|
home
Long
Island Alliance
for Peaceful Alternatives
38 Old Country Road
Garden
City NY
11530-1532
Phone: 516-741-4360
Fax: 516-741-4450
Email:
lipeace2002@yahoo.com
To arrange a program
for your school, religious, civic, or business group,
Contact:
Co-Directors Megan O’Handley or Margaret Melkonian.
Long Island Alliance for
Peaceful Alternatives
Member Organizations
Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives
Member Organizations
Citizens Campaign for the Environment
Code Pink LI
Conscience Bay Meeting Religious Society of Friends
Ethical Humanist Society of
Long Island
Five Towns Forum
Great Neck SANE/Peace Action
Hofstra University Peace Committee
The Interfaith Alliance— LI Chapter
Interfaith Nutrition Network
Islamic Center of Long Island
Long Island Veterans for Peace, Chapter 138
Moveon Queens/Nassau
Nassau/Suffolk Coalition for the Homeless
Pax Christi Long Island
Shelter Rock Forum
Social Justice Committee,
Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock
South Country Peace Group
|
 |
"Every gun that is fired, every warship
that is launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense,
a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold,
and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists,
and the hopes of its children."
--President Dwight D. Eisenhower
|
LONG ISLAND ALLIANCE FOR
PEACEFUL ALTERNATIVES (pdf)
-
How
Do We Create a Culture of Peace?
-
How
Do We Move to a World without War?
-
What
Kind of America Do We Want?
-
What
Are Our Responsibilities as citizens?
WHY AN ALLIANCE?
Recognizing
that, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “We go farther,
faster, when we go together,” a number of vital peace and
justice organizations joined together in 1985 to form what is now
the Long Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives.
Having a permanent, professional peacemaking presence on Long Island
makes communication and coordination among the Alliance peace and
justice member organizations more effective. And, it enables us
to reach and sustain many more Long Islanders in efforts to bring
about a peaceful and just world.
Through outreach, education and media, the Long Island Alliance
is a center for information and a catalyst for changing and shaping
U.S. policies.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION
The
Alliance has a strong record of public education on peace and national
security issues; of sustained collaboration with other constituencies;
of media credibility; and of ongoing member involvement.
We
give voice to the concerns of many Long Islanders. Our work affirms
citizen responsibility for our shared public life, calling us to
collective action. In a constantly changing world, citizens must
be informed and must take responsibility for shaping national policies.
The Alliance provides education on peace and national security issues,
including:
- Alternatives to War and Promoting Peace
- Ending the War in Iraq and Preventing Future
Wars
- The Military Budget and its Effect on Local
Communities in Nassau and Suffolk
- America’s Role in the World: Redefining
National Security
- Preventing the Proliferation of Nuclear and
Conventional Weapons
- The Economic Costs of War
- A Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and
The Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
- Nonviolence and Resistance: The Legacies of
Gandhi and King
- U.S. Foreign Policy and Unilateral Use of Force
SPEAKER'S BUREAU
Our
Speakers’ Bureau is comprised of highly qualified individuals
ready to speak on the critical issues facing America today. Our
library of videos and DVDs provide the basis for many programs.
We
have created a network of academic, religious, community, labor,
business, and social justice organizations in a serious and ongoing
dialogue about the issues that are of concern to us. Our website,
newsletter, and action alerts keep our individual members and organizations
informed.
Through
our outreach program, media work, and public forums we have helped
to educate the public and our elected officials. Over the years
we have brought to Long Island such prominent speakers as Daniel
Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, Cindy Sheehan, James Carroll. Amy Goodman,
Jonathan Schell, Richard Falk and many others.
Monthly
programs with speakers take place at the Unitarian Universalist
Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset. In addition, we co-sponsor
spring and fall lecture series on U.S. foreign policy at Hofstra
University. clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, |
MISSION
STATEMENT top
- To educate
and to activate Long Islanders to bring about disarmament and the abolition
of nuclear weapons.
- To attain
major reductions in military expenditures. both nuclear and conventional:
to reallocate resources toward education, jobs. housing, health care,
the environment, the infrastructure, and other human needs, and to reorder
national priorities.
- To seek
major reductions in the production of arms for export as well as the
end of arms sales to nondemocratic countries.
- To alert
the public to the dangers of nuclear weapons production and development
at Department of Energy plants, environmental contamination and public
health risks, and the problem of radioactive waste storage and disposal.
- To work
to strengthen international cooperation, conflict resolution, and peacekeeping,
so as to avoid military interventions.
- To work
cooperatively with young people. particularly students in our local
colleges and high schools, in peace and social justice activities.
- To seek
social and economic justice for all by working with other organizations
whose missions are to eliminate poverty, racism. and other forms of
discrimiration, whether based on culture, class. gender, religion, or
sexual orientation, and to protect civil and human rights.
FOREIGN
POLICY (top)
PROMOTING
DIALOGUE AND ACTION FOR AN ALTERNATiVE FOREIGN POLICY
Goal: Bring about change in US foreign policy based on multilateral actions
- a foreign policy that adheres to international law, promotes human rights
and democratic process. Build coalition and larger constituency to influence
LI representatives and NY senators.
Funding
is required to increase our efforts, expand coalition, increase visibility
and engage more Long Islanders in having impact in supporting changes
in US foreign policy and stopping the expansion of the war on terrorism.
This is a critical moment and we need more staff - more capacity.
1.
Sustain coalition - expand 9/11 steering committee/working group to include
other partners engaged in stopping war and in addressing issues of globalization,
poverty and foreign aid. Set up meeting to develop long Island strategy
for education and action. Coordinate LI efforts and provide effective
communication among organizations.
2.
Intensify outreach - to religious community, Islamic Center, LI Council
of Churches, UPSERJ groups, Green Party and other peace groups (particularly
in Suffolk).
3.
Organize educational programs that put faces on communities most effected
by US war on terrorism and on foreign policies - Arab Americans, Muslim
and Sikh communities on LI, 9/11 families for peaceful tomorrows, immigrants,
Colombians, Jewish-Palestiän groups working for Peace in Middle East,
Iraqi civilians. Educate Long Islanders about alternatives to military
force and provide space for dialogue about questions and concerns many
have about where war on terrorism is taking US and the world.
4.
Mobilize Alliance and coalition members in effective campaign to influence
LI reps and NY senators - calls, letters, weekly vigils, meetings with
reps, etc.
5.
Develop sustained media effort about this program on foreign policy alternatives.
6.
Organize visible and coordinated LI actions - starting in June that demonstrate
calls for
a stop to the bombing, no expansion of war on terrorism and a foreign
policy that is on
the side of people, human rights and international law.
7.
Reengage citizens in political practice at a time when cynicism and despair
lead many to think change is not possible. April 20 was a motivator and
inspired many to increased action. Let's build on this. Hope against experience.
MILITARY
BUDGET top
The military
budget is the primary focus of our work and the comm on thread linking
our diverse member organizations. The Alliance is unique in that we are
the only organization on Long Island that is informing the public' about
the negative effects the U.S military budget has on both our national
and local economy. We have putblished three major research papers pertaining
to long Island and the military budget:
- Long
Island Defense Cutbacks: Outlooks and Options (1989)
- Reinvest
in Long Island (1993)
- Long
Island's Sustainability Industries (1995)
|
