Plan Your October Treaties Solidarity Action!

by Marybeth Gardam

The last Solidarity Action of 2019 is approaching. The month of October has been selected by members as their time to stand together across the US to promote the wisdom and efficacy of treaties, collaboration with our global neighbors to reduce conflict, settle wars, and keep the peace.

At a time when our current government is rapidly replacing diplomacy with bullying tactics and disparaging efforts to work collaboratively with other nations, the actions members plan and carry out in October are necessary and can contribute to the understanding of the roots of war and the ingredients for peace.  

The theme of our Treaties events unfolding across the US this month is Treaties Keep the Peace. Broken Treaties Lead to War. There are lots of tools in our Toolkit and lots of ways to raise awareness in your community.

Tootlkit
Download Toolkit as one Zip file

1. Banner (see graphic above)
   This banner is a great way to raise your visibility and promote your Treaty Action. It’s downloadable Scroll down to see the banner and download it.  Save it to your computer, then send it off to be printed at your local printer or at Vistaprint.   
2. Talking Points
   Use these to formulate your own letters to Congress or use our sample letters (below). These can be posted for the public if you do postcard or letter writing actions/events.   
3. Sample Letters to Congress
   Use as much or as little of these letters as you wish to ‘make them your own’, in your own voice.
4. Four Treaties That Matter Handout
   The handout focuses on four timely and actionable treaties and suggests how people can engage to make a difference.
   This  8.5x11, 2-sided, 1-fold document can print in color or black and white. On your home printer, select ‘double-sided’ copy and then select ‘flip on the SHORT edge’ in order to get it to print correctly. Or send it to a local printer or copy shop with those same instructions. Best to ask to see a proof.
5. A Guide for Actions
   Recommends ways members can celebrate and lift up this timely Solidarity Action and includes, as a few examples:
6. Tips for Lobbying Visits
7. Speakers List
8. Videos on Treaties
9. End Whole Nuclear Era
   Use this handout from the Disarm Committee to promote Nuclear Abolition with the End the Whole Nuclear Era Campaign. 

Treaties That Matter Handout. This handout focuses on these four timely and actionable treaties and suggests how people can engage to make a difference:
1-The Iran Nuclear "Deal" (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – JCPOA)
2-The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Treaty
3-The Korean War Peace Treat – The “Treaty that never was, YET”
4-The Vienna Convention of 1961 – about sovereignty and protection of embassies on foreign soil.

The handout also points to links for learning more about each of these treaties, includes a place for branches to add their contact information, and provides information on how to join WILPF. 

Some of the ways members can celebrate and lift up this timely Solidarity Action include:

• Invite a speaker to address a public forum on any one of the 4 Treaties featured in the handout, or on treaties in general. You can often find a speaker at your local university Political Science, Peace Studies, International Programs, or International Law departments. You can also refer to the Speaker List in the Toolkit. 
• Invite the public to attend a gathering to celebrate the many paths to PEACE. You can utilize the speakers described above but also widen the circle by including children’s choirs singing about peace, performance artists to do a reading about peace, graphic artists to paint a work of art representing peace right at the event, or a poet or spoken word artist to perform a piece about peace.   
• Include an ACTION component. Invite attendees to write postcards to Members of Congress to support the actions recommended for each of the 4 Treaties featured in our handout. Or invite attendees to join you at a lobbying visit to your Congress member. Be sure to announce the date and time and gather folks a little early so you can rehearse roles and what your precise ask will be.  
• Write letters to the editor or OpEds in the name of your branch and as individuals using the Talking Points in the Toolkit.
• Ask to present the facts from Cherrill Spencer’s whitepaper at your public library, place of worship, neighborhood organization, at your community continuing education program, or at a high school or university class on political science near you. Cherrill Spencer of the Palo Alto, CA WILPF branch has written a lengthy and very detailed whitepaper on the history, definition, and use of treaties, explaining some of the most important treaties the US has signed on to, and some that we have stubbornly refused to ratify. You can receive a copy of this whitepaper by contacting Cherrill at cherrill.m.spencer@gmail.com
• If your community is lucky enough to have a community television or radio station, ask to present a short program during October on Treaties as a means of keeping the peace. Use our Treaties Toolkit to prepare.     
• Plan a lobbying visit to your member of Congress to insist that our government invest in peace by keeping and treaties instead of endless (and expensive) wars. Use our Toolkit to prepare for your visit. And publicize a local training to gather allies to join you on this visit.  
• Bring your banner and signs to any regular weekly Peace Vigils. Use the handouts to distribute to passersby. Remember to identify yourselves as WILPF by wearing our sashes!
• Be sure to identify yourselves as WILPF members in writing, in action, and in lobbying visits. Wear your WILPF Sash (available at https://wilpfus.org/story/support-materials). Bring your banner or signs.   
• Remember to ask folks to SIGN IN if they agree with you! Even at events or simple street actions. Keep their contact information to invite them to your next branch meeting!
• Document your action! Send reports and photos of your actions to newsletter@wilpfus.org.

We’re stronger when we stand together on a single day or week or month…as WILPF, clearly visible and raising our voices with good support materials and follow up!   

Use this month as a time to powerfully remind the public that WILPF’s vision of a feminist peace supports International Treaties as a diplomatic tool to fairly address conflict, prevent war, and end hostilities that punish innocent civilians.

Keep Space for Peace Week

One of the treaties that’s under threat now is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bans the stationing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in outer space, prohibits military activities on celestial bodies, and details legally binding rules governing the peaceful exploration and use of space. President Trump and Vice President Pence have been enthusiastically developing a “Space Force.”

The week of October 5-12 is the annual Keep Space for Peace Week. There are events planned in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Washington DC in the US, and around the world in Canada, England, India, Italy, Nepal, and South Africa. Please let us know if you plan or attend an event, and send photos and reports to Ellen Thomas for the WILPF US Facebook page.