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by Jim Haber

’m back in San Francisco after my second meeting of the War Resisters League National Committee in Asheville, NC, August 23-26. National Committee meetings are vital for the running of the League, since the Committee is the League’s ultimate decision-making body; local WRL chapters are encouraged to send voting representatives to the semi-annual meetings since we are the grass roots of the organization. Hence, the meetings have to strike a balance between managing the national organization and organizing against militarism and war.

Planning for the future of WRL: (l-r) Clare Hanrahan of WRL’s Asheville local (and one of the hosts of the weekend meeting), NC member Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer and EC member John M. Miller.

To us locals, the meetings are too much the business of oversight and budgets. The national WRL staff is very dedicated, and we’d let them manage things themselves, but they need our help. Most members are just grateful that WRL exists. It represents something unique: its message consistent, its literature high quality, and its longevity inspiring. My point is that these meetings are worth the effort, even if they aren’t directly relevant to my work here at home.

Asheville was unfamiliar environs for me. The landscape was beautiful, lush and warm, but not too humid. Local WRL members introduced us to other activists in the area. I was impressed with the breadth of issues they address and their radicalism. The food and hospitality were great. Thank you very much to Clare Hanrahan, Cicada and Lola LaFey, Amy Moose and everyone else there.

We began the weekend on Friday by joining two successive vigils, the first organized by Women in Black and the other by the Western North Carolina Peace Coalition. There were about 15 people for each, and a few musicians accompanied the second one. WRL’s own Sachio Ko-Yin made a couple of beautiful signs. I was pleased with the amount of positive responses from passersby in cars and on foot. The location was great for visibility.

Tom Jackson of New Hampshire showed the video he made about his trip to Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness two years ago. Greetings from Missile Street is an excellent 40-minute resource, and I encourage everyone to get it and show it locally. Of course some of the footage is disturbing, as is hearing Madeline Albright declare that the death of half a million Iraqi children is “worth it.” The narration and production quality are high. For more information, or to get a copy of the video, contact Tom at coffeeanon@yahoo.com.

As to the substance of the two-and-a-half-day meeting: We dealt with ongoing issues related to being a peace and justice organization of integrity: How do the many “-isms” in society manifest within WRL? Who is WRL? Who are we addressing? Are terms like “Gandhian” helpful or even accurate in describing us? What exactly do we want the new Disarmament Coordinator to do (see below)? Ultimately we took steps to encourage new voices to rise within WRL, even as we continue to benefit from the strength and clarity of longstanding members.

Concretely, we made the following decisions about WRL’s programs and processes over the next couple of years. One no-brainer was to hire a full-time Disarmament Coordinator to replace Chris Ney. (Executive Committee member Carmen Trotta has been volunteering full-time in the National Office since Chris started his paternity leave last fall, but with Chris now gone for good (NVA, May-June), Carmen’s stint ending October 15 and the “war on terrorism” going on for the foreseeable future, clearly WRL needs a full-time person working on the disarmament front.)

More complex were a set of decisions around diversity in the organization. The NC agreed to allow the ROOTS Task Force to function as an autonomous “safe space” for young people between 16 and 30 and to work with the Anti-Racism Task Force in assessing WRL’s progress in diversity; to require diversity training for new people coming into decision-making bodies of the organization; and to hold a special National Committee meeting between now and the next regularly scheduled one in February, 2003, to keep working on those issues. Some of those decisions, of course, had budgetary implications.

Finally, we brainstormed ideas for speakers, workshops and a name for a national WRL conference to be held in Colorado Springs in August 2003. That won’t be a business meeting, and I’m looking forward to some serious fun there!

Compared to the NC meeting I attended last February, we networked more in Asheville and devoted more time to the world situation and difficulties of organizing in the United States. The caucus of locals and the task force sessions I attended focused on our role in the larger peace movement. Also, ideas and stories flowed during unstructured times like dinners and lunches.

I encourage other locals to send delegates to future National Committee meetings. A travel pool helps us low-income types get there, and friendships develop quickly. Additionally, if we don’t step up, the League could ultimately fall down, and the peace movement needs us.

Jim Haber is the director of the WRL San Francisco local, War Resisters League West.