Transcripts For CSPAN3 World War I And Peace Organizations 20171126

Im delighted to moderate this session. World war i spawned the modern American Peace movement. This modern movement advocated both peace and social justice and was characterized by liberal and radical Citizen Peace activists, womens peace organizations and a progressive reformist impulse. Significantly, this movement contained a powerful secular impulse in the post1914 Peace Movement marked an important milestone in what John Chambers and charles moscose termed the shift from safer to secular red to secularac resistance and towards a new Conscientious Objection. Historically peace activism was based on religious motives, although in the decade or so before 1914 secular middle class peace societies emerged, including the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the world peace foundation. World war i accelerated this trend toward secularization. During the war, socialists, anarchists, and other political radicals based their dissent on secular principles, political, philosophical and humanitarian. Often more antiwar than pacifist, these radicals were motivated by internationalism, by worker solidarity and by a refusal to fight in a capitalist war. Similarly, ceos rooted in these political traditions often based their objections on secular grounds. World war i era organizations that reflected this secularization of conscience included the socialist party, the Industrial Workers of the world, the American Union against militarism, the peoples council, the antienlistment league, the no conscription league, and by the three organizations represented by this mornings panelists. I will kind of name them from your right to left. The u. S. Section of the Womens International legal for peace and freedom, which originated in the womens peace party, represented by mary hanson harrison. The American Civil Liberties union, represented by robert remore, and the War Resistors League represented by joanne sheehan. Their biographies are printed on page 25 of the program. Last night, michael kaizan in his key note, noted that Peace Movements confronted a challenge and that they had to be organized anew each time we had a war perhaps. But if so, we are fortunate to have these three organizations provide a foundation and a fount of experience, an institution experience and wisdom to help with those new Peace Movements. Regarding the format, i will pose hopefully three questions to the panelists. Time permitting, i might ask the panelists to offer a comment responding to something one of their copanelist has said and then we will turn to audience question. I will ask the first question from the podium before i sit. Well start with mary hanson harrison. The first question is really two. She will provide a brief capsule overview of the organization she represents, and then she will explain the circumstances, the context and the secular principles that gave rise to the organization, and then we will just follow down the line. So mary. Good morning, everyone. Im glad to be here. Good morning. I would like to hear a good morning, everyone. Good morning. Im mary hanson harrison, president of the u. S. Section of the Womens International league for peace and freedom. The reason im sitting in this chair is because were the oldest. Age before beauty. Were 102 years old, and ill start saying that, you know, we dont look 102 years old but under this administration right now i think it is trying. So we celebrated our 100th year at the hague, and i will come back and tell you a little bit more about that. But i will tell you how were were sort of broken up into an international and u. N. And national branches. We have 38 im sorry, 34 sections across the globe where our International Base is in geneva. We also have a base in new york right across the street from the u. N. It houses two of our programs reaching critical will and womens peace, or the peace womens section of the u. N. Dealing we programs that we have because we we do have consultative status, we can speak at the u. N. , and we are fortunate enough to have been on the Steering Committee with i can. So we chair our join and celebration with Matthew Bolton and his partner, emily welty. [applause] we have our National Section that has 34 branches across the United States. Were active in bringing hopefully a global Grassroots Movement into fruition, and we are planting the seeds for another 100 years of trying to bring peace and to join with other others to celebrate the coming of our resistance. We are, of course, a womens a feminist organization, and we we do enjoy some we have men in the well, and hopefully you all will be able to join us, too. We did go to the hague in 1915, and i dont know if you remember the iconic photo of us in the boat. Theres 47 women. Do you remember that, that we had in thursdays thursday plenary. To see that here just sort of overwhelmed me because here we are all in the same boat once again. This is bringing me to our idea of political will and how we move our organization to peace and freedom. For really our roots are in hull house, if anybody knows where hull house is, in chicago. Jane adams was our first president. She founded the settlement house in 1889 and it was fashioned after toyneby hall. The settlement house was to deal with the immigration that was occurring for the need for refuge, and it had a principle of political will as well behind it. She wanted to move the rights of women and immigrants and our fashioning of what we see as humanitarian assistance. She was also founding with Ellen Gates Starr the principle of reform, and we form at that time for her meant joining with john dewey and the american practicing ma pragmatist movement. John dewey was responsible for reforming education, and of course james interest was educating the immigration that she incorporated in the settlement house that belonged to an overall journey to educate and to bring a philosophical and assistance on moving forward with the the Peace Movement in a very practical way. American pragmatism was putting theory into action, humanitarian theory into action. She had a number of she was one of the first women who really could be called a social theorist. She had that philosophical background. She had a certainly connections with the Chicago School and eventually became labeled the mother of the Chicago School of sociology. So her impetus was to reform and to bring together that humanism, and i prefer it would be humaneism into the chicago midwestern area of the heartland to forward the the particular the particular rise and education of well, for instance, a very practical education of john deweys being home ec. And if you remember home ec . Do you remember it . Also, you know, shop. But his idea and her idea, we dont know where john dewey begins and ends, jane adams ends because theirs was a handson theory because if youre going to educate people you have to have them be active in working hard for a common goal. And this common goal, of course, radiated out into the community and brought the idea forward in our heartland that we are capable of seeking peace and were going to work on it. It is not just a theory. Robert. Yes. Good morning. Im rob remar, the Vice President and treasurer of the national aclu. The aclu is the largest Civil Liberties organization in the United States. We currently have 1. 