FOR- Programs 1998-2000

FOR Executive Director John Dear was a special guest at the United Nations General Assembly on November 10th, 1998, as the UN voted to declare the years 2001-2010 "A Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World." FOR had worked with IFOR and other peace leaders to support the call of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates for this Decade.

The FOR has distributed over 200,000 brochures announcing the Decade to members, communities and organizations around the country, and devoted a special issue of Fellowship magazine to it.

FOR has begun to organize a "Peoples Campaign for Nonviolence;" a mobilization of national and grassroots peace and justice groups to come to Washington, D.C. during the summer of 2000 to speak out, pray and
protest for disarmament and justice.

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Nobel Peace Laureates Delegation to Iraq

Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Mairead Corrigan Maguire visit a child in an Iraqi hospital where medicine and basic supplies are almost impossible to come by due to the continued sanctions.

U.S. economic sanctions have killed over one million Iraqis, mostly children under five, since 1990. In March, 1999, FOR led a delegation featuring two Nobel Peace Prize Laureates to Iraq. Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Belfast, Northern Ireland and Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Buenos Aires, Argentina joined John Dear, FOR Executive Director, and Akadim Chikandamina of Zimbabwe, President of IFOR, for several days in Baghdad to witness and tell of the disastrous effects of the economic sanctions.

The FOR delegation met with UN officials, NGO representatives, government and religious leaders, as well as Queen Noor of Jordan, but was most affected by visiting the children. Hundreds of school children greeted the delegation by singing "We Shall Overcome" in Arabic, and pleaded for an end to the sanctions. Doctors at one hospital explained how they have no medicine, and the delegation sat with scores of dying children and their mothers. At press conferences in Baghdad and Amman, the delegation called for the immediate lifting of the economic sanctions and relief for the children.

"In fifty years," Mairead Maguire asked, "we will wonder, where was the world when Iraqi children were dying?" Since the delegation, the Nobel laureates have spoken out extensively against the economic sanctions.

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Peace and Disarmament

FOR called for a national week of actions against weapons of mass destruction in early August, 1998, and sponsored two "Citizens Weapons Inspection Teams" actions. Concerned individuals and communities sought to inspect U.S. sites of weapons of mass destruction, just as the US was doing in Iraq. Mirroring the UNSCOM weapons inspections, on August 6th, 1998, an FOR delegation of twelve people, including a member of Canada's Parliament, tried to enter the Trident nuclear weapons submarine base in Groton, Connecticut, to protest both US nuclear weapons and the ongoing US/UN economic sanctions against Iraq. Similar actions were held at the Bangor Nuclear Naval Submarine Base near Seattle, and Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratories near San Francisco.

FOR also called for days of interfaith prayer and fasting to mark the anniversary of Nagasaki day, August 9th, as UNSCOM was considering extending the economic sanctions on Iraq. It collected thousands of paper cranes, symbols of nuclear disarmament, from around the country and mailed them to President Clinton asking for nuclear disarmament and an end to the economic sanctions.

FOR worked with other faith-based peace organizations to revive the nearly twenty year old "New Abolitionist Covenant," calling for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. FOR wrote, published and distributed thousands of revised interfaith versions of the Covenant, asking people of faith and conscience everywhere to dedicate themselves to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Likewise, FOR continues to support and work with Abolition 2000, an international coalition campaigning for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Hundreds of FOR members joined in the national protest calling for the closing of the School of the Americas, in Fort Benning, Georgia, where soldiers from Latin America are trained to assassinate and torture. Executive Director John Dear was a featured speaker at the November 20 rally with 7000 participants. He and Fellowship editor Richard Deats crossed the line on Nov. 20, 1998, along with 2,370 others in an historic nonviolent protest. Instead of arresting the demonstrators, the authorities released them immediately.

Besides speaking out against US bombings of Iraq and Yugoslavia, FOR issued press statements criticizing the US bombings of the Sudan and Afghanistan in August, 1998, and offered extensive radio and TV interviews with its staff. The day after the bombings, John Dear published an editorial calling for a nonviolent foreign policy in USA Today.

Along with IFOR, FOR was represented at the international Hague Appeal for Peace gathering in the Hague, Netherlands, in May, 1998, leading a panel forum on interfaith work for peace, and a discussion on nonviolence.

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Iraq Campaigns to End Economic Sanctions and to Stop U.S. Bombings

Demonstration outside the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia, in which FOR members participated.

