NEWS

Post date: Tue, 07/28/2020 - 06:13

A Cuban doctor at a consult. Cuba has a free universal access health system which has so far helped keep its COVID-19 case and death numbers low, even though many Cubans struggle with the necessities of daily life due to shortages and scarcities mostly caused by the US blockade of Cuba. Photo by Yoamaris Neptuno Dominguez, used with permission.
 

By Leni Villagomez Reeves
Co-chair, Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issue Committee 

August 2020

The focus of the Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issue Committee has been on the Saving Lives Campaign of the US-Cuba-Canada Collaboration fighting COVID-19. Cindy Domingo has been working with the elected officials subcommittee, which just scored a stunning success on July 21 as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a resolution calling for Promoting Medical and Scientific Collaboration between San Francisco and Cuba to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Read about the approval of this resolution in an article published in 48hills.org, the official publication of the nonprofit San Francisco Progressive Media Center.)

Leni Villagomez Reeves has been working with the medical subcommittee, which is sharing information about Cuba’s innovative pharmaceuticals, effective public health, medical internationalism, and education of doctors from all over the world at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM). The Cuban medical teams working internationally have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. To learn more and support this campaign go to: www.cubanobel.org

Specifically, the Saving Lives Campaign calls for:

  • Allowing US-Cuba-Canada medical, clinical, and scientific collaboration, including inviting Cuban medical brigades to provide direct medical assistance and/or to provide advice and guidance in treating COVID-19.
  • Incorporating Cuba’s Interferon Alfa 2B Recombinant in clinical trials in the US, Canada and the WHO, and the granting by the US Food and Drug Administration approval for Cuba’s Interferon Alfa 2B Recombinant.
  • Ending US economic and travel sanctions against Cuba, including its extraterritorial nature and the attempts to stop all other countries accepting Cuban medical brigades and assistance, and all ongoing measures that prevent Cuba accessing and importing medical equipment and medicines to confront COVID-19.

WILPF US has endorsed this campaign. If you, as an individual, wish to endorse, or your branch would like to do so, go to: nnoc.info/us-cuba-canada-collaboration-to-fight-covid-19/

Learn more about Cuba’s work to contain COVID-19 in the July eNews article “Cuba Contains COVID-19: Here's How It's Done

 

 

Post date: Tue, 07/28/2020 - 06:09

By Marguerite Adelman
Burlington VT Branch and WILPF US Development Committee

August 2020

Unless WILPF branches assess a local membership fee, we know you have very little, if any, monies for your basic needs or special projects. Say you want to buy a banner for your group, rent a room for a large meeting, or purchase sign-making materials for your next protest march; where will that money come from? Even if you have a member/supporter who is happy to chip in cash for special items, this is not something you can always rely on.

WILPF’s Development Committee members Marguerite Adelman and Marybeth Gardam would like to hold a Zoom meeting with branch leaders and members who are interested in discussing and brainstorming a plethora of fundraising ideas, including some easy moneymakers for these “socially distanced” times.

Not all fundraisers require a large committee or loads of time to organize; some can be done by one person and within a couple of weeks. Nor does your branch need to be a 501(c)3 or even have a bank account to hold a fundraiser. We can tell you how and help you think of ways to get some cash to support your group’s needs, wants, and dreams. Fundraising is really “friend” raising. You gain visibility for your WILPF branch, educate community members about WILPF, and possibly attract new members. 
 
Marguerite and Marybeth will schedule and coordinate a Zoom call with all who are interested in joining a discussion. Bring your information about past successful fundraisers you have participated in, as well as your questions and ideas. Contact Marguerite at madel51353@aol.com by August 15th if you are interested in joining us on a supportive, idea-generating Zoom call with others in the very near future.

Post date: Tue, 07/28/2020 - 06:05

“You did it!” says Hali Hammer, helping you on virtual meetings

By Darien De Lu
WILPF US President

August 2020

It’s time for all of us to get comfortable with virtual connection tools. In August 2021, for the first time, WILPF US will conduct our national Congress virtually!

Let’s freshen up our skills and our activism before then: On August 20, you can learn more about how to do virtual meetings – both conference calls and Zoom.

We’ve all learned how important virtual connections are to us. Some days, it can feel like just too much, to spend another day sheltering in your home (if you’re fortunate enough to be able to stay at home and have one to stay in). So what do you do? Connect with someone! A phone call with a friend can make such a difference!

