NEWS

Celebrate the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Coming into Force on January 22!

Post date: Wed, 12/02/2020 - 10:37

Graphic provided by ICAN. Used with permission.

By Ellen Thomas
Co-chair, DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee

December 2020

You’ve no doubt heard the wonderful news that the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will go into effect on January 22, 2020. Volunteers in the DISARM/End Wars Committee are preparing resource guides to help WILPFers organize actions on January 22, 2021, to bring the public’s attention to this new treaty. Be on the lookout for an eALERT and emails with these guides. PLEASE LET US KNOW if you or a group you’re involved with is planning an action, and take photos to send, along with a report on the action, afterwards.

The WILPF US Disarm/End Wars Committee is also working in coalition with ICAN, Rethink Media, Nuclear Resister, and Alliance for Nuclear Accountability to collect and share information about what people are planning to do in their communities to publicize and celebrate this historic date, and to point out facilities that are in violation of the treaty.

This treaty is particularly important, because it requires that the countries that ratify it not only can’t produce, maintain, or deploy nuclear weapons; they also can’t host any entity that does. This means that war profiteers such as Lockheed-Martin or Raytheon can’t have any factories or offices in any of the 50 countries that have ratified the treaty so far, even if those offices don’t work on nuclear weapons.

Informative Websites on EIF Actions

Alliance for Nuclear Accountability is creating banners to hold outside nuclear weapons production facilities and the offices of the corporations that produce or fund them. You can learn more about this at Nuclear Ban Treaty EIF on Facebook. Nuclear Resister has created a website dedicated to the Entry Into Force (EIF) of the TPNW.

“Don't Bank on the Bomb” provides lists of 26 corporate producers of nuclear weapons and their 324 institutional investors. They write, “There are a few companies that stand out in terms of their overall nuclear weapon related activities, with billions in outstanding contracts. For example, Huntington Ingalls Industries which is connected to several facilities in the US nuclear weapons enterprise, is part of more than US$ 28 billion in outstanding contracts. Lockheed Martin is a close runner-up, connected to more than US$ 25 billion in contracts.”

Who is trying to profit from weapons of mass destruction? “The report: Shorting Our Security - Financing the Companies that Make Nuclear Weapons provides the answer.”

Nuclear Ban US has provided a short video of their action at Faslane in Scotland, where they dressed as a Treaty Compliance Unit, putting up signs around the perimeter saying that prohibited activities were taking place inside!

Nuclear Resister’s website encourages us to Get Involved! and advises to: Check out your local university or college. There is a list here of US educational institutions that are directly involved in supporting nuclear weapons production. Some of them even operate nuclear weapons sites! Your local school not on the list? With a little digging, you might find out where their endowment funds are invested—chances are there is a link to a nuclear weapons corporation or fund.

“Write your congresspersons—Senators and Reps. Tell them you expect their name to be on the first bill introduced in the new Congress that addresses the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Tell them you’ll be watching. It is highly likely that Senator Ed Markey and Congressman Ted Lieu will introduce bills that include a call for the US to join the Treaty….”

Legislation Supporting the TPNW in the House of Representatives

Ellen Thomas, Robin Lloyd, Eleanor Holmes Norton We can hope that Senator Markey and Congressman Ted Lieu will introduce bills supporting the TPNW. In 2019, Congressman Jim McGovern introduced a resolution supporting the TPNW, which wasn’t binding, and went nowhere.

Photo: From left, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and WILPF Disarm/End Wars Co-Chairs Robin Lloyd and Ellen Thomas.

However, the only member of Congress who has ever introduced binding legislation supporting the TPNW (most recently HR-2419 in the 2019-2020 session) is Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is once again planning to introduce her “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act” after the new Congress convenes in 2021. This is a sure thing, and we need your help in encouraging other members to join her in introducing the bill.

By the end of 2020 there were eight co-sponsors of HR-2419, listed in the order they signed on: Jim McGovern of Massachusetts had the good sense to cosponsor the bill, in addition to introducing his own resolution. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Barbara Lee of California signed on in 2019. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Rashida Tlaib and Andy Levin of Michigan, and Carolyn Maloney of New York cosponsored in 2020.

Historically, Representatives have signed on after Ms. Norton introduced her legislation. Disarm Co-chair Ellen Thomas wrote to her in November, “We think it would be helpful in getting more co-sponsors if these eight would add their names again BEFORE the bill is introduced. May we contact them and other progressive Representatives to say that you approve of this idea?” Ms. Norton’s legislative aide, Trent Holbrook, replied, “We would be happy to add other Members as original cosponsors when we introduce it. If you find any offices who would like to be original cosponsors, please feel free to let them know they can contact me and we will be sure to add them.”

We need to contact each of the eight Representatives individually to ask them to join Ms. Norton in introducing the bill. We also need to contact other members to sponsor it. Ms. Norton has suggested that we focus on the Progressive Caucus, as they are the most likely to sign on. It’s really important that they be contacted by their own constituents, in order for them to listen and act. Unfortunately, with COVID-19 it’s more difficult, but we can send emails and letters, followed by phone calls to the aide/s that deal with nuclear weapons and the environment in their home and DC offices, followed by emails and letters via the aides, followed by a request to speak with the Representative on the phone …. You get the picture. Repetition, persistence, determination. Hope.

Here Is What HR-2419 Says:

Requirement for nuclear weapons abolition and economic and energy conversion.

