ABOUT JSA/ JSA AWARDS

JSA AWARDS:
Chomsky Award - Social Activist Award

The issue of giving awards to individuals or groups by JSA was debated for some time by its members. As an association dedicated to helping to erase distinctions that are disabling to living beings, we saw an irony or contradiction in presenting an award which by definition creates a distinction. Nevertheless, we wished to recognize those who were and continue to be a source of inspiration to us, to thank them for blazing trails where we wish to go. And so we made the decision to acknowledge those who inspire us through two annual awards. We see these awards as a public act of gratitude. One of these awards is in honor of Noam Chomsky and the other is designed to recognize someone who has dedicated her or his life to the service of others through social activism.

And while plaques and paper weights can serve as wonder symbols of recognition, the members of JSA decided that those who receive the association’s awards will receive a hand-potted salad bowl with a notation about the award scratched in on the bottom. The bowl becomes a reservoir where the friends we recognize can share food and hospitality with each other convivially.

THE NOAM CHOMSKY AWARD

In 2001 the membership of JSA made a decision to give an award at the association's annual conference. This award is called The Noam Chomsky Award in honor of Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Members felt that the work which Noam has done for the past half century reflects to a large degree the kinds of human rights and human well-being issues that Justice Studies Association is concerned about. To those who know Noam Chomsky, it will come as no surprise to hear that he did not feel very comfortable with the idea of an award named after him. His modesty pointed to others who might be more "worthy" but he, nevertheless, acceded to the association's wish to have an award named after him.

The Chomsky Award recognizes a person (or in some instances a group) who exhibits three qualities which have characterized Noam Chomsky's life and work. The person should be a source of inspiration to others through her or his commitment to scholarly and intellectual activities related to justice; the person should be personally active in the promotion of peace and justice; and the person should live a life of relative simplicity. However, the recipients of the Chomsky Award might meet each of these criteria to varying degrees.

JSA SOCIAL ACTIVIST AWARD

In 2003, the members of the association decided to add the presentation of a second award to its annual conference schedule called the JSA Social Activist Award. This award recognizes the inspiring efforts of an activist who lives in the city (or its environs) where the annual conference is being held.

The activist might be a person, group, or organization and is selected because she, he, or it has served as a source of inspiration to JSA members through her, his, or its continuing work for justice. The recipients, therefore, not only reflect the values of JSA but also have made a significant contribution to the well-being of their home community.

The annual award is presented to the recipient(s) at the culmination of the Friday morning session of the conference at which are gathered various activists from the host city/town in the JSA Activists Café.

Recipients of Social Activists Award and Site of Conference

2006—Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow (Emma’s Revolution)—University of California, Berkeley

2005 — Hattie “Mamma Hattie” Harris (Vine-Albany Task Force) and Chris Ducot—University of Hartford

2004—Esther Heffernan (Edgewood College)—Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin

2003—Pat Beetle (Upper Hudson Peace Action), Donna DeMaria (Homeless Action Committee), and Alice Green (Center for Law and Justice)—Best Western Inn, Albany, New York

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Pat Humphries & Sandy Opatow receive JSA Social    Activist Award

Pat and Sandy stand tall among the most renowned songsters of peace and justice in North America, indeed around the globe. They travel the world inspiring action to social justice at the most basic levels of community. fRoots Magazine has described them as "An acoustic, insightful delight in the tradition of Seeger and Guthrie."

The song “If I Give Your Name,” by Sandy and Pat was a Grand Prize Winner (one of 24,000 entries) in the Folk Category of the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Contest (http://www.jlsc.com). The song sheds light on the silent suffering of family members of undocumented workers lost on 9/11 in the World Trade Center. They sing as well about human rights, the environment, the well-being of women, and the needs of a global community.

For more information on their numerous accolades, catalog of CD’s, and bookings look at www.emmasrevolution.com/ they are magicians of the spirit without ever turning a slight of hand or word.

2007 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENT
Marv Davidov, dedicated to non-violence, equality
and social justice . . .

