June 6, 2005 Dear Friends, As you can read here, the Muste MUSTE Institute has lost a board member, the News from the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute movement has lost a stalwart activist and we have lost a good friend. Elmer Maas’s sudden death on May 8 was a great shock to us all. Elmer served on the Board since 1991 and was always a steady and cheerful NOTES presence. He was devoted to and VOL. 12, NUMBER 4 SUMMER 2005 nonviolent action, and he lived a life consis- tent with his values. Grantee Profile: The best thing the Muste Institute can do to honor Elmer’s long service on the Veterans Against the Board is increase our efforts to educate and agitate for nonviolent social change. Our The Muste Institute made a $1,600 grant N O T

in April 2005 to Iraq Veterans Against the X ability to accomplish our mission largely A R

War for an organizing skills training of B depends on your contributions. We are try- E E

regional coordinators and other core members D ing hard to respond to the many activist A (see New Grants, p.3). This article is by IVAW M A

groups who have asked for our support, but Y

Administrative Coordinator Amadee Braxton. B O our fundraising is still not keeping pace Iraq Veterans Against the War T O H with the demand. Although many of you (IVAW) is a national organization of P responded generously to our last appeal, we recent veterans and active duty service did not raise the extra $20,000 we had members who, based on their experi- ences serving in Iraq, oppose the war sought by April 15 to increase our grant- and occupation. “People should be making. We hope you will read the enclosed aware that we are fighting average letter from our Board member Carol Iraqis, that when we’re dropping 500- Kalafatic and make the largest donation pound bombs in residential neighbor- IVAW member and possible for our work. We have ambitious hoods, we’re killing mostly innocent Anita Coles carries banner at the March 19 plans to expand our programs and, with women and children,” says Mike protest in Fayetteville. Hoffman, who founded IVAW with your help, the Muste Institute will grow eight other Iraq war veterans in August “When you break something in a store and strengthen its active support for peace 2004 at the annual convention of you don’t sit there with crazy glue try- and justice. Veterans for Peace in Boston. ing to piece it back together. And you Now a national organization with most certainly don’t run around with a In Peace, members in 24 states, IVAW is reaching bat breaking more things. What you do out to vets and service members who is apologize, write them a check, and get feel disillusioned and outraged that they out before you do any more damage.” have been killing and risking their lives IVAW members are doing counter- Murray Rosenblith in a war based on lies and to fill corpo- recruitment work in schools and Executive Director rate coffers. Many soldiers feel isolated colleges, defending the rights of war when they return, not wanting to share resisters and conscientious objectors, and N O

T what they’ve seen with their families sharing resources on how to fight for vet- X

A and friends, and not exactly feeling like eran benefits and deal with health issues R B

E heroes. “Joining IVAW saved my hus- like post traumatic stress disorder and E D

A band’s life,” says the wife of an the effects of depleted uranium (Gulf M

A anonymous member. “When he came War syndrome). IVAW also participates Y B home from Iraq, he was depressed and in the United for Peace and Justice coali- O T

O would fly into a rage over small things. tion and serves as a bridge between H P After working with IVAW, connecting longtime peace activists and the millions with other vets and speaking out, he is of Americans who disagree with what’s back to his old self again.” happening in Iraq, but who’ve never Patrick Resta was an Army medic in seen themselves as activists or protesters. Iraq for eight months in 2004. After his IVAW needs your help to end this war. return he got involved with IVAW and Get in touch with us at PO Box 8296, IVAW members lead march in Fayetteville, began speaking out against the war and Philadelphia, PA 19101; tel: 215-241-7123; North Carolina (home of Fort Bragg) on occupation. “If you really want Iraqis to fax: 215-241-7177; email [email protected]; March 19, 2005, a national day of action have democracy, let them run their own website www.ivaw.net against the Iraq war and occupation. affairs,” he said in a recent interview. —Amadee Braxton 2 • Muste Notes Vol. 12/No. 4 H

C was a project he wanted to share with O L everyone, envisioned as a seven-year,

