May 28, 2008 Dear Friends,

Many people are excited about this year’s MUSTE presidential campaign, but here at the News from the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute Muste Institute we are not convinced that change in the will bring an end to the . The forces that profit from war are powerful, and people across the country will need to keep demonstrating NOTES and organizing in their communities to get VOL. 15, NUMBER 4 SUMMER 2008 the U.S. out of and . There is also no reason to believe that a new U.S. president will do anything to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine; that task Veterans Speak Out in NY Schools will continue to be in the hands of nonvio- lence activists in Palestine and like By Jim Murphy, NY Veterans Speak Out/ and Army and Marine Corps recruiters those described in the enclosed letter from Veterans For have easy access to most schools. Rebekah Wolf. In 2004, as a new generation of In early May we debated Army recruits started returning from the recruiters at Columbus High School in All over the world, grassroots activism for in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of us from the Bronx, a 4,000-student school now social justice will be just as important over Veterans for Peace NY started looking split into four smaller schools. The next the next four years as it has been for the past for ways to educate more young people day we went to a small rural high school eight years—as it always has been. And we about the reality of war. We formed NY tucked away in the Catskills. What do intend to keep supporting it, with your help. Veterans Speak Out, a network linking these two schools have in common? Please continue your commitment by anti-war veterans from Vietnam They are both heavily recruited. sending in a contribution today. Veterans Against the War (VVAW), Iraq One of our handouts is the IVAW Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and flyer, “The 10 Lies Told By Recruiters.” Sincerely, Veterans for Peace (VFP). The project The students in both schools smiled as offers New York area teachers an oppor- they read the flyer and then started tunity for veterans to speak in their recounting the lies they had been told. classrooms about war and the military. This discussion prompted students to Murray Rosenblith At first, we were happy to get an question the “psych” factor of the lies Executive Director occasional invitation from a local told by recruiters versus the reality of school. Now we have a list of more than basic training. Always, the students 150 teachers, and our speaking program without a plan for the future are asking instructed in following orders without is available in at least 80 New York City for alternatives. We have some but we question, we get a basic course in and Hudson Valley high schools. need many more to address the needs “racism” (who we need to hate in this Anyone can do this kind of class- of this generation. war) and the usual super-patriotism room visit, although it’s often easier for Recruiters try to say things are dif- motivations. Somehow all this is incor- veterans to gain access to the education ferent now than they were during porated into an alleged adherence to the system, since as “primary sources” we earlier wars like Vietnam. But the expe- 10 Commandments. are considered more credible. Who riences we had as recruits are the same In our classroom visits, we often talk to better to talk about war than veterans as those of today’s recruits. We are all continued on page 2 and civilians who have been directly E affected by wars? Each speaker has a C A E personal story to tell, and the experi- P R O ence and understanding of what a F S T young person feels when “put in E V harm’s way.” Y N Y

How to get started? The process is the B O same everywhere. All you have to do is T O H make a list of every educational facility P that serves 16-22 year-olds in your area. What are your priorities? Gifted kids are not going to join the military, and higher-income students will most likely go to college. So who is recruited? In urban areas, Latino males are the pri- mary target. Black families are more skeptical now. In rural areas, where par- A class at West Side High School in Manhattan listens to Veterans for Peace member Mary ents are more likely to have served in Reynolds Powell, who served as a captain in the Army Nurse Corps in Vietnam in 1970-71. the military, every student is a target, Powell is the author of A World of Hurt: Between Innocence and Arrogance in Vietnam. 2 • Muste Notes Summer 2008 What’s Happening with the Building? H T

Most of you first heard about the I hoc committee is to present a plan to the L B Board in early June for raising the structural problems with our building N E S money needed to do this. After consid- last August, when I wrote about the sit- O R uation in the fall issue of Muste Notes. Y ering this presentation, the engineer's A R

Since then, the Muste Institute's Board R report and all the other factors, the U of Directors and staff have worked hard M Board will decide whether it appears Y to gather information as we consider B feasible to stay at 339 Lafayette Street. O T whether it's possible to raise the money O These are not easy decisions. We rec- H to substantially renovate the building or P ognize that they will have a tremendous if we should sell the building and relo- impact on the long term future of the cate to another space in New York City. explored grants, loans and how to Institute. While this process continues, The initial estimate of $1 million now increase the income from the commer- we urge those who support the Muste seems optimistic even for the most basic cial space on the ground floor to help Institute, and who value all of our contri- repairs to our three story, walk-up loft pay for such a project. We have met butions to the movement for social building built in the 1920s. It would cer- with other progressive groups seeking justice, to show us some encouragement tainly cost a great deal more to make the permanent space in New York to by making a donation. If you believe we building wheelchair accessible, more explore creating a partnership to own should keep the building, you can make energy efficient and functional as a long- and operate the building. We have con- a pledge or contribute now (to help term home for the Institute, War Resisters tracted for a complete engineer's survey offset the cost of the engineer's report, for League and our other tenant groups. on the existing structure which we example). If you are excited about our The Muste Institute has no operating expect to be completed by late June. programs promoting nonviolent endowment, and a major capital project Early this year, a group of people activism for social justice, your increased would require engaging outside con- who have been associated with the donations will help us maintain that sultants for planning, fund raising and Peace Pentagon came together with the work through this challenging time. construction management. We've goal of restoring the building. This ad- —Peter Muste E

of combat veterans who could be talking C A

(continued) E Veterans to young people, but many have not had P R O students about “the things that we carry” any prior training or experience with F S T to help them to understand the message making presentations to high school E V of Tim O’Brien in his book of that name. classes. With help from a Muste Institute Y N Y