(a) In general.—The United States Government shall—

(1) provide leadership by signing and ratifying the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or any other international agreement that provides for—

(A) the dismantlement and elimination of all nuclear weapons in every country; and

(B) strict and effective international control of such dismantlement and elimination;

(2) redirect resources that are being used for nuclear weapons programs to use—

(A) in converting all nuclear weapons industry processes, plants, and programs, and in retraining employees, to shift to a constructive, ecologically beneficial peace economy, which includes strict control of all fissile material and radioactive waste; and

(B) in addressing human and infrastructure needs, including development and deployment of sustainable carbon-free and nuclear-free energy sources, health care, housing, education, agriculture, and environmental restoration, including long-term radioactive waste monitoring; and

(3) actively promote policies to induce all other countries to join in the commitments described in this subsection to create a more peaceful and secure world….

Here is What You Can Say When You Contact Your Representative

Dear Representative ______,

I am writing as a constituent to ask you to join Eleanor Holmes Norton when she introduces her “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act” in the 117^th Congress. It will have the same provisions as H.R. 2419 in the 116^th Congress.

This bill’s main goals are to have the U.S. Government sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and to redirect the enormous amounts of taxpayers’ money being spent on nuclear weapons programs towards “converting all nuclear weapons industry processes, plants, and programs, and in retraining employees, to shift to a constructive, ecologically beneficial peace economy, which includes strict control of all fissile material and radioactive waste; and in addressing human and infrastructure needs, including development and deployment of sustainable carbon-free and nuclear-free energy sources, health care, housing, education, agriculture, and environmental restoration.”

I ask that you become a sponsor of Ms Norton’s new bill, even before it has an H.R. number, by speaking with her or informing her legislative aide, Trent Holbrook, at 202-225-8050.

Thank you for all you do for this constituency.

Please look out for the TPNW EIF resource guides coming soon, and keep us informed of your efforts and your progress! Mail to disarmchair@wilpfus.org.

Post date: Wed, 12/02/2020 - 10:25

A girl suffers with cholera in the Yemeni city of Taiz (April 4, 2019). Photo credit: anasalhajj / Shutterstock.com.

By Odile Hugonot Haber
Co-chair, Middle East Peace and Justice Action Committee

December 2020

The war in Yemen has entered its sixth, devastating year. Over 100,000 people have died and millions are on the brink of famine. The United States government is complicit in this war; millions worth of arms have been sold to the Saudi coalition since the start of the war, US planes have helped refuel Saudi planes and directed the bombings.

WILPF US has been speaking up about the humanitarian crisis this war has caused from the beginning, and passed a statement in 2016 calling “for an immediate end to US involvement in and support for this unconscionable war” and urging the US “to employ diplomacy.” That was more than four years ago, and the situation has only gotten more catastrophic for all the people of Yemen, including children, who are regularly dying from violence, malnutrition, and disease.

An international protest, “World Says No to War on Yemen,” is planned for January 25, 2021. The declaration calling for this International Day of Action on Yemen states:

“Since 2015, the Saudi-led bombing and blockade of Yemen have killed tens of thousands of people and devastated the country. The U.N. calls this the largest humanitarian crisis on Earth. Half the country’s people are on the brink of famine, the country has the world’s worst cholera outbreak in modern history, and now Yemen has one of the very worst COVID death rates in the world: It kills 1 in 4 people who test positive. The pandemic, along with the withdrawal of aid, is pushing more people into acute hunger.

And yet Saudi Arabia is escalating its war and tightening its blockade.

The war is only possible because Western countries – and the United States and Britain in particular – continue to arm Saudi Arabia and provide military, political, and logistical support for the war. The Western powers are active participants and have the power to stop the world’s most acute human crisis.

The disaster in Yemen is man-made. It is caused by the war and blockade. It can be ended.

People and organizations from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Poland, Spain, and across the world, are coming together to call for an end to the war in Yemen and solidarity with the people of Yemen.

We demand that right now our governments:

Stop foreign aggression on Yemen.
Stop weapons and war support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Lift the blockade on Yemen and open all land and seaports.
Restore and expand humanitarian aid for the people of Yemen.

We call on people around the world to protest the war on January 25, 2021, just days after the U.S. presidential inauguration and the day before Saudi Arabia’s ‘Davos in the Desert’ Future Investment Initiative.”

This action is endorsed by WILPF-US, and we encourage members and branches to create or join local protests – with masks and other safety precautions, of course.

If you plan an in-person protest, please register the details here. If you cannot organize an in-person action, please consider supporting others who can. You can also organize virtual events, media, and other events leading up to January 25.

Previous WILPF US work on Yemen:

Peace and Freedom Magazine:

“The History Behind Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis” by Val M. Moghadam (pages 8-9 in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of Peace & Freedom magazine)

Past eNews articles:

Drone Attacks Lead to Heightened Middle East Tensions by Ellen Rosser (10/17/2019)
Your Letter Could Save Lives in Yemen by Barbara Taft (05/07/2019)
The Situation in Yemen Is Dire by Ellen Rosser (03/13/2019)
Act Now to End the War in Yemen and Suspend Arms Sales to the Saudis by Odile Hugonot Haber (11/09/2018)
Yemen Has Become 'Hell on Earth' by Odile Hugonot Haber (02/08/2018)

Post date: Wed, 12/02/2020 - 10:15

A Cuban doctor at a consult. Photo by Yoamaris Neptuno Dominguez, used with permission.

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

December 2020

For work undertaken in the struggle to overcome disease and suffering, which also constitute a threat to peace, for pioneering humanitarian work on four continents, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace by relieving human suffering wherever requested, regardless of the nature of the government in power, for the great work it has performed on behalf of humanity:

We in WILPF-US propose the Cuban International Medical Brigades be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021!

The Henry Reeve Medical Brigade was created in 2005 to provide humanitarian-medical-health aid to people in countries that are victims of natural disasters and epidemics. In these 15 years, they have cared for patients and helped build health care systems in countries ranging from Ghana to Sri Lanka, Chile to South Africa, Haiti to Nepal. The Henry Reeve medical brigade in West Africa, totaling about 250 Cuban doctors and nurses, worked for six months providing direct care for patients with Ebola.