6 million members, which is up from 500,000 in november of 2016. You can all imagine why. [laughter] yes. We have National Offices in new york and washington and our real strength is that we have 50 autonomous affiliate offices in every state and in the district of columbia. The aclu currently has 400 National Staff and 1200 affiliate staff. We have 300 affiliate and National Staff lawyers and also 2000 lawyer volunteers every year who bring almost 2000 cases in state and federal courts to protect the Civil Liberties and civil rights of people within the United States. We are nonpartisan. We receive no governmental funding. All of our budget comes from dues, contributions and grants. Our core mission is to protect the Civil Liberties and civil rights of anyone who is in this country. And we deal with a full panoply. We protect the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment, freedom of press, of assembly, freedom of religion. We are committed to Racial Justice and we have a Racial Justice program. We have a womens rights program. We have an lgbt project. Immigrants rights is now at the forefront of our week. We recently just this week were able to obtain an injunction against the trump administrations latest muslim ban. [applause] we are committed to protecting reproductive rights, which as you know are under serious challenge by this administration. The same with Voting Rights and the commission thats been created, which is really a commission designed to impede the access to the ballot particularly by minorities. We are opposed to Capital Punishment and we have a criminal Justice Reform focus as well. We dont just litigate. We have a communications department, which is designed to engage in public advocacy, advocacy in education, and we have a Political Advocacy Group which is nonpartisan but nonetheless political. Let me tell you a little bit about the origin of the aclu. I notice sam walker was on the program. Is sam here . Sam walker wrote a book, which is the definitive history of the aclu, so i would urge you to see if you can find a copy of it. The aclu had its origins in the American Union against militarism, which since 1914 was working in opposition to war. Crystal eastman was a young lawyer who was the executive secretary of auam, and she was joined in 1917 by Roger Baldwin who was a harvardeducated social worker in what in those days was boston brahman, remember the cabots only speak to the lodges and the lodges only speak to god. Roger was one of those. He moved to new york city in 1917 to work for the auma against the war. When war was declared in april of 1917 and then the Selective Service act passed shortly thereafter and the espionage act passed in june of 1917, there was as youve heard a whole sale suppression of Civil Liberties in our country. Freedom of speech and freedom of dissent were suppressed. Even president wilson was quoted as saying the authority to exercise censorship is absolutely necessary to the public safety. So in july of 1917 eastman and baldwin created as a division of the auam the Civil Liberties bureau, which was designed to protect the free speech and dissent rights of americas, particularly those opposed to the war. However, shortly after there was dissent within the organization as to whether the Civil Liberties bureau should become part of a coalition of radical organizations, and it split off. In august of 1917 eastman and baldwin set up a separate Organization Called the national Civil Liberties bureau. It was created by three groups of individuals. There was eastman and baldwin who were social workers who saw free speech fight as an extension of their prewar so much reform activism. There was a second group led by protestant clergy including Norman Thomas who the wartime crisis shattered much of their old faith and puts them more to a secular civil libertarian outlook. Contrary to today, there was a group of conservative lawyers who believed in the constitution and were outraged by the violations of free speech and due process that were occurring as the war broke out. By the fall of 2017 the national Civil Liberties bureau was handling 250 Conscientious Objector cases a week. In september of 1918 Roger Baldwin himself refused induction as a Conscientious Objector. He presented himself for arrest and he refused to be released on bail pending trial. Heres what he said, quote, bail was one of the many devices by which the courts operate for the benefit of the welltodo and against the poor. That is as true today as it was 100 years ago. Baldwin was convicted in october of 1918, was released in july of the following year, and at that time the socalled red scare was underway with palmer raids, where attorney general palmer in november of 1919 and january of 1920 arrested thousands of people without a warrant and without regard to their constitutional right against unlawful seizure and search. Hundreds of people were deported and hundreds of people were kept in really brutal conditions. At that point a new organization was founded out of the national Civil Liberties bureau, and that was the American Civil Liberties union. It was founded in 1920, and the individuals who founded it were a Cross Section of secular, free speech and antiwar movement. They were helen keller, Roger Baldwin, crystal eastman, water nells, morris ernst, albert dasilva, and, by the way, we currently have a dasilva society for those who want to put us in your will. Felix frankfurter and Elizabeth Gurley flynn. That was the origin of the aclu. The first major case that goss gnat Agency Attention was when that god National Attention was when aclu recruited clarence scopesto represent john in the famous scopes monkey trial in tennessee which you can , all see in the play and movie inherit the wind. Thats the origin of the aclu. Can i add something . Lets wait until joanne hi, everybody. I am joanne sheehan, the staff person in new england. I have also been involved with wrl since i became a member in 1970 when i moved to new york to do antivietnam war work and have been on i think played many roles within wrl over the years. I have also nationally am the point person for our nonviolence training and resources work. So War Resistors League is 94 years and two days old. So