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FOR's
1998-2000 Program Highlights
Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence
FOR Executive Director John Dear was a special guest at the United
Nations General Assembly on November 10th, 1998, as the UN voted
to declare the years 2001-2010 "A Decade for a Culture of Peace
and Nonviolence for the Children of the World." FOR had worked
with IFOR and other peace leaders to support the call of the Nobel
Peace Prize Laureates for this Decade.
The FOR has distributed over 200,000 brochures announcing the
Decade to members, communities and organizations around the country,
and devoted a special issue of Fellowship magazine to it.
FOR has begun to organize a "Peoples Campaign for Nonviolence;"
a mobilization of national and grassroots peace and justice groups
to come to Washington, D.C. during the summer of 2000 to speak
out, pray and
protest for disarmament and justice.
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Nobel Peace Laureates Delegation to Iraq
 Adolfo
Perez Esquivel and Mairead Corrigan Maguire visit a child in an
Iraqi hospital where medicine and basic supplies are almost impossible
to come by due to the continued sanctions.
U.S. economic sanctions have killed over one million Iraqis,
mostly children under five, since 1990. In March, 1999, FOR led
a delegation featuring two Nobel Peace Prize Laureates to Iraq.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Belfast, Northern Ireland and Adolfo
Perez Esquivel of Buenos Aires, Argentina joined John Dear, FOR
Executive Director, and Akadim Chikandamina of Zimbabwe, President
of IFOR, for several days in Baghdad to witness and tell of the
disastrous effects of the economic sanctions.
The FOR delegation met with UN officials, NGO representatives,
government and religious leaders, as well as Queen Noor of Jordan,
but was most affected by visiting the children. Hundreds of school
children greeted the delegation by singing "We Shall Overcome"
in Arabic, and pleaded for an end to the sanctions. Doctors at
one hospital explained how they have no medicine, and the delegation
sat with scores of dying children and their mothers. At press
conferences in Baghdad and Amman, the delegation called for the
immediate lifting of the economic sanctions and relief for the
children.
"In fifty years," Mairead Maguire asked, "we will wonder, where
was the world when Iraqi children were dying?" Since the delegation,
the Nobel laureates have spoken out extensively against the economic
sanctions.
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Peace and Disarmament
FOR called for a national week of actions against weapons of
mass destruction in early August, 1998, and sponsored two "Citizens
Weapons Inspection Teams" actions. Concerned individuals and communities
sought to inspect U.S. sites of weapons of mass destruction, just
as the US was doing in Iraq. Mirroring the UNSCOM weapons inspections,
on August 6th, 1998, an FOR delegation of twelve people, including
a member of Canada's Parliament, tried to enter the Trident nuclear
weapons submarine base in Groton, Connecticut, to protest both
US nuclear weapons and the ongoing US/UN economic sanctions against
Iraq. Similar actions were held at the Bangor Nuclear Naval Submarine
Base near Seattle, and Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratories
near San Francisco.
FOR also called for days of interfaith prayer and fasting to
mark the anniversary of Nagasaki day, August 9th, as UNSCOM was
considering extending the economic sanctions on Iraq. It collected
thousands of paper cranes, symbols of nuclear disarmament, from
around the country and mailed them to President Clinton asking
for nuclear disarmament and an end to the economic sanctions.
FOR worked with other faith-based peace organizations to revive
the nearly twenty year old "New Abolitionist Covenant," calling
for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. FOR wrote, published
and distributed thousands of revised interfaith versions of the
Covenant, asking people of faith and conscience everywhere to
dedicate themselves to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Likewise,
FOR continues to support and work with Abolition 2000, an international
coalition campaigning for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Hundreds of FOR members joined in the national protest calling
for the closing of the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning,
Georgia, where soldiers from Latin America are trained to assassinate
and torture. Executive Director John Dear was a featured speaker
at the November 20 rally with 7000 participants. He and Fellowship
editor Richard Deats crossed the line on Nov. 20, 1998, along
with 2,370 others in an historic nonviolent protest. Instead of
arresting the demonstrators, the authorities released them immediately.
Besides speaking out against US bombings of Iraq and Yugoslavia,
FOR issued press statements criticizing the US bombings of the
Sudan and Afghanistan in August, 1998, and offered extensive radio
and TV interviews with its staff. The day after the bombings,
John Dear published an editorial calling for a nonviolent foreign
policy in USA Today.
Along with IFOR, FOR was represented at the international Hague
Appeal for Peace gathering in the Hague, Netherlands, in May,
1998, leading a panel forum on interfaith work for peace, and
a discussion on nonviolence.
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Iraq Campaigns to End Economic Sanctions
and to Stop U.S. Bombings
 Demonstration
outside the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia, in
which FOR members participated.
