highlights pjc hires executive director: rachel siegel · 2013-10-11 · please say hello when you...

Oct / Nov / Dec 2013

A P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E P E A C E & J U S T I C E C E N T E RH I G H L I G H T S

PAGE 2From the Center

Rachel Siegel shares her joy and excitment asthe newest director of the PJC.

PAGE 3Invisible Cost of War

2014 Cost of War: Drones

LW Ordinance

PAGE 4-5Fair Trade

October is Fair Trade Month. A Buyer’s Guideto Fair Trade Labels.

PAGE 6Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!

Exposing the Ideology of Racism in the 21stCentury.

PAGE 7Youth Building Peace

Young people are working toward peace inresponse to religious conflicts, developmentneeds, street violence and crime, and toempower themselves as individuals andstrengthen their communities.

PAGE 8Robin’s Nest

Freedom & Unity: The Vermont Movie.

PAGE 9Vets For Peace

Vermonters for a Just Peace inPalestine/Israel

PAGE 10Calendar

PAGE 11Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Gene Bergman’s remarks on August 9, 2013.

T

research policy action

he Peace & Justice Center boardof directors hired Rachel Siegel

as the new Executive Director.Rachel comes to the Center with a longhistory of political and social activism aswell as significantfundraising experience.

“I am honored andgrateful to serve thePeace and Justice Center,the community at largeand the world as a wholethrough our mission tocreate a peaceful and justworld. The experience,knowledge and commit-ment level of the staffand board is exciting andI am delighted to workwith them all,” says Siegel.

“We are very pleased that Rachel willjoin the Center and help shape the currentand future programming. She is articu-late, intelligent, and at her core is anactivist for issues of equality andjustice,” said Nathan Suter, a member ofthe Board of Directors.

Rachel is exceptionally committed tothe causes of economic, racial andenvironmental justice; has tremendousorganizational and fundraising skills; is aproven leader in the community; and iswell-established in Burlington. She grewup and continues to live here and has anextended network of activists, peers,

PJC Hires Executive Director:Rachel SiegelBurlington artist-activist brings multi-facetedabilities to our growing organization

leaders, and collaborators throughout theregion.

Rachel has worked for positive changeas an advocate for women and economicjustice through both Vermont Works for

Women, and as afounding member ofVermont Access toReproductive Freedom.She currently serves asa Burlington CityCouncilor representingthe Old North End.

Rachel’s otherinterests includegardening, hiking,camping, dancechoreography andperformance. She is the

mother of Gertie and Ira (ages 9 and 7)and the partner of Jules Fishelman whoworks at Vermont Energy InvestmentCorporation.

Peace & Justice CenterAnnual Meeting

Dec. 17, 2013, Tuesday6pm Dinner, 7pm Business & Board electionsBurlington City Arts, (2nd Flr), Church St,

Burlington VTMeet our new Executive Director and see

the Reference for Radicals Art ShowRSVP: [email protected]

2 August-December 2011


From the Center

EDITOR

Wendy Coe

PUBLISHED4/year

(See form on page 12)

CIRCULATION1,200

The opinions expressed inthe articles, including

those by staff, are thoseof the authors and notnecessarily those of thepeace & justice center.

60 Lake Street #1CBurlington, VT 05401

802.863.2345fax: 802.863.2532

[email protected]

BOARD OF DIRECTORS(alphabetical order)

Linda AyerAutumn Barnett

Alyssa BrownSpence PutnamDavid ShimanNathan SuterAndrea SwanJudy Yarnall

STAFFRachel SiegelWendy Coe

Krista PanosianKyle Silliman-Smith

Carmen Solari

PJC MISSION

Our mission is to create ajust and peaceful world.To this end, we work on

the interconnected issuesof economic and racial

justice, peace, and humanrights through education,

advocacy, training and non-violent activisim, and

community organizing,since 1979.

Dear PJC members, friends, supporters, and newcomers,

I am so glad to be writing to you as the new Executive Director of the PJC. While I am new to thiswonderful organization, its mission has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Economic andracial justice, peace, and human rights are at the core of my life. As I settle in to the active life of theCenter I look forward to meeting you.

My earliest involvement with the economic justice movement was marching with teachers on strikeoutside City Hall in Burlington in 1977. I was seven and carried a sign I had made that said, “We wantare [sic] teachers back.” I was marching to support the teachers in their labor negotiations. While I didnot have those words to back my actions, I had the conviction, handed down from my family, thatworkers rights were essential human rights. I was proud to be one in the number that made a difference. Ifelt like our actions mattered.

My earliest involvement with the peace movement was as a camper at Farm and Wilderness, a Quakersummer camp that taught the principals of simplicity, equality, honesty, service, and non-violence. In1984, when I was 14 years old, I participated in four days of a peace march that was travelling the lengthof Vermont on Route 100. With about a dozen other campers and staff and hundreds of Vermonters, wewalked during the day and slept under the stars at night, raising awareness of the need for disarmament.The blisters on the bottom of my feet after walking barefoot one day impressed upon me the benefit ofshoes. Talking to the activists who were doing the full march impressed upon me the fact that if we wantto make change, we need to take action, even and especially if it disrupts our comfortable life.

My earliest memories of racial injustice were from elementary school, but it wasn’t until I was in my20s that I started to understand white privilege and made a life commitment to anti-racist work bothinternally and in the world. I continue this work now also as an anti-racist parent with the hope that thenext generation will be able to unlearn the biased training of our culture with more ease and thorough-ness than we can.

As I have grown in awareness about my own white privilege and other injustices, I have resolved tolive a life of action. Margaret Mead’s much-used quote truly fits in my world view: “Never doubt that asmall group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that everhas.” As I work in my life to subvert the violence in our culture and work toward equity, I am delightedto join the Peace & Justice Center and all of you in a unified front. Together we can do what we cannotdo alone.

You can find many examples of the type of work that moves me personally in this newsletter. Inaddition to informative updates on our Fair-Trade, Cost of War, and peacework programs, this issue ofthe P&J News includes a stirring speech by Gene Bergman that was shared at the candlelight boatceremony commemoration of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki last August. This speechtouches on the very heart of why the mission of peace is relevant today.

