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“Decades of Solidarity with Santo Tomas, Nicaragua”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Since 1988 our local community has built and sustained a strong relationship with a sister community in Nicaragua. The Thurston – Santo Tomás Sister County Association (TSTSCA) has built peace and across thou-sands of miles of distance by interacting face-to-face with back-and-forth delegations and by collaborating on practical projects in Santo Tomás. While the Reagan Administration was making war on Nicaragua, people in Thurston County and Santo Tomás forged relationships of mutual understanding and respect. Bypassing governments, we just went ahead and did what was needed – and what was right. In March 1987 the second episode of the Olympia […]

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TV: “Occupy Wall Street, Olympia and Everywhere”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The democracy movement that swept Tunisia, Egypt, and many countries in the Arab world in 2011 also was demanding a fair economy instead of corruption by cronies in unaccountable governments. (See the Olympia FOR’s July 2011 TV program posted at www.olympiafor.org). Los Indignados in Spain, the anti-austerity protests in Greece, and other actions around the world are also related to this movement for democracy, human rights, and a humane economy. And now – with similar consciousness and demands – the Occupy Wall Street movement has swept the U.S., resulting in hundreds of local “Occupy” encampments, protests and other grassroots activities. […]

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TV: “Climate Change: Updates and Next Strategieis”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The climate crisis is increasingly serious, even though most politicians don’t want to deal with it, and mainstream media fail to report on it adequately. But while politicians and mainstream media negligently fail to act, the problems get worse. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s February 2012 TV program brings us up to date and explores strategies for making progress. Our guests – Doug Howell from the Sierra Club and KC Golden from Climate Solutions – are exceptionally well informed. Doug and KC help us understand what the climate crisis is and the scientific causes. They debunk the claims of the […]

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TV: “Strategy and Creativity for Grassroots Power”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Throughout our nation’s history, the best political and social changes have been organized through grassroots movements. In the modern era too, if we are to make progress on the issues we care about – peace, social justice, a humane economy, environmental stewardship, and so forth – we must learn how to strategize, organize and build effective grassroots movements. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s March 2012 TV program focuses on this.  During this interview we explore broad insights and strategies for making positive changes in our political and social systems. Our guest is Bill Moyer from the Backbone Campaign — (206) 408-8058 […]

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TV: “Local Economics”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

For many of the topics the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s TV series addresses – such as coping with peak oil and the climate crisis, opposing the global economic system that causes wars and oppresses people in poor countries, and strengthening democracy and human rights – we keep coming back to one solution that pertains to all of these: creating a sustainable and humane local economy so we can meet our needs with fewer resources, without damaging the rest of the world, and while strengthening our local community’s resilience and democracy. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s April 2012 TV program focuses […]

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TV: “A Publicly Owned Electric Utility for Thurston County?”

December 3, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Puget Sound Energy, the capitalist-owned electric and gas utility that serves Thurston County and other parts of Western Washington, was based in Bellevue, Washington until a few years ago when it was sold to a different group of capitalists based in Australia – on the opposite side of the world. In 2012 local people in Thurston County Now the Thurston County Public Utility District – which is owned by the general public of our own local community – were exploring the feasibility of buying out Puget Sound Energy’s business in Thurston County and operating it with local ownership, local management, […]

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TV: “Women Share Experiences, Insights, Wisdom about Peace and Justice Organizing”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

The peace and justice movement has accomplished a lot because of the wise and effective efforts of women throughout the world. Our local community is much better thanks to local women’s skillful and dedicated organizing. The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s July 2012 TV program features several local women to share their experiences, insights and wisdom about organizing for peace and social justice. Right now the world and our nation are facing huge problems related to war and other kinds of violence, economic crises rooted in dysfunctional and anti-human economic systems, many kinds of persistent social injustice, and worsening environmental and […]

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TV: “Nonviolence in the Real World”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

It’s typical to assume that danger requires a “fight or flight” response: Either use violence or run away. When applied to foreign policy this leads us to rely on militarism and war. Domestically we end up with people arming themselves, passing “stand your ground” gun laws, and getting into fights. Movies and much of popular culture (and our foreign policy) rely upon “the Myth of Redemptive Violence,” the notion that prob-lems can be solved only by an ultimate confrontation in which the “good” person uses violence to triumph over the “evil” one. Movies show this as a shootout on a […]

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TV: “Effective Grassroots Organizing”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Throughout our nation’s history, the best things we have accomplished for the public well-being have resulted from organizing grassroots movements. We organized grassroots political pressure to end slavery, achieve women’s right to vote, create environmental consciousness, pass laws to protect our environment, end child labor, and establish worker rights, ad-vance equal rights for gays and lesbians, and so forth. All of these came about because people organized from the grassroots up and built movements that nonviolently forced the people on top to change. If we were more skilled in grassroots organizing, we could accomplish a lot more! The Olympia Fellowship […]

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TV: “Local Government Fairness and Accountability”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

How many people actually pay much attention to local governments’ detailed decisions about zoning, funding streets and sewers, and so forth? Hardly anyone pays attention – except those who have a direct financial stake in those decisions, such as real estate developers and other persons who have direct financial interests in local governments’ decisions. So what happens as a result? The “special interests” are able to exploit local governments to serve their narrow economic profits, while the rest of us never know that we are being ripped off. For example, the local elites that run many local governments and media […]

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TV: “Creating a Sustainable Local Food System”

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Increasingly, people are getting savvier about how to deal with food.  In our local community, more and more people are interested in sustainability, are growing good food locally, and are helping other people grow food.  The Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation’s May 2013 TV program is all about “Creating a Sustainable Local Food System.” Three knowledgeable guests with interesting first-hand experience teach us a lot during this program: • TJ Johnson is a former Olympia City Council member, organizer of the October 2011 Food Summit, and a vigorous participant in the local food movement. The Food Summit attracted so many pre-registrants […]

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3 Ways to Improve Our Outreach

December 2, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

We could make much more progress in working for peace, social justice, environmental issues, and other issues we care about if we were to be more savvy in how we do outreach to the public. To read a practical 5-page resource in Word format at THIS LINK:  3 Ways to Improve Our Outreach To read it in .pdf format at THIS LINK:  3 Ways to Improve Our Outreach.docx

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The power of nonviolent noncooperation

November 25, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

“The underlying fact that we tend to overlook is that while systems do not listen to people very well, they are made up of the very people to whom they do not listen. The existence of a given system depends upon the cooperation of all those who do not benefit from it and all who are hurt by it, as well as upon the smaller number of people who gain status or wealth from it. If those of us who protest the injustice of our system were instead to withdraw our support from the system, then change would begin.” —Shelley […]

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Print these anti-Trump labels. Attach them to envelopes you mail.

November 25, 2017 GlenAnderson 0

Stopping Trump’s abuses will require many nonviolent actions, including small decentralized actions such as sticking anti-Trump labels onto every envelope we mail.  Click the link below, print out this page of 30 labels onto a sheet of 1″ by 2 5/8″ labels, stick one label to the lower left corner of an envelope, and circle it in red ink before you mail it. CLICK THIS LINK: LABELS against Trump’s fascism