Revolutionary Time for WWFOR
by Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm
This is a ripe revolutionary moment, and if we don’t seize it, it will be gone. This unique period in history has been a long time coming, and now is a crucial window of opportunity for WWFOR’s work. That’s why we have ramped up our efforts in training young people in nonviolent strategy, continued to draw connections between military spending and our deficit that others don’t seem to be making, and continued to stand as a distinct peace and justice community.
WWFOR has been intertwined with parts of the Occupy Movement and beyond. It’s been a big year for building community and teamwork among people from all backgrounds – from our work in the state legislature with Republicans and Democrats, our partnerships with teachers and veterans, and our trainings with anarchists and pacifists. The Bring Our Billions Home Joint Memorial became the first anti-war memorial of its kind to pass through a Senate Committee, and we organized scores of veterans, people who had been to Afghanistan, and activists such as pepper spray “poster child” Dorli Rainey to stand with us in showing legislators that this issue touches all of us.
We made that even more clear when hundreds of Occupy protestors dropped “dead” in the Capitol rotunda on President’s Day, February 20th, only to rise up chanting “Human Needs, Not War and Greed, Bring Our Billions Home” and singing a reconfigured version of “America, the Beautiful.” The Backbone campaign backed up our rally, march, and demonstration up with fantastic imagery – a “PentaGONE” embodying what we could have spent our budget on if it hadn’t gone to the military.
I attended a similar Occupy event at the University of Washington in which Desmond Tutu’s daughter was speaking to a room that included anarchists who advocated for throwing bricks in windows. I raised my hand and asked her if she could elaborate on nonviolence and the power of its many tactics in creating radical change. This led to a discussion with “diversity of tactics” advocates whose questions were answered with a continued affirmation of the superior power of nonviolence in exposing truth. The future generations of FOR live on, and our organization’s assertion of peace as the way to peace is needed more than ever. The point is, this is no time to give up on WWFOR. This is the ripe and fleeting moment in which we need to fund our work most. We can’t afford an austerity budget when trying to advocate for human needs.