Update on Anti-War Movement Building Program

Catalyst Project has been serving on the National Committee of the War Resisters League since 2005.  Over the past year, the War Resisters League, one of the oldest anti-militarist, anti-authoritarian national peace organizations in the U.S., has been interviewing grassroots organizations around the country to draw lessons on key questions for building effective, dynamic, movements to end the  occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan while advancing economic, racial, gender and social justice. This Listening Process is part of a long-term effort by WRL to center organizing in working class communities and communities of color in the leadership of anti-war movement building.  The new special issue of WIN, WRL’s quarterly magazine, features a report discussing the reflections and insights gathered from these interviews.

Clare Bayard of  Catalyst Project who leads our work with WRL has played a major role in the Listening Process and we are deeply grateful for the hard work of everyone at WRL, and to those who were interviewed, for making this resource available to the larger movement. To read the report online or order copies of WIN Magazine featuring the report go to http://www.warresisters.org/listeningprocess
Here are the questions discussed in this issue:
 
What is lacking in the peace and antiwar movement? What prevents the emergence of a stronger, more coordinated, more strategic movement?

What are the biggest openings and opportunities for organizing today? How do we build a more multiracial and cross-class antiwar movement? What roles can veterans, soldiers and military families play in ending war? What is the relevance of nonviolence today? How do we link peace and justice issues and build alliances? What does base-building look like in antiwar organizing? And where to from here?

For our comrades in New York,  on July 10th WRL will host a discussion on these questions, featuring panelists    
 Monami Maulik, Desis Rising Up & Moving
Jose Vasquez, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Judith Leblanc, United for Peace & Justice
Greg Payton, U.S. Labor Against the War
Matthew Smucker, War Resisters League
Come join us at the Brecht Forum (451 West St) at 7:30 (more info at    
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=17517563660