just celebrated. Any of you on the war relisters league list will know that as an email blast went out two days ago to remind you. A quick capsule of who the War Resister League is, our mission, which is shared with War Resisters International, states we affirm that war is a crime against humanity. We therefore are determined not to support any kind of war, international or civil, and to strive nonviolently for the removal of all causes of war including racism, sexism and all forms of exploitation. Ill say a little in the talk about how that has changed a bit in the 94 years. I think one of the things that is key about War Resisters League is that we both make a personal commitment with that pledge to say we wont participate in war of any kind, but then we also are working collectively as we strive nonviolently to remove the causes of war. So it really asks of us kind of a very intentional participation in this. It is not an organization to just join and get our get our materials that we really encourage activism on all levels. We were International Early on and we continue to did that work through War Resisters International and with organizing with people across war diasporas which is something we have been doing more in the past few years. We are very intergenerational, and at this point very intersectional. I think to best describe some of our perspectives and the way we work is to look at our theory of change, which says we believe change happens through the implementation of revolutionary nonviolence. It is a very active nonviolence. Through mobilizing for collective action at the grassroots. Were very grassrootsbased organization. By placing the most impacted people at the center of these change efforts, so that in working with allies and in working with those most affected through political education and tools that lead to a changed consciousness, through building strategic alliances which i think has always been something that War Resisters League has done over the years, and building and supporting alternative systems of violence. Just a few things about the present program that were doing for anybody who is aware of War Resisters League, you might be aware of what we call our pie chart. Im going i have several hundred of these i will put out there. Where your income tax money really goes. One of the things that War Resisters League has done over the year is to promote war tax resistance. The irs is next door. Not everyone in wrl is a tax resister. I have to say proudly i have never paid the federal government any money through my income tax, and to see it averages about 50 of your income tax goes to the military in terms of either paying for past wars, present wars or future wars. Other work that we do through our nonviolence training and through War Resisters International, this is the second edition of a handbook for nonviolent campaigns. I think the exciting thing about this is that it was done internationally and im proud to say i was part of that effort. It has now been translated into 11 languages because the grassroots people in those places wanted it and wanted it translated. Another big part of our work that we do is police militarization, which i know has been brought up in a number of the sessions i have been in, fund peace, not police. We have an Amazing Campaign happening right now in chicago over this, but also staff that go around the country to particularly to these large exhibits like urban shield and the like where militarization of the police is really promoted. So in terms of our history, Jesse Wallace hewin who was a new York City School teacher with a ph. D. From colombia in political economy was a committed pacifist, socialist, who worked in the Suffrage Movement when war broke out in europe. In 1915 at the age of 38 she formed the antienlistment league with her friend tracey migot and reverend John Haines Holmes. That league was an Enrollment Group for men and women who opposed participation in all wars, both international and civil. So you begin to see kind of this commitment from even preWar Resistors League. Another friend, Frances Witherspoon, was the first to join. I saw on the voices of conscious exhibit theres a little piece there on Jesse Wallace hewin and the antienlistment league. When Congress Declared war when war and conscription began, the antienlistment league which had enrolled by that point 3,500 men and women, was disbanded. Before that the fellowship of reconciliation had been founded and part of their aim was to have a group for christians committed to personal renunciation of war. But to show some of these connections, witherspoon, migot and hewin were part of the reconciliation. While you see it is a secular organization, we have always for 94 years and more worked together with faithbased groups as well. During the war a small group of passivists struggled to defend First Amendment freedoms as rob just said, and they they supported those Conscientious Objectors who refused to take up arms. Again, i dont want to repeat what rob just said, but i think the important thing here to see is that the very people who had started the antienlistment league then were working with the American Union against militarism with Roger Baldwin and that the American Union against militarism board included founders of wealth and that jane adams was part of it, the War Resisters League and that John Haines Holmes was part of it and he himself spent ten months in jail for refusing to submit to a medical exam after registering for the draft, and that Frances Witherspoon was the executive secretary of the bureau of legal advice. We see that really strong connections between the antiwar and womens activism and Civil Liberties at that period of time and continuing. During the war Jesse Wallace hewin attempted to convince pacifist leaders to establish a no conscription fellowship. Any of you who have seen the movie whatever the penalties or can see it tonight, it is the story of the no conscription fellowship which inspired jessie a lot. She was attracted to their bringing men and women together who refused to support war. That didnt happen initially but she didnt give up. In jessies diary from october 19, 1923, reads, straysy mean ing straysy migot. Trailsy to dinner, had hair done, organized War Resistors League. You can see that having hair done is not something we have continued in our tradition at War Resisters League. Cant remember the last time. The reverend worked with Jessie Wallace hewin who worked with the other group of folks and was one of the original founders. So just to kind of summarize what some of the pacifist principles here, what some of the principles here would be, would clearly be pacifism clearly would be the importance , of following ones conscience in supporting those who supporting those who follow