Program: Saturday, August 21

9:05 AM PDT
Prepare for 2022/2024: Securing the Right to Vote & Have Your Vote Counted

Alarmed by the historic voter turnout and unprecedented vote-by-mail in 2020, mostly Republican state legislatures continue to pass bills that continue to increase discrimination, disenfranchisement, and voter confusion. Regrettably, the US Constitution does not clearly state the right to vote. Please join civil and voting rights experts Jan BenDor of the Michigan Election Reform Alliance and Barbara Arnwine, president and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, to learn the extent to which bills currently in Congress will secure the right to vote and having your vote counted but, most importantly, what we must mobilize to do now in our states before time runs out to secure the right to vote and have our vote counted in 2022 and 2024.

Nancy Price, the moderator, joined WILPF in 2002, first with “Challenge Corporate Power/Assert the People’s Rights,” then “Save the Water” campaigns. Currently she is an At-Large Board Member and Earth Democracy Issue Committee Co-chair. In 2011 when “Save the Water” expanded to Earth Democracy, Nancy and the leadership team created campaign materials on the human right to water, bottled water, environmental impacts of free trade agreements, Climate Justice+Women+Peace, Human Right to Safe Food, and Rights of Nature. Most recently, Earth Democracy has focused on the impact of war on the environment and helped create the militarypoisons.org project on contamination of water with PFAS and their impact on public health. Find new campaigns, projects, and actions on the website. 

Barbara R. Arnwine, esq, president and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, is internationally renowned for contributions to critical justice issues, including the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the 2006 reauthorization of provisions of the Voting Rights Act. She is a part of many notable organizations concerning civil rights advocacy. As a graduate of Scripps College and Duke University School of Law, she continues to champion civil rights and racial justice issues nationally and internationally in the areas of housing and lending, women’s rights, especially issues affecting intersectionality and African American women and girls, community development, employment, voting, education, policing restructuring, and environmental justice.  Her groundbreaking civil rights and human rights advocacy has been honored with many prestigious awards.

Jan BenDor is a founding member of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Michigan Election Reform Alliance.org, which advocates for voter protection, election verification, and comprehensive election security. A state-accredited elections administrator and election worker trainer, with lengthy experience as a deputy township clerk, she volunteers as the Michigan Election ReformAlliance Statewide Coordinator. MERA co-led the successful 2018 effort to stop gerrymandering in Michigan, passing a state constitutional amendment to establish an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. Jan joined the Board of Directors of the National Election Defense Coalition in 2014.

10:00 AM PDT
Turning Down Post-Trump Escalation

WILPF San Diego, the Peace Resource Center (PRC), and the Meta Peace Team (MPT) will create an interactive space where participants will learn non-violent tactics and de-escalation skills. The PRC is a membership organization and community clearinghouse of information on peace and social justice issues and activities. Through their active programs and by promoting networking among peace-related organizations, PRC offers nonviolent alternatives to conflict resolution and carries on a program of peace education throughout San Diego County. The MPT started in 1993 and works to empower people to engage in active nonviolent peacemaking. Anne Barron from WILPF San Diego and PRC and members of the Meta Peace Team will facilitate this training. 

Anne Barron has been a long-time peace and justice advocate in her communities, involved in study circles, human rights campaigns, direct action, and restorative practices. She is currently a board member of the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, working on criminal justice and educational justice projects. Her activism began in Davis in 1982, for women’s rights and against apartheid.  She participated in the successful student-led movement to divest the University of California from companies that supported apartheid in South Africa at the time. She now is busy providing conflict resolution and de-escalation training at the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, and provides direct assistance to groups planning marches, rallies, and protests in San Diego.  She also is working and evolving a Peace Economy, which examines and promotes ways to transition from a war economy to economic peace.  

Carroll Boone has studied & practiced nonviolence based on the teachings of Gandhi and Martin Luther King and their followers. She designed a class based on her studies and experience (and the experiences of her students) that she named Respect Based Communication; named because she finds that respecting differences is the most difficult practice in a world that promotes “being right”; separates us into categories; and teaches us to shame and blame. Carroll has worked with multiple community groups: Nonviolent Peace Force, Creating a Culture of Peace, United African American Ministerial Action Council (UAAMAC), Peace with Justice Ministry, and Hate-Free San Diego. As a Peace Activist, Carroll is also a certified facilitator for Alternatives to Violence (AVP) and International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP). Carroll moved to La Mesa, CA in 2003 to be an in-town Grandmother. 

