NORTHAMPTON — After 49 years of campaigning for peace, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) of Western Massachusetts has shut down, citing “major budgetary shortfalls at the AFSC’s national level” in an online letter.
On Sunday, Oct. 29, the AFSC of Western Massachusetts will celebrate its past at the First Churches of Northampton, at 129 Main St., from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
In order to continue its peace activism, those formerly at the AFSC of Western Massachusetts have started a new organization: The Resistance Center for Peace and Justice.
Sunday’s event, in addition to remembering the AFSC of Western Massachusetts’ work, is dedicated to looking forward to an “era of new work,” said Jeff Napolitano, executive director of The Resistance Center and former director of the AFSC of Western Massachusetts, in a statement.
In addition to Napolitano, past program directors Frances Crowe, Maya Winfrey, Jo Comerford, Doug Renick and others will speak at the event.
Crowe, 98, has been involved in peace activism since the end of World War II. The group began in the basement of her home, as she counseled young men being drafted into the Vietnam War. She’s still protesting; she was arrested this year for protesting the Kinder Morgan pipeline extension project in Sandisfield.
Vijay Prashad, historian, writer and professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, will serve as master of ceremonies of the event. Music will be provided by Khalif Neville, the Raging Grannies, Peter Blood and others. Refreshments will be served after the event.
The AFSC of Western Massachusetts, founded in protest of the war in Vietnam in 1968, has opposed U.S. military interventionism, what it sees as militarism at home and different forms of oppression.
The organization conducted educational and social justice programs, including military counter-recruiting at schools, and participated in rallies in its stand against violence and economic disparity.