Since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus pandemic, 53 brigades of the Henry Reeve contingent have put their lives at risk working in 39 countries (requested by the respective governments of those nations), to cure the sick and help prevent spread of the disease. As of the end of September 2020, more than 3,700 Cuban medical professionals have participated, all of them volunteers for this Brigade. Just over 61% are women. So far, there have been no COVID-19 deaths among Cuban medical workers, although the risk is always present.

Because Cuban medical internationalism has been so acclaimed worldwide, the U.S. government has felt the need to attack it with spurious claims that the Cuban medical personnel are being “trafficked.” This is based on the fact that, although Cuba has provided medical aid free to countries that lack resources, wealthy countries like Italy pay Cuba for medical assistance and not all the money goes to the personnel. Of course, they are getting paid for their work, and their education was free, so they’ve no debt to pay off.

Not satisfied with trying to discredit Cuban medical workers, the U.S. also attempts to coerce other governments, threatening them that if they request Cuban medical brigades, they will be placed on the US TVPA (Human Trafficking) Tier 3 list, with consequent loss of aid and trade. U.S. attacks on Cuban medical internationalism are not new, but this additional refinement began in 2019. This makes our support for the Nobel Peace Prize nomination for the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade all the more timely and necessary.

Meanwhile, Cuba keeps doing what it has always done and takes an internationalist view. In an outpouring of humanism, it has sent 53 medical brigades to poor countries and rich countries alike, with the 54th brigade just requested days ago by Sicily.

As a second wave of COVID-19 afflicts southern Europe and infections and deaths increase rapidly, authorities in Sicily have asked for a brigade of Cuban international medical workers. In March and April, Cuban brigades served in the Lombardy and Turin regions. Now, in this second wave, Italy again finds itself overwhelmed. Italy’s federation of doctors has pointed out that in the ten days from November 15-25, 27 Italian doctors died of COVID-19.

As the first Cuban medical brigades left Italy, they were cheered in the streets. There is more than a little bit of incongruity in a poor country like Cuba sending aid to a European country, but that’s what is happening. And that’s not even taking into consideration that Cuba is under continuous and increasing siege by the U.S. with a crippling economic blockade. One of the consequences of the blockade occurred during the Ebola epidemic, when the Bank of Ireland bowed to U.S. pressure and ceased handling Cuban transactions, making it impossible for Cuba to transfer funds to the health workers in West Africa for some weeks. One can only hope that, in addition to applauding the health care workers who helped the region, the banks in Lombardy and Sicily will defy the blockade and return some economic kindness for the healthcare kindness they have received. The fact that no guarantees to this effect have been signed simply makes the nobility of the Cuban medical international effort more striking and worthy of recognition.

For more on the international movement to give Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade the Nobel Peace Prize, visit https://www.cubanobel.org.

Learn more at:
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/cuba-doctors-covid-19/
https://time.com/3556670/ebola-cuba/
https://www.cubastandard.com/qa-cubas-unique-model-of-medical-internationalism/

Post date: Wed, 12/02/2020 - 10:10

Branch Renewal Committee Member Mary Hanson Harrison (left) and two young women at the January 2017 Women’s March.

By Mary Hanson Harrison, Eileen Kurkoski, Jan Corderman, & Laura Dewey
Branch Renewal Committee

December 2020

“Build and strengthen relationships and movements for justice, peace, and radical democracy” is the last in a line of imperatives in our mission statement.

After several harrowing weeks, and probably more to come, we are offering a chance for five (5) branches to participate in a transformational NEW DAY! A NEW WAY! We are calling out to your branch and all of our branch members to join together, individually and collectively, in a new adventure.

The new initiative, “Building Branches for the Inside Out,” focuses on the strengths or assets in your branches and is based on adapting years of research and successful community building to our own WILPF community. We are hiring a part-time field facilitator who will work with the five (5) chosen branches for a year. National WILPF is requesting interested branches to fill out an application to participate and submit to Eileen Kurkoski by December 20. Preference will be given to new and more challenged branches.

What is this asset-based mapping project? Why should WILPF branch members put in time on it?

The first step will be completing an asset-based mapping project. With the guidance of the facilitator, the mapping project will be carried out by the selected branches after one or two teach-ins about the methodology. The project includes a $300 STRENGTH GRANT for each chosen branch, to be developed by the branch, based on the asset-based mapping, and used for recruitment and enhanced visibility projects.

Here are some examples of kinds of assets that may exist within your community:

individual skill sets,
local religious, educational, political institutions,
allies and collaborators
your branch communications e.g., Facebook, newsletters, eAlert, Zoom

At first glance, it may seem to be a simple task, and that’s the beauty of it! Your members will be looking at what they do, have done, and can do. Inevitably, your branch members will be drawn into a productive conversation – with the discovery of new possibilities!

WILPF US is offering this opportunity for your branch to ASSESS the infrastructure of your branch, through tracing the human and institutional resources, both present ones and potential ones. The results will provide the building blocks for your STRENGTH GRANT and plans for the next three years.

Adapting the asset-based community development concept to WILPF puts the power into the hands of members; as we mentioned before, this approach has proved to be effective and sustainable. Please confer with your branch members about this opportunity, and we look forward to receiving your application by December 20!

Please send questions and/or your application to Eileen Kurkoski eileen4wilpf@gmail.com, 617-928-0958 (Phone contact is best.)

Post date: Mon, 11/02/2020 - 14:01

Marguerite Adelman, “Seeking Peace,” 2018: Acrylic, beads, felt, and origami on canvas, 20” x 16”.

