NEWS

October 2021

Before/After

Call in on Tuesday, October 5, for informal conversation!  Once again I welcome you to the continuing and less formal Before/After conversations. Join me in the half-hour prior to and after the Program Committee meeting:

Before – 7:30-8 pm EDT / 6:30-7 CDT/ 5:30-6 MDT / 4:30-5 pm PDT

After – 10-10:30 pm EDT / 9-9:30 CDT/ 8-8:30 Mdt/ 7-7:30 pm PDT

Learn more about and give me your feedback on WILPF activities and projects. Call in for ten minutes or for both half-hours. Converse and ask me questions about our program work and more. You may also wish to learn more by listening to the two-hour Program Committee meeting, in the middle. (However, only the committee members may actively participate in that meeting.)

Register in advance for these Tuesday Zoom meeting sessions:  register here.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.  Let’s get to know each other. Drop on in!

The TIME is NEAR! Board Elections!

Now is the time to apply for or nominate someone else for an opening in the 2022 WILPF US board! See the elections timeline. The deadlines are October 10 for nominations and October 15 for applications.

See the Position Openings to know what seats are vacant for 2022. Get details on the job description here.  The actual application form is available here.

For further information about nominating a potential candidate for a position, candidate qualifications, and other election matters, contact nominatingcommittee@wilpfus.org or call (617) 266-0999 (preferably during working hours on Wednesday).

JOIN the Working Subcommittees of Advancing Human Rights!

The full AHR Issue Committee has had four revitalizing meetings.  Recently, several of the subcommittees have been meeting (see list below) and they all want to welcome YOU! Write to AHRchair@wilpfus.org to be connected with one or more of the following subcommittees already getting organized – or to suggest another one!    

United Nations activity regarding women, including human trafficking; Immigration and border militarization; UN International Decade for People of African Descent / Reparations; Anti-racism work; End mass incarceration – and more!
Contact Joan Goddard, Interim AHR Coordinator, for the late-October date of the next meeting of the full AHR Issue Committee: AHRchair@wilpfus.org

The Social Media Committee needs you…

(To respond or for more info on these items, email President@wilpfus.org)

Did you register for Congress?  Did you attend?  The Social Media Ctte. invites your feedback on your “tech. experience”:  Did Zoom work well for you?  What feedback do you have on Congress functions: How good was the ease of getting into meetings?  Why did you participate – or not?  Why – with over 240 registrants – did we usually see some 80 at a given presentation?

Have you been to our recordings page, to see the Congress session recordings and much more?  The Social Media Ctte. reminds you that we need 6 more subscribers to our YouTube page to reach the 100 level – which qualifies us to name our page something snappy – instead of Share the website link: https://bit.ly/WILPFUSVids!

Do you use Instagram or Twitter? Help us develop better ways to reach out to the world of social media – building better connections to our branches and to other communities! The Social Media Committee especially seeks those who use Twitter and/or Instagram.

By Anne Barron
WILPF San Diego 

October 2021

What would the world look like if our taxes were spent on human services instead of war?

Last month marked a terrible benchmark in the U.S. war. Seventy-six years ago, the U.S. dropped two annihilating atomic bombs on the Japanese people. Japan had been an aggressively militarized society with a strong industrial base when we dropped the atomic bombs. Did we have to?

The U.S. responded to increasing Japanese military power with an arms race that temporarily created two suns in our skies. The U.S. nuclear attack instead escalated the nuclear arms race. This terrible consequence threatens human (and world) existence. The United Nations recognized this clear contradiction and finally moved in 2017 to ban atomic weapons.

The United States (with the largest nuclear arsenals) voted against the ban. This year, the Biden Administration pushed through Congress the biggest military budget ever. Militarized minds make militarized budgets. To demilitarize the budget, we as a country have to de-escalate our minds. Peace groups across the country are coming together to push Congress back from the precipice. We know that we need to de-escalate our own minds before we can de-escalate our communities and our budgets.

De-escalation is needed now, at all levels. The PRCSD, a membership organization and community clearinghouse of information on peace, social justice issues, and activities recommends a de-escalation strategy that operates everywhere, all the time. The PRCSD offers nonviolent alternatives to conflict resolution and carries on a program of peace education throughout San Diego County. The workshops and training focus on oneself, one’s community and our country. These tried and true tactics help opposing sides find some common ground, offering a basis for further dialogue. The ultimate goal is to change our culture of domination to cooperation, and reduce our own participation in the escalation. 

The PRCSD and WILPF San Diego collaborated in a presentation on “De-Escalation: Turning Down Post-Trump Escalation,” during WILPF US’s 34th Triennial Congress. This presentation explored non-violent tactics and de-escalation skills. The PRCSD and WILPF San Diego will continue to work and build together to promote peace.
Please contact us at info@prcsd.org for more information about the PRC de-escalation series and if you would like to see more training for WILPF US on de-escalation.

Anne Barron is a board member of the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, heading the de-escalation training and investigating peace economies and a member of WILPF San Diego. She lives in Santee. This submission is based on her opinion piece published in the San Diego Union-Tribune during Peace Week of Action.

By ONE WILPF Calls Team

October 2021

The monthly One WILPF national organizing calls have been giving WILPF members from across the country a chance to connect with one another and WILPF US for nearly six years. Now we’re looking for a volunteer or intern to join our team as a ‘production assistant’ to help with planning, promoting and posting the recordings. You don’t need broadcast experience, but it might be helpful. 

