Welcome to the Peace Task Force!

An outreach group under All Souls

    The Unitarian Church of All Souls • 1157 Lexington Avenue • New York, NY 10021                                                                                                   email: peacetaskforcenyc@yahoo.com

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Adeeb Fadil and Yehuda Erlichman in Dialogue


Below you will find links to the latest letter from the Chair and current articles.

To read older articles that have been archived, please visit the Archives section of our site.

To submit an article, story or essay via email, please click here.

 

Ted Glick: The Clean Energy Revolution

All Souls Church Reidy Friendship Hall 
Tuesday, March 4  7:00 p.m.

Ted Glick, who has been a progressive social activist since the late 1960s, became a climate activist in the summer of 2003 after the extreme heat wave in Western Europe aroused him to the ongoing danger of such extreme climate events (droughts, monsoons, etc.) to the earth and our way of life. He is a co-founder of the Climate Crisis Coalition and a coordinator for the U.S. Climate Emergency Council; his twice-monthly column, "Future Hope" is available at: http://www.ippn.org. His talk was sponsored by the All Souls Peace Task Force, and he was introduced by Lawrene Groobart.

To read the article, click here.

Monthly Film Series Event:  "God Grew Tired of Us" (2007)

Sunday, February 24, 1:00 p.m.

Review by Phoebe Hoss

The documentary God Grew Tired of Us was presented by the All Souls Peace Task Force. This film, made by Christopher Quinn and Tommy Walker and narrated by Nicole Kidman, won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. It recounts the moving story of three of the Lost Boys of Sudan who came to the United States, and is based on the book of that name written by one of the Lost Boys, John Bul Dau, with Michael S. Sweeney.

To read the article, click here.

The Human Face of Iran

January 27, 2008
Review by Phoebe Hoss

At 1:00 p.m., in Reidy Friendship Hall, the Peace Task Force hosted a slide show in continuation of the effort to enhance our understanding of Iran and its culture.  This event was presented by Ann and Ahmad Shirazi, who had appeared two weeks before in connection with the film Children of Heaven, and Ellie Ommani.  Mr. Shirazi is a film editor who grew up in Iran.  He came to the United States in the early 1960s and is the only one of his family of 150 to 200 members to come here.  Ann Shirazi has worked as a social worker and is now a full-time peace activist.  Ms Ommani and her husband, Ardeshir, who was unable to attend, are both retired school teachers and founded the American-Iranian Friendship Committee, whose mission is to promote "trust, mutual understanding, and peace between Americans, on one hand, and Iranians living in Iran and abroad, on the other."

To read the article, click here.



Human Trafficing Talk by Beatrice Fernando

November 11, 2007
Review by Phoebe Hoss

Human trafficking is the crime of coercing people, via physical force or false promises of jobs or marriage, to work as slaves – either at labor or for sexual purposes – within a country or across international borders. Today human trafficking enslaves some 27 million people around the world; moreover, by depriving them of their human rights, it may subject them to rape, injury, even death.

To read the article, click here.


Ann Wright Talks About Her Forthcoming Book

"Dissent: Voices of Conscience"

October 23, 2007
Review by Phoebe Hoss

"Peace cannot be made through occupation." This is the forthright statement Ann Wright reported making recently to Ryan Crocker, our present ambassador to Iraq.

Ms Wright -- a distinguished career diplomat and retired colonel in the U.S. army --  resigned from the U.S. Foreign Service on March 19, 2003, in protest over the Bush administration's policies at home and abroad. Her second appearance at All Souls on the evening of October 23 was sponsored by our Peace Task Force, Resistance Cinema, and Action of Justice of Community Church of New York.

To read the article, click here.


The Oaxaca Political Crisis And The Roots Of Migration

October 16, 2007
Review by Phoebe Hoss

On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, in All Souls Reidy Hall, Miguel Ángel Vásquez de la Rosa spoke on how NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, has further impoverished the people of Mexico and, thereby, increased migration to the United States.  This program was sponsored by the Peace Task Force and Witness for Peace.  Mr. Vásquez de la Rosa is one of the founders of EDUCA (from the Spanish initials for Services for an Alternative Education), a nongovernmental organization that advocates for indigenous peoples in the state of Oaxaca, helping small farmers and women to have fair elections and cope with the judicial system.  He was introduced by Ben Beachy, regional organizer for the mid-Atlantic region of Educa, which was sponsoring Mr. Vásquez de la Rosa's tour.

To read the article, click here.


Fair Trade And The Film "Black Gold"

September 30, 2007
Review by Phoebe Hoss

Fair trade is a movement that seeks to diminish the vast disparity between the huge profits that multinational corporations make from certain common products, on which we all depend in our daily lives, and the meager – often not enough to live on – income the actual producers of those products receive for their labor. This issue was dramatized in respect to coffee by the film Black Gold, which was shown at All Souls Church on Sunday, September 30, 2007, at 1:00 p.m. The film was introduced by Scott Codey from the New York Fair Trade Organization.

To read the article, click here.


The Threat of Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space

Bruce Gagnon at All Souls

August 5, 2007
Review by Phoebe Hoss

On August 5, 2007, at 1:00 p.m., Bruce Gagnon spoke at All Souls about "The Threat of Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space." Mr. Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and author of Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire. In 2003, he was appointed by Dr. Helen Caldicott as a senior fellow of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, where he also serves on the advisory board. This event – held in remembrance of the August 6, 1945, bombing of Hiroshima, the world's first nuclear attack – was sponsored by All Souls Adult Education, the Peace Task Force, and the Nuclear Disarmament Task Force. 

To read the article, click here.