Please make time to read Frank Smecker’s article on the ways racism manifests today which, amongother injustices, creates a system where nearly one-third of all African-American men are part of thecriminal (in)justice system. The author, Frank Smecker, implores us to first recognize that racism doesexist in our so-called “color blind” society so that we can start to dismantle it.

My first project as the new ED is to listen and learn. To that end, I invite you to contact me to sharewhat you love about the PJC, what you hope for the future of the PJC and how you want to be involved.Please say hello when you stop in at the store to find Fair Trade and local gifts for any occasionincluding all of the upcoming holidays, or join us for dinner and business at the Annual Meeting onDecember 17th at the Burlington City Arts Center on Church Street. Please call the Center at 802-863-2345ext. 8 for more information or to RSVP. I hope to get to know each of you more in the coming months andyears as we work together to make the world more peaceful and just.

Sincerely,Thank You!

To Myers Bagels for donating bagels to our Inventory Crew. To Localvore for letting us use their meeting space. To all our volunteers and interns who we couldn’t dowithout: they contribute about 525 hours per month!

3October-December 2013


hen some people think about war,they relate their thoughts to

newspapers and statistics. Theseprovide numbers that demonstrate thetangible outcome of a conflict: deaths ofsoldiers and civilians, wounded people,deserted towns, and the territory covered.The problem is that there are a plethora ofissues that media doesn’t talk aboutbecause they can’t be seen. The Peace &Justice Center’s Cost of War Speaker andFilm Series has paid attention to thecomplications that war gives rise to andare not addressed.

When one enlists for the army,marines, navy, or air force, one assumesthat one’s job will have its risks due tothe nature of the job; one understandsthat one can be killed or injured by the“enemy,” but who is this enemy? Cur-rently it’s not that easy to tell if anotherparty is a friend or foe. Today’s newspa-per will compare and contrast the soldiersthat have fallen in the front line to theones in the opposition who have beenkilled, tomorrow’s newspaper will show adifferent graph promoting the glory ofbeing a soldier regardless of one’sgender, the day after tomorrow thenewspaper will incite one to enlist.

When one hears of a rape taking placein the midst of a war, one thinks of the“enemy” raping women and committinghorrible atrocities. No one ever hears ofthe women in the army who get raped bytheir comrades because no one in poweris benefited by the public’s knowledge insuch a shocking matter. The armyperpetuates these horrific incidents anddoesn’t let these issues go out in the eyeof the public in order to preserve thebelief that all soldiers will find is a life ofhonor and camaraderie by joining thisinstitution.

Everyone knows of some soldier –even if solely from the news – who hasreturned home from a war or conflict inanother nation with scars or lost limbs.We can all see the effect that war had onhim/her, but there are many other effectsthat we cannot see without getting toknow the person. Regardless of whether aperson is physically hurt or not, every

soldier experiences a series of hurdleswhen they return to the civilian lifestylebecause they have a hard time adaptingto the new conditions that have been putin front of them. Internally, veteranssuffer from an evil that they cannotescape from even if they hid in a smallroom all by themselves; their “enemy”lives within them.

As human beings we believe that weunderstand everything that is going onaround us even if it doesn’t relate directlyto us, but the unseen malevolence can behidden and it will stay there unlesspeople spread the word about them. Whyis “enemy” in quotation marks allthroughout this article? Well, it’s all amatter of perspective.

Invisible Cost of WarBY Julian Geoffrey Lopez, PJC Intern

Cost of War 2014:Focus on DronesBeginning in January, 2011, our Cost ofWar series has been our flagship pro-gram, with events every month, some-times involving major speakers like BillMcKibben, Chris Hedges and MedeaBenjamin, at other times presentingpanels on subjects such as the ordealsfaced by returning soldiers and thecontroversial nature of US policy towardsIran.

We’ve also shown films such asJeremy Scahill’s “Dirty Wars,” whichplayed to a full house at The RoxyTheater. We’ve organized rallies, particu-larly against the planned basing of F-35sat Burlington Airport, and memorials toHiroshima and Nagasaki every August.

We are very excited to announce thatbeginning in January, 2014 our Cost ofWar program will continue with a morestrategic plan to highlight drones anddrone warfare. Cost of War: Focus onDrones will be a two-year, statewidecampaign in Vermont to educate thepopulace on the dangers of drone warfareduring its first year, and to start agrassroots anti-drone movement duringits second year.

The Peace & Justice Center presents:

Where Soldiers Come FromOctober 27, Sunday, 5pm

Roxy Theater, Burlington VT

From a snowy small town in NorthernMichigan to the mountains of Afghanistan andback, Where Soldiers Come From follows thefour-year journey of childhood friends, foreverchanged by a faraway war.For more info check out the website(www.wheresoldierscomefrom.com)Tickets are free, but donations are welcome.Due to limited seating you will need to gettickets. Tickets available at the PJC. Contact Kyle863-2345 x6 or [email protected].

LW Ordinance Cuts WorkersAt the Burlington Ordinance Committee meetingon Oct. 1st councilors Paul, Mason, and Bushordecided to send the ordinance back to the full CityCouncil on Oct. 21st for a second reading andmost likely to adopt the updated ordinance intolaw. This was after the City Attorney reportedminimal information gathered from the airlines.US Airways is a union airline so their workers wouldnot fall under the livable wage ordinance becauseof this. DELTA & United informed the city thatthey subcontract most of their work at theairport. They did not give specifics on wages, butaccording to recent job postings some airportworkers are hired at $9/hr. JetBlue refused to giveany information on workers wages or hiringpractices at all.

It is clear that this limited data is not completeenough to show that the airports do or do nothave the capacity to pay a livable wage. The impactof demanding that they follow the current law isunclear. Basically, the ordinance committee did notreceive any empirical evidence that the city or statewould suffer from the enforcement of the livablewage requirement on leased properties in theairport and yet they continue to go through withstriking the language and stripping the manyairport workers of their right to a livable wage.

