November Coalition History
The idea of a "November Coalition" was discussed
informally in the early months of 1997. Prisoners came up with
the name, and their loved ones set upon its mission by spring.
With few exceptions, the Coalition's founding and organizing
principles were crafted from the anguished pleas and dire circumstances
of drug war prisoners and their families.
This history is an introduction to the Coalition's membership,
assumptions and goals. It may also be viewed as a summary for
organizers interested in what can happen when citizens stop griping
about their circumstances and begin to do something that
will change them.
 Two
prisoners and a couple of prisoners' sisters took the first steps
to create a grassroots organization that would educate communities
about the human destruction in the wake of the war on drugs.
Through their own stories, the Coalition began to illustrate
that drug prohibition laws produce crime, corrupt the criminal
justice system, increase illegal drug use, and leave a trail
of broken family relationships due to separation by incarceration.
When prison time is over, the label 'ex-felon' is a lifetime
stigma on the outside.
Out of a "Colville kitchen" emerges a national
organization
Director Nora Callahan was a principle Coalition founder in
1997, recruited and urged on by her long-imprisoned brother,
Gary Callahan and other prisoners at Oxford Federal Correctional
Facility in rural, central Wisconsin. Nora was assisted by Martha
Christman, a local artist who lived near Nora's home in Colville,
 Washington.
Martha's son, Ian, designed the initial website graphics and
organization's logo.
Martha's brother, Mark Ingraham, was serving 10 years for
a marijuana conspiracy. Morgan, a friend and fellow volunteer,
set his hands to keyboard for the first time in his life, entering
names of a growing membership into a data base.
On April 1, 1997 Nora uploaded the November Coalition's website. Almost instantly
the correspondence and communications between prisoners and their
loved ones developed into thousands of conversations with many
others through the 'magic' of the Internet.
 Martha
built an information booth and Consuelo, another Colville woman
with a loved one in prison, managed the booth while Nora gave
speeches and kept her paying work for as long as she could manage.
Within a fast growing network of volunteers on both sides
of prisons' walls and wire, they "gave it all to the cause."
 The enthusiastic response
reinforced the need to communicate with a mass audience. The
first issue
of the Coalition's Razor Wire newspaper was published
in May 1997 with definite goals in mind. The Razor Wire reports
on drug policy reform efforts, legislative updates, news about
drug law vigils and meetings, legal analysis, and shared letters
between prisoners and citizens of the free world alike.
Founders agreed that drug war prisoners had to be "humanized"
after years of "drug scare" propaganda and demonization
thoroughly dominating national media stories from 1986 through
1992.
Toward this goal, the Coalition has developed a pattern of
success learned from educating citizens by the accepted method
of case study -- gathering and  publicizing
stories on The
WALL at november.org.
The Coalition's home office began designing projects to involve
people in lobbying government officials and educating friends,
family and associates. Like ripples on water, the Coalition's
condemnation of the drug war soon rolled into thousands of relationships
through a diverse network of volunteers and sympathetic media.
Nora Callahan, living in rural Colville, Washington began
accepting invitations to travel and speak at public gatherings
in distant cities. Her passionate, heartfelt speeches about the
hardship and pain common to prisoners and their loved ones' separated
lives bring listeners to tears, sympathy and action.
Throughout 1997 and 1998, online communications -- which networked
the home office with drug reform leaders, prisoners' family members,
writers for national media, and sometimes college students working
on term papers -- continued to build membership; a membership
willing to roll up its sleeves and get active to end the drug
war.
 National presence
established through strong network of volunteers
Tom Murlowski, an early volunteer in San Diego, California,
joined the staff after relocating to Washington State at the
end of 1998.
With public interest established, November Coalition launched
its National
Vigil Project in early 1999. The National Vigil Project
was developed to express the Coalition's determination to encourage
regular, visible and nonviolent actions in opposition to the
injustice of the drug war.
 Regional Coalition
volunteers began holding peaceful vigils in their local communities,
often in front of courthouses, jails, and prisons. Signs and
banners held by participants show the faces of drug war victims
and call for "no more drug war."
