Our very own National Secretary-Treasurer Everett Kelley has been awarded the Roving Ambassador for Peace Prize from the World Peace Prize Awarding Council (WPPAC) for his tireless work promoting workers’ rights and social justice.
WPPAC consists of 14-member Board of International and Interfaith judges. The board is comprised of representatives of the world’s nine major religions: Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Russian Orthodox, and Zoroastrianism.
"Working for peace, locally or globally, means, in effect and of necessity, working for social justice. Therefore, members of the labor movement are ideally qualified to be recipients of our World Peace Prize. Dr. Kelley eminently deserves this Prize,” said Father Sean McManus, president of the Irish National Caucus and chief judge of the WPPAC. “As Pope John Paul II has said, ‘peace is the fruit of solidarity.’ And the American Labor Movement is dedicated to solidarity, which Pope John Paul II raised to the status of a virtue in his Encyclical: Sollicitudo rei socialis (“Solicitude for social concerns”) 1988.”
NST Kelley, a native of Alabama and a Baptist Minister, said he was honored to be chosen for the prize and thanked WPPAC, the labor movement, and his AFGE family for continuing to strive for peace and justice.
“As a Roving Ambassador for Peace, it is believed that peace is the fruit of justice. This is a fundamental truth and basic principle that asserts that working for peace means that one is for social justice. Without justice, there is no love, faith, equality, fairness, or decency,” said NST Kelley at the award ceremony on July 9 at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. “When you look back at the rich history of this great organization you soon come to understand that the fight for social justice is the same fight for peace. And it is the same fight that labor is in.”
Past recipients of the prize in the labor movement include AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre, American Postal Workers Union Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Powell, and AFL-CIO president emeritus John Sweeney.
Congratulations, NST Kelley!
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