Peace Action Fund of New York State

Peace Action Fund of New York State

Peace Action New York State

Student Chapter
Organizing Manual

Peace Action New YorkState • Church St. Station, P.O. Box 3357 New York, NY 10008-3357

646-723-1749•

twitter.com/PeaceActionNY• facebook.com/PeaceActionNY

Table of Contents

Welcome Letter2

About PANYS3 – 5

PANYS Staff and Board of Directors6 – 7

Chapter Contact Info8

Forming a PANYS Student Club – Constitution Outline9 – 12

Fact Sheets

Nuclear Weapons13 – 14

War in Iraq & Afghanistan15

Military Recruitment16

Student Organizing – Getting Started17

Student Outreach18

A Guide to Holding Your Interest Meeing19

Sample Agenda20 – 21

Capacity Mapping on Your Campus22 – 23

What Makes an Effective Flyer24 – 25

Club Meeting Exercises26

Event Organizing & Fundraising27 – 32

Important Films to Watch33 – 34

How to Take Political Action35 – 38

Petition Help39 – 40

Know Your Media!41

PANYS Merchandise Info42

Useful Sites to Check Out!43

Addendum 44

Shut Down Indian Point!45

Cost of War Awareness Project46

Peace Voter Campaign47

Calendar of Events48

Club Submission Form49

Welcome!

Hello Organizers and Student Activists!

This is the Peace Action New York State (PANYS) Student Organizing Manual to help you in your organizing adventures. We have included information about Nuclear Disarmament, Military Recruitment, and the Cost of War and ongoing conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. This information provideseducational background on Peace Action’s views and will help you to be more informed when you are organizing. We have also included contact information for our current chapters as well as tips for how to start organizing. If you already have a group of people together, we hope the information on event planning and outreach will be useful. We have also included a piece on reflection, a very important but often forgotten component of any event. In order to grow, it is important to look at the work that has been done, celebrate the successes, and discuss what can be done in the future to continue to improve and address people’s concerns.

Finally, we have included information about legislative lobbying and current PANYS campaigns. These campaigns are a good platform for you to reflect, educate, and speak out about the kinds of issues you are passionate about. The last section of this guide is a list of upcoming events related to peace and nuclear-safe issues. Successful organizers and activists always know what’s going on around them in relation to their cause, and how to get involved in the actions and events of other like-minded organizations. We encourage you to stayed informed on local and regional events by working together and keeping in touch with your local Peace Action chapter.

Grassroots organizing is not an easy endeavor; however, when done right it can have immense effects. For examples of successful campaigns, just look at our Getting Started page. In grassroots organizing, it is important to remember that growing a movement and effecting change is a process (see p.16). Holding events makes people becomemore interested in the movement, more informed, and more likely to join and eventually become leaders. Sounds simple, but growing a movement is anything but.

A lot of hard work leads to sometimes seemingly small results. However, it is important to remember that every conversation you have, event you host, and person you reach out to is a step to reaching your goals. If you manage to reach out to just two people, and that person reaches two people, and so on, the organization and movement will grow exponentially.

Let’s Get Started!
About Peace Action New York State (PANYS)

Who we are…

Peace Action of New York State and the Peace Action Fund of New York State are the New York affiliates of Peace Action, the largest grassroots peace organization in the country.

The Peace Action Fund of New York State

Peace Action is dedicated to promoting the non-violent resolution of conflict, the abolition of nuclear weapons, halting the global spread of conventional arms, building a human rights culture and supporting human needs instead of militarism. We pursue these goals through the production and dissemination of educational materials for the public, activists and policy makers, as well as through community organizing initiatives and public outreach. The Peace Action Fund of New York State is a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)3 organization.

Peace Action New York State

Peace Action New York State is a 501(c)4 membership organization that uses lobbying and direct political action to complement the work of the Peace Action Fund of New York State. We currently have eighteen chapters and over 3000 members in New York State. As we are a grassroots organization, our local chapters take a large lead in determining our agenda. Each chapter works on local peace issues as well as state, national and global concerns. For more information about chapter projects, please refer to our chapters list (see p. 8) and visit their individual websites.

NY-SPAN (New York - Student Peace Action Network)

NY-SPAN is a coalition of Peace Action student chapters throughout New York State dedicated to empowering student advocates to take action on issues of peace and justice. Through education, grassroots organizing, and action campaigns, we work to promote informed student activism on campus and build leadership among young people in the peace movement.

Our history….

Ban the Bomb

Peace Action has its roots in the “ban the bomb” movement of the 1950s. In 1957, citizens, alarmed by the spiraling nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, formed the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (aka SANE) “to develop public support for a boldly conceived and executed policy which will lead mankind away from war and toward peace and justice.”