We’ve all been making phone calls for years, without thinking of them as virtual connections. Now, in these COVID-19 times, we know that even though a virtual contact isn’t quite as good as an actual one, it’s still worth a lot!

As important as our personal connections are, so are our political ones – branch meetings, political rallies, educational events, and conferences. The Poor People’s Campaign united over three million of us at their virtual mass gathering and moral march on June 20. The July online Concert for Cuba gave us energizing dance music and inspiring messages, reminding us about the value of human and cultural sharing across borders.

If you’re a member of a WILPF branch or other local activist group, are you meeting virtually? If not, why not? Meetings are where we connect, in multiple ways. It’s easy, by phone (conference calls) and/or by computers, tablets, and smart phones (using video virtual meeting tools). 

Learn how to do both at our WILPF US class to be held on Thursday, August 20 at 5:30 pm PDT/ 7:30 pm CDT/ 8:30 pm EDT. The class, via a Maestro conference call, will orient participants on how to do conference calls (through https://www.freeconferencecall.com/ ) and visual virtual meetings (using free Zoom accounts). Click here to pre-register for this August 20 training.

And start planning now to set aside time in late August 2021, so you can fully participate in our WILPF US Congress! We’d like all WILPFers to attend our virtual Congress next year! No long, costly (and risky) plane flights; no pricy hotel or dorm rooms; no dietary challenges! For 2021, the registration fee will be lower than for an in-person Congress. Just be sure your WILPF membership is current!

At the Congress, we look forward to presentations and discussion by active branches and at-large members about what they are doing to be effective, even with pandemic restrictions. Your local activist groups can be meeting safely, by conference call or computer, to plan actions, maintain ties, and – of course – to discuss the many significant 75th anniversaries this year. (Be inspired by the example and presentations of the WILPF Disarm/End Wars Committee. Their committee is using Zoom for its monthly webinars about those anniversaries; see the timeline of anniversaries and read more here.) 

If you’re interested in Zoom skills, get more pointers in two helpful step-by-step documents here. Created by activist Hali Hammer, who is also an award winning singer-songwriter, these guides (with a musical orientation) are extensively illustrated. Hali is also a founding member of Occupella, whose website offers many songs similar to those sung by the Raging Grannies.

WILPF members are activists, and our meetings are crucial, both for our political/activist work and for us as social beings. Too many of us are too alone for too much of the time these days. Get connected by learning more about meeting virtually; then you, like Hali, can still be active politically during COVID-19!

 

Post date: Mon, 07/20/2020 - 12:20

WILPF East Bay Chapter
Thank you for your support of peace, women’s empowerment, and activist organizing at WILPF US!
 

CHOOSE FROM THESE OTHER KINDS OF DONATIONS

  • YOUR REQUIRED MINIMUM DISTRIBUTION from your IRA.  
    Did you know you are required at age 72 to withdraw a portion of your Individual Retirement Account? Click here to find out more. 
     
  • GIFTS OF INSURANCE that may not be needed by the original beneficiary are simple: just make WILPF US the beneficiary of a life insurance policy of any size. Click here to find out more.
     
  • GIFTS OF APPRECIATED STOCKS OR BONDS can be arranged easily. Let us walk you through the simple process.   
     
  • BEQUESTS & PLANNED GIVING let you plan ahead, so your money continues to work as hard as you have for peace.
    Start planning NOW with our easy options – through a will, gifts of insurance, or pension plan remainder payouts. Click here to find out more

_______________________

If you have an individual retirement account, donate some or all of your
REQUIRED MINIMUM DISTRIBUTION TO WILPF US
for our continuing work for peace.

What Is a required minimum distribution?

A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the amount of money that must be withdrawn from a traditional IRA, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA by owners and qualified retirement plan participants upon reaching a certain age.

As of 2020, the starting age for RMDs from retirement accounts changed. It Now RMDs must begin by April 1 following the year account holders reach age 72. (Prior to 2020, the RMD age had been 70½ years old.) Each subsequent year the retiree must withdraw the RMD amount, based on the current RMD calculation.  This required annual distribution could be part of your planned giving to WILPF.

The 2020 Corona Virus Stimulus legislation suspended required minimum distributions from retirement accounts in 2020, giving those accounts more time to recover from the stock market downturns.

