WILPF United States Section

Welcome to the website of WILPF, US Section

Plan Now for October 2009: A Month of Anti-War Protest

Plan Now for October: A Month of Protest

US Soldiers in AfghanistanOctober has several dates with significance for the peace movement. In October 2009, we'll mark the eighth year of the U.S. war in Afghanistan and seven years since Congress passed the resolution authorizing war against Iraq. In addition, October commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Vietnam Moratorium, which brought hundreds of thousands into the streets to protest the war.

Designate October 17 as a day for mass rallies, marches, coordinated local and regional demonstrations and other forms of protest.

WILPF’s International Board Plans 2010 Meeting in India

WILPF’s International Board Plans 2010 Meeting in India
(Information on individual registration will be circulated to U.S. Section members when it is available.)

Preparations are underway for the next International Board (IB) Meeting of WILPF, scheduled to take place from 4 – 10 January 2010, at the Gandhi University (Gujarat Vidyapith) in Ahemedabad, India.
 
The Gandhi University has kindly agreed to host us for this meeting. The main campus of Gujarat Vidyapith is located on the Ashram Road, Ahmedabad. Spread over 21 acres of land, the main campus is known as "The Mahatma Gandhi Parisar".  More information about the university can be found at
http://www.gujaratvidyapith.org 

A Nuclear-Free Future? Yes we can!

Statue at United Nations
Let us beat our nuclear swords into plowshares.
Statue at the United Nations in New York where the NPT Review conference will take place in May 2010.

President Obama recently gave a historic speech in Prague where he said "One nuclear weapon exploded in one city - be it New York or Moscow, Islamabad or Mumbai, Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague - could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And no matter where it happens, there is no end to what the consequences may be - for our global safety, security, society, economy, and ultimately our survival."

Obama has pledged to make the U.S. a leader in nuclear disarmament and abolition. You can help make sure that promise is kept.

Sign the online international petition for nuclear weapon abolition that was developed by WILPF and our partner organizations in United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ).

Take Action The petition will be delivered to Obama and presented at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference at the U.N. next year. WILPF, AFSC, Peace Action and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation are already gathering signatures. United for Peace and Justice will officially launch the petition in the U.S. at the start of August's Nuclear-Free Future month.

There is also a version of the petition available for printing here. Local affinity groups or WILPF branches should feel free to put their own local address on the petition instead of the national office, but all petitions should be mailed to WILPF's National Office at 565 Boylston Street, Boston, MA  02116. Deadline is April 15, 2010.

May 2009: Statement on US Involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan

 

Statement on US Involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Click here to view and download a pdf version of this statement

Click here to read the letter to Congress urging aid be given to Afghan women

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section, opposes military action to resolve the armed conflict in Afghanistan. Specifically, we cannot support the sending of 30,000 additional U.S. troops into the country and the use of drone aircraft there and in Pakistan. We call for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO military forces.

It should be self evident that the use of violent force by another country cannot lead to the elimination of violence and armed conflict within Afghanistan. The very people the U.S. claims must be protected from Taliban insurgents are actually endangered by the presence of U.S and NATO troops. According to figures provided by the United Nations, at least 2100 Afghan civilians died in conflict related deaths in 2008. Of these, at least 1000 were killed by Taliban or other insurgents, who often target communities where U.S. military forces have had a presence. At least 800 civilians were killed in 2008 by Afghan government forces or by occupying U.S. and NATO forces, and of these at least 445 were killed by air strikes. Afghan women’s organizations, such as the Revolutionary Association of Afghan Women, and women’s organizations involved in in-country initiatives, such as Madre and the Global Fund for Women, have consistently stated that the occupying U.S. military presence increases the level of violence in Afghan communities resulting in more civilian deaths and abductions and more dangerous conditions for women seeking to participate in public life, peace building, and civilian governance.

Follow Up: Vandenburg AFB Nuclear Missile Launch Protest

The nuclear missile test launch was scheduled for June 29   The protest vigil began just before midnight on June 28 and continued until after the launch occurred.  

More than thirty people gathered, ranging in age from 19 to 84, at the front gate of Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County, Californiato protest the launch of a high alert ICBM Minuteman III from Vandenberg to Kwajalein atoll. Protest was organized by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (www.space4peace.org).

Vandenberg base is a key component of the U.S.SPACE COMMAND and is home to U.S. missile defense interceptors.  It is the major launch site for both interceptor tests and military satellites. This was the first nuclear missile test since the election of President Obama.

Take the Profit out of Health Insurance

“Measures to prevent ill health and disease are as important as the availability of appropriate medical treatment and care. It is therefore essential to take a holistic approach to health, whereby both prevention and care are placed within the context of environmental policy...."
     

Get Ready for Mother Earth Day

As the twentieth century had been called the “century of human rights,” this new era would be known as the “century of the rights of Mother Earth.”
-  Evo Morales, President of Bolivia


On April 22 this year, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a Bolivian-led resolution to proclaim this day each year International Mother Earth Day.

You might ask why, since Earth Day – designated as April 22 in 1970  – is now celebrated in many countries, and from the 1970s on many countries passed environmental laws.

The answer is that worldwide, oil, natural gas, coal extraction and thermal energy production has accelerated, with fossil fuel use contributing to global warming. Most national governments collaborate with the multinational energy corporations or simply look the other way when it comes to environmental destruction, human rights and public health abuses, appropriation of land, and the waste and contamination of water that causes sickness and death.

Local Branch Activities

May, 2009: Spotlight on Santa Cruz, CA.

Developing WILPF’s Legislative Priorities at the Local Level


By Jan Harwood

Rescue Democracy, Curb Corporations committee:

Six Santa Cruz WILPF members attended a Democracy School training conducted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) in May, 2008 and formed the  branch's Corporation vs Democracy Committee the next month.  After study and discussion, the group focused on two activities.