Dayl Wise and I frequently work together grant, we held a “Taking Back Our B O as a team. Dayl describes one of his flash- Schools” workshop in September 2006 in T O

Manhattan with veterans, teachers, stu- H backs of going through a village near the P Cambodian border: “I had to get to the dents and community activists. In the other side to pick up a chopper ride. I morning session we did a training with could do that... I have an M-16, 200 veterans where they took turns pre- rounds of ammo and 4 grenades. I could senting to the group as they would have killed everyone... nobody in the mil- present to a classroom. We filmed the itary would have cared.” training and created a DVD of it which Sometimes we lighten up—we need we have sent out to over 200 veterans’ Aneka Hewitt, a student activist at the High for the kids to see us as humans, not just groups around the country who School For Global Citizenship in Prospect old gray-haired veterans. So Dayl will requested it to help them start local Heights, Brooklyn, won first place in the describe the rations that we ate in speakers’ programs in their communities. 2006-2007 anti-war poetry contest sponsored Vietnam and then point out how won- Anyone who wants a copy of the by NY Veterans Speak Out with a poem titled derful school lunch is by training DVD can contact me, Jim “In the Eyes.” In this photo, Aneka receives comparison—which always gets a laugh Murphy, via email at mandm11@opton- the prize—a $500 check for college—from Jim and a fun argument. line.net or by phone at 845-358-5709. Murphy of NY Veterans Speak Out. Our main goal is to make sure the kids realize that the pain may be life long and that we destroyed a beautiful NOVA TRAVEL GRANTS culture. War is not a movie... it’s 23 hours and 59 minutes of boredom, lone- In February and April 2008, the NOVA Travel Fund made nine grants totaling liness, anger and stupid games—and $7,250 to organizations in eight Latin American countries. These grants are listed one minute in which your life can in the web version of this newsletter. The NOVA Travel Fund helps grassroots change forever and your buddies killed activists from Latin American, Caribbean and indigenous North American organ- or wounded. izations to participate in regional meetings. The next deadlines are August 1 and Do we need more opportunities to October 1, 2008. Guidelines are in Spanish at www.ajmuste.org/novaintro.html. spread our message? Yes! There are a lot Summer 2008 Muste Notes • 3 New Grants,April 2008 S E

The A.J. Muste Memorial Institute makes E help Haitian refugees deal with the chal- G

U lenges of survival in the U.S. Our grant

small grants to groups engaged in nonviolent F E education and action for social justice. Our R goes to distribute the Birthright Crisis N A next deadline is July 18, 2008. Guidelines are I video among Dominican and Haitian T I A communities in New York City and at www.ajmuste.org/ guidelin.htm. H R

O beyond, with the goal of building oppo-

CALIFORNIA PRISON MORATORIUM F

N sition to racism and discrimination. PROJECT E M Fresno, CA: $2,000 O MISSOURIANS TO ABOLISH THE W

N DEATH PENALTY

The Prison Moratorium A I T I

Project was founded in 1998 with the A Saint Louis, MO: $2,000 H

goal of stopping the expansion of the Y This group started out as a loosely- B

state’s prison system. This grant goes O structured statewide abolition coalition T In a scene from the documentary “Birthright O

for a campaign to build public opposi- H in 1987. This grant goes for the “Road tion to construction of a new juvenile P Crisis,” produced by Haitian Women for Trip for Justice” project, organizing jail in Fresno, California. Haitian Refugees, children demonstrate in speaking events in five cities Santo Domingo to protest a policy of to raise awareness about and build COMMUNITY MEDIA ORGANIZING scapegoating, attacks and deportations against public opposition to the death penalty. PROJECT Dominicans of Haitian descent. Knoxville, TN: $2,000 VILLAGE COMMUNITY WELFARE The Community Media Organizing SOCIETY Project is a partnership of six commu- an effort to build public opinion toward Pudukottai, Tamilnadu, : $1,987 nity-based organizations in the eliminating codified economic and Since 1993, this group has been pro- southeast which joined together to racial inequalities in . moting sustainable agriculture, increase their capacity for using media HAITIAN WOMEN FOR HAITIAN women’s empowerment and labor jus- coverage as an organizing tool. This REFUGEES tice. Our grant goes to mobilize grant goes for media trainings to help Brooklyn, NY: $2,000 domestic workers in Pudukottai dis- Greater Birmingham Ministries carry Two Haitian-American women trict in defense of their human and out the Constitutional Reform Initiative, activists founded this group in 1992 to labor rights. Counter Recruitment Grants,April 2008