ones conscience and are imprisoned. A strong socialist, which i think is also anticapital baste because theres a lot of anticapitalist anarchists in War Resisters League. Support for Civil Liberties. I think as erica said in the opening, you need to be radical to be both feminist and pacifist and certainly War Resistors League has the strong feminist radical approach and an early commitment to nonviolence and taking notice of what was happening in india. I will talk more about that later. All right. Thank you. Im going to have to do a better job as moderator. I cant see you down there. So the second question, im asking each of the panelists to reflect on the transformation that secular organizations, in particular the organization that they represent, have undergone in the century since 1914. They might consider key turning points and shifts in the peace, justice and Civil Liberties movements, and they might also consider that some of the people that started each of their groups worked together during world war i, even though afterwards they went and their organizations went in somewhat different directions. So each of you will have five minutes or a little less. Why dont we start with you, joanne, just to change the order. Sure. Soon after War Resisters Leagues founding between world war i and world war ii, wrl remained a singleissue organization focusing really on war resistance. That took on many forms during the war. But John Haines Holmes was a unitarian minister, one of the early members of wrl, served as War Resisters League chair during the 30s. He was really the first to popularize gandhi in the United States, paying attention to gandhi very early on, and gandhis work in south africa and then in india, and went to india to meet him in 1931. So through his writings, through his sermons, through his speeches, through his connection to other Peace Movement antiwar groups really spread what was happening in india that was also happening through people who were involved in a number of these organizations, particularly to note Richard Gregg in 1935 wrote the power of nonviolence. Internationally bart dilict involved in War Resisters Internationally. And in 1938, an indian who had been part of the movement came to columbia and wrote war without violence. He lived in the harlem ashram with members of fellowship and reconciliation and War Resisters League. So that has been a really important part of wrls history but also really our history in the United States. In the 1930s, wrl initiated for no more war parades. It was very active in that area. Jessie wallace hewin again was recognizing against another war but was doing it this time with an established organization. So i think as we talked about michael talking last night, yes, we need to establish kind of a new antiwar movement, but having a group like War Resisters League that is already established, already has a sense of principles becomes a cutting edge. The movement took a long time to grow but groups like the War Resisters League, theyre on dutying cutting edge, on the forefront of making that call against war. At that time during world war ii you also began to see the connection between people doing antiwar work and the beginning of desegregation. So you have people like like jim peck who was in danbury prison who was part of a group of 19 who went on a work strike and then a Hunger Strike to desegregate the dining room in danbury. Jim wrote later, it seems to me that the campaigns against Racial Discrimination may be counted as one of the most important accomplishments of the cos in world war ii. Max yesterday talking about fellowship of reconciliation talked about the journey of reconciliation, that was the first freedom rides organized by byron who worked with f. O. R. And other groups. It was byron who was a minister, also a war resister, all of these men who spent time during world war ii in prison, spent time studying gandhi, and came out and george and byron did the first training in this country for the journey of reconciliation to prepare people who were many War Resister League members who were part of that group of 16, including people who some of you may know like e. L. Radanko. So wrls involvement in the Civil Rights Movement from that time had remained quite strong and also doing disarmament work together. Lets see here time wise. So again, as a pacifist organization kind of looking at the vietnam war, looking at the beginning of the vietnam war, being influential there, i think one of the things about these organizations like wrl which is Small Organization we only have four fulltime people and two parttime people and me up in new england is how we spread those seeds, but at the same time like the world war ii resisters are far more influential sometimes than seems to be. So to tell a quick story here that in 1969 randy keeler, who was on the War Resisters League west staff, was a resister who was on his way to prison and was invited to speak at a war resisters conference in haverford, pennsylvania. One of the people in that audience was daniel elsburg. Daniel was so impressed with what randy said. He said, i cant let this man go to war without doing something about it, and that was the spark for releasing the papers. The pentagon papers. We dont always know. Randy didnt know what was happening that day as he spoke about his commitment to refuse i think the role of women has always been strong in the War Resisters League, and from the very beginning, although i do have to say, and i have heard this before from other folks in other movements, while jessie in many wayslearly so essential to that, she saw herself as the secretary and put the men forward, believing society would pay more attention to them then they would to her. I would leave it at that for now. Robert . Thanks. The aclu is a very small, new yorkbased organization when it was founded in 1920. In the ensuing 97 years, it has transformed from a small group to a National Organization based in every state. Some of the initial issues that the aclu had to deal with focused on its protection of free speech and assembly. In 1934, we had a Nazi Movement in the United States. The aclu was asked to represent nazis who wanted to march, just like we later did in the 1970s. That created an internal controversy about what the aclu should do when they have to weigh free speech against equality and freedom values. A pamphlet was issued in 1930 four, shall we defend free speech for nazis in america . What he said was if the union would yield to such critics and deny these rights to not see propaganda, in what position would be to champion the rights of others . Should we choose to defend only progressive and radical causes, and if we do, how best can we defend them . Is it not clear that a free speech is that free speech is a clear tactic and not only an abstract principle, but defends the rights of all who are attacked. We have had that same conflict play out not only with the aclu representing nazi sympathizers who wanted to march in 1977 in but most recently in charlottesville, where the lco you aclu represented one individual seeking to obtain a parade permit. We have had to confront internally the issue of protection of free speech and right to petition and Assembly Equality principles. Over the years, we have come down on the side of if you take away the right to free speech and assembly, you have taken away one of the most underlying pillars of our democracy. The aclu has had to deal with internal conflict over the years. 