Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Author: Leah Wells

  • Secretary of State Powell’s Visit to Indonesia Can Help

    Published in the Ventura County Star

    I participated in facilitating student workshops sponsored by Nonviolence International on peace education in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, last month.

    In discussing the chapter entitled “We Love Peace,” the students made important distinctions between active and passive peace. They said, “It’s easy to stand outside the conflict and claim that you’re being nonviolent — that’s passive peace. What we want is active peace. Standing up for ourselves and our communities. But in Aceh,” they warned, “that’s dangerous.”

    Aceh, a lush jungle and mountainous region on the northernmost tip of Sumatra, is home to a vicious civil conflict between armed Indonesian forces and guerrillas seeking Acehnese independence. A team of peace activists looking for a proactive lasting solution to the violence that has plagued their province for the last three decades developed a peace curriculum for high schools — the Program Pendidikan Damai — a peace education curriculum rooted in Qu’ranic peace teachings and Acehnese culture.

    The students are right — it is dangerous for civilians in Aceh, much less a tenacious peace team trying to promote active peacemaking and nonviolence in high schools.

    Case in point: One day leaving the peace education training, I saw firsthand a 23-year-old student, Muhammad Iqbal, shot in the head by a police officer at lunchtime in broad daylight on one of the busiest thoroughfares. His crime? He’d accidentally bumped the officer’s vehicle as he was riding by on a motor scooter.

    The Indonesian military issued a flaccid apology the next day.

    This year alone, more than 600 civilians have been killed in Aceh. Everyone has a story and no one is untouched by the violence. My friend and guide in Aceh reported that Muhammad Iqbal was once his student and frequented the coffee shop next to the school where he teaches.

    One woman activist pleaded: “You must tell the United States that the Indonesian military must be stopped. You must help us.” Acehnese and Indonesian human rights groups both claim that the Indonesian military (TNI) acts with impunity.

    Many people in the community expressed doubt that the officer allegedly responsible for the slain student’s death would be brought to justice.

    Unfortunately, her plea may fall on deaf ears. Aug. 5 looms, the date set for deciding whether to impose martial law or a state of civil emergency in Aceh. The Indonesian military leader in Aceh says that he needs 3,000 additional troops to control the violence in this province.

    This would mean disaster for the traumatized Acehnese population who are already living in constant fear, even to go out after dark.

    Another friend I met at Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh told me of his brush with death walking home from making a phone call just after dusk a few months ago. He saw a shadowy figure slink behind a building, so quick he thought he had seen a ghost. Moments later, an explosion nearly knocked him down as gunfire began to pepper the air. Dodging a falling power line, he barely escaped unharmed.

    With the possibility of increased support from the United States, the Indonesian government is becoming more resolute in seeking a military solution to the ongoing conflict. The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee voted to lift a decade-old ban on military training initially imposed based on human rights abuses that occurred there in the early 1990s and appropriated $400,000 in funding.

    As U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell visits Indonesia, he should not presage U.S. support for the Indonesian military, nor Indonesia’s participation in a proposed “School of the Americas-style” Southeast Asian military training institution to open in Hawaii. Powell should strongly encourage the Indonesians to demilitarize the conflict, withdraw its troops and support humanitarian aid, education and development assistance.

    Further militarizing Aceh would make the existing peace initiatives almost impossible to continue. The Acehnese have resourceful, good ideas, differing from the rebels’, about ameliorating their situation, but they need support. One group is currently traveling to neighborhoods and villages at great personal risk to capture cultural stories and local lore about conflict resolution and peacemaking to incorporate into a curriculum for grade-school students. Their ability to travel would be further circumscribed and thus their peace work thwarted if the area came under more stringent military control.

    U.S. agencies and citizens should increase support for forces of peace in Aceh, through groups like the Human Rights Coalition of Aceh and Women Volunteers for Humanity, and through international groups like the Henri Dunant Center, which has been brokering peace talks between the Indonesian military and GAM rebels in Geneva, such as Peace Brigades International, which does vital third-party accompaniment for human rights workers whose safety is threatened, and agencies like UNICEF and Oxfam whose humanitarian contributions attempt to stabilize the weakening educational and health conditions in Aceh.
    *Leah C. Wells of Santa Barbara serves as Peace Education Coordinator for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

  • Justice for the Pictsweet Mushroom Workers

    This article is available in the magazine Hope Dance, online athttp://www.hopedance.org

    While many people experience co-worker squabbles and subtle inter-office politicking at their jobs, every day the pro-UFW workers at Pictsweet confront open hostilities across clearly delineated battle lines where those in red ‘La Union Hace La Fuerza’ shirts stand side by side in stark juxtaposition to workers in white ‘NO UFW’ t-shirts worn by the contras, as they pick and pack mushrooms together in suspended tension.

    Being a union supporter at the Ventura, CA Pictsweet plant takes courage, commitment and character. The environment is structured to discourage the determination of the union supporters unwilling to cower under management pressure. Two workers in particular, Lilia Orozco and Fidel Andrade, exemplify the spirit and mission of Cesar Chavez and of nonviolent resistance. These two know the power of truth and continue to speak out and organize despite tremendous personal costs, physical injuries and sustained opposition to their organizing efforts.