 

KEY POINTS

  • The RMD is the amount you must annually take out of your IRA account to avoid tax consequences.
  • Retirees can and do withdraw more from their IRAs than the RMD.
  • If you have multiple accounts, you will usually need to calculate the RMD for each separately, and may have to take an RMD from each.
  • The 2020 corona virus emergency legislation suspended all RMDs from retirement accounts for 2020.

Please consider donating all or some of your required distribution to WILPF.

Read more about this here.  
 

 

You don’t need to get a lawyer involved to make
GIFTS OF INSURANCE TO WILPF US

 

On any life insurance policy, you can change the beneficiary to WILPF US without engaging a lawyer or accountant. You simply contact your insurance company or agent, and they can easily make the change.  Often people have more than one insurance policy, so they can choose to leave one death benefit to WILPF US and another to a family member or close friend. 

If you haven’t reviewed your life insurance policy for a while, now is a good time to make sure the original beneficiary is still alive and is the one you want to receive your death benefits. 

 

THE CORRECT WORDS:   

“Please change the beneficiary on my life insurance policy, POLICY # ________________. To Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom US Section, Friends House, 4211 Grand Ave., Des Moines IA  50312.”

 

You will need to sign a form that authorizes a change in beneficiary.  

It may make sense to let your family know of this change, so they are not taken by surprise. 
 

You may enjoy a tax advantage when you donate
APPRECIATED STOCKS AND SECURITIES

It’s is as easy as a call to your broker to donate appreciated stocks and securities with the electronic funds transfer processes. 

If you do not require these gifts to be tax-deductible and wish to donate them directly to WILPF US, contact us at plannedgiving@wilpfus.org.

YOUR TAX ADVANTAGE:  
Gifts of appreciated securities may be tax deductible at full market value on the date 
of transfer.  To donate them as tax-deductible gifts, you’ll go through our fiscal sponsor, the Peace Development Fund (PDF), but be sure to list the gift as for PDF/WILPF US.  

Here is all the information you’ll need to provide your broker:    

DTC# 0226

VERIS Wealth Partners (National Financial Services)

FAO: Peace Development Fund

ACCT #:  656-350513

FED ID#:   042-738-794

 

You may email PDF’s broker directly with questions at sfahrer (at) veriswp (dot) com or phone Steve Fahrer at 800-659-8189.   FAX#  212-346-0084.

 

Here’s the information you will need to provide from YOUR broker:

  • Statement that this gift is earmarked for WILPF US
  • Date of the gift transfer to PDF
  • Number of shares and name of stock
  • Value of shares on the date of the gift
  • Name of the donor
  • Address and phone number of the donor.

TAX BENEFITS: 

If you donate stock you may:

  • Claim a charitable gift deduction for the full value of the stock on your current year’s taxes, if you itemize.
  • Avoid capital gains taxes you would owe, if it has increased in value and if you sold the stock yourself and then donated the value.
  • Avoid paying brokers fees on the sale of the stock.

To receive the FULL tax benefit, it’s important that you donate your appreciated stocks or securities directly to PDF for WILPF US, to take advantage of a tax deduction. 

If you donate to WILPF US directly (sacrificing a tax deduction) and have us sell it, you avoid the broker fees for the sale, which would reduce the amount of your gift.
 

Continue your life-long commitment to activism with
BEQUESTS AND PLANNED GIVING

 

WILPF Bequest Brochure CoverClick here to view or download the WILPF US BEQUEST BROCHURE,

“SOWING SEEDS OF PEACE”.    

Click here to view or download the WILPF US Bequest Reminder BOOKMARK.

 

Your legacy can work hard for peace,

But you must act NOW to put those plans in motion.

 

Now is the time to have this important conversation.

It’s important to inform your family or executor
of your intention to donate from your estate to WILPF.

You’ll want to have this conversation now, so there are no surprises later on. 

In doing so, you can be sure that your planned gift is arranged for, and that your heirs know that it will not preclude whatever inheritances you plan to leave for them.  

All bequests are made after gift inheritances are distributed and debts are settled, but they must be specified in your will.

 

Under current inheritance law, only the extremely wealthy need their gifts to be tax deductible. To donate from your will directly to WILPF US, without a tax deduction, here is the language that must appear in your will: 

 

THE CORRECT WORDS – here is the language you must include in your will:

“I bequeath the sum of $____ or __% of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate to Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom US Section, Friends House,  4211 Grand Ave., Des Moines IA 50312, Tax Number 23-1231270, for the benefit of its general purposes and work for peace.”