1940s, the whole red scare continued in the United States and there was a group within the aclu that were vehemently anticommunist. In 1940, Elizabeth Corti friend Elizabeth Corley flynn, one of the founders, was voted off the board. She was posthumously reinstated in 1970, and we scaled back our defense of those communists during the cold war. That ended in 1954, where some members of the board proposed a resolution that if you took the fifth amendment, the government could use that as an inference that you were guilty of being a communist front organization. That was rejected, and then began the expansion of the aclu agenda. I will note in the 1940s in one of the most samhshameful periods in American History, the thousandt of 100 the aclu stood up in their defense. Probably the internment of thousands of japaneseamericans, the aclu stood up in their defense. That was second only to the dred scott case in a repudiation of our constitutional principles. The main transformation is that we have expanded our gender from core First Amendment to dealing bunch ofole Civil Liberties and civil rights. In 1934, the aclu joined with the naacp in brown v. Board of education. In 1973, the aclu brought the case of roe v. Wade and dough joe doby bolton versus bolton doe versus a companion case. We persuaded the Supreme Court to enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution, the right to reproductive freedom. In 1973, we represented lawrence versus kansas, which outlawed the antisodomy laws of many states, and today, where we are fighting, a whole slew of attacks on our basic rights, some of which we thought had been long established. For instance, the most recent effort to restrict reproductive rights under the Affordable Care act by allowing people, toalled moral opposition contraceptives to not provide that is part of the benefits. It is a long fight that continues, and the battle for Civil Liberties is never one. Won. We have had an avenue and ebb and as and flow and flow in our organization. And we weren 1915, around the world. S, we hadms and other to get people,nd leaders all over the world to , andte during that time our mediation of course did not work. One of the attempts to try to do it is one of our basic and ongoing movements, that we keep trying to mediate. In 1919 for jane that to stand up and say the congress, the International Congress that we shall have to learn to use the moral energy to put a new thought of force into the world and believe it is a vital thing. Of only thing in this moment sorrow, death, and destruction that will heal the world. That still resonates today. We had two Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 and the International Secretary emily greene baltz emily greene in 1946. Eived a continuum of both of their careers in, for instance. Jane was on the aclu board, the naacp board, the womens trade organization. Keptpt the unions, we forward thinking and socially and politically just causes fromghout the 102 years 1915 to 1919, when we were against the treaty. There to the 1940s, 20s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s doing those very activities that kept the movement alive. Flourish irse, hate to use this word during the. Ietnam war we had over 100,000 members. At that time, our voice was loud and very clear. We have since then worked with the u. N. As well and works for worked for passage of resolutions, 1825, womens peace and at 17 years old, we are still using that 1325 resolution to get women at the table. We are still working on that at the moment. Have atrying to endinglar effect on the of the Nuclear Weapons era. Membership has sort of dwindled, but we are now revising. We had we celebrated our 33rd chicago. D triennial in memberse had 142 new from january until then. Back to beinging emily greenbalch hernating, and as she won normal peace prize in 1946, we are looking for the ideas and moral of keeping that energy going. I hope we can all join together today because we are all in the same boat. These walls are permeable, and hopefully we can spread the word together that will carry us forward and carry those very practical and very necessary steps to carry the torch, if we can say that, and light the fires of freedom once again. The whiteto say that copy, if you look in your pamphlet, the white copy we have from london,ou is it england, and to end all wars. Unfortunately, we are 16 years in afghanistan. Around the many wars world . Who knows how many wars are going on around the world . 30 . Yes. Poppies will be necessary. I hope you carry them along with you, and i hope that, as i said, that this boat will once again flourish and bring our objectives, our work, our heart and soul to this movement for freedom, the movement of all movements. We will have one final question, and a slight reorganization. I will ask each person to limit their comments to one minute and a half. That will give us about 20 minutes for questions. I would ask each of you to perhaps reflect or identify one or two of the most significant challenges that the organization is facing today. I know that in some cases you have commented on that, but perhaps extend the comments . Joanne, we will start with you. Opposed tos war and all causes of war, so we have our hands full. The challenges are the easy thing would be to be a Single Organization single issue organization at this point. I want to focus on the training aspect of it, because i think it is an important aspect of what War Resisters League does, and we are receiving enormous amount of requests for information and resources. We are putting that on our website. More people on staff are focusing on that work, because that is the kind of work that needs to get to the grassroots. Our structure is different, organizing is different now than it was 20, 30 years ago. A lot more small, local groups. Although we work with surge, withng up showing up Racial Justice, we had a meeting with the black lives matter folks, and trying to get people together from around the country to look at in what ways it is not about nonviolence and theect action, but challenges we are putting