Who’s Working Hard for Peace? (Part 4)
Saturday, July 29th, 2006Do independent non-governmental activist organizations like Amnesty International and Greenpeace accomplish anything? It’s hard to say. Some of these groups have large enrollments and keep extremely busy with focused activities and grassroots causes. But they rarely manage to penetrate popular awareness, and remain “niche communities” separated from mainstream dialogue. I am glad the major (and minor) organizations are there, and I know they do good work, but I wish they were more aggressive, more vocal, and more disruptive when needed.
To tell the truth, I haven’t paid much attention to any of the more well-known groups recently, but as background research for this new blog I am going to begin paying more attention, and I plan to use this space to report on the activities and pronouncements of as many independent international organizations as I can, including the following:
• Amnesty International, which works on many fronts and issues useful reports like this one
• Greenpeace (which is mainly an environmental group, but also engages in political dialogue
• The Carter Center (founded by Jimmy Carter)