    Lilia fell and hit her head at work, sustaining a serious bruise and impaired vision. The management sent her to a company-approved physician who said on several occasions that she was healthy, and once that she was “crazy” for making claims that of vision problems. Lilia finally threatened to visit her own doctor, Dr. Manuel Lopez, Mayor of Oxnard. The company doctor re-examined her and found that her optic nerve was nearly severed and required immediate surgery lest she loose complete sight. An expensive operation ensued, and Lilia still battles Pictsweet for repayment of hospital bills.

    In June 2001, Fidel Andrade, husband and father of six, was fired after a supervisor accused him of physical assault. After a verbal confrontation, Augustine Villanueva threw mushrooms at Fidel’s basket and brandished his finger in Fidel’s face as a form of intimidation. Because Fidel moved Villanueva’s hand aside, Human Resources Manager Olmos decided to terminate Fidel’s employment based on the company rule of “no fighting in the workplace.”

    On January 10, 2002, Agricultural Labor Board Judge Douglas Gallop officially ruled in Fidel’s favor stating that he suffered discrimination on the basis of being an outspoken proponent of UFW representation and that Pictsweet must repay Fidel all back wages and benefits. Days later, lawyers from Bryan Cave LLP, the law firm retained by Pictsweet, filed a 31-point exception to the ruling. On June 4, 2002, a subsequent ruling by the ALRB upheld the January decision, reiterating that Fidel was a model worker, and only after becoming prominent in the unionization of Pictsweet employees was he singled out and fired, in violation of section 1153 (a) and (c) of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act.

    In a major legal victory for those working for a union contract at Pictsweet, the company has been censured for firing and retaliating against union supporters. In a major moral victory for the workers, this decision upholds Fidel’s truthful testimony about discrimination at Pictsweet and gives credence to the concerns which are at the heart of why the workers are struggling, namely a means of arbitration for workplace disputes and less potential for capricious firings! Yet despite these two ALRB rulings in January and June, Fidel has not received the mandatory remuneration of back wages and benefits from Pictsweet.

    The company maintains that the workers want to break Pictsweet, and that their intent is to harm the company. The workers disagree. “We are proud of our jobs,” reports Fidel Andrade. “We love our wok and take pride in it. We want a good working relationship with the management and we want to see the company prosper.” But not at the expense of human dignity.

    The workers want a raise. In the past fourteen years, the mushroom pickers have received penny-by-penny wage increases – but also increase in workload to compensate for the raises.

    The workers want safer working conditions. The metal air conditioning piping leaks and drips on workers. When the winter rains flood the buildings with knee-high water, the workers report that some choose to remove their shoes and wade barefoot, enduring splinters and risking their lives as electrical outlets are exposed at ground level. In the two-story building where the mushroom beds are located, there is only one fire escape at ground level, and there is no over-head lighting. Workers must wear helmets with insufficient bulbs to pick mushrooms in the pitch darkness, causing severe eyestrain.

    In March 2001, a large compost fire burned out of control at the Pictsweet site for days as hesitating management declined to report the environmentally devastating blaze for fear of the repercussions and community backlash. While Ventura County Public Health Department issued warnings foe several cities- and for the very young, the elderly, those with heart conditions and asthma- the management at Pictsweet neglected health considerations for its workers. Mushroom pickers worked indoors with only flimsy masks to protect their lungs as giant fans sucked the thick toxic smoke into the rooms, nearly suffocating them. The workers were told that if they left work that they might not get paid. Fidel Andrade was among the workers suffering from asthma who was forced financially to continue working despite the risk of physical harm. He was only thinking of his family, his commitment to caring for them and being able to make ends meet.

    The workers want a decent medical plan. They currently pay exorbitant deductibles- $150 per family member, per year- plus monthly deductibles, and they have no vision or dental.

    Finally, the workers want respect at their job. They want a means of addressing conflicts through arbitration. They want to be heard and understood. They want to be treated as more than beasts of burden by the management that sees them as expendable. They also want justice for the environment. As a result of the nuisance of contaminating the air during the compost fire, Pictsweet was fined $70,0000.00 by the Ventura Air Pollution Control District. Pursuant to the fire, they also were mandated water pollution monitoring systems and submit reports to the Water Quality Control Board, beginning July 2001. As of mid-January 2001, Pictsweet stood in violation for incompliance with that order.

    Since September 2000, the UFW has endorsed a boycott of Pictsweet products, gaining support from businesses like Vons, Ralph’s, Olive Garden and Red Lobster. However Pizza Hut (owned by mega-corporation Tricon) refuses to join the boycott.

    Pictsweet is a company which believes that its workers, its community and the surrounding water, air and land are its disposal for egregious abuse and misuse. As consumers, we have the power to exercise tremendous influence through our purchasing power and demand corporate accountability. Because the workers’ struggle is nonviolent, anyone- students, family, young people, business owners- can contribute to a more just work environment.

    Many communities already support the workers by donating money, by investing time in speaking with businesses who purchase Pictsweet products, and by organizing canned food drives for families hard-hit by the financial impact of their struggle with Pictsweet.

    Cesar Chavez, quoting one of his mother’s dichos, said that “He who holds the cow sons sins as much as he who kills her.” While we may not directly approve of worker maltreatment, we must not happily benefit from their oppression by continuing to purchase Pictsweet products, including mushrooms from Pizza Hut.
    *Leah C. Wells is a peace educator and freelance journalist. The United Farm Workers office may be contacted at (805) 486-9674.

  • Islamic Peace Education in Aceh

    In response to more than 25 years of violence and armed struggle in the province of Aceh, Indonesia, a group of academics and activists have undertaken the task of creating a peace education curriculum grounded in the core Islamic peace beliefs and rooted in the Acehnese social and cultural values.

    Islam, derived from the word salam, peace, is at the core of its very name, a religion of peace.

    Many times miscalculated as a religion of vengeance and retribution, Islam on a global scale has received defamatory attention in recent times. Yet its truest practitioners continue to quote the Qu’ran as a book of peacemaking directives.

    Inequity, violence and a highly traumatized population serve as the backdrop for this curriculum and the accompanying teacher and student trainings. Many rural Acehnese are under-educated, while the city of Banda Aceh is experiencing a rapid rate of urbanization. These factors contribute to a level of dissatisfaction with the centralized Indonesian government, and cause the Acehnese to become further entrenched in the separatist movement.

    In the past year alone more than 600 people have been killed in Aceh. Nearly every Acehnese has a story of witness to violence. Few are untouched by the bloody struggle.

    For the past three decades, violence has been the modus operandi for resolving conflicts in Aceh. The GAM (Free Aceh Movement) and Indonesian military routinely and aggressively perpetrate acts of violence which often catch civilians in the crossfire. Like many international conflicts, the blame and frustration is so deep and the feelings so hot that this power struggle has assumed a life of its own.

    Young people angry at the disparity of wealth and inaccess to better education and thus a better life have taken up arms to ameliorate their situation. Admittedly they recognize that weapons are a quick fix and permit no long-term solution, but are good tools for getting revenge and perpetuating the conflict.

    Recognizing that violence only perpetuates more violence, the curriculum team began developing a peace education program for high school-aged students as well as teachers, and over the past year has conducted trainings and workshops which have reached both private and public schools throughout Aceh.

    Thus far, the Acehnese academic community, including students, teachers, administrators and government officials, have embraced this peace initiative with open arms. Led by Director, Dr. Asna Husin, supported by UNICEF, AusAID, and the Washington, DC-based non-profit Nonviolence International, this curriculum seeks to bring an active, dynamic peace perspective to Aceh so that future generations of Acehnese need not live under the same threatening conditions that currently exist.

    Six basic principles form the foundation for the curriculum: Introspection and Sincerity, Rights and Responsibilities, Conflict and Violence, Democracy and Justice, Plurality of Creation, and Paths to Peace. Embedded in the lessons in these chapters are crucial Acehnese proverbs that have superficial as well as deeper meanings for bringing about peace and justice.

    Central to the curriculum is the teaching that Allah desires peace. It is not enough to have peace just between the individual and Allah, however. If there is injustice or inequality among humans, then Allah is not satisfied. Moreover, Islam teaches that peace is not a receptive, passive condition where only self-interests are served. Rather peace is a dynamic which must be continually refined, redefined and struggled to achieve.

    In achieving peace, humans must examine our wants and needs. We all experience social, spiritual, physical and psychological needs, all of which must be kept in a rough balance to maintain peace. Our excessive wants, however, are often the cause of conflict and violence because this means that others needs are not being met.

    The peace paradigm this curriculum espouses is one where Allah encompasses the realms of peace within, peace in the community, and peace with nature. The Aceh peace education curriculum teaches that in Islam, nature is meant to serve our needs  not our wants.

    Therefore, to have peace with Allah and peace between human beings, we must also respect the peace that exists in nature and not take advantage of natural resources which bring great wealth to a few and great poverty to many. It is the economic injustices that are perpetrated at a structural level which cause tremendous personal violence on an individual level.

    In Aceh, peacemaking is not a theory or hypothetical question to be answered with leisure. It is an inventive means for proactively addressing the systemic, militaristic and interpersonal violence which disrupt every corner of society.
    *Leah C. Wells serves as Peace Education Coordinator for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. She is currently in Aceh contributing to the student nonviolence trainings.

  • Real Fireworks, or Just Bombs Again?

    Published in Common Dreams

    As Interdependence Day approaches, the United States humbly admitted error in bombing a wedding party in Afghanistan, killing around 40 people and injuring more than 60. Bombs and rockets in our country symbolize a celebration of freedom, but in other parts of the world, these explosions are all too real, bringing carnage, death and grueling efforts to survive destruction of homes and livelihood.

    This error, undoubtedly labeled ‘collateral damage’, stands next to a smattering of misguided bombs which have inadvertently and regrettably killed hundreds of civilians in numerous countries over the past few years. As reported by the BBC, during the current Bush administration’s war on terror in Afghanistan, U.S. planes accidentally killed four Canadians in April, bombed the town of Hazar Qadam in January, fired at a caravan of tribal elders en route to the inauguration ceremony for Hamid Karzai and last October hit a residential area in Kabul rather than the intended helicopter at the airport. Oops.

    For the pilots and American citizens, these mistakes are akin to losses while playing a video game. From afar, with targets merely illuminated points on a screen, the people who die are unreal, just numbers and statistics. When we kill by remote control, our hands are theoretically clean. The computer won’t show blood and won’t cry; it’s a machine, an abstraction.

    The people affected by our ubiquitous blunders, however, are terribly real, as is their pain. In February of 1991, during the Gulf War, U.S. planes bombed a women’s and children’s shelter in Baghdad called al-Amiriya. Hundreds of civilians died as a result of the two bombs hitting this supposed-safe haven. The U.S. apologized after realizing what happened, but still continues to bomb the country, even in the past week.

    The rhetoric about a “new war” with Iraq is a farce. We are already at war informally with them. Friday June 28th we dropped bombs in the South of Iraq. Wednesday the 26th of June as well. On Thursday the 20th of June four people in Iraq were killed when U.S. planes bombed them. Eighteen people were wounded when bombs fell on Iraq on the 25th of May. And another four were killed when we bombed Iraq on February 6th. I’d imagine that Iraqis feel attacked and besieged as bombs continue to fall in an undeclared, ongoing, indefinite war that inevitably targets civilians.

    When I tell people this, they invariably say, “Where’d you hear this? Why didn’t I know about it?” It’s in the news, alright, but it’s just hard to find. These statistics get buried in the middle of stories about deposing Saddam Hussein and vilifying his evil acts.

    “But Saddam kills his own people!” He did this in the 1980’s as well when he was our friend. We just turned a blind eye then. Besides, we kill our own people, executing hundreds of people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The crime of a state murdering its own civilians looks different when it’s on our own soil.

    Incidentally, these bombs that rain down on Iraq are illegal under international law. They were not approved by Congress nor by the United Nations. The United States justifies dropping bombs as we unlawfully patrol Iraqi borders enforcing the bogus “no fly zones.” Iraqis have become sadly accustomed to the noisy air raid sirens.

    You cannot achieve peace through war. The United States cannot continue to be proud guardians of weapons of mass destruction and deify their usage, apologize for their errors and claim that we are the land of the free and the home of the brave. Do these mistakes which take innocent lives make us safer or prove our strength or our liberty? Is it righteous or noble to kill unarmed guests at a wedding? Moreover, to what end are we still bombing Afghanistan – has it brought us closer to capturing Osama bin Laden? Has enough justice not been rendered on the citizens of Afghanistan to make up for the loss of lives on September 11th?

    We are not alone on this small planet, a fact that ought to be in the hearts and minds of all Americans as the nationally celebrated holiday approaches. We drive automobiles made in Japan, drink coffee from South America, wear clothes made in Southeast Asia, buy oil from the Middle East and Africa and import furniture from Sweden. Even our fireworks are made in China!

    On July 4th, millions of American children will be lighting sparklers and tracing their names in the night sky. They should also trace the names of any of the thousands of displaced Afghani children, due to the bombings, who are still refugees on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They should trace the names of the Iraqi children who are their same-age counterparts, held captive under the sanctions and threatened almost daily by U.S. bombs. On Interdependence Day, each and every one of us is affected by an errant bomb.
    *Leah C. Wells serves as Peace Education Coordinator for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. This article was also published at Commondreams.org and Counterpunch.org

  • Ants Marching

    Published at Common Dreams & the Santa Barbara Newspress
    Originally Published in the Ventura County Star

    From a distance, an anthill looks like an inanimate mound of earth. Yet when from up close, you see movement – ants busily working for the greater good of their ecosystem, ants who bear the brunt of hard labor, carrying many times their body weight in food for the colony, working in unison.

    From a distance, Santa Barbara looks like this anthill. We might appear comfortably inert, insulated from the economic injustices which have plagued nearby areas like Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, but looking closely, we are a community in motion.

    The agricultural laborers, workers and pickers who sustain the local economy are like the ants: diligently working, yet often out of sight or unappreciatedly trampled underfoot. The People’s March for Economic Justice scheduled for Saturday, April 27 here in Santa Barbara will highlight the diverse groups working toward achieving a sustainable economy, a living wage and workplace justice in our community. This march aims to show the commitment, the momentum and the ongoing winnable struggles which affect everyone.

    Among the groups involved are the United Farm Workers, the Coalition for a Living Wage and two groups looking to challenge the role of the University of California’s involvement in less-than-humanitarian endeavors – the UC Nuclear Free Campaign and Students for a Free Tibet.

    Nearly fifty local groups have endorsed this march, overwhelming evidence that many people in Santa Barbara County are interested in economic justice and informed about the issues. Yet many people still live at a distance, believing that our anthill is just fine as is.

    Student groups disagree. Students for a Free Tibet and the student members belonging to the UC Nuclear Free Campaign support the local struggles for economic justice by challenging the UC school system’s involvement with BP Amoco petroleum investments in Tibet and the inappropriate relationship between the University of California and the Department of Energy regarding oversight and management of the nuclear weapons research facilities and laboratories.

    Michael Coffey of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation says that “these issues – human rights in Tibet and the military-industrial-academic complex – directly affect what goes on locally in the Santa Barbara Community.” He continued by saying, “We must support those who sustain our local economy by challenging the fundamentally undemocratic policy and practice of overseeing nuclear weapons research and development by the largest employer in Santa Barbara County, UCSB.”

    The need to de-link the University of California from the nuclear weapons industry is inextricably linked to the People’s March for Economic Justice. More than $6 billion in taxpayer dollars supports the relationship between UC and DoE, money which would be much more wisely spent on education, healthcare and social services infrastructure. Rather than funding the machinery of death, we should allocate our resources toward promoting a better quality of life for all people.

    The United Farm Workers from Ventura County will be present at the march to explain the situation with their employer, mushroom mogul Pictsweet, owned by United Foods, Inc. For nearly fourteen years the workers have tried to gain a contract, and in September 2000 initiated a boycott of Pictsweet products hoping to influence the management to come to the negotiating table. The workers want safer working conditions, a raise to accommodate the rising cost of living, a forum for mediating conflicts on the job and most of all, respect.

    The Pictsweet workers are encouraged and excited to be participating in this march.

    “Our community is in movement,” says United Farm Workers organizer Brendan Greene. “We are working to change our community, to better our community for ourselves and our families. We want everyone in Santa Barbara to see our struggles and our hard work and to become a part of our campaigns for justice.”

    A living wage for Santa Barbara County residents is tremendously important. UCSB instructor and Ph.D. candidate Keith Rosendal analyzed local data about the economic structure of our community and found that rents in Goleta have increased by 33% and over 20% in Santa Barbara, highlighting a need for affordable housing for all local residents. He learned that since 1996 more than 21% of people living in Santa Barbara County have no health insurance, compared to the national figure of 13%, and that the growth of jobs in Southern California has occurred in areas which pay very little – in the service and agricultural sectors. These statistics are a mirror held up to our faces: what kind of a society can accept the disparity of allocation of resources and access to important things like healthcare, decent wages and respect!

    Marches symbolize motion, movement, progress. Our community Economic justice ought to be attainable for all members of our society, which will require support and solidarity in Santa Barbara.

    The power in nonviolent action is unity, diversity and recognition of the delicate web of interconnectedness which binds all the issues together at the People’s March for Economic Justice.
    *Leah C. Wells serves as the Peace Education Coordinator at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

  • Struggle at Pictsweet Continues; Public Support of Boycott Sought

    Published in the Ventura County Star

    The goal is not to bring your enemies to their knees but to their senses. — Mahatma Gandhi

    Jim Lawson, the man who spent two years at Gandhi’s ashram studying nonviolent movements and who was responsible for desegregating the Nashville lunch counters through sit-ins and boycotts, says that violence has a simple dynamic: “I make you suffer until you say ‘uncle.’ ”

    Such are the tactics of Pictsweet toward its pro-union workers.

    The management at Pictsweet — led by General Manager Ruben Franco, Human Resources Manager Gilbert Olmos and the minion managers who oversee the various departments — are trying to bring the workers who want United Farm Workers representation and a contract with Pictsweet to their knees and strong-arm them into submission, to break their spirit and determination.

    On June 4, the Agricultural Labor Relations Board corroborated the anti-union practices at Pictsweet in a ruling that crescendos a similar ruling from Jan. 10. Both in January and this month, the ALRB upheld section 1152 of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, which states that workers have the right to self-organization and forming, joining and assisting labor organizations. The ALRB found that Pictsweet is in violation of section 1153 (a) and (c) by way of interfering with the aforementioned rights as well as discriminating against workers who engage in pro-union activities.

    Enter Fidel Andrade. He was fired on May 31 as a result of engaging in protected activities a few days earlier — standing up for a co-worker, union movement leader Jesus Torres.

    In defending Andrade’s actions, the ALRB cited the provocation doctrine, which “prohibits an employer from provoking an employee to the point where he commits an indiscretion or insubordinate act and then relying on that indiscretion to discipline him.”

    In its ruling, the ALRB also pointed out that “it is apparent that management seized the May 27 incident as an opportunity to rid itself of an employee that union leader Torres characterized as his ‘right-hand.’ ”

    Last week, the ALRB ruled that not only was the termination of Andrade’s employment excessive punishment, but that Pictsweet routinely practices singling out union supporters. Pictsweet management already had its eye on Andrade, as he gave an interview to The Star after the compost fire last year, commenting that the fire aggravated his asthma and that he wished the company would give workers time off with pay while the fire was extinguished.

    Discrimination of this magnitude is commonplace at Pictsweet, which is owned by United Foods, Inc., a corporation based in Bells, Tenn., with policies rooted in plantation governance. The treatment of Pictsweet workers in Ventura shows an atavistic Civil War-era mentality where working conditions are treacherous and the work force disposable.

    Workers at Pictsweet are struggling for a contract that will provide for a means of arbitration in the case of disputes like the one on May 27. They want the law to work for them in protecting their rights and their jobs. They want a better salary, more than the 48 cents per basket they currently make; they want better health benefits so that they do not have to pay $150 per family member per year before insurance covers their medical costs. They want a pension plan so that, upon retirement, they have something to show for their commitment to Pictsweet and their hard work. Most of all, however, they want respect and a voice at work.

    The management at Pictsweet claims that the workers themselves are trying to bring the company to its knees rather than its senses.

    They claim that the boycott, which was called in September 2000, intends to hurt the company. So far, it has hurt Pictsweet: The company has lost millions in contracts with businesses like Ralph’s, Vons and Costco, and it continues to throw away tens of thousands of pounds of mushrooms every week rather than negotiate fairly for a contract with its workers.

    Gandhi taught that boycotts are a means of nonviolent persuasion that oppressed people can use to bring people to their senses. While successful, the Pictsweet boycott still needs support from the public, especially against mushrooms at Pizza Hut, to win a contract.
    *Leah C. Wells serves as peace education coordinator for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. The United Farm Workers may be reached at 486-9674.

  • We Say, They Say

    They say Peace Education is dangerous and subversive and teaches students to be rabble-rousers.

    We say Peace Education empowers students to live happier, healthier and more productive lives. It teaches them the value of contributing to society and to their community. It teaches them that creating positive change is not up to someone else, it is up to them! Peace Education provides tools for better communication, for better relationships and more healthy interactions with the people in the students’ daily lives – their parents, their teachers, their friends and their community. Peace Education provides a context for students to develop compassion, better listening skills and tangible conflict transformation techniques which will help them throughout their lives.

    The “Solutions to Violence” class explores peacemaking through the eyes of Gandhi, Dr. King and a host of other famous peacemakers whose lives and teachings are revered worldwide. The class promotes thoughtful discussion, respect, creativity and critical thinking and writing. Students become better writers and articulators during the semester and often take on special projects outside of class which contribute to a more peaceful community, like organizing canned food drives, becoming part of youth resource councils for their cities and writing grants for renewable energy resources, to name a few.

    They say Peace Education should be extra-curricular, not a part of the regular school day.

    We say that Peace Education must be a part of the standard curriculum so that students can learn the legitimacy of nonviolence and peacemakers throughout history. If Peace Education is relegated to a “once-a-year” event, it will not receive the credibility and thoughtful study which it requires to internalize peacemaking. If we want our young people to go out and become the peacemakers of the world, we must give them the classroom instructional time to develop those skills. We would not expect them to grasp all the finite details of Algebra in a one-day seminar – why would we expect the same about peacemaking?

    Many schools have Anger Management groups, Peer Mediation and Leadership classes. “Solutions to Violence” is special because it examines peacemaking from a historical perspective and makes the material relevant to students’ lives in a meaningful way. Students report healthier and happier attitudes and behaviors after taking “Solutions to Violence.” Their grades tend to improve in their other classes, as well. This class is important because it follows the Patch Adams philosophy – that every teacher is a student and every student is a teacher.

    They say there is not enough time in the school day to address peacemaking. Teachers are already too busy!

    We say teachers *are* too busy to add extra lesson plans. They have so many needs and requirements with the advancement of placement tests, standardized tests and teaching students to take these tests and pass them! One of the goals of peace education is to partner with colleges, universities and credentialing programs so that teachers are being trained to teach peace education in schools as a permanent part of the curriculum.

    “Solutions to Violence” explores many kinds of violence in our world – like hot and cold violence, structural violence, interpersonal violence and academic violence. Academic violence is particularly relevant to students who have been continually let down by our educational system and who have grown to distrust teachers, administrators and school in general. There are students for whom tests are daunting and depressing, and after each multiple-choice exam feel like failures. There are teachers who feel stifled and offended by the trend toward standardized testing which limits their creative license as a teacher and human being.

    The strategy of implementing “Solutions to Violence” as a standard part of high school curriculum works in tandem with training teachers to fill the needs of schools utilizing this semester-long class. Eventually, student teachers will be able to teach “Solutions to Violence” in preparation for teaching future classes.

    They say it’s too difficult to fund Peace Education.

    We say it is far more costly not to fund Peace Education. What will be the cost to future generations who grow up without knowing the fundamental skills necessary to be peacemakers?

    We must believe that Peace Education is worthy of receiving funding through grants, through permanent teachers’ salaries, and through community-based initiatives. Where we spend our money gives clues to where our priorities lie. Therefore, we must find creative and permanent ways to compensate teachers for teaching the most important subject in school: Getting Along With Others.

    It is important to be thinking about funding Peace Education, to be partnering with peace and justice groups, with school districts, and with organizations whose donors believe in teaching peace. There is no right or wrong way to approach funding for peace education. Many communities have anti-violence grants which never get spent. Many district have student needs which go unfulfilled due to the lack of funding. It is up to us to be resourceful and to make sure that Peace Education is on the radar screen in our lifetime.
    *Leah C. Wells serves as the Peace Education Coordinator at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

  • Our Taxes, Our Voices

    Originally Published by Common Dreams

    “A government which spends more on its military than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

    As April 15th nears and Americans devote countless grueling hours toward tax preparation, how many people examine where their money actually goes?

    Certainly the prospect of shelling out money each spring to the Internal Revenue Service does not contribute to an atmosphere of personal tranquility and peace in the days and hours before the postmarked envelopes and begrudgingly-written checks are sent to the faceless bureaucracy which keeps our country afloat. The process of relinquishing hard-earned money sends pangs of frustration and resentment through many people.

    Is there a way to make this less painful? Can we envision a day when we give with glee because we know that our taxes ending up in the right places, helping the right people and addressing the problems in our society which affect us all? Can we ever become less resentful about paying taxes? Perhaps the answer is found in our priorities.

    If you want to personally quantify your values, follow where you spend your money. Are you buying movie tickets, supporting millionaires? Are you buying gasoline? Shopping at the GAP? Eating out? Are you donating to worthy causes? Are you sponsoring an underprivileged child overseas or in your town? If we want to know on an individual level where our priorities are, our expenses can provide important clues.

    If we want to know where our priorities are on a national scale, we can follow our federal spending as well. This year, our federal budget gives a big boost to the military, our way of solving problems internationally. The Osprey aircraft and Virginia attack submarines received a combined $4.2 billion dollars and nearly half our budget is allocated for past and present military spending. At the same time, significant cuts were made in “programs of social uplift”: $700 million in job training and employment, $85 million to train doctors in children’s hospitals, $596 million from the Department of Education and $417 million to repair housing. Interesting.

    And the core values which we hold dear are reflected in the national budget: power, authority, defense and protection. Education, healthcare, social services and investment in workers get short shrift this year. Nine million children (one in seven) have no health insurance in the United States. One in eight never graduate high school. One-fourth live with only one parent. Over the next ten years, more than 2.2 million teachers will be needed to address the high turnover rate in the educational system and compensate for retiring teachers. The average length of time a new teacher sticks with the profession? Two years.

    At the heart of the matter is what really will make us more secure – a big military or a healthy, smart, fulfilled population. Can we actually become safer if we are better educated, well-nourished and have well-paying stable employment and hope for the future? Or is a big military the only way? And what do taxes have to do with this?

    Almost half of our taxes are applied to keeping our country safe through a strong military.

    The quote by Dr. King gets at the heart of the matter. On a personal level, we are taught to rely on gadgets like mace, tasers, martial arts and self-defense, The Club and complex home security devices to protect our stuff and our well-being. On a national level, we are taught to rely on national missile defense, nuclear weapons, a large well-equipped military and the theory of mutually assured destruction. These ploys play upon our fears of death and insecurity, and they make a great deal of money for a small amount of people. Imagine if we began to embrace the idea that life is fundamentally insecure and that regardless of all the protective measures, the gizmos, the gimmicks and the firepower we buy or rely on, that our time on earth is limited and fragile.

    Moreover, do we need to live in fear and suspicion of others in order to be safe?

    By addressing the root causes rather than effects of violence – like lack of education, low-paying jobs, poor health care, stress and relationship problems – through adequate funding and appropriation of financial resources shows that American people are at the heart of our concern. In contrast, focusing only on tragedy and insecurity detracts from the positive components in American society.

    This year, Hart High School in Valencia, CA had to cut funding for its bus transportation for extra-curricular activities which require distance travel; many other high schools nationwide have experienced similar cutbacks. Is it morally right to deprive students of after school activities, thus increasing the likelihood that they will end up unsupervised and getting into trouble? Can we justify spending $1.1 billion in military aid to Colombia rather than funding buses for high school sports teams and bands?

    As tax day draws nigh, we as Americans are challenged to examine our lives, our budgets, our bank account balances and our priorities. We have power through deliberate acts of conscience to challenge the IRS to appropriate a portion of our money to a peace tax fund. We can ask Congress to fund a cabinet-level Presidential advisory Department of Peace. Our paycheck is our power and our voice. How should our money be spent?

    We decide.
    *An admirer of Henry David Thoreau, Leah C. Wells advocates peaceful applications of tax dollars toward increasing teachers’ salaries, funding to after school programs, college scholarships and social services.

  • For a lasting peace in Iraq

    Originally Published in The Jordan Times

    When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers. Two nations like the United States and Iraq have unlimited potential for rendering irreversible damage to each other, to the environment and to the innocent people who get trampled underfoot in the stampede of war.

    As a pacifist, I do not endorse violence.

    But let’s imagine for a moment that I went along with the idea that removing President Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq was a good idea, that this action would decrease the cycle of violence in the world, and that it were a decent and honourable thing to do.

    Imagine that we got rid of Saddam. Then what?

    There are still 23 million people living in Iraq, so long as we did not kill a significant number of them in dethroning the infamous leader of the Ba’ath party. Among the Iraqis left standing are young men and women who have grown up in a decidedly anti-American environment, who have been nutritionally deprived since conscious memory and who are living daily with the threat of future bombings which have dotted the landscape, virtually escaping Western media reports for the past eleven years.

    Are we naive to think that this same underdeveloped population that has endured hellishly hot summers, putrid water and abominable health conditions will now embrace American presence and show gratitude for our reinvigorated military effort against them?

    Imagine for a moment that we stopped finger-pointing and blaming Saddam for starving his people for the past eleven years. Imagine that we stopped blaming a recalcitrant Sanctions Committee and policy making team from the State Department. Imagine that we viewed the humanitarian crisis in Iraq simply as people in need. The unending, maddening seclusion maintained by the world community could then be addressed.

    What will we do for these civilian Iraqis with whom we have no argument, the unseen innocent survivors of an eleven-year siege?

    A lasting peace plan in Iraq would have to begin by addressing the immediate needs of the average Iraqi people — their access to potable water, their educational infrastructure, healthcare system, their agriculture and oil industries — as well as their access to interstate and international travel. Restrictions on travelling to and from Iraq must be amended so that a dialogue may begin between Iraqis and other cultures throughout the world, starting with study abroad and student exchange programmes.

    In Iraq, doctors need vaccines, syringes with needles, X-ray film and blood bags. Teachers need books and pencils. Children need shoes and a happy childhood. Nursing mothers need proper nutrition to provide a healthy start for young lives. Iraqis need a wider array of food options and nutritional intake other than the lentils and rice available under the oil-for-food programme.

    Iraq needs an infusion of currency, a way to pay its citizens who desire to work, achieve and fulfil the demands of providing for their families. Immediately, Iraq needs a plan to rebuild its infrastructure — the water and sewage treatment plants and electrical facilities so that air conditioning and ceiling fans function when the temperature is 140 degrees.

    We must accept responsibility for the life-altering consequences of our policies on people who should not have been targeted.

    The world community, led by the United Nations, must apologise formally and publicly to the families who have lost loved ones as a result of the sanctions and no-fly-zone bombing campaigns in the North and south of Iraq. We must offer our sincerest condolences for our complicity in the crimes that killed more than half a million children.

    Unless we do this, the civilian Iraqis who are not the enemy will have every justification for taking every opportunity to avenge the egregious wrongs done against them.