In the fall of 1998, FOR organized the "Holiday Gift of Life to the Children of Iraq Campaign," asking thousands of individuals and religious communities across the country to pray for an end to the US economic sanctions on Iraq. Organizing packets included interfaith prayer services; action ideas; sample letter to the editors and editorials; and "Covenant of Peace" statements, which were hand delivered to Iraqis during FOR's Nobel Laureate delegation.

FOR continues to maintain the Iraq Action Digest, the largest national Iraq service, based on the Internet, to help local and regional activists organize and learn the latest information on Iraq. FOR organized scores of vigils, teach-ins, prayer services and demonstrations against the US bombing of Iraq in December, 1998, and spoke out widely in the media, including dozens of radio and TV interviews with the national staff, and an editorial in USA Today by John Dear, the day after the US bombings began. Several weeks before the bombing, on November 18, 1998, FOR organized a press conference of religious leaders against the bombing and the economic sanctions at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

In February and March, 1999, FOR cosponsored a major national tour by Denis Halliday (former UN Chief Relief Coordinator in Iraq) and Phyllis Bennis (of the Institute for Policy Studies) to over twenty cities. Staff member Clayton Ramey also traveled extensively to cities and campuses.

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Campaigns to Stop War and Genocide in Yugoslavia and Kosova

Rev. John Dear was one of the speakers during a demonstration at the White House against the bombing in Yugoslavia.

The FOR took an active and early lead in opposing the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the "ethnic cleansing" of Albanian Muslims from Kosova. From day one, FOR opposed both genocide in Kosova and US/NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. FOR spoke out on National Public Radios "All Things Considered;' in USA Today, FOX TV Network News, and many other local and regional radio and TV programs against the bombings. It distributed over 27,000 "Covenants of Peace with the People of Serbia and Kosovo" statements to be signed by individuals and congregations. FOR compiled and distributed thousands of "Stop the War in Kosova" resource and organizing packets, with fact sheets, articles, action suggestions, interfaith prayers, and other tools for local groups across the country FOR helped organize vigils, teach-ins, prayer services and demonstrations in dozens of cities.

FOR helped bring together over twenty national peace organizations to form "The National Coalition for Peace in Yugoslavia," in an effort to stop the war. Besides holding a press conference with Congressional representatives at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, FOR spoke out with others at the White House, and led a demonstration against the bombing on June 3, which was featured in The Washington Post and other news media.

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Racial and Economic Justice

FOR published and distributed, "Toward the Beloved Community," a booklet reviewing the racial and economic injustices which plague our country, and offering alternatives and solutions.

FOR joined the New York City campaign against police brutality, sparked after the killing of West African immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was shot at 41 times by the police, though unarmed. Over one thousand New Yorkers were arrested in the largest nonviolent demonstrations in New York in recent decades.

FOR continues to support racial dialogue and reconciliation programs around the country. In Ossining, NY, FOR helped facilitate racial dialogue, and initiated a call for a "Year of Heating" to help rebuild the community after the shooting of an unarmed, young African American man by a white police officer. FOR also helped organize part of the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage, tracing in reverse the route of the slave trade, from New England to West Africa. FOR continues to sponsor campaigns against the death penalty, to support in particular Mumia Abu-Jamal and to work with jubilee 2000 and the cancellation of all third world debts.

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"Stop the Hate" Vigils

Andres Mares-Muro, FOR's Racial and Economic justice coordinator participated with other FOR members in protesting police brutality in New York City.

FOR organized over fifty vigils against hate crime across the country on November last, 1998. Groups gathered for prayer, silence, and reflections on nonviolence to mourn the many victims of hate violence, and to promote reconciliation, tolerance and community. FOR worked throughout the year to hold over 350 vigils on October 7th, 1999, to help build a movement against hate and for nonviolent, compassionate love.

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Panama Campaign

In 1999, FOR published a groundbreaking report on the toxic legacy of forty years of US chemical weapons testing in Panama. The New York Times and CBS's Sixty Minutes drew on FOR information to expose the explosive environmental legacy of the US in Panama.

FOR continued its national campaign on Panama, working with grassroots groups both in Panama and the US for the withdrawal of all US military bases from Panama. We have consistently called for the environmental cleanup of the bases, and their successful conversion to productive, economically viable purposes that will benefit Panama's poor majority. The Campaign has received media coverage both in the US and Panama, and publishes the quarterly "Panama Update" newsletter.

