Austin Area Activist Groups

AFSC has conducted public education and solidarity programs on various peace issues in the Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma (TAO) area for over fifty years. The TAO office was instrumental in organizing against the Vietnam War and continues to organize against US intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean. TAO has also engaged in draft counseling, conflict resolution, the sanctuary movement for Central American refugees, diversity training, women's issues and economic justice.

The Austin Center for Peace and Justice (ACPJ) was formed in 2002 to continue the work of creating peace, justice, and wholeness in Austin and the World. ACPJ's stated mission is "to recognize and practice nonviolence as a core value personally, culturally, locally, nationally and globally, and to be a center for peace education, action and resources in the Austin community."

The Austin Chapter for a Department of Peace and Nonviolence is part of a grassroots lobbying effort to pass legislation creating a cabinet level Department of Peace. Learn more about this effort at thepeacealliance.org.

ACOMT has existed in Austin for 20 years with varying members. It is a support group for those doing or considering active war tax resistance. We illegally refuse to pay a portion of taxes, half of which go to the military, and redirect them to nonviolent causes and charities. We also do activist projects such as conducting penny polls, leafletting and protesting on Tax Day, organize around the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill, H.R. 2631, and do other activities to educate peace activists and the community about funding war instead of human needs. Our newest project is Austin Taxpayers for Peace.

Austin's GI Rights Hotline is part of the national GI Rights Hotline, a network of organizations that provide information to members of the military about discharges, grievance and complaint procedures, and other civil rights. The Austin GI Rights Hotline will receive calls from Texas-based service members in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard who are AWOL, are experiencing sexual harassment or discrimination, or need assistance with military discharges and conscientious objector applications.

The Austin Project for a Participatory Society promotes and organizes around vision and strategy for a participatory society. We seek to answer the question, "what do you want?" with alternatives based on the core values of equity, solidarity, diversity, and self-management, as well as by working to build a movement capable of winning this new society. We advocate participatory economics (parecon) as an alternative to capitalism.

Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera (Austin so close to the border) works closely with Comite Fronterizo de Obreras (CFO), a Mexican based grassroots organization of maquiladora workers defending their rights under Mexican labor law. Austin-TCF sponsors delegations of Austin area residents to visit border communities in order to meet with workers and to learn first hand about their lives and struggles. We also provide material aid and financial support for a CFO community organizer's salary. Austin-TCF is continuing to explore strategies and actions to support workers on both sides of the border in their demands for economic justice.

Standing against the violence of individuals, governments and corporations and for peaceful solutions instead of war, we are women of all nationalities and religions who come together as a positive statement of cooperation and caring. All women are welcome to join us.

The Austin branch of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) is a grassroots organization committed to abolishing capital punishment in the United States. The group participates in anti-death penalty rallies and educational events, in addition to working closely with current and exonerated death row inmates, their families, as well as murder victims' relatives. The CEDP opposes capital punishment for five reasons: it is racist, it punishes the poor, it sentences the innocent to die, it does not deter crime, and it constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

CODEPINK Austin is always looking for new members to bring creative, dynamic ideas to the peace movement. We act collectively through International Priority Actions and Events. CODEPINK collectives exist in more than 100 communities around the globe. We have developed a reputation of being unruly and unreasonable for peace.

Crude Awakening, the Austin Oil Awareness Meetup group, meets monthly to discuss the approaching peak in world oil production and its consequences.

With more than a 60-year history of non-violent resistance to injustice and war, the EPF is committed to being a Christian voice in public discourse in areas such as American militarism, capital punishment, and domestic violence.

Food Not Bombs recovers food that would otherwise be discarded and shares it with anyone who is hungry. Food Not Bombs cooks every Sunday at 3 pm at the Rhizome Collective and share food at 6 pm at Woolridge Park (Guadalupe and 9th).

House The Homeless, an educational and advocacy group, was founded in Austin, TX in 1989. House the Homeless is also part of the campaign for a Universal Living Wage.

The Inside Books Project sends books and educational materials to prisoners in Texas. Come to a volunteer night to help process requests submitted by prisoners, respond to letters, and package books for shipping.

Instruments For Peace is a network of musicians using the tools of their profession to challenge the voices of fear and confusion and encourage action against war and injustice. The group designs and promotes events which combine music with information.

The Interfaith Community for Palestinian Rights is a group of Austin-area citizens who pursue peace with justice for Palestinians. Our mission is to inform our community of the injustices that have been inflicted upon the Palestinian people and to urge nations to uphold their basic human and legal rights of according to international law and U. N. resolutions.

Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) is a group of veterans who have served since September 11th, 2001 including Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. We are committed to saving lives and ending the violence in Iraq by an immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces. We also believe that the governments that sponsored these wars are indebted to the men and women who were forced to fight them and must give their Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Airmen the benefits that are owed to them upon their return home. We welcome all active duty, national guard, reservists, and recent veterans into our ranks.

MonkeyWrench Books is a locally owned radical bookstore in north Austin. We provide an extensive collection of radical and hard to find literature and media, and a space for community events. MonkeyWrench Books is also meant to be a library and educational resource. It is a place for meetings, film screenings, talks, benefits and book readings. It is also a relaxed space to network and make connections over a cup of organic coffee or tea.

The Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS) is a multi-issue activist organization affiliated with the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Many of its members are veterans of the New Left in the 60's and 70's, of the Civil Rights Movement or of other community organizing efforts. The goal of MDS is the creation of a more egalitarian society in both the political and economic spheres.  MDS believes in participatory democracy, the expansion of human rights, universal healthcare, the rejection of all forms of discrimination, the preservation of the earth's environment, the expansion of workers' rights, a more equitable distribution of wealth, and the rejection of miltarism and war as a way of resolving differences among peoples and nations.

Nonmilitary Options for Youth offers information to youth about the choices they face upon leaving high school. They are available for classroom and group presentations, high school career fairs, and individual counseling. A special emphasis is placed on reaching youth of color and low-income youths who are disproportionately recruited into the military. Their resources include a growing group of committed volunteers, as well as a variety of literature, videos, and computer software.

The Rhizome Collective, based in a large, converted warehouse space, work on a project of urban sustainability and also maintain the Center for Community Organizing, a space that is used by Inside Books, Bikes Across Borders, Austin Indymedia, Free Skool for the Arts, Food Not Bombs, and others.

Read about Rhizome's innovative work in a Dec. 31, 2004 Austin Chronicle feature.

School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) Austin is part of a larger nationwide diverse, grassroots movement rooted in solidarity with the suffering poor of Latin America. The goal of SOAW Austin is to close the SOA and to change U.S. foreign policy in Latin America by educating the Texas public, lobbying Congress and participating in creative, nonviolent resistance. The Pentagon has responded to the growing nationwide movement with a PR campaign to give the SOA a new image. In attempt to disassociate the school with it's horrific past, the SOA was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001.

Each year, we rent a commercial bus and take concerned people to the annual November protest in Fort Benning, Georgia, where last year over 10,000 congregated and peacefully demanded the school’s closure. See our brochure for costs and registration information for the 2004 trip.

Texas Fair Trade Coalition promotes democratic control over fiscal and social policies, social justice, workers' rights and livable wages, and sustainable development in trade policy, in Texas and worldwide. TFTC works toward its vision by: Building coalitions across diverse movements in Texas, nationally and internationally; Using education, grassroots mobilization, media and legislative strategies; Identifying local and global impacts of trade and monetary institutions; Presenting alternatives to the present mode of globalization.

Travis County Green Party is a chapter of the Green Party of the US, part of the worldwide Green Movement. We are year-round activists, partnering with other political parties, activist groups and progressive organizations to promote initiatives, endorse and run candidates, petition our government, and organize central Texans for progressive political and social efforts in our city, county, state, nation, and world.

University Iraq Campaign (UIC) is a student group at the University of Texas at Austin that strives to raise awareness and foster discussion concerning the ongoing war in Iraq. UIC strives to bring thought-provoking events to UT, including documentaries, speakers, debates, and discussions. UIC takes a strong anti-war stance against the continuing occupation of Iraq, but the group strives to foster education, not indoctrination, by organizing events that are as objective and nonpartisan as possible.

UT Watch is a student-based watchdog group for the University of Texas at Austin. We promote campus democracy, affordable education, and genuine access to higher education for all Texans. We resist corporate control of education, authoritarian decision-making, and misuse of public money. We also work on issues of militarization at public universities, monitoring the flow of money from defense companies and the U.S. military into public education. We have done a lot of research on UT's specific connections.

Veterans For Peace are united by a commitment to use non-violent means to increase public awareness of the cost of war, to restrain our government from intervening in the affairs of other nations, to reduce the arms race and eliminate nuclear weapons, to seek justice for veterans and victims of war, and to abolish war as an instrument of national policy.

The Youth Activists of Austin (YAA) is an organization of young students with the goal of uniting fellow students around issues that affect the youth and the world. We stand for peace, justice, and equality.