For Immediate Release: July 12, 2004 Oldest U.S. peace group marks 90th year in Los Angeles The Fellowship of Reconciliation-USA, the oldest interfaith, pacifist organization in the United States, celebrates its 90th anniversary with its National Conference August 5th through 9th at Occidental College in Los Angeles. The theme of the conference is "Organizing the Real Superpower: People of the World Choose Peace." Founded on the eve of World War I, the Fellowship of Reconciliation has opposed violence as a means of resolving conflict through almost a century of unremitting strife. Undaunted, the Fellowship has strived nonviolently for justice, equality, human rights, peace and eventual reconciliation. It's successes include: the "velvet revolutions" in Eastern Europe that ended communism, the peaceful transformation of the Soviet Union, the success of the civil rights movement in the United States, and the implementation of post-conflict Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa, Peru, Ghana, Sierra Leone and elsewhere. But with war still the remedy of choice, there is much more to be done. To galvanize principled people of faith and peace FOR has lined up an impressive list of speakers including civil rights leaders, war resisters, religious leaders, human rights activists and experts in nonviolent movements here and abroad. There will be educational and inspiring workshops, nonviolence training sessions for adults and youth, stirring entertainment by area artists, and a Muslim-Jewish Peace Walk of unity through the streets of Los Angeles. Speakers include veteran peace activist and three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly; the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire and the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church; Civil Rights leader Rev. James Lawson; actor and human rights activist Mike Farrell; and anti-war activist Fernando Suarez del Solar, whose Marine Corps son died in Iraq. (Full list of speakers attached.) Workshops cover conscientious objection and the draft, civil liberties and immigrants' rights, the war in Iraq, and the Fellowship's work for justice and peace in the Middle East and Colombia. FOR's Peacemaker Training Institute will conduct nonviolence youth training and the Victim Offender Mediation Association will hold a one-day workshop on mediation and reconciliation. For detailed information about the conference go to www.forusa.org  To arrange interviews with speakers, or for general information, contact: Jennifer Hyman, Communications Coordinator (845)358-4601  communications@forusa.org Anthony Marsh, Conference Organizer (310) 228-7759   amarsh@forusa.org