NEWS

2014 Local2Global Participants
Post date: Mon, 01/20/2014 - 09:05

Local2Global

WILPF’s Local2Global program is designed for six members from across the nation to participate at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March of 2014. Each year, WILPF members chosen to participate work in an eight-person delegation to represent WILPF views and prospects into dialogues with government and NGO representatives. Local2Global participants also take their UN advocacy strategies and campaigns back to their local communities and branches.

We are pleased to welcome our 2014 Local2Global participants who will represent WILPF's US Section at this year's Commission on the Status of Women, which will focus on the Millenium Development Goals. Thanks to a generous grant by one of our donors, supplemented by modest donations from WILPF members, 6 women have been selected to attend the CSW in New York from March 8 - March 15, 2014. These women come from diverse geographic regions in the U.S., and they represent a diversity of generations as well. We are pleased to have such a great cohort for the CSW 58.

Here are their brief biographies:


Lauretta Freeman joined WILPF in the Moorestown branch in 1948 after reading an article in the newspaper about Gladys Walser and WILPF action at the United Nations. She became first President of the Essex County Branch in 1957 after the 1956 conference on World Disarmament and Development, which was initiated by WILPF. At present, she is Treasurer of the Essex County branch and facilitates weekly "Letters to Legislators" discussion groups at the Montclair Public Library. Lauretta is now a member of the Montclair WILPF branch.


In Montclair, Lauretta is on the Senior Citizens Advisory committee of the Town Council and am producer of its TV34 program called News and Views. She is also on the Public Policy Chair of the Essex Hudson Chapter of the Association for the Education of Young Children and the Audio Visual Library Chair for the New Jersey Chapter of AEYC. Lauretta has a business with a colleague of hers called Center for Educational Services. They engage in staff development at schools and conferences in New Jersey. They have written a book called DAISY-(a developmentally appropriate integrated system for young children).


Jan Corderman’s professional profile includes extensive experience in managerial and leadership roles with dynamic employee unions.  Her track record of service and success led her to be elected to her Union’s highest rank, serving at the helm of the statewide organization for 10 years. Since joining WILPF’s Des Moines, Iowa, Branch, she has served on several committees and is currently part of the Branch’s leadership team.   She is also a member of the Jane Addams Peace Association’s Board of Directors and co-chairs its PEP committee.


Eileen Dunn, retired Presbyterian minister, university Women's Studies instructor & administrator, and elementary school English teacher in Korea and always a women's advocate from age 17.  Regardless of her profession, she has always worked hard, most of the time with excessive resistance, for women's rights of all kinds, LGBT rights, and international social justice,  including being a rally motivational speaker.  


Her work with WILPF began when Eileen returned from South Korea three years ago, while she also visited Cuba and Honduras learning about U.S. involvement causing discord and doing follow-up education.  Eileen has also worked with her local WILPF chapter  in Ashland, OR on our very prestigious multiday educational displays and memorials for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as International Women's Day essay competition in our local schools.  Eileen has an international family now in the U.S. of Malawian & Mexican origins.


Deborah Holley Blackridge came to WILPF through the Des Moines chapter of Move to Amend in 2010, which the Des Moines WILPF chapter was (and still is) sponsoring.  She has been the leader of the Des Moines Move to Amend group for nearly two years now, and joined WILPF as well, where Deb has thoroughly enjoyed meeting ladies of courage and character and being involved in their meaningful activities.

Alexandria "Rain" Smith is an aspiring poet and community collaborator. Rain is a member of the Missoula WILPF branch in Montana. She has become involved with WILPF through the Missoula Women for Peace and serves on the board of Community Action for Justice in the Americas, Asia and Africa (CAJA3). CAJA3 is a local non-profit that has been working hard to address feminicide issues in Mexico as well to create a program of economic support for women struggling with oppressive and abusive relationships in the Mexican town of Tepelixpa. After attending WILPF's retreat at the end of the summer as a visionary young woman, Alexandria is ready to help continue the integral collaboration necessary to seed the reality of Peace in our home town communities. She believes that feeding them with the insight of our global sisterhood will cause true transformation to take root and bear the sweet fruit of mending the pains of a war-torn and violence-based culture.