December 2020

A Powerful Holiday Gift Idea

By the WILPF US Development Committee

Support the organization you love by giving a WILPF membership as a gift to someone you love. It’s so simple. Just send an email to Chris at the WILPF US Office (chris.wilpf@gmail.com) with the following info:

Use the subject line: “HOLIDAY LIST – GIFT MEMBERSHIPS”
Include your list of designated gift recipients with their names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails for everyone to whom you would like to give a $35 WILPF membership as a holiday gift.
Write your check for $35 x (number) of individuals you are giving this gift to. Make check out to WILPF US. (FYI – this is not tax deductible because it’s a purchased membership).
Mail your check to:
HOLIDAY GIFT MEMBERSHIPS
WILPF US
PO Box 13075
Des Moines, IA 50310

Your gift recipients will get:

A holiday gift card affirming their holiday gift membership.
Later they’ll receive a really spiffy new member packet.

During these times when we all have too much stuff, how nice it is to get a gift of involvement in peace and justice work.

Branches, 2021 Congress Opportunities are Knocking at Your Door!

By the Congress Program Committee

WILPF US’s 34th Triennial Congress, “WOMEN, POWER AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: Building from Strength,” is less than a year away! The 2021 Congress dates are: August 13, 14, 15 & 20, 21, 22.

This Congress aims to lift the voices of our branches and honor your contributions. We are seeking featured speakers on key WILPF topics and programming entertainment, but it is your presentations that will form the foundation for Congress 2021. Our hope is that these presentations will be contributed by individual branches or collaborations between branches participating in similar projects.

To start planning for this effort to showcase your work at Congress, we would like to speak with your members to discuss your projects and endeavors. Please contact one of the Con-Pro committee members (see list below) to provide a contact person from your branch, and please do ask us your questions! We will be setting up a time for one of us to call you soon.

Congress Program Committee:
Janet Slagter: janetsl@mail.fresnostate.edu
Mary Hanson Harrison: harrison0607@msn.com
Bev Fitzpatrick: dfitzpatrick29@comcast.net
Karina Lopez: lopezkarinarenee@gmail.com
Leni Reeves: lenireeves@gmail.com
Robin Lloyd: robinlloyd8@gmail.com

Post date: Mon, 11/02/2020 - 12:27

November 2020

Six Reasons to Give WILPF US Membership as a Holiday Gift

By the WILPF US Development Committee

Introduce your friends and family to WILPF US – emphasize young women and men…nieces and nephews, grandchildren who are teenagers, etc. Create a relationship between someone you love and the organization you love.
Fewer packages to send during this pandemic season.
No worries about delivery or lost packages. Less waste.
Help Get the US back on track to women’s rights, promote peace, change the system! Build our capacity for peace and freedom.
Decommercialize the holidays. We’re all aware how little material STUFF we need these days.
Support the organization that you love. What an opportunity!

How it works:

Before December 2 for Hanukkah
Before December 16 for Christmas and Kwanzaa

Send a note (snail mail) to Chris Wilbeck at the WILPF US Office (PO Box 13075, Des Moines IA 5031) with the following info:

Your list of designated gift recipients with their names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails for everyone to whom you would like to give a $35 WILPF membership as a holiday gift.
Note WHAT HOLIDAY you intend this gift for: Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or the Winter Holidays.
Enclose your check for $35 x (number) of individuals you are giving this gift to. Make check payable to WILPF US. (FYI: purchased memberships are not tax deductible)
Mail your check with the note with all the above info.

Your Gift Recipient will get:

A HOLIDAY CARD affirming your holiday gift membership.
ENGAGEMENT OPTIONS offering a list of ways they can get involved.
Later they’ll receive a really spiffy NEW MEMBER PACKET.

You'll get an emailed confirmation when your gift is sent!

Join the Open-to-All-Members Program Call on Tuesday, November 10

By Joan Goddard
Program Committee Chair

Mark your calendars: Tuesday, November 10: 5 pm PST / 8 pm EST
Join us Tuesday evening on November 10 for an open-to-all-members Program call. Learn about and get involved in the recently-adopted WILPF US Call for Peace and the national issue committees, as well as the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

We will share other program-related information and ask for your ideas and commitment. If you have been on an open WILPF US Program call before, you are pre-registered. If you are not sure, please register by clicking here. All those registered should receive a reminder email message from Michael on Monday evening 11/9; if you do not get this reminder, please register again.

Questions? Joan Goddard, 2020 WILPF US Program Chair - joan [at] rujo [dot] org

W$D Supports Public Banking Campaigns

By Marybeth Gardam
Chair, Women, Money, & Democracy Committee

The big banks and transnational corporations we all bailed out with public money over the last 15 years have thrived. It’s payback time for the American people.We’re asking our members and the public across the country to connect with local public banking initiatives in their city or state, or begin a local dialogue to bring everyone necessary to the table to create a public banking alternative in your area.

Starting in October WILPF’s W$D Committee is publishing a Public Banking Toolkit that will be downloadable and printable. It is an anthology of important facts, articles, talking points, and tools to promote public banking, connect with local initiatives, or start some of your own. The toolkit can be used for study groups, advocacy work and outreach. To order the Toolkit or for more info contact mbgardam@gmail.com.

Why Is WILPF US Advocating for Public Banking?

Why advocate for public banking? Because economic inequality and corruption lead inevitably to conflict and violence. Economic justice and people-centered economic policy help support peace.