 

If you do need this gift to be tax-deductible the wording would shift slightly:

“I bequeath the sum of $____ or __% of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate to Peace Development Fund, 44 N. Prospect Street, Amherst MA 01002, Tax Number 04-2738794, for the benefit of WILPF US for its general purposes.”

 

 

PLANNING AHEAD MAKES IT EASIER FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY

 

Why not take this opportunity to complete the rest of your final plans?

If you have preferences for your final resting place, funeral arrangements and obituary wording, it’s possible to address these ahead of time. Many funeral homes offer an option for a pre-paid funeral that relieves your family from having to make hard decisions during their period of mourning. Having arrangements made in advance makes this emotional time less difficult for your family.  

 

Now is a good time to consider writing out final detailed instructions for your family or executor to follow after your death:  

  • If you’ve made arrangements already for a pre-paid funeral, you can put those instructions into a file and let your family know where to look for the file.  
  • You can write your own obituary and add it to the file, so you are sure that all the details you wish to include are written ahead of time.  
  • Consider including a request for final memorials to go to WILPF US, “in lieu of flowers”. 
  • Even small donations to WILPF make a huge difference, and keep WILPF visible in your community. 

 

THE CORRECT WORDS – here's how you might explain this to your family now:

“I’ve been committed to the work of WILPF US for __ years. I’m planning a bequest to WILPF in my will.  I’m putting whatever assets remain after my debts and inheritances towards the work of my heart… the cause of peace.”

 

 

How common is planned giving?

It turns out that most people do want to use the remainder of their estates to help change the world.

Your lawyer and accountant or financial advisor will be very familiar with end of life financial plans. Even people who are not millionaires work with advisors to plan for small and large gifts from the remainder of their estates after their death.  You can distribute the residual money in IRAs, pension plans (401k plans), and make WILPF a beneficiary in an insurance policy.  Advisors will be very accustomed to this discussion.

 

When people do estate planning, they may not think about supporting the causes that have been important to them, and financial advisors don’t always suggest it. Yet it turns out that most people do want to use some of their assets to help make change. Making charitable giving part of your planning can transform a potentially miserable process into a source of joy. 

 

People often respond positively when, during the estate planning process, they have the chance to donate to the charities and causes they’ve supported during their lives.

So we’re asking you to THINK now about designating WILPF US as a cause you want to support in your will.  

 

Only 54% of US adults over 55 have a will that directs where their money will go once they pass away, according to a 2018 article in Forbes Magazine. The article indicates that fewer than 30% of all Americans have an up-to-date will.

 

One big reason so many of us die without making our wishes known to our loved ones and others is that dying is an event we may not want to contemplate.  But by framing the decision in a more positive light — about the influence you would like to have, supporting the vision of a world at peace — you can feel you’ve made a significant contribution to important ongoing activism.

 

For more information on any of the planned giving options listed above, please contact us at plannedgiving@wilpfus.org.  

 

WILPF US is not in any way intending to provide tax, legal or financial planning advice with the information provided above. 

We strongly advise donors to consult an attorney or financial planner to make bequests and to inform their family members of their end-of-life wishes. 

This information is provided simply as a way to begin the discernment process and help inform your decisions.

 

PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU...  

HAVE SUPPORTED WILPF US THROUGH BEQUESTS AND PLANNED GIFTS THROUGHOUT OUR HISTORY.

Real people, not millionaires, have made a real difference at WILPF by remembering to arrange for gifts after their passing. Read about their stories on page 24 in this Peace & Freedom magazine article

You don’t need to be a millionaire to leave a meaningful bequest.

 

We prefer to know ahead if we can anticipate these gifts, so we ask donors to let us know when they make these arrangements.  But sometimes they arrive as windfalls of generosity. In many years they have helped us balance our budget, or helped us fund a project or program we would not have been able to achieve without their funding. A portion of all bequests now goes into a reserve cash account to ensure sustainability, while the largest portion supports our peace and justice activists across the US and support rising women leaders. 

To give us a heads up about your arrangements, reach us plannedgiving@wilpfus.org

 

 

 

Post date: Wed, 07/01/2020 - 08:43

Photo Credit: Mike Shaheen. Creative Commons 2.0 

By Martha Collins, Setou Ouattara, and Valarie Young
Advancing Human Rights (AHR) Chairs

July 2020

Enough is enough! We stand in solidarity with the protestors of police brutality and systemic racism calling to defund the police, because Black Lives Matter. We must defund the police and shift the money to public health and mental health services, housing, and other human needs.  