Public interest in holding drug war vigils flowered immediately
across the country, and media interest began to follow. By late
1999 there were a dozen regular vigils in cities and towns across
the U.S. featuring citizens holding up the Coalition's well-known
banner, There is no justice in the war on drugs.
On February 15, 2000 the Vigil Project was able to coordinate
simultaneous vigils marking and denouncing the infamous day when
the U.S. prison population reached the milestone of two million
incarcerated -- Two Million Too Many -- thus giving our
country the dubious distinction of world's leading jailer.
Forty-three cities held vigils that mixed thousands of reform
activists with drug war families in a show of popular unity.
Press coverage included national and international reports. Joined
by new allies from prison reform and other social justice groups,
Coalition participants magnified their voices.
National interest in prisoners of the drug war accelerated
as corporate media contacted the Colville office looking for
stories they'd found on The WALL that could be shared with their
readers. In particular, the acclaimed PBS documentary, "SNITCH," which aired first in the
spring of 1999, was produced in consultation with staff and members
of the November Coalition and other groups that quickly formed
an emerging social movement.
The Coalition's Voice of the Prisoner CD, a project
initiated and managed by John Humphrey, a musician and activist
in Los Angeles, was produced autumn of 1998. Outreach promotion
by volunteers pushed the CD, a collection of prisoner narratives
of prison experiences, to one of the top 20 requests in the diverse rap music culture.
The Voice of the Prisoner made some micro-broadcaster's
hip-hop charts!
 Despite such success, the
Coalition remains challenged to unite prisoners and outside activists
in a concerted social justice movement. Prisoners have limited
political and civil rights; organizing on the inside is not encouraged,
allowed, or protected by law. They cannot hold vigils or otherwise
protest without endangering themselves.
However, the presidential election for November 2000 allowed
a small opportunity to do widespread petitioning, inside and
outside prisons, especially around pleas for clemency and pardon
to outgoing President Clinton.
Sensing a strategic moment, and in harmony with other similar
national campaigns, November Coalition called for release of
drug war and other nonviolent prisoners in the Jubilee Year (every
50 years, traditionally). Regional chapter organizers began to
circulate the Jubilee Justice Petition, offering volunteers a
project with a specific public demand, a task one could do alone,
or within a group's activity.
 Named Jubilee Justice 2000, the popular campaign
produced over 41,000 signatures of support throughout the country
and overseas, by asking President Clinton to extend "clemency
to all nonviolent federal prisoners who have served at least
five years in prison, commuting their sentences to 'time served'."
Coordinating the gathering and handling of Jubilee petitions
was the Coalition's major networking project at the grassroots
level throughout the summer and fall of 2000.
Local volunteers developed savvy public experience, and through
vigils and other public appearances, secured signatures from
passersby who agreed with the Jubilee request and spirit of forgiveness
within it. In many institutions, prisoners were able to collect
signatures, and assist their loved ones' activity without problems
of compliance with prison rules which govern every kind of organizing.
Jubilee Justice 2000 was well underway when the summer 2000 Shadow
Conventions were held.
 November
Coalition brought its mission and message to Philadelphia's Shadow Convention of August
2000. Nora Callahan and Chuck Armsbury from Colville, Washington
teamed up with Mary Gaines of Federal Forum St. Paul, MN, and
other volunteers from New York City, Detroit, MI and Cleveland
Ohio to arrange for two dozen children of the drug war to be
brought by bus to Philadelphia.
These African-American children, from toddlers to teens, shared
stories in song and poetry -- before a large live audience and
attending national and international press -- about what it means
for poor, black children to be without a mother, or a close family
member, who is in prison for a drug law violation.
The idea for a Shadow Convention originated from national
drug reform leaders like Ethan Nadelmann and prominent entertainment
figures like Arianna Huffington, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins,
who foresaw that neither Democratic (meeting in Los Angeles)
nor Republican (meeting in Philadelphia) parties would include
any drug reform planks in their convention platforms in 2000.
To highlight this bi-partisan neglect, drug war activists
united with other social reformers to organize unique forums
on the drug war, income inequality and campaign finance reform.
Each four-day "convention" (first in Philadelphia,
then Los Angeles shortly after) at a nearby site in each city
"shadowed" the major parties as they convened to nominate
candidates and approve platform statements. It was also a time
that class and race did not divide us, and some long term relationships
began.
