by Ruth Elder & Kathy Wilkinson Ruth Elder and Kathy Wilkinson are excited to announce that a new Washington State Chapter of CURE, Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, is forming. CURE works for criminal justice reform and interacts with policy makers at all levels of government. CURE is a grassroots human rights organization that was founded in Texas in 1972 and became a national organization in 1985. Today, CURE is an international organization with chapters in many states in the US and in several other countries. CURE has taken positions on a number of topics including alternatives to incarceration, the death penalty, the sex offender registry, and drug laws. Washington CURE also works to support those who are…

by Rosy Betz-Zall One workshop at the Fall Retreat focused on intervening or interrupting a conflict that possibly included racist speech, actions, or bullying. When we take action we might inspire others to take action as well. When stepping in to deescalate a conflict, you want to model nonviolence by intention, word, and action. The goal of each of these interventions is to allow the both people to remain safe especially the one with the least power.  The best time to try a deescalating is before the conflict gets too heated.   A person intervening needs to: 1. Stay centered. – We are working to notice when we are emotionally off balance and use a quick method (e.g. deep breath) to get…

Special offers available from WWFOR office for yourself or others (just in time for holidays: “I Am Troy Davis” by Jen Marlowe and Martina Davis Correia with Troy Anthony Davis. $16 plus shipping and handling. Consider this a follow-up to the WWFOR Fall Retreat. This is an illuminating, moving book and offers hope that working together we may end the death penalty. Don’t miss it. “Grave Lines” – some poems of Larry Kerschner. $10 plus shipping & handling. If you look forward to Larry’s posting online, you will savor his poems that “turn around and take another look” at his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam. They urge us all to take another look at what’s going on all around…

by Ellen Finkelstein Kazu Haga, keynoter at 2013 Seabeck conference, urged us to work for peace “not just in Afghanistan, and not just in Israel & Palestine, but in the streets of East Oakland, and in the southside of Chicago, and in East St Louis … because there are wars being waged in our backyards that we sometimes don’t acknowledge. … More people need to be working to end wars overseas and we need to be more committed to the inequities at home.” It was after the historic March on Washington that Martin Luther King started to truly connect the dots between racism, militarism, poverty, and economic injustice. FOR has historically worked to do just that, and never has that…

This year there were more applicants [25!] – and more diverse applicants –  than ever before for WWFOR’s Peace Activist Trainee (PAT) program.  The month-long summer program is primarily funded by the Abe Keller Peace Education Fund. We stretched our capacity and took 10 amazing students. We also had a larger “staff”: Ellen Finkelstein, Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm (2005 PAT, 3rd year as assistant director), and Dante Garcia (2007 PAT, Evergreen student), with Mike & Ruth Yarrow. The PATs did some amazing things during the course of the month. They met a number of activists working on a variety of issues and had trainings in nonviolence, racial justice, facilitation, public speaking, and other organizing skills. They spoke their truths powerfully on a…

by Azeb Tuji (2013 Peace Activist Trainee, junior at Foster High School in Tukwila) This summer was really life changing. It was nice to sit down and discuss big issues in the world, and feel so powerful as youth. Throughout my life, I kept hearing I couldn’t do much because of my gender and age, but at the rallies we attended and the one we took weeks to plan, people were eager to help the youth and had a lot of faith in their ability to make change instead. On the first day we met with Kazu Haga and we did a workshop on the “Kingian Philosophy of Nonviolence.” We learned the difference types of conflicts, the levels, and how…

by Larry Kerschner What do we see or expect from the near and far future? What should our response and preparations related to our expectations be? One of the difficulties is that we live in a society that is willfully ignorant of history, critical thinking and of the political realities surrounding us. Johan Galtung, Norwegian historian and peace studies professor, analyzed the Soviet Empire and in 1980 predicted the dissolution of that empire within ten years. He was correct to within a few months. In 2000 he predicted that the U.S. Empire would fall by 2025. After 8 years of the Bush administration, he revised the date for the implosion of our empire to 2020. If he is correct, and…

by  John Repp In May 2013, four WWFOR activists got a chance to visit Mondragon, the place where the largest and most successful group of producer cooperatives in the world began. Mondragon (“dragon mountain”) is the old Spanish name of a very small town in the middle of the Basque country, a lush green region in northern Spain. When thinking of Mondragon, think three-in-one. They are not just a group of producer cooperatives; they are a number of schools, research laboratories and a credit union. Think school, factory and credit union. A short history of the group would follow the same three-in-one theme. Father Arizmendiarrieta (Arizmendi for short), the priest who was the guiding spirit of Mondragon, started a trade…

by Chuck Schultz Democracy can be defined in different ways.  Democracy can be a principle or it can be a process.  These do not necessarily co-exist. Every group of people develops rules and traditions concerning how members of the group are expected to behave.  Customs cover such factors as respect, space, property, decorum, resources, food, clothing, and decoration.  The people accept the customs as fair and feel that they determine how things ought to be.  For example, Americans rise when the judge enters a courtroom. A group’s customs create hierarchies, responsibilities, and consequences.  People at the top of a hierarchy sometimes abuse privileges.  Some people may be disadvantaged in ways that are of no useful purpose to anyone.  Considerate people…