Peace Center Update
Starting Our Fifth Decade Working for Peace & Justice
Winter 2004
Volume 40, Number 1
The Washington Peace Center is one of the oldest peace centers in the US. This is our 40th anniversary as a non-profit working for peace and justice in DC. We grew out of Quaker protests in 1959 at Ft. Detrick, MD against early development of chemical and biological weapons. During the Vietnam War era and for the next twenty years, we were housed and supported by the Washington Friends Meeting.
Over the years we began to address social and economic justice issues, as well as oppose war and militarism. We served as the fiscal sponsor for many local progressive groups, and still do. Among them are Women in Black, Ramona's Way, Mother Tongue, Student Peace Action Network, DC Anti-War Network (DAWN), and 9/11 CitizensWatch. Our educational series, Economics for the People, drew local activists to connect national and global economic trends to local conditions. Our Washington Peace Letter highlights issues ranging from housing, police abuse, and immigration rights to the special struggles of people of color and different ethnic groups in DC. And we organized forums concerning Black Block tactics and non-violence as well as community response to 9/11.
We continue to serve as a clearinghouse for the activist community as well as newcomers and visitors to DC, with our weekly Activist Alert, our presence at community events, and our web page www.washingtonpeacecenter.org.
The Washington Peace Center has traditionally organized emergency response and DC-based demonstrations in the face of war. We were at the forefront of many recent citywide demonstrations opposing US intervention and military responses in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the first Gulf War. Our most recent action, done in concert with Peace Action and DAWN, marched on Vice President Cheney's house. We have assisted national and local demonstrations with legal support, logistics and organizing. We are a founding member of United for Peace and Justice, and we network with peace centers around the country.
This year we participated in the Students Not Soldiers campaign, along with AFSC-DC and CHOICES, one of our projects that counters the constant presence of military recruiters in our high schools. We successfully lobbied local government and the Board of Education to protect the privacy rights of students threatened by the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires schools to give contact information on all students to recruiters unless students or parents object.
Recently, we moved into our new offices at the Flemming Center, which houses a range of progressive and community service groups, realizing a vision of shared space and resources that we have held for a long time. We housed the DC organizer for United for Peace and Justice and played a major role in their recent Teach-In here. Our links to national groups complement the local focus of our work.
Our most recent coordinator, Jenn Carr, has taken a new job with CODEPINK, and we are in the process of hiring a new coordinator and working to expand our working board. In all we do, we try to support the birth of a just and peaceful future here and abroad. We are a gateway into progressive politics for many young people.
We hope you'll join us in the coming year in celebrating the history of the
Washington Peace Center and in beginning our fifth decade of working
for peace and justice.