SANE's co-founder and co-chair from 1957 to 1963, Norman Cousins, was an influential figure in launching and sustaining the organization in its early years. SANE made its debut on November 15, 1957, with a full page advertisement in The New York Times, signed by SANE spokespeople includingAlbert Schweitzer, Eleanor Roosevelt, Norman Thomas, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Bertrand Russell, Pablo Casals, Roger Baldwin, Paul Tillich and Erich Fromm. These well-known Americans helped SANE become an effective national voice for nuclear disarmament. From the beginning, SANE saw peace and justice as linked; supporters like Dr. Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis connected SANE with civil and human rights movements across the nation. As its reputation grew, artists and entertainers like Steve Allen, Marlon Brando, Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller joined Harry Belafonte and Ossie Davis to form Hollywood’s Stars for SANE. By the summer of 1958, SANE had 130 chapters and some 25,000 members, making it the largest peace group in the United States.

Our First Victory and Confronting the Vietnam War

In 1963, members led the effort to our first major victory, the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. SANE was an early leader in the anti-Vietnam War movement. Benjamin Spock and Seymour Melman, as well as current Board members David Cortright, Marcus Raskin, Robert Schwartz and President Emeritus William Sloane Coffin were all deeply involved in this movement. SANE’s public education campaigns, such as its anti-ballistic-missile campaign slogan: “From the people who brought you Vietnam!,” linked Vietnam with nuclear spending. In 1978, SANE led the successful fight against MX mobile missile deployment that avoided massive environmental damage in Utah and Nevada. New alliances with labor were formed through work with the International Association of Machinists, whose President, William Winpisinger, served as Board Co-Chair.

The Freeze

In the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan’s nuclear war-fighting policies reignited public outrage once again, and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign was born. Initiated by Randall Forsberg’s call to “freeze and reverse the nuclear arms race,” The Freeze was a grassroots-based confederation of groups with offices in St. Louis and Washington, D.C. Their 1982 ballot initiatives in towns and cities across the nation gave voice to a public desire for nuclear sanity–a voice that eventually attracted attention from the great nuclear warrior himself.

Throughout the 1980s Freeze leaders Randall Forsberg, Pam Solo and Randy Kehler worked tirelessly with SANE Director David Cortright to push for nuclear reductions. Elected officials such as Rep. Patricia Schroeder and Sen. Ted Kennedy joined us to lead the fight in Congress. And when the U.S. government began to hold the line on nuclear weapons, Vice President Bush felt compelled to remind voters that it was not “those Freeze folks” who brought about this change … handing us a backhanded (if thoroughly unintentional) compliment.

In 1987, leadership from the two groups initiated negotiations for a merger. With great effort, in a political context dominated by neo-conservatives and increased militarism, SANE and The Freeze joined to become SANE/FREEZE, and in 1993, Peace Action.

Peace Action today….

Today, Peace Action has broadened its original nuclear disarmament mission to include the elimination of the trade in conventional weapons at home and abroad, support for a peace economy that funds human rather than corporate/military needs, and advocacy for peacemaking in local communities as well as foreign conflicts. Of course, we still work for the global abolition of nuclear weapons.

Peace Action has also launched the Peace Voter issue advocacy campaign that reaches millions of voters in Congressional Districts across the nation. Peace Action members have worked successfully for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the World Court Advisory Opinion against the legality nuclear weapons, military budget cuts, and landmine legislation. Peace Action members serve as NGO representatives at the United Nations, advocating for peace and justice with citizens from around the world. Coalitions with labor as well as with community anti-violence groups and the Congressional Black Caucus have strengthened the connections between disarmament and social justice.

After more than 50 years of struggle and success, Peace Action continues to educate, lobby, mobilize and act. We began with a call to help lead the world “away from war and toward peace and justice.” Now we are building a campaign for a new century. We know that people in communities around the world can help abolish nuclear and conventional war–just as they ended slavery in the United States and apartheid in South Africa. And we plan to do exactly that, with programs that honor our history, and build a future worthy of our children.

Our affiliates & allies…

Affiliates

• Peace Action (our national affiliate)

• Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives

Allies

• newamerica.net
• icasualties.org – fatalities in Iraq & Afghanistan
• National Priorities Project – see where your tax dollar goes.
• costofwar.com – breakdown the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Brought to you by NPP.

Staff–Peace Action New York State & Peace Action Fund of New York State

Position / Name / Phone / Email
Executive Director / Alicia Godsberg / 646-723-1749 /
Student Outreach Coordinator / NatiaBueno / 347-483-9283 /

Board Members – Peace Action New York State

Position / Name / Email / Affiliation
President / Jim Anderson / / WNY Peace Center
Upstate Co-Chair / ArnieMatlin / / Genesee Valley
Downstate Co-Chair / Margaret Melkonian / / Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives
Treasurer / Cheryl Wertz / / PANYS
Secretary / Elaine Klein / / Schenectady
At Large / Mary Beth Moore / / Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives
At Large / Jim Clune / / Broome Country Peace Action
At Large / Chris Brunner / / Chenango Peace Action
At Large / Vicki McFayden / / Bay Ridge Peace Action
Nat’l Rep #1 / Larry Wittner / / Upper Hudson Peace Action
Nat’l Rep #2 / Cheryl Wertz / / PANYS

Board Members –Peace Action Fund of New York State

Position / Name / Email
Chair / Sally Jones /
Treasurer / Bob Siegel (Interim) /
Secretary (Interim) / Carol Price Husten /
Board Member At Large / David Jones /
Board Member At Large / Joanne Robinson /
Board Member At Large / Stephen Chinlund /

Our PANYS and PAFNYS Board Members are not only supporters of Peace Action, but are also active members in their individual peace communities. If you have an idea for an action that concerns a particular local chapter, please do not hesitate to reach out to a member of our Board. For more information on our Board of Directors, please visit the ‘About’ page of the PANYS website (

Chapters

Our sixteen local chapters actively advocate for peace in their communities. State-wide actions are coordinated through the state office, and we bring the voice of New York to the national level.

