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A Towering Achievement for WRL
Let Us Go Forward Together

he 2005 WRL Peace Calendar marks the 50th year of the calendar’s publication. It is a towering achievement for WRL and a tribute to the work of hundreds of WRL members, contacts and friends; to thousands of purchasers and users of the book; and to the many outstanding political artists, writers and activists whose work is represented in its pages.

The 2005 edition is a beautiful and inspirational overview of all 49 calendars that preceded it, reflecting the significant political, social and cultural events and trends in the peace and social justice movement through the generations.

The WRL Peace Calendar was the brainchild of Igal Roodenko (1917-1991), a 50-year WRL member—and for much of that time, staffer—who wore many hats, among them radical pacifist, social activist, conscientious objector and, by no means least, printer and designer.

The first official mention of the calendar appeared in the October 1954 WRL Executive Committee Minutes, when Bayard Rustin reported that “the Date Calendar … is going to the printer this week. … 102 orders are on hand.” The debut edition, an experimental run of 300 copies published in 1955, notes, “Typography and Printing by Igal Roodenko,” and was printed on Igal’s press, as were many subsequent editions.

How the Calendar Grew
When the calendar was launched it was one of a very few such political calendars. Print runs and sales increased rapidly during the following years. WRL reported 1,600 sold in 1956, when 20,000 promotional brochures were first distributed to other peace organizations and ads appeared in peace and social justice publications. Goals for sales reached 4,000 in 1957.

Sales climbed rapidly during the ’60s and rose in the early ’70s to between 20,000 and 25,000 annually. Promotional activities increased proportionately. Today, however, with so many competitors on the market, sales are roughly 10,000 per year.

The Changing Format
The first seven editions of the calendar were smaller appointment books, with quotes about peace but no editorial comments and no themes. In 1962, the current format was introduced. Each calendar now has a theme. Listings of peace and justice organizations and the WRL organizing network have been added on the back pages. Date pages are placed back to back for easy removal, so that a useful and attractive little book of essays, profiles, poems and/or artwork remains for the owner’s pleasure and reference.

Calendar production has changed, of course, since 1955, particularly with the advent of desktop publishing. For the last decade or so, it’s been roughly as follows: WRL members and friends suggest themes and subjects for calendars—and, usually, an editor for each proposed idea—to the WRL National Committee, which then chooses the theme/subject for each year. The editor, the National Office Coordinator and members of the Fundraising Committee then form an ad hoc (and slightly informal) Calendar Committee, which determines the general tone and content of the calendar. The editor writes or collects the entries, edits them as needed and passes them on to the Art Director/Designer, who collects and/or creates appropriate artwork and designs the pages; the designer may or may not be the person who does the desktop publishing of the calendar. Once the calendar pages are laid out, proofs are sent to the National Office, where the pages are read by the Coordinator and proofread by members of the Calendar Committee. Then it’s corrected—once, twice, possibly a third time. Finally, it’s off to the printer, arriving back at the office some time during the summer.

Distinguished Contributors
The creative work of many distinguished political writers, artists and activists has graced the calendar’s pages. It is a truly impressive list and includes, among many others:

Nobel laureates and other activists from every area of struggle, including Mary McLeod Bethune, Helen Caldecott, Cesar Chavez, Dr. Robert Coles, David Dellinger, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Emma Goldman, Coretta Scott King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maggie Kuhn, Betty Jean Lifton, David McReynolds, Helen Nearing, Juanita Nelson, Rosa Parks, Dr. Benjamin Spock and Archbishop Desmond Tutu; writers and poets covering five centuries, from the Elizabethan John Donne through 20th-century thinkers like Kay Boyle, Susan Brownmiller, Martin Duberman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Barbara Garson, Allan Ginsberg, Paul Goodman, Doris Lessing, Eve Merriam, Kenneth Patchen, Grace Paley and Louis Untermeyer; artists and designers such as Bascove, Rick Bickhart, David Bragin, Heidi Brandt, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Josh Brown, Ivan Chernmayett, Elizabeth Dixon, Douglas Gorsline, Peter Gourfain, Elizabeth M. Gruse, Tom Hannan, Deena Hurwitz, Cliff Joseph, Louis LoMonaco, Janet Lovett, Mastt Mahurin, Julie Maas, Mark Morris, Douglas Parker, Ben Shahn, Steve Sweeny, Vera Williams and Art Young; and actors and musicians like Ed Asner, Ruby Dee, Dick Gregory, Tuli Kupferberg, Holly Near, Phil Ochs, Gil Scott-Heron, Pete Seeger and Nina Simone.

