Movement Building for Allies

Members and organizations of the traditional peace movement have been increasingly coming to recognize the importance not only of partnering and “joining forces” with groups and organizations led primarily by poor people and people of color, but also of taking leadership from those groups and learning how to be effective allies to them through our organizing efforts.

Movement Building for Allies is a facilitators' manual for a workshop intended for white activists working in groups within the peace movement and other anti-militarist movements who want to deepen their understanding of how to do strategic organizing using an anti-oppression and cross-movement approach.

This includes a focus on how to be strong allies to directly impacted communities (i.e. those whose immediate survival-level needs are impeded by U.S. militarism) through relationship-building and a clear understanding of the root causes of war and militarism.


What does it mean to "be an ally"? This workshop will help people learn what that means through an approach that sees all forms of oppression as interrelated and the way to end them as the interweaving of all people's struggles for justice and collective liberation.

Workshop goals

Participants will bring back to their groups/organizations:

1. a deeper understanding of the root causes of war and the culture of violence that is foundational to militarism.

2. a recognition of how nonviolent social change happens and participants’ role in it.

3. an increased capacity to build strong ally relationships in campaigns for social change.

4. tools to do strategic organizing within an ally framework.

5. renewed energy and empowerment in their organizing.