Directory of Resources
This is the Peace and Justice Online Directory of Resources. It presents annotated links to websites and other online resources that may be of interest to the peace and justice community. I include links to a diverse collection of resources, representing various types of content and a fairly wide spectrum of viewpoints.
The directory will continue to expand over the coming months, so please do check back periodically.
I hope you find these resources helpful.
Peace!
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DIRECTORY OF RESOURCES
Afghans for Peace
Comprising Afghans of a wide variety of political, ethnic, religious, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds, Afghans for Peace (AFP) is an alliance that calls for “an end to the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by US, NATO and other foreign military forces, as well as a complete stop on all civilian casualties caused by military operations.” AFP asserts that it does not believe “that a military response to Afghanistan’s problems is a solution.”
Afghans for Peace calls for the expulsion of Al-Qaeda and for “an end to Taliban atrocities on the Afghan people.” The organization wants a sustainable, civilian-based peace initiative that is inclusive of all of Afghanistan’s people. AFP calls for “an end to the exploitation of international aid money to Afghanistan meant for helping the Afghan people and rebuilding of Afghanistan.”
The AFP website provides antiwar news, links to other organizations that are working to end the war, and a collection of AFP videos.
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) describes itself as “our nation’s guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.” The ACLU provides information on several keys issues, here, including racial justice, free speech, LGBT rights, and immigrants’ rights.
The ACLU has affiliates in all fifty states. Links to the websites of the state affiliates can be found here. Some of the affiliate sites provide a collection of resources addressing various civil liberties issues. The NYCLU site, for example, provides, here, a number of helpful publications, addressing such topics as electronic health records, student rights when facing suspension from school, military recruitment and student rights, and your rights and responsibilities if you are stopped by the police.
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization, founded in 1917. It includes people of various faiths, “who are committed to social justice, peace, and humanitarian service.” The AFSC was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947.
In its mission statement, the AFSC asserts that it is, “committed to the principles of nonviolence and justice.” In describing its work, the AFSC points out, “We seek to understand and address the root causes of poverty, injustice, and war.”
The American Friends Service Committee’s work includes efforts in a wide variety of areas. For example, the AFSC is working to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, it calls for a realignment of national spending priorities, focusing upon a decrease in military spending and an increase in expenditures for housing, medical care, and other human needs.
The AFSC has recently prepared a traveling exhibit, called “Windows and Mirrors.” It is a collection of forty-five panels (4 ft. by 6 ft. each), designed by dozens of artists, to memorialize Afghan civilian casualties. The AFSC states, “These ‘windows’ on a war torn country also are ‘mirrors’ reflecting our identity as a nation at war.” The AFSC has invited people to contact the organization, if they would like to help bring this project to their communities. A slideshow that provides a preview of the panels, along with further info, can be found here.
The American Friends Service Committee also offers an excellent collection of materials detailing the cost of war. This collection includes banners, brochures, videos, handouts, and petitions. For info, click here.
American Rhetoric
The American Rhetoric website provides the text of thousands of speeches, including those on its list of the Top 100 Speeches of historical significance. In many instances, audio and video are also provided.
Code Pink
Officially called, “CODEPINK: Women for Peace,” Code Pink was founded in 2002. It has grown to become one of the most respected and influential of the American antiwar and social justice organizations.
Code Pink’s mission statement indicates, “CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities.”
Code Pink takes its name as a play on words, referring to the homeland security system of tiered threat level alerts (codes green, blue, yellow, orange, and red). The Code Pink alert is presented as, “a feisty call for women and men to ‘wage peace.’”
Code Pink actively supports the “Bring our War $$ Home” campaign, urges us to “Tell Hilary Clinton: Stop Doing Business with Blackwater,” and encourages people to move President Bush’s new book to the Fiction, Fantasy, or Crime section of their local bookshops.
Paul Krugman
Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman, is a popular New York Times columnist. His blog, “The Conscience of a Liberal,” presents a collection of blog posts and columns that address a number of current economic and political issues.
Dr. Krugman has written several books, including “The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century,” “The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008,” and, with the same title as his blog, “The Conscience of a Liberal.”
Krugman’s blog site includes links to columns like “Let’s Not Make A Deal,” where, speaking of the Republicans’ insistence on tax cuts for the wealthy, he urges President Obama to “denounce the blackmail for what it is.” For easy links to a vast collection of Krugman columns, readers might want to check out The Unofficial Paul Krugman Archive .
The Nation
The Nation is one of the oldest and most respected magazines of liberal opinion. Founded by abolitionists, almost 150 years ago, The Nation has become an invaluable source of information and analysis, featuring essays by many of today’s most insightful authors.
