New Resource Guides Available for Solidarity Events

Published on July, 24 2020

The graphic has been made available to all 41 WILPF branches to use on banners, lawn signs, or flyers. The Solidarity Event Planning Team has already customized the graphic for 13 branches with branch name and contact info. and can do so for more branches. Follow the instructions in the July 3rd email sent to all branch contacts.

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

August 2020

As we described in our July eNews article, “Launching Our 2020 Solidarity Event Season,” we are embarking on a solidarity season lasting from August 6th to September 21st which is focusing on these three themes:

  • 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.

Our planning team, coordinated by Cherrill Spencer (Peninsula/Palo Alto, CA  branch,  cherrill.m.spencer (at) gmail.com) and Margaret Pecoraro (Tucson, AZ branch) have prepared sixteen (!) resource guides and sent them to all 41 branch contacts by email. And we have more guides we are still working on. Our first six guides were all about how to use the ~1000 peace cranes, handmade for us in Japan, that each branch received back in June from our headquarters. These delicate origami birds remind us of the fragility of life and urge us to share in a commitment to abolish nuclear weapons.

At least eight of our branches have already created public displays of these cranes, in the windows of shops, on cafe tables, on statues, and in trees: Burlington, VT; Corvallis, OR; Des Moines, IA; East Bay, CA; Fresno, CA; Greater Phoenix, AZ; Humboldt, CA, and Peninsula/Palo Alto, CA. Here is a photo of a shop window display of peace cranes arranged by our Corvallis, OR branch taken by WILPF member Leah Bolger.

Resource Guides to Help Branches Organize Activities

For the benefit of members who are not associated with a branch and would like to use some of the resource guides they have been placed in four pdf files which you can reach by clicking on their file titles:

The second set of six resource guides the solidarity planning team has assembled were designed to help branches plan, organize, and carry out activities concerning the 75th anniversaries of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and for branch members to use that awareness and knowledge to advocate in their local community for nuclear disarmament.

Hibakusha
This film by David Rothauser is one of the many films, books, readings, songs, and other media listed in one of the resource guides.

As most of us and our communities continue to shelter-in-place, we are turning to arranging online activities and these resource guides have many ideas for pertinent films to watch online, informative articles to read online, songs to sing (with others during a Zoom event, for example), websites to visit where you can read hibakusha stories (hibakusha are survivors of the H&N bombings), and so on.

An activity that can be carried out individually is to fast for disarmament. A detailed guide about the international peace fast will be sent to branch contacts soon, but here are some broad guidelines that will help you decide if you will take part. The organizers of the International Peace Fast ask that those who sign up as fasters follow these broad guidelines:

  1. Make a sincere commitment that’s intentionally directed at ending nuclear weaponry;
  2. Publicize your branch’s fast – through news releases & social media – and the fact that people around the world are fasting for disarmament;
  3. Alter your diet in a notable way (notable to the peace faster, maybe not to others), such as:
    – not eating between certain hours that one would ordinarily be doing (e.g. fasting from food – not water – between 10am and 4pm, at least one day);
    – cutting out at least one staple (carbs, flesh/meats, caffeine, etc.) from your diet;
    – doing one of the above for at least one day between August 6 and 9.
  4. If a branch member chooses to fast for several days then other branch members can offer moral support via phone calls and visits following local COVID-19 rules.

Examples of Branch Activities, August 6-9

Some of our branches would have had outdoor ceremonies with lots of attendees to commemorate the bombings and to demonstrate against nuclear weapons, and on account of the pandemic they have instead arranged online events with knowledgeable speakers, reflections, and suggestions such as lighting candles in your driveway. So far, we’ve heard from three branches who will have outdoor activities with reduced attendance: In Fresno, California WILPFers will gather at the Peace Garden of California State University, Fresno, at 8 am PDT on August 6 to observe a camphor tree planting, the tree is related to a tree that survived the Hiroshima bombing. In Des Moines, Iowa at 10:58 am CDT on August 6, WILPFers will gather around the Japanese Bell of Peace and Friendship near the Iowa State Capitol to hear speeches from their mayor and others, to strike the bell 75 times, and sing with their Raging Grannies. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, our WILPF branch will join with other peace organizations at 8 pm CDT on August 6 on the Bradford Beach for a candlelight vigil.

Our WILPF branches that are co-sponsoring online events include Monterey County, CA (see article in this eNews); Humboldt County, CA, and our Tucson, AZ branch have kindly invited ANY WILPFer who wishes to join them in a ZOOMed gathering at 10 am PDT on August 6 to write to debdivya@gmail.com for the ZOOM link. This branch has held interesting Hiroshima commemorations for many years (they provided our resource guide #5 full of readings, poems, and songs for this occasion) and they will be lighting candles, showing off their peace cranes, reading Hibakusha stories, and singing some nuclear disarmament songs. That evening at 8 pm EDT they are co-sponsoring an online event replacing a large demonstration that would have happened outside the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico. This website has all the details: https://paceebene.org/hiroshimaday2020.

WILPF US has joined with 165 other anti-nuclear organizations to form a coalition to amplify our common nuclear disarmament voice in order to reach a much wider public on this 75th Anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The coalition has a very informative website and will be hosting two 9-hour-long livestreaming virtual gatherings on August 6 and 9, which will include several WILPF events. You can find the detailed schedule at: www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/events. For example, the Tucson Raging Grannies will be singing at 4:55 pm EDT on the 9th and our DISARM Committee’s webinar featuring hibakusha Dr Hideko Tamura will be shown at 6 pm EDT on the 9th. To find other WILPF events go here: www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/local-events

So our solidarity season is off to a fine start and thanks to our many branches who are taking part. Our planning team will be in touch with the branch contacts again with a new set of resource guides to help your branch plan some activities after August 9 that will focus on the Global Ceasefire request by the UN Secretary General; the founding of the UN in 1945 and its current work; arms control treaties; and connecting militarism to the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustices, the warming climate, and ecological devastation.

 

 

 

 

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