ABOUT
JSA/ JSA
Chomsky Award
JSA AWARDS:
Chomsky 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.
2010 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENT
BRENDA CLUBINE
Brenda Clubine served 15 years in prison for defending herself against her abusive husband. While incarcerated in the California Institution for Women, she and other prisoners formed Convicted Women Against Abuse. The group led a nationwide effort to change laws for battered women, mobilizing popular support through letter writing campaigns, media coverage, and Senate hearings. Brenda is our featured speaker for the conference. We will also screen the new documentary, Sin By Silence, featuring Brenda and other extraordinary women who, behind prison walls, advocate for a future free from domestic violence.
2009 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENT
The Editors/Founder of "Rethinking Schools"
The Editors/Founders of “Rethinking Schools” – publishers of alternative textbooks highlighting social justice. Rethinking Schools began as a local effort to address problems such as basal readers, standardized testing, and textbook-dominated curriculum. Since its founding in 1986, it has grown into a nationally prominent publisher of educational materials, with subscribers in all 50 states, all 10 Canadian provinces, and many other countries.
Throughout its history, Rethinking Schools has tried to balance classroom practice and educational theory. It is an activist publication, with articles written by and for teachers, parents, and students. Yet it also addresses key policy issues, such as vouchers and marketplace-oriented reforms, funding equity, and school-to-work.
Brazilian educator Paulo Freire wrote that teachers should attempt to "live part of their dreams within their educational space." Rethinking Schools believes that classrooms can be places of hope, where students and teachers gain glimpses of the kind of society we could live in and where students learn the academic and critical skills needed to make that vision a reality.
Among their most recent publications is: Rethinking Multi-cultural Education; Unlearning Indian Stereotypes; The Line Between Us (about the US/Mexican Border); and Rethinking Columbus. www.rethinkingschools.org
2008 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENT
David G. Gil . . .
A long-time friend of JSA, David G. Gil is a social worker and political philosopher who is Professor of Social Policy at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University. His former students can be found across the globe, ranging from university professors to administrators of social service programs designed to meet human needs. He was a keynote speaker at the first Justice Studies Association conference in 1997.
Born in Vienna, Austria in 1923, Doctor Gil left the country as a refugee in 1939 without his family, a year after Austria was annexed by Germany under Hitler. Before joining the Brandeis faculty in 1964, David Gil worked in agriculture, industry, and social work in Sweden, Palestine, Israel, and the United States.
His unceasing, cutting-edge research, teaching, and writing have concerned themselves with the ways that social institutions foster human development or fail to meet human needs through policies and strategies of structural violence. Doctor Gil’s landmark testimony at the Hearings of U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Children and Youth on the "Child Abuse Prevention Act", S.1191 (93rd Congress, 1st Session) March 26, 1973—see the document [pdf format] —is worthy of study by any student interested in the prevention of violence to children and human beings in all social institutions.
In addition to his active service to the Association for Humanist Sociology, the American Ortho-psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers, Professor Gil served as Co-Chair of the Socialist Party, USA from 1995 to 1999, and as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Jobs for All Coalition. He is an esteemed Editor Emeritus of Contemporary Justice Review.
Among his innovative and insightful writings are: Violence Against Children; Unraveling Social Policy; The Challenge of Social Equality; and Confronting Injustice and Oppression. His address upon receiving the 2008 Chomsky Award can be found in the December 2008 issue of Contemporary Justice Review, “Meeting universal human needs as the foundation of individual and social development and of social and global justice: comments upon receipt of the Justice Studies Association's 2008 Noam Chomsky Award.”
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.
2006 CHOMSKY AWARD RECIPIENT
Advocate for social justice Medea Benjamin . . .
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.
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/
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."
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.
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/
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