 

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Best Practices for Branches - kindly review :)
Post date: Thu, 01/16/2014 - 16:36

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
U.S. Section

Best Practices for Branches

So much of the work of WILPF US is accomplished at the branch level! Our goal is always to foster and support healthy, active, growing branches. In looking at the history of WILPF branches in the U.S., we've found several attributes that help keep a branch energetic and viable.

• Meetings: It's important that branches actually meet! Sometimes it might seem just as easy to work over the phone or Internet, but a bedrock characteristic of a successful branch is the sisterhood and community of its members. We request that branches meet at least four times a year -- both to strengthen connections among members and to provide opportunities for new people to come find out more about you and your activities.

• Leadership: One of the marks of a strong branch is that many members have been trained to take on leadership roles. We ask that your branch leadership change at least every three years and that "new" or "younger" members share leadership positions with more experienced members. This helps ensure that you have capable candidates to fill leadership roles.

Some branches use a traditional chair, treasurer, secretary format for leadership. Others have branch convenors or some similar title. It strengthens the branch to have an established format for changing leadership, providing both a steady means of transition and a pathway for new members to gain skills and put them into practice in the branch.

Over the years, your branch has probably accumulated a wealth of archival materials, banners and signs for demonstrations, books and videos, maybe even a file cabinet (or several) full of materials. You probably also have computer lists, accounting records, bank accounts, etc. It is always wise to have more than one person with access to all this information. Sharing this should be part of the training for new leadership.

• Actions: We are often amazed at how few people know about WILPF. That makes it doubly important that branches take part in public actions or events that are clearly and boldly labeled WILPF. We need to take our work out onto the sidewalks or streets or into conferences and presentations. We ask that every branch take part in at least two such events or actions each year. And that you let the Peace and Freedom branch news editor know what you did!

• Connections across WILPF: Sometimes new members can't quite get the idea that they are now members of an international organization. It's important to keep branch members connected both with the national US Section of WILPF and with the international work of WILPF. We expect that you will share information from the national office, from the office in Geneva, from PeaceWomen, Reaching Critical Will, and from the US issue committees with all in the branch.

As with your branch, meetings on the national and international level are also important. Encourage your branch to send representatives to the U.S. Section Congress and to the International Congress. Some branches set up a line in their annual budgets where they set aside money to help members make those trips. And it's always good to encourage a newer member to go to a congress to reinforce the concept of national and international connections and work.

• Connecting to mission: As branches are part of an international and national network, the work of branches should align wherever possible with the broader network. It's good to review the WILPF mission and vision statements from time to time, perhaps at your branch's annual planning retreat (see below). It's also important to share information about national and international campaigns and make connections with your local work. One of WILPF's greatest strengths is making connections among issues. Be sure those connections are highlighted in your local/national/
international work.

• Budget: Raising and managing money to support our work is critical to be an active, thriving branch. It's essential to make an annual plan of actions, events, campaigns, recurring costs, and contingencies. This budget should reflect rentals, newsletter and other printing, special projects (travel fund for congress!), purchase of Jane Addams Children's Book Award texts, paying it forward, etc.

Once you have an agreed-upon budget, fundraising is the next hurdle. You might charge for newsletter subscriptions, send out an annual appeal, hold a special fundraising event, apply for a WILPF mini-grant for a particular project, or appeal to an individual who is interested and capable of helping with funding.

It's important to keep "branch budget needs" and "WILPF membership" distinct, both in your planning and in publicity.
-Membership is in the international organization, through the US Section. Dues paid to your branch must be forwarded to the national office. Each branch receives an annual rebate of its paid memberships.
-Branch expenses are met by the fundraising activities of the branch as described above.