Marv Davidov has spent his life dedicated to non-violence, equality and social justice. Born and raised in a working-class Detroit neighborhood, in 1955 Marv was kicked out of the U.S. Army for performing acts of resistance while fulfilling his enlistment obligation. In 1961 he joined the Freedom Rider Movement and traveled to Mississippi to register Southern blacks to vote. Being a white Jewish male, he deliberately violated a "Jim Crow" law by sitting in a "colored only" section of a Mississippi Greyhound Bus Station. For this “crime” he served 45 days in a Mississippi State Prison. In 1963, he became a member of the Canada-to-Cuba Peace Walk, and in 1966 became a draft resistance organizer in opposition to the war in Vietnam.

Marv Davidov is perhaps best known as the founder of the Honeywell Project - a nationally known peace organization considered the oldest project in the U.S. confronting war profiteering through civil disobedience. Since the project's founding in 1966, thousands of citizens have participated in peaceful demonstrations against the military industrial complex. Moreover, the Honeywell Project has served as a model for other grassroots organizations tackling corporate investment in war.

At 74 years young, Marv teaches nonviolence at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota while continuing his activism. In October 2006, he hosted a “Stopping the Merchants of Death” international conference sponsored and organized by the U.S. chapter of the War Resisters League where activists from around the world gathered to begin strategizing against corporations profiting from war. The conference concluded on October 2 - Gandhi’s birthday – with 74 activists getting arrested for nonviolent civil disobedience at Alliant Techsystems which manufactures depleted uranium and cluster bombs. Just weeks later, he once again attended the day of national resistance at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, GA.

Marv has 53 years of activism under his belt and has been arrested some 51 times for nonviolent civil disobedience, for which he’s served a total of six months in jail. Phil Berrigan has called Marv “a firm advocate for non-violent civil disobedience." Marv’s friend Noam Chomsky has said, "I've known Marv for many years. He has committed himself with a kind of dedication that has rarely been matched to reversing the drift toward global destruction, and his work has been extremely effective." Given this, it’s fitting that the Justice Studies Association awards its 2007 Noam Chomsky Award to Marv Davidov.

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2006 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENT
Advocate for social justice Medea Benjamin . . .

A co-founder of the international human rights organization Global Exchange and the high-profile women’s peace group CODEPINK, Medea Benjamin has been a tireless advocate for social justice for more than 20 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed—and most effective—fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, and called “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement” by the Los Angeles Times, in June of 2005 Benjamin was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Since September 11, 2001, Benjamin has been working non-stop to promote a U.S. foreign policy that would respect human rights and gain us allies instead of contributing to violence and undermining our international reputation. In January 2002, Benjamin led a group of Americans who lost loved ones on Sept. 11 to Afghanistan to meet people whose relatives were killed during the U.S. bombing campaign. The journey received so much attention that the U.S. government created a compensation fund for Afghan civilians harmed during the conflict. Benjamin has also led several fact-finding delegations to Iraq and helped establish the Baghdad-based Occupation Watch Center. In January 2005 she organized a trip to the Iraq-Jordan border with parents of fallen US soldiers, to take $650,000 worth of humanitarian aid to refugees from war-torn Fallujah.

During the 1990s, Benjamin focused her efforts on tackling the problem of unfair trade as promoted by the World Trade Organization. Widely credited as the woman who brought Nike to its knees and helped place the issue of sweatshops on the national agenda, Benjamin was a key player in the campaign that won a $20 million settlement from 27 US clothing retailers for the use of sweatshop labor in Saipan. She also pushed Starbucks and other companies to start carrying fair trade coffee.

A former economist and nutritionist with the United Nations and World Health Organization, Benjamin is the author/editor of eight books.  She lives in San Francisco with her husband and two daughters.

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2005 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENT
Folk musician extraordinaire Faith Petric . . .

