Calendar Spanning Over 5 Decades Of Peacemaking & Art Announces Its Final Edition

War Resisters League (WRL), a 98-year-old secular pacifist organization in the United States, announced today that their 2012 Peace Calendar, Organize This! A 1955-2011 Retrospective (ISBN: 0-940862-24-7), will be the final volume in a 57-year calendar series. For the first decade of its existence, the WRL peace calendar was the only progressive political calendar available.

This last edition is full-color with a foreword by Noam Chomsky. The pages of Organize This! include the covers of the 56 previous peace calendars which featured the writing and images of a wide range of renowned peacemakers and artists such as Pete Seeger, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, John Sayles, A. Philip Randolph, Ben Shahn, Ed Asner, Ruby Dee, Mary Frank, Dick Gregory, Grace Paley, Vera B. Williams, Ivan Chermayeff, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Coretta Scott King, and Howard Zinn.

"WRL builds awareness of, and organizes against, every facet of militarism, working with civilians, GI resisters, and veterans' groups throughout the United States," Chomsky writes in his foreword. "For the last 57 years, the WRL Peace Calendar has been a vital part of this consciousness-raising and activism."

Liz Roberts, Organize This! editor and WRL Membership and Development Coordinator, said, "The 2012 peace calendar is not just a retrospective of previous WRL calendars. It's a keepsake of a long-running publication focused on anti-militarist organizing and peacemaking efforts for nearly 60 years. WRL's Peace Calendars recorded the times in prose, poetry, lyrics, recipes and art."

"Having begun work on peace calendars 40 years ago, I must say the final volume truly represents what WRL strives to achieve: the removal of all causes of war. The 2012 calendar unites WRL's anti-war message with its long tradition of partnering with social justice movements" said former staff member Wendy Schwartz, who wrote the calendar's afterword.

WRL ends this long tradition with a retrospective that shows the breadth of themes and vibrant artwork of every previous volume. In addition to the 56 pages of color artwork, the calendar's date pages note events vital to the history of the movement for peace and social justice. There is also a directory of peace and justice organizations and publications in the United States, and a list of international contacts. Spiral bound, 144 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, Organize This! A 1955-2011 Retrospective retails for $14.95. It is available directly from the War Resisters League (www.warresisters.org/store) and at better bookstores everywhere.

Declining sales have made the calendar increasingly less effective as a fundraiser, and the digital age has made the paper datebook obsolete for many. Still, ending WRL's long tradition of producing the peace calendar was not an easy decision, in part because of the calendar's popularity as a holiday gift. Thus the organization has pledged to begin offering different items suitable for gift giving in the coming years.