On October 17th there is one more OrdinanceCommittee meeting and then the Livable Wage the Livable Wage the Livable Wage the Livable Wage the Livable WageOrdinance will be read on October 21stOrdinance will be read on October 21stOrdinance will be read on October 21stOrdinance will be read on October 21stOrdinance will be read on October 21stfor the full council to vote onfor the full council to vote onfor the full council to vote onfor the full council to vote onfor the full council to vote on. If you live inBurlington please urge your two City Councilors tosupport a strengthened livable wage ordinancethat includes as many workers as possible and doesnot cut out workers who currently qualify.

W

4 October-December 2013


BY Vienna Tartaglia, PJC Intern

air Trade. Many people are notcompletely aware of what this

means. However, we hope that thiswill change dramatically over the next fewyears. Fairly-traded goods are currentlyseen as a much higher-priced item that arereadily available cheaper at other,commercial locations. However, this is amisconception. Similar to the commercialmarket, there is still a range of prices,which are driven up or down, in correla-tion, by the quality and nature of theproduct.

Fair trade is a movement founded onthe need to have safe working environ-ments and fair pay for people in develop-ing countries around the world. They aresupported by sending their products tofair trade distributors such as the Peace &Justice Store. The income is used toprovide a better quality of life for theartisans and their community. Fair traderequires a percentage of profits to be setaside for community use, which will bedecided democratically. This premium hasbeen used for a variety of uses for any-thing from building schools to convertingequipment to run off of veggie oil.

Craftworks CambodiaOne Fair Trade cooperative the Peace &Justice Store supports is CraftworksCambodia. One of their artisans, ChanthaThoeun, is a survivor of the war inCambodia. He lost his parents at a veryyoung age and was raised by his grand-parents. It was during this time whenThoeun was introduced to the SkipOrganization. This organization is anorphanage center that works to educatethe young people of Cambodia. At theSkip Organization, he was taught the artof jewelry making, which he studied forover 4 years. He and his wife now makejewelry together, along with other crafts,to support their family. Thoeun has even

saved enough money to study graphicdesign to improve his skills in creatingjewelry.

Thoeun is part of a group of sixartisans who collect bullet and bombcasings left from the Cambodian CivilWar. They transform these tools of warinto beautiful jewelry that is distributedall over the world as not only a means tosupport their communities, but also asymbol to the people of other nations tonever forget the atrocities committed intheir country over 30 years ago now. Thisleads them to have a better future for theircommunity and country. The metal isplenty and a free resource to them, but ithas a stronger meaning than just raisingmoney. The fact that they are takingmaterials that were used in war andcreating something beautiful that will lastis an inspiration. They also symbolize areminder for those that purchase, thatthere is hope for recovery after war.

Fair Trade: Craftworks Cambodia

F

Fair Trade

O

October is Fair Trade MonthBY Carmen Solari, PJC Store Manager and Fair Trade Program Director

ctober is Fair Trade Month! It’sthe special month of the year we

get to take a moment to appreciatefair trade for all that it is. Fair trade ismany things and on a grand scale, fairtrade is the people’s alternative to anunfair system. Conducting business asusual implies a constant race to thebottom where the time and care put intothe products we buy is not valued. Fairtrade seeks to calculate the true cost ofan item and set a price that reflects thatcost as well as all things necessary for adecent lifestyle for the producer or

artisan.Simply put, it is a strategy for poverty

alleviation. As consumers, we have thepower to make a positive impact on thelives of people who are many miles away.While companies will always exist who donot seek to respect the humanity of theirworkers, it seems that the fair trademovement is growing, thanks to an everincreasing demand from consumers likeyou and me.

There are now multiple labelingorganizations, which can be confusing,so we’ve included a guide to those

various labeling organizations. Becausewe live in a society that is constantlycapitalizing on our sympathies, it’simportant to know who is investing inimproving livelihoods and who is tryingto make you think your money is helpingcommunities.

Be sure to look for the words “FairTrade” on products. Buzz words like“ethical”, “moral”, and “just” trade don’tnecessarily mean the company has anysystems or principles in place, much like“all natural” is used in place of “organic”as a marketing tactic that holds noweight. We want to keep integrity inbusiness and grow its presence further!

This October, join me in reflecting onthe beauty and importance of respectingour brothers and sisters all over the worldthrough supporting fair trade.



BY Rosie Macy, PJC Intern

ith so many Fair Trade labels outthere, it can be hard to know what

to buy. This guide should clear upthe confusion!

FLO/FairtradeInternationalWhile the term“Fair Trade” refersto all productscertified through aset of standardsthat aim to providea simplified andjust trade system,“Fairtrade” as oneword is a trademark of FLO. Formerlyknown as Fairtrade Labeling Organiza-tions International, Fairtrade Internationalis the leading labeling organization in theUnited States today. Based in Germany,FLO has both a certifying branch and astandard-setting branch. They distin-guish between smallholders working inco-operatives and workers whoseemployers provide certain resources thatfall in line with Fairtrade standards; theyhave different standards for each. FLO isthe “umbrella” certifier for all products inthe US and their label is the most commonone seen on products.

Fair Trade USAFair Trade USA, previously calledTransFair USA, was a member of FLO butsplit from the organization in 2011.FTUSA left the International System andannounced their new standards that theywould then certify. They also introduced

two trademarked logos for products thatmeet their new standards. FTUSA hasdecided to allow multinational corpora-tions associated with coffee to use theirfair trade logo. This action has causedgreat concern among the thousands ofmembers of small coffee producercooperatives who have been helped bythe Fair Trade movement to gain moremarket share.

Fair Trade FederationFair Trade Federation is a coalition ofbusinesses worldwide, but registered inthe US or Canada, that adhere to fair tradestandards. The Fair Trade Federation hasa thorough process through whichbusinesses can become accredited.Unlike other fair trade labels, FTF doesnot certify individual products,butinstead certifies entire businesses; theyrequire businesses to be participating intrade for at least ayear beforeapplying. Busi-nesses can use theFTF logo topromote theirvalues andmission, both on

Buyer’s Guide to Fair Trade Labelstheir company marketing information aswell as on products of the memberbusinesses.

IMO/Fair For LifeInstitute forMarketecology (IMO),based out of Switzer-land, is the third-partycertifier for Fair ForLife’s logo. Fair for Lifedoes not use aproduct-specificstandard for certification. Fair for LifeCertification covers fair working condi-tions and social responsibility as well asfair trade relationship, including fairprices and a fair trade developmentpremium.