Folk singer and song archivist Faith Petric was presented with the 2005 Noam Chomsky Award at JSA’s Noam Chomsky Award luncheon June 4th. Coming all the way from San Francisco, Faith is a bundle of energy and passionate interpreter of justice songs for workers, the poor, hoboes who rode the rails, the environment, women, children, and those in need generally. Peter Seeger said Faith is "one of the most extraordinary people in the world." And we found that out.

Having turned 90 last September (2005) Faith is as spry and fit as her songs are eternal in their meaning. She has performed for the past half century at all the major folk festivals in North America. She is one of the best kept secrets in the world to people outside the traditional music circuit so we were honored to present her with an award that our association holds so dear.

Faith has challenged the paradigm of justice of the 21st century through her writings, has been an activist par excellence for decades, and lives a life of simplicity that we all will desire to emulate.

Born on September 13, 1915 in a log cabin on a homestead near Orofino, Idaho Faith is real pioneer stuff! She remembers singing in her preacher-father's church at the age of three, hasn't stopped singing since and has no intention of doing so. She is that rare being of this time, NOT a singer/songwriter. As Utah Philips says, "Faith doesn't make up songs, she harvests them ... these outrageous and wonderful songs, culled from a bevy of extraordinary minds, represent those wild, satirical, quirky, offbeat, and endearing traits that characterize the lady herself."

After receiving the Chomsky Award Faith performed a good dozen songs from her wonderful CDs “When Did We Have Sauerkraut?” “Faith’s Favorites,” and “Sing a Song, Sing Along.” Her rendition of some of these tunes had some at the luncheon in stitches and others nearly on the floor from laughter. Her wit and brilliance of mind in speaking a tradition of justice for all were as evident as her winning smile. We are grateful for her presence in this world of ours.

For more on Faith’s work and recordings and contact information, check out http://members.aol.com/faithpet/

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2004 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENT
Activist and scholar Edward T. Chambers

Activist and scholar Edward T. Chambers was presented with the 2004 Noam Chomsky Award at the association's annual conference at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday, June 5, 2004.

Ed Chambers heads the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) in Chicago, which was founded by Saul Alinsky. The IAF is the oldest and largest institution for community organizing in the U.S. For sixty years its mission has been to train people to take responsibility for solving the problems of their own communities and to renew the interests of citizens in public life.

Ed has taken Alinsky's original vision, refined it, and created a sophisticated national network of citizens' organizations. One of IAF's key activities is its 10-day training sessions for community organizers. For more information on Alinsky and the IAF, see http://www.progress.org/alinsky.htm.

After receiving his award and making a presentation to those assembled at the luncheon, Ed signed copies of his recently published Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice (Continuum Publishing, 2003) ISBN 0826474990.

In Roots for Radicals Chambers says a "radical is a person who searches for meaning and affirms community." Publisher's Weekly described the book as encouraging reflection about public life and ideas; the gap between the world "as it is" and "as it should be;" self-interest vs. self-sacrifice and other polarities; and how to create actions that not only receive momentary press attention but that are effective. Readers . . . looking for a solid foundation on which to base political action will find much to think about within these pages."

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2003 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENT
Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy

Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy received the association's 2003 Noam Chomsky Award at the association's annual conference at the Sovereign Hotel in Albany, New York on Saturday, May 31, 2003. Ms. Roy delivered a powerful address at the time of the award presentation during the Chomsky Award luncheon.

Avid readers will know Ms. Roy from her award-winning book, The God of Small Things which was published in 1997 and for which she received the Booker McConnell in 1997. Although Indian authors such as Salman Rushdie and Rohinton Mistry have been featured in the Booker shortlist and Rushdie's Midnight's Children won the Booker of Bookers, Roy is the first non-expatriate Indian author and the first Indian woman to have won this prize.

Of course, social and political activists will know Arundhati equally as well for her longtime interest in quality of life issues. She has immersed herself in causes such as the anti-nuclear movement and the Narmada Bachao Andolan. Her two major essays "The End of Imagination" and "The Greater Common Good" have drawn attention and donations to these causes for which she also made significant monetary contributions herself. Her involvement in these causes has attracted controversy and criticism from all sides of the political spectrum.