Elmer Maas, N E F once a month course on the genesis and O L L

I evolution of the nuclear state, leading to

1935-2005 B

Y the idea that history would come to a syn- B

O thesis of and peace. A.J. Muste board member Elmer T O

Maas died on May 8, 2005, while on H In addition to serving on the Muste P retreat with the Atlantic Life Community Institute Board, Elmer was on the in Voluntown, Connecticut. Executive Committee of the War Born in 1935 in Kansas City, , Resisters League for several years. He Elmer’s gifts led him to the University of was patient, kind, principled, and even Chicago to study music, although his when there were the kind of rumblings parents wanted him to get a business joined projects like the 2002 Hiroshima that are inevitable in groups, Elmer was education. Elmer moved to New York Flame walk, for which he gave a reflec- a steady presence, offering his intelli- City around 1961 and lived on St. tion at New York City’s Ground Zero. gence, experience, and listening ear. He Mark’s Place with his niece, Julie Maas. Elmer played piano at many Plow- was gracious, gentle and generous. He From 1962 to 1968 he was a professor at shares support functions and enjoyed also had a good sense of humor—he Juniata College in Pennsylvania, where working as choir director at Valley Lodge enjoyed subverting authority, and liked he helped organize students into the in New York. He wrote three musicals, joking about it, too. He was endlessly civil rights movement. two of which were performed. Last year hospitable, and an amazing cook. By the late 1970s he was back in New Elmer took part in the Telling Lives Project One of the unsung heroes of the peace York, joining the 339 Lafayette Affinity of the Columbia University Oral History and justice movement, Elmer’s life was Group in the 1977 occupation of the Research Office, sharing stories and songs an example of the daily actions that per- Seabrook, New Hampshire nuclear reac- of the civil rights movement with students sonify and love—not only tor at which 1,400 people were arrested. at a Chinatown middle school. did he take risks himself, he was there In 1980, Elmer and seven other activists Elmer’s local peace organizing was for others. It seems too small to say that carried out the first Plowshares disarma- based out of Kairos/Plowshares NY, his he will be missed, which of course is ment action. He later did Plowshares #4 home community, where he coordinated true; or that his legacy goes on, which it in 1982 and Thames River Plowshares in the office and got arrested at actions —at will, with all of us. I feel as if there is a 1989. He helped prepare people for Riverside Research, the Intrepid war hole in the fabric of our resistance and about 50 other actions, did support for museum, the Times Square recruiting we will have to work together to mend it. imprisoned anti-nuclear activists and station. His life-work, the “curriculum,” —Melissa Jameson K U . O

New Developments C . E V R E S E

An update on projects funded by the Muste Institute E R F . U N U

Muste Notes U O The Winter 2005 issue of I N Z A I V

T featured the Student Farmworker Alliance . N W

A and its dynamic Taco Bell boycott cam- W E J - W S

E paign in support of fair wages for M U O Q

tomato pickers. The Coalition of R C F A J

Immokalee Workers, the Florida farm- O T Y B worker group which launched the O H O P T

O boycott in 2001, announced on March 8 H P that Taco Bell’s parent company, YUM Vanunu speaks to the international press. Brands Inc., had agreed to all the cam- paign’s demands. YUM will pay a In April 2005, Israeli nuclear whistle- penny more per pound for Florida blower Mordechai Vanunu was indicted tomatoes, nearly doubling the pay of for speaking to foreign journalists and some 1,500 tomato pickers. The Student violating other restrictions imposed on Farmworker Alliance played a key role him following his release from prison a by successfully organizing students— year earlier. A former technician at the Taco Bell’s target market—into “Boot the Dimona nuclear plant, Vanunu spent Bell” campaigns at some 300 colleges and nearly 18 years in prison for exposing universities. The boycott is over, but CIW ’s secret nuclear program. The and the Alliance have their sights set on Muste Institute supported the U.S. the rest of the fast-food industry, includ- Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu ing corporate giants such as McDonalds with grants in September 1993 and and Burger King. As the Alliance says on February 1998. The Campaign is asking Farmworkers celebrate the Taco Bell boycott its website (www.sfalliance.org): “Watch for letters of protest to Israeli officials— victory in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 12. out Ronald...we know how to win!” see www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/. Summer 2005 Muste Notes • 3

