Connecting the Wars at Home and Abroad

Workshop # 8
Jessica Walker Beaumont and Allison Budschalow

Led by staff from AFSC, this workshop will focus on the interconnections between militarization, prisons, migration and the global economy. After four days of focus on these interconnections, we will explore the power for change this approach offers. We will also look at how our spirit guides us into working further on these issues.

Percentage of time:
Worship/worship-sharing 20; Lecture 15; Discussion 40; Experiential 25
(PT)

Open to all

This workshop will focus on the interconnections between militarization, prisons, migration and the global economy, drawing from AFSC program staff and constituency experiences.  After four days of intentional focus and reflection on these interconnections, we will explore the power for change this approach offers.  We will also look at how our spirit guides us into working further on any one of these issues, continuing to connect the issues.

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a peace and social justice organization with national and international programs, will engage the audience in a five-day interactive workshop mixing formal presentations with interactive exercises and discussions to explore the interconnection of the following themes, and to give a broad overview of the many areas of peace and justice that the AFSC and its partners work on:

• The expansion of militarism throughout the world with particular attention to the role of the US, including the use of excessive military power and funds spent on foreign military “aid” rather than basic human needs of people in the U.S., as well as the nations it occupies;

• The growth of prisons in the U.S. demonstrating the relationship between some key movements and events in the world and the increased reliance on incarceration and the use of control units in the U.S.;

• U.S. immigration enforcement policy and the growing movement for the defense of migrant, immigrant and refugee communities;

• The advancement of a strong peace and justice agenda, responses from movements seeking alternatives to corporate globalization and how it links to migration, privatization of prisons and militarization; and

• Supporting social movements as a vehicle for change

Although each issue warrants an entire workshop devoted to it, this workshop will focus in on what links the issues together.  This will be a challenge for many of us accustomed to working on single issues and offers an opportunity for real growth coming out of dialogue and sharing.

A similar 2-hour workshop was conducted at the first-ever United States Social Forum (USSF) with great success.  The workshop for this conference, however, will be structured a bit differently to see how our basic Quaker beliefs underlie our support for change what we will discuss.  We hope that those attending the workshop will appreciate the knowledge and experience that AFSC staff can bring about each issue, but intend to focus the workshop session on a dialogue between presenters and participants, participants and participants, and of course each presenter will learn from their colleagues.  

We will propose the following thematic structure for this five day seminar:

Day one – Global economy and migration

Day two – Military and prison industrial complex

Day three – War, peace and the global economy

Day four – Cross-generational dialogue on these intersections with those attending the Youth & militarism “track”

Day five – Power for change through making the connections. [highlight some AFSC projects]

We plan to allow for Worship each day.