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Bosnian Reconciliation Work Camp

In July and August, 1998, FOR led a three week interfaith, reconciliation work camp in Bosnia, with a twelve member delegation to reconstruct homes, teach English, clean up deserted towns and foster understanding between Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Serbs. FOR accompanied the first, peaceful, large-scale return of over 500 Bosnian Muslim refugees from Kozarac in northwestern Bosnia to their homes in Serb territory. They helped the refugees clean out their former city and reclaim burnout homes. Delegation members also taught English to 137 local students in Prijedor in the Bosnian Serb Republic. The closing celebration was the first time in six years where Muslims and Serbs broke bread and sang and danced together. Together, they wore FOR t-shirts which said, "I will not raise my child to kill your child."

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Bosnian Student Project

FOR continues to support over 100 Bosnian students who are continuing their education in the US through our Bosnian Student Project. The project started 6 years ago in the middle of the Bosnian war. In 1999, one of our first students, Fatima Mujcinovic of Sarajevo, passed her Ph.D. qualifying exam in Comparative Literature at the Univ. Of California at Santa Barbara. Several dozen of our original 154 students have completed their education and returned to Bosnia. We now have four students from Kosova in this program, and are working to include students from Serbia as well. Several Bosnian students participated in the 1998 Bosnian Reconciliation Work Camp. We distributed "The Bosnian Student Project: A Response to Genocide," a forty page booklet by Doug Hostetter about the FOR's compassionate response to the complexity and horror of the war in Bosnia and how FOR succeeded in providing homes and schools in the US for the students.

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Israel/Palestine Delegation

Rabia Harris FOR staff member and Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb meeting with a Palestinian peace activist during the Israel-Palestinian interfaith delegation's visit to the region.

From October 25 to November 7, 1998, FOR led an interfaith delegation to Israel and Palestine, to support in the Campaign for Secure Dwellings. This project brings together Israeli and Palestinian peace and human rights organizations to protect Palestinian homes which have been threatened or destroyed in the West Batik. Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of the FOR Jewish Peace Fellowship, Rabia Harris of the FOR Muslim Peace Fellowship, and Doug Hostetter, FOR International/Interfaith Secretary, co-led the delegation. The delegation met with Israeli and Palestinian peace activists, Israeli settlers, government officials, and many Palestinian families whose homes had been destroyed or threatened. The delegation also participated in helping a Palestinian family re-terrace their land after destruction by military bulldozers.

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Peacemaker Training Institute

Peacemaker Training Institute participants at FOR headquarters in Nyack, NY

The FOR's Peacemaker Training Institute (PTI) offers leadership development and nonviolence trainings to enable young people ages 17 to 25 to become peacemakers and justice-activists. Groups of fifteen to twenty-five young people meet for up to ten days of intensive activity. Workshops highlighted topics such as conscientious objection, racial and economic justice, East Timor, and centering oneself. In March 1999, FOR also hosted two alternative spring break nonviolence trainings in Nyack, with over thirty students. FOR continues to do one day nonviolent trainings for schools and communities; to reach out to young people; to remain in contact with all past PTI graduates, and to host periodic social justice gatherings for young people.

After the horrific massacre at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, FOR joined with Creative Response to Conflict, in a call for national implementation of peace education and conflict resolution training in every elementary and high school in the US.

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F.O.R. National Conference

A gathering at the FOR National Conference.

More than 225 people from across the US gathered at Camp Alexander Mack in Milford, Indiana from July 15-19, 1998 for FOR's bi-annual national conference, entitled, "A Future of Nonviolence: Shaping the 21st Century." Speakers included Anke Kooke, IFOR General Secretary from the Netherlands; Farid Esack, Muslim liberation theologian from South Africa; Rev. Mel White, Minister of Justice of the Metropolitan Community Church; Marietta Jaeger from Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation; Miltoria Bey from the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice; Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb; Zoughbi Zoughbi, of the Wiam Conflict Resolution Center in Palestine; Dr. Ruchama Marton of the Israeli-Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights; and Jesse Saloman from Peace in the Streets by Kids from the Streets. The conference featured daily worship services, plenaries, workshops, and an "Inter-Generational Forum."

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Fellowship Magazine

The award-winning November-December 1998 issue of Fellowship magazine.

