D.A.M. formed from a cohort of U.S. Military veterans, conscientious objectors and war resisters, social justice activists and community organizers from the San Francisco Bay Area. The idea is to connect anti-war activists and war resisters from the US with those in Israel/Palestine to work towards forms of more substantive support and solidarity for each other’s movements and to work collectively against the destructive forces militarism on a global scale. Once those who hold a vision of a more peaceful world are united, the road becomes that much clearer.
Our Team:
Stephen Funk |
In 2003, US Marine Stephen Funk became the first person in the military to publicly denounce the War in Iraq and refuse to serve. He applied for conscientious objection and traveled the country for several months to speak out against the war, encouraging military service members to examine their own beliefs about the war, informing others about conscientious objection, and to caution young people to think twice before enlisting. For his public stand he was sentenced to six months in military prison, demoted to private, fined, and given a bad conduct discharge. Since being released he continues activism with several groups, primarily as the San Francisco chapter president of Iraq Veterans Against the War. During his public refusal he made contact with Israeli refusniks who were also making a public stand against military service, with which he felt bonded by their shared struggles. Stephen hopes to connect and share dialogue with these individuals and with others fighting oppression, occupation, and state-sponsored violence.
Sarah Lazare |
Sarah is an organizer and Program Coordinator with Courage to Resist, a national organization that supports members of the US military who refuse orders to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is also a freelance writer and columnist, with articles that have appeared in publications ranging from
Adbusters to
ZNet, and is currently co-editing a book about GI resistance against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sarah has a background in labor, community, and anti-war organizing and has done such organizing in the several cities where she has lived, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and Springfield, Illinois. Sarah believes in the power of dialogue and community to build powerful international coalitions against war, empire, and colonialism.
Matthew Edwards |
Matt is a conscientious objector from this most recent war in Iraq. He was discharged on March 19, 2003, the first day of the bombing campaign in Iraq, from the United States Marine Corps. Prior to his discharge he was held by the Marines for 5 months and was subjected to harsh and often illegal treatment that included food and sleep deprivation and physical mistreatment that culminated in a broken hip and finally a medical discharge. Matt was very involved with UC Santa Cruz Students Against War (
SAW) organizing against the militarization of education and military recruitment and participated in a campaign that ultimately succeeded in ejecting military recruiters from the campus. He lived in Damascus, Syria for just shy of one year where he lived, worked, and studied, picking up conversational Arabic. While there he was exposed to the refugee and social crises associated with the war and occupation of Iraq. Matt currently lives in San Francisco organizing with Iraq Veterans Against the War (
IVAW).
David Zlutnick |
David has spent the last several years involved in social justice movements, mostly focusing on labor struggles, war opposition, and most recently housing justice. For several years he was involved in counter-recruitment and demilitarization campaigns aimed at getting the military and war profiteers out of high schools and colleges as well as participating in direct action organizing. David also has a strong history within independent media, both written and visual. He has worked with numerous independent print publications and his writing has been published in numerous media outlets, including The Friendly Fire Collective, of which he is a founding member. Also a founding member of Media Insurgente, David worked to produce multiple films through this organization that were shown widely within both the United States and internationally. David now runs a small film production group—Upheaval Productions—that released its latest documentary,
Dos Americas: The Reconstruction of New Orleans, in 2008.
Eddie Falcon |
Eddie served in the United States Air Force from December 2001- December 2005. He is an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran and also served in the Hurricane Katrina aid campaign. While enlisted, Eddie learned about the dehumanization and displacement people face at home and abroad under occupation. He began speaking out against the war in colleges and high schools through out the Bay Area with student anti-war groups while attending classes at San Francisco City College. He has since spoken against the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations across the globe including in Tokyo, Paris, and across Germany. He currently organizes with local San Francisco community groups, acts as the San Francisco
IVAW Chapter Vice President, and is applying to transfer to UC Berkeley. He feels that connecting and sharing struggles with all peoples is vital for social change starting from the ground up.
Clare Bayard |
Clare is an organizer with Catalyst Project and War Resisters League working to build support for antiwar veterans and people resisting the military from the inside, and to connect domestic racial and economic justice work with organizing to end U.S. wars abroad. Clare has been involved in Palestine solidarity work since the beginning of the second intifada. Clare’s father is a Vietnam War veteran turned peace activist, and growing up in a household impacted by war influenced her path towards social justice work. As an organizer with Catalyst, Clare has worked in a range of movements for global justice, immigrant rights, and Gulf Coast Reconstruction. She has also been privileged to work with and learn from the War Resisters International network. Clare is helping raise a six year old, and wants her to inherit a world that’s moving away from militarism towards cooperative, healthy, self-governing communities and models of sustainable living. Clare is excited to organize with
DAM, which brings together two of her deepest political commitments: building the global movement against militarism, and Palestinian liberation.
