Speaking With Many Voices

A meeting of diverse non-profits in Washington, D.C. on March 15-16 helped breathe life into often-frustrated activists pushing to improve the plight of the downtrodden, increase peace, economic and racial justice and champion assorted social justice causes.

But the gathering of progressives-to-moderates, civil rights and faith-based groups doing voter registration, education and mobilization called by the non-profit National Voice was more than a progressive love fest. It was a chance for an often-fractious bunch to consider the broad canvas of social good they paint upon -- and a common concern.

That common concern is a vast one: the state of American democracy. Several hundred people attended the summit for discussions, workshops, speeches and Ben & Jerry's ice cream breaks. National Voice is a 10-month-old group based in Minneapolis that is devoted to assisting non-partisan, non-profit and community groups with civic participation. It will not exist after this election season.

The task for 2004 will be getting more folks engaged in the political process and breaking through cynical messages at a time when people want change and want to be connected, activists and analysts asserted. The participating groups do not endorse candidates, but they clearly envision a world with protections for workers and the environment, a less antagonistic foreign policy, and different federal spending priorities.

Labels, Language and Operational Unity

Putting the organizations assembled in a nice box wasn't easy. Is the NAACP voting arm a civil rights group or progressive group; is the National Council of Churches a faith group, "prophetic" group or progressive group? Regardless of labels, the clear consensus in meeting rooms and lunches was that the needs of ordinary people are going unmet.

"A whole of people who never saw themselves as poor -- working families -- are losing income, losing jobs. Jobs are being shipped everywhere else," said Jim Wallis, executive editor of Sojourners magazine and convener of The Call to Renewal, a faith-based group devoted to poverty eradication.

"All of our faith-based providers are overwhelmed. The soup kitchens and shelters all report tremendous increases in need and decreases in resources," Wallis said.

The meeting was a pretty diverse group but all feel this year is critical, he said.

"For us, it means the religious issues, so-called, in this election are not reduced or narrowed to marriage amendment, Ten Commandments in Alabama courthouses, prayer in schools and abortion laws. Poverty is a religious issue. A just foreign policy is a religious issue. We don't want God and morality hijacked by the religious right," Wallis added. He faults the Democrats for keeping faith out of framing of issues and faults the GOP for largely limiting faith discussions to sexual issues.

Like others, Wallis saw strength in the diversity of the gathering, which ranged from the anti-war group Code Pink and the venerable NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund to the League of Pissed Off Voters, young upstart activists who published the book "How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office."

Adrienne Maree Brown, co-editor of "How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office," left hopeful about "pushing progressive work forward." That means a values system that defines what is progressive independent of any political party, she said. In their book, Brown and co-editor William Wimsatt blast former President Clinton for trade pacts that cost jobs, for kicking women off welfare without promised childcare, and massive incarceration. They also blast Bush and his crew for spending deficits, misplaced security policy and the voting debacle in Florida.

"It's important that we not get caught up in the party game so that we can have objective opinions," Brown said. "We have to be critical of all sides and issues and approaches."