By Emma Maple | FāVS News Reporter
The Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane is celebrating 50 years of existence with its annual benefit luncheon on Wed., Oct. 15, from noon to 1 p.m.
PJALS is an activist organization that works to address social issues and build a movement centered through a coalition of people from all walks of life.
The luncheon is free to attend and can accommodate around 300 people. People can register on the PJALS website up until Oct. 8.
Although it is not required, guests can donate at the event.
The benefit is PJALS’ largest fundraiser of the year. Executive Director Liz Moore said the goal for the fall drive, including this event, is to raise $36,000.
“We receive donations ranging from multi-year commitments to a couple thousand dollars to $10 a month to what somebody had in their pocket and everywhere in between,” Moore said. “PJALS is a cross-class community.”
Any money raised goes toward PJALS organizing work focused on countering white Christian nationalism and American fascism, protecting human rights, specifically immigrant communities and transgender communities, according to Moore.
“This event is always a time of building a sense of connection and being in a room full of likeminded people in a time where it’s easy to feel isolated,” Moore said. “We invite people to come because it’s really important to come together.”
Speakers to highlight five decades of community organizing
In honor of the 50 years of existence, the event’s speakers will each speak to a particular decade of the organization’s history.
“This is an organization where many people have been members for not just five years, but 20 years, 30 years, 40 years in some cases,” Moore said. “It is really amazing.”
The confirmed speakers for the luncheon are:
- Host Jac Archer, a graduate of the Young Activist Leaders Program, former Steering Committee member and former PJALS organizer
- Ayaka Dohi, a graduate of the Young Activist Program, former Steering Committee member and former PJALS intern
- Rusty Nelson, former co-director of PJALS
- Liz Moore, PJALS executive director
- Pui-Yan Lam, a current Steering Committee member
- Ken Isserlis, one of the three original staff members
From anti-war roots to fighting white christian nationalism
Over the past 50 years, Moore said the organization has developed a greater emphasis on and commitment to racial equity and racial justice.
In 2013, PJALS’ steering committee committed to the emphasis “when we really recognized that everything we are trying to win with regards to human rights, peace, economic justice, absolutely requires a movement that centers around racial justice and racial equity,” Moore said.
“Not only because of the way that racism dehumanizes Black, Indigenous and people of color, but also in the way that racism is used to manipulate support for policies that aim the power of government at BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] communities,” she said.
Over the past ten years, Moore said the organization has been operating with that framework through its programs including racial justice training and a program that analyzes how race and class are connected.
While PJALS’ baseline commitments to justice have stayed the same, Moore said she predicted in the future the organization will continue to work on explicitly connecting the dots between anti-imperialism and racial justice.
“How we are going to change going forward, I think, is to continue to lean forward in that commitment — to follow the lead of directly impacted communities around the world, working with other organizations and listening to members of PJALS.”
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