out fires. What next . How to we do this . Looking at what is happening right now in terms of people realizing the United States countries. In 176 what is nigeria and why are we there . The challenge is how to you respond, but make sure you are doing the longterm work, setting the base, creating the foundation to make sure we are doing this for the long haul and keep doing it. Guess the aclus greatest challenge is to deal with the threat to civil liberty at the Current Administration is assaulting us with. We are not an antitrump organization, we are a proCivil Liberties organization. But to take off some of the issues we have to deal with, which i mentioned earlier immigration and the repeal of ban, votingavel rights, the Voter Fraud Commission is really an effort for voter suppression, a new assault on reproductive rights and lgbt writes with our Justice Department saying that Sexual Orientation is no longer a protected class. The attacks on the free press, including from the president himself, who apparently has not read the First Amendment. The rise of white supremacist groups and how the aclu is an organization as an Organization Deals with the right of free speech while dealing with our fundamental principles and dealing with equality. That are the challenges confront the aclu and i think confront the country. Think we have the same umbrella problem. We have a lot of issues. We have been advancing human rights, we have climate, variousent, we have the u. N. Resolutions we are looking at, we have a number of issues that we deal with. Here today, looking we are the same as you all sitting here. We have a problem with diverse diversity and inclusion. This is not something we talk about very often, but i do believe one of our primary objectives is to be more inclusive,ot to not just have a monolithic not that we are monolithic in that perspective, but we are very much white, as you can see. I think that is what we are going to shift to in the next few years, along with all of these other problems we are facing. Liberties, avil tax on free speech attacks on free speech. Say, tor duty, i should to other countries, en of colored particularly of colored particularly of particularly, and realize that to be effective in this world, this global world we are trying to incorporate in to our Peace Movement at the moment that we stretch ourselves and introduce ourselves and listen to the two thirds of the world who are women and people of color. Harder towill all try reach out, listen, and learn. That is what we are trying to do. N the next other century when we solve that problem, we will go on to other problems, but right now we are still working very hard to be allinclusive, and good luck to all of us. All right, thank you. I now invite the audience to approach the microphone. Perhaps you should address your question to a particular panelist, or to the entire panel, if you wish. Go ahead. Hello, im from university of detroit mercy. Mary, i was at a wolf National Conference that came to detroit a few years ago, and i was so impressed that the members were shedding light on misinformation about the war on terror, the israelpalestine situation, and one thing i learned about their that i put a that isticker there put a Bumper Sticker on my car is this move to amend. I saw a very detailed explanation of this idea that historical ideas of how corporations became persons and how it is affecting our and whilethese days, we are talking about freedom of speech currently, corporations loudly andk very anonymously with their money. I wonder if you or other us others on the panel can address the issue of how we respond to corporations giving their money in a way that they are really impacting our democracy, and what we can do about it . Are in move the in thosee, to divest corporations. You follow the money. We have a campaign to move that money away from the Corporate Culture and exploitation. We are also looking for ways and the corporatet power of monsanto, bayer, who are inflicting environmental damage not even on mother earth, but in our bodies, on our plates , and we are also working very, very hard to work with others, other organizations to move that boycott, to look toward anything that will forward the Movement Toward divesting and using our pocketbooks when they are certainly using theres theirs. Well, you have hit on a sore subject. [laughter] the whole debate that has arisen out of the Supreme Court decision of citizens united, which set the cooperations which said that corporations did have a right to speak on was a matterters of a matter of very serious debate within the aclu. We had probably over the last 10 years, we have had numerous board debates about it. You can imagine on a board that had 83 people, how contentious that was. We had a Panel Discussion with lloyd a drums, one of floyd abrams, one of the top free speech lawyers in the country. Where the aclu came down on his we cannot give the government the power to decide who gets to speak into does not get to speak. For example, the aclu is a corporation. We are a 501 c 3 and a 501 c4 corporation. And the ability of corporations to speak or contribute could have ramifications across the entire political spectrum. That in this country, we have a lot of extraordinarily the kochle brothers, for example, who can contribute huge amounts of money and they are not reparations. Corporations. It is a difficult subject. We are not opposed to restrictions on campaign contributions, there can be limits on that come up the ability of restricting speak, we come down on the side of promoting more speech rather than less. But it is a difficult issue, that i concede. And we argue with that. Lets get two questions, and the panelists can deal with both of them. Question to mr. Can you speak up a little bit . Yes, is that better . A question to you, sir. As you said earlier, i believe you said we had military military presences in 127 different countries. To my understanding, these military officers are of the state department and work directly with their military counterparts in all those countries. It appears to be the violation of the civilian control of our International Relations. Has the aclu ever considered this question, and if so, how can we put International Relations back into civilian control and leave the military out of it . No, i doanswer is not think we have taken a position on that. And i am not sure it has been raised at the national level. Our main focus is on Civil Liberties within the United States, although we certainly have taken positions that it is only the congress of the United States that has the power to , and so during the vietnam era, for example, we took a position that that was an undeclared war. To answer your question, given the scope of our agenda, that is not something we have looked