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September 22, 2005

Analysis of the survey results has been completed. Click on the link below to view the document.

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About the survey

This survey was prepared by Tom Hayden and Victor Chen. It will be used by InTheFray, a nonprofit magazine devoted to issues of identity and community, and the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. In 2003 Hayden led a study group at Harvard’s Institute of Politics on social movements and globalization. The survey results will be analyzed by Victor Chen (vchen@fas.harvard.edu, 617.669.2578) at Harvard’s Department of Sociology and by other Harvard students who traveled to Miami as observers during the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) ministerial conference in November 2003: Jordan Bar Am, Anne Beckett, Rachel Bloomekatz, Madeleine Elfenbein, Denise Lambert, Toussaint Losier, and Colin Reardon. The survey is funded with the generous support of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics.

The survey will be distributed at a number of globalization-related demonstrations and events, beginning with the 2003 FTAA ministerial. The survey is anonymous and the completed forms will only be seen by members of the Harvard research team.

Please take a few minutes to participate in this collective process of defining a new identity in the world. Please circulate the survey and ask your friends and colleagues to participate as well. Thank you!

Completed surveys and other correspondence can be sent to Victor Chen, Department of Sociology, Harvard University, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge MA 02138, USA.

Note: The categories make it easier for us to analyze the results. However, feel free to write in a response if you don’t feel they represent your unique viewpoint.

Interviewees needed: As part of his research at Harvard University, Victor Chen is conducting interviews with activists about their participation in the global justice movement (this is separate from the survey). If you are willing to be interviewed or know someone who might be, please contact Victor at vchen@fas.harvard.edu or 617.669.2578. Or, fill out the relevant information in the form below and mail it to the address above. Interviews take about 1 hour and can be conducted over the phone or in person. Interviewees have a right to confidentiality.

To read the survey, click on one of the links below:

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Old PULSE entries


Welcome to PULSE. This space is devoted to an animated, ongoing discussion of contemporary politics, culture, and society. We are your hosts, Pacificus and Helvidius (for more on this obscure nineteenth-century reference, click here). Pacificus hails from New York; Helvidius writes from across the Atlantic, in a certain cheese-loving French capital. In our postings, we will bring to your attention news items that are routinely overlooked by mainstream media outlets. We provide the incisive analysis and thoughtful insights; you provide the withering criticism and rigorous debate. The end product will, we hope, be a lively exchange among readers and editors that is a tad serious, and a tad not. The PULSE page will be updated as often as practical.

(January 4, 2004 – 4:55 AM PDT)

QUOTE OF NOTE

“It shows how frantically the ruling class is rushing toward a revival of militarism.”

A statement by the North Korean state radio agency, Korean Central Broadcasting, regarding Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine on New Year’s Day. The shrine serves as a memorial to Japan’s war dead, including convicted World War II war criminals. While Koizumi has stated that this was a personal visit, various governments in East Asia have objected to the visit on the basis that the shrine celebrates Japanese militarism.

—The PULSE staff

(December 29, 2003 – 8:45 PM PDT)

QUOTE OF NOTE

“It breaks my heart… I think the Episcopal Church is headed down the path to secular humanism.”

A statement by Shari de Silva, a neurologist from Fort Wayne, Indiana, commenting on the Episcopal Church’s decision earlier this year to ordain an openly gay bishop. The decision has resulted in controversy; some parishioners have left the Episcopal Church and converted to Roman Catholicism, while others have joined the Episcopal Church in support of its new policy.

—The PULSE staff

(DECEMBER 27, 2003 – 10:14 AM EST)

As we all celebrate the holiday season with our friends and families, let’s not forget the holiday news sent from out of this world. The European Space Agency continues to wait for a signal from the Beagle 2, the British-made spacecraft meant to analyze the surface of planet Mars. Although the Beagle has yet to make contact with planet Earth, scientists from around the world continue to hope for a holiday gift from outer space.  

—Helvidius

(DECEMBER 13, 2003 – 5:40 AM EST)

Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer and human rights activist who won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, gave a speech this week in which she criticized the Bush administration’s foreign policy — more or less in its entirety. “Some states have violated the universal principles and laws of human rights by using the events of Sept. 11 and the war on terrorism as a pretext,” she said. A adapted version of the speech was published inThe Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper.

Here’s one particular quote from Ebadi’s essay that deserves re-reading:

I am a Muslim. In the Koran, the Prophet of Islam has said: “Thou shalt believe in thy faith and I in my religion.” That same divine book sees the mission of all prophets as that of inviting all human beings to uphold justice. Since the advent of Islam, Iran’s civilization and culture have become imbued and infused with humanitarianism, respect for the life, belief and faith of others, propagation of tolerance and avoidance of violence, bloodshed and war … The discriminatory plight of women in Islamic states, whether in the sphere of civil law or in the realm of social, political and cultural justice, has its roots in the male-dominated culture prevailing in these societies, not in Islam.

Commentators like to blame Islam for creating suicide bombers, oppressing women — even, as bizarre as it might seem, encouraging pedophila. As is the case for most religions, of course, Islam the faith is a lot different from Islam as the faithful practice it. After all, Christians found ways that the teachings of the great pacifist, Jesus Christ, could be used to justify burning alive thousands of Jews and Muslims during the Spanish Inquisition — it doesn’t take many aspiring demagogues before a religion of peace starts spawning legions of hatemongers. Thankfully, questions are beginning to be raised these days about the un-peaceful practices of certain religious extremists (during the Cold War, the United States found it useful to ignore the Muslim ones). Scholars are even questioning whether conventional translations of the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book, are accurate about some rather important points — is it seventy-two “virgins” or seventy-two “fruits”? (Not to be outdone, scholars of the New Testament are also raising some crucial questions.)

