NEWS

Plastic pollution crisis. Garbage sent to Malaysia for recycling is instead dumped in a huge landfill. Credit: Shutterstock.com.

By Nancy Price
Co-chair, Earth Democracy Issue Committee

March 2020

Good news! Federal lawmakers recently introduced the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. Earth Democracy proudly joined more than 470 groups that signed on to a letter of support for this important bill filed by Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-CA). Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and more than two dozen other House of Representatives members and five other senators have signed on as cosponsors.
   
Here’s what you can do now:

Contact your elected officials in the House and Senate to ask each member to support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. Find contact information for your representative here and for your senators here.

Here’s what you need to know:

This comprehensive bill reduces throw-away plastics by making plastic manufacturers take extended responsibility for collecting and recycling waste, by setting up a refundable deposit program for all beverage containers, and by banning the export of plastic waste and certain types of plastic that are hard to recycle or cause an outsized environmental damage.

It won’t be easy to get this bill signed into law! I strongly recommend environmental reporter Sharon Lerner’s revealing 2019 article, "Waste Only: How the Plastics Industry Is Fighting to Keep Polluting the World". It’s clear the plastics industry will try everything to apply a “green veneer to its increasingly bitter and desperate fight to keep profiting from a product that is polluting the world.” 

Here’s why we must break free from plastic pollution!

1. China and SE Asian countries are rejecting our plastic trash! According to Sharon Lerner, by 2015 the US recycled about 9% of its plastic waste (even less today), with 79% of all plastic ending up in landfills scattered all over the world. She reports that much of the “recycled” plastic scrap that the U.S. sent to China appears to have been burned or buried instead of being ”refashioned” into new products. By 2019, China announced it would no longer accept the First World’s plastic and paper trash for recycling (read Alana Semuels’ Atlantic article "Is This the End of Recycling?") Not only were First World countries producing more and more trash, but so were the Chinese. And, while Malaysia and India at first accepted our trash, they are now rejecting it, as is detailed in a Wall Street Journal article by Saabira Chaudhuri, "Recycling Rethink: What to Do with Trash Now That China Won't Take It".
2. Here’s Why Plastic Use Must Be Cut. We have almost run out of time. The facts about plastic pollution cannot be denied: most facilities across the country are not able to sort, sell, and reprocess much of the plastic companies produce. (Read "Just a Tiny Fraction of America's Plastic Can Actually Be Recycled, Report Finds"). Therefore, almost all trash is going to clogged landfills or incinerators, both “false solutions” with serious environmental and public health impacts.
3. Plastic Profits Contribute to Global Warming. One 2019 report found carbon emissions by the plastics industry could equal those of 600 coal-fired power plants by 2050. Just think of the carbon footprint.
4. Plastics Production Perpetuates Environmental Injustice. Pollution from plastics manufacturing or trash incineration is a matter of environmental justice, not just the health of waterways and the ocean. Nationwide, low-income residents and communities of color living near these facilities are exposed to polluted air and water linked to cancer, birth defects, neurological damage, and other serious conditions. Tragically, these communities are often the only ones fighting for justice.

What else can you do?

• Create a small working group to trace the route of that plastic bottle or other trash you threw away to its end point. What is the waste treatment system in your community and all the associated financial and carbon footprint costs? Remember, plastic trash in more than the plastic bag or bottle!  Plastic trash in created by all manufacturers, distributers, and end users of a product.
• Learn if low-income and communities of color near you need support in their environmental justice struggles.
• Work with your local supermarket managers to carry products that have less plastic and produce less plastic pollution.
• Think how you might change your habits.

Participants in the 2019 UN Practicum for Advocacy.

By Darien De Lu
WILPF US President

March 2020

In 1995, over 30,000 women from 200 countries gathered in a town near Beijing for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women during the nongovernmental organizations (NGO) part of the conference.

Through WILPF connections, I had the privilege of attending the 1995 NGO Women’s Conference. I still recall the exhilaration of being there, pausing on my way to a presentation; I gazed out upon the sea of women – women of so many colors, sizes, and styles; women in Western dress and in traditional apparel, women gathered to make a difference.

The official UN gathering took place just after the NGO Women’s Conference. In Beijing proper, it was smaller but still large, with about 12,000 participants from 180 government delegations and 2,500 NGOs (which are generally comparable to what we in the US call “nonprofits”).

