By Matthew Smucker

RL’s internal processes of self-evaluation and visioning forward have made us aware of a new imperative. Today’s peace and justice movement faces unique challenges and opportunities. The growing unpopularity of the war in Iraq and other Bush administration policies has opened space for grassroots organizing. And this new situation raises important questions. The questions we are wrestling with include the following:

• What are the biggest opportunities and the biggest challenges for the peace and justice movement today?
• What constraints prevent the emergence of a stronger, more coordinated, and more strategic movement?
• What would it take for a mass movement to be able to more effectively respond to unfolding events, to shift terms of debate, and to leverage power?
• What would it take for broad ownership of a united strategy to end the war in Iraq?
• What role can WRL play in the broader movement that is important, needed, and unique?
• How can we contribute to building a more multi-racial, antiracist peace movement, and what presently prevents us from doing so?
• How can we link resistance to war and imperialism with grassroots struggles around domestic concerns (or around other global concerns)?

To help us answer these and other questions, we are launching a listening process. Over the next few months, we will be interviewing allied organizations from across the country. We want our assessment— and ultimately our vision and work—to be informed by the wisdom of multiple perspectives.

Through this listening process, we hope to deepen our existing relationships with other organizations, as well as establish new relationships with organizations (particularly people of color-led and youth-led) with which we are already allied. We will assess today’s peace and justice movement, and solicit ideas for how WRL can contribute strategically. We will also meet with WRL locals and assess how the national office can better support them. We will seek feedback on WRL’s current work. And we’ll look at opportunities for collaboration with some of the organizations we interview.

The listening process will be one of my primary tasks as field organizer over the next months. Madeline Gardner has come on board for the next three months, through a Freeman internship, to help with this project as well. And WRL’s Future Wholeness Committee is actively shaping the process. We look forward to meeting with a variety of organizations working for justice, peace, and a better world.

Matt Smucker is WRL’s Field Organizer.