2015 needs WIN. Not just this year, not just the very magazine you hold in your hands (or are reading online). Our overall moment in history, in the adolescence of the 21st
century, needs the politics of revolutionary nonviolence.
That politics is proclaimed on the cover of this unique publication, often described within its pages, but scarcely else- where noted or heeded. Even we may not have the right words just yet to adequately describe what unarmed revolution looks like. And we are surely—in the footsteps of iconic nonviolence thinkers Barbara Deming and A.J. Muste—still experimenting with the practical meaning of our deeply held beliefs. We may not know the exact best ways to bring these words to you, as print fades to flat screen, and ever-smaller electronic machines transmit messages to shake our psyche. But we know that we must be on a better path to build the world anew.
For all these reasons, I pick as my favorite issue the new WIN, Volume 23, Number 3, Summer 2006: a deceptively humdrum set of numbers to signal the re-birth of its illustrious predecessor. As someone who had the honor of both writing for, and being written about in, all four WRL-related publica- tions (WRL News, WIN, the NVA and WIN again), I heard this issue, more than any other, shouting out, “We’re STILL HERE, refreshed, renewed!”
With the beauty and brilliance of two doves on the cover carrying movement-building messages, with the challenging and dazzling energy of new editor Francesca Fiorentini, the re-born WIN promised to “explore the cracks in this empire that are bringing us closer to the just world in which we have yet to live—from free health clinics and collective childcare to alternative economic systems and alternative energy.” The 21st- century WIN dedicated itself to “harness[ing] the revolutionary imagination, bringing stories from a movement bold enough to act and smart enough to dream.”
We still need workshops and trainings in nonviolence; we need grand remembrances of past glories without getting stuck in a “we tried that back then and it didn’t work” mentality. When Francesca led us to revitalize The Nonviolent Activist into a newly re-named WIN, she did it with acute awareness of the need to learn from past efforts while building bridges to cutting-edge movements of the future. She also understood, from her own experiences and as a wise younger activist sensitive to the lessons surrounding her own present moment, that the issues of race, class, patriarchy, and the gender binary were vital in examining and resisting war in all its forms. It should come as no surprise, then, that the cover article brought together five inspiring voices, diverse yet united in their commitment to building new movements in creative ways:
WRL elder and WWII conscientious objector Ralph DiGia implored us to find new energy: The army grows all the time. They get better equipment, have better wars, and what the pacifist movement needs is some inspiration—what’s the next step? We can’t always just have demonstrations and petitions and people being arrested. That doesn’t seem to work. ... We need a spark.
WRL New England staffer and longtime nonviolence trainer Joanne Sheehan proposed that we make space for a more rigorous process of self-reflection: The government has learned much more than the activists have about the lessons from the Vietnam War era. ... Analyze. Evaluate. How did it go? What did we do well? What could we have done better? ... Can we honestly look at these lessons in an inter-generational way?
Black Panther and former political prisoner Ashanti Alston noted the tightrope quality of movement-building across the generations: I’m not trying to be the leader. But I do want to participate, because I think that I’m on to some things that can be helpful. And at the same time, be humble enough to be able to listen to others and engage in things that might show me shortcomings in myself or open me up to new learning. We gotta interact. We can’t do this work without taking risks—com- fort zones have got to be shaken up a bit.
Sista II Sista member Ije Ude discussed working with young women of color: An important part of our development is being able to communicate and express ourselves. Especially for young women, who are taught to be quiet and not express ourselves or have an opinion. We create opportunities for young women to experience their own voice and the impact that that can have.
Youth empowerment activist Hannah El-Silimy commented on the disconnect regarding not only age, but the ways different generations look at the question of pacifism: A lot of people coming from the peace movement from older generations are not open to dialogue about nonviolence and other methods of change. It’s just like, “No, nonviolence is the answer and that’s all there is to it.” ... Part of it is the messenger. ... There has to be an understanding of why people wouldn’t choose nonvio- lence, a context to different struggles. ... We also need to talk about violence not just in the context of U.S. foreign policy, but to see violence and racism in our own country.
In addition to this far-reaching first feature, the new WIN contained shorter commentaries and reviews from a wide range of peace and justice stalwarts. Indypendent editor and co-founder Arun Gupta wrote about brewing war prospects with Iran, and Fellowship of Reconciliation leader Virginia Baron described her recent visit to that country with an FOR delegation. Then-arms trade expert Frida Berrigan presented an action update on Alliant Tech, the “merchant of death of the month.” The reviews included pieces by WWII conscientious objector Larry Gara, a founder of the field of peace studies,on Ira Chernus’ key new work, American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea; West Coast New Left activist Max Elbaum on Letters from Young Activists; young Catholic Worker Amanda Daloisio on Don’t Call Me a Saint, a new documentary about Catholic Worker co-founder Dorothy Day; the late, legendary veterans rights and military organizer Tod Ensign on Sir, No Sir! the just-released film on antiwar veterans and active-duty members of the armed services; editor extraordinaire Judith Mahoney Pasternak on a new book by women’s suffrage historian Robert Cooney about that movement’s legacy; and (required disclosure) this writer on a recent biography of the great U.S. pacifist coalition-builder Dave Dellinger.
All those pieces spoke in one way or another to the mission of the new WIN, but perhaps none more explicitly than the look at the career of Dave Dellinger, who understood more than most that revolutionary nonviolenceis, in fact, not a contradiction in terms. Rather, it’s a necessary amalgam of cutting-edge concepts, or, as I wrote, a “dialectic: a springboard to action and thinking outside of the box, as opposedto a fundamental flaw.”
Under Francesca’s leadership, that 2006 issue of WIN embodied this vital dialectic, as does the War Resisters League under the leadership of national program officers Ali Issa and Tara Tabassi. WRL’s recent work has brought us correspondence and campaigns especially relevant for the challenges of this century. They have boosted the very unfinished broader project of making the organization and its publications, including (if to a lesser extent) this favorite issue of mine, more than the extremely segregated spaces we continue to be. If we are to finish the job of making war irrelevant, of bringing about a beloved community of justice, we must imagine a space beyond board rooms and carefully kept endowments, taking calculated risks based on broad visions of effective, lasting social change.
Perhaps then, WIN will rise again. At the very least, perhaps — one campaign at a time — some victories will be won.
Matt Meyer’s first article in a WRL-related magazine, published when he had just turned 19, was “The Coalition Proliferation Principle,” in the December 15, 1981, issue of the original WIN. He has since published extensively in WRL publications and elsewhere and currently serves as War Resisters’ International’s Africa Support Network Coordinator.