  In October 2000 the November
Coalition was honored by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) for mobilizing
significant grassroots support against the drug war. The handsome
medallion accepted by Director Nora Callahan on behalf of the
Coalition is called the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award in honor
of two IPS colleagues slain by Chilean secret agents on DC's
Embassy Row in 1976. Congressman John Conyers of Michigan presented
the medallion, memorializing the Coalition's humble origins -
'Out of a Colville kitchen, comes a national organization.'
Acceptance of the IPS Letelier-Moffitt award put the Coalition's
condemnation of the drug war up for consideration by human rights
organizations and progressive reformers not previously familiar
with the excesses caused by drug prohibition. Likewise, Coalition
leaders were able to introduce its U.S. members to the international
features of the war on drugs, especially as it is conducted in
Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia and elsewhere in Latin America.
 The
Jubilee Justice 2000 signatures were collected until Clinton
left office. 41,000 names were presented to Rep. John Conyers
(D-MI) after Coalition organizers attended the IPS awards event
in October 2000. Though there was no mass release of prisoners
as demanded, we were able to meet other limited objectives of
the Jubilee Justice campaign. As the last petitions were mailed
from Washington State to Washington DC, organizers looked with
positive expectation to the larger map of alliances created across
the U.S. that unite diverse communities of interest around drug
war issues.
Several leading members of the U.S. Congress, including Rep.
John Conyers, seated on the powerful House Judiciary Committee,
could now point to substantial support for release of drug war
prisoners. More than 800 citizens from around the world gathered
batches of signatures. Another 1,200 families, including scores
with Spanish surnames, became involved, and over 2,000 prisoners
filled at least one sheet of signatures, all demonstrating they
saw the election-year possibility and were appealing as one voice
for mercy and working for justice for all drug war prisoners.
Clinton pardoned about 36 prisoners, most of them were prisoners
of the drug war, and some were members of the November Coalition.
 In 2001 the Coalition launched
"Open
The Can: A CANpaign For Freedom". Based on the concept
that prisoners were packed into our nation's prisons like sardines,
the project involved special labels, applied to sardine cans,
and sent to elected officials in Washington, DC. Hundreds of
sardine cans were sent to Washington until September 11, 2001
and the anthrax scare chilled the reception of Congressional
mail in the U.S. Capitol. Artwork was provided by prisoner Henry
Potwin.
The now complex network was still managed from a "home
office" in a small town neighborhood; another reason the
organization lays claim to "grassroots" inspired work.
With a full-time staff of three, one part-time employee and faithful
volunteers, the Coalition publishes a newspaper, maintains a
website, and coordinates national volunteers who develop their
activism in a broad array of activities suiting time constraints,
talents and locales.
 The
home office coordinates and provides event speakers, responds
to media requests, and each week processes scores of letters
received. In a broader sense, the office is also a type of historical
archive that chronicles the human suffering caused by prohibition,
over-zealous law enforcement, guideline sentencing and inhumane
prison conditions. Citizens can order an array of supplies -- most provided at
little or no cost to the volunteers that work diligently to meet
the common goal of ending drug war injustice.
Heralding four hard years of organizing, on June 3, 2001,
Nora Callahan was honored with the Robert C. Randall Award for
Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action. This prestigious
award from the Lindesmith/Drug Policy Foundation (now the Drug Policy
Alliance) caps a four-year story of success building on success
for Nora, staff and regional volunteers in the Coalition.
 In
the spring of 2002, November Coalition volunteers began circulating
a Petition
for Relief from Drug War Injustice calling for restoration
of an early release system (parole and/or good-time) for federal
prisoners. By mid-summer Representative Patsy Mink (D-HI) had
introduced a bill to revive parole. A few short weeks later,
the honorable Patsy Mink had passed away due to complications
from chicken pox.
By autumn of 2002, the November Coalition's director, Nora
Callahan and Chuck Armsbury, the editor of The Razor Wire,
began an extensive series of road trips throughout the continental
United States. They collected petition signatures, recruited
other leaders to do the same and urged the public to "Meet
the people behind the statistics that rank the United States
of America world's leading jailer." Potlucks, college presentations,
church Sunday school and formal services allowed the public and
members to meet each other, and join a growing social justice
movement.