Making a donation to the national section is certainly a good idea. Some branches "tithe" and send a percentage of every branch fundraiser to the national office. Some branches make an annual donation to the national office in support of the issue committees and national campaigns. Some do both.

• Communication: Even for a small branch, a newsletter is very important. It helps ensure that all members are hearing and understanding the same things about the branch and its work. It's also a great way to reach out to potential members by showing them what your WILPF branch is all about. It can be a one-page publication or for larger branches, eight or ten pages. It can be electronic and/or printed. Some branches produce their newsletter by committee and others have an individual editor. Staying connected with all members, even those who may not attend all your branch meetings, is necessary to help keep your branch vital and exciting.

ALWAYS be sure that the WILPF Archives at Swarthmore AND the Branch News Editor of Peace and Freedom are on your newsletter mail list.

• Planning:

• Website:

• Using DIA:

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The Global Climate Convergence
Post date: Tue, 01/14/2014 - 21:22

by Nancy Price, Chair, Earth Democracy Issue Committee

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.

The Convergence creates a unifying call for a solution as big as the crisis barreling down on us—an emergency Green Economic Transformation through a Global Green New Deal including universal jobs, health care and education, food and housing security, economic and political democracy, demilitarization, and an end to fossil fuel use by 2030.

Don’t forget that Global Warming/Renewable Energy is one of Earth Democracy’s sub-committees. Now is the time to start planning your local Earth Day to May Day event in collaboration with other groups to reclaim Earth Day from the corporations and rally round for system change not climate change.  

Earth Day, now designated Mother Earth Day by the United Nations, is Tuesday, April 22, but don’t worry if your event is earlier because of special circumstances. Very soon the Convergence website will go “live” with a map function so you may describe and register your event. There will be toolkits and other materials available. As many as ten cities will be highlighted as hubs for major Earth Day to May Day actions, so stay tuned.

This new campaign grew out of the Earth Day Conference at the Democracy Convention in Madison, WI, Aug. 7–11 that WILPF-US and the Earth Democracy Issue Group co-sponsored and organized.

Earth Day to May Day, 10 Days to Change Course

The Global Climate Convergence for People, Planet and Peace over Profit is an education and direct action campaign beginning this spring, with “10 days to change course,” from Earth Day to May Day.

It provides coordinated action to amplify and build synergy across grassroots justice movements that are sweeping the globe—rising up against the crisis of economy, ecology, peace, and democracy. The accelerating climate disaster, which threatens to make civilization as we know it unlivable as soon as 2050, intensifies all these struggles, and provides new urgency for collaboration and unified action.

The Convergence creates a unifying call for a solution as big as the crisis barreling down on us—an emergency Green Economic Transformation through a Global Green New Deal including universal jobs, health care and education, food and housing security, economic and political democracy, demilitarization and an end to fossil fuel use by 2030. It will occur each year at this time, building capacity for global collaboration—across movements and national borders—to harness the transformative power we already possess as a thousand separate movements. Clearly the time for action is NOW to create an Earth Day to May Day Action.
 

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Advancing Human Rights Materials
Post date: Tue, 01/14/2014 - 21:07

Human_Trafficking.pdf

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AHR Committee Leads WILPF-US in Coalition to “Intercept Human Trafficking"”
Post date: Tue, 01/14/2014 - 21:05

by Rose Daitsman, Jan Kubiac, Barbara Nielsen, and Lucinda Tate,–Advancing Human Rights Issue Committee

Advancing Human Rights Issues Committee’s Human Trafficking Subcommittee leads WILPF US in coalition on Super Bowl Sunday “Intercept Human Trafficking” anti-human trafficking campaign for 2014 - News about President Obama’s Proclamation declaring January to be National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, 2014 - AND, new leadership for the AHR Committee will take us forward into 2014 (information forthcoming soon!).

As part of AHR’s commitment to encourage awareness to WILPF members and others concerned for social justice, we are proud to share the good news that Barack Obama has issued a Presidential Proclamation declaring January to be National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, 2014. Read more here.

