Since its founding in 1971, the Vermont AFSC program has achieved a number of notable successes. In the 1970's the Service Committee helped develop alternatives to the dominant economic system by creating Vermont's first land trust and first farmer's market, two institutions which have been replicated throughout the state. In 1981 and 1982 it initiated a statewide nuclear freeze campaign which involved a large number of individuals and groups. Preceded by the AFSC organized Washington to Moscow, Vermont march, and other events, Vermont towns voted overwhelmingly to freeze nuclear weapons production and to become nuclear free zones. The campaign, which met similar success in the state's high schools, helped to launch the nuclear freeze movement which contributed to the I.N.F. treaty and other arms control agreements which followed.

Also in the early eighties, Vermont AFSC organized a 93 mile walk from the Weston Priory in Weston, Vermont to Christ Church Presbyterian in Burlington, sites of sanctuary for Central American refugees. This campaign successfully combined the issues of U.S. intervention in Central America, militarism and domestic poverty.

In subsequent years, the program worked to re-orient national budget priorities, reduce military spending and increase spending for domestic economic and social justice. The program has focused on the issues of democracy and economic equity in the U.S. and "Third World" nations. Annual meetings have addressed the globalization of the economy, the post-Cold War world order, the need for a revitalized labor movement and other issues of justice and peace.

A speaking tour by Randy Kehler organized by AFSC staff in 1994 about electoral democracy resulted in the founding of the Vermont Coalition on Money in Politics, since renamed Vermont Citizens' Coalition for Clean Elections. This effort has resulted in the passage in Vermont of a comprehensive campaign finance reform law.

In 1998 the Service Committee organized a 93 mile Walk to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, from Montpelier to Springfield, Vermont, comparing the decline of the industrial base of the latter city to the billions of dollars spent on nuclear weapons. The Walk was followed by a very successful Town Meeting effort which resulted in the Vermont State Legislature voting to call on the US government to work for a nuclear weapons abolition treaty.

The Vermont Program of the Service Committee remains a leader in the movement to reverse US unilateralist foreign policy. After September 11, 2001 we organized a local anti-war group named Citizens Concerned About Violence (since renamed PeaceVermont) with whom we continue to work. We had a very successful series of public forums which brought speakers from many parts of the state to talk about the Middle East, civil liberties, foreign policy, Islam and many other topics of great current concern.

We helped organize the statewide Vermont Coalition for Peace and Justice, consisting of thirteen local anti-war groups around the state. While keeping our focus on local organizing, the Coalition collaborates on statewide activities.

Program staff is asked to speak throughout the sate and has been a central organizer in some of the largest anti-war rallies in the history of Vermont.

The AFSC continues to stand with those who oppose the overt violence of war and the covert violence of indifference to the systems and institutions which maintain an unequal distribution of power. We work with people of many religious faiths and those who hold to no religious belief but who honor the dignity and worth of every person.

Current Work and Activities:

The present Vermont program includes each of the areas of concern of the American Friends Service Committee: Peacebuilding and Demilitarization (militarized US foreign policy, Iraq occupation, counter military recruitment in schools, anti-JROTC, federal budget priorities, US arms sales, abolition of nuclear weapons and material); Economic Justice, (Livable Wage Campaign, corporate dominated economic globalization); Social Justice (anti-racism, justice for gays, lesbians, transgender people, criminal justice including abolition of capital punishment, prison reform, restorative justice); Youth empowerment (engagement of youth in all AFSC activities, counter military recruitment training (a major focus of this grant request).

Vermont AFSC is engaged in a number of activities. In some we take a leadership role, in others we collaborate with individuals and groups who are working in areas of economic and social justice, peace building and demilitarization.

The areas where Vermont AFSC has takes a leadership role is in the abolition of nuclear weapons, reversal of US unilateralism and the demilitarization of US foreign policy. We also lead the effort to keep Vermont free of capital punishment and work with others to monitor and oppose any bill introduced into the Vermont Legislature which would re-instate the death penalty. In time of war the Service Committee organizes opposition with rallies, vigils, meetings with congressional members, and public forums.

Service Committee staff continues to provide training in non-violent civil disobedience.

We are planning a major march and rally at the Vermont State House on October 25, 2003, in conjunction with the demonstration in Washington DC, while we collaborate with those who are organizing buses to that event.

Over the next year the AFSC in Vermont will be continuing the work of organizing to oppose US unilateralist and militarist policies and to propose alternatives which reduce injustice and increase opportunities for peaceful resolution of conflict. We will also be expanding our effort to achieve greater collaboration amongst the myriad groups and individuals working for a more just world.

The Vermont AFSC program will continue to organize opposition to the US occupation of Iraq, and to demand that, under the direction of the UN, it restore the country economically and politically. In collaboration with others we will press for alternative US policies which include support of a more effective and democratic United Nations, joining the International Criminal Court, negotiating multilateral treaties to abolish nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and treaties to abolish the trade in "conventional" arms (in which the US is by far the world leader). We will remain an active member of the movement to change US trade policy from neo-liberal "free" trade to a world economy which benefits all people, protects human and worker rights and preserves the natural environment in a system of "fair" trade. Our organizing work, in short, is to continue to activate a growing number of people and groups who demand that the US join the world community of nations as an equal member state working for the common good.

As part of our effort to achieve greater collaboration amongst those working on many fronts to promote justice and peace, the Service Committee in Vermont has been leading a planning group in organizing a four day conference entitled "Another World is Possible." The four day conference, to be held on the campus of Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, will bring together activists and those wanting to learn more about the relationship between the expanding militarization of US policy and the dominant neo-liberal model of economic globalization (militarism and globalization); those working on issues which have a great impact on the prospects for peace, conflict resolution, social and economic justice, democracy and human dignity, environmental justice, labor, race relations and human rights. Workshops offered during the conference will also link the local and global manifestations of these issues, for example, economic injustice in the US and global "free trade." The conference will take place from May 12-16, 2004.

Conference participants will be drawn from the US and Canada. Activists from the global south will be invited and money for their travel will be raised where needed. The conference will provide full or partial scholarships for up to one quarter of the participants, including those students active in the Youth Empowerment Project.