A Weak Solidarity

Last evening I went to a peace coalition’s monthly meeting. I’ve been a member of this particular coalition since it began two plus years ago. Like most peace groups here in Colorado and across America, this coalition is predominately white.
For all the time the coalition has been in existence, members have bemoaned the lack of diversity in their ranks. They’ve wondered where the black community was. They’ve wondered why the Latino, Hispanic and Chicano communities haven’t been part of the peace movement. There’s lack of young people, Native Americans, Asian and most all non-European communities in the coalition.
Several times the group has had opportunity to show up in numbers to support non-white communities in times of police brutality or racism issues.
The turn out of whites to support calls for community action in the non-white communities has been very small in numbers. A small group of same white activists do come out in support but the white peace movement generally fails to bring a large number to show solidarity.
The coalition has continued to scratch their collective heads wondering why their invitations to the non-whites are seldom accepted.
As the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion approaches a new coalition has started. An activist in the black community acquired the permit for March 19th to rally at the Colorado State Capitol. He took a preemptive action to get the permit before the usual groups of white activists acquired it.
The permit was taken out four months ago. The announcements of planning the march and rally began about six weeks ago. At first the turnout for the planning was small but has grown exponentially each week.
Now the group is one of the largest in recent memory to gather for planning an activist event. And it is a majority non-white group.
Unlike previous peace rallies, this rally is being designed to portray the human costs of war at home. Instead of the usual antiwar speakers with the usual antiwar rhetoric, this group wants to show the devastation caused by diversion of funds to war in the Middle East on communities of color and poverty in America.
The group wants to connect the dots from the wars and the cost of cuts in schools, healthcare, childcare, living wages, adequate housing, hunger programs, mental health and substance abuse and all the other many social programs that are a lifeline to the poorest and the weakest of our country.
It’s a new approach where the war itself is acknowledged for what its done to the troops and innocent civilians in the countries invaded. The focus, however, will be the often forgotten costs of the war at home. The purpose is to demonstrate Americans in disaffected communities can’t really distance themselves from the costs of war.
The rally will also highlight the long struggle of non-white communities for justice. While everyday there is more and more infringement upon civil liberties by the current regime, this is nothing new to non-white communities. Police brutality has become an epidemic against these communities. Rousting and imprisonment for petty offenses is common.
Justice in courtrooms has become a sham. The affluent and middle class able to afford a private attorney have justice slanted heavily on their side. The poor and non-whites with or without attorney end up incarcerated in alarming rates. Rates of black and brown males imprisoned have created whole generations of poverty and fatherless children.
The connections between crimes of violence and crimes of property to poverty are clear. The solution always seems to be prison instead of opportunities.
The connections between drug use and distribution and poverty are clear. The solution always seems to be prison instead of equality and justice in the social condition.
This is the “hidden war” made worse by billions of dollars funneled to the military industrial complex in countries invaded for their natural resources or strategic importance to maintain power.
Last week as the new coalition called Troops Out Now continued to grow, the white peace movement announced a three day winter convergence in Denver to overlap the march and rally. The convergence is planned to work on the peace coalition’s legislative lobbying and several work committees created in a summer retreat.
The schedule of the convergence does allow three hours for the march and rally before reconvening. The announcement describes many details of the convergence in two pages.
The rally part of the announcement is difficult to find at first glance because the placement is very much in the middle of all the other activities on the second page.
There is no activity scheduled that includes members of the new and diverse Troops Out Now. None of the organizers for the new coalition have been asked to take part in leading the convergence.
Even as a white male in America, I wondered about the timing of the announcement and the schedule which surrounded and engulfed the march and rally. An event planned well before this convergence.
With this thought in mind, I decided I’d go to the white peace movement’s monthly meeting as a member of that white coalition.
I wanted to ask what thinking went into having the convergence on the same weekend as the rally.
I wanted to ask if the white coalition gave thought to including this new group that had diversity in the schedule. I thought this an opportunity to promote diversity in the white peace movement.
I was given a slot in the agenda to ask my questions. I failed to realize the volatility of the questions. I foolishly felt an activist organization which had expressed desire for more diversity would be open to such questions.
The response was shocking. Most of the group became immediately defensive. They began to list all they had done to bring non-white activists into the white peace movement. They personalized the questions as questions of their integrity and views on race.
There was a general tone of targeting the main organizer who had secured the permit. After I asked they reframe the discussion to how our white coalition could work with groups of diverse backgrounds, some in the group argued the issue was divisive and “all about turf” and control.
The anger was palpable. The group insisted many of the white peace movement had supported the causes of the communities of color and poverty. They insisted they had invited many of those communities to their coalition’s meetings but no one had accepted.
The group insisted all were welcome to join their coalition’s actions and meetings but few if any ever came. In a telling moment when I asked again why Troops Out Now organizers hadn’t been asked to be part of the convergence, one of the leaders of the group told me “this is a CCJP event to work on CCJP action committee projects.”
One member left the room twice after angry responses. Finally the member left the meeting entirely. This same member had earlier told the group “I can’t help if I was born with white skin”.
Another member stated they had signed up on email lists several times but never received any request to help out.
Two young activists gave their impressions of the group’s attempts for diversity. One quietly and simply stated he felt there was racism throughout the culture and the group has been traditionally all white. The other young activist echoed that sentiment. She also pointed out only the youth had participated in a formal diversity committee of the white coalition. That group was now defunct she said.
In frustration, I told the group they were ignoring the elephant in the room; that racism seemed to be a taboo subject. Again there was a heated exchange. I was told this issue (racism) has always been a problem in the peace movement and would continue to be.
In response to all the emotional remarks and defensive statements, I told the group I’d brought the issue to them to help promote changes and inclusion of the communities of color, youth and other diverse backgrounds. The group never addressed the issue in that way.
I’m left numbed and ashamed following last evening’s meeting. I knew there was a problem because in the three years I’ve been in the group we’ve never sparked much interest except from the white progressive community.
I also feel I might have imperiled the upcoming march and rally by bringing up an issue that became as volatile as this one became.
But in truth, I felt I needed to bring up such an important issue at this opportune time when black and brown and white and Native and young were about to join in a march and rally. I want solidarity to be routine not occasional.
What a foolish white man I am.

Terry – Mental Health RN
VVAW – combat vet