The Nation’s website presents numerous excellent articles, on topics that include, for example, globalization, changes in Congress, influence of the Tea Party, checking corporate power, LGBT organizing, civil rights activism, and progressive taxation.
Among those who often write for The Nation are Christopher Hayes, Jeremy Scahill, Naomi Klein, Alexander Cockburn, Melissa Harris-Perry, and Katrina vanden Heuvel. A listing of current columns can be found here.
Note that, through the website, you can subscribe to three different Nation newsletters.
National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth
The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) states, “Now, more than ever, those of us who are proactive in opposing war must help shape the tone of anti-war and peace conversations to be more inclusive of the counter-recruitment analysis.” NNOMY works with numerous other peace and justice organizations to “help the nation understand that providing youth with peaceful and viable alternatives to achieve success in life is an important sign of a civilized society.”
The NNOMY website provides a wealth of information on counter-recruiting, alternatives to the military, militarism and war, and related topics. The site also includes a collection of downloadable documents that can be helpful to the peace and justice community.
National Priorities Project
The National Priorities Project states that its mission is to make “complex federal budget information transparent and accessible so people can prioritize and influence how their tax dollars are spent.” The NPP provides tools and information that help people to understand the federal budget, including sources of federal income and the programs on which monies are spent.
The NPP provides, for example, a “tax chart” tool. Using this tool, on the NPP website, the user can enter an amount paid in federal income tax. The tool will indicate how much of that amount was used to support the military, health care, education, and other programs and services.
The “trade offs” tool provides the user the ability to see how much his/her state or county contributes to various federal programs, and what other services could be provided instead with a like amount of funding.
The NPP also offers a variety of helpful publications, educational materials for schools, and other resources.
New Priorities Network
The New Priorities Network (NPN) describes itself as “an initiative to fund urgently needed jobs and restore vital public services by substantially cutting military spending.” The NPN has issued a Six-Month Plan, designed to begin a massive effort to “secure ongoing funding for jobs and services in our communities by building a movement to radically change Federal spending priorities and end the wars.”
The NPN website links to numerous helpful resources, including, for example, an article titled, “Five Myths About Defense Spending,” and a slideshow called, “The Big (Military) Taboo.”
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) provides a wealth of information about the dangers and the costs of nuclear power. It is a great resource for those who are working to help our country to develop a safe, sustainable energy future.
The NIRS website provides dozens of fact sheets that can be of immense help to the anti-nuclear activist. The topics addressed include, for example, nuclear power and climate change, the storage of radioactive waste, nuclear industry government loan guarantees, and alternatives to nuclear power.
Peace Action
Peace Action describes itself as, “the nation’s largest grassroots peace network.” Peace Action has thousands of members, belonging to dozens of state and local chapters or affiliate organizations.
The organization’s work encompasses lobbying, direct action, online organizing, and other efforts to achieve “an environment where all are free from violence and war.” Peace Action states that it is “working to promote a new U.S. foreign policy that is based on peaceful support for human rights and democracy, eliminating the threat of weapons of mass destruction, and cooperation with the world community.”
Peace Action’s website provides numerous useful resources, including an excellent Nuclear Weapons Policy Guide, which provides helpful information on the NPT, CTBT, and START Treaties.
Physicians for a National Health Program
The mission of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) is “to educate physicians, other health workers, and the general public on the need for a comprehensive, high-quality, publicly-funded health care program, equitably-accessible to all residents of the United States.” The organization is an authoritative, influential advocate for the establishment of universal, comprehensive, single-payer health insurance.
The PNHP website provides an excellent collection of lobbying materials, links for emailing your member of Congress, citations of numerous relevant research studies, and various other tools that will be helpful to those working to establish a more effective, comprehensive, and just health care system.
PNHP’s list of questions and answers about a single-payer system is the best that I have ever seen. You can access it here.
Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping
Reverend Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping describe their core values as, “participatory democracy, ecological sustainability, and the preservation of vibrant communities and local economies.” The Rev and his 35-person choir believe, “consumerism is overwhelming our lives. The corporations want us to have experiences only through their products.”
Based in New York City, the group has traveled and performed throughout the world. Reverend Billy and his choir indicate that they use “theater, humor, and grassroots organizing to advance individuals and communities towards a more equitable future – starting today.”
Reverend Billy and the choir are the subject of the film, “What Would Jesus Buy?” Rev Billy’s site indicates that the film “follows our trials and triumphs across the country as we preach and sing to help holiday-abused Americans find a new Christmas without products.” To watch the film’s trailer, click here.
The film is entertaining and inspiring. It is widely available on DVD. The Rev’s website provides a downloadable Community Screening Kit that groups might find helpful.
The site also provides a schedule of upcoming events, descriptions of several social justice campaigns with which the group is involved, and info on inviting Billy and the choir to perform.