Direct TradeDirect trade is a model and phrase that isnot dictated by a third party certifier, noris there any specific logo associated withDirect Trade. This model most commonlyapplies to coffee, and is an alternativetrade model from Fair Trade. Some mayview Fair Trade as difficult to access,strict or costly for some producers orretailers. Direct trade allows for individualpurchasers to be more flexible andperhaps more true to their values andgoals, buying the product directly fromthe producers. In some cases, this allowsfor the producer to receive highercompensation than Fair Trade might.

Fair Trade

Anti-racism Training“Building the Beloved Community: Realizing Racial Justice:” Friday, November 1st from 6pm-9pmand Saturday, November 2nd from 9am to 5pm. Location TBD.

This two day interactive training based on popular education includes the video “MakingWhiteness Visible,” Heart-to-Heart Conversations, Theater of the Oppressed, Star Power, and awork plan that integrates racial justice. Sha’an Mouliert will lead this training. She is a consultant,community organizer, educator, artist, and co-founded the African American Alliance of theNortheast Kingdom, a grassroots organization committed to racial justice. Please join us on thismost crucial journey, as we strive to realize our vision of a racially just society.

This event is FREE and open to the public. It is being sponsored by the Peace & Justice Center’sRacial Justice Coalition and financially supported by PJC members as well as a grant fromHaymarket People’s Fund. For more information contact Kyle: 802-863-2345 x6 [email protected]. We hope to see you there!

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Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!Exposing the Ideology of Racism in the 21st Century

FBY Frank Smecker

rederick Douglass once wrote:“Slavery cannot stand. Its charac-

ter is like that of Lord Granby: ‘itcan only pass without censure as itpasses without observation.’” The samecan be said about racism itself, especiallytoday—we can’t talk about the racismthat still exists if we refuse to recognize it.And if we refuse to recognize it, if wecan’t even talk about it, then we’re farfrom blotting it out altogether from ourdaily lives.

Which reminds me of a recent experi-ence my partner had. A little while back,she attended a workshop on gender andrace relations. That night she arrivedhome, eager to share with me what hadoccurred at the workshop, specifically, astory the facilitator shared with the class.The story is as follows. One evening,while at the grocery store, a child referredto him as a “chocolate man.” The mother,embarrassed (of course), immediatelytried to correct her daughter, explaining toher—reprimanding her, even—that thatwasn’t right, that she shouldn’t say suchthings. Calmly, with a smile, this manreplied to both the mother and daughter:“Hey, it’s ok, let’s talk about this.” For thenext five minutes he explained to the childthe entire spectrum of chocolate—thatthere’s white chocolate, milk chocolate,dark chocolate…and so on and so forth.

The point to this, of course, is thatracism today often appears in such covertways. And, no less important, when itdoes appear, no matter how covert it is,it’s imperative to talk about it, to open upthe conversation, primarily to forecloseracism from becoming a deep-rooted,unconscious inclination.

The more radical point to be made hereis that, political correctness—in thisinstance, the mother quickly censuringher child—can sometimes circumvent themuch-needed discourse surrounding racerelations. It can act as a resignation to thereality of racism, rather than directlyengaging with its errors for the sake ofabolishing it.

That said, fifty years after the cel-ebrated March on Washington—at whichMartin Luther King Jr. called for an end toracism—racism still persists, despite whatwe’re told, that we live in a “color blind”society. To wit, mass incarceration in theUS, writes Michelle Alexander in her bookThe New Jim Crow, has “emerged as astunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized socialcontrol that functions in a mannerstrikingly similar to Jim Crow.” People ofcolor who are released from prison areoften stripped of their voting rights,excluded from juries, segregated, forcedto live a life along the margins of this so-called “color blind” society.

Nearly one-third of all African Ameri-can males are under criminal justicesupervision; and despite being some-where between six- and ten-percent of theUS population, nearly 50-percent of theUS prison population is comprised ofpeople of color. That’s a staggeringstatistic, especially considering that theUS imprisons more people than any othercountry around the globe. Most inmatesare there for drug offenses; infractionsthat drug-using whites seldom seesentences for. This is merely a fact, onethat reflects an indisputable racial bias.

Author and professor in the School ofJournalism at the University of Texas,Robert Jensen, avers that there’s even aproblem with the term “people of color”:“the problem with [this term],” he writes,“is that it takes the focus off whitepeople.” If we were to invert the focus,it’s likely we’d soon come to realize thatthe US is still segregated, primarily interms of housing. According to the 2012Fair Housing Trends Report, put out bythe National Fair Housing Alliance, aconservative estimate of housingdiscrimination in the US puts the numberat four million every year.

Here, one should consider that theway in which many white Americansperceive communities of people of colorcan often be referred to as whatSlovenian philosopher, Slavoj •i•ek, calls

an “imaginary cartography,” which“projects onto the real landscape its ownshadowy ideological antagonisms.” In hisbook The Fragile Absolute, •i•ekdescribes the “imaginary cartography” interms of how Western Europe perceivesthe Balkans; he writes:

Then there is “reflexive” PoliticallyCorrect racism: the multiculturalistperception of the Balkans as the terrain ofethnic horrors and intolerance, ofprimitive irrational warring passions, to beopposed to the post-nation-state-liberal-democratic process of solving conflictsthrough rational negotiation, compromiseand mutual respect. Here racism is, as itwere, elevated to the second power: it isattributed to the Other, while we occupythe convenient position of a neutralbenevolent observer, righteously dis-mayed at the horrors going on “downthere.”

Do we not find a striking similaritybetween •i•ek’s description of the way inwhich the Balkans are perceived by therest of Europe, and the way in whichmuch of black America is perceived bythe rest of white America? It appears thatAmerica, too, has its own “imaginarycartography,” one which attributes tothose living in ghettos across the countrya “terrain of ethnic [hostility] andintolerance, of primitive irrational [violent]passions, to be opposed to the …process of solving conflicts throughrational negotiation, compromise andmutual respect.”

