Reverend James Lawson spoke to students and community members at the University of Washington-Tacoma (UWT) on February 27th at an event co-sponsored by UWT’s Black Student Union, the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and the US Graduate School.

As we are bombarded with the various slogans of “Change” thrown around by our presidential candidates, Lawson reminded us that our country has been “weaned and nurtured on the idea that change is made through violence.” He has spent a lifetime trying to inspire an alternative and more peaceful roadmap to change. A close follower of such key historical actions as the Montgomery Bus Boycott from 1955-’57, Lawson suggested that the current peace movement in this country is lacking in the effective strategic non-violent efforts of that time, which affected the economy first and foremost, and gradually brought about broader societal changes.

Experimenting with ideas of passivism as early as 1947, Lawson later built on Gandhi’s teachings in non-violence to develop this 4-step process that people used in the historic Nashville student sit-in movement of 1960 and that became a model for a mass non-violent movement in the South:

1.  FOCUS – This phase includes research and sharing knowledge. Participants map their demands and prioritize their ultimatums. Recruiting people for non-violent struggle is essential, as people become empowered in movement together;

2.  NEGOTIATION – involves getting the word out, letting people know the plan, and strategizing the next step;

3. DIRECT ACTION – includes a disruptive intervention, which stops daily business from occurring. Examples from the 1960s Civil Rights Movement include the Nashville Sit-Ins in 1960 (which were coupled with an economic boycott of the downtown area, putting important pressure on the business community), the Freedom Rides of 1961, the 1965 voting campaign, and the hospital strikes of 1969.  In all these instances there was a sustained campaign moving from simpler to complex to escalated actions, and;

4.  FOLLOW-UP – is required to make sure that agreements will be carried out. Analysis and evaluation is important in order to determine and improve future work.

This week there are many events to remind us of the continuing violence in Iraq. There are multiple groups working to bring people together in a united voice for peace. What would Reverend Lawson say is missing from these efforts?

Professor Michael Honey, who teaches labor and ethnic studies and American history at UW Tacoma and who hosted Reverend Lawson, commented that he thinks Lawson is generally dissatisfied that the peace movement has become so episodic. “He made a comment in one of the other sessions that what we need is sustained, confrontational actions that make it hard for people to continue with business as usual, as if this atrocity in Iraq and Afghanistan was not going on every day.”

In an interview for the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 2000, Lawson remembered this statement from a key figure in his past:

…on April 4, 1967, Martin King said that if we could not create a spiritual or moral revolution in the United States, a revolution of values, a revolution of spirit, a revolution of priorities, which was the theme in the movement of the 1960s, then he said that fifty years from now, we'll be picketing over South Africa, we'll be marching on Central America, and so on. And that is my pitch to the peace movement and the people of good will in the United States. We have been antiwar for fifty years or more. We haven't changed the policy. Now how long are we going to continue to march?

The need that Reverend Lawson expressed at UWT a few weeks ago was for deep thinking. At a time when we have been mistakenly at war for five years with no end in sight, it is difficult to be patient and think deeply. But then stop and think of the shallow and hasty thinking that led us into this war and it doesn’t seem like such an unreasonable request.

Whatever actions you choose to mark this week of remembrance and mourning, bring your best, most strategic, thinking and share it with those around you.