Mary Hanna, M.Ed., has been the Operations Manager for Meta Peace Team since 2005. She coordinates MPT’s Nonviolence Skills Training program and the MPT Internship program. As a member of MPT, she has served on both international and domestic (within the United States) peace teams. Mary’s broad experience allows her to connect with people from all walks of life. Her emphasis is on encouraging others to consider nonviolence as a way of life by appealing to both the heart and the head: She is well-versed in both the strategic and statistical contributions of nonviolent social action, as well as recounting individual, personal stories of successful nonviolent peacemaking.

Anne Hoiberg served for 25 years as a Research Psychologist for the federal government; her curriculum vita includes two books and more than 130 scientific articles, book chapters, reports, and presentations. She volunteered as an election supervisor for the U.S. Department of State (eight missions) and hosted a television series on peace and women’s rights. She is a past president of three organizations and currently serves as Board President of the Women's Museum of California and four other organizations. She was inducted into the San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame in 2012. She is a freelance writer and speaker. 

Sr. LaVern Olberding grew up in rural America where neighbors took care of each other.  She has been a Franciscan instrument of peace for 60 years. As a teacher, campus minister, and pastoral care coordinator for halfway housed felons, she has been a strong advocate for collaborative justice and active nonviolence.  She currently serves as the President on the Board of Directors of the Peace Resource Center of San Diego.
 

11:00 AM PDT
Building the Black Liberation Caucus

On May 22nd, during the launch of the Metro Atlanta and Triad NC  branches in the South, the Black Liberation Caucus (BLC) was formed. One of the areas of work we agreed to engage in is the anti-racist transformation of WILPF US. Presenters will provide information on the work plans of the Black Liberation Caucus Steering Committee agreed to at its June and July meetings. Participants will be provided the agreement(s) adopted by the 11 members of the Black Liberation Caucus at its inaugural meeting on May 22. Approximately 20 minutes will be allotted for discussion during the 45-minute session. 

Theresa El-Amin is the founder of the Southern Anti-Racism Network, 1998 to present. Theresa says her "aha moment" was meeting Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) in Jean Wiley's classroom at Tuskegee in 1966. She joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) where she volunteered at the Atlanta SNCC office with the support of John Lewis, SNCC Chairman before Stokely Carmichael. She worked at the phone company for nearly 20 years. She was active in CWA Local 3204. Became a union organizer for SEIU in 1986. She's been on the Freedom Trail for 55 years. 

George Friday fundraised for SANE (now Peace Action) in the 1980s, was Development/Assistant Director of the Piedmont Peace Project in the 1990s. She directed a National Office of Juvenile Justice project: 2000-2004.  George co-chaired United for Peace and Justice: 2005-8, National Field Organizer for the Bill of Rights Defense Committee: 2008-16. George was one of the founding members of Move to Amend: 2009.  Since 2017 George has been staff to NC Peace Action and United for Peace and Justice. She became Vice Chair of the Southern Anti-Racism Network in 2020 and organized the Triad branch in NC in 2021

Chantaye McLaughlin grew up in Savannah, GA, is a mother, on-air personality, activist, financial consultant, business owner, and member of several organizations.  She is 41 and at age 14 began organizing book drives and planting trees where she grew up.  She is a graduate of Georgia State University with a BA in Journalism and has a background in the music industry.  Chantaye is also a 2021 Candidate for East Point, GA Ward B At-Large City Council.  She is committed to ending the stigma of mental health, and supporting the eradication of homelessness and restorative rights to those who have faced mass incarceration.

Rosa Saavedra, panel moderator, has 25+ years of community and farmworker organizing experience utilizing participatory methodology. She developed a regional Latino leadership program in the Southeast as an Education Team member with Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee. Rosa is cofounder of Compañeras Campesinas a peer support network of rural Latina women in North Carolina and Puerto Rico. She currently serves as Southeast Regional Organizer with Bread for the World, a member of Triangle WILPF branch in NC, and Southern Anti-Racism Network board member. She is the grateful momma of two amazing people.

11:45 AM PDT
Breaking the Silence Around Violence Against Women

A poem in defense of women’s rights for women facing gender-based violence. True Evils derives from experience of survivors of violence and their experiences as women and survivors.
 