Regardless of its contours andfeatures, racialization and racism is partand parcel of a larger ideology, one thatposits the egregious claim that thereexists in the world certain people who, byvirtue of their race, by virtue of their skincolor, or by virtue of their income, orwhatever else it may be, are either inferioror superior to others. And insofar as it’san ideology, it also exists in the capacityof a system: it’s a way of organizing asociety; it instructs people how to view,in a very specific, erroneous way, theworld and those who inhabit it. And albeitmany of us claim to not consciouslybelieve in racial superiority or inferiority,many seldom, if ever, question the socialpolicies, or the existence of socialarrangements managed by said policies,which ultimately serve to maintain an



Youth Building A Peaceful WorldBY Claire Shapiro, PJC Intern

am the new Peacework Intern,and this fall I plan to work on

counter-recruitment in local highschools and peace education programshere at the Center. In this work, I willengage with students to raise awarenessof work and educational opportunitiesoutside of the military and facilitate thecommunity in gaining tools to help buildpeace in themselves, in their communityand in the world. In preparation for this, Idecided to research youth-centeredpeace-building efforts locally andinternationally. Young people are workingtoward peace in response to religiousconflicts, development needs, streetviolence and crime, and to empowerthemselves as individuals and strengthentheir communities.

Here in Vermont, the nonprofitorganization Kids4Peace brings localchildren together to participate indiscussions and activities that fosterintercultural understanding. Throughsummer camps and year-round gather-ings, Kids4Peace helps children from theAbrahamic traditions to build connec-tions and recognize their commonheritage. In its Jerusalem chapter,Kids4Peace works to cultivate friendshipsbetween children and families on oppositesides of the Israel/Palestine conflict whomight see each other as enemies.

John Reuwer, who has taught nonvio-lent communication to adolescents inKids4Peace, shares that at the core of hiswork is the belief in each individual’sability to make a difference, and tochoose nonviolence in any conflict.Though this message stays the same forReuwer’s work regardless of the age ofhis audience, he feels that young peopleare particularly open to nonviolencebecause they have fewer violent lan-guage and behavior patterns to “unlearn”than do adults.

Addressing religious intolerancebetween Christians and Muslims inIndonesia, activist Elsye Syauta Latuherubelieves that youth today are divided andprone to conflict due to the history ofviolence among older generations.

Latuheru is working to educate youngpeople and encourage them to liveharmoniously with those from otherreligious backgrounds.

In terms of peacework for develop-ment, The African Youth Peace Initiativesorganization in Uganda trains youth toresolve conflict through several avenues.Through job trainings, peace educationworkshops, and community-baseddevelopment projects, AYPI aims toaddress the foundational instabilities thatlead to problems for Uganda’s largeyouth population.

In 2012, two of El Salvador’s mostpowerful gangs declared a truce. Today,young men who are former gang membershave found alternative employment on anurban farm and in a bakery, and formeropponents have come together tonegotiate a lasting peace.

In Colombia, the national chapter ofPrison Fellowship International haslaunched a program for at-risk youth inthe country’s second-largest city. Theprogram targets those most likely toparticipate in criminal activities, trainsthem in restorative justice theory andtechniques, and offers mentoring andmental health counseling.

Between 2011-2013, the Council ofEurope’s Youth Peace Ambassadorsprogram brought together 50 participantsfrom conflict-ridden communities forseminars, online trainings, and mentoring.Participants in the program worked onindividual projects to bring their skillsback to their local communities and act asagents of change.

The Youth Peace Initiative in Sydney,Australia, takes a similar approach, andoffers mentoring and social mediaoutreach to adolescents to empower themto become agents of positive andpeaceful change.

When we look within our communityand abroad, we can see that youngpeople are building peace in response toa variety of political, economic, andreligious instabilities. These efforts offerinspiration for our local activities, andhelp us to think about peace as a trulydynamic process.

imbalanced dichotomy between thosewho are deemed superior and those whoare deemed inferior; between those borninto privilege, and those born intopoverty.

Such an ideology inevitably leads tocruel and unjust discrimination, to hatredeven, which, in effect, creates a wretchedplace for those who are discriminatedagainst. We’re often told that in today’s“post-ideological” world, we are beyondracism. After all, we’ve elected a blackpresident. But the way in which racismexists today is more complex than just thestandard historical accounts of brutalbigotry (though sometimes it’s stillexpressed in the same old disgustingways). Today racism is more covert, oftenobfuscated by economic and classrelations, obscured by the language ofpolitical correctness, and so on.

What must be addressed is this: Thereare those who see the exclusive focus ofnew racisms and intolerances in the FirstWorld as being cynical in the face of realThird World problems; poverty, violence,hunger, and so on. But yet, this dismissalof the First World problems of racism isitself a form of “racist escapism.” That isto say, by focusing only on the abjectconditions of the Third World, oneavoids engaging in the social plights ofthe First World. Here one is merelyelevating their First World status to thelevel of what Teju Cole, writing for TheAtlantic, coined the “white saviorcomplex,” which is not that dissimilarfrom the concept of the “imaginarycartography” emphasized earlier: theegregious idea that the racial Othercannot govern itself, and thus requires aWestern, liberal intervention.

The job of today’s true liberal, then, isto recognize the racism, the antagonisms,that still persist in a so-called “colorblind” society, and to recognize that thisbelongs to a larger constellation ofoppressive power structures, whichaffects the world at large. To dismantlethis repulsive system of racist oppres-sion, one should heed the advice ofFrederick Douglass—one should“Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!”

Smecker’s first book,”The Night of the World:Traversing the Ideology of Objectivity” (ZeroBooks) will be out on the cusp of the New Year.

I



Robin’s Nest

BY Robin Lloyd

nly a few dozen local film/historybuffs managed to watch all six

segments of Freedom and Unity:The Vermont Movie, shown in BurlingtonOct4-6. But it’s on tour now, and I hopemany of you will make a point of seeingthis remarkable homage to our state. It isthe result of seven years of work bydozens of Vermont filmmakers, andconsists of a nine hour stream of images,flowing from an animated simulation ofthe glaciers leaving Vermont through theAbenaki presence and past, to theclosing of Vermont Yankee, all masterfullyedited by Nora Jacobson.

