“Stopping the Nukes” is the message Santa Cruz WILPF members Patricia Schroeder and Rebecca Jordan took to the Santa Cruz International Women’s Day March on March 8, 2017.

By Ellen Thomas

Ellen Thomas began her tour of WILPF branches on WILPF Solidarity Day (and Earth Day), April 22, in St. Louis, MO, then on to Columbia, MO; Kansas City, KS; Des Moines, IA; Madison and Milwaukee, WI; Minneapolis, MN; Ann Arbor and Detroit, MI; Chicago, IL; Cleveland, OH; Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, PA; and New York City. Further schedule details and resources may be found on the online itinerary.

Her talk, “Let’s End the Whole Nuclear Era,” covers:

• The nuclear weapons ban treaty negotiationsJune 19-July 7, 2017; and the Women’s March to Ban the Bomb on June 17;
• The campaign to seek co-sponsors for Eleanor Holmes Norton’s nuclear weapons abolition and energy conversion billintroduced each session since 1994: move the money from nuclear and other weapons to carbon-free, nuclear-free energy, environmental restoration, and other human needs;
• The efforts to stop the unnecessary and extremely hazardous shipments of highly radioactive liquid waste from Chalk River, Canada to Savannah River Site, South Carolina;
• The uranium mining moratorium and cleanup bill promoted by Defenders of the Black Hills;
• Voter initiatives as a tool for education and change.

Ellen Thomas is current co-chair of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Disarm/End Wars Committee (since 2008) and is co-founder of Proposition One Campaign for a Nuclear Free Future (1990). She has maintained a vigil for global nuclear weapons abolition north of the White House day and night for 18 years (1984-2002).

Ellen can be contacted at 202-210-3886 (cell and text) and etprop1@me.com (tour-related email).

All itinerary locations have been confirmed through the June 2-4 Left Forum in NYC. As the dates and locations of venues are confirmed, they will be posted to the Facebook blog @NFFtour.