Three speakers sum up 50 years of PJALS history for anniversary

 

At the 50th anniversary lunch of the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane, three who have been leaders over its history spoke: Ken Isserlis, a founder, Rusty Nelson, a co-director for about 20 years, and Liz Moore, the current executive director. The following are excerpts.

In 1975, Father Frank Costello of Gonzaga University and others decided to start the Spokane Peace and Justice Center as an experiment and an act of faith.

It was an experiment, because no one knew if it was the right time or place. It was an act of faith—not necessarily religious faith—in the founders' absolute belief it would work.

They gave us the keys to a building and a small budget. Then they supported and encouraged us.

Although we didn't really know what we were doing, Joe Albert, Kathleen Smith and I, later joined by Mac Hatcher, worked on world hunger, militarism, the death penalty and nonviolence.

Mac wrote a report on the Spokane power structure. We supported Yvonne Wanrow, a local Native American woman, whose appeal in her criminal case resulted in a landmark decision changing the law of self-defense.

This was the right thing at the right time in the right place, because people responded. They came to our events, signed up for our newsletter, joined our steering committee, donated and invited us to speak to schools, churches and community groups.

Local news media was also good to us. The Spokesman Review's Sunday magazine did a cover story about the Spokane Peace and Justice Center.

The best thing about our time at the center isn't what we did, but what we started. From that befuddled, clumsy seed has grown today's now mighty Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane, the embodiment of good trouble, with its strong, smart and properly loud voice.

In these awful times, when decency is considered weakness and cruelty is considered strength, that voice is more important than ever.

Fifty years in the making, PJALS has now shown it's ready to meet this moment. Here's to the next 50 years.

Ken Isserlis
One of the founders

***

Then and now, resistance is vital. Resistance to static, violent public attitudes brought forth PJALS 50 years ago. Resilience brings us to a moment to reflect and renew the nonviolent struggle for peace and justice.

A violent attitude 40 years ago was that the U.S. would dominate the world with the threat of nuclear annihilation. Four PJALS people resisted, blocking the white train bearing nuclear weapons components: Spokane's first civil resistance action since the Wobblies. It was the beginning of Nancy Nelson's "criminal" career.

Against the grain, we took on South African Apartheid and Spokane's role propping up that evil. With the grain, we defended minority rights at home and challenged the space that let so many people fall through the cracks. We protested military operations and spending, exposing our community to the possibilities of peace. We built on the work of the Central America Solidarity Association to oppose deadly U.S. policies in Latin America.

Sometimes resistance is noticed. When our Howard St. office was vandalized over our stand for LGBTQ rights, media reports brought new members, donations and solidarity. After our first execution vigil in Walla Walla, we showed up in print and broadcasts from North Carolina to Alaska.

Sometimes it's silent. In 1992, Nancy defied the expectations of everyone who'd tried to organize area Indigenous nations and interfaith leaders by producing a colorful, meaningful counter-quincentennial event. The next day, the Spokesman carried one photo of a smaller observance in Denver.

At times, making news carried too much weight with us. It was more important to empower our community and bring joy to street theater, trainings, peacekeeping and truth-telling.

Success could mean meeting with former Rep. Tom Foley, more people coming to our weekly Fairchild vigil or more Gonzaga students in nonviolence classes preparing to protest the School of Americas and Fort Benning. Some folks say we never won. Others thank us for showing up, or note Spokane was once a hopeless case for LGBTQ liberation or family wages.

Gratuitous resistance, like war, is of no use in the cause of justice. Just and kind resistance requires creative nonviolent action. Talk of the past must list failures and missed opportunities, along with inspiration and lessons learned. The present and future demand our attention and action, like the Oct. 18 No Kings rallies. Keep up the good work. 

Rusty Nelson
PJALS staff 1988 to 2009

***

I found PJALS as a high school student in Deer Park when we were going to war against Iraq in 1990. I felt the question of war deserved critical thinking. In my high school, students treated the war like a football game. I looked up "peace" in the phone book. Rusty Nelson answered and invited me to the youth group. I drove through farmland to cosmopolitan Spokane. The youth group was like an oasis where my questions were respected.

Who planted the seed that led me to look up peace in the phone book? My Spanish teacher, Teresa O'Halloran, a PJALS member. One day she put her hand in chalk dust and put a white handprint on the blackboard. She told us small town kids this was called La Mano Blanca. In El Salvador if it is on your door, it meant a death squad will come in five days. She said the U.S. funded and trained the death squads. She changed my life.

People came together in PJALS then for the same reason we do now, but progressive organizing in Spokane has changed. The reason then and now is the warmth of community, the relief of participation, the urgency of now, the satisfaction of collective action.

When I was an intern in the 1990s, PJALS gave office space to the Hands-Off Washington organizer, a gay man in a community with little friendly space.

My first union picket line was as a PJALS intern, when we supported Kaiser Aluminum workers.

I gathered signatures when coordinating volunteers on the minimum wage initiative. No one would engage with us, so we dressed as clowns to connect.

I love and admire the people who started and sustained this organization, peacekeepers who show up so we keep each other safe; the people who participated in race-class analysis workshops followed by canvassing.

We are in a time of immense crisis and immense potential as we face this fascist power grab. It's an important time to learn from movements in our history and around the world, because wannabe dictators behave in predictable ways:

They stoke fear and chaos to keep us off-balance, make threats to get people to obey in advance and weaponize fear of subgroups to keep us divided.

In 35 countries where democratic structures slid toward authoritarianism from 1991 to 2021, researchers found that with no civil resistance movement, 7.5 percent stopped backsliding, but with civil resistance, 51.7 percent stopped the authoritarian slide.

There are no guarantees, but we are each other's best bet using a diverse repertoire of nonviolent tactics: protest, building alternatives, creative noncooperation, small and large individual and collective ways.

Liz Moore - executive director for 16 years