The first was to work with the existing Light-Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) and Californians Against the Spray groups in Santa Cruz, to develop an ordinance that will prevent any government entity or corporation from spraying any toxic substance in Santa Cruz without the express permission of the people of Santa Cruz.  The ordinance is in its final editing and will be presented to the Santa Cruz City Council after further community organizing for support.

The second activity was to develop a schedule of events to educate the public about the undue power of corporations over our lives, our health, our education and our government, with the goal of training people to take action to restore democracy.  The series is called “Restore Democracy: Curb Corporate Power.”  To date, there have been five events in this series:  Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, speaking about the bail-out of Wall Street; the CELDF trainers holding a public meeting on the spray ordinance; and David Dilworth of Helping Our Peninsula’s Environment (HOPE) explaining how to revoke the charters of corporations which do public harm.  In December  showed the film Are Corporations People? and  Jim Mosher of Felton Flow described how their community fought and won back their water rights against a mega-corporation.

The series continued with a public talk and trainng earlier this month featuring David Cobb / Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap of Democracy Unlimited Humboldt County (DUHC). The goal of the training was the formation of issue coalitions to develop actions in the Bay Area to assert the peoples’ rights against corporate power. We expect to continue with educational events, skill training and community actions."

US WILPF Letter to US Senate Urging Immediate Ratification of CEDAW

Click here to view and download a pdf version of this letter. 

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), U.S. Section, calls upon the U.S. Senate to immediately ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the CEDAW Convention, the historic international bill of rights for women’s human rights.  As an international non-governmental organization with UN consultative status, WILPF was a vital part of the decades-long process culminating in the adoption of the CEDAW Convention. In 1974, WILPF formally instructed its sections in various countries to engage their governments in the crafting of an international human rights convention which would “bring together the various aspects of women’s rights to form international law,” because we understood that “only through the intensive participation of women can best possible development in each country . . . and world peace [be] achieved.”

The CEDAW Convention was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 18, 1979 and signed, on behalf of the United States, by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Yet, thirty years later, this powerful treaty has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Senate. The US is the only country to sign but not ratify the Convention.

US WILPF Signs Letter Opposing Budget Request for Aid to Israel

TO: Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs

The undersigned organizations are writing to urge you to oppose the President’s FY2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Israel, an increase of $225 million in military aid compared to FY2009.  At this time of acute economic crisis, as well as from a political, legal, security, and moral standpoint, our country should not continue to provide Israel with this blank check.

Israel consistently misuses U.S. weapons purchased through FMF to commit grave human rights abuses against Palestinians and systematic violations of international law in its illegal 42-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. Some of those violations are documented every year in the State Department's own human rights reports; far more are documented by the United Nations and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. 

Single Payer Health Insurance Is Coming!

Single Payer is coming....
by Mary Zepernick

Click here to see WILPF's endorsement of federal legislation known as the National Health Insurance Act (HR 676) 

As songwriter Leonard Cohen sings in his ironic rumbling voice, "Democracy is coming, to the U.S.A.!."

Indeed, people from California to Maine and in between, weary of waiting for gifts bestowed from on high, are increasingly claiming their right to make decisions about what does and does not go on in their communities - from stopping harms to creating new institutions. And what these activists, many of them speaking up and stepping out for the first time, are most dramatically encountering is the power of government and corporate complicity - giving rich political meaning to the term codependency.

The Applicability of THE CHILD SOLDIER PROTOCOL in the United States

What is the Child Soldier Protocol?
The Child Soldier Protocol, formally known as the U.N. Convention of the Rights of the Child's Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (CRC OPAC), seeks to protect children (anyone under 18) from the harmful impact of exposure and participation in armed conflict. In January 2003, the Senate unanimously ratified the Child Soldier Protocol and the U.S. became legally bound by the protocol's international standards on children.  See below for key provisions of the Protocol.

Why is it relevant?
The Child Soldier Protocol - according to the U.S. government's first report on its compliance with the Protocol - requires no implementing legislation, which means that by ratifying, the U.S. is now legally obligated to put all of its provisions into action.*   Treaties, such as the Child Soldier Protocol, once ratified by Congress are "the supreme law of the land,"* and as the Protocol does not require further legislation to be in effect it currently binds all branches of government on the federal and state level.

White Privilege Training Offered by Building the Beloved Community Issue Committee

Sha'an Mouliert training at NY Metro Branch

Are you ready to be a part of the change?

Racism is a fierce, ever present, challenging force; one that has structured the thinking and actions of individuals and institutions since the beginning of U.S. history.  To understand racism and effectively begin dismantling it requires an equally fierce, consistent and committed effort.  Please join us as we embark on this most crucial journey and begin to realize our vision of a racially just society.

Open Letter to Secretary Hillary Clinton re Support of International Criminal Court

April 16, 2009
 
The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW Room 7226
Washington, DC 20520
  
Dear Madam Secretary:

We write to urge that the current review of United States policy on the International Criminal Court [ICC] be completed quickly, and that it lead to three results: US participation in the Court’s meetings to complete its formation; extensive and thorough US cooperation with and support to the Court in its prosecutions and trials; and action to declare emphatically that US relations with the Court are in an entirely new era. The historic ICC arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir makes these steps especially urgent. The United States is now in the odd and unsustainable position of strongly endorsing the most important action that the ICC has ever taken while evading any commitment to support or participate in it as an institution.  

Articles on Water from Peace & Freedom Magazine: Recent Years

Click on the links below to view and download pdf versions of articles related to water that have appeared in WILPF's Peace and Freedom Magazine in recent years.

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