Her latest work Power Politics (South End Press) has just been released and The Cost of Living (1999; see excerpts from Kirkus Reviews below) was very well received. Other recent social justice writing and speaking includes "Shall we leave it to the experts?: An essay about writing" (January 14, 2002 Outlook); a speech at the opening of the Hague Appeal for Peace conference in 1999; "The Art of Spinning: How Uncle Sam Turns Indian Gold Into Straw; and criticism of Shekhar Kapur's film about Phoolan Devi 'Bandit Queen' which led to a court case in 1994.

Ms. Roy was born in 1961 in Bengal and grew up in Kerala. As the daughter of Mary Roy--the woman whose court case changed the inheritance laws in favor of women--she was closely acquainted with the Syrian Christian traditions which feature prominently in her fiction. She trained as an architect at the Delhi School of Architecture but became better known for her complex, scathing film scripts.

She wrote and starred in "In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones" and wrote the script for Pradip Kishen's "Electric Moon". Media attention came when she spoke out in support of Phoolan Devi who she felt had been exploited by Shekhar Kapur's film "Bandit Queen." The controversy escalated into a court case after which she retired to private life to work on her first book. She says "a feminist is a woman who negotiates herself into a position where she has choices…"

We are grateful to Sawnet (South Asian Women's NETwork), a forum for those interested in South Asian women's issues, for our basic facts on Arundhati's life. For more information on Sawnet, see
http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/users/sawweb/sawnet/index.html.

Comments on The Cost of Living
 from Kirkus Reviews

In her first non-fiction work, award winning novelist Roy (The God of Small Things, 1997) reveals the authoritarian paternalism of the Indian state that lies behind a mask of benevolence. To Roy, India with all its fissures and factions is a fictitious nation created by the state to legitimate itself. Once the fiction is in place, the state can justify its actions in the name of the common good no matter how injurious these actions may be in reality. So it is with India's undertaking of massive dam and irrigation projects and its successful detonation of a nuclear bomb, the subjects respectively of the two essays in this volume.

The second essay offers the bomb as an example of state arrogance and foolishness whose potential consequences are obvious and terrible. In the first essay, which will likely be more revelatory to American audiences, Roy focuses her attention on the Naramada valley, home to 325,000 people, mostly of minority tribes. When the building of a series of huge dams is completed the valley will flood and all will lose their homes, becoming, in a bloodless acronym, PAPs: Project Affected Persons. A whole way of life will end as PAPs are relocated to dismal camps or end up in urban slums.

Roy clearly and bitingly demonstrates, however, that it is not at all clear the project will do what it is supposed to. It may use more electricity than it generates or destroy more farmland than it creates, and those who are to receive drinking water may never have a drop reach them. The Indian state goes on its haughty way, blithely dismissing all doubts. Yet the people of the Naramada valley have organized and resisted, and though the outcome is unclear, this resistance is what inspires Roy. This resistance, not the state, is the home of Indian democracy, and she urges the struggle to continue (royalties from the book are going to the organization heading this struggle). With eloquent anger and careful research, Roy expertly captures the faces of both folly and courage. Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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2002 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENTS
Elizabeth McAlister and Daniel Berrigan

At the annual JSA conference in Portland, Maine, May 30-June 1, Elizabeth McAlister and Daniel Berrigan were presented with the association's annual Noam Chomsky Award named after the distinguished Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT. The award was established to recognize persons or groups who have been a source of inspiration through their commitment to scholarly activities related to justice; have been personally active in the promotion of peace and justice; and are dedicated to a life of simplicity. Both of these individuals meet these requirements in spades. As many may know, Elizabeth McAlister is the wife of the late peace activist, Philip Berrigan, Dan's younger brother. Phil died on December 6, 2002 at Jonah House.

