by Mandy Carter

I first heard about RESIST in 1969, the year that I joined the San Francisco War Resisters League. RESIST wanted to find a way for those of us who were not draftable-women and men over a certain age-to be able to make a personal testament of resistance to the Vietnam War. At that point, it was illegal to "aid and abet" anyone who did not comply with the draft, so the action of signing the "Call to resist illegitimate authority" put signers at risk of five years in prison or a $5,000 fine.

Those who chose to sign the "Call to resist" expressed individual accountability and understood its possible consequences. Others did things like questioned the war tax-who's paying for this war? In these ways, the idea of nonviolent resistance and direct action impacts each of our lives, underscoring the role individuals play in demonstrating opposition.

RESIST was also instrumental as one of the first and main sources of funding for another group called Southerners on New Ground (SONG). SONG wanted to figure out how to do organizing in the South in a way that would connect issues of race, class, culture, gender, and sexual identity. We understood that we had to find the common denominators between people and to find models of organizing that would allow us to do work based around those connections. SONG believed that was an interesting way of doing work, particularly in the South, and if we could find models that work in the South, we could do it elsewhere.

SONG and other grassroots groups continue to organize in North Carolina, many with help from RESIST. The movement community in North Carolina, which incidentally outlasted Jesse Helms, remains determined in our opposition to the war. One out of every five troops deployed to Iraq comes from the state of North Carolina, home of Fort Bragg Army Base, Camp Lejeune Marine Base, and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

I remember sitting in front of my television set when we invaded Iraq the first time in 1991. It was Martin Luther King Day when the first bombs were dropped. I just burst into tears, wondering: If this is how wars are now started, then how do we figure out ways to resist the institution of militarism and war today?

Two things are on my mind as we move forward in our organizing and our movement. First, American society is more global than ever. When we think about all the different movements that exist out there, how do we find the common denominator so we don't feel like we're schizophrenically working on this issue or that issue? How do we quite honestly figure out ways in which people of color and allies have a common agenda, or at least can sit around the same table? Rather than looking at what prevents us from organizing, what would happen if we found out what those common denominators are, or if we identify the common pieces of work that would have us sitting at a similar table?

Here are some thoughts: jobs, housing, health, education. These common underlying concerns might be a good way to start some of the work that has to happen. For example, living wage campaigns that are happening all across the country come out of that. Health care provides another common ground issue that affects us all.

Another example concerns farm labor organizing. The South has a huge agricultural industry. Who is working in those fields? Now it is primarily the Latino community, but prior to a Latino community coming in, it was African Americans. And who would benefit by keeping Latino and African-American workers apart but the agricultural industry?

That is why it was so important that people across race and across immigrant status were able to work together during the boycott against Mt. Olive Pickles that was organized by the Cucumber Farm Labor Organizing Committee (after all, pickles come from cucumbers).
FLOC brought together African Americans, Latinos and the progressive white community to have conversations together and address bad working conditions and low pay. SONG did not hesitate to join the campaign. Why? Because even though we are seen as a gay and lesbian group, our common struggle includes issues of race, class, culture, gender and sexual identity. SONG joined the boycott and five years later, with many groups around the table, we won.

As an out black lesbian, I want to know how our Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) community can find a way to avoid the notion, the pitfall of being about “just us.” There is so much going on in the LGBTQ community right now, from Ellen Degeneres getting her Emmy to WNBA star Cheryl Swoops coming out, things that are culturally incredible. But as movement activists, we need to make sure that we do not get so entrenched in the idea that we're only about our gay rights that we're not thinking about anyone else. Because at some point we start bumping up against the very people we need to be having coalitions with.

I joined the movement in 1966 when the American Friends Service Committee came to my high school. They talked about something that has kept me in the movement: the idea of equality and justice for all. That philosophical underpinning keeps us grounded no matter what issues might be out there. That is why we are here. For our movement, I think we have to ask the question, are we about justice or just us? It's got to be about justice.

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Mandy Carter is a founding member of Southerners On New Ground-a RESIST grantee-and the National Black Justice Coalition. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as part of the "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005.".