I speak from the perspective of one ofthe filmmakers who was a participatingmember of this extraordinary collabora-tion from the beginning. Knowing howprickly filmmakers can get when someonetampers with our images, the fact that allof us were willing to offer our footage upto Nora’s chopping block is a testamentto Nora’s creative skills and our group’scommitment to the grand story ofVermont – documenting not so much thestate’s exceptionalism as its uniqueness,as “a beacon, a haven, a refuge, an idea, asymbol, a state…” (see the website for adeeper description).

Freedom and Unity is not only thestate logo, but an appropriate descriptionof our collaborative process. In 2006,motivated in part by the upcomingquadricentennial celebration of the arrivalof Samuel de Champlain on the shores ofOndakina (1609), Nora developed a 22page list of Vermont events and peopleand offered it to filmmakers to choose oneto document, however we wanted.

Over the years, we would gather fromaround the state, sometimes for a week-end at a rural retreat, to talk through anddevelop the ideas. With the participationof historians and writers, the sessionswere like seminars on Vermont history,geography and race. The last segmentends with Hurricane Irene, the power of

community, and a beautiful flock of birdsswirling in the night sky.

The discussion that followed the lastBurlington screening on October 6 wascongratulatory and thoughtful. ProducerNat Winthrop acknowledged that Norastruggled with the ending: how tointertwine the threat of global warmingwith the images of community resiliencethat surfaced after Irene. Lauren-GlennDavitian called it a love letter to Vermont.

Tom Howard said that where manyfilms elevate patriotism, this documentaryfocuses on ‘matriotism:’ “It shows thatour future is complex, we can’t handle italone.”

One viewer liked the stories from therest of the state, but felt that Burlington,as cultural hub, was short-changed.“There was no coverage of the creationof the Vermont Women’s Health Center,the Onion River Co-op, the People’s FreeClinic.” Historian Bruce Post added thatBurlington has played a major role inshaping Vermont especially sinceredistricting, but that what happens in therest of the state is less known. “So manyof us are uninformed. We hang on to themyths of Vermont, but there are manythings, such as the eugenics program(that only ended in Vermont in 1972), thatwere not so admirable. The film puts aheadlight on unsung heros.” (Ethan Allenis only mentioned in passing!)

A People’s History of VTBruce also remarked that Vermont hasalways been dominated by stronginterests such as the Proctors whichmilitate against people’s power. Hecongratulated Phil Hoff, who is featuredin the film and was present for part of thescreening, for trying to change thatdynamic during his tenure as Vermont’sfirst Democratic governor in 108 years.

Nat agreed that the film could becompared to Howard Zinn’s “A People’sHistory of Vermont.” The director’s father,Nicholas Jacobson, featured in Part 2 ofthe film, Under the Surface, was from awealthy Jewish family in New York Citywho hated urban life and came to Vermontto farm. He called himself a communist.Daughter Nora has brought a progressiveand inclusive perspective to this project.

Others felt that it gives a middle classview: a product of the people who madeit. Filmmaker Louise Michaels said thatyes, it’s a privilege to be a filmmaker.

Lauren Glenn added that what’sspecial about Vermont is that “we havepublic access channels around the statewhere people can talk. Vermont is smallenough and enough people are investedin caring that we can make a new future.This film is part of a wave of stories thatcan continue into the future.” But sheacknowledged that “even in cable accesswe haven’t really passed the class divide.She added “in this film, we’re seeing theview of a certain tribe” that is interesting“because it hasn’t been told before.”

Tom Howard had the last word. “Thisfilm is a valentine, full of arrows, to theheart of what Vermonters are. Everyfilmmaker got to make what they loved. Iwouldn’t want to change it.”

ScheduleFreedom and Unity: The Vermont Movie:Six Parts. Middlebury’s Gala and Part 1 took place

Oct. 8. Remaining parts: Oct. 14 to 22 atthe Unitarian Church, Middlebury. Rutland’s Gala and Part 1: Oct. 10.

Remaining parts: Oct. 16 to 24 at Mer-chants Hall, 40-42 Merchants Row. Stowe’s Gala: Nov. 2, at 6:30pm ,

followed by Part 1 at 7:30 at the SprucePeak Performing Arts Center, 7320 MtnRd. Remaining parts: Nov. 5 to Dec. 3. St. Alban’s Gala: Nov. 3, at 2:30pm

followed by Part 1 at 3:30 at Bliss Audito-rium, 9 Church St. Remaining parts: Nov. 4to Dec 2. The film will also be screened in

Bennington, Brattleboro, St. Johnsbury,Derby Line and Newport. Check with thewebsite http://thevermontmovie.com/ forcomplete information.

Freedom & Unity:The Vermont Movie

O



BY Mark Hage

The international campaign to endBen & Jerry’s complicity in Israel’soccupation and illegal settlement regimecontinues to gain momentum. OnSeptember 9, Vermonters for a Just Peacein Palestine/Israel (VTJP) released aletter [http://www.vtjp.org/icecream/internatletter.php] to CEO JosteinSolheim signed by 151 civil societyorganizations. It calls on Ben & Jerry’s“to stand by its Social Mission and toensure that its products are not sold,catered and distributed in Israeli settle-ments.”

The letter’s signatories share acommitment to international law andhuman rights, and believe that acompany’s social mission should bemore than words on paper. This isespecially true in the case of Ben &Jerry’s, whose iconic social mission, asthe letter makes clear, “articulates acommitment to the welfare, security anddignity of all communities, local, nationaland international.”

That social mission cannot bereconciled with an Israeli settlementproject in Palestine that is, the letterasserts, “predicated on systematicrepression, racial segregation, landdispossession, the unlawful expropria-tion of water, and pervasive violenceagainst Palestinians.”

VTJP’s letter has garnered supportfrom across the world—from theAmerican Friends Service Committee inPhiladelphia, PA to Boycott DivestmentSanctions South Africa in Johannes-burg; from Jewish Voice for Peace inOakland, CA to the Ireland-PalestineSolidarity Campaign in Dublin; fromLutherans for Justice in the Holy Land inPortland, OR to Kia Ora Gaza in Auck-

The PJC acts as an incubator for many activistgroups through Allied Membership. VTJP is oneof those members and their message follows:

151 Organizations Tell Ben & Jerry’s:Stop Selling in Israeli Settlements

land, New Zealand. Several faith-basedand student organizations signed on.