wide range of social and economic jus- New Grants,April 2005 tice issues. This grant is for the Conscientious Objector and Counter GREEN ACTION Nigerian government over the environ- Recruitment Project, a coalition effort Tel Aviv, Israel: $1,500 mental destruction, social breakdown working with local high school students Green Action has been working for and abuses caused by oil to provide information about alterna- environmental and social change in drilling in the Niger Delta. This grant tives to military service, consequences of Israel and the Palestinian Territories goes for a training workshop in joining the military, conscientious objec- since 1995, focusing on , the Sangana, a Niger Delta community in tion and related issues. Bayelsa State which has been badly environment and fair trade, among other PROJECT ON YOUTH AND NON- affected by oil development. issues. This grant goes for a nonviolent MILITARY OPPORTUNITIES training workshop at the OAK RIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL Encinitas, CA: $1,500 fifth annual Activism Festival in Lod, PEACE ALLIANCE Project YANO was founded in 1984 Israel, in June 2005, to be followed by an Oak Ridge, TN: $1,000 by local community groups to counter action against segregation barriers cur- Oak Ridge Environmental Peace the powerful influence of the armed rently under construction in Lod. Alliance was founded in 1988 to oppose forces in the San Diego area. Project IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR nuclear weapons production at the Y12 YANO also provides written materials, Philadelphia, PA: $1,600 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This trainings and other resources to similar Iraq Veterans Against the War is a grant goes for an August 2005 demon- projects around the US. This grant goes national organization made up of recent stration at the Y12 plant marking the for revising and restocking bilingual veterans and active duty service mem- 60th anniversary of the US atomic counter-recruitment literature for local bers from the military and National bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. and national distribution; and digitizing Guard whose experiences serving in a counter-recruitment organizing man- PEACE HOUSE Iraq have led them to oppose the war ual to make it available via the internet. Ashland, OR: $500 and occupation there. Our grant goes for Peace House was founded in 1982 as TRI-VALLEY CARES a two-day training for regional coordi- a resource center for nonviolence, edu- Livermore, CA: $1,500 nators and other key members to learn cation and action around peace and Tri-Valley CAREs was founded in basic skills in grassroots organizing. justice issues. This grant goes for the 1983 by Livermore residents concerned NIGER DELTA PROJECT FOR Youth and Militarism Program, specifi- about how nuclear weapons work at the ENVIRONMENT,HUMAN RIGHTS & cally for counter-recruitment outreach in Lawrence Livermore Laboratory was DEVELOPMENT southern Oregon’s public schools, impacting their communities. The organ- Rivers State, Nigeria: $1,900 including Operation Opt-Out, encour- ization seeks to clean up the lab and Since August 1999 this group has aging parents and students to protect convert it to socially beneficial, environ- been organizing communities to nonvio- their privacy from military recruiters. mentally sound research, and to abolish lently confront the Elf Totalfina nuclear weapons worldwide. This grant PEACE AND JUSTICE CENTER multinational oil company and the is for a project to mark the 60th anniver- Burlington, VT: $500 sary of the atomic bombings of Founded in 1979, the Peace and Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a major Justice Center works to educate and disarmament demonstration and nonvi- mobilize Vermont residents around a E QUOTES olent action at Livermore lab, organized “Nuclear war is politically in coordination with actions at nuclear weapons sites around the country. T irrational and morally an indefensible and hideous atrocity, whoever perpetrates it. S Preparation for such war is also The A.J. Muste Memorial Institute politically irrational, and since makes small grants to groups there is no guarantee that the U engaged in nonviolent education and preparation will lead to anything action for social justice. Our next but war, the preparation itself is an atrocity and a degradation of deadlines for proposals are July 22 M mankind.” and October 21, 2005. Guidelines are on our website at www.ajmuste.org. (from Getting Rid of War, 1959)