Join the fight for racial equality, confront our nation’s history of racial bigotry and begin the era of truth and justice. Now is the time we all stand together.  

Read the WILPF US Statement on the Murder of George Floyd and the Calls for Change.

You are invited to join our monthly call by registering here. Calls start at 8 pm ET, 5 pm PT. Upcoming dates are Thursday July 16th, Thursday August 20th, & then the first Thursday of each month thereafter.
 
Below you will find the beginning of the Advancing Human Rights (AHR) Resource Library. Included are videos, documentaries, books, audio books, audio presentations, articles, and social media posts to support working toward racial & social justice.

Video (51 minutes): Carol Anderson Presentation on White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide

Book: White Rage by Carol Anderson

Audiobook: White Rage (audiobook)

Book: The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

Audiobook: The Color of Law (audiobook)

Video (2 minutes): The Legacy of Racial Injustice is a powerful video by the Equal Justice Initiative.

Video Documentary (90 minutes): Slavery by Another Name This documentary challenges one of Americans’ most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation.

Video (42 Minutes): Ajamu Baraka & Margaret Kimberley: How to Make Peace an Election Issue

Audio Presentation (20 minutes):Police Must Answer to the Community / Black Agenda Report Young people are demanding the Community Control of Police. This is ushering in a new stage of the struggle, in which these young people are imagining a world free of Imperialism and the Police State.

Article: "Where there is Oppression, there will be Resistance" “This ‘historic alliance’ of the Movement for Black Lives with the oppressed abroad goes back to their 2016 founding document, which then characterized Israel as an ‘apartheid’ state, condemned US backing for the settler ’genocide’ against Palestinians, and supported the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement against Israel. Linking Home and Abroad” -Popular Resistance quote with permission

Video (5 minutes): Slavery to Mass Incarceration The myth of racial difference created to sustain American slavery persists today. Slavery did not end in 1865, it evolved.

Video Documentary (100 minutes): 13th This Oscar-nominated film won Best Documentary at the Emmys, the BAFTAs, and the NAACP Image Awards. The title of the documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” 13th looks from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry. Includes clips from activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men

Here are hashtags used on both the WILPF US Facebook & Twitter accounts on Juneteenth 2020:

#StandUp4HumanRights
#FIGHTracism
#JoinTogether
#BlackLivesMatter
#M4BL
#CommunitiesWorkingTowardRacialJustice
#AHR #AdvancingHumanRights
#WhiteRage
#RacialJustice
#SocialJustice
#BlackAgendaReport
#BlackAllianceforPeace
#EqualJusticeInitiative
#Reparations #ReparationsNow!
#UHURU #UHURUSolidarityMovement
#SayTheirNames
#GeorgeFloyd #TrayvonMartin #TamirRice, #MichaelBrown #FreddieGrey #WalterScott #EricGarner #EzellFord #SandraBland #JohnCrawfordIII #AltonSterling #PhilandoCastile #BreonnaTaylor #EmmettTill #FredHampton 
#AndCountlessOthers...

 

Organize With Us or Support Our Work

For more information, contact: ahrchair@wilpfus.org      

Post date: Wed, 07/01/2020 - 08:20

This is one way the Vermont Branch is using the peace cranes from Japanese Hibakusha that have been sent to WILPF branches. Photo by Robin Lloyd, with permission.

By Robin Lloyd and Ellen Thomas
Co-chairs, Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee

July 2020

We hear that WILPF US Branches have received the boxes of peace cranes that Japanese Hibakusha reverently sent to national WILPF and Jan Corderman kindly forwarded to each branch. We hope that branch members are figuring out how to thread and display and distribute them in ways that will speak to the hearts of those who receive them.

The Solidarity Event planning team will provide you many different peace crane ideas.  

Pictured above is one way the Vermont Branch is using the cranes. Vermont WILPF has also created a card you can print and cut into four. Robin Lloyd attached the cards to a clothes line on a tree in her yard, with tiny cranes hanging down on a thread. The card reads, 

Please take this peace crane & card and pass it on. This year is the 75th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945. Hibakushas – survivors of the bombing – and friends have folded thousands of cranes and sent them to peace groups in America to remind us of the fragility of life and beauty and to share in a commitment to abolish nuclear weapons. Try folding your own paper cranes.