Ayo Ayoola-Amale is a Lawyer, Conflict Resolution Consultant, Lead / Senior Practitioner, First Conflict Resolution Services and President WILPF Ghana. She promotes the importance of creating peace through art and uses visual poetry, abstract painting, cartoons, drama and storytelling to teach conflict resolution, a culture of peace, non-violent and effective communication. Ayo has over two decades experience in law as senior law lecturer and the head of the Law faculty. She was the International Representative and Fellow of the World Mediation Organization and has experience working as workplace, commercial and community mediator. Ayo was awarded the winner of the Honourable Global Mediator Contest in Madrid, 2014. She is a poet, artist and author who has artworks, published books and articles in law, conflict resolution, poetry, prose and plays.

12:45 PM PDT 
Uplifting Transgender Women of Color

Nikki Abeleda (She/They), WILPF US Congress Communications & Marketing Organizer will be moderating this session. The panelists will discuss their advocacy efforts on transgender rights and issues, particularly focused on Transgender Women of Color (TWOC). This is an opportunity for WILPF US to learn more about TWOC led organizations.

Nikki Abeleda(she/they), is a First-Generation Queer Filipinx on Nisenan and Miwok land, also known as Sacramento, CA. She is a community organizer, clinical social worker, and therapist at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). She is an advocate for mental health, social justice, and Black Indigenous and People of Color issues, particularly among the LGBTQIA community and all marginalized communities. Nikki serves as WILPF US’s Field Facilitator for the Inside and Out Initiative to help six WILPF branches with capacity building, reformalization, and restructuring and works on the Congress organizing team on marketing and communications.

Bianca Humady Rey was born and raised in the Philippines. She moved to the United States in the fall of 1998, and began working in the healthcare field in 1999. She is currently an Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Specialist at Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States (KPMAS) Region. Bianca is also one of the National and Regional Co-Chair of Kaiser Permanente’s KP Pride Business Resource Group (BRG). Bianca’s passions include a devotion to the normalizing and visibility of the Transgender Communities Nationally and Internationally. She has worked with: Equality Virginia’s Transgender Advocacy Speakers Bureau (TASB) Program as a Speaker/Facilitator,  Equality Virginia as a Board Member, and the first Transgender woman to be elected as Co-Chair of Asian and Pacific Islander Queers United for Action (AQUA-DC).

Nghĩa Nguyên (she/they), walks the tightrope of intersectional identities such as woman, transgender, Vietnamese, and refugee, and she fights as a survivor, artist, and activist. She was born in Vietnam, raised in Southern California, and sharpened her political teeth in Portland, Oregon. Nghia writes and acts to break the silence and chains that have been enforced on her community through colonization, sexism, racism, and transphobia. Her work challenges our notion of identities, relationships, and journeys. She comes from a long line of shamanism spirit medium-ship of the Đạo Mẫu. She is working to disrupt, dismantle, and disarm oppressive structures for an equitable future.

Marie Angel Venarsian. I am the Pink Moon Midnight Blue of magical folkloric Yoro. I’m an Afro-Indigenous two spirit woman of trans experience, a human rights defender working on gender and race equity for marginalized communities of multiracial and gender expansive identities. The foundation of my advocacy/activism is ending abuse and harm across all platforms of human existence focusing on wellness in education, healthcare, and employment via policy, reform, aboloshition and educational media/art. I was born and raised in Honduras and escaped femicide in my teens and came to the US for a better life. I’m an accomplice and ally to those in need.
 

1:45 PM PDT
Move the Money from War to Peace, Global to Local

Organized by the Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee

Speakers in this session will describe the extent of global spending on war, with particular focus on nuclear weapons and the military/industrial/financial complex that, along with the US Congress, continue to fuel and fund “endless” wars. Speakers will range from Ingeborg Brienes, distinguished Norwegian peace campaigner, to Vicki Elson, cofounder of Nuclear Ban US. Strategies to reduce military budgets will be described, and a toolkit will be provided for YOU to join these ongoing campaigns.

