AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE HELPS REDEFINE MORAL ISSUES FOR U.S.
VOTERS
For more information, contact: Janis D. Shields, Director Media and Public Relations,(215) 241-7060; AFTER HOURS 302-545-6596
PHILADELPHIA (November 10) - The winds of change that blew through the nation's electorate last Tuesday prove that those calling for an end to poverty wages, the scapegoating of immigrants, and the spiraling human and financial costs of the Iraq war are having a major impact, a Quaker activist group said.
"Our message that poverty is a moral issue was borne out in landslide victories for higher minimum wages in every state where it was on the ballot," noted Mary Ellen McNish, general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker international social justice organization and co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize. "The Service Committee and other progressive faith-based groups are the leading edge of a wave that has redefined moral issues for the nation's voters."
AFSC is one of the founders of the Let Justice Roll Coalition, a growing faith/labor/community coalition of over 80 groups which helped win yesterday's minimum wage victories in Arizona, Colorado, Ohio, Missouri and Montana. Nevada voters also raised their state's minimum wage.
"Tuesday's results are a historic victory for the revival of the powerful community-based work that led to such key moments of change in U.S. history as the civil rights movement and the New Deal," McNish adds.
Similarly, AFSC coordinated one of the nation's most ambitious state referendums calling on President Bush and Congress to end the war immediately and bring the troops home. The referendum appeared on the ballot in all or part of 139 Massachusetts municipalities, passing in all but six communities.
"This was a clear vote of no-confidence for the Bush administration's policies in Iraq," states Peter Lems, AFSC program associate for Iraq. "The American people expect real and substantial change - there will be no honeymoon for new members of Congress or patience for just tweaking the current policy of staying the course."
"Despite disappointing results in certain states, the election offers an opportunity for Congress to break new ground and craft a workable plan that overhauls our broken immigration system," according to Esther Nieves, national director of the AFSC Project Voice immigrant rights initiative.
Project Voice was part of a broad national coalition that mobilized thousands in a series of nationwide protests to call attention to misguided legislative efforts and inadequate U.S. immigration policy.
"Instead of using immigrants as scapegoats for failed U.S. immigration policy, AFSC believes that now is the opportune moment for Congress and the Bush administration to develop real, just solutions that keep families together and remove the impossible hurdles that thwart efforts of undocumented immigrants to become U.S. citizens," Nieves noted. "Future policies should recognize how U.S. supported trade and debt agreements create the type of economic instability that forces migration. We must acknowledge our role in creating the problem and protect the civil and human rights of immigrants and non-immigrants alike as we work to fix it."
"Tuesday's results are just a beginning," McNish concludes. "We all must do our part to keep our elected officials accountable."
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The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.