There is also a printable one-page graphic showing how to fold a crane, which was sent to the Branches along with the box of cranes, and is available for everybody on the last page of Resources for 75th Anniversary commemorations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, listed at the bottom of the Disarm/End Wars web page.

Be Sure to Put These July 13 & August 9 Zoom Events on Your Calendar!

On July 13 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT - Tina Cordova, a founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, and Joni Arends, Director of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, will share their struggles to get compensation and health care for victims of the July 16, 1945, Trinity A-bomb test near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Joni will also discuss the radioactive waste disposal problems faced by New Mexicans. 

On August 9 at 6 pm ET - Dr. Hideko Tamura Snider, author of One Sunny Day and founder of One Sunny Day Initiatives, will speak of her childhood experience of the Hiroshima bombing and life before and after.

By the time you receive this eNews, Phyllis Bennis and Blanche Wiesen Cook will have described the founding of the United Nations and WILPF’s uphill battle to democratize it in the June 28 webinar. After each webinar we are putting a link to its recording on the date, from the Disarm/End Wars web page or on the 75th Anniversary Timeline.

Hiroshima Nagasaki 75% timeline

These events are among those being strategized by Cherrill Spencer and the 2020 WILPF US Solidarity Event Planning Team.


 

Post date: Wed, 07/01/2020 - 07:57
Graphic from the 75th Anniversaries Working Group toolkit, ReThinkMedia.

Graphic from the 75th Anniversaries Working Group toolkit, ReThinkMedia.

By Cherrill Spencer and Margaret Pecoraro
Co-coordinators of the Ceasefire/75th Solidarity Event Planning Team

July 2020

In recent years, solidarity events have been chosen by WILPF US and branches to create a unified WILPF presence. We are announcing the launch of the first solidarity event in 2020, which we hope all branches will take part in, with our event planning team’s help.

We have three umbrella themes that were agreed upon at the ONE-WILPF phone call in June: 

  • the Global Ceasefire request by the UN Secretary General, 
  • the 75th anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, 
  • the founding of the United Nations in 1945.

Rather than have a one weekend solidarity event, our planning team, coordinated by Cherrill Spencer (Peninsula/Palo Alto, CA branch) and Margaret Pecoraro (Tucson, AZ branch) have decided to have a “solidarity season,” lasting from August 6 to September 2, called the “Ceasefire/75th Solidarity Season” for short. 

This extended period will allow branches to choose from several recommended topics, including some not tied to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings which can occur after August 9, such as: 

  • connecting militarism to ecological devastation; 
  • the recent rumors of resuming nuclear bomb testing; and 
  • Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons bills in the House and Senate.

There are many different types of activities that branches and members-at-large can carry out as they commemorate past historical events or seek to educate themselves and their local communities about newer topics, such as why we need ceasefires in the myriad conflicts happening around the world as virtually all countries deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Your busy planning team is drawing up a long list of types of activities your branch could do, including many that you can do sitting at home while you need to shelter-in-place from COVID-19. We are writing resource guides for these activities, so you don’t have to do lots of research to find out, for example, how to use peace cranes, hold a peace fast, or get a Hiroshima-legacy gingko tree planted in your local public park. 

Your branch contact will have heard from the solidarity event planning team with lots of information before you read this eNews, and they will be receiving by email, around July 10th, many resource materials for early August events. 

Please plan for your branch to hold at least one solidarity event this season.

In keeping with many customary seasons, we have some pre-season events that all WILPF members can participate in from their comfy chairs at home. We invite you to attend some webinars held via Zoom about the history of the United Nations and the very first nuclear explosion that happened in New Mexico. You will find all the details, Zoom links and the link to the 1945 timeline the DISARM Issue Committee has created in this month’s eNews article.

Dear WILPFers, it is 75 years since two nuclear bombs were exploded over two Japanese cities full of civilians. Some survived and are #stillhere, but in diminishing numbers. Let us work together to rid the world of the scourge of nuclear weapons that are #stillhere in enormous numbers threatening the whole world now. 

Please take part in our Ceasefire/75th Solidarity Season! Be on the lookout for emails from cherrill.m.spencer (at) gmail.com.

Post date: Wed, 07/01/2020 - 07:51
Pat Elder & Margarite Adelman

Pat Elder, left, and Marguerite Adelman, right, are working on extending the PFAS and the Military Project to New England states.