Groups in 28 US states and theDistrict of Columbia, plus those in eightcountries, including Israel, and the WestBank, sent an unequivocal message toBen & Jerry’s: “…consistent withinternational law and Ben & Jerry’s SocialMission, we call on you to take allnecessary contractual and legal measuresto bring your franchise’s settlementbusiness to an end in a verifiable way,and to release a public statement of yourcompany’s commitment to end itsbusiness ties to Israel’s occupation andsettlement enterprise.”

The company has acknowledgedreceipt of the letter. VTJP’s dialogue withits management team and Board presidentis now in its third year, though our publiccampaign only began in March, 2013 (seewww.vtjp/icecream/). Political pressure ismounting on the company, but nothinghas changed yet in its business dealingswith Israeli settlement venues. Ben &Jerry’s in Israel remains a corporatebeneficiary of the country’s military andeconomic domination of the OccupiedPalestinian Territory. Those who overseeits operations from Vermont have yet tosever the franchise’s links to Jewish-onlysettlements, or even to issue a statementin opposition to them.

Our campaign will not end until itdoes.

Mark Hage is an activist with Vermonters fora Just Peace in Palestine/Israel. He can bereached at [email protected]. Organiza-tions that wish to sign the September 9th

international letter to Ben & Jerry’s can do soat: http://www.vtjp.org/icecream/internatletter_signatory.php. VTJP meets the2nd Monday of the month at the PJC.

What is VeteransFor Peace?Veterans For Peace (VFP) is an interna-tional organization of military veteransand allies whose mission is to abolish warand build a culture of peace. Convincedby our own experiences, we raise ourvoices to inform the public of the truecauses of war, the enormous costs of war,and our obligation to heal the wounds ofwar.

VFP currently has 140 chapters and4,000 members in 10 countries. Our workincludes: educating the public, advocat-ing dismantling the war economy,providing assistance to veterans andvictims of war, and most significantly,working to end all wars, and eliminatenuclear weapons.

The Will Miller GreenMountain Chapter of VFPFounded in 1991, our all non-violentactivities include: speaking out againstwar and the militarization of our commu-nity; advocating for health services andfinancial support for veterans in need;participating in demonstrations, ralliesand parades; writing letters, opinionpieces and poetry for the media; speakingin schools and outreach to youth;producing a monthly public-accesstelevision program about issues affectingveterans; and supporting VFP nationalworking groups and projects.

We have members and activitiesstatewide, and welcome non-veterans tojoin as Associate Members. We collabo-rate with the Peace & Justice Center andother peace groups in abolishing war asan instrument of National policy.

We meet monthly in Montpelier’sKellogg Hubbard Library, usually thethird Saturday at 10:00am. For moreinformation, contact Chapter PresidentAdrienne Knapp [email protected].

Veterans For Peace co-sponsors thePeace & Justice Center’s Cost of WarSeries.



C A L E N D A R

October 2013[19] Saturday 10am Veterans for Peace, Will Miller Green Mountain Chapter meets

monthly in Montpelier’s Kellogg-Hubbard Library. Usually the thirdSaturday, but check with President Adrienne Knapp at [email protected] Also Nov. 16 and Dec. 17.

[21] Monday 7pm City Council voting on LW Ordinance. See article on p. 3.

7pm Fed Up VT meeting at RU12 every Monday. Fed Up VT is a radicalgrassroots women’s rights coalition fighting for economic equality,reproductive rights, and freedom from gender-based [email protected]

[23] Wednesday 7pm Lisa Shannon, author of A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the

Worst Place on Earth to be a Woman, and founder of Run for CongoWomen, was the first national grassroots activist in the US working to raiseawareness of the humanitarian crisis in Democratic Republic of the Congo.She has been featured in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristoff and hasappeared with Hillary Clinton on Oprah. SMC, McCarthy Recital Hall.

November 2013[3] Sunday 12-1 Vets for Peace live call-in show on Channel 15.

6:30pm Justice for Syria a Candlelight Vigil. Join the Peace & Justice Centerand UVM’s Amnesty International Club and help raise awareness of theSyrian human rights crisis. Rachel Siegel, PJC’s Executive Director, will leadthe continued call for diplomacy and community dialogue to end thehuman rights crisis and voice concerns about using force. Bring a candle.Questions? Email [email protected]. At City Hall Park, Burlington.

[5] Tuesday 8:30pm: Peace & Popcorn at PJC. PPPPPeace & Popcorn is a casual movie

night open to the public. This is a great way for people who are interestedin peace, racial justice, the environment, economic justice, internationalissues, politics, etc. to watch a documentary they normally wouldn’t maketime for, and to connect with people of similar interests. The best part is,we serve popcorn, and it’s free! Good films and good company.

[6] Wednesday 7pm Maria J. Stephan is a strategic planner with the US Dept of State

and co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic ofNonviolent Conflict. Robert Helvey, retired US Army Colonel, was sent bythe International Republican Institute to teach non-violent strategy tostudents in the former Yugoslavia in 2000 which led to the non-violentoverthrow of Slobodan Milosevic. They will discuss the spread of non-violent resistance movements, Maria from an empirical and Bob from a

practical standpoint. SMC, McCarthy Recital Hall.

[9] Saturday6-8pm Five Women Witnesses: Two Weeks in Palestine. Presentationtopics include: home demolitions, refugee camps, the separation wall, thespirit of Palestinian people, Kairos Palestine, Rabbis for Human Rights andinterfaith nonviolent direct action. At First Congregational Church,Burlington. Also speaking at All Saints Episcopal, Friday 11/8, 5pm and atthe Waterbury Congregational Church, Sunday 11/10 at 10am. Sponsoredby VTJP with many co-sponsors.

[11] Monday 6-8pm Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel meeting at PJC.

7pm In honor of Veteran’s Day, Mike Heaney, a former Infantry PlatoonLeader in the Vietnam War, historian, and author will speak about hisexperience as a soldier, veteran, mentor to other veterans, and scholarwho studies the costs of war as they relate to the human spirit. Lt. Heaneywill share his stories of returning to Vietnam years after the war ended,and the relationships he now has with Vietnamese veterans who were atone point his enemy. Location: Train Station, 1Main St, Burlington.