The calls, coordinated by a small volunteer team, began as audio calls but moved to Zoom format this Spring. The calls offer opportunities for members to plan together and work on collaborative strategies across all of WILPF US, amplifying local work and connecting it to national and international issues. 

The One WILPF Calls also have provided access to experts, authors and scholars on issues that are of interest to WILPFers. WILPF members get a chance to interact with and ask questions of folks like Medea Benjamin (Code Pink), Phyllis Bennis (Institute for Policy Studies), Charlotte Dennett (Middle East Oil Pipeline author, historian and journalist), Maurice Carney (Friends of the Congo), Osprey Orielle Lake WE CAN International), Margaret Flowers (Popular Resistance) and many other activist ‘celebrities’. As public calls they provide a way for WILPF to be outward-facing towards potential new members or just interested activist allies. They increase visibility for WILPF. 

Duties would include helping the team plan a schedule of calls in advance, contacting potential guest speakers, helping edit scripts, contacting Issue Committees and branches for announcements and ideas for future calls, promoting them, and working with our Webmeister to post the calls smoothly and quickly on the WILPF Webpage. 

Your organizing and scheduling talents would be appreciated, and you might eventually join our on-air team of announcers. This is a monthly commitment of between 5 and 10 hours. It would be a great opportunity for an intern who is interested in working in broadcast journalism, podcasting or production. Work remotely from anywhere!

Contact us if you, or someone you know would be interested. mbgardam@gmail.com  The ONE WILPF Call Team is a fun group of women you’ll enjoy working with:

Anne Henny and Sandy Thacker of East Bay, CA
Nancy Price of Davis, CA
Zoom technology special assistant Ellen Thomas of Tryon, NC
Marybeth Gardam of Iowa City, IA
 

By Anne Hoiberg
Retired research psychologist
WILPF San Diego

October 2021

As we acknowledge the 76th year since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we are reminded of former soldier turned conscientious objector Shelley Anderson’s comments about the unimaginable consequences of those bombings. Upon meeting a Japanese woman whose daughter had had several miscarriages and an American woman whose husband — a U.S. soldier in Japan after the bombings — had died of leukemia, peace activist Anderson said, “So this is what war is really like: victims and victimizers, both living in fear, over three decades after the war had ended.” Survivors have lived with the fear of contracting nuclear-related diseases and with the stigma of being unmarriageable, unable to bear children, or birth a baby with genetic defects.

Other consequences of militarism and war point to the fears of losing power on a military, political or economic level, nationally or internationally. According to Clark University’s professor Cynthia Enloe’s extensive research on militarism, these fears of losing power receive more importance than fears about the human consequences of militarism and war. Because most people in the world who hold military, political and economic power are men, the endeavors behind militarism are clearly gendered and patriarchal.

To avoid such consequences as well as civilian deaths, military deaths and injuries, environmental devastation, infrastructure destruction, and loss of economic stability, we need to adopt conflict prevention and “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” (Preamble of the United Nations Charter) 

In a proposal to prevent war and militarism globally, I single out the importance of electing women to public office by presenting results of a greater likelihood of peace and stability in countries with women leaders of state or government. A recent search of Wikipedia and other resources identified 28 who serve as the head of either their government or state, including the longest-serving Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel. Estonia and Moldova are unique in that both their prime minister and president are women. Other woman-led countries include Bangladesh, Norway, Nepal, Taiwan, Serbia, Singapore, New Zealand, Iceland, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Ethiopia, Georgia, Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Gabon, Togo, Lithuania, Tanzania, Kosovo, Samoa, and Uganda. At present, none of these countries, except Ethiopia, is engaged in armed conflict with another country.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union compiles listings of women elected representatives who serve in parliament or the lower or single house of government. According to data published in September, 25.6 percent of those in elected office worldwide are women and 58 countries have at least 30 percent women with 22 of the 58 countries located in Europe. The United States is ranked 71st with 27.6 percent women elected to the House of Representatives. The 58 countries with high representation are the most peaceful nations worldwide, with Mexico the exception because of its drug war. Thirteen countries identified as having more than 50 percent women in their managerial positions also reflect endeavors promoting conflict prevention.

The Guardian reported last year that woman-led countries reported fewer deaths and cases of COVID-19 than countries governed by male leaders. Such women leaders as Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen, and Finland’s Sanna Marin responded early in the pandemic by initiating lockdowns. During the early phase of the pandemic, these and other women leaders also engaged in immediate press conferences, social media, and television programs with preventative instructions — and decisiveness.

Women’s peacemaking skills also ensure that their countries address and abolish all forms of violence against women. However, this form of conflict prevention must include men, the major perpetrators of such violence. Beginning with education at all levels, boys and men learn the importance of preventing all levels of violence from bullying and sexual harassment to war.

Human trafficking also falls in the category of violence against women. Woman-led countries and those with 30 percent or higher representation of women in elected office received the highest rating in the U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking In Persons Report. 

It is essential that we recognize the importance of training, recruiting, and electing women as leaders and lawmakers in many more of the 193 member states of the United Nations. With women as elected leaders and lawmakers, the whole area of conflict prevention will be addressed and accomplished.

This submission is based on Anne Hoiberg’s opinion piece published in the San Diego Union-Tribune.