|
Pulse of the Twin Cities Login |
|
If you do not have an account yet
Create One.
|
|
|
Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
|
|
|
|
Peace in the Precincts: From the Streets to the System
Wednesday 18 February @ 14:36:24 |
 By Burt Berlowe
On March 2nd, Minnesotans will participate in this year’s presidential selection process as part of Super Tuesday with precinct caucuses held in hundreds of locations around the state. In addition to supporting specific candidates or “uncommitted,” individual attendees will enact resolutions that will hopefully be integrated into their party’s platform. Delegates elected at the precinct level advance to district conventions, where they have a chance to go on the state or national party gatherings. This year, a revolutionary new element has been added to this political process. It is called Peace in the Precincts.
 Minnesota’s newest grassroots movement was born once in a Blue Moon. A year later, it is rapidly coming of age.
One day last February, youthful labor organizer Andrew Scott decided to brave the winter chill and take a walk through the Longfellow neighborhood he called home. His destination was a cozy coffeehouse called the Blue Moon where he hoped a cup of java and a dose of camaraderie would melt away the cold. But the weather wasn’t the main thing on Scott’s mind that day. He had recently been to a training at Friends for a Non-violent World (FNVW) in St. Paul on how to talk to others about the Iraq War given by FNVW director Phil Steger. Steger had been speaking frequently around town about his experiences in Iraq and teaching others what he had learned. Scott had left the trainings inspired to find new ways to work for peace beyond traditional anti-war rhetoric. He hadn’t figured out yet what form that action would take.
As he approached the Blue Moon, Scott coincidentally ran into Steger who was with Lisa Annan, a fellow Iraq traveler. The three had coffee together and began talking about the trainings and the anti-war protests that had preceded them in Minneapolis and around the world. “We thought that the marches were fine but we should be doing more than that,” Scott recalled during a recent interview at FNVW. “There had been thousands of people participating in protests. We had to find a way to keep those people active in the cause and try to bring in new folks as well. We knew all about how to protest against war. We needed to translate that into electoral power.”
“With a presidential election year upcoming, we wanted to get people to act neighbor to neighbor to promote a more peaceful world” Steger said during that same interview. “We decided to develop an official process. We tried out different names: ‘be democracy,’ ‘we are democracy,’ etc., then we realized that we had to organize in precincts. So we called it ‘Peace in the Precincts.’ (PIP). ”
In subsequent weeks, the Blue Moon became the regular meeting place for peace in the precincts organizers. Originated under the auspices of FNVW, PIP soon became its own organization run by a volunteer steering committee. After some debate, the group made the decision to not endorse any candidate or party but instead to emphasize the issue of peace during the coming election campaign said Peace in the Precincts Trainer Glenda Walsh. “We decided to focus on issues of peace and security to make elected officials accountable to the wisdom and knowledge of the everyday person.”
From the outset, Peace in the Precincts organizers had big ideas. They wanted to come up with a comprehensive platform that would seek to change American foreign policy and international security starting with Minnesota’s next round of precinct caucuses in the upcoming presidential election year. The goal of the effort, Steger said, was to organize at least 8,000 Minnesotans ( the approximate number that participated in a Twin Cities antiwar march the previous spring) into precinct teams that would carry policy priorities to party caucuses and conventions beginning March 2 as a first step in making non-violence a national priority.
The organizers knew that in order for their project to succeed, they needed to complete two daunting tasks: to get core activists to move from protests to process and to reach beyond their normal base of support to appeal to a wider audience. To accomplish this, they first established eight steps to Peace in the Precincts under three basic categories: transforming power, transforming policy and transforming politics. The steps included identifying voting precincts and political trends in each community, reaching out to neighbors in those areas to find common ground, build trust and mobilize action; creating peace teams in each precinct to convene policy discussions, developing peace platforms in each precinct and combining them into one common agenda, mobilizing people to attend caucuses and take the platform through the party process, and getting people to the polls on election day.
 Peace in the Precincts volunteers attended meetings of Neighbors for Peace groups, door-knocked at homes with anti-war signs on their lawns and sent out emails to political activists, asking everyone they could find to convene “kitchen table” discussions at various community sites and put together ideas for a peace and justice platform.
On November 16, 2003, a peace in the precincts organizational meet-up was held at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul with the purpose of launching its action plan. In a press release about the event, Steger asked the question: “where have all the peace protestors gone?” Noting that public anti-war demonstrations had diminished since George Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq, Steger added: “…It may have seemed as if the peace movement had declared an end of operations as well. But that is not the case. Leaders of the peace movement have simply gone home and gone to work, putting together a plan that will mobilize the marchers into a political force. In the next year, Minnesotans will march not just down the street, but to the caucuses and into the heart of the political system as members of a growing movement known as Peace in the Precincts.”
In subsequent weeks, in communities across the state -- in living rooms, backyards, parks, schools, churches and community centers, growing groups of citizens held dialogues to air their concerns and come up a platform of peace and justice issues they could take to their precinct caucuses. The platform was confined to issues of international security and foreign affairs with connections to trade and farm policy, civil liberties and human rights. Proposals were general in nature to appeal to a larger audience. A motion to get the U.S. out of Iraq, for example would be morphed into a more palatable stance against pre-emptive war.
