Committee Updates: Give WILPF US Membership for the Holidays; Join Nov. 10 Program Call; W$D Supports Public Banking

November 2020

Six Reasons to Give WILPF US Membership as a Holiday Gift

By the WILPF US Development Committee

  1. Introduce your friends and family to WILPF US – emphasize young women and men…nieces and nephews, grandchildren who are teenagers, etc. Create a relationship between someone you love and the organization you love.
  2. Fewer packages to send during this pandemic season.  
  3. No worries about delivery or lost packages. Less waste.
  4. Help Get the US back on track to women’s rights, promote peace, change the system! Build our capacity for peace and freedom.  
  5. Decommercialize the holidays. We’re all aware how little material STUFF we need these days.   
  6. Support the organization that you love. What an opportunity!

How it works:

Before December 2 for Hanukkah
Before December 16 for Christmas and Kwanzaa

Send a note (snail mail) to Chris Wilbeck at the WILPF US Office (PO Box 13075, Des Moines IA 5031) with the following info:

  1. Your list of designated gift recipients with their names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails for everyone to whom you would like to give a $35 WILPF membership as a holiday gift.  
  2. Note WHAT HOLIDAY you intend this gift for: Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or the Winter Holidays.  
  3. Enclose your check for $35 x (number) of individuals you are giving this gift to. Make check payable to WILPF US. (FYI: purchased memberships are not tax deductible)
  4. Mail your check with the note with all the above info.

Your Gift Recipient will get: 

  1. A HOLIDAY CARD affirming your holiday gift membership.
  2. ENGAGEMENT OPTIONS offering a list of ways they can get involved.
  3. Later they’ll receive a really spiffy NEW MEMBER PACKET.

You'll get an emailed confirmation when your gift is sent!


Join the Open-to-All-Members Program Call on Tuesday, November 10

By Joan Goddard
Program Committee Chair

Mark your calendars: Tuesday, November 10: 5 pm PST / 8 pm EST 
Join us Tuesday evening on November 10 for an open-to-all-members Program call. Learn about and get involved in the recently-adopted WILPF US Call for Peace and the national issue committees, as well as the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

We will share other program-related information and ask for your ideas and commitment. If you have been on an open WILPF US Program call before, you are pre-registered. If you are not sure, please register by clicking here. All those registered should receive a reminder email message from Michael on Monday evening 11/9; if you do not get this reminder, please register again.

Questions? Joan Goddard, 2020 WILPF US Program Chair - joan [at] rujo [dot] org


W$D Supports Public Banking Campaigns

By Marybeth Gardam
Chair, Women, Money, & Democracy Committee

The big banks and transnational corporations we all bailed out with public money over the last 15 years have thrived. It’s payback time for the American people.We’re asking our members and the public across the country to connect with local public banking initiatives in their city or state, or begin a local dialogue to bring everyone necessary to the table to create a public banking alternative in your area.    

Starting in October WILPF’s W$D Committee is publishing a Public Banking Toolkit that will be downloadable and printable. It is an anthology of important facts, articles, talking points, and tools to promote public banking, connect with local initiatives, or start some of your own. The toolkit can be used for study groups, advocacy work and outreach.  To order the Toolkit or for more info contact mbgardam@gmail.com.

Why Is WILPF US Advocating for Public Banking?

Why advocate for public banking? Because economic inequality and corruption lead inevitably to conflict and violence. Economic justice and people-centered economic policy help support peace. 

Big transnational banks are increasingly wielding a huge amount of power and influence in the US and across the planet. They are using deposits the public entrusts to them in the form of savings and investments, including state and corporate pension funds. They are charging cities and states obscene account servicing fees that rob communities of funding for essential services.  They use our local investments, savings, pension plans, etc.:

  • to bankroll extractive exploitive industries like mining and fossil fuels; 
  • to exert control and to influence elected officials to gut regulation and enforcement;
  • for threatening democracy and shaping policies that favor the 1 percent;
  • to bankroll weapons dealers and manufacturers, fund more war-making and defeat efforts to demilitarize and make peace.

Our allies in peace activism, environmental activism, gun control, and those working against corruption in government favor public banking as an alternative to huge too-big-to-fail banks, which seek profits for a few, not well-being for all.

Divesting from holding stocks in these huge banks (see list below) and refusing to maintain accounts at big transnational banks are also effective strategies.

The Women, Money & Democracy Committee meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 8:30 pm EST / 5:30 pm PST, by Zoom. See our webpage for more information about our other projects.  

Contact the chair to get a zoom invitation and join the committee. 

Banks Financing Indigenous Rights Violations & Desecration of Our Earth

ABN Amro Capital
Alberta Treasury Branches
Banca IMI
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentina
Bank Hapoalim B.M
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch
Bank of China
Bank of Hawaii
Bank of Montreal
Bank of Nova Scotia/Scotiabank
Bank of Taiwan
Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ
Barclays
Bayerische Landesbank
BBVA Compass
Branch Banking & Trust Company
Caisse centrale desjardins
Canadian Imperial Bank
Citibank
Citizens Bank
China Construction Bank Corp
China Merchants Bank Co Ltd
Comerica Bank
Community Trust
Credit Agricole
Credit Suisse
Deutsche Bank
DNB Capital/ASA
E Sun Commercial Bank
Export Development Canada
Fifth Third Bank (Ohio)
First Commercial Bank Canada
Goldman Sachs
HSBC Bank
Hua Nan Commercial Bank
Huntington National Bank
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
ING Bank
Intesa Sanpaolo
JP Morgan Chase
Loop Capital Markets
Mega International Commercial
Mizuho Bank
Morgan Stanley
National Bank of Canada
Natixis
PNC Bank
Regions Bank
Royal Bank of Canada
Royal Bank of Scotland
Societe Generale
State Bank of India
Sumitomo Mitsui Bank
SunTrust (now Truist) 
Taiwan Coorperative Bank
Toronto Dominion (TD)
UBS
United Overseas Bank Limited (Canada)
US Bank
Wells Fargo

 

 

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