Big transnational banks are increasingly wielding a huge amount of power and influence in the US and across the planet. They are using deposits the public entrusts to them in the form of savings and investments, including state and corporate pension funds. They are charging cities and states obscene account servicing fees that rob communities of funding for essential services. They use our local investments, savings, pension plans, etc.:

to bankroll extractive exploitive industries like mining and fossil fuels;
to exert control and to influence elected officials to gut regulation and enforcement;
for threatening democracy and shaping policies that favor the 1 percent;
to bankroll weapons dealers and manufacturers, fund more war-making and defeat efforts to demilitarize and make peace.

Our allies in peace activism, environmental activism, gun control, and those working against corruption in government favor public banking as an alternative to huge too-big-to-fail banks, which seek profits for a few, not well-being for all.

Divesting from holding stocks in these huge banks (see list below) and refusing to maintain accounts at big transnational banks are also effective strategies.

The Women, Money & Democracy Committee meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 8:30 pm EST / 5:30 pm PST, by Zoom. See our webpage for more information about our other projects.

Contact the chair to get a zoom invitation and join the committee.

Banks Financing Indigenous Rights Violations & Desecration of Our Earth

ABN Amro Capital
Alberta Treasury Branches
Banca IMI
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentina
Bank Hapoalim B.M
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch
Bank of China
Bank of Hawaii
Bank of Montreal
Bank of Nova Scotia/Scotiabank
Bank of Taiwan
Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ
Barclays
Bayerische Landesbank
BBVA Compass
Branch Banking & Trust Company
Caisse centrale desjardins
Canadian Imperial Bank
Citibank
Citizens Bank
China Construction Bank Corp
China Merchants Bank Co Ltd
Comerica Bank
Community Trust
Credit Agricole
Credit Suisse
Deutsche Bank
DNB Capital/ASA
E Sun Commercial Bank
Export Development Canada
Fifth Third Bank (Ohio)
First Commercial Bank Canada
Goldman Sachs
HSBC Bank
Hua Nan Commercial Bank
Huntington National Bank
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
ING Bank
Intesa Sanpaolo
JP Morgan Chase
Loop Capital Markets
Mega International Commercial
Mizuho Bank
Morgan Stanley
National Bank of Canada
Natixis
PNC Bank
Regions Bank
Royal Bank of Canada
Royal Bank of Scotland
Societe Generale
State Bank of India
Sumitomo Mitsui Bank
SunTrust (now Truist)
Taiwan Coorperative Bank
Toronto Dominion (TD)
UBS
United Overseas Bank Limited (Canada)
US Bank
Wells Fargo

Post date: Mon, 11/02/2020 - 12:09

The Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee raised a glass together on October 25 to celebrate the TPNW treaty becoming international law after Honduras became the 50^th country to ratify it.

By Ellen Thomas
Co-chair, Disarm/End Wars Committee

November 2020

On October 25^th, on their monthly zoom conference call, the Disarm/End Wars Committee raised a glass together to celebrate that Honduras was the 50^th country to ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), making the treaty international law on the 75^th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (October 24, 1945). The treaty goes into effect on January 22, 2021.

ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons which includes WILPF, reported on its website:

This is a historic milestone for this landmark treaty. Prior to the TPNW’s adoption, nuclear weapons were the only weapons of mass destruction not banned under international law, despite their catastrophic humanitarian consequences. Now, with the treaty’s entry into force, we can call nuclear weapons what they are: prohibited weapons of mass destruction, just like chemical weapons and biological weapons.

ICAN’s Executive Director Beatrice Fihn welcomed the historic moment. “This is a new chapter for nuclear disarmament. Decades of activism have achieved what many said was impossible: nuclear weapons are banned,” she said.

It’s time to once again ask people to sign the WILPF US Ban Treaty Petition to the Senate, and to sign the letter to Representatives asking for co-sponsorship of HR-2419, the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act,” both of which are posted online. Paper and online petitions to both the Senate and House are accessible at http://prop1.org.

There are currently eight co-sponsors, who are (in order of signing on) Representatives James McGovern (MA), Ilhan Omar (MN), Barbara Lee (CA), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX), Jan Schakowsky (IL), Rashida Tlaib (MI), Andy Levin (MI), and Carolyn Maloney (NY), joining Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), who has introduced the legislation every session since 1994 after the successful DC Initiative 37 won an election in 1993.

Send a Love Letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

On October 1, 2020, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres tweeted, “On this International Day of Non-violence, I reiterate my call for a global ceasefire. Making this a reality before the end of the year would ease suffering, help lower the risk of famine & create space for negotiations towards peace. Now is the time to intensify our efforts.” His first call for a global ceasefire was on March 23, 2020.

Robin Lloyd of the Burlington, Vermont Branch created a “Love Letter” to thank the Secretary-General for his call for a global ceasefire, which she is circulating in Burlington and plans to mail, along with some Vermont maple syrup, to his office at the United Nations (405 East 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10017) by Armistice Day, November 11, the 102^nd anniversary of the end of World War I.

World BEYOND War is keeping a running total and list of countries that have signed on to the Global Ceasefire.

Here is the text of Robin’s “Love Letter” in case you are inspired to follow her example –

To Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres:

We the undersigned, heartily support your
call for a Global Ceasefire
and we share your concern:
A third wave of the coronavirus is encircling the world.
Hospitals are overburdened.
The coffers of cities and states are depleted
Millions are without work or resources

With you, we demand that national armies,
rebel forces, and insurgencies
put down their guns, their drones, and their tomahawk missiles
and commit their knowledge and energy to helping the world
survive this crisis.

We offer our solidarity. Thank you.

Disarm/End Wars Webinars, Future and Recent

Margaret Kimberley & Joy Onyesoh
Margaret Kimberley, left, and Joy Ada Onyesoh, right.

AFRICOM and Human Rights in Africa – On December 4, 2020, at 11 am PT, 2 pm ET, 7 pm Nigerian time, thanks to the hard work of Theresa El-Amin, Leah Bolger, and Robin Lloyd, there will be an amazing lineup of speakers about the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM).