In spite of what the fundamentalists (of all faiths) might say, religion is a quite malleable thing — the devil, so to speak, is in the details, and who decides those details matters a great deal. The face that Islam will show in this new century will depend on which leaders take power in Muslim countries. Which brings me back to Shirin Ebadi. She is the kind of leader that Western countries should be encouraging — a Muslim feminist who implores other Muslims to remember their faith’s humanitarian spirit, its vision of global unity that the Iranian poet Rumi once described in this way: “The sons of Adam are limbs of one another/Having been created of one essence.” If Ebadi and other like-minded Muslims can gain power in their countries, they could do much more than the hordes of CIA agents and Special Forces commandoes embedded abroad presently seem capable of doing — that is, sweeping away the terrorist-inspiring hatred that has become America’s bugbear ever since it clawed its way across the ocean on September 11. Even the more neoconservative figures in the Bush administration — Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for instance — are finally coming to the view that, in addition to dropping bombs, it might be a good idea to start peddling a “kinder and gentler” Islam abroad.

The problem is, of course, that even liberal-minded Muslims like Ebadi are being alienated by the “shock and awe” foreign policy of the Bush administration. Ebadi asks: “Why is it that some decisions and resolutions of the UN Security Council are binding, while other council resolutions have no binding force? Why is it that in the past 35 years, dozens of UN resolutions concerning the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the state of Israel have not been implemented — yet, in the past 12 years, the state and people of Iraq were twice subjected to attack, military assault, economic sanctions, and, ultimately, military occupation?”

These are troubling questions — for the extremists, without question, but also for those Muslims who want to see an end to the fanaticism. If the United States truly wants to stop terrorism, it needs people like Ebadi on its side. But as long as the Bush administration stubbornly clings to its current policy of hyper-aggressive unilateralism — a policy that has created only more enemies in the Muslim world — liberal Muslims will have a hard time convincing anyone in their countries to listen to them. And that does not bode well for the sanctity of Islam, nor for the security of Americans.

—Victor Tan Chen

(DECEMBER 5, 2003 – 1:15 AM PDT)

QUOTE OF NOTE

“I will never use the word ‘gay’ in school again.”

— The statement which second-grader Marcus McLaurin was forced to repeatedly write after he informed a fellow student that his mother was gay. McLaurin explained that his mother was gay when another child asked him about his mother and father.

—The PULSE staff

(November 27, 2003 — 10:08 AM PDT)

The possibilities of integrating Internet capabilities with democratic rule are virtually limitless, yet are the risks to our system of government just too high to allow for a transformation to a world of e-governance ? Keith Culver offers an intriguing new look at the future of e-democracy, analyzing the lessons from a recent Canadian experiment in e-participation in democratic decision making. Although many herald the democratization of information made available via the Internet, the Web may also pose serious risks to the ideals of democracy as we know it. Whether integrating government with the technological capabilities of the Internet would result in e-democracy or e-dictatorship is still up in the air.

—Helvidius

(November 14, 2003 — 6:38 PM PDT)

“Bravehearts: Men in Skirts,” an exhibition sponsored by Gaultier at the Metropolitan Museum, has been greeted by very positive reviews in all the right publications. The show features male fashions without pants, from kilts to sarongs. Your own Pacificus had a chance to go. From the title, which has all the charm and cleverness of a sophomore women’s studies paper, to the jargon-laden placards, this exhibit shows the smugness and lowered standards that accompany anything with even a hint of avant-garde genderbabble. The pieces, all but a few of which are recent designs by the sponsor, are twice written up in the exhibit itself as “flaunting convention.” Such a statement is true only because the facile, liberal-robot underpinnings of the show are so visible.

—Pacificus

(NOVEMBER 17, 2003 – 12:30 AM PDT)

QUOTE OF NOTE

“Where are you from? … What country in China?”

—A racially charged statement attributed to Mets special assistant Bill Singer. Singer made the comment last week to Dodgers assistant general manager Kim Ng. Ng, an Asian American woman, was deemed the thirty-eighth most influential minority member in sports by Sports Illustrated in May 2003.

—The PULSE staff

(November 14, 2003 — 6:38 PM PDT)

It seems that despite the repeated rhetoric of bringing democratic values to Iraq, the Bush administration has strangled efforts to develop a free press in occupied Iraq. The New York Oberserver reports that the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), led by the United States, has severely limited journalists’ access to news stories throughout Iraq, largely in order to ensure that news coverage from the beseiged country will make the coalition’s position a bit sunnier. Access to morgues, police stations, schools, and hospitals have virtually been blocked off by CPA authorities.  When journalists are given reasonable access to Iraqi facilities a CPA “minder” tends to follow.  Despite the Bush administration’s contention that America is the democratic liberator of the Iraqi people, these limitations on freedom of the press appear not so very different from the draconian measures reminiscent of the days of Saddam.  

—Helvidius

(November 11, 2003 — 12:35 AM PDT)

Several priceless archaeological treasures alarming turn yesterday, when she revealed that the military has manipulated her story for political gain.  During an interview with Diane Sawyer, Lynch said she was bothered by the military’s portrayal of her ordeal, saying “they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff.”  If true, the military’s flagrant misuse of the Lynch story for the purpose of domestic pro-war propaganda is abominable, yet it is nonetheless expected.  By propagandizing the truth behind the Lynch tragedy into a Hollywood search and rescue thriller, the military not only hurts the victim but avoids admitting to the realities and horrors of war.

—Helvidius

(October 30, 2003 — 4:43 PM PDT)

Opinions around the world are mixed as Dr. Mahathir Mohamad leaves the premiership of Malaysia after twenty-two years in office. Mahathir, lauded by some for setting Malaysia on the path towards sustainable economic development, is perhaps best known for his fiery tongue and unabashed anti-Western commentary. The latest Mahathir diatribe, delivered at the Organization of the Islamic Conference summit and rebuked by dignitaries around the world, argued that Jews “rule this world by proxy.” The festivities surrounding Mahathir’s last day in office today were unusually subdued — the
outgoing Prime Minister urged the Malaysian people to be “diligent, disciplined, in control of their feelings and prepared to face challenges and overcome obstructions.” For both those who love him or hate him, there’s no denying that “Dr. M” will be a tough act to follow.