FOR's Fellowship magazine remains the oldest, continuously published peace journal in the United States. From 1998-1999, Fellowship featured special issues on "The Legacy of Gandhi: Fifty Years After Gandhi's Assassination," "Women, Peace and the Future: Marking 150 Years of the organized Women's Movement;" "Buddhism and Nonviolence, "with a rare interview with Buddhist monk and author, Thich Nhat Hanh; "Disarmament and justice," outlining FOR's vision of all disarmament and racial and economic justice issues; and "The Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence," a special issue explaining and promoting the United Nations call for a decade of peace. The Associated Church Press gave Fellowship an award for its special "Women, Peace and The Future" issue.

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1998 Pfeffer Peace Prize

FOR presented the 1998 Pfeffer Peace Prize to the Comunidad de Paz de San Jose de Apartado, a "Community of Peace" composed of twenty-eight settlements in the San Jose region of Colombia that united to create an island of peace and neutrality in a sea of political violence. Community members have committed themselves not to bear arms; not to provide logistical support to any armed group; not to provide or manipulate information for any side in the massive continuing conflict; and not to appeal to any party in the conflict for help in solving personal, family or community problems.

John Dear presented the 1998 Pfeffer Peace Prize to Gildardo Tuberquia, a representative of the Comunidad de Paz, on December 10, 1998 in Madison, Wisconsin at a public ceremony sponsored by the Colombian Support Network which nominated the winner.

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1998 and 1999 Martin Luther King, Jr., Awards

FOR presented the 1998 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award to Ken Brown, a long time peace educator and professor at Manchester College, during the FOR national conference in Indiana, on July 1998.

FOR presented the 1999 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award to Edith Bush of West Palm Beach, Florida, a longtime civil rights leader and community activist who has spent her life promoting racial reconciliation and economic justice. John Dear presented the award at a ceremony before the West Palm Beach City Council on May 4th, 1999.

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F.O.R. Local Groups/Memberships

In addition to our 75 local groups across the country, new FOR local groups were started in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Colorado. Every month, the national office sends out "The Local Organizer," a newsletter and packet of organizing suggestions, to key contacts from each group. It also works through the Internet to support efforts for peace. National staff members regularly visit groups around the country, and offers them seeds grants for special projects. FOR hosted a weekend gathering of FOR Local Organizers from around the country to share, reflect and strategize together, as well as meet the national staff at Nyack.

Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Sr. Helen Prejean, and Fred Rogers were among the one thousand people who signed the FOR Statement of Purpose and joined FOR this year.

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Religious Peace Fellowships

FOR hosted a February 20-22, 1999 gathering of representatives from 13 of the FOR Religious Peace Fellowships. They shared a vision of nonviolence, and strategies for organizing within their religious communities. The participants agreed to meet annually, share materials, newsletters and strategies, and reach out to include other groups in future gatherings. The fifteen national religious peace fellowships affiliated with the FOR act as voices for peace and nonviolence within their religious communities.

FOR contributed pacifist voices from Muslim, Orthodox, and mainstream Protestant traditions in a book of interfaith reflections on nonviolence called Transforming Violence: Linking Local and Global Peacemaking (Herald Press, 1998).

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Ongoing F.O.R. Projects

FOR continues to maintain representatives at the United Nations, speaking for peace and nonviolence throughout the world. It also maintains an historic archives of materials on peace and nonviolence at Swarthmore College.
FOR continues to support SIPAZ (Servicio International Pam La Paz), an international peace presence and source of objective and credible information and analysis on the continuing conflict in Chiapas, Mexico. The SIPAZ team promotes peace and dialogue throughout Chiapas, and to publish a newsletter for activists in the US. FOR also periodically sends out action alerts about human rights abuses and crises in Latin America to members in the US.
During the year, FOR hosted Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Belfast, Northern Ireland at the FOR headquarters in Nyack, New York for a public lecture, as well as organized press interviews for media in the New York City area. We also featured a talk on nuclear disarmament by author and scholar Jonathan Schell.
FOR continues to join with other national organizations and religious communities to sponsor and support a wide variety of campaigns for peace and justice.
FOR continues to publish and distribute its annual list of available books about peace, justice and nonviolence. FOR also publishes and distributes a catalogue with cards, posters, communication games, and other items related to our mission.
The FOR Statement of Purpose has been republished in Spanish and is again being distributed to Latino communities across the country.
Executive Director John Dear and Fellowship Editor Richard Deats are advisors to a ten-part PBSTV documentary series on peacemakers in the twentieth century.
FOR continues a special renovation of its library, to collect and collate books on peace, nonviolence peace movements and peacemakers, as well as historic FOR and Fellowship materials.

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