Sitting at a picnic table in the sunlight outside the Wesley Foundation and drinking tea brewed by time and sun, the remarkably egalitarian Peace Center met Monday, 26 September. Their goal: social justice.
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pcoming Peace Center events, manning a table at even more events in the Kalamazoo community and a national-scale human rights protest in November were several of many topics discussed that afternoon.
The major events of the semester include a writing workshop for survivors of trauma and inviting graphic arts political action group The Beehive Collective to Western in November.
A more recently developed goal for the Peace Center, as expressed on their blog is their “Occupy Everything” imitative. Following in the footsteps of Occupy Wall Street, several other Occupation movements have sprung up, and the Peace Center is keeping track of those dates and organizing carpools.
The idea of social justice even extends to their operational functions. The remarkable feeling of egalitarianism the organization fosters is perhaps largely due to the fact that it doesn’t have a hierarchical structure of management. It has members; and the members are the leaders. Even their committees fly in the face of traditional structure-lacking chairpersons. Instead, they have people “bottom-line” their committees.
Skylar Makowski, who represents the Peace Center at Presidential Summit, admitted that the organization is essentially a group of hippies, adding that the organization focuses on, well, justice. Protesting for justice, bringing guest speakers for justice, et cetera.
By “justice”, Makowski doesn’t mean law, either. The goal of a social justice movement like the Peace Center is to work toward honoring human rights and spreading the notions of equality and solidarity across society. In so doing, they believe, people will be treated more fairly and justly.
He also mentioned that the Peace Center has a library—a very unorganized library. Makowski explained “We had a check out process at one point … but people just take books and bring them back when they’re done.”
The Peace Center has been involved in a lot of social justice activities on campus in recent memory, including the march last April in regard to higher education funding. In just one meeting it can become rather clear that the Peace Center isn’t the type to shy away from any political issue, even if, in the case of the march in April, it earns them the ire of the Western Student Association.
While not quite hippies, the Peace Center has a strong progressive ideological ethic. Makowski joked that their favorite pastime was opposing heartless capitalist machines. But their true goal is far simpler: human decency for all.
Edited by: Samantha Sandler