—Helvidius

(October 28, 2003 — 8:29 AM PDT)

Yesterday’s tragic attack on the Red Cross’ Baghdad headquarters will likely be written off in Western media circles as yet another act of cowardice on the part of fundamentalist terrorist groups, this time against an international relief organization that only wishes to help the Iraqi people. Yet this newest bombing against humanitarian interests shows the lingering difficulties Iraqis have in distinguishing the occupying military force from Western non-governmental groups whose only aim, the Iraqis are told, is to help reduce the terrible suffering of the Iraqi people. The overarching reason for this continued misunderstanding is the flawed rhetoric of the occupying force, which continues to claim that the American military force on the ground is itself an international humanitarian relief effort. Is it any wonder that Iraqis, embittered by the stifling presence of an occupying force, strike international aid agencies with the same ferocity as they attack the military forces on the ground? One can only hope that these humanitarian groups will remain on the ground in Iraq, and continue their priceless work in ameliorating the dangerous situation in Iraq.

—Helvidius

Dear Reader, In The Fray is a nonprofit staffed by volunteers. If you liked this piece, could you please donate $10? If you want to help, you can also:
 
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Editors’ choice: Top ten crusaders for social justice


Which ten organizations working on social justice issues in the United States have had the most influence over the past three decades? In the course of researching social movements for this Special Issue of InTheFray Magazine, we talked to a number of activists and scholars and gathered their opinions on this question. Below are the organizations that came up on the most judges’ top ten lists. They are in alphabetical order.

Of course, these groups will probably be different from the ones you’d pick. So here’s where you come in, loyal reader:

1. Please post a message to our Forum and tell us what you like, and don’t like, about our experts’ choices. Tell us what groups you’d add to the Top Ten, and which groups you’d take off. Defend your choices.

2. Email us at survey@inthefray.com with your picks for (1) the Top Ten U.S. organizations and (2) the Top Ten U.S. activists. (The question is: “Which ten organizations and which ten activists working on social justice issues in the United States have had the most influence during the past thirty years (1973-2003)?”) We’ll publish the results of this reader poll in the next issue of InTheFray Magazine. You have until the end of this month (November 30) to vote.

NOTE: Though we’re limiting this vote to U.S. activists and organizations, we encourage you to email us at survey@inthefray.com with the names of any activists or organizations that are doing important work abroad. Include a brief description of that work, and why it’s important. We’ll include your comments in next month’s issue (with or without your name, depending on your preference). You can also post your thoughts in the Forum.

Thanks for your input!

Laura Nathan
Forum Editor, InTheFray Magazine
Austin, Texas

InTheFray TOP TEN:

THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS IN AMERICA (1973-2003)

#1: ACORN

In 1970, a band of welfare mothers from Arkansas formed ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, to seek social change benefiting low- and moderate-income families. Today, the organization has 150,000 family members in 700 neighborhoods and fifty-one cities across the country, including Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Washington. Whether they are campaigning to increase the minimum wage, negotiating the rates of utility services, or cracking down on predatory lenders, ACORN activists show a passion for “organizing the unorganized” and protecting the rights of impoverished families.

ACORN
88 3rd Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Email: natexdirect@acorn.org
Telephone: 1.877.55.ACORN
website: http://www.acorn.org
Executive director: Steve Kest

#2: ACT UP

Soon after the HIV/AIDS epidemic began devastating lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered (LGBT) communities, activists in New York formed the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP. Its mission was to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, the inadequate response of local and federal officials, and the effects of the crisis on LGBT communities.

From its beginnings, this nonpartisan, grassroots organization has made headlines and sparked controversy for its unconventional and confrontational methods. ACT UP first grabbed the public’s attention in 1987 when activists marched on Wall Street demanding, among other things, that the Food and Drug Administration approve experimental drugs that might save the lives of people with AIDS. Two years later, ACT UP became notorious for disrupting a mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York; the activists were protesting Cardinal John O’Connor’s opposition to condom distribution. Other high-profile ACT UP “direct actions” have included storming magazine offices, interrupting news broadcasts, and surrounding hospitals and government buildings. To this day, ACT UP continues to insist that direct action and public visibility are essential in bringing about social change.

ACT UP/New York
332 Bleecker St., Suite G5
New York, NY 10014
Email: actupny@panix.com
Telephone: 212.966.4873
website: http://www.actupny.org

#3: The American Lung Association

If you are twenty-five or older you probably remember sitting in airplane cabins filled with cigarette smoke. If you don’t, either you don’t fly or you owe a big thank you to the American Lung Association (ALA). In 1987, ALA activists led a successful campaign to ban smoking on all U.S. domestic airline flights lasting two hours or less (expanded to 6 hours in 1989 and to international flights in 1992)

Founded in 1904 to fight tuberculosis, the ALA is the oldest voluntary health organization in the country. It is perhaps best known for its tireless fight against the tobacco industry. In 1960, when much of the American public was still unaware of the health risks associated with smoking, the ALA issued a policy statement that became one of the first salvoes in the anti-tobacco war: “Cigarette smoking is a major cause of lung cancer.” Over the next forty years, ALA’s education and lobbying efforts were the backbone of the anti-smoking movement.

In more recent years, the ALA has also proven itself to be a champion of the environment. It played a major role in the passage of the landmark 1990 federal Clean Air Act. As a result of an ALA lawsuit, the Environmental Protection Agency established stricter air-quality standards for smog and soot in 1997. Today, the ALA continues its work “to prevent lung disease and promote lung health,” remaining vigilant against Big Tobacco and leading the fight against the asthma epidemic.

