Who We Are: The Chico Peace Alliance
The Chico Peace Alliance (CPA) is a growing organization of local people who see a need for a positive, non-violent political activist alliance among the numerous entities concerned with peace and social justice issues―locally, nationally, and globally.
CPA began with a group of local activists―including people who had been active with the now defunct Chico Peace and Justice Center and one of its offshoots, the Chico Peace Vigil. From the initial small core group, CPA has grown and tapped into a vibrant sentiment among many for the need to inform and organize to reinvigorate the community of peace and justice advocates here.
How We Work
The Chico Peace Alliance has evolved in a short period into a network that combines light organization, flexibility, and activist support. It is not an "organization" in the traditional sense, but rather a growing movement of people committed to informed action and to working in mutual support through small-scale informal groups.
GROUNDING
The Chico Peace Alliance is committed to nonviolence in its social activism and in its internal workings. It is committed to justice, equality, and integrity in the communities we participate in—local, national, global, and environmental. It engages in decision making and policy development through consensus grounded at the following three levels of community work:
1. Working Groups: Small working groups are the fundamental active agents of this movement. They each consist of a small number of people committed to working on one area of peace and justice work, to selecting specific issues, educating one another, and creating action projects. They typically meet at least once a month and bring reports to the general meeting. The current working groups are four: War and Militarism, Peace Education and Restorative Justice, Economic Justice, and Coalition Building and Communication. The leaders are:
2. General Meeting: Once each month an open meeting is held for the reporting and support of working groups, the building of community, the proposal of new areas for working group creation, and the exploration of general issues.
All are welcome at this meeting, which is announced in the pages of the Newsletter. Subscribe to the newsletter.
3. Steering Committee. This coordinating group offers guidance and support to the working groups and makes decisions about outreach, communication, public engagement, and other issues as informed by the general meeting and the working groups. It may develop policy papers and public statements in response to public events, and works with working groups and coalition groups to manage active responses to these. It receives reports from the working groups, and connects with other organizations working for peace and justice. (The alliance is a member of Peace Action, for example.) Click here for the Steering Committee minutes.
GROUNDING
The Chico Peace Alliance is committed to nonviolence in its social activism and in its internal workings. It is committed to justice, equality, and integrity in the communities we participate in—local, national, global, and environmental. It engages in decision making and policy development through consensus grounded at the following three levels of community work:
1. Working Groups: Small working groups are the fundamental active agents of this movement. They each consist of a small number of people committed to working on one area of peace and justice work, to selecting specific issues, educating one another, and creating action projects. They typically meet at least once a month and bring reports to the general meeting. The current working groups are four: War and Militarism, Peace Education and Restorative Justice, Economic Justice, and Coalition Building and Communication. The leaders are:
- War and Militarism, Janet Leslie.
- Peace Education, Cindy Carlson.
- Coalition-Building and Communication, Doug Fogel.
2. General Meeting: Once each month an open meeting is held for the reporting and support of working groups, the building of community, the proposal of new areas for working group creation, and the exploration of general issues.
All are welcome at this meeting, which is announced in the pages of the Newsletter. Subscribe to the newsletter.
3. Steering Committee. This coordinating group offers guidance and support to the working groups and makes decisions about outreach, communication, public engagement, and other issues as informed by the general meeting and the working groups. It may develop policy papers and public statements in response to public events, and works with working groups and coalition groups to manage active responses to these. It receives reports from the working groups, and connects with other organizations working for peace and justice. (The alliance is a member of Peace Action, for example.) Click here for the Steering Committee minutes.
- The Steering Committee consists of Jim Anderson, Robert Van Fleet, Chris Nelson, Sheldon Praiser, Bill Helmer, Lucy Gould, Doug Fogel, Janet Leslie, Stephen Tchudi, Cindy Carlson, and Laurel Yorks.
A Brief History of the Chico Peace Movement
The Chico Peace Alliance continues the work of the peace movement in Chico, which began in 1962. During the tense Cold War years of the early 1960s, the U.S. military began construction of Titan missile silos and bunkers to house nuclear warheads on Keefer Road in northeast Chico. Alarmed by this development, Chico resident Wilhelmina Taggart made weekly visits to the base to pray. Florence McLane and Helen Kinnee joined in Willa’s efforts, and eventually, the missiles were removed. Together, these three women established the Chico Peace Endeavor and began holding weekly peace vigils in downtown Chico. Over sixty-five years later, the Vigil still takes place at the corner of 3rd and Main, every Saturday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
In the early 1980s, the three founders and others agreed that Chico needed a center where people could meet to organize for change. They envisioned a place where people could come together to access information about peace and justice issues and educate each other on non-violent philosophy and action. The Chico Peace & Justice Center opened its doors in 1982 on Walnut Street and incorporated on September 13th, 1983.
Over the years the Center actively organized to address issues that include nuclear weapons, U.S. militarism, war tax resistance, poverty, hunger, violence, military youth recruitment, racism, sexism, LGBTQ rights, minority and immigrant rights, gun control, the death penalty, Central American and Mexican violence related to U.S. policies, and U.S. military intervention in other countries.
Due to a variety of problems, the Chico Peace and Justice Center permanently closed in 2020. Read more.
