California for a World BEYOND War has an exciting webinar coming up that you won't want to miss: on Thursday, June 17 at 7:00pm Pacific Time we will welcome as our special guest the renowned activist, sociologist, and writer George Lakey!

Opportunity for peace work expands and contracts over time, depending on multiple factors beyond our control. We need to be flexible and seize the moment -- when it comes -- in order to expand the ranks of those who advocate for peace.

George Lakey believes that this is a moment for peace movement expansion. California and New England are the two most innovative spots in the U.S. for social movement development. When you choose to, you can initiate something that influences the nation. On the evening of June 17, George will propose an example of such an initiative.

Click "Register!" to receive the Zoom info for the event!

Read more about George Lakey's background:

George Lakey recently retired from Swarthmore College where he was Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professor for Issues in Social Change. He created and managed the Global Nonviolent Action Database research project (nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu) that includes over 1100 campaigns from nearly 200 countries.

Lakey has also held teaching posts at Haverford College and the University of Pennsylvania. He has led over 1500 social change workshops on five continents, co-founding and for fifteen years directing Training for Change. In 2010 he was named "Peace Educator of the Year" and published his authoritative text on adult education, Facilitating Group Learning (PM Press). Each of his ten books has been about change and how to get it, including Viking Economics (Melville House, 2016) and his most recent, How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning (Melville House, 2018).

He has supported a number of movements, co-leading a sailing ship with medical aid to Vietnam in defiance of the U.S. war, working with unions in the U.S. and Canada, campaigning with ACT-UP and others in the LGBTQ community, organizing Men Against Patriarchy, and leading a cross-race, cross-class coalition to fight back against Reagan.

His first arrest was for a nonviolent civil rights sit-in and most recent was January 2020 while demanding the U.S. Congress respond to the climate crisis.

He has served as an unarmed bodyguard for human rights defenders in Sri Lanka, and recently walked 200 miles in a successful Quaker direct action campaign against mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia.

He received the Martin Luther King, Jr., Peace Award, the Paul Robeson Social Justice Award, the Ashley Montague International Conflict Resolution Award, and the Giraffe Award for "Sticking his Neck out for the Common Good."