The American Lung Association
61 Broadway, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10006
Telephone: 1.800.LUNG.USA
website: http://www.lungusa.org
President and chief executive officer: John L. Kirkwood

#4: Center for Community Change

Founded in 1968, the Center for Community Change is devoted to “helping low-income people, especially people of color, develop the power and capacity to change their communities and public policies for the better.” To that end, the Center works with thousands of grassroots organizations across the country, giving ordinary citizens the skills they need to change their lives and rebuild their communities from the bottom up. Over the decades, its work has contributed to the building of low-income housing and community centers, the development of businesses and jobs, and reductions in crime and drug use.

In recent years, the Center has worked to raise public awareness of the plight of the poor in today’s troubled American economy. As one of the its recent press releases points out: “The number of people in poverty increased by 1.7 million to nearly 35 million in 2002, raising the official poverty rate from 11.7 percent in 2001 to 12.1 percent in 2002.” Nowadays the Center’s energies are focused on two areas: providing on-site assistance to grassroots groups, and connecting people in low-income communities to necessary resources. By including community-based groups, local leaders, and advocates throughout the process, the Center makes sure that low-income people are informed about the policies that impact their lives.

Center for Community Change
1000 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20007
Email: info@communitychange.org
Telephone: 202.342.0519
website: http://www.communitychange.org
Executive director: Deepak Bhargava

#5: Center for Third World Organizing

Founded in 1984, the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO, pronounced C-2) is a national, multiracial “movement center” that works with community organizations and grassroots leaders. It seeks to develop an analysis “showing how structures of racial privilege shape our lives and communities,” a vision “motivating movements based on race, gender, sexuality, and economic justice,” and a strategy of “building organizing capacity necessary to achieve meaningful social change.” With these goals in mind, CTWO works in communities of color throughout the United States, training organizers, offering advice, and providing other resources to aid activists in their “direct action” organizing.

CTWO has been a pioneer in building broad coalitions for racial justice. Its Movement Activist Apprenticeship Program has established an active network of organizations and activists of color working on behalf of racial equality. In its Community Action Training workshops, experienced community organizers teach participants how to build political coalitions at the grassroots level. CTWO also has a program called GIFT (Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training), which teaches interns from communities of color how to do grassroots fundraising.

Center for Third World Organizing
1218 E. 21st St.
Oakland, CA 94606
Email: ctwo@ctwo.org
Telephone: 510.533.7583
website: http://www.ctwo.org
Executive director: Mark Toney

#6: Environmental Justice Fund

The environmental justice movement first began mobilizing in the late seventies, at a time when state and federal governments were beginning to implement a wave of legislation dealing with the environment and civil rights. Since then, the movement has persistently highlighted the failure of reforms in both areas to account for environmental damage that disparately affects communities of color. The movement’s motto, “We speak for ourselves,” hints at its focus on local organizations and local solutions, and its resistance to the kinds of corporate-controlled globalization that have sparked protests around the world. Its activists favor a much broader view of the “environment” than many mainstream environmentalists, defining it as “where we live, work, play, go to school, and pray.” They call into question market-based “solutions” that help certain privileged sectors while shortchanging or even harming communities that lack political and economic clout.

The Environmental Justice Fund (EJ Fund) is a national membership organization “dedicated to strengthening the environmental justice movement.” It was founded by six environmental justice networks in 1995, and continues to operate under an inclusive, loosely organized structure. The EJ Fund helps coordinate a vast network of local and regional coalitions that operate under the “Principles of Environmental Justice,” first ratified in 1991 at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington.

Environmental justice activists can point to several recent victories, including Executive Order 12898, issued in 1994, which directed all federal agencies dealing with public health or the environment to make environmental justice an integral part of their policies. President Bill Clinton said the order was intended to “provide minority communities and low-income communities access to public information on, and an opportunity for public participation in, matters relating to public health or the environment.” Clinton’s executive order also resulted in the creation of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which seeks to improve governmental accountability within the Environmental Protection Agency.

At the local level, environmental justice groups have won a number of highly publicized battles against polluters. In St. James Parish in Louisiana (a highly polluted region known as “cancer alley”), activists prevented the Shintech corporation from building a polyvinyl chloride plastics plant. In California’s Ward Valley, environmentalists waged a successful campaign to protect the region’s water supply and threatened desert ecosystem. In New York, the “Clean Fuel, Clean Air, Good Health” campaign replaced polluting diesel buses with vehicles powered by cleaner fuel options. And in Tucson, Arizona, activists upset about tainted wells recently won an $84.5 million settlement from polluters, the largest settlement for groundwater contamination in U.S. history.

Environmental Justice Fund
310 Eight St., Suite 100
Oakland, CA 94607
Telephone: 510.267.1881
website: http://www.ejfund.org
National coordinator: Cynthia Choi

#7: Human Rights Campaign

The Human Rights Campaign Fund (HRCF) was founded in 1980 to raise money for congressional candidates who supported gay rights. It represented an organized response to right-wing groups such as the Moral Majority and the Conservative Political Action Committee, which had established a track record of getting conservative candidates elected. The HRCF’s growing political clout became apparent in the congressional elections two years later, when 81 percent of 118 HRCF-backed candidates won. In 1985, the HRCF and the Gay Rights National Lobby merged to form the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, which quickly became the most prominent champion of the rights of sexual minorities in America. The new organization arrived on the scene just as lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered (LGBT) communities began grappling with the disastrous consequences of the AIDS epidemic and the Supreme Court’s landmark 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick decision, which outlawed sodomy.

