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American Friends Service Committee -- Western Massachusetts |
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"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." -- Thomas Jefferson 1802 A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. -- Jimmy Carter (would you like to suggest a quote for here? or see quotes collection?) |
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American Friends Service Committee
NEW ENGLAND REGION
WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS PROGRAM
Doug Renick and Maya Winfrey, Interim Program Coordinators
140 Pine St.
Florence MA 01062
Phone: 413-584-8975
Fax: 413-584-8987
The Western Massachusetts program, founded in 1968, focuses on peace education and social justice through work on nonviolence training, study courses and dialogues on economic justice, campaigns against U.S. military intervention, and education and action to combat racism, classism, and homophobia.
The program has evolved from a program primarily set up to do draft and military counseling and resistance to militarism and the war in Vietnam, to a broader educational-outreach program with a strong emphasis on community dialogue.
Western Massachusetts faces problems of growing economic disparity, an increased tendency to scapegoat the poor and other marginalized social groups, and a deterioration in public trust and ownership of local, state and federal government, along with increased efforts to militarize our economy and our communities.
The program seeks to empower communities to confront these problems and find lasting solutions which increase peace and build unity. AFSC-Western Mass. uses education and community dialogue to make the broader connections between militarism, economic disparity, and violence, and actively promote ways that people can break the cycle of violence which fosters these connections. Two primary goals are demilitarization of youth, and empowerment of economically oppressed people.