at, to ourn i next talk executive director, i will mention it. [laughter] hello, this is to the entire panel. In light of our polarized society and big differences, changing minds is slow. How to we start conversations with people of very different beliefs and perspectives . How to we Start Talking to the other side . I do not think it is the other side, for one thing. If you have andonalities you look for one of the things that we do is try to listen, not go in as an up theirn they set tables, going to the communities andbring up their documents to give the white papers and leave. One of the things we are trying is to goy consciously not in goingity as to tell the community, this is what you are supposed to be doing and this is one of the things that right now in our earth democracy, when we are , which with rural women is going to be one of the subjects of the commissions status of women in new york we sat and talked and tried to find those common things, not to think of the us and them mentality. That is one of the things we have unfortunately been indoctrinated in. Does that help you . What are some of our common things . Very simple food. [laughter] water, did you want to jump in . I would say it is an extremely difficult problem in our country today, the polarization of people based upon views and the fact that people are not really talking with each other. Tried to organize around the country what we call , where weer workshops invite members of the community, regardless of your views or perspective, to come to forums and discuss issues which affect all of us in our daily life. The aclu also is completely nonpartisan, and we will represent anyone whos free speech rights or right to petition or assembly are being violated. I will give an example, which i s from thisoo audience, we represented oliver north when he was being prosecuted because he was not being given the full protections of the constitution and the due process clause in the fifth amendment. I think we need to open forums to bed much diversity of viewpoints as possible to as much diverse city of viewpoints as possible. Diversity of viewpoints as possible. Aclu represent all americans, regardless of point of view. So today it might be white supremacist, tomorrow it might be members of the Republican Party being oppressed. It is designed to protect members of all of us in our democracy. I have been asked to do a lot of introduction to nonviolent action workshops, we do something called a conflict line, and give roles to people. Line, you arehe yourself, and this is someone you know who is a trump supporter. That helps people figure out how to listen, talk about it, and what i am finding, peoples anger is so deep because they want to say how stupid can you be . That obviously closes lines of communication. So helping people do that kind of work. We also need to understand where we can and cannot have these conversations. As we are also training actions or training people recently, i did a training where there were the proud boys demonstration you will not talk to people in the midst of that, the heat of that. You have to understand where our common our place is. I have also been involved over the years, not recently, but over the years with listening project Community Surveys and dialogue, real opportunities where you ask a series of questions to help people look deeper at an issue. You need to be trained to learn how to listen, but i find them to be very powerful. With a group of people making submarines, and i had been organizing demonstrations for decades. It was powerful, because what we were looking at was how do we promote economic conversion when there were deep layoffs during the bust cycle their . They have done there . They have been done around racism, antigay referendums in and i think there have been a lot of these community dialogues. Often,the things too people say how do we get those people into our space . We do not get them in our space, we go to their space and find other spaces. Thank you. I know this is the secular panel, but maybe a place where we have Common Ground with the dominant debate today might be in this area of religious freedom. We have the Supreme Court saying in the realm of Conscientious Objection that moral and ethical belief can hold the same place for someone as a religious belief. However, what we see are these people calling themselves Conscientious Objectors to things like providing contraception or assigning marriage licenses to people of the same gender, they are calling themselves Conscientious Objectors and getting certain kinds of protections and levelstions without any of skeptical review. On the flipside, the regulation for Conscientious Objectors to war are currently and have always been very burdensome with many levels of skeptical review and test of sincerity. We are looking at i am with the center of conscience and more, we are looking for ways to intersect with this new dialogue, the prominence of religious freedom to see strategies and avenues where we might list some of these burdens for Conscientious Objectors to war, and we wondered if you have thoughts, comments, or what you might be thinking about in some of your work about that . That is an issue that the aclu is dealing with. I will say from the beginning, the aclu has protected the right of religious liberty. In our early days, jehovahs witnesses were one of our main clients. Part of their religious belief is that you do not salute the in a because you believe higher being. That case went to the United States Supreme Court. You are absolutely right. Today, the administration is taking a persons ability to exercise their religious beliefs and turning it into an ability to discriminate against others on the basis of race or sexual the right toand exercise your religious belief is a personal right, but not a right that extends to the ability to discriminate against. Thers for example, in the marriage license case, we sued the court who said i will not issue a marriage license the clerk in the court to set i will not to a a marriage license samesex couple because it is against my religious believes. It is against your beliefs, you need to resign. Another client involved a baker taking the position that they can violate the colorado antidiscrimination law because they have a religious belief that they do not want to bake a couple, because it is a form of artistic expression. Is that your right to exercise your religious belief stops at the door when it comes to discriminating against people. You are operating a business that is open to the public, you have the obligation to serve that public. These arguments that are being made are no different than arguments that were made against intermarriage, where individuals said well, it is against my religious beliefs to perform a ceremony for