In the past two decades, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation has lobbied on behalf of same-sex adoption, hate crime legislation to protect LGBT individuals, extending the right of civil marriage, domestic partner benefits, gay service in the military, and expanding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to protect sexual minorities. It has established education programs in local schools, raised public awareness about the role that sexual orientation plays in immigration law, and upheld the importance of diversity in all forms. By drawing attention to such a broad range of issues, the HRCF has exposed the American government’s consistent failure to follow through on its promises of political equality, and challenged the very family and relationship units that structure sexual and gender norms in the United States.

Human Rights Campaign
1640 Rhode Island Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20036-3278
Email: field@hrc.org (Field department); membership@hrc.org (general membership)
Telephone: 202.628.4160
website: http://www.hrc.org
Executive director: Elizabeth Birch

#8: Jobs with Justice

Jobs for Justice (JwJ) was founded in 1987 with a belief that people must unite and organize in order to provide a better way of life for themselves and their families. With a presence in forty cities and twenty-nine states across the country, JwJ has created a national network of labor, faith-based, community, and student organizations working together on behalf of “workplace and community social justice campaigns.” It helps individuals become advocates for the workplace rights to which they are entitled, all the while trying to connect them to larger national and international struggles for economic and social justice.

When new recruits join JwJ, they take a pledge, promising, “During the next year, I will be there at least five times for someone else’s fight, as well as my own. If enough of us are there, we’ll all start winning.” The organization’s passion for building bridges and returning power to the people can be seen in an initiative it helped organize this fall, the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. Borrowing from the tactics pioneered by “Freedom Riders” during the civil rights era, nearly 1,000 immigrants and activists piled into buses and toured the country for twelve days, finally converging on Washington and New York for a series of meetings and rallies that focused public attention on antiquated immigration laws and the plight of low-wage immigrant workers.

Jobs with Justice
501 3rd St. NW
Washington, DC 20001
Email: info@jwj.org
Telephone: 202.434.1106
website: http://www.jwj.org
Executive director: Fred Azcarate

#9: The National Organization for Women

With 500,000 members and 550 chapters in all fifty states, the National Organization for Women is the largest U.S. organization dedicated to guaranteeing equality for all women. Since its founding in 1966, NOW has been committed to taking positions and actions that are uncompromising, unorthodox, and ahead of their time. NOW’s long list of priorities includes amending the U.S. constitution to guarantee equal rights for women, protecting abortion rights and reproductive freedom, opposing racism, class-based discrimination, and bigotry against sexual minorities, and ending violence against women.

NOW has used a wide range of tactics — conventional and unconventional — to push for its political agenda. Its activists have brought forth lawsuits over gender-based discrimination, lobbied and campaigned for politicians, organized mass marches, rallies, and pickets, and engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience. This multi-pronged approach toward activism is one way that NOW recognizes the diverse voices and interests of the millions of women in America.

Over the years, NOW has been successful on numerous occasions in capturing national media attention and the American public’s imagination. It has organized some of the largest rallies on behalf of women’s rights in the history of the United States, such as the massive 1978 march on Washington in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, the March for Women’s Lives in 1992 (the largest abortion-rights demonstration in U.S. history), the first mass demonstration to focus on violence against women in 1995, and the 1996 March for the Right to Fight that defended affirmative action and drew attention to the unique plight of women of color. These unprecedented national campaigns to raise public awareness of gender issues have drawn countless women into public office, expanded employment and educational opportunities for women, and helped bring about tougher laws protecting women from harassment, violence, and discrimination. Most recently, NOW has embarked upon a campaign to beat back recent legislation that curtails women’s reproductive rights.

National Organization for Women
733 15th St. NW, 2nd floor
Washington, DC 20005
Email: now@now.org
Telephone: 202.628.8669
website: http://www.now.org
President: Kim Gandy

#10: Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition (RPS) is a multiracial, multi-issue, and international membership organization that works on behalf of social, racial, and economic justice. RPS is the result of the 1997 merger of two organizations: Operation PUSH (founded in 1971) and the National Rainbow Coalition (founded in 1985). In fighting for affirmative action, equal rights, employment rights, and civic empowerment, RPC has explicitly linked its struggle for justice to the principles of the “American Dream.” As RPC’s founder, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, explains: “The American Dream is one big tent of many cultures, races, and religions. Under that tent, everybody is assured equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access, and a fair share. Our struggle demands that we open closed doors, extend the tent, and even the playing field.”

In its six years of existence, RPC has registered hundreds of thousands of voters, mediated labor disputes, and lobbied for the inclusion of more racial and ethnic minorities in all areas of the entertainment industry. It has also negotiated economic covenants with major corporations, helping cultivate hundreds of minority-owned franchises and creating other business opportunities for people of color.

Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
930 East 50th St.
Chicago, IL 60615-2702
Email: info@rainbowpush.org
Telephone: 773.373.3366
website: http://www.rainbowpush.org
Founder: Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr.

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR RESEARCHERS/WRITERS: Sarah Bond, Sharon Diamondstein, Ben Helphand, Aileen McCabe-Maucher, Laura Nathan, and Angelina Wagner.

Dear Reader, In The Fray is a nonprofit staffed by volunteers. If you liked this piece, could you please donate $10? If you want to help, you can also:
 
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Movements in a new America


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The voting booth is often touted as the way that Americans can change their society — the site where democracy plays out in its purest form. But we live in an era where electoral politics has been diluted, its power leeched into the hands of pollsters and lobbyists. So where does this leave democracy? If one vote per citizen is not enough to overcome the influence wielded by corporations and the wealthy elite, then where should we look to find the new face of political engagement?

When our democratic institutions fail us, when citizens lose their ability to speak and be heard, Americans organize. Political and civic associations form a kind of test kitchen for democracy. It is here that we serve up new and classic combinations of citizen participation. The debate within these groups over organizing tactics is not just a matter of touchy-feely outreach and political correctness. It is a struggle over the very nature of democracy.

