Witness Witness
& Staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
Good News from the Chapters, Affiliates, & Staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
Autumn 2014
“Forward Together, Not One Step Back!” by Ethan Vesely-Flad, FOR Director of National Organizing Here in North Carolina, the Moral Mondays movement has made “Forward Together” a compelling mantra. Led by the Rev. William Barber, the charismatic president of the North Carolina NAACP (and recipient of FOR’s 2014 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, see page 2), a populist fusion coalition has captivated the nation. The product of years of careful grassroots organizing, in 2013 more than 900 people were arrested in a civil disobedience campaign that garnered widespread support. While the right-wing takeover of the state government led some to angry partisan reactions, the Moral Mondays movement’s attraction to the masses is rooted in its positive vision that change is possible. As Rev. King proclaimed in 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice!” We are NOT going back. This belief in change is essential as we grapple with a seemingly endless litany of troubling news: broad attacks on voting rights, a pandemic of killings of black and brown humans by white state security forces, hypermilitarized police crackdowns on peaceful protesters, hateful rallies demanding defenseless undocumented children be deported, bipartisan political support for renewed
U.S. bombings in Iraq, and an innumerable civilian death and injury toll in Gaza, dimming already faint prospects for a just, lasting peace in the region. We’re moving forward? Yes. Not One Step Back. For eight years, organizers of what became Moral Mondays built relationships locally and regionally, before launching the now-famous movement. FOR similarly believes that by organizing locally, we all have the strength and power to take on these overwhelming issues. At the grassroots, through creative and strategic multi-issue alliances – such as the Moral Mondays framework – we make real change possible. We’ve seen this in the environmental movement. In my childhood, we were warned to avoid the terribly polluted waters of the Hudson River near my home. But during the 1970s and early ‘80s, when conservationists joined forces with urban activists, a movement was born that cleaned the mighty Hudson. This summer we saw a similar victory in Mississippi, where environmental & civil rights activists forced utility giant Southern Company to dramatically cut back plans for a fossil fuel energy plant. And back in New York, an amazing coalition that
50th Anniversary of March on Washington photo courtesy of Len Tsou
included FOR members stopped a proposal for a desalination plant on the Hudson. We must keep these wins in mind as we mobilize for climate justice this fall [see page 7] in the face of well-funded climate crisis deniers and seemingly intractable politicians. Cognizant of the difficult challenges named above, FOR will work to strengthen our grassroots connections, develop creative multiissue alliances, facilitate intergenerational approaches, and proclaim our victories. As FOR’s new director of national organizing, I’ll be working hand-in-hand with many of you to advance these goals. From the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, where this August FOR deployed an organizer steeped in the practice of active nonviolence; to the central valley of California, where the Reedley Peace Center represents one of four new grassroots groups nationwide that this summer applied to affiliate with FOR; to Atlanta, where FOR is supporting undocumented immigrant youth seeking human rights and access to education – we will be there, partnering with you at the grassroots. Forward Together, Not One Step Back!