an interracial couple. Well, the Supreme Court dealt with that. I think we have to be vigilant, and we cannot allow socalled religious freedom to interfere al right to equality, economy, and freedom. Autonomy, and freedom. I think this will be the last question. Two of the organizations represented up there are international, War Resisters League and Womens International knowe, aclu is not, but i that Roger Baldwin certainly was very internationally minded and had a separate organization in the 19 40s and 1950s that dealt with International Civil rights issues 1940s and 1950s that dealt with International Civil rights issues. I wonder what the difference is to be an interNational Organization today. What do you get from interacting with people around the world . What kind of perspective . What learn learn, what can we being part of an international . And if there is something in regard to aclu, and International Human rights is certainly a big issue it is not an organizational issue but we need to learn Civil Liberties regarding international . Section. The u. S. On our board, we have a young woman from india. You people have to understand how important what everything america does. Away, it will affect us in india. Todayou do in the u. S. Has great import all over the world. And that seems pretty simplistic, but nevertheless we forget. One of our constant reminders is when you are in an interNational Organization, you hear these sayn over and over again you know, you in the u. S. Look what you are doing. Look what you are doing with the , looknts armaments what you are doing with your military, your exporting of pesticides. Look what you are doing to values ofe lives and people all over the world. E have a heavy burden you can feel it settling on us, not caretakers, but. Aring particularly, our advantage in wealth, we hear these voices when we have interNational Conferences, the chance at the to over 1000 women from all over the world came to celebrate our 100th year. You talked about commonalities, we have our future, our children, our nieces, nephews, our future in our hands. I think when you can directly in arse with each other value system it can be religious, secular, but it all deals with values. What do you value in life . Or maybe be surprise, not surprised, but when you talk to each other internationally, or on oures away internet, skype, we have constant reminders of our obligation and our impact on the for the u. S. Section. I think we need to be reminded case,day that this is the that what we are doing is important, and we are listening to the world. Movement,grassroots it starts right there. A global Grassroots Movement starts there, today, when we talk to each other and listen. The warld say for resisters league, and our relationship to War Resisters International, the big part of the International Network committed to militarism and antimilitarism and nonviolence, the ability for people around the world to give support to people, particularly those who are imprisoned in places like turkey, that is really important for them to s, butfor the ceos, co also the imprisoned knowing that we are paying attention to them, that we see them there. That kind of communication is important. In the work i do, particularly around nonviolence training, it is invaluable to have the voices of people, particularly in the global south, committed to nonviolence and sharing that with people. I find too much white guilt in this country because they do not know the history of nonviolence training, and i am trying to get that. So any peace historians, talk to me. There is a misunderstanding of the power of nonviolence and the history of nonviolence in this it somehownking that grew out of white folks, and they cannot be truly nonviolence when the people of c olor in the world cannot be. So to have a network of people acting nonviolently of against some of the most amazing situations. When trump came in, i started looking at the work in chill a , and punish a in chile the stories that we have that are here, and those are invaluable. So the stream coming from other crucial, us is really because like you say, people look at us, but there is also a hierarchy that is very dangerous thinking we export things rather than import things. Rob, did you want to comment . I want to say the aclu in the u. S. Based organization. From time to time, we might have coalitions with Civil Liberties organizations in other countries , but of course, the civil liberty views in many countries around the world are much different than ours. There are issues that affect the International Community that we work with. The example i can think of is our example to try to close the prison at guantanamo, where we have tried to work to close the prison, where we represent people who are imprisoned there, we have a project called the it isdams project, and named after john adams because he represented one of the british soldiers in the boston massacre to represent people who were incarcerated at guantanamo and try to get them repatriated to their country. The Civil Liberties issues are obviously international for us. We keep our focus is within the United States. Most grateful to marry, joann, and rob, and to the organizations they represent. I would ask you to join me in expressing our appreciation. [applause] interested in American History tv . Visit our website, www. Cspan. Org. Watch college lectures, Archival Museum films, and more. Cspan tv, at cspan. Org history. Cspans studentcam video documentary competition is underway, and students are busy at work and sharing their experience is with us through twitter experiences with us through twitter. Is not too late to enter. Our deadline is january 18, 2018. We are asking students to choose a provision of the u. S. Constitution and create a video illustrating why it is important you to you. Our competition is open to all middle school and high school students, grades six through 12. 100,000 in cash prizes will be awarded. The grand prize of 5,000 will go to the student or team with the best overall entry. For more information, go to our website, studentcam. Org. This year marks the 50th anniversary of sociologist robert bellowss essay on american civil religion. Tv, on American History Yale University sociology were professor Philip Gorski gives a history of civil religion in america and shares his views on the cultural wars dividing the nation. Arizona State University for the the study of religion and conflict toasted this conference. It is just over an hour. Oftodays lecture is part the maxine and Jonathan Marshall Speaker Series on religion and conflict. See, itfriends of csr is because it reflected their longstanding concerns to promote Peaceful Solutions to pressing conflicts in our world. And their generosity and funding the series continues