In this special issue of InTheFray Magazine, we take a look at this process in action. How do today’s social movements organize themselves? In what ways are organizers dealing with the fragmentation of American society — its separation into bickering identity groups, its division into silos of single-issue organizations toiling in isolation? Has this generation of activists come up with innovative ways to bond communities and bridge their divides?

This month, we begin with a series of four articles. In “The new ‘crisis’ of democracy,” we speak with the legendary thinker and activist Noam Chomsky about the recent, encouraging signs of political protest around the world, and the barriers and backlash that continue to stand in the way of real change. In “The end of old-school organizing,” Victor Tan Chen looks at United for a Fair Economy, a Boston-based economic justice group that has staked its success upon reaching out to communities of color, winning over sympathetic wealthy elites, and bringing the white working class back to progressive politics — a tall order for even the most visionary of activists. In “Elisabeth Leonard, Raging Granny,” Henry Belanger profiles a veteran peace and justice activist whose life story shows us how much — and how little — the struggles against oppression have changed over the years. And in “World Trade Barricade,” Dustin Ross and Victor Tan Chen offer us a glimpse of last month’s protests in Cancún, where thousands of farmers and anarchists and environmentalists from around the globe converged to demonstrate against the World Trade Organization and its alleged bias in favor of "free-trade fundamentalism."

In November, we’ll follow up with two more updates to our Special Issue. The stories to come include:

  • A list of the Top 10 social justice organizations in the country — compiled by the editors with the help of activists across the country — and a chance for readers to choose their own favorite activists and groups.
  • Maureen Farrell’s profile of the Catholic Worker, a group that since the days of its legendary co-founder, Dorothy Day, has striven to “obliterate” the distinctions that separate the poor from everyone else.
  • Tamam Mango’s look at Palestinian Media Watch, a media advocacy group that is organizing individuals across geographic lines in a decentralized, democratic fashion.
  • Victor Tan Chen’s analysis of the global justice movement, which shut down Seattle in 1999, helped derail trade talks in Cancún last month, and is mobilizing for another huge protest next month in Miami.
  • An interview with renowned Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva, author of Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply and founder of Navdanya, a movement for agricultural diversity and farmers' rights.

Ben Helphand
Projects Editor, InTheFray Magazine
Chicago

p.s. You’ll notice a new look and feel to the magazine. Our redesigned site offers a range of new features, including a regularly updated blog (the reincarnation of our old “Pulse” department), the ability to post comments directly after articles, personalized user identities, automated printing and emailing of our online content, and a better-integrated Readers' Forum. We ask for your patience in the coming weeks as we work out the remaining bugs on the new site. Please send any feedback to webmaster-at-inthefray-dot-org.

STORY INDEX

TOPICS > SOCIAL MOVEMENTS >

“The Other Superpower”
By Jonathan Schell. Published in The Nation. March 27, 2003.
URL: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030414&s=schell

“The Second Superpower”
Explanation of the term “second superpower,” and its recent use by The New York Times. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Superpower

Dear Reader, In The Fray is a nonprofit staffed by volunteers. If you liked this piece, could you please donate $10? If you want to help, you can also:
Prisoner with conscience. Ibn Kenyatta, a celebrated writer and artist, has been imprisoned since 1974 for the attempted murder of a police officer. Kenyatta maintains that he is innocent of the crime and has repeatedly and publicly refused parole since he was first eligible in 1988. This photo was taken in 1977 at the prison school of Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York. Peter Sinclair
Blog

Best of In The Fray 2002


The votes have been counted, and we are proud to present the Best of In The Fray 2002:

 

Commentary: War in a Time of Ignorance, by Bob Keeler

Culture: Let the Rhythm Soothe You, by Jia-Rui Chong

News: Freedom, Deferred, by Marguerite Kearns

Photo Essay: The High Line, by Jonathan Flaum

 

Freedom, Deferred, by Marguerite Kearns (February/March 2002), received the most votes of all the pieces published in our pages this year. Below we list some of the comments that we received from readers about this article.

We at In The Fray wish you a very happy New Year. We will not be publishing in January, but will see you again in February 2003.

Victor Tan Chen
Editor, In The Fray
Boston

 

Freedom, Deferred
Ibn Kenyatta is a writer and artist—and a perpetual prisoner.
February 7, 2002, and March 7, 2002 (two parts)
By Marguerite Kearns

“The Internet is a wonderful medium for providing the intentionally-overlooked news. Choosing just one to vote for is difficult but, yes, I do choose ‘Freedom, Deferred.’ I choose it because although I’m dyslexic, the writing style was so tactile that I forgot I was even reading—this is very rare for me.” —Tobias Bloyd

“I know from personal experience what the New York prison system is like—I was incarcerated for four years myself (thank God it was such a short time). And the ibn Kenyatta facts need to be known.” —Peter Sorensen

“It captures the essence of the case and addresses the pitfalls of our justice system in a compelling and readable manner. The author knows her ‘beat’ and her work serves to enlighten the readers and possibly improve our justice system.” —Yva Momatiuk

“Through her writing, Ms. Kearns helps me identify both with Mr. Kenyatta as a black human being facing the oppression of an injustice system, and also with Ms. Kearns herself as a white human being facing her own ancestors’ history as purveyors of injustice and the urge to be ‘free’ of direct or implied duplicity in the injustice system of today. In this way, she touches on illuminating parallels between Mr. Kenyatta’s refusal to cooperate with the parole system, and her own refusal to simplify her life by letting go.” —Charles Goodmacher

“I’d like to cast my vote for ‘Freedom, Deferred’ by Marguerite Kearns, an engaged and engaging piece of first-person reporting that paints an unflinching portrait of its subject (ibn Kenyatta) while offering a clear-eyed view of the corrupt, brutal, and backward nature of the correctional system that confines him. A great job.” —Mikhail Horowitz

