Dear Friends of the LI Alliance,

As we mark the Alliance’s 25th anniversary, we want to thank you for your sustained and strong support of our work together to build a just and peaceful world – a world without war.

The next few years will be tough. The economic recovery for most Americans will be a long time coming – for those who have lost jobs, homes and health insurance. The Obama Administration’s deal, according to economists Krugman and Stiglitz, will cost too much, increase the deficit, cut vital programs, and deliver too little to ordinary people.

And the Afghan war continues unabated with 100,000 US soldiers deployed and at a cost of $120 Billion a year. US military leaders are planning for a US presence in Afghanistan until 2014 and beyond. The Obama Administration’s recent Afghan policy review talks about meeting the July 2010 deadline with modest troop withdrawals, depending on conditions on the ground. 
Most alarming about the review is the administration’s plans to escalate attacks with drones and commandos into Pakistan. Given the tenuous US-Pakistan relationship, this widening of the war opens a new front and poses terrible risks for US soldiers and civilians. The President should not make this decision for another war in Pakistan unilaterally without Congress, without the American people and without debate.

We will need to be more vigilant, visible and vocal in pressing for negotiations to end the Afghan War. The Alliance will need your support for our work to promote peaceful alternatives and to change US foreign policy. Please contribute as much as you can. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar by an generous donor.

In 2010, the Alliance program included: a March 19th press conference with an Interfaith Call for an End to the Afghan War; an April 14th LI Forum on Budget Cuts: Impact on our LI Communities with Jo Commerford, National Priorities Project; a May LI Rally for Nuclear Disarmament and petitions signed by 3,000 for a nuclear abolition treaty; and monthly stopbys at congressional offices. Speakers at Hofstra and at the Shelter Rock Forum were: Chris Hedges; Howard Dean; Ray Acheson; Fr. Roy Bourgeois; Michael Zweig; Kai Bird; and Tom Engelhardt.

There was also good news about staff.  Jennifer Pichardo, Alliance Program Assistant, began in March and has updated our communication capabilities, prepared financial reports and worked with interns. Christina Harris joined the peace team in October and will coordinate a peace education program with outreach to schools and youth groups. Christina has a Masters in Social Justice from Loyola University.

Looking toward 2011, the LI Alliance with Peace Action and our LI partners, will promote a Move the Money Campaign – calling for funding LI needs – jobs, education, healthcare, infrastructure – and for cutting military spending 25%. Meeting needs at home will redefine security as human security.
2011 will mark ten years in Afghanistan and eight years in Iraq. It is time is time to what is right. The Alliance will advocate, demonstrate to end those wars. Our work defined by Martin Luther King, Jr. is to reconstitute America – to end poverty, racism and militarism. Our work in the months ahead is to bring America home.

Thank you for your steadfast support and ongoing involvement in our work together.

Peace,
Margaret Melkonian     Andrea Libresco
Executive Director        President, Board of Directors

L.I. Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives--
Restructuring April 1, 2010

Dear Peacemakers,
Greetings to all.  Through an ongoing process of reflection, the Board of Directors has decided to restructure the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives.  The goal is to meet new budget and technology challenges, as well as to communicate more effectively with present members and new constituencies.  Margaret Melkonian will continue as director. Our new part-time assistant, Jennifer Prichardo, will handle office work and social media.  

Mary Beth Moore, SC is leaving the employ of the Alliance this month and will begin a new job at Centro Corazón de Maria (Heart of Mary Center) in Hampton Bays. The center, run by the Roman Catholic nuns, serves immigrant women and men by partnering with several agencies to provide English classes, prenatal and parenting classes and assistance with legal issues. She will remain on the Board of Directors, and will participate in Alliance activities as time permits.*

Our Board of Directors--sixteen committed activists from the fields of education, social service, law and business--are enthusiastic about this new moment.  We predict that a greater sharing of responsibility will enable the Alliance to remain a self-renewing and sustainable organization.  As we celebrate our twenty-fifth anniversary and move into the future, we are clear-eyed about the work ahead.  Our name “peaceful alternatives” says it all:  a world where dialogue and negotiation replace war, nuclear weapons are abolished and the national budget reflects life-giving priorities—education, housing, health care and jobs. 

Thank you each one for your support of the Long Island Alliance and your commitment to the peaceful alternatives we long for.
Sincerely,
Margaret Melkonian, Director
Mary Beth Moore, SC

* Mary Beth will continue as an organizer for “Disarm Now” petition drive for the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference to be held in May. 