In the fall of 1998, FOR organized the "Holiday Gift of Life
to the Children of Iraq Campaign," asking thousands of individuals
and religious communities across the country to pray for an end
to the US economic sanctions on Iraq. Organizing packets included
interfaith prayer services; action ideas; sample letter to the
editors and editorials; and "Covenant of Peace" statements, which
were hand delivered to Iraqis during FOR's Nobel Laureate delegation.
FOR continues to maintain the Iraq Action Digest, the largest
national Iraq service, based on the Internet, to help local and
regional activists organize and learn the latest information on
Iraq. FOR organized scores of vigils, teach-ins, prayer services
and demonstrations against the US bombing of Iraq in December,
1998, and spoke out widely in the media, including dozens of radio
and TV interviews with the national staff, and an editorial in
USA Today by John Dear, the day after the US bombings began.
Several weeks before the bombing, on November 18, 1998, FOR organized
a press conference of religious leaders against the bombing and
the economic sanctions at the National Press Club in Washington,
DC.
In February and March, 1999, FOR cosponsored a major national
tour by Denis Halliday (former UN Chief Relief Coordinator in
Iraq) and Phyllis Bennis (of the Institute for Policy Studies)
to over twenty cities. Staff member Clayton Ramey also traveled
extensively to cities and campuses.
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Campaigns to Stop War and Genocide in
Yugoslavia and Kosova
Rev. John Dear was one of the speakers during a demonstration at
the White House against the bombing in Yugoslavia.
The FOR took an active and early lead in opposing the NATO bombing
of Yugoslavia and the "ethnic cleansing" of Albanian Muslims from
Kosova. From day one, FOR opposed both genocide in Kosova and
US/NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. FOR spoke out on National Public
Radios "All Things Considered;' in USA Today, FOX TV Network
News, and many other local and regional radio and TV programs
against the bombings. It distributed over 27,000 "Covenants of
Peace with the People of Serbia and Kosovo" statements to be signed
by individuals and congregations. FOR compiled and distributed
thousands of "Stop the War in Kosova" resource and organizing
packets, with fact sheets, articles, action suggestions, interfaith
prayers, and other tools for local groups across the country FOR
helped organize vigils, teach-ins, prayer services and demonstrations
in dozens of cities.
FOR helped bring together over twenty national peace organizations
to form "The National Coalition for Peace in Yugoslavia," in an
effort to stop the war. Besides holding a press conference with
Congressional representatives at the National Press Club in Washington,
DC, FOR spoke out with others at the White House, and led a demonstration
against the bombing on June 3, which was featured in The Washington
Post and other news media.
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Racial and Economic Justice
FOR published and distributed, "Toward the Beloved Community,"
a booklet reviewing the racial and economic injustices which plague
our country, and offering alternatives and solutions.
FOR joined the New York City campaign against police brutality,
sparked after the killing of West African immigrant Amadou Diallo,
who was shot at 41 times by the police, though unarmed. Over one
thousand New Yorkers were arrested in the largest nonviolent demonstrations
in New York in recent decades.
FOR continues to support racial dialogue and reconciliation programs
around the country. In Ossining, NY, FOR helped facilitate racial
dialogue, and initiated a call for a "Year of Heating" to help
rebuild the community after the shooting of an unarmed, young
African American man by a white police officer. FOR also helped
organize part of the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage,
tracing in reverse the route of the slave trade, from New England
to West Africa. FOR continues to sponsor campaigns against the
death penalty, to support in particular Mumia Abu-Jamal and to
work with jubilee 2000 and the cancellation of all third world
debts.
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"Stop the Hate" Vigils
 Andres
Mares-Muro, FOR's Racial and Economic justice coordinator participated
with other FOR members in protesting police brutality in New York
City.
FOR organized over fifty vigils against hate crime across the
country on November last, 1998. Groups gathered for prayer, silence,
and reflections on nonviolence to mourn the many victims of hate
violence, and to promote reconciliation, tolerance and community.
FOR worked throughout the year to hold over 350 vigils on October
7th, 1999, to help build a movement against hate and for nonviolent,
compassionate love.
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Panama Campaign
In 1999, FOR published a groundbreaking report on the toxic legacy
of forty years of US chemical weapons testing in Panama. The
New York Times and CBS's Sixty Minutes drew on FOR
information to expose the explosive environmental legacy of the
US in Panama.
FOR continued its national campaign on Panama, working with grassroots
groups both in Panama and the US for the withdrawal of all US
military bases from Panama. We have consistently called for the
environmental cleanup of the bases, and their successful conversion
to productive, economically viable purposes that will benefit
Panama's poor majority. The Campaign has received media coverage
both in the US and Panama, and publishes the quarterly "Panama
Update" newsletter.