Through the AHR Subcommittee on Human Trafficking (HT), WILPF-US is a coalition member of the anti-human trafficking campaign led by the United Methodist Women (UMW), “Intercept Human Trafficking,” that has as its most public focus a direct action at football’s Super Bowl XLVIII, on Feb. 2, 2014, at the MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. This is the largest sporting event in the United States and using a football term, “intercept,” as an analogy for the campaign is an apt concept for an action at this event. Although big sporting or entertainment events are not proven to cause human trafficking, such events intensify the space in which such crimes can occur. All WILPF branches and at-large members are encouraged to get involved and plan actions in local communities on Super Bowl Sunday and, of course, if you are able to get to East Rutherford, your participation there would be most welcomed. Check out this excerpt on the Super Bowl Sunday Intercept the Traffickers Campaign for ideas! (You can also contact Jan Kubiac, convener of the HT Subcommittee, at jankubiac@yahoo.com. More detailed information on this campaign will be on our webpage by the third week in January.)

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2014 DISARM/End Wars Calendar
Post date: Tue, 01/14/2014 - 20:44

January 2014

  • All month: Invite your Representative to co-sponsor HR 1650 and US Conference of Mayors 2012 Resolution, both calling for nuclear weapons abolition by 2020.
  • All month: Sign the petition to support Sister Megan and the &-12 activists and to stop modernization of nuclear weapons.
  • January 6-13: Fast for Justice in Guantanamo locally or in Washington D.C.
  • January 7: House members return from holiday break. Contact legislators re co-sponsoring HR 1650 and continue work on a uranium mining moratorium.
  • January 8: Senate returns to Washington D.C. 
  • January 8: Emily Green Balche was born on this day in 1867, and in 1946 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with WILPF.
  • January 11: March on the White House to close Guantanamo
  • January 20: Martin Luther King Day. Participate in local events and recall his words on ending war.
  • January 27: International Holocaust Day
  • January 28: Sentencing of the "Y-12 Peace Activists" or "Plowshares 3" on January 28, 2014 in Knoxville, TN.

 
February 2014

March 2014

  • March 1: 60th anniversary of US hydrogen nuclear bomb test on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands
  • March: 2015 budget is expected to be introduced in US Congress (a month later than usual.)
  • March 8: International Women's Day
  • March 11: Third anniversary of the continuing Fukushima Disaster
  • March 14–16: Global Network annual International conference will be at Santa Maria House in Santa Barbara with a vigil at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

April 2014

  • All month: Coalition days of action on militarized drones during month of April
  • April 14: Global Day of Action on Military Spending coincides with release of military expenditure statistics by Sipri.
  • April 15: US Income Tax Day traditionally marked by creative WILPF demonstrations against wasting tax dollars on militarism.
  • April 22: Earth Day
  • April 22–May 1: Green Cabinet Global Climate Convergence (includes demilitarization and green economy).
  • April 28: WILPF 99th birthday!
  • April 28–May 9: 2014 UN NPT Prep Com in New York City, preparing for 2015 Review conference. WILPF-US—ANA Side Event on US nuclear weapons complex

 
May 2014

 
June 2014

  • UNAC national conference at sometime this summer, date and place as yet unknown.

 
July 2014

  • July 4: Some Branches have joined peace contingents in past Fourth of July Parades.
  • July 25: In 1945 the first atomic bomb, Trinity was tested in White Sands New Mexico. Continue preparing for Nuclear Free Future month and nuclear weapons abolition.

 
August 2014

  • August Nuclear Free Future Month; A full month of nuclear abolition events.
  • August 1–3: WILPF-US Triennial Conference – Detroit. (May start Thursday, July 31.)
  • August 6: Hiroshima Day
  • August 9: Nagasaki Day

 
September 2014

  • September 6: Jane Addams 154th birthday.
  • September 21: International Day of peace. Probably launch date of new End War movement.