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Peace Action Fund of New York State

Peace Action New York State

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Peace Action Fund of New York State

Peace Action New York State

National & Global Affiliate

Peace Action National

1100 Wayne Ave., Suite 1020

Silver Spring, MD 20910

tel: 301-565-4050

fax: 301-565-0850

web:

Peace Action International

303 East 57 Street, Apt. 11D

New York, NY 10022

web:

New York City Long Island Metro Area

New York State Office

Peace Action of New York State

tel: 646-723-1749

fax: 646-723-0996

email:

web:

Peace Action Bay Ridge

P.O. Box 090-756

Brooklyn, New York 11209

email:

web:

Peace Action of Staten Island

P.O. Box 201, St. George Station

Staten Island, NY 10301

email: web:

Peace Action Manhattan

P.O. Box 10

Planetarium Station

West 83rd Street

New York, NY 10024

email:

web:

Great Neck SANE/Peace Action

35 Arleigh Road

Great Neck, NY 11021

web:

Upstate New York Area

Broome County Peace Action

P.O. Box 1611

Binghamton, NY 13902

web:

Chenango Peace Action

174 Warner Road

Norwich, NY 13815-3440

web:

Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace

P.O. BOX 363

Geneseo, NY 14454

tel: 585-768-6277

fax: 585-768-7311

web:

No War Westchester

c/o P.O. Box 0012

Maryknoll, NY 10545

web:

Peace Action of Central New York

2013 E. Genesee St.

Syracuse, NY 13210

web:

Peace Action & Education

c/o Mike Connelly

151 Cypress St.

Rochester, NY 14620

web:

Rockland Peace Action

Nyack, NY

email:

Upper Hudson Peace Action

33 Central Ave.

Albany, NY 12210

web: peaceact.net

Western New York Peace Center

Network of Religious Communities

1272 Delaware Avenue

Buffalo, NY 14209

web:

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Peace Action Fund of New York State

Peace Action New York State

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Forming a PANYS Student Club – Outline of Constitution

IMPORTANT: This constitutional outline should be used primarily as a guide to help with the club registration process. While it is not mandatory to follow this entire outline exactly, we ask that you please use Article I, Section 1,2,3 and Article II, Section 1 of our constitution in your registration process. We also ask that this be a no dues organization. Please contact the PANYS State Office for any questions. Thank you!

Article I. Introduction

Section 1:

Name: Peace Action [school name].

Section 2:

Purpose:Peace Action ______is a non-partisan student group dedicated to empowering student advocates and take action on issues of peace and justice. Through education, grassroots organizing, and action campaigns, we work to promote informed student activism on campus and build leadership among young people in the peace movement.

Section3:

Goals:

1. TRAIN students to be effective social advocates and grassroots organizers.
2. EDUCATE young people on peace and justice issues, while keeping students informed on recent peace-related news and events.
3. EMPOWER students to campaign for action and policies that will help our communities and our world become a safer, more peaceful place.
4. CONNECT students to larger community of young and professional activists who share a similar interest for peace and conflict resolution.

Objectives:

1. Organize actions, events, and projects on issues of peace, education on the human and financial costs of war, the abolition of nuclear weapons, and the funding of human needs over militarism.
2. Work with Peace Action activists in our local chapter and state affiliate to mobilize student ideas and actions and help build leadership among young people in the peace movement.

Section 4:
Affiliations: Peace Action ______is affiliated with Peace Action New York State (PANYS) as part of an ongoing project of the Peace Action Fund of New York State (PAFNYS). PAFNYS is a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to promoting the non-violent resolution of conflict, the abolition of nuclear weapons, halting the global spread of conventional arms, building a human rights culture and supporting human needs instead of militarism.
Peace Action ______works closely with PANYS and its local chapter, ______. PANYS is a 501(c)4 membership organization comprised of sixteen local chapters, all of which work with elected officials and candidates to generate legislative change for the public good. As the state affiliate of Peace Action National, PANYS and its local chapters operate independently but within the guiding principles of Peace Action National. Similarly, Peace Action ______’s affiliation with PAFNYS and PANYS enables us to operate under the guiding principles of Peace Action, while remaining a fundamentally student-driven group whose campaigns are decided upon and carried out by students.

Peace Action ______is part of a larger state network of student chapters, called New York – Student Peace Action Network (NY-SPAN). As part of this network, we have access to educational materials, campaign resources, and organizational support provided by PAFNYS, PANYS, and Peace Action local chapters.