Liz McAlister, Phil Berrigan, and Dan Berrigan are three of the most influential and inspiring members of the peace movement in the United States during the 20th century. Although Phil told us that he does not "accept awards-under the authority of Jesus & Gandhi" we mention him because these three contemplative activists are like three peas in a pod--a hospitable pod that includes many other members of their communities. We did not include Phil in the award to respect his wishes but mention him out of deep affection.

Liz, a former nun, Phil, a former Josephite priest, and Dan, a Jesuit priest have been engaged in peace activism, writing, and speaking about justice for four decades. This has included creating communities of human concern as well. Liz and Phil, with other peace activists, founded Jonah House a Christian resistance community in Baltimore in 1973. This community is dedicated to embracing the mandates of the Sermon on the Mount in service to those forced into poverty and to practicing works of mercy and justice. Part of this work has included nonviolent civil disobedience against the military policies and strategies of the United States government.

On September 9, 1980, for example, Phil, Dan, and six others began the Plowshares movement by entering the General Electric plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and subsequently hammering and pouring their own blood on two nose cones of nuclear warheads. This has been followed by more than 60 Plowshares disarmament actions by others. This kind of active resistance to U.S. war machinery and the government that supports it can be traced to Phil and Dan's acts of civil disobedience in Catonsville, Maryland in May, 1968 when they and seven friends set afire Selective Service files in a parking lot outside Draft Board #33, Catonsville after dousing them with homemade napalm.

Those interested in finding out more about the activities at Jonah House may look at the community’s website http://www.jonahhouse.org/

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2001 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENTS
the Editors of Z Magazine and ZNet, Lydia Sargent, Eric Sargent, and Michael Albert

The 2001 (and first) recipients of the Noam Chomsky Award were a collective, the Editors of Z Magazine and ZNet, Lydia Sargent, Eric Sargent, and Michael Albert.

They activists were selected because, through their unfailing and incessant efforts, they bring to us each month one of the finest forums for progressive social thought and commentary around the globe. Anyone who has worked on a newspaper or magazine knows the depth of the hecticness that such work engenders. They described some of their non-stop juggling of responsibilities in their 10th birthday issue (December 1997):

Since Eric and his partner had a baby in May, and Eric is the primary caretaker, we now read in shifts. Lydia and Michael read the articles in Woods Hole, then drive to Dedham and watch the baby while Eric reads the articles...Eric drives to Woods Hole (with the baby). Lydia scans the cartoons while Eric watches the baby. Lydia watches the baby while Eric loads the graphics into Ventura and Michael walks to town and brings back our meals. Meanwhile, we're trying to answer the phone...Eric then loads up the baby, the baby's stuff, and the dogs (which takes longer than preparing the entire magazine), and heads back to the Dedham office where he prepares the mailing list by entering renewals, new subs, and address changes. Lydia prepares the cover and sends the issue to the printer in Liberty, Missouri...

And so it goes, with colorful permutations, month after month, year after year as these three Chomsky Award recipients seek to balance their commitment to work, their families, and significant others, that is, to social justice.

In addition to founding Z Magazine, Lydia and Michael are also co-founders of South End Press. They have also established the Z Media Institute, a summer school held in Woods Hole each June that prepares participants to start and run a media project. Eric also does book fulfillment work on contract for South End Press.

It was with great pleasure that we welcomed them to our Friday luncheon to receive the award and to share their ideas on participatory economics and democracy generally. Consistent with the tenor of the award, the recipients did not receive a plaque or trophy but a piece of handcrafted pottery, a large salad bowl that Albany potter, Amy Braig, prepared in her studio at home. The only visible recognition of the award is some scratched-in work on the bottom of the bowl. Here we have a container, made by hand, by a local potter, a vehicle through which the recipients and their families and friends can share food and celebrate their life together in justice. Just like Z.

Justice Studies Association
Social Science/Criminal Justice Department
Mohawk Valley Community College
Utica, NY 13501
Tel: 315-792-5653
Fax: 315-792-5666