On November 4, President-elect Barack Obama stood in Grant Park and created something new. Shortly after that, on December 12-14 in Chicago, activists, who played no small part in President Obama’s victory, assembled to plot the change that the prophetic, former community organizer said we could believe in.

United for Peace and Justice, a national coalition of peace and social justice groups, called for a fourth national assembly shortly after the historic election to decide how it will exist in a “post-Bush world” (truly the best phrase conceived in the English language). Over 200 delegates were seated, including Buffalo State Students for Peace. Workshops, working groups, amendment hearings, and a plenary session composed the bulk of the conference with ample time to network with delegates from every state in the union (excluding Alaska), as well as non-US activists.

The Unity Statement and the Strategic Framework were the first and most important documents to be amended. The five points of the Unity Statement, the coalition’s guiding document, are:

1. Immediately end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2. Respond to the environmental, social, and economic crises worldwide.

3. Prevention of new wars elsewhere.

4. Challenge the global “war on terror” and US empire-building.

5. Defend and protect civil liberties, rights, and political democracy.

The document was passed by the general assembly based on a modified consensus voting system. The strategic framework was modified via individual and group suggestions emanating from various workshops and discussions and subsequently approved.

It is self-evident that the last eight years of collaboration and efforts against empire have not been in vain. The developments due to our collective influence have brought an end to the age and legacy of Ronald Reagan. This is still a world that is “changed but not changed.” This is not the time for petty political division, or blind dogmatism. Let’s go forward with the knowledge that our movement and humanity itself will make mistakes in progress; but together we will go forward towards a popular, collaborative, cross-cutting, world revolution of peace, solidarity, and human liberty. It is not theory but plain fact that in a world in which a global hegemony built on slaves, exploitation, repression, and horror is led by a physical and philosophical representation of “the other,” we have nothing to lose but our eternal, collective, and individual chains.

Cliff Cawthon
Buffalo State Students for Peace