We are looking for a WILPF-US Representative to the US Social Forum (USSF)'s National Planning Committee. WILPF-US has had a representative on the NPC, the decision-making body of the organization, since the first USSF in 2007.

The Drones Quilt Project was created as a way to acknowledge the deaths caused by these drones, and to memorialize the victims. Participants in the Drones Quilt Project are asked to make a quilt block, containing the name of a drone victim.  Blocks are also made to remember the unidentified victims through the words “Unnamed Woman,” “Beloved Grandfather,” “Cherished Daughter,” or something similar.

It is very exciting to announce The Global Climate Convergence, a new national and international campaign that is “springing up” just in time for WILPF members, Branches and friends to join the Call to Action for Earth Day to May Day, 10 Days to Change Course.

In January we continue our campaign for Nuclear Weapons Abolition by 2020. Alice Slater and Jackie Cabasso will be available to meet with WILPF branches and their communities on our legislative agenda including finding more co-sponsors for HR 1650 and promoting the US Conference of Mayors Resolution for nuclear weapons abolition by 2020. Jackie can also  explain and promote planned  UN negotiations or a Middle East WMD Free Zone.

Can you make a last minute gift to support women’s peacebuilding in the coming year? WILPF Secretary General Madeleine Rees reports that our Geneva team’s efforts to ensure Syrian women’s full participation in upcoming peace talks are bearing fruit. WILPF’s focus has been on behind the scenes advocacy with international leaders and on building the capacity of Syrian women’s civil society organizations to take on leadership roles in post-conflict peacebuilding. 

Two WILPF women are now returning from the Haifa, Israel and the International Conference for a Middle East Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Odile Hugonot-Haber, representing the Middle East (ME) Issue Committee, and Jackie Cabasso, representing DISARM/End Wars, will be available to WILPF-US Branches and their communities with action tools for all of us in the months ahead.

Ministers from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries who believe that global trade will lift all boats convened in Asia from Dec. 3-10. More than 90 Indonesian organizations and social movements called for a Global Day of Action on Dec. 3, the WTO opening day, but these were not covered in the US corporate-owned media. 

Ensuring that women have better access to and control of natural resources such as land, water, forests and minerals can improve the chances of long-term peace and recovery in war-torn countries, according to a new report released by the United Nations on November 6. 

For nearly 100 years, you and our foremothers in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom have created and nurtured a worldwide social movement for just and sustainable peace, working locally and globally to strengthen civil society and prevent war. Thank you for your work, and your contributions over the last year. We ask you to renew your generosity so that this work can continue into the future.

In November, as we approach the end of our 2013 campaign to abolish nuclear weapons by 2020, we close with a progress report. We believe we have built solid foundations for our continuing work on ridding our world of these most monstrous and immoral of weapons.