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jesse jackson
In Remembrance of James Lawson, a Force for Good and Champion of Peace
We at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, where he worked for many years, are blessed to have counted the civil rights leader among our core team of organizers. It is with reverence that we remember his life and time with us.
Jun 16, 2024
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.” To Rep. John Lewis, he was “the architect of the nonviolence movement.” Jesse Jackson simply called him “the Teacher.” We at the Fellowship of Reconciliation are blessed to have counted him among our core team of organizers. It is with reverence that we remember his life and time with us.
Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr., who died Sunday at age 95, was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to Massillon, Ohio, shortly after. As part of a deeply Christian family, James began regularly reading the bible and developed a prophetic and liberatory interpretation of the gospels at an early age. In a 2014 interview published by Fellowship magazine, Lawson told Diane Lefer, “By the end of my high school years, I came to recognize that that whole business – walk the second mile, turn the other cheek, pray for the enemy, see the enemy as a fellow human being – was a resistance movement. It was not an acquiescent affair or a passive affair. I saw it as a place where my own life grew in strength inwardly, and where I had actually seen people changed because I responded with the other cheek. I went the second mile with them.”
While attending Baldwin-Wallace College, Lawson met A.J. Muste, the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s executive secretary, a renowned pacifist and nonviolent direct action strategist. Deeply inspired, Lawson immediately joined the FOR. Graduating college in 1950, as the Cold War grew, Lawson determined that he would refuse the military draft. Instead of Korea, he was sent to prison, where he served 13 months.
In 1953, Lawson accepted an offer from Hislop College in Nagpur, India, to teach and coach athletics, giving him the opportunity to, like FOR members Howard Thurman and Bayard Rustin had done before him, explore the connections between the Indian self-determination movement and the African-American freedom struggle. Lawson spent the next three years on the subcontinent studying Gandhi’s life and the Satyagraha movement. “I combined the methodological analysis of Gandhi with the teachings of Jesus, who concludes that there are no human beings that you can exclude from the grace of God,” Lawson described to Lefer.
Lawson was completing a graduate degree at the Oberlin School of Theology when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., while visiting the campus, recruited him. King insisted to Lawson that his expertise was needed, not eventually, but immediately! “I mentioned to [King] that while in college I had long wanted to work in the South – especially because of segregation – as a place of work, and that I wanted to do that still,” Lawson told Fellowship magazine editor Richard Deats in 1999. “His response was: ‘Come now! Don’t wait! Don’t put it off too long. We need you NOW!”
When Lawson told A.J. Muste of his decision to move South, Muste quickly offered him a position as FOR’s Southern Field Secretary. Basing himself initially in Nashville, Lawson began working throughout the South, initially with FOR and then the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He focused especially on recruiting and training a generation of nonviolent direct-action activists. Those young people then launched the sit-ins and Freedom Rides and founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
In 1965, while representing SCLC on an International FOR delegation to Vietnam, Lawson met Thich Nhat Hanh. This encounter significantly affected Lawson, inspiring him to facilitate a meeting between the Buddhist monk and Dr. King, and ultimately led to King’s dramatic public stance against the U.S. war in Vietnam. Lawson’s profound assessment of U.S. militarism and what he called “plantation capitalism” shaped not only the interweaving of the 1960s civil rights and anti-war struggles but ultimately how our intersectional social movements are shaped today.
In 1974, in Los Angeles, Lawson continued his solidarity with impoverished low-wage workers. He founded Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice to enlist faith communities in this struggle and pushed direct action campaigns for which he was arrested “more [times] than [during] all his work in the South.”
Lawson spent his last decades both working within peace circles while offering critiques that their movements devoted too much of their focus outside U.S. borders. He believed that true change could only come from within. “Only by engaging in domestic issues and molding a domestic coalition for justice can we confront the militarization of our land,” he argued to Lefer in 2014. “We must confront that here – not over there.”
Whether prophetically interpreting the scriptures, challenging America’s original sin with the fierce power of nonviolent direct action, or strategically connecting with other monumental peace leaders, Lawson’s commitment to social justice was relentless and unwavering. We at the Fellowship of Reconciliation are blessed to have worked with and been mentored by him. As we continue to confront the injustices of our times, we know that Lawson’s spirit is walking beside us.
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Bernie Sanders Backs US House Hopefuls Jonathan Jackson and Delia Ramirez
"Chicago now has the opportunity to send two great, progressive fighters to Washington," said the senator.
Jun 18, 2022
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders rallied with Jonathan Jackson and Delia Ramirez, a pair of progressive congressional candidates, in Chicago on Saturday.
"We desperately need more leaders in the Congress who understand the need to stand up and fight against the corporate greed that is running rampant in this country."
"We desperately need more leaders in the Congress who understand the need to stand up and fight against the corporate greed that is running rampant in this country," said Sanders (I-Vt.), arguing that Jackson and Ramirez "are those leaders."
"I was proud to have Jonathan Jackson as my state co-chair in 2020 and I'm proud to endorse Jonathan Jackson for Illinois' 1st Congressional District," the two-time presidential candidate previously said in a statement. "He has long been a fighter for working people and he will be a champion for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal in the Congress."
Jackson--the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson--is among several Democrats running in a district that has been represented for decades by retiring Democratic Congressman Bobby Rush.
In Sanders' endorsement of Ramirez, a Democratic candidate for the state's 3rd Congressional District, he highlighted her work in the Illinois House of Representatives.