 
October 2014

 
November 2014

  • November 11: Ring Bells for Peace (Remember Armistice Day and the Kellogg Briand Pact). Cooperate with Veterans for Peace.
  • November 25: UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
  • November 25–December 10: 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. International WILPF urges active participation and an emphasis on the effects of violence of war and militarism on women and their children.

 
December 2014

  • December 10: Human Rights Day and also culmination of 16 Days. In Illinois it is also Jane Addams Day and a state holiday—the first in the country to honor a woman!
  • All month: evaluate 2014-Nuclear Weapons Abolition Campaign by 2020 and other DISARM/End War projects.

 
 

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DISARM/End Wars Actions in January and 2014 Calendar
Post date: Tue, 01/14/2014 - 20:19

By Ellen Thomas, Carol Reilley Urner and the DISARM/End Wars Team*
 

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.

Download and help us update our DISARM/End Wars calendar and receive support for your own or your branch projects on disarmament and ending wars. Work on what you believe is most important, be it banning militarized drones, protesting US military action in the Middle East, gun control, or questioning the Pacific Pivot. We hope everyone will support our campaign for nuclear weapons abolition by 2020 and an end to the profiteering industries that promote them. We also invite you to support Sister Megan and the Transform Now Plowshares. You may also want to join in commending Kerry and the White House for recent more creative diplomacy in the Middle East.

THERE IS A GREAT DEAL WE CAN DO LEGISLATIVELY ON ALL OF OUR ISSUES but this month we are concentrating on our search for co-sponsors for HR 1650 and for publicizing the US Conference of Mayors Resolution for Nuclear Weapons Abolition by 2020. All of us can contact our own Representatives, but Branches with Progressive Caucus members in their areas should soon be hearing from us. We were delighted to learn, by the way, that Sister Megan is enthusiastically supporting HR 1650 in prison.

We do thank Valerie Mullen for her many years of alerting us through EYE on Congress and continuing well into her 90s! Now that she is too ill to continue we want to honor her work by revitalizing it and we are seeking help from other WILPFers to do so.

SEEKING PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: Jackie Cabasso and Odile Hugonot-Haber have just returned from Haifa and Ramallah where they represented WILPF at an historic conference in Israel. Discussions previously forbidden in Israel on establishing a Nuclear Weapons and Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone in the Middle East were held there. Both Jackie and Odile are available to meet with Branches and their communities on supporting the Helsinki conference where negotiations on the WMD zone were scheduled to begin in December 2012. All the Arab nations and Iran had agreed to participate but Israel refused to attend so the US cancelled the conference which it had originally supported. The UN negotiator continues to meet with all parties, and is even now bringing their government representatives together monthly in Switzerland. Israel is also participating but the Israeli ruling parties still are not ready for the Helsinki process.

This would be a good time to thank and commend President Obama at the White House and Secretary of State John Kerry for their present attempts at more creative diplomacy in the Middle East. They are under tremendous pressure from the hawks to bomb, bomb, and bomb! Let’s do what we can to encourage them and help keep them on the peacebuilding path.

WE NOW HAVE FOUR PETITIONS SUPPORTING SISTER MEGAN AND THE TRANSFORM NOW PLOWSHARES.