“A talented, sensitive writer who is not afraid to get inside another point of view.” —Nichoe Lichen

“This is a great piece. I really like it. Excellent journalism.” —Stew Albert

“‘Freedom, deferred’ is a well-written, powerful, and thought-provoking piece! I felt that ibn Kenyatta’s story is one that beautifully shows the indomitability of spirit and creativity and how it can flourish in any environment! I will look forward to reading and seeing more from In The Fray.” —Les Mound

“Thank you for this great article on ibn Kenyatta. I trust that you will do all in your ability to bring pressure to bear against this injustice system that denies human dignity, and freedom to Kenyatta, political prisoners, and prisoners in general.” —Chaka

“We like this story because it is both a poignant human drama and at the same time a powerful indictment of the New York State prison system.” —John and Sheila Collins

“Her style is informative, interesting, to-the-point, and is adequately and professionally emotive without being excessive.” —A. Fuller

“The writing is clear and crisp, direct and engaging. Her topic is unique: Rarely have I heard such a courageous man stand by his principles under such pressure, except for [civil rights movement leader] Robert Williams of North Carolina. Ms. Kearns is generous to her subject while giving both sides of the parole argument. If it weren’t for her work in Inthefray, how would we have Mr. Kenyatta’s story known?” —Jane VanDeBogart

Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen

Dear Reader, In The Fray is a nonprofit staffed by volunteers. If you liked this piece, could you please donate $10? If you want to help, you can also:
 
Blog

“I Stand on My Conscience”


Statement of February 25, 1999, which ibn Kenyatta attempted to present to commissioners of the New York State Division of Parole:

Parole Commissioners:

A free man in chains. A free man defined by the bars, steel and cages of the New York State prison system. For ten long years i have turned my back on your parole system. Refused to get down on my knees and beg for what is already mine.

There are those among you who say i am crazy. That such a position requires the attention of the state’s most clever psychiatrists. But what would they find, my friends? And what they find, would they then tell that truth to the world? That i am a man, an Afrikan man, who is determined to stand tall on the firm ground of what i know to be right and truth. i stand on my conscience.

You may be puzzled why i call you “my friends.” i do so because we are here together facing a crisis. That dramatic shift in our national economy some years ago so that people of color are now most hard-hit …

—by industry bailing out and going overseas, what they call “capital flight”

—by new businesses locating in suburban areas

—by de facto residential segregation

—by increased rates of minority unemployment or employment in service sector jobs where low pay rates are notorious

This isn’t your personal policy decision or your fault any more than it is mine, but it is the responsibility of all of us to face what is happening. And this cold-hearted reality steels my decision and determination to refuse parole all these years.

It was necessary to get your attention. To bring this critical matter to the attention of everyone to take a closer look.

We can solve the problem of “capital flight” with “capital punishment,” and more of the same of what you have been requested to do—keep prisoners in prison for longer and longer periods of time.

i know the Governor of this state has instructed you to teach us a lesson. What is termed the “6/7 = 85% sentence-served” parole release date. Or George Pataki’s proposed elimination of parole for all felons entering the system (and there’s this sick prison joke which says it would then be even more in your self-interest to hit the rest of us to “save” your jobs).

Still, it is understandable how the manufactured fear of crime makes ordinary citizens want to demonstrate a show of force with law-breakers. It reinforces how force is an acceptable way of educating people. But lawmakers and parole commissioners cannot easily squeeze underneath that mantle of ignorance.

And how can you be so happy in learning that the only way to get crime statistics down is through incarceration? The incarceration of Afrikan and Latino Amerikans, the poor and other minorities? Why should such grim statistics draw applause? And if the recidivism rate points to 40% of nonviolent parolees returning to prison after three years, locking them up has always been the easiest part of the social contract. But where is the necessary social infrastructure in place for them in the community, so that they won’t have to resort to criminal activities?

What ever happened to wise and compassionate government? None of us are all bad or all good. “Felon,” “criminal” and “parolee” have become such dirty and fearful words in Amerikan society. But shouldn’t government also be about the healing of society, not just the enforcer of some of its most draconian laws?

Freedom from slavery is still sought in this country. Slavery continues in our land with incarceration rates the highest on Planet Earth. Did someone actually say 1.8 million and counting? And, thus, the 13th Amendment is alive and well.

The descendants of slaves, most Afrikan men like myself, still go to bed at night with the ring of chains and leg irons in our awareness. Generations of black children are matter-of-fact about seeing their parents in bondage. And lynching has been updated to take place in electric chairs and hospital beds.

i stand here today to remind you that force is counterproductive. Sooner or later someone like myself will say “No.” This is not the way. And others like myself will increasingly turn their backs on a system that is horrified when people beaten down by a shattered economic system become dysfunctional, violent or use drugs to create their own version of The Amerikan Dream.

And it’s not universal when we hear all the colorful talk about a great economic upswing in the Amerikan economy, or see the full-page “Help Wanted” ads in the daily papers, because within the Afrikan and Latino communities there has always been a recessed and depressed, down-sized economy.

i am not apologizing for criminal activity. Mine. Yours. Or the criminal activity of the state and federal government.

We all have to hold ourselves accountable.

i am guilty of jumping a turn stile in the New York City subway system. It was foolish and a rash act of youth. i regret having done it.

But i was supposed to have been issued merely a summons (for “theft of service”) back in 1974, not nearly have my life taken. i stand responsible for defending myself against an officer of the law who viciously attacked me with three of the four weapons he carried. i was unarmed. He had two guns, one nightstick, and a billy club (with lead in the tip). i am fortunate to be here alive to tell this story.