By Marguerite Adelman
WILPF Burlington and Earth Democracy Committee

July 2020

WILPF members Pat Elder and Marguerite Adelman are working on a continuation of the California PFAS and the military tour from spring 2020.  The new project will be focused on New England PFAS and will look at contamination at military sites in Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire.

For a fuller picture of the many ways the military has polluted the environment and threatened public health, read an impressive series of ProPublica articles by Abrahm Lustgarten and other reporters on the topic: Bombs in Our Backyard: Investigating One of America's Greatest Polluters. You can also find an explanation of the initial project in California and why it is important under the subhead “WILPF asks – What’s in Our Drinking Water? Why This Public Health Crisis?” at the Earth Democracy page.
 
Firefighters at Peterson Air Force Base The project would take place in the spring. summer, or fall of 2021, depending on when we’ve raised sufficient funding through grants. We have started to convene teams for each state to help us set up community forums and programs on PFAS near military sites. And already Pat Elder has begun work on separate websites for bases and contamination in these four states (see militarypoisons.org). We realize that each state will need a slightly different focus for the advocacy and actions that we are hoping will take place.   

Above: Firefighters at Peterson Air Force Base conduct live training with AFFF. Photo by Michael Golembesky / US Air Force.

We know from initial Zoom calls with PFAS and peace activists in each state that we have interest and commitment. We are hoping to get more WILPF members involved in each state. You don’t need to belong to a branch to become a part of one of these state teams.

If you are interested, we’d be happy to share with you a state information sheet/plan, a wish list of possible PFAS legislation, and an initial project budget (currently estimated at $75,000 for this four-state project).  We hope to begin sending out grant proposals soon in order to start securing the necessary funding.
 
If you would like us to send you the materials or if you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact Pat or me via email or phone:
Marguerite at 518-561-3939; madel51353@aol.com
Pat Elder at 301-997-3963; pat.elder@civilianexposure.org

 

Post date: Wed, 07/01/2020 - 07:36
Military Spending

By Nancy Price
Co-chair, Earth Democracy Issue Committee

July 2020

Planning for the second stage of our “Exposing the Military: Hidden Polluter of Water” campaign in four New England states comes at the time when people are also calling to defund the US Military. Cuts in the military budget could be used to clean up PFAS contaminated sites and for expensive water treatment to ensure safe drinking water.

It is time to take action now – speak out to support a Moral Budget, and call your representative and senators to ask them to support recent amendments related to PFAS issues!

The Poor People’s Moral Budget

For years, peace organizations, public policy institutes, faith communities, and NGOs have identified what to cut and how to spend that money for healthcare, education, public services, repair of our transportation infrastructure, affordable housing, renewable energy, and so much more. (Read this Joint Statement: U.S. Organizations React to Global Military Spending Report).

In 2019, the PPC recommended in the “Poor People's Moral Budget: Everybody Has the Right to Live” reducing the  $740 plus billion budget by $350 billion and listed how these savings would be used for human needs and to protect the environment. Read the “Legislative and Policy Priorities of the Poor People’s Campaign” which includes the following five sections:

Part I. Establish Justice and End Systemic Racism: The Right to Democracy and Equal Protection Under the Law
Part II. Promote the General Welfare: The Right to Welfare and an Adequate Standard of Living
Part III. Ensure Domestic Tranquility: The Right to Work with Dignity
Part IV. Secure the Blessings of Liberty: The Right to Health and A Healthy Environment
Part V. Provide for the Common Defense: Reprioritizing our Resources

Now’s the time to speak out on the 2021 Military Budget. 

In February, President Trump sent Congress his proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget request of $740.5 billion for national security. Beginning in July, the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee will have hearings and vote on H.R. 6395, which then goes to the House and the Senate for debate and a vote. 

On June 20-21, 2020, more than 2 million people attended the Poor People’s Campaign virtual gathering. As Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis of the Poor People’s Campaign make so clear in their June 21 statement, “A moral agenda for a troubled America”: Whenever we demand what we know is necessary for all people to thrive, politicians who have accommodated themselves to America’s inequality ask, “But how would we pay for it?  

Anticipating the PPC gathering, on June 15, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) submitted a resolution to the House of Representatives proposing  this $350 billion cut in the military budget to help reduce poverty and inequality, including funding for public health, education, housing, energy, diplomacy. and more. Read a summary of this plan at nationalpriorities.org.