  1. The petition currently featured in our 2014 calendar was apparently circulated much closer to the time of arrest and before the actual trial. It is still circulating and slowly collecting signatures and comments, however. It is an interesting petition because it also emphasizes the resultant exposure of the US nuclear weapons modernization program also linked to Y-12 at Oakridge. The petition focuses especially on the B-61 nuclear warheads which by now cost several times their weight in gold to produce, are apparently unwanted by the NATO countries designated to receive them, and which also include completely new parts which make them illegal even under USA laws.
  2. The Transform Now Plowshares website offers background resources and guide lines for sending post cards or writing your own letters and comments to Judge Thapar.
  3. There is also an Open Letter to Judge Thapar you can sign and to which you can add comments. The originator is aiming for 250 signatures by January 23 at the absolute latest. There are now more signatures than the 115 noted when this web page was last posted, but signatures will have to come in at a faster rate if the goal is to be reached.
  4. The most popular petition right now is the recently posted one from Roots Action. Investigate it and see if you want to sign. (Perhaps it is best to sign only one. The judge may not appreciate too any duplicates!)
  5. DOWNLOAD THE DISARM/END WARS CALENDAR The calendar is a joint committee project to help all WILPFers plan ahead during the year and we expect to update it each month as new events and resources come in. Ellen Thomas was the primary author of the material on HR 1650. Carol Urner was primarily author of the rest of the text, although with input and corrections from the committee. She takes responsibility for any errors in the text. Corrections, comments, and suggested events to add to the 2014 calendar should be sent to her at carol.disarm@gmail.com.

*The calendar was a joint committee project. Ellen Thomas was the primary author of the material on HR 1650. Carol Urner was primarily author of the rest of the text, although with input and corrections from the committee. She takes responsibility for any errors in the text and corrections, comments, and suggested events to add to the 2014 calendar should be sent to her at carol.disarm@gmail.com.

Photo is courtesy of Transform Now Plowshares. Inspired by the prophets Micah and Isaiah and Jesus and Gandhi, Transform Now Plowshares began a symbolic conversion of the Y-12 Highly-Enriched Uranium Manufacturing Facility on July 28, 2012.

 

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Give Today for Tomorrow's Peacekeepers
Post date: Mon, 12/30/2013 - 12:20

Can you make a last minute gift to support women’s peacebuilding in the coming year?

Please join candidates for the WILPF 2014 Board of Directors for a “virtual meet and greet” via conference call on February 2, 1 p.m. PST/4 p.m. EST. No pre-registration necessary, just dial-up 862-902-0100; when prompted, enter access code 848602. This call will be moderated; press 5* when you want to ask the host to let you speak.

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. 

You support WILPF because you know that the expertise women peacemakers have developed over decades is needed to end today’s wars, wherever they occur. 

You support WILPF because you appreciate how WILPF’s international network helps hold the world together, even when it appears to be coming apart at the seams.Over the past few weeks, as brutal violence has erupted in South Sudan, WILPF women have remembered their friendship with Khadija Hussien, founder of Sudanese Mothers for Peace, who briefed us on her work at an Advancing Women as Peacemakers event in March 2010. The tension rose during the question and answer period following her talk when WILPF’s Peacewomen Project Director Marie Butler asked the Sudanese ambassador present in the audience to go on the record with a commitment to end impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence in Darfur. 

At its January 20 meeting, the WILPF national board will be discussing the adoption of a policy governing access to members’ contact information. We’d like the draft policy to be informed by the actual opinions and preferences of WILPF members. If you are a WILPF member, please take 5 minutes to fill out the on-line survey on Member Privacy Rights at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WILPFmemberprivacysurvey

On December 17, the Berkeley (CA) City Council unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by WILPF member Phoebe Sorgen calling upon the United Nations to appoint an International Independent Commission of Experts to formulate an emergency plan to reduce the release of Fukushima Daiichi radiation and upon the California Department of Health to take measures to educate about and mitigate the elevated risks of radiation exposure from seafood and other Pacific basin products. 

You support WILPF because you take an active role in shaping a society that honors the interconnections among all beings and protects the rights of future generations, and of the earth itself. Please support WILPF with a year-end gift today!

The new year with its new moon is upon us. Consistent with this time of regeneration, over the next 18 months, you’ll be hearing more and more about WILPF’s transformative efforts to build peace around the world and to sustain its efficacy in a rapidly changing world through innovative campaigns and path-breaking tools, like the Peacewomen mobile app launched earlier this month. There is no peace advocacy organization that can stretch your contribution further. 

Thank you for the financial support that makes all these efforts possible!

