Written by Washington Peace Center   


By Lisa Fithian
The recent murder of Osama Bin Laden has renewed a call for the U.S. to withdraw from Afghanistan. This feels especially poignant as I am in New York City working two blocks from the World Trade Center site. I am working on a significant mobilization on Wall Street against the Big Banks and Millionaires who are stealing our wealth and wreaking havoc in communities across the country. Looking back over twenty years and numerous wars, this moment feels the most hopeful. War is finally emerging as an economic justice issue.

My relationship with the peace movement began in 1983, when I learned about the struggles for justice in Central America, the destructiveness of U.S. foreign policy, and the power of nonviolent direct action to change the course of history. The Pledge of Resistance was a dynamic national campaign that used the threat of mass noncooperation and civil disobedience to interrupt business as usual if the United States invaded Nicaragua. Over an eight year period, 100,000 people signed the Pledge, and thousands of us were arrested in creative and coordinated action across the country calling for justice. The U.S. never did invade.

In 1987, I joined the Washington Peace Center, and we began an anti-racist process that looked at the oppression and violence at home and began a transformation within our leadership, program and base. We not only worked for peace in Palestine and ending the 1990 Iraq war, but for obtaining healthcare for children in need, supporting women in their fight to end domestic violence, and calling for gay rights. In 1987, a big coalition with some labor participation organized a three day national mobilization for Peace and Justice in Central America and South Africa culminating with a direct action that shut down every entrance to the CIA headquarters in Langley, VA, with 600 people arrested. The unions who participated were terrified but thrilled with our success.

Fast forward to 1999, a moment when a convergence of movements successfully closed down the World Trade Organization. The
WTO Protests in Seattle earned the direct action movement a lot of respect, and diverse forces including labor began to build new
relationships rooted in solidarity agreements. It was an exciting time, until September 11th, 2001 when the budding global justice movement was derailed and the peace movement ascended. Our movement for global justice, using creative direct action focused on the destructiveness of capitalism, was replaced by a movement using mass mobilizations and
legislative work focused on militarism and foreign policy.

We have now gone through ten more years of war, thousands dead and a country in ruins, despite the historic protest called by United for Peace and Justice on February 15, 2003, where 11 million people in almost 800 cities around the world mobilized against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. We built a majority opinion against the war and helped elect the first
black President on a promise for peace, but we have seen neither peace nor justice.

What can we learn from the past 20 years? How do we keep growing our movement
for peace?

1. Build a strategic analysis of peace. Peace cannot exist without justice. Develop campaigns which
connect peace to the environment, economy, housing, healthcare, prisons, immigration, women’s rights and more.
War must be seen as an economic issue, and those of us with privileges must be allies and work in solidarity with
communities under attack if we really hope to end war.

2. Organize Consciously! (Don’t just mobilize.) Build an organization with a clear and accountable base that
empowers all. Use decentralized models like affinity groups and spokes councils that can build direct democracy and
support creative and strategic direct action. We must use our power to heal and build, not oppress and destroy.

3. Build a culture that celebrates life – rooted in
fairness and respect that values human connection, cooperation, authenticity, creativity, imagination, equality, and
sustainability. Dump consumerism, branding, competition, profit-making and violence.
I do not know if I will see an end to war in my lifetime, but I do know that it is possible to build structures and
relationships that liberate, and that people working together have the power to create a peaceful and just future. Into
the neighborhoods and into the streets!

Lisa Fithian is a community organizer, activist, and trainer and continues to work with people to access the power they need to build a more just and peaceful community and world. Lisa is also a member of WPC's Advisory Council.