For two trials, during which i entered a plea of not guilty, i refused to participate in what i believed was a travesty of justice. i had nothing. No money to defend myself. No friends in government or the corporate world.

i had nothing but my conscience and a strong sense of what was right.

i went to the courtroom in my underwear to protest my innocence, just like i, over TWO DECADES later, make an equally defiant statement by refusing to get down on my knees before a parole board, accepting guilt and supervision by a flawed and complicit state bureaucracy.

i still insist i am not guilty of the charge. To be on parole would fly in the face of my own conscience and humanity.

You might wonder why i’ve come before you today. Because the time has come for you to hear from my own mouth why we must face this human rights crisis together.

i am not here to ask for mercy or parole, but to speak for myself, as well as for those whose voices have been shattered or muffled. Who does it serve for the great-grandchildren and great great grandchildren of slaves to grovel before you? To get down on our knees, wail and moan about an economic system which has given us a bad check of freedom, as Dr. King would say, for which there are insufficient funds to collect?

When you wave your magic wand of parole, you are merely sending people broken by your prison and criminal justice system back to the plantation fields of Brooklyn, Harlem, the Bronx, and inner cities all over the nation.

These same thoughts linger among the wives, girlfriends, children, and extended families who stand in lines outside these state prisons, for 100 years that the state prison system has been in place, as they pass through locked doors and accept handcuffs and cages as part of their ordinary reality.

The longer i stay here, the more people will become clearer about the need for us to face this human tragedy together. i am already free and clear in my own mind. And that freedom/self-freedom of mind means far more to me in this lifetime than the possibility of accepting parole supervision on the street.

It ultimately comes down to this perennial face-off of self-interest vs. best-interest. i am ready to face the challenge. Are you?

Just as i am, ibn Kenyatta

ibn Kenyatta
74A 3701 Box 1245
Beacon, NY 12508

Dear Reader, In The Fray is a nonprofit staffed by volunteers. If you liked this piece, could you please donate $10? If you want to help, you can also:
 
Political Prose

Best of In The Fray 2001

The votes are in, and here are the winners.


Your journal has a courageous, vibrant life of its own and for this I commend you. The living soul of your journal has inspired and consoled many hearts and minds, perhaps more than you realize. —Michigan reader (name withheld at request)

Our sincere thanks to those readers who participated in the vote for the Best of In The Fray 2001. We did a thorough, county-by-county count of your ballots, and even though some articles won by a single vote or fraction of a vote, we are glad to report that we found no dimpled chads, no butterfly ballots, and none of Florida’s finest stopping African Americans near the polling stations.

Before I hand over the results, let me say a quick word. In The Fray recently was approved for 501(c)(3) non-profit status. Donations are now tax-deductible, to the extent permitted by U.S. federal law. Those who gave us donations earlier this year, please know that you can now write your contribution off on your taxes. Those who haven’t given yet, please consider doing so during this holiday season. We depend on the support of readers like yourself to keep publishing. Your donations will allow us to continue providing you with provocative, intelligent content on issues of identity. For more information about donating, click here.

‘Nuff said. Below we proudly present the Best of In The Fray 2001.

Victor Tan Chen
Editor, In The Fray
Boston

 

NEWS

First Place

The Most Segregated Hour in America
A look at three churches that worship the multicultural way.
Written and photographed by Nicole Leistikow
November 5, 2001

Second Place

Watchdog under the Watchtower
The story of the Heart Mountain Sentinel, and freedom of press at a time of internment.
Written by Kelly Yamanouchi
April 9, 2001

Third Place

Survival of the Fittest
Living under body fascism in Los Angeles’ gay ghetto.
Written by Don Chareunsy
May 14, 2001

Fourth Place

Caricaturing Lieberman
How the media missed the story on religion in the 2000 election.
Written by Ben Helphand
Illustrated by Vasus Das
April 9, 2001

Honorable Mention

Finding Solace in Cyberspace
Stricken with the loneliest of illnesses, people with rare forms of cancer have built their own online communities.
Written by Charles Savage
Illustrated by Melissa Scram
June 4, 2001

PHOTO ESSAYS

First Place

Reaction
A photographer and poet decipher a transformed city.
Photographed by Dustin Ross
Written by Shobita Mampilly
November 23, 2001

Second Place

Survivors of Sexual Assault
Portraits of sexual assault victims.
Photographed by Nobuko Oyabu
September 17, 2001

Third Place

Jhota
Photo illustration.
By Rosa Lee
July 3, 2001

Fourth Place

Them Gators (a.k.a. Southern Negroes)
Hip-hop in the dirty South.
Photographed by Jason Lewis
Assembled by Dustin Ross
June 4, 2001

CULTURE

First Place

Eight Letters between Old Lovers
Poetry serial.
Written by Daniel Wolff
Illustrated by Vasus Das
April 9, 2001

Second Place (tie)

Postcards
A poem.
Written by Jia-Rui Chong
Illustrated by Melissa Scram
August 6, 2001

Undressed for Success?
This Lil’ Kim went to the market, and sold her body.
Written by Mekeisha Madden
April 9, 2001

Fourth Place

When Wu-Tang Met Kung Pao
On the big screen and off, African and Asian Americans trade stereotypes, but no kisses.
Written by Sharon Pian Chan
May 14, 2001

COMMENTARY

First Place

Of Beetles and Angels
Childhood memories of African war and American struggle.
Written by Mawi Asgedom
April 9, 2001

Second Place

It Takes a Village
A visit to China reveals what was gained, and lost, in one family’s journey to America.
Written and photographed by Harry Mok
May 14, 2001

Third Place (tie)

The Occidental Asian
Politically apathetic, socially intolerant, and culturally clueless–let’s hear it for the Asian American Yuppie.
Written by Debbie Kuan
June 19, 2001

Songs in the Key of Life
Who do you call when the screaming starts?
Written by Molly Hennessy-Fiske
August 20, 2001

Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen

Dear Reader, In The Fray is a nonprofit staffed by volunteers. If you liked this piece, could you please donate $10? If you want to help, you can also: