Southern Fight-Back article on the North Carolina Organizing Project on Military Spending and Human Needs
Dublin Core
Title
Southern Fight-Back article on the North Carolina Organizing Project on Military Spending and Human Needs
Subject
southern organizing, North Carolina, anti-war, antimilitarism, Conference of Black Organizers, anti-racism
Description
Article on the work of the North Carolina Organizing Project on Military Spending and Human Needs out of the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice
Creator
Southern Fight-Back, Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice
Publisher
Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice
Date
January 1981
Contributor
Kimber Heinz
Rights
From the War Resisters League Southeast Regional Office Records #5213, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Format
.png
Language
English
Type
political newsletter
Coverage
1981, Reagan era, US South, North Carolina
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
reprinted from Southern Fight-Back
January, 1981
In the Heart of Military Country
Fayetteville Citizens Talk of Peace
Recently, people from 13 organizations in the Fayetteville,
N.C. area spent a day talking about what excessive military
spending is doing to the people of this country and what they
can do about it. Included were people from civil-rights groups
such as NAACP, SCLC, and the Association for Indian People;
survival groups such as the local Hunger Coalition and Tenants
Organization; peace groups such as the local Quakers; religious
groups such as Urban Ministries; Senior Citizens Roundtable,
and a number of individual activists.
It was one of a series of workshops being sponsored by
SOC's North Carolina Organizing Project on Human Needs and
Military Spending, and was built around a format that SOC has
used both in this state and elsewhere. The format is effective
in bringing people information not available in the news media
and in stimulating action. Here we summarize the Fayetteville
workshop, with the idea that our readers may want to organize
similar ones in their own communities.
The workshop opened with a panel designed to provide in-
formation. Anne Braden of SOC spoke first on the history of
the arms race. “I’m not a scholar,” she said, "but I’ve read up
on this, and we all have to do that The fact is that the arms
race started in Washington, and we have to face that fact.”
‘POVERTY IS NOT AN ACCIDENT’
Next Jennifer Henderson of the North Carolina Hunger
Coalition talked about unmet human needs in the state. "It’s
not an accident that people are poor,” she said. “But poor
folks are so busy trying to survive that sometimes we don’t
have time to research and figure out what’s happening to us.”
Judy Hand of SOC talked about what military spending
(over 50 percent of each tax dollar we pay) does to the
economy — fueling inflation, reducing the number of jobs, and
eating up funds that could be used to meet people’s needs.
Isaiah Singletary, of the Harambi Student Organization at
North Carolina Central University, talked about draft registration and the need to resist it. Singletary, who served in the
Navy during the Vietnam War, told of people “devastated
both physically and mentally.” And poor people are always
214 times as likely to be drafted and sent into combat as those
who are not poor, he said.
‘WHERE OUR REAL INTERESTS LIE’
Finally, Tim McGloin of North Carolina Friends of the
Filipino People discussed international implications of the U.S.
military machine. He told of his own education working in
Southeast Asia in the 60’s, where a farmer told him: “If this
world was a village of 100 people, six of them would be like
you — white, educated, well-off. The other 94 would be hungry and illiterate. If I were one of the six, I’d arm myself to
the teeth, because the other 94 of us are mad as hell.” That’s
what it’s all about, McGloin said — and the real interests of
most people in this country lie with the 94, not with the six.
After the panel, there was a lively question-and-discussion
period. Then after lunch, Pat Bryant and Carrie Graves, directors of the North Carolina project, explained its purpose, participants introduced themselves and described their work, and
everyone joined in discussing how the war drive affects them,
and possible methods of saying “no” in a collective way.
Some of the panelists who presented basic information at
the workshop (from left): Judy Hand, Jennifer Henderson,
Isaiah Singletary, Tim McGloin
Pat Bryant (left) and Carrie Graves, project directors, talk
about organizing. Rev. Fred Taylor closes program.
‘WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE’
“It’s people like us here today who can get some things
done if we join hands, it’s not too late,” said a tenant leader.
Pat Bryant said: “We have to see that we have a common
agenda; we can’t work in isolation from each other. Let’s ex-
change information across organizational lines, and find ways
to join in action.”
Rev. Fred Taylor of SCLC closed the program. “We must
remember,” he said, “that we are the salt of the earth — we
who believe the hungry should be fed) and the naked clothed.”