Asha Asokan is the Director of Nuclear Ban US, an organization committed to the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Asha is an International Peace and Security specialist with over 14 years of experience. Asha previously served the United Nations in South Sudan and New York. Before the UN, she worked with Nonviolent Peaceforce, implementing civilian protection and peace-building projects in South Sudan and in the US. Asha co-chairs a Working Group on Conflict Prevention, Peacekeeping, and Peacemaking with Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS). She is on the Board of Directors of Rotary E-Club of World Peace and is actively involved in nuclear weapons education within Rotary.

Ingeborg Breines is a Norwegian peace educator. She is senior advisor to the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. She served as Director of the Women and a Culture of Peace Programme of UNESCO and from 2009 to 2016 was President of the International Peace Bureau. Ms. Breines has served and continues to serve on a broad range of boards and committees. She has authored, co-authored, and edited publications, notably on gender issues, education, conflict resolution, and a culture of peace.

Christian Ciabonu is the Policy and Advocacy Coordinator for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.  He is also a coordinator of Reverse The Trend: Save Our People, Save Our Planet. He has been an activist in the field of nuclear disarmament since 2010, as such he has organized events for youth and diplomats in Geneva, Vienna, and New York. In December 2018, Ciobanu served as the Co-Chair of the Global Youth Forum on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. During various UN disarmament conferences  he served as an advisor for the Mission of the Marshall Islands to the UN.

Vicki Elson (she/her) is mother and grandmother and a cofounder of Treaty Alignment US and Nuclear Ban US. She holds a master's degree in anthropology and has had a long career in childbirth education. She's currently at Quaker House in Brussels, where QCEA.org is dedicated to peace and human rights. 

Cherrill Spencer (she/her) is a retired experimental physicist who was born and educated in England and has lived in Palo Alto, California, since 1974. She joined WILPF in 2012 to work against war and for disarmament. She is a member of the Peninsula/Palo Alto branch of WILPF, through which she works on CEDAW, nuclear disarmament, and the Poor People’s Campaign. Spencer’s major projects for WILPF have been: an exhibit celebrating WILPF’s centenary, a detailed report on treaties, coordinating the 2020 Solidarity Season, the online 1945 timeline, coordinating the 2021 Call for Peace campaign, and co-chairing the DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee since mid-2020.

Ellen Thomas has been co-chair of the WILPF US Disarm/End Wars Committee for the past 15 years, and is cofounder and Director of Proposition One Campaign for a Nuclear-Free Future.  She spent 18 years in front of the White House vigiling for a world without nuclear weapons and helped launch voter initiative #37 in Washington, DC, which won the election in 1993, leading to the introduction into Congress every two years of the "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act" - HR-2850 in 2021-22.  Learn more about the legislation at http://prop1.org

3:20 PM PDT
How WILPF Can Change U.S Policy in the Middle East

Presented by the Middle East Peace and Justice Action Committee. Discussion of how US policy in the Middle East is detrimental to our goals and how our solidarity work can lead to change in those policies. 

Charlotte Dennett will speak on the role of oil and pipelines. Charlotte is a former Middle East reporter and an investigative journalist and attorney. She is the author of The Crash of Flight 3804: A Lost Spy, A Daughter’s Quest, and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for Oil which reveals the role of oil in the death of her father and subsequent endless wars.  Time magazine has referred to her as “an expert in resource-based politics” for her coverage of politics and resource wars in the Middle East.  Charlotte is the co-author with Gerard Colby of Thy Will Be Done. The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil, 

Odile Hugonot-Haber, co-chair of MEPJAC, will speak on US weapons sales to the Middle East. She came to the US from France and was a Registered Nurse for about 30 years. As an activist she was at first part of Women In Black, a feminist international movement against war. She joined WILPF US in 1993 and has been part of the Middle East Committee, and on and off the chair of the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti branch in Michigan. She has travelled many times to Israel and Palestine. She serves on the board of World Beyond War, writes articles about war and peace, and is a member of  the Disarm issue committee. She focuses on the Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the M.E. In San Francisco with WILPF, in a reunion she was introduced to the feminist foreign policy initiated by Sweden. 

Desmera Gatewood will speak on the importance of Black and Palestinian solidarity and her recent trip to the region. Desmera is a genderqueer mother, organizer, writer, and Organization Development Practitioner from North Carolina. She is a proud HBCU alumna of NCCU, where she received a BA in writing.  Desmera has an extensive background in North Carolina political organizing.  She developed a connection to the international fight for human rights while attending delegations throughout Latin America. While on a 2018 delegation to Palestine, Desmera discovered deep connections between Palestinian and Black-American peoples’ struggles. Desmera collaborates with community members to create avenues for telling of the Palestinian plight.