The webinar will feature first-hand reports from WILPF women describing what effects AFRICOM is having on their respective nations: Joy Onyesoh, the President of WILPF International, will speak about Nigeria; Sylvie Ndongmo, the Africa Region representative of WILPF, will speak about Cameroon; Marie-Claire Faray, currently living in the UK, will speak about the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Christine Odera, Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassador Network – Kenya Country Coordinator (CYPAN), will speak about Kenya.

Other featured speakers include writer and author Margaret Kimberley, representing the Black Alliance for Peace, and their initiative: Out of Africa: Shut Down AFRICOM; and investigative journalist Amanda Sperber, who has reported widely on Somalia.

World BEYOND War has volunteered to host the zoom meeting, since they can accommodate 1,000 callers. Arrangements have been made to live-stream the event on the WILPF US Facebook page, as was done on October 22^nd. A more detailed announcement will be sent out by eAlert.

“75 Years at the United Nations with WILPF” – On October 22, 2020, Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will and Genevieve Riccoboni of PeaceWomen, WILPF International’s delegates to the UN, joined Robin Lloyd, Cherrill Spencer, and 30 others to discuss the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom’s work with the United Nations since its founding on October 24, 1945.

This webinar has been posted in two parts at the WILPF US YouTube channel: Part 1 – opening remarks by Robin Lloyd, a review of the history of WILPF and the UN in 1945 by Cherrill Spencer, and descriptions by Ray Acheson and Genevieve Riccoboni of the amazing work that they are doing; and Part 2: questions and answers by the 30 other participants in the webinar.

The WILPF US YouTube Channel Needs Subscribers!

We’ve been working on the WILPF US YouTube channel, making it more user-friendly and adding playlists. You may have noticed that the current link for the channel is long and complex. We can change the name of it to youtube.com/channel/wilpfus once we have 100 subscribers to the WILPF US channel, so we’re hoping that EVERYBODY will subscribe! An advantage for you is that you will receive notice when a new video has been uploaded. In the meantime, though, we have made it easy to find via bit.ly/wilpfus-youtube.

Three of the playlists are shown in this image:

Action webinars (currently consisting of the monthly zoom events produced during the commemorations of the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations and of nuclear weapons):
Social media trainings: Zoom (for beginners and for organizers) and TikTok, so far; and
Most recent videos, to make it easier to find them.

There are other playlists as well, which include: “Branch videos”, “WILPF US history”, “Triennial Congress” (the Disarm workshop in 2017), and “nuclear-free future campaigns” (between 2016 and 2019). The videos listed in the “Triennial Congress” and the “nuclear-free future campaigns” playlists are of WILPF-sponsored events that have been linked from other YouTube channels.

If you know of any YouTube videos that you think should be added to these playlists, please send the links to Ellen Thomas, with ‘For WILPF US YouTube!’ in the subject line.

(Some older WILPF videos that haven’t been uploaded to YouTube, such as Peace Train to Beijing, and Truth and Reconciliation: Can it work in the U.S.?, can be found at https://www.greenvalleymedia.org/wilpf)

Post date: Mon, 11/02/2020 - 11:56

By Shilpa Pandey
Membership Development Chair
Jan Corderman
Treasurer

November 2020

As a recent headline in Foreign Policy puts it: “Women Make Peace Stick.”

That’s why we want to work together to invite others to connect with the international peace movement and be part of our organization to hear the latest insights into feminist peacemaking.

Join us on Wednesday, Nov 11, 5 pm Pacific / 8 pm Eastern to launch the WILPF Membership Drive!

Let’s work together to make a difference. We’ll let others know why it’s important to be part of a diverse network of women (and men) in 45 countries around the world—expanding our network for women’s rights and sustainable peace.

Each month until our National WILPF Congress scheduled for August of 2021, we’ll share our challenges and successes and get new ideas about where to find prospective members and how best to share our experiences as a WILPF member rising up for peace, environmental, racial, and social justice issues.

We’re excited that two pros have agreed to join in coalition with us and to share ideas and tips.

Deborah Bunka is the Iowa Farmers Union Membership & Fundraising Director. Relocating to Ames, Iowa, from Canada in 1996, she wrote a monthly column on food history and availability of seasonal local foods for the Ames Tribune, while also writing a regular food column for the regional Facets magazine. For five years, Deborah ran a farmers market, opening Iowa’s first year-round, indoor market and launching a CSA. Coinciding with her lifelong interest in social, political, and economic justice, she travelled throughout Iowa for nine months, talking with people about clean water issues a citizen-lobbyist. She also served as co-director of KHOI, a community radio station. These experiences have made Deborah a good fit for her work as Membership & Fundraising Director with the Iowa Farmers Union where she has led the organization to triple its membership over five years.

Francis Engler is the California Political Director for UNITE HERE Local 11. Francis’s commitment to helping others overcome barriers and break out of poverty was born out of his personal experiences and continues to drive him in his role as an Organizing and Political Director for Local 11 and his work on the Board of the Hospitality Training Academy.

Having been raised in a family of dairy farmers in rural Wisconsin, Francis’s mother instilled in her children the importance of hard work, a fact that would characterize her daily life when she was widowed and left with three young sons to care for. As an adolescent, Francis found inspiration, opportunity, and support from church, school, and activist organizations. He earned a scholarship and graduated from Yale University, where he first encountered and joined the hotel and food service worker union UNITE HERE.

Knowing the value of support and encouragement, Francis has made it his life’s work to help those in poverty build a path to self-sufficiency and family-sustaining wages through union employment in LA’s vast hospitality industry. As part of UNITE HERE Local 11, Francis has organized tens of thousands of low-wage workers in hotels, casinos and food service and created an inspiring network of worker-activists in politics.

