GCD Reflection 2.6.09

A peace organization would fail if it did not address issues of social justice and community building. If the word “peace” can be loosely defined as being the absence of hostility, healthy interpersonal relationships, and the acknowledgement of equality between political relationships as well as personal relationships, than a peace organization would then need to be capable of dealing with social justice and community building.
Although the Alinsky method comes into critique in Bridging the Class Divide, I think that there is a truth to the connections Alinsky made between international peace and community empowerment. Stout sums this up as “if you take care of local needs and empower people locally, social change on a national level will happen.” This is where community building becomes an essential component of an agenda for national peace and social change. It also seems to make sense to me that if the community is unable to see the connections between what is going on in their immediate and daily life to what is happening in the national sphere of policy and politics, than it is going to be incredibly difficult to rally your local community to vocalize and take action to change the national issues.
This is where Alinsky’s model falls short, and Stout’s model improves upon his. By providing the resources and support to her community to help them “see the connections between national military policy and local problems so that they understood how their own lives were affected…” than she would be able to help the community to “find their own voices to say what they thought was wrong or right about these national policies.” This is where the connection between peace work and community development occurs. Through PPP’s literacy programs and get-out-the-vote programs, Stout’s community was able to develop despite the forces against them, such as classism and racism. By educating the community about the relationship between poverty and injustice and national policy and military spending, the communities are able to help themselves vocalize and take action. One of the most memorable stories from the book was the story of Midway, the segregated town within the town of Aberdeen. Stout points out that “it was absolutely essential that the folks in Midway do it for themselves,” referring to organizing themselves to go to the town council to demand a dumpster.
By making the connections to injustices going on locally to policies that occur nationally, the community is able to develop practically on a local scale while the awareness of peace work is given the opportunity to develop. If the community was not given the opportunity to empower themselves and take care of the immediate needs (as was the goal with Alinsky), then the community is not able to care about an agenda for national social change and international peace. If the members of the community are burying their trash in their backyards and barely able to afford the basic necessities, than there is simply no use in going into the community to ask them to be mindful of military spending and to take action in policy making.
Social justice is also an incredibly important part to community development, especially when the larger goal of the organization is to work towards peace. If peace inherently implies equality, than the goal of an organization needs to make clear that if their agenda is going to be to achieve peace or bring humanity closer to peace, than they need to address issues of social injustice. I think it was especially important for Stout to include social justice as a goal within her organization.
Again, this is how community development is essential in peace work. “I don’t believe we can win the change we want without first building an organization whose inner workings reflect the same commitment to equality and mutual respect that we strive for in our organizing work.” Stout makes it clear that she and the PPP need to be the change they want to see in the world. If racism, sexism, homophobia, or classism is tolerated within the organization, than social justice and thus peace will not be an accomplishable goal, even on the local scale.