Flow Charts and Food
The War Resisters League’s National Committee came together for a hot weekend of structure assessment and decision making around program in mid-July. Against the backdrop of the recent U.S. Social Forum - where War Resisters League had a robust presence amid more than 12,000 activists - these seemingly routine organizational exercises took new urgency and importance as well as new meaning and energy.
The subtext of our evaluation and exercises became grappling with how to be a strong, vibrant, and consistent voice for revolutionary nonviolence in a political moment marked by savage and imperial warmaking.
Having revised our structure so that fewer - but more consistent - people are involved in the minutiae of budget and programming, the National Committee new finds itself peopled by overstretched activists. Many of the solutions to our structure appear to be not tweaking roles or revising flow charts but bringing in more people and developing ways to recruit, involve, and hold on to interested and skilled activists. The Listening Process - in which staff and volunteers are interviewing active league members, local representatives, and members of allied organizations and movements - is a key piece of answering those questions.
The opportunity to assess changes to our structure came at an exciting time for the organization - a large bequest provided us with a rare chance to fund new initiatives and programs and make good on old debts.
This NC was unique in other respects. For the first time in years, we were ooperating with a full complement of staff members. And for the second NC in a row, a new baby made an appearance - delighting and distracting dedicated NC-ers. Tobias Maas Daloisio was born to Matt and Amanda on June 2, and came by on Sunday afternoon for a visit. On the last day of December, the NC welcomed the newest member of the Sheehan-Gaumer dynasty: Rosena Jane Sheehan-Gaumer, daughter of Corina Johnson and Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer, WRL section rep to the WRI (and, of course, granddaughter of WRL New England’s Joanne Sheehan and Rick Gaumer).
Besides welcoming new additions, the NC enjoyed some stalwart favorites: the hospitality of the Westbeth Arts Village, Rick Gaumer’s great cooking and the Resistance in Brooklyn’s anti-fourth-of-july BBQ at Meg Starr and Matt Meyer’s house.
- Frida Berrigan, WRL National Committee
Berrigan Wins
After a vigorous campaign by fellow members, WRL National Committee member Frida Berrigan was elected to the steering committee of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) in June. “WRL delegates worked very hard to get me elected,” said Berrigan. “We even made buttons that are now collectors items - Frida for SC,” she said.
As a member of the national antiwar group’s steering committee, Berrigan hopes to “bring WRL’s historic and ever-relevant commitment to revolutionary nonviolence and concrete strategies for movement building to end the war,” said Berrigan, who is actively seeking input from other WRL members. “I see my participation very much as a group effort.”
Frida Berrigan can be reached at frida.berrigan [at] gmail.com.
Activists Take Over Atlanta
One of the most exciting aspects of the first U.S. Social Forum, held in downtown Atlanta, was seeing upscale hotels populated by poor peoples’ movement activists, with revolutionary literature strewn in every lobby and corridor. WRL staff and members attended with new pamphlets, “What Every Girl Should Know about the U.S. Military: Consider This - Before You Enlist,” which was produced in conjunction with the Women of Color Resource Center, and “Bite the Bullet,” a creatively designed, very readable info sheet from the War Profiteering Education & Action Network. A new issue of WIN magazine was unveiled, and new outreach materials were eagerly snatched up by the 12,000-plus activists in attendance.
WRL facilitators presented several workshops as part of the Not Your Soldier campaign and provided a slate of recommended workshops, many of which ended up with packed rooms. Relationships were forged around issues of how to build effective strategies, opposing military bases abroad and domestically, and connecting issues of poverty and racism to the antiwar movement. Despite the heat, humidity, and rain, the spirit, enthusiasm, and concrete dedication of the thousands of people who came made the USSF seem like a creation in the making
- Jim Haber, WRL National Committee
The Birth of SWAN
As the U.S. military spends more money than every trying to convince girls to join the military, the newly formed Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), a group of military women and veteran, has emerged on the national scene to highlight the unique perspectives, hardships, and health needs of women in the military. Organized in partnership with the Women of Color Resource Center, SWAN includes women who have served at U.S. bases around the world in intelligence roles, as military police, and as field medics. Many members have recent experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In their first brochure, “What Every Girl Should Know About the U.S. Military,” published with the War Resisters League, SWAN offers a straightforward message: You need to know more before joining. The promise of school tuition and job training might be attractive to scores of girls planning their future, but it is just a small part of what it means to enlist in “this man’s army.”
The voices of four veterans are highlighted including Navy vet Maricela Guzman. “I joined the service to have the opportunity to go to school and serve my country as a proud American. After being raped while in the military, I could not go to school because of my depression.”
The VA system is often unable to provide adequate care for the more than one-third of the women veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan with mental disorders. For example, VA hospitals offer group therapy for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet, the presence of men in such groups can hinder frank discussion about the source of women’s trauma - frequently from assault and harassment from fellow soldiers.
In the coming months, SWAN will be rolling out comprehensive efforts to support and mentor young women considering military service, refer military women to government and private resources, and hold retreats especially designed to foster healing among women veterans. The goal - creating a cadre of women leaders who support fellow sisters in arms to navigate the current military and veterans system and to help women transform their military experience into a new, peaceful worldview.
To order bulk copies of the brochure, contact the War Resisters League. SWAN encourages military women and allies to join the network. Email supportwomenvets [at] gmail.com for more information.
- Aimee Allison, SWAN leadership team, author, Army of None (see review in this issue). For more information: Aimee Allison, P.O. Box 16093, Oakland, CA 94610