Meanwhile, on June 25, Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke on the floor of the Senate to propose a 10% cut of the military’s budget for about a $74 billion saving to invest in education, healthcare, and poverty reduction, and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) have said they will introduce companion amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) now being discussed in the House Armed Services Committee.

The Military Budget and the Human Right to Water   

First: The People’s Budget proposes investing approximately $38 billion a year in water infrastructure that would create up to 945,000 jobs while providing safe drinking water to thousands of communities that don’t have it. That figure is less than what the Pentagon awarded just one corporation – Lockheed Martin – for military contracts in 2018.   

Let’s be clear, that $38 billion figure, first proposed by Food & Water Watch in the WATER Act of 2016 (WATER stands for Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability Act), has yet to be voted on by Congress. Most importantly, the Clean Water Act does not take into account the national drinking water crisis from PFAS contamination of drinking water.

Second: Amazingly, the military budget now being discussed by the Armed Services Committee authorizes 

  1. $150 million for research to develop PFAS remediation and disposal technologies and firefighting agent replacement, and 
  2. $1.5 billion for environmental remediation and cleanup at current military installation, formerly utilized defense sites, and closed installations and another $190 for accelerated remediation and PFAS response. 

The amount proposed here for remediation and clean-up is just a “drop in the bucket.” Orange County, California, alone is facing more than $1 BILLION in remediation, and although not all that may be from military contamination, it does point to the scale of the problem. 

It is so shocking that since the 1960s, the military knew PFAS chemicals were harmful to public health and looked the other way to escape responsibility

Let’s be clear,  if a small percentage of the military budget goes to pay for PFAS impacts, still we are paying for their knowingly poisoning the environment and causing immense suffering to people exposed to PFAS-contaminated drinking water on military bases and in surrounding communities. 

It is time to take action. A number of Armed Services Committee members have introduced or support more amendments to H.R. 6395 related to PFAS issues. Find the phone number for your Representative and your Senators or call the US Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121. Be clear that you want support for all these amendments whether that person is on the committee or will be voting when H.R. 6395 comes to the full House for a vote before going to the Senate. We must assert our human right to safe water and health.  
    


 

Post date: Wed, 07/01/2020 - 07:23
Ray Acheson

ICAN campaigner Ray Acheson of WILPF speaks at a September 2016 protest against the main US military base in Australia, Pine Gap, which is involved in nuclear targeting. Credit: Tim Wright.

By Odile Hugonot Haber

July 2020

Ray Acheson recently made available to us the beginning of a series of articles that she wrote under the title: “Abolishing Structures of Violence.” The articles are available in the Thoughts for Change Section of WILPF International’s website.

This series is meant to generate discussion and help us to engage in deeper reflection on our peace and justice work. I will introduce them briefly, hoping to entice you to read them since they really do enrich our analysis of current realities.

The first article, “What We Mean When We Talk About Abolition,” lists some abolitions we are asking for: the abolition of nuclear weapons and war, the abolition of police and prisons, the abolition of borders. It looks at these demands in a way that makes them plausible and rational, especially focusing on how they can help us build a new system based on “cooperation, equity, and justice for all.” This is the path that will help us to focus on the restoration of our communities, and provide stepping stones to rebuilding a world without war, a just world.  

The facts in the second article, “Deconstructing Borders,” are deeply troubling.  For example, “Right now in the world, about 70 million people are unroofed and on the run,” or “on any given day there are 50,000 asylum seekers and migrants in detention in the US.” It is not just numbers that are listed; Ray describes their condition, the causes, and the ever-increasing military, technological, detention, and surveillance industries that only grow more frightening.

There is much to learn in sections that describe the effects of capitalism, colonization, conflict, and climate change. With their far-reaching analysis, these discussions make us think about the meaning of borders, how they do not limit the employer class pitting wages of the people of one country against another, but continue to keep societies under feudal laws. Meanwhile, the workers are contained within these borders and sent to war under the name of nationalism, patriotism, etc.

Nuclear weapons make borders obsolete, since nuclear winter would affect all of us, as does global climate change. 

Maybe it is time to reclaim an international movement, time to demand the abolition of nuclear weapons, and also of all weapons and of all wars. As Acheson writes, “we need to wrap our heads around this political project of care, of peace, and of justice in a comprehensive way.”

I hope I have interested you enough that you will decide to deepen your reading, to create your own discussions and perhaps contribute your own articles in the future. That’s what Ray hoped for in writing this series.

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