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| | War and the Economy Workshop ReportJuly 28, 2003
Since we put “War and the Economy” on our website just two months ago, a little less than 300 activists have downloaded it. We know of 61 workshops that UFE staff and volunteers have led, and from the reports we’re getting, there have been many more. We created this workshop to satisfy huge demand from trainers and sister organizations for educational materials on war and the economy. We collaborated with many organizations to develop and pilot-test something that works for a variety of audiences. We distributed it rapidly by letting people download it free from our website. The experiment worked so well that we are making all of our workshops available for free download. Where has “War and the Economy” gone? Over 282 people and organizations across the country have downloaded the workshop. Here’s a geographical breakdown:
In addition, UFE staff have taken the workshop to… Labor. As the Iraq war was starting, unions representing 5 million US workers passed antiwar resolutions. US Labor Against the War helped make that happen. We traveled across the country and trained four of their strongest locals to lead the War and the Economy workshop. We also reached the mainstream labor movement by presenting “War and the Economy” to the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, first at a special seminar for the CBTU’s leadership and then to 1,500 delegates at their annual conference. The African American community. Attieno Davis, an experienced activist, is promoting the workshop nationwide and leading community workshops in Boston. “War and the Economy” was well received at Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner’s monthly District 7 Roundtable. Latinos. UFE’s volunteer Latino trainers are taking “El Gasto Militar y la Economía en los E.U.” to Spanish-speaking communities in southern New England. We are posting the Spanish version on our website and promoting it nationwide. Congress. Boston-area Black leaders invited UFE to present the workshop to them, then set up a meeting with Rep. Barney Frank where we brainstormed ways to pry military money out of the federal government and spend it on human needs. The grassroots. We presented the workshop to a peace group in Dorchester, Boston’s largest and most diverse neighborhood. They then launched a “war at home” initiative opposing state budget cuts which helped restore 2,000 summer jobs for Boston youth. Many other local peace groups also hosted the workshop and launched their own campaigns. Next… “The Global Connection.” A new version of the workshop to build bridges between the peace, global, immigrant rights, and local economic justice movements. Who is that masked workshop? War & the Economy – Too Many Guns, Not Enough Butter is an interactive workshop about the agenda behind war and militarism. Generous funding from UFE supporters allowed us to fast-track the workshop, travel across the country presenting it, and post it on our website. You can download it free here. If you have comments or questions, please contact Mike Prokosch, at mprokosch@faireconomy.org or 617-423-2148 x 24. | |||
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United for a Fair Economy, 37 Temple Place, 2nd Floor, Boston, MA 02111. Voice: 617/423-2148 Fax: 617/423-0191. | |||||