Marlena Santoyo will read a poem written by a female Palestinian prisoner. Marlena is a decades-long member of WILPF, the Greater Philadelphia branch, and two-term national Board member. She identifies as a Jewish Quaker and was strongly impacted upon speaking with and learning from Palestinians in the West Bank and Israelis. Marlena believes that it is by working in coalition that we will be most effective, be it within WILPF or in the larger worldwide community.

Barbara Taft will speak on the necessity of re-starting peace talks and including Hamas. Barb is co-chair of the Middle East Peace and Justice Action Committee (MEPJAC) and chairs the Greater Phoenix branch. She has been working for Middle East peace and justice since she first met students from the region at her university in the early 1960s.  She has made 10 trips to the region, mostly with peace delegation and study tour groups, most recently in 2009 when she led a "Friendship Tour" for Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, and Israel. She speaks and writes frequently on Middle East topics.

4:50 PM PDT
How the Residues of Colonialism Are Still with Us

Beatriz Schulthess will speak about the colonial mentality that was gradually imposed on us and that we are still using in our daily lives.  The colonial mentality is being perpetuated, for example, in the use of certain expressions, when we embrace certain processes, in the education system, in legal and judicial systems, in institutions and organizations, in government relations and international relations in general. Within this context, Beatriz will touch on Indigenous and Afro-descendent peoples’ struggles, explaining some real-life experiences that happened in the international arena.

Beatriz Schulthess, WILPF International Board member and Americas Regional Representative, met WILPF for the first time in September 1977 when Indigenous peoples entered the United Nations for the first time. WILPF played an important role to make this happen. She joined WILPF a few years later in 1982, inspired by the work of Edith Ballantyne, Secretary General of WILPF. Beatriz serves as a board member of the Costa Rican section. She studied business administration, accounting, and languages and has working experience in organizational and project development and management. Since she was a teenager she was an active advocate for the rights of women, Indigenous peoples, and the environment. During the 1980s she continued her advocacy path engaging in related multilateral negotiations on behalf of various organizations. She participated in the negotiation of the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the drafting process of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action.

5:30 pm PDT
What's Happening with WILPF International  

Janet Slagter is a retired philosophy Ph.D. who has been a professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She taught for more than 20 years at CSU-Fresno, and also at Southern Illinois University, Earlham College, in Malaysia, in Kenya, and at men's prisons. Jan has been a social justice activist since the mid-60's, working on ending wars and establishing peace since the US war on Viet Nam, on advancing women's rights, abortion access, justice for survivors of sexual assault, on rights for students and faculty members, on the ERA, on uncovering US government and corporate exploitation in many countries. She has been an active WILPF member for more than 20 years in the Fresno branch, and currently serves as the alternate Regional Director for the Americas on the WILPF International Board of DIrectors. She serves on the committee who developed this Congress.

Beatriz Schulthess, WILPF International Board member and Americas Regional Representative, met WILPF for the first time in September 1977 when Indigenous peoples entered the United Nations for the first time. WILPF played an important role to make this happen. She joined WILPF a few years later in 1982, inspired by the work of Edith Ballantyne, Secretary General of WILPF. Beatriz serves as a board member of the Costa Rican section. She studied business administration, accounting, and languages and has working experience in organizational and project development and management. Since she was a teenager she was an active advocate for the rights of women, Indigenous peoples, and the environment. During the 1980s she continued her advocacy path engaging in related multilateral negotiations on behalf of various organizations. She participated in the negotiation of the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the drafting process of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action.

6:30 pm PDT
Songs by Julie Beutel  

Julie Beutel is a singer, song-leader, guitarist, teacher, activist, and mother, and is a native of the city of Detroit. She spent time studying, traveling, working, and living in several countries in Europe and Central America. She lived and worked with Witness for Peace in Nicaragua during the war for almost two years. With a rich, beautiful voice, Julie has performed at a wide variety of venues, including Washington, DC, to a crowd of over 20,000 during an anti-nuclear march. Julie sings from the depths and is not afraid to address painful, awkward, controversial, or funny issues. She can make people cry, laugh out loud, or squirm, but she loves to make people laugh.