Board of Directors David McReynolds Executive Director Superintendent Karl Bissinger Peter Muste A.J. Muste Murray Rosenblith Salvador Suazo Susan Kent Cakars Jill Sternberg James A. Cole Nina Streich Memorial Institute Program Associate Newsletter Designer Christine Halvorson Robert T. Taylor Jane Guskin Judith Rew Melissa Jameson Martha Thomases 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012 Carol Kalafatic Diane Tosh phone (212) 533-4335 fax (212) 228-6193 Administrative Bernice Lanning John Zirinsky e-mail: [email protected] Assistant web site: www.ajmuste.org Jeanne Strole Printed on Recycled Paper ESSAY SERIES ON NONVIOLENCE

A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute ESSAY SERIES #3: Henry David ESSAY SERIES #9:Aldous Huxley ESSAY SERIES #15: David

No. Thoreau – the – Twentieth Century 15 McReynolds – A. J. Muste Memorial Institute ESSAY SERIES original architect of visionary and prolific A. J. Muste Memorial Institute longtime activist with ESSAY SERIES

resistance – On the writer – Science, No. the War Resisters 14 Duty of Civil Liberty and Peace DAVID League, Socialist Party McREYNOLDS Disobedience presidential candidate A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute qty:A. J. Muste ______Memorial Institute ESSAY SERIES ESSAY SERIES ESSAY SERIES ESSAY SERIES A – A Philosophy of qty: ______Philosophy JEANNETTE of RANKIN #10: Paul Goodman Nonviolence Nonviolence “Two Votes Against #4: Jessie Wallace – pacifist, anarchist, War” and qty: ______Other Hughan – suffragist, activist – The Morality Writings peace activist, founder of Scientific Technology; on Peace Peace Agitator: of the War Resisters The Psychology of Being The Story of League – Pacifism and Powerless A.J. Muste, by Nat Hentoff #1: Martin Luther Invasion; On Duelling qty: ______#13: (Spanish) A 250-page King, Jr. – America’s qty: ______Martin Luther biography with leading apostle of #11: Some Writings on King, Jr. – Spanish many photos, human dignity – Loving #5: Emma Goldman War – language translation profiling the Your Enemies; Letter – fiery orator, #7:A. J. Muste – thoughts, poems, tales of Loving Your ‘grandfather’ of A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute from a Birmingham Jail; anarchist,ESSAY SERIES agitator ESSAYfor SERIESforemost ESSAY20th Century SERIES fromESSAY resisters, SERIES Enemies, Letter from the U.S. peace Declaration of peace and liberation – Pacifist theoretician and including Juanita a Birmingham Jail and movement – Independence from the Preparedness:The Road activist, minister, Nelson,Allen Ginsberg Declaration of minister, labor War in Vietnam. Also to Universal Slaughter; socialist – Who Has the and Pete Seeger Independence from activist, pacifist and resister. available in Spanish – The Individual, Society Spiritual Atom Bomb? the War in Vietnam. qty: ______Introduction by see #13. and the State qty: ______qty: ______Larry Gara. qty: ______qty: ______#12: Sidney Lens – qty:______#8: On of peace and labor #14: Jeannette #2: Barbara #6: Rosa Liberation – three activist, socialist, Rankin – first Wear Your Deming – the Luxemburg – essays on pacifist occasional political woman in Congress, Peace Shirt feminist connection to courageous leader of responses to armed candidate – six articles suffragist, pacifist – Muste Institute nonviolence – On Germany’s democratic freedom struggles, spanning three decades “Two Votes Against War” t-shirts are black Revolution and socialist movement – including analysis of on the state of the U.S. and Other Writings on cotton with a four- Equilibrium Prison Letters Gandhi’s position Peace” color geometric labor movement design and the words: qty: ______qty: ______qty: ______qty: ______qty: ______“There is no way to peace, peace is the way – A.J. Muste” Available The Essays of A.J. Muste in large and extra The Essays of large (please specify) A.J.Muste Edited by Nat Hentoff, preface by Jo Ann O. Robinson. Originally issued in 1967, this new for $15 each. E D I T E D B Y 500-page edition includes Muste’s “Notes for an Autobiography,” plus essays on pacifism, Nat Hentoff qty: ______(L) P R E F A C E B Y Jo Ann O. Robinson civil rights, trade unionism and foreign policy, written between 1905 and 1966. qty:______(XL)

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