Statement of the Reformation of MPJC as an Anti-War Organization
from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base
Statement of the Reformation of MPJC as an Anti-War Organization
- 1. The current organizational goal of the Macalester Peace and Justice Committee is to stop the wars/occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their intersecting wars/occupations.
- 2. MPJC will suspend group dedication to projects that do not include an anti-war position within their agenda.
- 3. MPJC sees the commitment to stopping the war as one that necessitates developing a critique of systems of oppression. MPJC believes that racism and patriarchy are constituted through the mechanisms of imperialism and militarization, and therefore is committed to being an actively anti-racist, anti-sexist, queer-positive, anti-abelist, and environmentalist organizing space.
- 4. MPJC functions through non-hierarchical, consensus-based decision making.
- 5. As such, MPJC rejects all forms of white male and heteronormative leadership/dominance.
- 6. In practicing anti-racist, anti-sexist, and queer-positive beliefs, MPJC will engage in self-education and self-reflection, embracing a personal-political critique of gender, race, sexuality, class, and all power dynamics within the organization that act to marginalize, erase, or disqualify difference.
- 7. MPJC is committed to employing a diversity of tactics that work toward the common goal of ending the war, and will not allow factionalism to undermine the political efficacy of the organization. Thus MPJC is a decentralized coalitional space, seeking partnership with organizations that identify with these goals. MPJC is interested in defining resistance in complex terms that couple lobbying/policy-work with political art and street theater, permitted demonstration with civil disobedience, and political thought with direct action.
- 8. MPJC has no membership requirements and is an open organization, hoping to expand membership to include all people resisting the war, and is therefore dedicated to the projects of education and outreach toward the absolute expansion of the anti-war movement.
- 9. Meetings are held Tuesday nights at 9pm, 4th floor old main. Meetings are structured as a work space and decision making time---as a place for political work and growth. As such, specialized cultural discourse should take place outside of organizational space and meeting time.
- 10. No emails will be sent out on the listserv unless they directly relate to MPJC business. The email listserv not be a place for event updates or advertising, but will function for organizational purposes ONLY.