Popular Issues
A few many-times-over calendar owners shared their thoughts with us. Barbara Dale of Decorah, IA, wrote, “As for my favorites, I have a long list, but tops are ‘52 Stories of Nonviolent Resistance’ (2002) and the collection of songs.” (She didn’t say which song calendar, 1971’s “When the Mode of the Music Changes” or 1982’s “Dancing in the Streets.”)

Noted Skip Schiel, of Cambridge, MA, “After perusing my collection, dating back to 1968, I’d have to say that ‘Poems of Protest’ (2000) is my favorite … It uses graphics from Bread and Puppet Theatre, itself a ‘poem of protest.’ A close second: ‘With Peace on Our Wings’ (1995), mainly because of the cover graphic, the peace cranes of many colors soaring into the stratosphere … Also because it was the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the year of my participation in a global pilgrimage for peace.”

Rebecca Rosenbaum of the Eastern Iowa Peace Alliance wrote, “My absolute fave is the Grace Paley-Vera Williams calendar [from 1989—‘365 Reasons Not to Have Another War’] …At the drop of a hat, I will read ‘Midrash on Happiness’ aloud.” And three in a row from the early 1970s stood out in many peoples’ minds:

• 1971’s “When the Mode of the Music Changes,” an anthology of rock and roll lyrics;
• 1972’s “In Women’s Soul,” a selection of women’s statement on peace and justice; and
• 1973’s “50 Years of Nonviolent Revolution,” published as part of WRL’s 50th anniversary celebration and later transformed into the book Power of the People: Active Nonviolence in the U.S., by Robert Cooney and Helen Michalowskli.

Synergy: WRL and the Calendar
Through the years, the calendar has advanced WRL’s work both directly and indirectly. It is, of course, a major source of funds. People buy it for themselves, but also as a useful and politically meaningful gift to family and friends. Skip Schiel got his “first calendar as a gift from a friend.” He has “insisted” on having one every year since 1982’s “Dancing in the Streets,” he says, “despite the current plethora of beauteous calendars. No matter what the theme, no matter what the design, no matter who the editor. … You might say I’m stuck on this version of organizing my life.” And Barbara Dale notes, “I believe I have been using the WRL calendar for more than 20 years … kept all of them both for the content and for a diary of our family’s activities … For a lot of years I have ordered extras for family and friends.”

Thus, in addition to raising much-needed monies, the calendar also serves as a membership builder; many calendar purchasers report that the purchase was their initial introduction to WRL, and that their subsequent activism with the organization was due to their acquaintance with and use of the calendar.

Beyond those practical uses, the calendar has educated thousands of people by highlighting the dates and political significance of historical events in the evolution of the peace and justice movements; memorializing the contributions of founders and activists; tracing WRL’s growth from an organization composed of a small band of secular pacifists to a movement that brought nonviolent direct action into the broader movements for social justice and world peace; and, in general, by raising awareness about events routinely omitted or intentionally suppressed in mainstream texts.

In all those areas, notes longtime member and historian Larry Gara, it’s a valuable reference work. “While I was editing three of the WRL calendars,” he says, “I learned a lot about the history of nonviolence. And many times since I have consulted other years’ calendars as valuable reference tools. … These booklets are a special source of both information and inspiration. They help make our very rich but neglected history of nonviolence more visible.”

Finally and perhaps most importantly, the calendar, as in integral part of WRL’s training and action programs, has helped to keep alive in the national discourse the concept of nonviolent conflict resolution as a viable modality for achieving peace and justice. It is hoped and anticipated that many organizations and individuals will join WRL in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Peace Calendar by promoting, purchasing and distributing it widely. The 2005 calendar reflects a body of work that for half a century has focused a bright light on the path to an alternative solution to world problems, one in which caring, cooperation and nonviolent conflict resolution replace the war and violence that currently engulf our world.

Charlotte Levine has been a volunteer at WRL since 1985. During the last two years she has worked chiefly with calendar editor Ruth Benn on production and promotion of the calendar.