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Bosnian Reconciliation Work Camp
In July and August, 1998, FOR led a three week interfaith, reconciliation
work camp in Bosnia, with a twelve member delegation to reconstruct
homes, teach English, clean up deserted towns and foster understanding
between Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Serbs. FOR accompanied the
first, peaceful, large-scale return of over 500 Bosnian Muslim
refugees from Kozarac in northwestern Bosnia to their homes in
Serb territory. They helped the refugees clean out their former
city and reclaim burnout homes. Delegation members also taught
English to 137 local students in Prijedor in the Bosnian Serb
Republic. The closing celebration was the first time in six years
where Muslims and Serbs broke bread and sang and danced together.
Together, they wore FOR t-shirts which said, "I will not raise
my child to kill your child."
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Bosnian Student Project
FOR continues to support over 100 Bosnian students who are continuing
their education in the US through our Bosnian Student Project.
The project started 6 years ago in the middle of the Bosnian war.
In 1999, one of our first students, Fatima Mujcinovic of Sarajevo,
passed her Ph.D. qualifying exam in Comparative Literature at
the Univ. Of California at Santa Barbara. Several dozen of our
original 154 students have completed their education and returned
to Bosnia. We now have four students from Kosova in this program,
and are working to include students from Serbia as well. Several
Bosnian students participated in the 1998 Bosnian Reconciliation
Work Camp. We distributed "The Bosnian Student Project: A Response
to Genocide," a forty page booklet by Doug Hostetter about the
FOR's compassionate response to the complexity and horror of the
war in Bosnia and how FOR succeeded in providing homes and schools
in the US for the students.
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Israel/Palestine Delegation
 Rabia
Harris FOR staff member and Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb meeting with a Palestinian
peace activist during the Israel-Palestinian interfaith delegation's
visit to the region.
From October 25 to November 7, 1998, FOR led an interfaith delegation
to Israel and Palestine, to support in the Campaign for Secure
Dwellings. This project brings together Israeli and Palestinian
peace and human rights organizations to protect Palestinian homes
which have been threatened or destroyed in the West Batik. Rabbi
Lynn Gottlieb of the FOR Jewish Peace Fellowship, Rabia Harris
of the FOR Muslim Peace Fellowship, and Doug Hostetter, FOR International/Interfaith
Secretary, co-led the delegation. The delegation met with Israeli
and Palestinian peace activists, Israeli settlers, government
officials, and many Palestinian families whose homes had been
destroyed or threatened. The delegation also participated in helping
a Palestinian family re-terrace their land after destruction by
military bulldozers.
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Peacemaker Training Institute
 Peacemaker
Training Institute participants at FOR headquarters in Nyack, NY
The FOR's Peacemaker Training Institute (PTI) offers leadership
development and nonviolence trainings to enable young people ages
17 to 25 to become peacemakers and justice-activists. Groups of
fifteen to twenty-five young people meet for up to ten days of
intensive activity. Workshops highlighted topics such as conscientious
objection, racial and economic justice, East Timor, and centering
oneself. In March 1999, FOR also hosted two alternative spring
break nonviolence trainings in Nyack, with over thirty students.
FOR continues to do one day nonviolent trainings for schools and
communities; to reach out to young people; to remain in contact
with all past PTI graduates, and to host periodic social justice
gatherings for young people.
After the horrific massacre at the Columbine High School in Littleton,
Colorado, FOR joined with Creative Response to Conflict, in a
call for national implementation of peace education and conflict
resolution training in every elementary and high school in the
US.
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F.O.R. National Conference
 A
gathering at the FOR National Conference.
More than 225 people from across the US gathered at Camp Alexander
Mack in Milford, Indiana from July 15-19, 1998 for FOR's bi-annual
national conference, entitled, "A Future of Nonviolence: Shaping
the 21st Century." Speakers included Anke Kooke, IFOR General
Secretary from the Netherlands; Farid Esack, Muslim liberation
theologian from South Africa; Rev. Mel White, Minister of Justice
of the Metropolitan Community Church; Marietta Jaeger from Murder
Victims Families for Reconciliation; Miltoria Bey from the National
Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice; Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb;
Zoughbi Zoughbi, of the Wiam Conflict Resolution Center in Palestine;
Dr. Ruchama Marton of the Israeli-Palestinian Physicians for Human
Rights; and Jesse Saloman from Peace in the Streets by Kids from
the Streets. The conference featured daily worship services, plenaries,
workshops, and an "Inter-Generational Forum."
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Fellowship Magazine
 The
award-winning November-December 1998 issue of Fellowship
magazine.
