Grass-Roots Organization Fits Peace Activism Into Busy Lives

You know how it is today: People are very busy. Some want their commitments clearly defined and information digested for them in small, comprehensible bits. Even peace activists with a profound understanding of the issues may not have a lot of time to devote to them.

Lois Barber understands this. This grass-roots organizer on nuclear disarmament issues has started a peace organization tailored to today’s sound-bite life style. In 20/20 Vision, a person can work for peace by spending $20 a year and only 20 minutes a month. In the process, members also develop networking skills and get feedback on progress.

It may sound like McNugget organizing, but in three years, the group, run out of small offices in Amherst and Albany, Calif., has started 30 chapters and is developing a workbook to make further replication easier. In December, Barber received a Giraffe Project award, given to individuals who stick their necks out by “helping people believe in their own ability to create a better world.”

“I realized that there were millions of citizens who wanted to see an end to the arms race but didn’t know what they could do about it,” Barber said, rummaging through files in 20/20’s small but comfortable offices across from the Amherst town green. “They were overwhelmed by the immensity of the problem, by the legislative process. And people are very, very busy.

“We’re offering a service, finding people the most effective action they can do every month to achieve three goals: ending the arms race, reducing the risk of nuclear war and increasing world security.”

For each chapter, a half-dozen or so volunteer researchers spend three to five hours a month calling legislative specialists for leading peace and arms-control organizations, such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Friends’ Committee on National Legislation and the Council for a Livable World.

The researchers each ask two specialists to recommend the most effective action people in their district could take that would require only 20 minutes. “They don’t laugh because they know with ordinary citizens, that’s all you’re going to get,” Barber said. The researchers meet monthly to discuss the recommendations and choose the most effective. Then they send postcards to 20/20 Vision subscribers.

“People get so much mail these days, we just send a postcard,” Barber said. “All it has on it is one subject with brief background, one recommended action, and all the names and addresses a member will need.” Depending on the action, as Barber calls it, subscribers may write to state legislators, the media, private organizations or people in the federal government.

“One group who phones the Physicians for Social Research might hear that the most effective thing would be to write to Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and ask him to vote for the comprehensive test ban,” Barber said. Another group might decide to ask subscribers to write to Rep. Silvio O. Conte (R-Mass.) and “ask him to review his position on funding for the Trident II.”

Her idea had been in operation only six months when Jeremy Sherman, heir to the Midas Muffler fortune, heard about it. Sherman, who lives in Albany, had been active in the efforts to end world hunger.

“I noticed how much material created by our movement was designed to inspire people to have convictions about issues, but how little of the material actually gave citizens concrete ways to translate their convictions into influence on policy-makers,” Sherman said. “I was looking for something that was quick and convenient to do on a regular basis.”

So the two, living on opposite coasts, joined forces to duplicate Barber’s project elsewhere. So far, there are 3,000 subscribers, with two of the groups having 400 each. Sherman says this move has sprung out of the changing political climate in the country; no more is activism effectively expressed in demonstrations.

“We realize if you’re going to make deep changes on a long-term basis, you can’t leave it up to a few individuals,” he said. “The way change works in our democracy is you’ve got to bring all other people in the middle and widen the circle. To do that, you have to ask them to do something that can fit into their already busy lives. We’re trying to set our sights accurately for the long haul.”

While the activism that is impelling him is ‘60s-strong, the parlance is pure ‘80s. “Let’s come up with a task that is maximum effective and commensurate with the amount of energy that people can come up with,” Sherman said. That fits right in with the business viewpoint he brings to the collaboration.

His father, who started Midas Mufflers, “was a very active progressive himself,” Sherman said. “We both had an interest in trying to bring technological franchising to the political arena. Good projects being developed locally could be replicated and used in other parts of the country. Franchising is really the technology of replicating what’s essential in effective programs while allowing them to adapt to local needs.”

Where does the $20 go? Barber is ready with the answer: It pays for the phone calls to the legislative assistants and postcards to the subscribers.

20/20 Vision makes it easy for the district projects: “We give them promotional material ready to roll if they want it and administrative tools, like software for managing their subscription lists. We’re trying to make it so local groups don’t have to spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel. They can put their time into the creative aspects.”

One dollar of the money goes into forming new groups, and 20/20 Vision gets outside funding as well, some of which pays for office overhead.

How does the group measure success? Every six months, each project sends out a newsletter that reports on all the actions taken and their results. Several reports show a subtle pattern of changed votes and modified stances.

“Our responsibility is not to take credit but to make sure that individuals are clearly expressing to their congress-person what they want to happen,” Barber said. “If you have the right facts and can communicate to the right person at the right time and if you do it with a lot of other people who are bringing the same message, it’s an extremely powerful way to influence decision makers.

“Basically we’re making our democracy work the way it’s supposed to.”