Join this Zoom Meeting on your laptop or other device for a visual connection here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85465710302?pwd=TFpuZitNdUdiOW5NUGNjNWRMdENwdz09
Meeting ID: 854 6571 0302
Passcode: 681806
Or join by phone: 312-626-6799 (you’ll be asked for the meeting ID and Passcode).

Amplify our message and activism in our Communities.
One by One, We Grow!!

Bolivia – the Election Report

Post date: Mon, 11/02/2020 - 11:46

Presidential candidate for the MAS party (Movement for Socialism), Luis Arce, leaves the Supreme Electoral Court in La Paz, Bolivia, after officially registering as a candidate on February 3, 2020. Photo credit: Radoslaw Czajkowski / Shutterstock.com

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

November 2020

On October 18, 2020, Bolivia went to the polls and it was a landslide for the MAS party (Movimiento Al Socialismo)! Workers, many of them indigenous, protested to force this democratic election, and they resisted intimidation and violence carried out by the right wing.

Background

October 2019 – Evo Morales (of the Movimiento Al Socialismo party) was elected president of Bolivia with a more than 10% lead over the next closest candidate. On November 8, a coup backed by the US and its puppet the Organization of American States (OAS) overthrew the Morales government. Jeanine Añez, whose party got 4% of the votes, self-declared herself president, and installed a right-wing white government.

This government repressed dissent violently. They promised to hold elections but repeatedly postponed them, until the workers and campesinos, most of them with some affiliation to one of the indigenous peoples of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, went on strike and set up roadblocks, paralyzing the country and forcing the elections.

Election 2020

October 18 2020 – Bolivia goes to the polls. There are candidates from five major parties or alliances of parties: Movement toward Socialism MAS, Comunidad Ciudadana (alliance), Creemos (alliance), Partido de Acción Nacional, Frente Para la Victoria.

It was a MAS landslide, with more than 54% of the votes. Here are the election results:

MAS	Luis Arce & David Choquehuanca	2,959,906	54.9%
CC	Carlos Mesa	1,591,378	29.29%
Creemos	Luis Fernando Camacho	766,364	14.11%
FPV	Chi Hyun Chung	84,950	1.56%
PAN	Feliciano Mamani	28,181	0.52%

And it was not just the presidency. Bolivia has a bicameral system (remember sixth-grade civics?) with a 130-member Camera de Diputados and a 36-member Senate. MAS candidates picked up additional seats for a total of 73 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 21 in the Senate.

Furthermore, the new Senate will contain a majority of female senators, with a proportion of 20 women and 16 men.

Okay, I’m tired of statistics and perhaps you are also. Why is this extremely gratifying and great?

Indigenous Peoples, Unafraid and Undefeated

The Bolivian people, led by the indigenous population, made it very clear what government they want. They had done so in the previous election, as well, but their will was overthrown by the Bolivian Right in a coup, backed by the military, and backed by the usual sUSspects including the Organization of American States.

This startlingly white coup government disrespected and oppressed the indigenous peoples of Bolivia – and 44% of census respondents in Bolivia indicated feeling part of some indigenous group, predominantly Quechua or Aymara – in real and symbolic ways. The indigenous peoples of Bolivia made this election happen, and then they made it their victory!

No Doubts about This Election

This election, like the last one, was conducted under excruciatingly meticulous international observation. Indeed, if US elections were held to the same standard, we can all think of a number of elections that would have been found to be illegitimate. Of course, not all international observers are created equal for the coup government. A delegation of observers from Argentina invited by the Plurinational Legislative Assembly had one of the observers, a legislator, detained at the airport. In addition to Fagioli’s detainment, other members of the Argentine delegation, including other lawmakers, were also mistreated by Bolivian security forces. But all observers, including the OAS, have agreed that this election had no irregularities. Naturally, the Right is trying to sing the old “flawed election” song, but this time without any accompaniment.

The People Resisted Intimidation and Violence

The Right/White coup government wasn’t expecting this. They had the army, the police, paramilitary forces, and mobs of right-wing goons, and they thought they had enough control and intimidation to control the polls.

Evo Morales intended to run for senator from Cochambamba, but was disqualified. As an asylum-seeker living outside Bolivia, the Áñez government had issued a warrant for his arrest. Brenda Segovia, a MAS candidate for parliament running in the Santa Cruz area, a stronghold of the right and their paramilitaries, was arrested in mid-October after her headquarters were attacked and burned by a mob of 80 armed men on October 6. Wait, you ask – her offices were attacked by a right-wing mob, and then she was arrested? Yes, for “inciting to violence.” No one else has been arrested or charged in the attack. This attack was one of more than 50 similar incidents. The paramilitary assaults and weaponizing the legal system is typical of the right wing, and not only in Bolivia.

David Choquehuanca Led the Way

You can tell by his name that David Choquehuanca’s ancestors didn’t arrive with the Spanish conquest. He is Aymara, and an activist in the Aymara campesino, indigenous, and rural worker movement. He has been one of Evo’s advisors since even before Morales’s election to the presidency and served as Foreign Minister from 2006 until the coup.

Choquehuanca is a pachamamista — an advocate for the Earth and for Indigenous ways, rather than internationalist ways of development. He was proposed as the MAS presidential candidate, but insisted that Luis “Lucho” Arce be the presidential candidate, in hopes of picking up broad support from the middle class who were disillusioned with the coup government and their supporters. It worked.