 "Journey for Justice springs from the extreme
need and aspirations of thousands of drug war prisoners and their
loved ones victimized by unjust drug and sentencing laws,"
Chuck Armsbury wrote of it. "We Journey for Justice to fortify
resolve and awaken the dignity of ordinary people assaulted daily
by a drug war that isn't a war on drugs - but a war on people."
 By
the conclusion of the first series of November Coalition sponsored
Journeys for Justice at the end of 2003 and 30,000 miles - Bottoms Up:
Guide To Grassroots Activism, an online guide to citizen
action, would be updated to include the collective experience
of more than 100 organizers who participated in bringing Nora
Callahan and Chuck Armsbury to their town. It was also properly
named.
The national office that was housed in a small home in a residential
neighborhood for over seven years moved to its' own facility
mid-2004. Offices
are now located in a historic building in the heart of Colville,
WA. Originally a church built in the 1920's, the building
was restored in 1977 to house the North Country Co-Op, one of
the first Natural Food Stores owned cooperatively in the U.S.
By year's end 2004, the November Coalition reached 98,000
signatures of support for earned early release or return to federal
parole. Several
bills in the U.S. Congress demonstrate that support grows
for the notion, and support is behind the sentiments and demands
that November Coalition members express.
Journey
for Justice 2005 united a profoundly broad base of prison
reform, abolitionists, drug law activists and formerly incarcerated
people to embark on a March on Washington DC on August 13th.
The November Coalition served the criminal justice reform alliance
by designing and maintaining a website and electronic communications
that brought together over 120 groups, and hundreds of leaders
that have planned projects and strategies into year 2006.
November Coalition's website, serving less than 11,000 files
daily in 2003, averaged 30,000 files daily as autumn of 2005
appeared. With a faithful, active audience using www.november.org, prisoners and members,
updated with the published Razor Wire -- an impassioned,
personally affected group -- continues to educate the public
while they urge others to do the same.
Before autumn 2005 was in full swing, the first annual retreat and workshop of the Washington
State Drug Policy Coordinating Group was hosted at the offices
and multipurpose facility of the Coalition. The desire to host
low cost conferences and workshops became a reality. Visit "Our House"
online today and watch our progress.
Early 2006, the group launched an online storefront at to
offer natural soap, a superior product that everyone needs. The
group urges friends and supporters across the country to use
November's Natural Soap because, "clean and pure cleans
best," and a purchase supports important work.
Supporting prisoners and their loved ones'  mission
to educate the public and urge sentencing reform, is work accomplished
under the burden of devastating, long-term incarceration. Sales
of November's Natural
Soap supplements the tireless support of single-parent households,
elderly retired couples, and those who are in prison.
You might not be able to be at November Coalition's facility
-- painting, or pounding nails, laminating posters, making &
labeling soap, processing prisoner mail -- but you can be a virtual
partner. We invite everyone to help us commemorate our progress
and the solemn nature of our mission. It's easy to be involved.
The November Coalition steadfastly relies on public support,
your membership, donations
or gifts are appreciated and tax deductible.
 * Mark Ingraham,
Martha Christman's brother, died in federal custody on August
1, 1997.
* Jim Rosenfield, the chronicler of our early meeting minutes,
died in December 2000.
* Nora and Chuck married in 2001, and work for the November Coalition
today.
* Robert Lunday, long-time Coalition benefactor, died June
2002.
* Mark Harrison, an early contributing writer, died November
2003.
* Kyle Lindquist, a founding prisoner member at FCI Oxford.
died at Leavenworth USP, December 2003.
In Memoriam
|
Robert Lunday |
Mark Harrison |
Kyle Lindquist |
|
Mark Ingraham XXXXXXX
Jim Rosenfeld |
* Tom Murlowski (having completed a leave of absence to
assist his brother's family when twins came along) continues
to lead the team office personnel and volunteers in Colville,
Washington.
* Gary Callahan has served 14 years of a 27 1/2 year sentence.
For more information e-mail: moreinfo@november.org
|
