Quaker Action, Fall 2004

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Bridges of Respect

Bearing Witness

Blue Skies

Lessons from Africa

Kurarama Campaign Update

Tempered by Faith, Tested by Fire

CPS Camps: A Brief History

A Time to Heal

Women Waging Peace

Reflections

Download the full Quaker Action, Fall 2004 (PDF, 18.3 MB—requires Acrobat Reader)

 

Bearing Witness

AFSC Appeals to the Heart and Mind This Election Year

Roxanne Lawson
AFSC staff Roxanne Lawson
speaks at an Aug. 28
organizing skills conference
for youth in New York City

During the past few months, AFSC has helped stimulate debate about core peace and justice issues. Those efforts have been highlighted by a poignant traveling exhibit and dynamic organizing activities during both political conventions. The stories and pictures on these two pages illustrate some of the extraordinary work done by staff and volunteers nationwide. They provide a glimpse of AFSC at its best.

Eyes Wide Open Exhibit

In May 2003, not long after the United States claimed the war in Iraq was won, four people met in AFSC’s Chicago office intent on showing another reality: the true costs of the war.

During the next ten months, that small group grew to a steady dozen or so, a mix of AFSC staff and volunteers, among them an acclaimed filmmaker, an editor, graphic designers, and dedicated activists who also happen to be dogged researchers. The result was “Eyes Wide Open: Beyond Fear, Towards Hope: An Exhibition on the Human Cost of the Iraq War,” a powerful testament in the Quaker tradition of speaking truth to power.

The multimedia exhibit skillfully shows that the reasons for going to war—that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks, and the war would make the United States safer—were not justified.Events during the past year have shown that none of these claims were true.

The Ongoing Toll of War

“Eyes Wide Open” also lays bare the financial and human costs of the Iraq war.

When it opened, the exhibit had 504 pairs of combat boots bearing the names of U.S. soldiers killed; as of mid-September 2004 that number had climbed to more than 1,000. And the number of Iraqi civilians who lose their lives climbs daily.

“Eyes Wide Open” opened in Chicago on March 18, 2004, the day before the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. Since May, when the boots and wall with the names of Iraqi civilians killed in the war were displayed across the street from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., media from around the world have covered the display.

Growing Power

In the six months since it was launched, “Eyes Wide Open” has traveled throughout the Midwest, the East Coast—including stops at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions—and the Southeast.

Along the way, the power of “Eyes Wide Open” grows. At each stop families and friends gather around boots bearing names of their loved ones to mourn, add mementos to the exhibit, and bear witness to the costs of an unjustified war.

Boston Social Forum

demonstrators
Demonstrators filled the streets of New York
City at the start of the Republican National
Convention

What kind of future do the people of Boston want for their city? How about people throughout the United States or, for that matter, the world? Just what is our vision of a better society?

These were some of the questions addressed during the Boston Social Forum (BSF), which began right before the Democratic National Convention in July. AFSC’s New England Regional Office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, took a lead role in organizing the BSF.

“We were among the first major organizations to sign on with significant financial and staff contributions,” explains Joseph Gerson, director of the Cambridge office’s Peace and Economic Security Program. “We did extensive outreach to justice and peace organizations in the Boston area to bring them into the planning of the BSF.”

The BSF was part of a movement that began in 2001. To date, four World Social Forums have taken place. The forums include presentations on a broad range of cultural, economic, identity, and political issues. The BSF was one of the regional forums organized in anti-cipation of the 2005 World Social Forum.

International Conference

The centerpiece of the BSF was an international peace conference put together by AFSC and the European Network for Peace and Human Rights. Participants came from numerous countries, including Britain, India, Korea, Pakistan, Palestine, and South Africa.

AFSC added to the global scope of the BSF by facilitating the participation of Ruth Selma Herrera of the Nicaraguan Consumers Network, who spoke about the privatization of water, and Gyung-lan Jung, with Women Making Peace, on how South Koreans view the U.S. presidential election’s impact on world peace.

In all, AFSC staff provided leadership for four of the BSF’s 18 “tracks” and support for many others. For example, an Active Arts conference within the BSF was designed to inspire, educate, and mobilize young people toward social action. AFSC also was instrumental in organizing tracks on criminal justice, immigration, and the privatization of water.

In addition, AFSC’s “Eyes Wide Open” traveling exhibit provided a poignant reminder of the true cost of the Iraq war.

Summing up her experience, Ana Amaral, an immigrant rights organizer with Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, said, “This is a place where you can dream.”

More information about “Eyes Wide Open” is available online at eyes.afsc.org.

More information about the Boston Social Forum is available online at www.afsc.org/newengland/bsf. To find out more about the most recent World Social Forum, log onto www.wsfindia.org/index.php.

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