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Drones Around the Globe
Post date: Mon, 12/09/2013 - 13:44

Drones Around the Globe: Proliferation and Resistance

A Recap of the Drone Summit in Washington, D.C. Nov. 16-17, 2013

by Marjorie Van Cleef, DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee

Code Pink organized the weekend meeting on weaponized drones, attended by over 300 people, with five WILPFers among them. Panels included speakers who presented information on the legal questions regarding drone use in warfare, guests from Yemen who reported on the effects of drone attacks in their communities, even though the US is not at “war” with Yemen. Representatives from Germany, UK, Israel, discussed the proliferation of drones in their countries. The UK, Israel, and the US are the manufacturers at this time. Two women from Afghanistan and two former US military personnel discussed their differing view of the drone war. The film “Wounds of Waziristan” is highly recommended.

Sunday was spent in well attended organizing workshops—how and where do we influence the military, manufacturers, researchers, politicians who participate, promote and profit from drone attacks. It's clear we have a major challenge to stop this “war on terrorism,” the given rationale for drone attacks.

Monday was lobbying day when we visited the offices of our local Congresspeople. Notably, 35 people crowded into the office of Sen. Charles Schumer, NY to let him know our position on drone warfare. Many photos of victims of drone attacks were taped on the walls of his office. Four people were arrested when they refused to leave the area without meeting or speaking by phone with the Senator.

Please let us know what you are doing in your branches and local communities to bring attention to this dreadful war on civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. Contact Marge Van Cleef, mvc@igc.org or Joan Ecklein, joanecklein@comcast.net.

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Haifa International Conference Recap
Post date: Mon, 12/09/2013 - 13:28

by Odile Hugonot Haber, Co-Chair, MIddle East Issue Committee

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.

The Haifa conference was organized by a preparatory committee including former members of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) and dedicated Israeli anti-nuclear and human rights activists.

Iranʼs nuclear policy has raised the issue of nuclear policy in the Middle East as a whole, including that of Israel itself.

The international community has recognized that the nuclear issue, as well as the issue of weapons of mass destruction generally, is not an internal affair of any state but has implications that reach beyond national and geographic borders, and hence it requires international attention. Different international initiatives for abolishing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction derive from such insights. For example:

1. The great progress in the issue of dismantling the arsenal of chemical weapons in Syria and the commitment to implement the Security Council resolution through cooperation with the Syrian government.

2. The new moderate official Iranian discourse on Iran's nuclear policy, and the Iranian president Ruhani's commitment to cooperate with the international community to promote a nuclear free zone in the Middle East.

Those two developments have created favorable conditions for an effort to breach the wall of indifference erected by the Israeli establishment to block public discussion on the nuclear and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) issue inside Israel.

There is a broad international support, including among the peoples of the Middle East and among the progressive forces inside Israel, for the immediate implementation of the UN general assembly resolution from May 2010. That resolution called to hold an international conference in Helsinki under the auspices of the UN to promote the creation of a nuclear free zone in the Middle East, which is based on having all the countries of the region—including Israel—joining the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the treaty on the banning of chemical weapons.

Israel was the only party in the Middle East that decided to boycott the Helsinki conference. Consequently, the conference was cancelled. In an alternative international conference, which was organized by the peace organizations in Finland last December, and attended by the Finnish foreign minister, the representative of the Haifa based Emil Touma Institute concluded: "If official Israel will not come to Helsinki, it remains the task of the peace and progressive forces, in Israel and abroad, to bring Helsinki to Israel." Hence, the idea of an international conference in Israel was born, aimed at strengthening the demand for a nuclear free zone in the Middle East. Such a conference would be a continuation of many years of activism towards this goal.

We believe that now is the time to intensify the campaign in Israel on matters of Nuclear Weapons and WMD disarmament, and that the security of the citizens of Israel and the people of the region will not be met by the stockpiling of nuclear bombs and WMDs or by disastrous wars, but rather by disarmament and just peace.
 
Please let the US press know about this.

For more information, visit http://wmdfz.org/

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