All Hands on Deck to Bring Wars to Diplomatic Ends

Raise the consciousness of your local public by street corner vigils such as this recent one held by the Peninsula/Palo Alto WILPF branch; Credit: Cherrill Spencer, used with permission.

By Cherrill Spencer
Co-chair of DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee

May 2024

The number of ongoing conflicts can feel overwhelming, and we hope WILPF members will not respond by doing nothing! The general public needs to be reminded that wars can be ended swiftly by diplomatic compromises, and one can do that with appropriate signs at busy street corners, by sending letters to the editor or by asking your local council to pass a resolution, for example, demanding that there be a ceasefire in the Gaza-Israel war.

Show Your Public How Much of their Tax Dollars Go to the Military

Each year at tax time, the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies produces a tax receipt that shows where your 2023 income taxes went. You can click on the words “tax receipt” in the previous sentence or just read some highlights here:

• The average taxpayer gave $4,308 to Medicare and Medicaid. Compare that with $5,109 for militarism and its support systems.
• Looking at Pentagon expenditures in 2023 (included in the “militarism” category), the average taxpayer subsidized corporate contractors, including:
  • $1,748 toward Pentagon contractors. That’s more than the average monthly rent in the US ($1,372).
  • $249 for contracts for Lockheed Martin, the largest Pentagon contractor. That’s more than a week’s food expenses for the average American household ($195).
  • $87 for the Pentagon’s contracts with Boeing, the company responsible for the 737 Max’s safety failures. That’s about equivalent to filling your car’s gas tank twice.
  • $12 for the Pentagon and NASA’s contracts with SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company. That’s more than the cost of three gallons of milk.

Use these well-documented statistics in your letters to the editor and when discussing the need to stop the ongoing wars with friends and family.

Honoring Daniel Ellsberg by Organizing Events from June 10-16

WILPF US is part of the Defuse Nuclear War coalition, and we are encouraged to organize a local event about abolishing nuclear weapons which Ellsberg spent his last five decades working on. See here for ideas.

Ellsberg identified our Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) as the worst kind of nuclear weapon and all California members are invited to attend a daytime protest at the Vandenberg Space Force base on Wednesday June 5^th in southern California (near Lompoc) from which test launches of an ICBM happen about four times a year. We are arranging carpools from the San Francisco Bay Area for this protest, please write to disarmchair@wilpfus.org if you are interested.

Reminder for Peace Walk 2024, starting in Maine May 7th

The Peace Walk's website has lots of information about this long walk that passes near several WILPF branches and members-at-large hometowns. Look at the route and try to get involved — besides walking any part of this route, people are needed to find places for the walkers to sleep and help organize events along the route. Please support and advertise Peace Walk 2024 in any way that you can.

In addition, consider attending the NO to NATO, Yes to Peace events in Washington DC July 6-7, which were described in our April eNEWS article.

Our DISARM/End Wars Issue committee welcomes new members; we have many ongoing campaigns that need people to work on them. Write to disarmchair@wilpfus.org to request information and to join the DISARM/End Wars Committee, which meets the second and last Sundays of the month.