    Gandhi tells a story about a wise man meditating by a river. A scorpion in a tree repeatedly falls into the water, and the wise man rescues him each time. And each time, the scorpion stings him. Another man sees this drama played out several times and approaches the wise man, asking why he continues to save the scorpion and risk being stung every time? “It is his nature to sting,” says the wise man. “I am a human. It is my nature to save.”

    Iraq needs no new war, no more bombs. They need simple human-to-human outreach. That is the right thing to do.
    *Leah C. Wells serves as Peace Education Coordinator for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and travelled to Iraq last July with Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness. She contributed this article to The Jordan Times.

  • Boycott Pictsweet Mushrooms

    Originally Published in Common Dreams

    As many people in our nation today are obsessing over Enron stock, as Northrop Grumman bids $10.8 billion to purchase TRW to make the largest defense contracting agency whose annual revenues would top $26 billion, and as the latest Arnold Schwartzenegger film “Collateral Damage” continues to gross more than $30 million dollars, the workers at the Pictsweet mushroom farm in Ventura, CA are haggling with their recalcitrant management over pennies.

    In the 1990’s, mushroom workers at Pictsweet in Ventura received a small raise every two years; in 2000 after an escalation in tension between management and labor due to stalling contract negotiations and workplace discrimination, no raise was issued. The workers, who make an average annual salary of $25,000, have relied on this raise to keep up with the rising cost of living in the United States, even though in prior years the raise was also accompanied by an increased workload meaning that the raise was really not a raise, merely a compensation for the extra work.

    But would a contract truly remedy the financial crunch that workers presently feel? The uncontracted workers at Pictsweet obviously get short shrift as compared to the contracted workers at the Monterey Mushroom farm in Watsonville, CA whose working conditions and wages are significantly more competitive and egalitarian under contract with their employer.

    Monterey Mushroom workers receive $9.18 per hour for picking Brown mushrooms, and $11.90 per hour for maintenance work. They have no annual deductible for their medical plan and pay no premiums, and they receive 80% coverage for both vision and dental expenses. The lighting in the one-story rooms with mushroom beds have overhead lighting, the air conditioning hoses are plastic and provide proper circulation, and there are two emergency exits per room.

    In contrast, workers at Pictsweet Mushroom farm are paid $7.25 per hour for picking Brown mushrooms, and $7.65 per hour for maintenance work. Their medical deductible is $150 per family member per year, and they pay a monthly premium of $58.04, and they have no vision or dental coverage. The only light in rooms with mushroom beds comes from the inadequate bulbs on their helmets, the metal air conditioning tubes condense water which leaks and contributes to slippery work conditions, and there is only one emergency exit on the first floor of two-story rooms. In a September visit to the Pictsweet plant at the invitation of the management, I verified firsthand these working conditions in an extensive tour of the facility.

    The demands of the workers at Pictsweet are not extravagant: they want a contract, they want a means of fair arbitration for legitimate complaints, they want better health benefits and they want respect on the job.

    On Thursday, February 14, an Agricultural Labor Relations Board hearing commenced in Oxnard, CA to investigate charges filed by lawyers for the United Farm Workers on behalf of the Pictsweet workers. The United Farm Workers maintain that the management at Pictsweet has engaged in unfair labor practices as defined by the Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, such as laying off and reducing work hours for workers without notifying United Farm Workers, their bargaining representative. In the latest hearings, UFW lawyers questioned plant manager from the Ventura Pictsweet farm, Ruben Franco, who admitted under oath that area supervisors of the farm keep separate lists whose existence had been previously denied which list the classification and superiority of workers. These classification and seniority lists are essential to the UFW’s case in proving that new workers were hired instead of reinstating workers who had been laid off.

    Pictsweet lawyer Barbara Krieg, whose law firm Bryan Cave LLP earned $11 million in representing the Government of Kuwait in 1993 and 1994 in prosecuting the $59 billion claims for Gulf War reparations against Iraq, later questioned mushroom picker Jesus Torres. Referring to the aforementioned biennial raises, Krieg asked Torres if he believes that “if a worker thinks he deserves a raise, should the worker necessarily receive that raise?” An objection to this question by UFW lawyers was sustained by Judge Nancy C. Smith. In essence, however, Krieg’s question translates as “be quiet, be grateful for the pittance you have, and hope that we don’t take more from you in the end.” This question Krieg posed reflects the classist mentality that worker exploitation is an acceptable and necessary workplace evil in the capitalist dog-eat-dog world.

    Because the corporation which owns Pictsweet, United Foods, Inc., went private in 1999, their annual gross revenue for 2001 is unavailable. However, in fiscal year 2000 they earned $163 million and experienced a 21.2% sales growth, according to The Industry Standard. Their annual revenue per employee was $77,619.05 – more than three times what an average Pictsweet employee makes in a year!

    In September 2000, the United Farm Workers initiated a boycott of Pictsweet mushrooms which has steadily amassed a following from such retail chains as Vons, Safeway and Ralph’s. The current target of the boycott is Pizza Hut which continues to purchase Pictsweet mushrooms.

    The workers will win a contract with Pictsweet, but it will take community support for this boycott and campaign for respect. You can help support them by writing to your local Pizza Hut manager, by refusing to support Pictsweet’s exploitative business practices by not ordering Pizza Hut pizzas, and by coming out to support the workers in their struggle at the upcoming march for economic justice in honor of the labor hero Cesar Chavez in Oxnard on April 28.
    *Leah C. Wells is the Peace Education Coordinator for Nuclear Age peace Foundation. This article can also be found at: http://www.change-links.org/leahwells.htm