School of the Americas Watch
Founded in 1990, the School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) describes itself as, “a large diverse, grassroots movement, rooted in solidarity with the people of Latin America.” SOA Watch works to close the School of the Americas (now renamed, “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” or WHINSEC). The School of the Americas is located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
SOA Watch provides this background to the organization’s founding: “On November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their co-worker, and her teenage daughter were massacred in El Salvador. A U.S. Congressional Task Force reported that those responsible were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas.”
SOA Watch asserts, “Since then, evidence of atrocious human rights abuses that have been committed against the people of Latin America have come back to point to those trained at the SOA. This evidence abounds.”
The School of the Americas Watch, each November, holds a massive demonstration at Fort Benning, calling for the closure of the School of the Americas. On the same day, local demonstrations of support for the SOA Watch are held throughout the United States.
The organization’s website provides a comprehensive history of the SOA Watch, and a thorough explanation of the issues involved. The site also offers a collection of helpful resources, including an excellent Handbook for Nonviolent Action. You can click here for the website of our local SOA Watch affiliate.
United for Peace and Justice
Founded in 2002, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is one of the most active and influential antiwar organizations in the United States. UFPJ describes itself as a coalition of local and national groups that “oppose our government’s policy of permanent warfare and empire-building.” The organization’s national steering committee includes members of the American Friends Service Committee, Code Pink, Iraq Veterans Against the War, U.S. Labor Against the War, and numerous other organizations. The coalition comprises more than 1,400 peace and justice groups.
Much of UFPJ’s work focuses upon ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and working for nuclear disarmament. The United for Peace and Justice website presents helpful information on these and other issues. One of the site’s most helpful resources is its collection of weekly Afghanistan War Weekly reports. These reports provide important information and analysis regarding the war. They also provide links to a number of “featured essays” that present valuable information and insight regarding the war. An archive of these reports can be found here.
Veterans for Peace
Veterans for Peace (VFP), founded in 1985, describes itself as, “an educational and humanitarian organization dedicated to the abolishment of war.” VFP is a national organization whose membership includes men and women veterans of all eras and duty stations.
Some of VFP’s areas of concern and involvement are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the preservation of VA health care, the defense of veterans’ rights, and the closure of the School of the Americas.
Some of VFP’s efforts include its work to educate the public about the costs of war, its work to seek justice for veterans and victims of war, and its work to abolish war as an instrument of foreign policy.
The VFP website presents numerous articles about issues related to its goals. The site also includes a number of downloadable resources, including, for example, GI rights information and a graph showing the breakdown of military expenditures.
The local chapter of VFP, here on Long Island, also has an excellent website that might be of interest.
Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Voices for Creative Nonviolence (Voices) practices “active nonviolent resistance to U.S. war-making.” The organization asserts that we must “utilize all nonviolent means available to turn off war -to engage the electoral and legislative process, most definitely; to protest, of course; and to march and demonstrate.”
Voices for Creative Nonviolence believes, “Nonviolence, nonviolent action and nonviolent resistance cannot be a single day event-it must be a commitment we make and act upon every day of our lives.”
A listing of a number of campaigns that Voices has organized (with links to details) is available here. A downloadable brochure, providing the history, beliefs, and goals of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, is available here. The Voices website also provides an excellent set of “Nonviolence Guidelines.”
War Resisters League
Founded in 1923, the War Resisters League (WRL) describes itself as, “the United States’ oldest secular pacifist organization.” Among its most important influences, it cites the teachings of Dave Dellinger, Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Barbara Deming, Cesar Chavez, and A.J. Muste.
WRL provides training in nonviolent direct action. It challenges military recruitment. It places an emphasis upon helping people to organize in their own communities. WRL asserts that it is determined to “strive nonviolently for the removal of the causes of war.”
The War Resisters League’s downloadable Federal Budget Pie Chart is often used by antiwar activists, to point out the sizeable portion of the federal budget that is allocated to military expenditures.
The War Resisters League offers a variety of publications that can be helpful to peace activists. The annual WRL Peace Calendar was one of its most popular publications.
Witness for Peace
Founded in 1983, in response to the U.S. funding of the Nicaraguan contras, Witness for Peace (WFP), has grown to become a leading voice in support of peace and justice in Latin America.
The organization describes itself as, “a politically independent, nationwide grassroots organization of people committed to nonviolence and led by faith and conscience.” The WFP mission statement indicates that WFP works “to support peace, justice, and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing U.S. policies and corporate practices which contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Witness for Peace website presents and explains the organization’s positions on numerous issues, including migration, military aid and training, trade agreements, and the Cuba embargo. The site also presents a number of helpful tips for activists, addressing such items as working with the media, organizing nonviolent actions, and lobbying members of Congress.
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