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and similar organizations that take pro-Likud positions. It contributed more than $565,000 to 41 House and Senate candidates; 32 won their races and 8 are new to Congress. (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 2009)
Dining for Peace
Arab-American entrepreneur Andy Shallal established Busboys and Poets restaurants for “people who believe we can repair things without using bombs, who want to talk to one another and understand one another better.” Two of the restaurants have dining areas for lectures, music, poetry, and films on a variety of progressive topics, two have bookstores that have partnered with Teaching for Change, and one has a gift shop run by Global Exchange. (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 2009)
Roadmap for Peace
In fall 2008, AFSC (American Friends Service Committee) and dozens of other organizations came up with five principles to serve as the Roadmap for Peace to create a better world for ourselves and future generations. Thousands of people have signed the document, which was circulated on Capitol Hill and was to be presented to President-elect Obama’s transition team in January. It calls on Obama and his administration to engage in a new foreign policy based on the following principles:
• Our nation should invest in peace. Our country should invest in diplomacy, development, and conflict prevention—cost-effective ways to improve national and global security.
• Strengthen the civilian agencies that work on peace and development issues. The military is not an effective relief agency. The government needs a strong civilian foreign assistance and crisis response team.
• Give diplomacy a chance. With a highly skilled diplomatic corps, the United States can prevent conflict and restore its international reputation.
• Be a part of global peace-building efforts. We must work with renewed commitment in international institutions and partners to address major global conflicts and challenges, such as nonproliferation, climate change, migration, public health, and poverty.
• Create justice through good development and trade policies. The nation’s interests, and the world’s, benefit from trade and development policies that alleviate poverty, treat men and women equally, and protect the environment. (January 2009; www.roadmapforpeace.org/)
Nonviolence a Tool for Change in Iraq
La’Onf, which means no violence in Arabic, was founded in Iraq in 2005 by a group of activists in Baghdad who believe that nonviolence can be “a tool for change in the midst of occupation, violence, and suffering.” Since then it has grown to a network of more than 100 Iraqi organizations in all of Iraq’s provinces and includes men, women, and youth from many ethnic and religious groups. They began by training people in nonviolence in 2006, and in 2007 they received so many training requests that they began training trainers. (WIN Magazine, fall 2008) |
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© 2009 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete February 2009 Index - click here
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