(SOC now has considerable experience in organizing workshops like the Fayetteville one and is in touch with a number
of resource people who can conduct the basic panel of information. We also have literature on this issue and can tell you
where to get more, if you would like help in putting on such
a program in your community, contact the SOC office in Birmingham. Our North Carolina organizers will help you.)
January, 1981
In the Heart of Military Country
Fayetteville Citizens Talk of Peace
Recently, people from 13 organizations in the Fayetteville,
N.C. area spent a day talking about what excessive military
spending is doing to the people of this country and what they
can do about it. Included were people from civil-rights groups
such as NAACP, SCLC, and the Association for Indian People;
survival groups such as the local Hunger Coalition and Tenants
Organization; peace groups such as the local Quakers; religious
groups such as Urban Ministries; Senior Citizens Roundtable,
and a number of individual activists.
It was one of a series of workshops being sponsored by
SOC's North Carolina Organizing Project on Human Needs and
Military Spending, and was built around a format that SOC has
used both in this state and elsewhere. The format is effective
in bringing people information not available in the news media
and in stimulating action. Here we summarize the Fayetteville
workshop, with the idea that our readers may want to organize
similar ones in their own communities.
The workshop opened with a panel designed to provide in-
formation. Anne Braden of SOC spoke first on the history of
the arms race. “I’m not a scholar,” she said, "but I’ve read up
on this, and we all have to do that The fact is that the arms
race started in Washington, and we have to face that fact.”
‘POVERTY IS NOT AN ACCIDENT’
Next Jennifer Henderson of the North Carolina Hunger
Coalition talked about unmet human needs in the state. "It’s
not an accident that people are poor,” she said. “But poor
folks are so busy trying to survive that sometimes we don’t
have time to research and figure out what’s happening to us.”
Judy Hand of SOC talked about what military spending
(over 50 percent of each tax dollar we pay) does to the
economy — fueling inflation, reducing the number of jobs, and
eating up funds that could be used to meet people’s needs.
Isaiah Singletary, of the Harambi Student Organization at
North Carolina Central University, talked about draft registration and the need to resist it. Singletary, who served in the
Navy during the Vietnam War, told of people “devastated
both physically and mentally.” And poor people are always
214 times as likely to be drafted and sent into combat as those
who are not poor, he said.
‘WHERE OUR REAL INTERESTS LIE’
Finally, Tim McGloin of North Carolina Friends of the
Filipino People discussed international implications of the U.S.
military machine. He told of his own education working in
Southeast Asia in the 60’s, where a farmer told him: “If this
world was a village of 100 people, six of them would be like
you — white, educated, well-off. The other 94 would be hungry and illiterate. If I were one of the six, I’d arm myself to
the teeth, because the other 94 of us are mad as hell.” That’s
what it’s all about, McGloin said — and the real interests of
most people in this country lie with the 94, not with the six.
After the panel, there was a lively question-and-discussion
period. Then after lunch, Pat Bryant and Carrie Graves, directors of the North Carolina project, explained its purpose, participants introduced themselves and described their work, and
everyone joined in discussing how the war drive affects them,
and possible methods of saying “no” in a collective way.
Some of the panelists who presented basic information at
the workshop (from left): Judy Hand, Jennifer Henderson,
Isaiah Singletary, Tim McGloin
Pat Bryant (left) and Carrie Graves, project directors, talk
about organizing. Rev. Fred Taylor closes program.
‘WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE’
“It’s people like us here today who can get some things
done if we join hands, it’s not too late,” said a tenant leader.
Pat Bryant said: “We have to see that we have a common
agenda; we can’t work in isolation from each other. Let’s ex-
change information across organizational lines, and find ways
to join in action.”
Rev. Fred Taylor of SCLC closed the program. “We must
remember,” he said, “that we are the salt of the earth — we
who believe the hungry should be fed) and the naked clothed.”
(SOC now has considerable experience in organizing workshops like the Fayetteville one and is in touch with a number
of resource people who can conduct the basic panel of information. We also have literature on this issue and can tell you
where to get more, if you would like help in putting on such
a program in your community, contact the SOC office in Birmingham. Our North Carolina organizers will help you.)
Files
Collection
Citation
Southern Fight-Back, Southern Organizing Committee for Economic and Social Justice, “Southern Fight-Back article on the North Carolina Organizing Project on Military Spending and Human Needs,” War Resisters League Southeast, accessed November 21, 2024, https://resistwarsoutheast.com/items/show/45.