Protesters demonstrate outside a US Marine base on Okinawa. The US plans to greatly expand the base in the rural fishing village of Henoko. Photo Credit: Sonia Narang, PRI.

By Martha Spiess and Christine DeTroy
Maine Branch of WILPF

Our small branch continues to collaborate with Brunswick’s local peace community PeaceWorks, as well as Maine Veterans for Peace.

In April, we sponsored a talk on the convoluted history and humanitarian crisis of Yemen, presented by Mass. Peace Action’s Dr. Valentine Moghadam, Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University. (An edited version of this talk will appear in the next issue of Peace and Freedom). Maine WILPFers also helped with contacting Senators Collins and King about S.J. Res #54 — the Sanders-Lee resolution to force a vote to terminate unauthorized U.S. participation in this war led by Saudi Arabia. (Both senators did vote for supporting further discussion.)

In May, Maine WILPF co-hosted a presentation by Veterans for Peace members Dud Hendriks and Bruce Gagnon (who is also Coordinator of the Global Network Against Wespons and Nuclear Power in Space) about their recent visit to Okinawa in support of the ongoing protest at the gates of the new US base being constructed on the pristine Oura Bay. Under discussion was the growing Japanese and worldwide movement against the 800 US military bases in 80 countries and how we can/must support this movement.

Maine WILPF members also continue to be active in planning the Brunswick-area Annual Peace Fair: “Imagine a World Without Nuclear Weapons”. The Fair commemorates the August 6 and 9, 1945, dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now in its fourteenth year, the Peace Fair will be held on Saturday, August 4 from 10 to 3 on the Brunswick Green.