"Ramirez has been a champion of working families in Illinois," he said. "As a state legislator, she has expanded Medicaid for all seniors regardless of legal status, has secured millions of dollars for affordable housing, and defended reproductive rights by codifying Roe v. Wade in Illinois."
\u201cThank you to @BernieSanders and the hundreds of supporters who showed up for our movement. Onwards towards victory!\u201d— Delia Ramirez (@Delia Ramirez) 1655582570
As the Chicago Tribunereported Saturday:
Sanders told the crowd that Ramirez and Jackson both understand what is "profoundly wrong" in the nation and what needs to be addressed, such as affordable healthcare, a "livable wage more than 15 bucks an hour," tuition-free higher education, and working to ensure oil companies aren't allowed to absorb massive profits while motorists are forced to pay $5 to $6 per gallon for gas.
He said inflation, climate change, the war in Ukraine, and more have all created a "pivotal moment in American history."
"Now is the time to take on all those demagogues out there who are trying to divide working [families] based on the color of our skin or where we were born or our sexual orientation," he said. "Now is the time to stand together."
"Chicago now has the opportunity to send two great, progressive fighters to Washington in Delia and in Jonathan," Sanders said. "Let's make sure that happens."
\u201cPeeps are sending me great pics of today's northwest side progressive rally with @BernieSanders and @ChuyForCongress.\n\nLook at this incredible YUGE multi-racial coalition of compassionate and able leaders coming together to put working families first. @AnthonyJQuezada\u201d— Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa \u2736 (@Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa \u2736) 1655570256
The newspaper noted that Democratic Congressman Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, who represents Illinois' 4th District, has also endorsed both candidates and spoke at the rally on Saturday.
"As we build our muscle and our power in Congress, that's how we redefine who will run this country," he said. "It won't be the billionaires. It won't be the corporations. It will be the working people and young people and students and our future intellectuals. That's who will run this country."
Early voting is already underway in Illinois for the primary on June 28.
The rally capped off Sanders' short tour of the Midwest, which included a rally against corproate greed along with a speech at a labor conference in Illinois as well as meeting with striking union workers in Racine, Wisconsin, and Burlington, Iowa.
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Macron's Win Is the First Step, Now the Real Work Begins
The French, like Americans, have rallied to a centrist candidate to reject the politics of hate and division. But that center will only succeed if fundamental reforms are passed to give working people hope.
Apr 27, 2022
Vive la France. In Europe and the U.S., Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French presidential elections elicited a huge sigh of relief. His victory margin, a 17-point defeat of the right-wing challenger Marine Le Pen, surprised most observers.
The parallels with the U.S. political situation are striking. In both countries, the economy no longer works for working people.
The stakes were significant. Le Pen--a right-wing, divisive figure, a sort of French version of Donald Trump--tried hard to soften her image in the campaign. She abandoned her previous pledge to take France out of the European Union. But she directed the anger of working class voters toward immigrants and Muslims. A Putin admirer like Trump, she favored a closer relationship to Russia, pulling France from NATO, and would have weakened the coalition opposing Russia's invasion in Ukraine.
Recognizing the stakes, President Joe Biden congratulated Macron on his victory, tweeting that there would be "continued close cooperation, including on supporting Ukraine, defending democracy, and countering climate change."
Contributing to Macron's victory was his relative success in handling COVID-19 and accelerating economic and jobs growth. His basic decency contrasted sharply with his opponent. He was aided by voters to his left who, as the paper Liberation wrote, demonstrated their "political maturity," and voted against Le Pen, despite "sometimes holding their noses." Polls suggested that over 40% of Macron's vote came from those voting to block the threat posed by Le Pen.
Despite the victory, the danger signs are apparent. Over a fourth of voters abstained, an abnormally high percentage for France. Le Pen apparently won a majority of working class voters who have suffered greatly from de-industrialization and declining prospects in an economy of greater and greater inequality.
The parallels with the U.S. political situation are striking. In both countries, the economy no longer works for working people. In both, inequality has soared, while good jobs have been shipped abroad. In both, demagogic politicians peddle an ugly right-wing fake populism. Centrist leaders like Macron and Biden offer decency and defend democracy, but in the end, democracy will thrive only if it serves the welfare of the vast majority.
As in the U.S., labor unions and progressive groups in France are pushing Macron to address France's divide, urging him to focus on making the economy work for working people. Macron's people, like Biden's, say they got the message. Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, was quoted as saying, "We can't forget the message they sent. We need to change our way of governing."
Macron is promising what is called a "purchasing power package," to increase pensions, raise social subsidies for families struggling with inflation and offer incentives to companies to lift wages. Whether he can move forward on this will depend on the results of the parliamentary elections in June.
Internationally, Macron's victory will consolidate the alliance that is opposing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But here too, real challenges remain. Efforts to stop the war must intensify as casualties mount. And popular support will surely flag unless the economic dislocations--particularly the rising prices of fuel and food--are handled successfully.
A centerpiece of Macron's agenda is concern about climate change. Ukraine has pushed that existential threat off the front pages, even as scientists have issued new warnings and calls for action. Hopefully, as Biden suggests, Macron can join in helping to launch a new push on this real security threat.
The French, like Americans, have rallied to a centrist candidate to reject the politics of hate and division. But that center will only succeed if fundamental reforms are passed to give working people hope. Either there will be real reforms to redress growing inequality or the threat to democracy posed by those peddling hate and division will grow. The French in this election, like Americans in 2020, chose hope over hate. Now Macron and Biden must produce. Winning the election is but the first step. Now the real work begins.
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