[13] Wednesday 5-6:30pm Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

(WILPF) meeting at the Peace & Justice Center. 862-4929.

[23] Saturday12 noon Close the School of the Americas Annual Vigil. Gather in fron tofCity Hall, Burlington. We will have signs. It’s time we close this disgracefulinstitution. We will walk up Church St, then return to City Hall for thePresente ceremony. Sponsored by Pax Christi Burlington. All welcome .

December 2013[9] Monday 6-8pm Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel meeting at PJC.

[11] Wednesday 5-6:30pm Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

(WILPF) meeting at the Peace & Justice Center. 862-4929.

[13] Friday 5-8pm Art Show Opening of the Reference for Radicals at Burlington

City Arts, 2nd Flr. The Reference for Radicals project is a partnershipbetween the Peace & Justice Center, independent activists, and local artists.The twelve collaborating artists use their various mediums to tell the storyof a Radical idea or word that is closest to their hearts. The pieces are forsale by silent auction.

[17] Tuesday 6pm PJC Annual Meeting at Burlington City Arts. See box p.1.



irst, I want to thank the Peace & Justice Center for askingme to speak tonight. This is like a memorial service for

those who died in the atomic bombings and have died orbeen harmed since from radiation and collateral effects created inthe process of making nuclear weapons: the mining, transporta-tion, production, testing, storing, stockpiling, and preparing touse these bombs in the US and throughout the world. We standwitness.

Let us have a moment of silence for the 200,000 people whodied from the dropping of two bombs 68 years ago and theuntold others who’ve perished since.

Why do we continue to mark these bombings? First, we markthem because of the sheer magnitude and indiscriminate natureof atomic bombs. Over 60% of the people of Hiroshima wereimmediate victims of the “Little Boy” bomb. 60% of the citykilled or injured instantly. 75% of the people killed there werecivilians. Of the up to 70,000 killed by the “Fat Man” bomb inNagasaki, only 150 were soldiers. The rest were people like youand me and everyone else around us now just going about theirbusiness. People on those swings on the boardwalk. People atwork. Children running on the sidewalk and in the park. Justaverage people.

All we need to know about the horror of these weapons isfound in the first Japanese radio reports of the bombing ofHiroshima when they reported that “Practically all living things,human and animal, were literally seared to death.”

And we continue to live under the shadow cast by thesemushroom clouds. Do you remember the recent hysteria overNorth Korea’s threats, the ongoing cold war with Iran or thejustification for the Iraq war? The Bomb is not ancient history. Itis a sword hanging over our heads; part of the same culture thatis cooking the planet. We mark it to stand witness, to honor thedead and swear an oath to the living: Never Again!

It is not just the “threat” of war we face. It is the concept ofwar that knows no bounds, something present in every war beingwaged in 2013. What we continue to be confronted with is thequestion of “total war.”

This question was posed by Father Siemes, a Christianmissionary in Hiroshima who was temporarily away at the time ofthe blast. John Hershey, the journalist who documented theimmediate aftermath in his book Hiroshima, quotes Siemes’reflections after he returned to the city after the bombing: “Someof us consider the bomb in the same category as poison gas . . . It seems logical that he who supports total war in principlecannot complain of a war against civilians. The crux of the matteris whether total war in its present form is justifiable, even when itserves a just purpose. Does it not have material and spiritual evilas its consequences which far exceed whatever good mightresult?”

Hiroshima and Nagasaki 2013—Their ContinuingPresenceREMARKS BY Gene Bergman for the Peace & Justice Center at the candle boat ceremony on the BurlingtonWaterfront August 9, 2013

While each war ravaging our planet poses this question,remember that just 2 nuclear bombs literally seared to death allliving things in those two large cities! These weapons are a“species” far different than other weapons of war. And accordingto Jonathan Schell, a fellow at the Nation Institute and author ofthe seminal book The Fate of the Earth, there are 23,000 nuclearwarheads stockpiled on our little world today, all more powerfulthan Fat Man and Little Boy; 9,000 possessed by our owncountry and 13,000 by Russia. Think of the destruction reaped byjust two and contemplate there being 23,000.

Nothing, nothing short of the abolition of all nuclear weaponsfrom the Earth and a system—political, legal, and moral—thatconsiders the building of nuclear weapons, let alone the use, acrime against Humanity and Life itself is sufficient to end thismaterial and spiritual evil.

And lest you feel safer because we and Russia have 22,000out of 23,000 warheads, I remind you of the ongoing nightmarethat Japan is suffering at its leaking Fukushima nuclear powerplant. 300 tons of radioactive water are leaking into the Pacificfrom the reactor every day. The production of nuclear weaponshas polluted vast amounts of soil and water at hundreds ofnuclear weapons facilities all over the world, releasing plutonium,uranium, strontium, cesium, benzene, PCBs, mercury and cyanidethat will remain hazardous for thousands, some for hundreds ofthousands, of years.

The Fat Man and Little Boy continue to reap Death. Around1,900 cancer deaths can be attributed to the after-effects of thesebombs. A study by the Japanese Radiation Effects ResearchFoundation found that from 1950 to 2000, 46% of leukemia deathsand 11% of solid cancer deaths among the bomb survivors weredue to radiation from the bombs: 200 leukemia and 1700 solidcancers.

And the impact is not just physical. The “hibaskusha,”survivors, not only suffered the pain of the aftermath of the totaldestruction of the cities. They were shunned as being contami-nated by radiation.

So why do we mark this moment? We’re here to remember. Tosay Never Again. To pay our respects. Respects for the dead anddying. Respects for the people who have stood up for 68 yearsand said NO to nuclear weapons and nuclear war. Respects forthe hundreds of millions who said NO to the insanity of RonaldReagan’s belief that Nuclear War is Winnable and fundamentallychanged the course of human events with the Nuclear Freeze andthe anti-Euromissile Movements. We’re here to say NO to thematerial and spiritual evil of Total War and Weapons of MassDestruction and say YES to Life, to Hope, to Goodness, to Peace.

We mark this moment because it is right. We should do thiseven if we were the only ones. Thank you for being here andstanding with me.

F



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