The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker-based peace and social justice organization, will engage the audience in a two-hour interactive workshop mixing formal presentations with film and interactive exercises to explore the interconnection of following themes:

- The expansion of militarism throughout the world with particular attention to the role of the US, including the use of excessive military power and funds spent on foreign military “aid” rather than basic human needs of people in the U.S., as well as the nations it occupies;

- The growth of prisons in the U.S. demonstrating the relationship between some key movements and events in the world and the increased reliance on incarceration and the use of control units in the U.S.;

- U.S. immigration enforcement policy and the growing movement for the defense of migrant, immigrant and refugee communities;

- The advancement of the neoliberal agenda, responses from the anti-corporate globalization movements and how it links to migration, privatization of prisons and militarization; and

- Supporting social movements as a vehicle for change.

This workshop focused on the interconnections will draw form AFSC experiences.

AFSC’s work on national campaigns, networks and coalitions to abolish the wars in which the US plays a role, abolish the proliferation of foreign military bases and nuclear weapons, and challenge the way the US military uses youth to augment militaristic tendencies.

To help understand the war at home, this workshop will dispel the persistent rumor that prisons are about “rehabilitation”. Participants will view a DVD: Attica Roots of Resistance that will help to illustrate these points. Participants will leave this session with a better understanding of how the Prison Industrial Complex impacts communities and their struggles for social justice as well as how the PIC serves a broader imperialist agenda.

To explore another angle of the connections, this workshop will provide a framework of current immigration policies and how these constitute a gross violation of human rights. We will demonstrate how immigration enforcement policy forms part of the war, poverty and devastation brought on by U.S. foreign economic and military policy.

To bring in the global economy, this session will engage the audience in a discussion on key moments in the advancement of the neoliberal agenda and responses from the anti-corporate globalization movements. Through a timeline exercise, participants will leave the session with a better understanding of how global economic policies intersect with migration push factors, privatization of everything including prisons, and increased militarization.

It is time for the anti-war, healing justice, immigrant rights, and economic justice movements to work together to stop the wars abroad and at home. Central to the four-hour session will be inspiring examples of resistance and tactics for social change. This workshop will provide a space for cross-thematic movement building.

Language: This workshop will mostly be conducted in English with Spanish translation available (not sure yet if simultaneous or in small clusters) and some take home resources in both languages.

AV Needs: We need a room/tent with a screen or white wall so we can show part of a film (we will bring our own projector).