(Shared by both Peace Action and Peace Edu­ca­tion Project)

 Finance: The Finance Com­mit­tee is in charge of review­ing the finan­cial state­ments each month and report­ing sum­maries and pos­si­ble areas of con­cern with regards to the bud­get to the Steer­ing Com­mit­tee. The Finance Com­mit­tee is also charged with the man­age­ment of finan­cial assets and devel­op­ing a bud­get for both Peace Action and Peace Edu­ca­tion Project.

Fundrais­ing: The Fundrais­ing Com­mit­tee focuses on orga­niz­ing fundrais­ing events, major donor dri­ves, and research­ing grant oppor­tu­ni­ties for gen­eral oper­a­tions and for spe­cific projects.

Mem­ber­ship: The Mem­ber­ship Com­mit­tee works to increase our mem­ber­ship and retain cur­rent mem­bers. The com­mit­tee also orga­nizes round­table events to engage mem­bers in the cur­rent issues. The mem­ber­ship com­mit­tee meets Mon­day evenings at the Peace Action office to retain mem­bers and recruit new ones.

Per­son­nel: The Per­son­nel Com­mit­tee is ded­i­cated to sup­port­ing the paid staff at Peace Action and being the lia­son with any dis­putes between the staff and the man­ag­ing boards. The com­mit­tee is also respon­si­ble for hir­ing new staff when nec­es­sary. This com­mit­tee oper­ates as needed.

Library Action: [Con­tact: Rick Kissell] The late Frank P. Zei­dler often remarked that his local pub­lic library was his “uni­ver­sity” as he grew up dur­ing the Depres­sion. His read­ing led him to a life of pub­lic ser­vice focused on human need instead of cor­po­rate greed, cul­mi­nat­ing in 12 years as Milwaukee’s third Social­ist mayor (1948–1960). Indeed, many of the gen­er­a­tion of Amer­i­cans who came of age in the 1930s used their local pub­lic libraries to under­stand capitalism’s col­lapse, and to search for alternatives.

The cur­rent eco­nomic cri­sis could well have a sim­i­lar impact – if those search­ing for alter­na­tives are able to find mate­ri­als in their local pub­lic libraries that truly chal­lenge the assump­tions of the sta­tus quo. Many pub­lic libraries, espe­cially in smaller, rural com­mu­ni­ties, have very few mate­ri­als (like Howard Zinn’s mag­nif­i­cent People’s His­tory of the United States) that could really open eyes.

Peace Action — Wis­con­sin has decided to sys­tem­at­i­cally work to change that. While the deci­sion over what goes on the shelves of pub­lic libraries is con­trolled by librar­i­ans, res­i­dents of the pub­lic library’s dis­trict have the right to ask their libraries to pur­chase spe­cific mate­ri­als. Mate­ri­als not often found in smaller towns’ libraries include Michael Moore’s films, books by authors like Amy Good­man, Cor­nel West, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, and Noam Chom­sky, yearly com­pi­la­tions like those pub­lished by Project Cen­sored, or peri­od­i­cals like In These Times, Mother Jones, or The Pro­gres­sive. Image how the life of a high school stu­dent research­ing for a school assign­ment could be changed by com­ing across mate­ri­als that fun­da­men­tally chal­lenge the pre­vail­ing “wisdom.”

Join our efforts to pro­vide pro­gres­sive mate­ri­als in pub­lic libraries.

• Join a new Peace Action Library Action Com­mit­tee to plan and imple­ment a strat­egy. Call us at 414–964-5158
• If you live in a smaller com­mu­nity, con­tact us for ideas or let us know what actions you are tak­ing. info@peaceactionwi.org
• Give your local library a sub­scrip­tion to a mag­a­zine such as The Pro­gres­sive, In These Times, Z Mag­a­zine, or Mother Jones. It can be a hol­i­day present to your community.