FOR's Fellowship magazine remains the oldest, continuously
published peace journal in the United States. From 1998-1999,
Fellowship featured special issues on "The Legacy of Gandhi:
Fifty Years After Gandhi's Assassination," "Women, Peace and the
Future: Marking 150 Years of the organized Women's Movement;"
"Buddhism and Nonviolence, "with a rare interview with Buddhist
monk and author, Thich Nhat Hanh; "Disarmament and justice," outlining
FOR's vision of all disarmament and racial and economic justice
issues; and "The Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence,"
a special issue explaining and promoting the United Nations call
for a decade of peace. The Associated Church Press gave Fellowship
an award for its special "Women, Peace and The Future" issue.
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1998 Pfeffer Peace Prize
FOR presented the 1998 Pfeffer Peace Prize to the Comunidad de
Paz de San Jose de Apartado, a "Community of Peace" composed of
twenty-eight settlements in the San Jose region of Colombia that
united to create an island of peace and neutrality in a sea of
political violence. Community members have committed themselves
not to bear arms; not to provide logistical support to any armed
group; not to provide or manipulate information for any side in
the massive continuing conflict; and not to appeal to any party
in the conflict for help in solving personal, family or community
problems.
John Dear presented the 1998 Pfeffer Peace Prize to Gildardo
Tuberquia, a representative of the Comunidad de Paz, on December
10, 1998 in Madison, Wisconsin at a public ceremony sponsored
by the Colombian Support Network which nominated the winner.
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1998 and 1999 Martin Luther King, Jr., Awards
FOR presented the 1998 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award to Ken Brown,
a long time peace educator and professor at Manchester College,
during the FOR national conference in Indiana, on July 1998.
FOR presented the 1999 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award to Edith
Bush of West Palm Beach, Florida, a longtime civil rights leader
and community activist who has spent her life promoting racial
reconciliation and economic justice. John Dear presented the award
at a ceremony before the West Palm Beach City Council on May 4th,
1999.
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F.O.R. Local Groups/Memberships
In addition to our 75 local groups across the country, new FOR
local groups were started in New York City, Boston, San Francisco,
Los Angeles and Colorado. Every month, the national office sends
out "The Local Organizer," a newsletter and packet of organizing
suggestions, to key contacts from each group. It also works through
the Internet to support efforts for peace. National staff members
regularly visit groups around the country, and offers them seeds
grants for special projects. FOR hosted a weekend gathering of
FOR Local Organizers from around the country to share, reflect
and strategize together, as well as meet the national staff at
Nyack.
Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Sr. Helen Prejean, and Fred Rogers
were among the one thousand people who signed the FOR Statement
of Purpose and joined FOR this year.
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Religious Peace Fellowships
FOR hosted a February 20-22, 1999 gathering of representatives
from 13 of the FOR Religious Peace Fellowships. They shared a
vision of nonviolence, and strategies for organizing within their
religious communities. The participants agreed to meet annually,
share materials, newsletters and strategies, and reach out to
include other groups in future gatherings. The fifteen national
religious peace fellowships affiliated with the FOR act as voices
for peace and nonviolence within their religious communities.
FOR contributed pacifist voices from Muslim, Orthodox, and mainstream
Protestant traditions in a book of interfaith reflections on nonviolence
called Transforming Violence: Linking Local and Global Peacemaking
(Herald Press, 1998).
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Ongoing F.O.R. Projects
- FOR continues to maintain representatives at the United Nations,
speaking for peace and nonviolence throughout the world. It also
maintains an historic archives of materials on peace and nonviolence
at Swarthmore College.
- FOR continues to support SIPAZ (Servicio International Pam La
Paz), an international peace presence and source of objective
and credible information and analysis on the continuing conflict
in Chiapas, Mexico. The SIPAZ team promotes peace and dialogue
throughout Chiapas, and to publish a newsletter for activists
in the US. FOR also periodically sends out action alerts about
human rights abuses and crises in Latin America to members in
the US.
- During the year, FOR hosted Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead
Corrigan Maguire of Belfast, Northern Ireland at the FOR headquarters
in Nyack, New York for a public lecture, as well as organized
press interviews for media in the New York City area. We also
featured a talk on nuclear disarmament by author and scholar Jonathan
Schell.
- FOR continues to join with other national organizations and
religious communities to sponsor and support a wide variety of
campaigns for peace and justice.
- FOR continues to publish and distribute its annual list of available
books about peace, justice and nonviolence. FOR also publishes
and distributes a catalogue with cards, posters, communication
games, and other items related to our mission.
- The FOR Statement of Purpose has been republished in Spanish
and is again being distributed to Latino communities across the
country.
- Executive Director John Dear and Fellowship Editor Richard
Deats are advisors to a ten-part PBSTV documentary series on peacemakers
in the twentieth century.
- FOR continues a special renovation of its library, to collect
and collate books on peace, nonviolence peace movements and peacemakers,
as well as historic FOR and Fellowship materials.
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