"Every gun that is fired, every warship that is launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold, and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children." --President Dwight D. Eisenhower

LONG ISLAND ALLIANCE FOR PEACEFUL ALTERNATIVES How Do We Create a Culture of Peace? How Do We Move to a World without War? What Kind of America Do We Want? What Are Our Responsibilities as citizens? WHY AN ALLIANCE? Recognizing that, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “We go farther, faster, when we go together,” a number of vital peace and justice organizations joined together in 1985 to form what is now the Long Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives. Having a permanent, professional peacemaking presence on Long Island makes communication and coordination among the Alliance peace and justice member organizations more effective. And, it enables us to reach and sustain many more Long Islanders in efforts to bring about a peaceful and just world. Through outreach, education and media, the Long Island Alliance is a center for information and a catalyst for changing and shaping U.S. policies. COMMUNITY EDUCATION The Alliance has a strong record of public education on peace and national security issues; of sustained collaboration with other constituencies; of media credibility; and of ongoing member involvement. We give voice to the concerns of many Long Islanders. Our work affirms citizen responsibility for our shared public life, calling us to collective action. In a constantly changing world, citizens must be informed and must take responsibility for shaping national policies. The Alliance provides education on peace and national security issues, including: Alternatives to War and Promoting Peace Ending the War in Iraq and Preventing Future Wars The Military Budget and its Effect on Local Communities in Nassau and Suffolk America’s Role in the World: Redefining National Security Preventing the Proliferation of Nuclear and Conventional Weapons The Economic Costs of War A Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and The Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Nonviolence and Resistance: The Legacies of Gandhi and King U.S. Foreign Policy and Unilateral Use of Force SPEAKER'S BUREAU Our Speakers’ Bureau is comprised of highly qualified individuals ready to speak on the critical issues facing America today. Our library of videos and DVDs provide the basis for many programs. We have created a network of academic, religious, community, labor, business, and social justice organizations in a serious and ongoing dialogue about the issues that are of concern to us. Our website, newsletter, and action alerts keep our individual members and organizations informed. Through our outreach program, media work, and public forums we have helped to educate the public and our elected officials. Over the years we have brought to Long Island such prominent speakers as Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, Cindy Sheehan, James Carroll. Amy Goodman, Jonathan Schell, Richard Falk and many others. Monthly programs with speakers take place at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset. In addition, we co-sponsor spring and fall lecture series on U.S. foreign policy at Hofstra University. clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers,

MISSION STATEMENT top

• To educate and to activate Long Islanders to bring about disarmament and the abolition of nuclear weapons.
• To attain major reductions in military expenditures. both nuclear and conventional: to reallocate resources toward education, jobs. housing, health care, the environment, the infrastructure, and other human needs, and to reorder national priorities.
• To seek major reductions in the production of arms for export as well as the end of arms sales to nondemocratic countries.
• To alert the public to the dangers of nuclear weapons production and development at Department of Energy plants, environmental contamination and public health risks, and the problem of radioactive waste storage and disposal.
• To work to strengthen international cooperation, conflict resolution, and peacekeeping, so as to avoid military interventions.
• To work cooperatively with young people. particularly students in our local colleges and high schools, in peace and social justice activities.
• To seek social and economic justice for all by working with other organizations whose missions are to eliminate poverty, racism. and other forms of discrimiration, whether based on culture, class. gender, religion, or sexual orientation, and to protect civil and human rights.

FOREIGN POLICY (top)

PROMOTING DIALOGUE AND ACTION FOR AN ALTERNATiVE FOREIGN POLICY
Goal: Bring about change in US foreign policy based on multilateral actions - a foreign policy that adheres to international law, promotes human rights and democratic process. Build coalition and larger constituency to influence LI representatives and NY senators.

Funding is required to increase our efforts, expand coalition, increase visibility and engage more Long Islanders in having impact in supporting changes in US foreign policy and stopping the expansion of the war on terrorism. This is a critical moment and we need more staff - more capacity.

1. Sustain coalition - expand 9/11 steering committee/working group to include other partners engaged in stopping war and in addressing issues of globalization, poverty and foreign aid. Set up meeting to develop long Island strategy for education and action. Coordinate LI efforts and provide effective communication among organizations.

2. Intensify outreach - to religious community, Islamic Center, LI Council of Churches, UPSERJ groups, Green Party and other peace groups (particularly in Suffolk).

3. Organize educational programs that put faces on communities most effected by US war on terrorism and on foreign policies - Arab Americans, Muslim and Sikh communities on LI, 9/11 families for peaceful tomorrows, immigrants, Colombians, Jewish-Palestiän groups working for Peace in Middle East, Iraqi civilians. Educate Long Islanders about alternatives to military force and provide space for dialogue about questions and concerns many have about where war on terrorism is taking US and the world.

4. Mobilize Alliance and coalition members in effective campaign to influence LI reps and NY senators - calls, letters, weekly vigils, meetings with reps, etc.

5. Develop sustained media effort about this program on foreign policy alternatives.

6. Organize visible and coordinated LI actions - starting in June that demonstrate calls for
a stop to the bombing, no expansion of war on terrorism and a foreign policy that is on
the side of people, human rights and international law.

7. Reengage citizens in political practice at a time when cynicism and despair lead many to think change is not possible. April 20 was a motivator and inspired many to increased action. Let's build on this. Hope against experience.

MILITARY BUDGET top

The military budget is the primary focus of our work and the comm on thread linking our diverse member organizations. The Alliance is unique in that we are the only organization on Long Island that is informing the public' about the negative effects the U.S military budget has on both our national and local economy. We have putblished three major research papers pertaining to long Island and the military budget:

• Long Island Defense Cutbacks: Outlooks and Options (1989)
• Reinvest in Long Island (1993)
• Long Island's Sustainability Industries (1995)