Most of the neighborhood groups came up with from three to eight issues for the platform. The PIP steering committee then narrowed the list to five platform items that called for security through economic justice, universal disarmament, sane defense spending, international cooperation and human rights and the rule of law.
At the same time, organizers held a series of trainings where newcomers learned the mechanics of a precinct caucus and how to gain support for their causes. Trainers traveled to all parts of the state or sent videos in their place.
Steger takes great pride in rattling off the list of suburban and outstate communities that have come on board: St Louis Park, Eden Prairie, Edina, Orono, Apple Valley, Eagan, St. Croix Valley, Hanover, Rochester and Duluth, among others. While most of those active are Democrats, there are a substantial number of Republicans and Independents. What they all share in common is a desire to play a role in changing the direction of American government and its role in the world. “The main idea,” said Steger, “is to reach those people not already convinced who share the same values about a peaceful world if not the specifics on how to get there.”
As a unique way of getting the word to other regions of Minnesota Steger and local folk singer Pop Wagner have been traveling the state performing “Riding the Dusty Trail to Democracy: Peace, Politics and Rope Tricks” old fashioned organizing entertainment in the tradition of Will Rogers and Woody Guthrie, especially made for people in greater Minnesota. Among the towns they have visited are Marshall, Morris, Montevideo, Ely, Rochester and Grand Rapids.
It might be expected that in trying to reach the unconverted, peace organizers would encounter some opposition. But they say the response has been overwhelmingly favorable even in supposedly conservative suburban and outstate areas. Ironically, the biggest objections have come from organizers of some local Democratic presidential campaigns who have seen their potential volunteer pool drained by Peace in the Precincts. Steger has an answer for them: those candidates who agree with the platform will be able to rally supporters around them during the caucus endorsement process.
On January 24, an all-call gathering was held at the First Universalist Church in Minneapolis to bring together people from around the state who had organized Peace in the Precincts in their areas. Over 300 people attended the session that was designed to finalize the platform and prepare participants for the caucuses and beyond.
Speaking to the group at the event Steger referred to Martin Luther King’s 1967 “call for a revolution of values” in which America would rise up and demand new priorities in foreign policy that emphasize human dignity and self-determination and offensive action on behalf of justice. In surprising and extraordinary ways,” Steger said, “Peace in the Precincts has embodied King’s call for this revolution featuring priorities that are based in the solid rock of democratic values, not the shifting sands of military supremacy. We need to shift to an evolution of values, to a strategy that focuses on three areas: grassroots organizing, public policy and electoral advocacy…The peace movement in Minnesota is poised to take its power from the streets to the system,”
With the help of several volunteers, the group ran through the final platform on flip charts sheets, then to a discussion of how to move to step two of the process. “If 20 people go to 400 caucuses,” Steger told the all-call crowd “that would be 8000 voices for peace. From that we could build alliances, have get out the vote campaigns and maybe candidate forums. The organizing goes from us to you. Are we ready to make change?”
Wagner and Steger gave the audience a sample of their Dusty Trail performance.
Wagner sang songs about freedom and lost jobs and organizing, and joined with Steger in a closing sing-along of “This Land is Your Land.” The highlight of the medley was Wagner’s own Peace in the Precincts song which called for citizens to move from marching to caucusing.
There are already indications that Peace in the Precincts may eventually become a national movement. Minnesota organizers have been establishing contacts with activists in other states who have expressed an interest in the project. Eventually, Steger said, they would like to take their model to other parts of the country, “Like other previous movements growing from the grassroots we want to affect public policy,” said Steger. “Our goal is for our platform to become law at a national level. It is the beg inning of a movement that will continue long after the elections.”
Additional peace in the precinct trainings are scheduled for Thursday, February 19 in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul (contact Barbara Knutson 651-699-7241), Saturday, February 21 2-4 p.m. at FNVW, Monday, February at 7 p.m. at St. Joan of Arc Church and Wednesday, February 25 at the Mill City Coffee House (tentative). For further information or about the trainings or any other aspect of Peace in the Precincts go to the web site at www.peace intheprecincts.org. or call FNVW at 651-917-0383.
The Peace Caucusing Song
by Pop Wagner and Phil Steger
(To the tune 'Hard Travelin' by Woody Guthrie)
I've been doin' that peace marchin', I thought you knowed,
I've been doin' that peace marchin' way on down the road.
Singin' my songs and wavin' my signs
Doin' what I can to change these times.
I've been doin' that peace marchin', Lord.
I've been doin' that door knockin', I thought you knowed,
I've been doin' that door knockin' way on down the road.
Passin' out fliers, talkin' to my neighbors
Makin' sure folks get paid for their labors
I've been doin' that door knockin', Lord.
I've been doin' that peace caucusin', I thought you knowed,
I've been doin' that peace caucusin' way on down the road.
'Lectin' delegates, passin' resolutions
Tryin' to save our Constitution
I've been doin' that peace caucusin', Lord.
I've been passin' that Peace Platform, I thought you knowed,
I've been passin' that Peace Platform way on down the road.
Sick and tired of the wastes of war
I ain't gonna take it any more
I've been passin' that Peace Platform, Lord.
(c) Pop Wagner and Phil Steger
|
|
 |
|
|
Comments -
Post Comment |
|
The comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for its content.
NO comments yet! Be the first!
|
|
|