Christian Fundamentalists Lost Support

Fernando Camacho was crying as he saw his 14% vote percentage. This is the leader of the “burn the Whiphala, slam down the Bible on the Bolivian flag” faction in Bolivia. People didn’t get fooled by this phony Christian this time. Of course, he has already started calling for “civic mobilization” against the election and for his followers – and business interests – to “put up a fight.” But the racist right-wing call disguised as religion is not pulling the crowds he expected.

What Happens Next?

This is a great question, and we all need to be following the situation in Bolivia. Will the current government, illegitimately in power after negating the past election, respect this one? They don’t have the people but they have the guns. The people of Bolivia are already alert and ready to defend their victory. The international community of solidarity needs to be ready to do the same.

Post date: Mon, 11/02/2020 - 11:34

Photo shared by Dorothy Van Soest and used with her permission.

November 2020

By Dorothy Van Soest
WILPF US Liaison to the Poor People’s Campaign

At the beginning of March, Seattle is designated a COVID-19 hot spot. Sheltering in the comfort of my privileged existence is an inconvenience, not a hardship. As a white woman in America, it is second nature for me to center myself in the crisis, search for ways to stay balanced. But the pandemic fills our morgues and hospitals with bodies of the most vulnerable, people who keep our cities and towns running without a safety net, disproportionately black and brown and poor people. Where is the balance in such staggering inequity, such unfathomable human suffering?

Spring comes, its hope of new life overpowered by grief, terror, and discord. Morgues are full, dead stored in refrigerated trucks. On my morning walks, I curse those for whom precautions are a mere inconvenience. I scowl at people not wearing masks, place my palms together, mutter “Nomaske” instead of “Namaste,” give them the finger, sometimes hidden, sometimes not. I have a satanic urge to unleash the virus on those who care more about the economy than people, who mismanage and manipulate the crisis for personal gain. My friends say anger is normal but a little voice inside says otherwise. You’re not like other people. You’re too excitable and unstable. You make people uncomfortable. I cancel my inner critic and my airplane reservations to Washington, DC for the Poor People’s Campaign mass march and rally in June, promote it as an online event instead.

Summer comes and, as if the pandemic isn’t evidence enough that there is no context in which black lives matter, police kill Breonna Taylor, a frontline ERT worker. Wanna-be cops murder Ahmaud Arbery while he is jogging. Police murder George Floyd. Two days later, Tony McDade. Collective grief and outrage flood the streets with protesters of all races, ethnicities, genders, ages. Unidentified armed militias sent in to silence cries of “stop killing us” met by a wall of white moms in Portland. Emotions are raw. COVID-19 takes 1,470 lives, the highest number in a single day, four times as many people of color as whites.

I look at myself in the mirror, forehead angry and tight, shoulders sagging under the weight of two public health emergencies. Uncontrollable cowlicks sprout from my head like ghastly COVID-19 and racism viruses stuck in my hair. I long to be out protesting, rail at the health vulnerabilities holding me captive at home. Outraged, I focus on what divides us, the unmasked from the masked, the racists from the anti-racists, the privileged from the oppressed. Then, on June 20^th, tears flood my cheeks as two and a half million people unite at the massive Poor People’s Campaign virtual rally and sing, “Everybody has a right to live.”

By mid-October, 220,000 American lives have been snuffed out by COVID-19. The racism pandemic, far deadlier and longer lasting, paralyzes Jacob Blake, a black man shot in the back seven times by police who then let a white boy with an automatic rifle walk away after committing murder. Fires consume millions of acres of our land while conflagration on our streets burns down centuries of willful ignorance and silence. For weeks before the election, falsehoods and nightmare scenarios have been spreading like wildfire, and crowds of white people are gathering at mass rallies without masks.

I reject the privilege that I know is mine to focus right now on my own coping. Instead, I get to work. Write. Contribute. Organize. Collaborate. Call. “No action is too small, every action counts,” I shout at the voice inside whispering you’re not doing enough, it won’t make any difference.

September 23. My last nerve. No charges are filed against the plainclothes police who killed Breonna Taylor, her name not even mentioned. No one will answer for her death. Peaceful protests are decreed as unlawful assembly. States of emergency declared. White supremacist groups galvanized. I rage in defiant rejection of everything I was taught about white people being rational and intelligent, in other words, superior. I scream at my inner critic. Don’t even try. No more with there she goes again. No more with you need to be balanced. My outrage honors the fire raging within, the deep mourning that spurs me on, the moral compass that points me in the direction of fairness and justice. Yet, even as I rage, I know it’s not about my feelings—it’s about what I do with them. It’s not just about being informed—it’s about getting out of bed and doing something about it. It’s not just about shouting, it’s about doing. Ringing in my ears are the words of Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, at a recent Get out the Vote rally: “it’s not about the awakening, it’s about the rising.”

I rise up and look at myself in the mirror. The wrinkles and age spots and caved-in places on my face jump out at me and remind me where I’ve been. What I’ve lived. My hair, wild and uncut during the pandemic, is once again a symbol of free expression like it was in my twenties, when it was blonde. When I remember the despair of the sixties, the eloquent rage and actions of that time branch and flower on my weathered face and the old becomes new. I look into my seasoned eyes and they tell me who I am. And then I know that, even when it may not appear to be so, I am as balanced as a three-legged stool. The first leg is my knowing: read, listen, learn. The second is my caring: suffer, grieve, scream my rage in private, not as a performance or a burden on others. The third is acting: use my abilities to do what I can. Old messages about being too loud, caring too much, and not doing enough make me wobbly sometimes, but my stool stays steady. And as long as I do what I can, the best I can, for as long as I can, then I know that change is still possible.

___________________

Dorothy Van Soest is a Seattle writer and novelist for social justice. Nuclear Option, her third Sylvia Jensen mystery, will be released December 1, 2020. For more information about her and her work, go to www.dorothyvansoest.com

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