The Muste Institute’s Counter High Rocks Educational Corporation, Rochester Against War (RAW), Recruitment Fund supports grassroots Hillsboro, WV: $800 for a project Rochester, NY: $1,000 for an “Anti-War efforts to inform young people about the serving high school-age young women Crisis Center” storefront to serve as a realities of military service, help them pro- in the rural West Virginia counties of meeting and event space for youth and tect their privacy from recruiters and refer Greenbrier, Pocahontas, and Nicholas, a resource center for information about them to non-military options. Our next helping them explore vocational and the realities of military service and edu- deadline is July 18, 2008. Guidelines are at educational opportunities outside of the cational and vocational alternatives. www.ajmuste.org/ counterrecruit.htm. military. Washington Truth in Recruiting American Friends Service Committee Peace Action Wisconsin, Milwaukee, (WaTiR), Bellevue, WA: $1,000 for a - Hawai’i Area Office, Honolulu, HI: WI: $1,000 to expand efforts to educate program reaching out to parents, $1,200 for “Increase the Peace,” a pro- youth about the realities of military teachers, coaches, boards of education, gram of events in Hawaii schools service and educational and vocational superintendents, principals, student focusing on alternatives to the military alternatives, with a focus on low- leaders and counselors in rural and and development of educational mate- income students from the African eastern areas of Washington state, edu- rials geared toward Native Hawaiian, American, Latino and Hmong commu- cating them about military recruiting Filipino and Pacific Islander students. nities in and around Milwaukee. practices in the public schools.

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

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 15 McReynolds A. J. Muste Memorial Institute – the – Twentieth Century – ESSAY SERIES A. J. Muste Memorial Institute original architect of visionary and prolific ESSAY SERIES longtime activist with

On the Science, No. resistance – writer – 14 the War Resisters Duty of Civil Liberty and Peace DAVID McREYNOLDS League, Socialist Party Disobedience A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute A. J. Muste Memorial Institute qty:______A. J. Muste Memorial Institute presidential candidate ESSAY SERIES ESSAY SERIES ESSAY SERIES ESSAY SERIES A A Philosophy of Philosophy JEANNETTE – qty:______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 on Peace peace activist, founder of Scientific Technology; Peace Agitator: of the War Resisters The Psychology of Being The Story of League – and Powerless A.J. Muste, Invasion On Duelling by Nat Hentoff #1: Martin Luther ; qty:______#13: (Spanish) King, Jr. Martin Luther A 250-page – America’s qty:______biography with King, Jr. leading apostle of #11: Some Writings on – 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 available in Spanish – The Individual, Society Spiritual Atom Bomb? the War in Vietnam. and resister. qty:______Introduction by see #13. and the State qty:______qty:______Larry Gara. #12: Sidney Lens qty:______qty:______– qty:______#8: On Wars of peace and labor #14: Jeannette #2: Barbara #6: Rosa Liberation – three activist, socialist, Rankin – first Deming Wear Your – the Luxemburg – essays on pacifistILY woman in Congress, AR occasional political OR INT Peace Shirt MP PR feminist connection to courageous leader of responsesTE O Fto armed candidate – six articles suffragist, pacifist – UT Muste Institute nonviolence – On Germany’s democratic freedomO struggles, spanning three decades “Two Votes Against War” Revolution and and Other Writings on t-shirts are black socialist movement – including analysis of on the state of the U.S. cotton with a four- Equilibrium Prison Letters Peace” Gandhi’s position labor movement color geometric qty:______qty:______qty:______qty:______qty:______design and the words: “There is no way to peace, peace The Essays of A.J. Muste is the way – A.J. The Essays of Muste” Available in Edited by Nat Hentoff, preface by Jo Ann O. Robinson. Originally issued in 1967, this new A.J.Muste large and extra E D I T E D B Y 500-page edition includes Muste’s “Notes for an Autobiography,” plus essays on pacifism, Nat Hentoff large. Shirts are 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. made in the U.S.A.

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Essay Series Quantity Pamphlets (total qty:) _____ x $2.00 each ($1.40 each for 20 or more) $ ______1 Martin Luther King, Jr. _____ Sampler Pack _____ x $20.00 (one each of all 14 available pamphlets) $ ______2 Barbara Deming _____ The Essays of A.J. Muste: _____ x $20.00 * $ ______3 Henry David Thoreau _____ 4 Jessie Wallace Hughan _____ Peace Agitator: _____ x $5.00 * $ ______5 Emma Goldman _____ T-Shirts: (L)_____ (XL) _____ x $15.00 $ ______6 Rosa Luxemburg _____ I am enclosing a tax-deductible contribution for the Muste Institute’s 7 A. J. Muste _____ work promoting active nonviolence and social justice: $ ______8 On Wars of Liberation _____ 9 Aldous Huxley _____ * for bulk rates, contact the Muste Institute office 10 Paul Goodman _____ TOTAL ENCLOSED $ ______11 War Tax Resistance _____ SHIP TO______Please make check or money order 12 Sidney Lens _____ payable to AJMMI and send to: 13 Martin Luther King, Jr. (Spanish) ______A.J. Muste Memorial Institute 339 Lafayette St. 14 Jeannette Rankin _____ NY, NY 10012 15 David McReynolds ______