The women’s conferences were put together at five-year intervals starting in 1975. The 1995 women’s conference built on the work and momentum of the three prior ones – and of other UN conferences. In 1995, over a two-week period and with substantial and well-organized pressure from NGOs, the UN member states worked to issue a consensus statement. This was no small task, because the document they had been developing for over two years still had large sections of “bracketed text” that, up to that point, they had been unable to all agree upon. Finally, the member states (often simply called “states”) all signed on to the goals expressed in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which aspires to achieving greater equality and opportunity for women.
 
Many activists have looked on the Beijing Platform for Action, stemming from a relatively progressive global era, as setting a high mark for a UN declaration. Fearing that the outcomes of another Women’s Conference would represent backtracking and losses, they’ve resisted having another such conference since. The 1995 conference was, in fact, groundbreaking.

Highlighting Past, Present, and Future

Now, a quarter century later, the UN diplomats and their staffs will meet during the official UN sessions of the 2020 Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to undertake an appraisal of the implementation of the 1995 Platform for Action and the progress on the UN’s 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, which aspire to end poverty and protect the planet. CSW64 will be held March 9-20, 2020.

What will that gathering be like? What do most of us know of the United Nations? Certainly, from US news coverage, not much! We may think of images of diplomats – often mostly male – seated in an enormous auditorium, listening to speeches. If you add to that many smaller meetings in many other rooms, you’ll imagine something not too far from accurate. Yet for eleven days each year, UN officials share New York City with an outpouring of thousands of women from around the world. The women – and some men – arrive for the NGO programming at the CSW, as well as the UN’s program.

Imagine the thrill of being there, at this event which – more than ever, in this Beijing + 25 year – will be almost a mini-version of the 1995 Women’s Conference! At the NGO “parallel events” that are part of the CSW, hundreds of presentations – such as “Women and Men as Partners for Gender Equality: Key Lessons”, “Preparing the World for Girls”, “Tackling Hate Based on Religion or Belief: Gender Responsive Strategies”, and “Meaningful Conversations: How to Take 25 Years of Learning Forward” – will fill diverse New York venues. 

WILPF US Brings College Students and WILPF Members to the CSW

Many WILPFers would cherish such an opportunity to meet international women and hear programs on women’s lives, circumstances, and advances! And consider in your own life: What would it have meant to you, to go to the CSW as a college student? What new possibilities, life choices, and topics might that experience have opened up for you?

Each year WILPF makes that opportunity possible for a lucky group of students. For about the last decade, WILPF US has crafted a special learning environment to further enhance the rich CSW setting. We welcome the enthusiasm, lively intelligence, new ideas, and curiosity of the students. The “WILPF Practicum in Advocacy” introduces them to the workings of the UN and the feminist pursuits of the CSW, as well as to the history and current work of WILPF.  

The Practicum is joined by a sister program, Local to Global, for a week of exploration, discussion, and discovery. Each year, one or two “seasoned WILPF members” are selected to be Local to Global participants. They work with the Practicum students, in NYC and afterwards, on community projects. At the CSW they all have the chance to attend both official UN sessions and the NGO parallel events.

WILPF Panels on Ecofeminism and the Peace Train to Beijing

Other WILPF members, from the US and from the many country “sections” of International WILPF also participate in the CSW, especially in the parallel events. Usually, WILPF members have a few opportunities to connect with each other at the CSW, including at parallel events sponsored by International WILPF or WILPF US. WILPF US is taking a key role in presenting two such presentations.  

Past president Mary Hanson Harrison has brought together a panel on agriculture issues. “SISTERS, SEEDS and SOIL: Bold Voices & Choices for Ecofeminism” lifts up the often unheralded voices from diverse communities of women farmers, field workers, seed savers, and local and global women’s and children’s rights organization. This panel seeks to help build up a movement to raise public consciousness on related issues, including the rural-urban divide and economic and racial disparities – and the amplifying negative effects of the agricultural-industrial complex. Ultimately, this presentation hopes to inspire community events, teach-ins, and social media usage to highlight the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
 
Our other panel also aspires to support positive change. It starts by looking back, specifically to the 1995 and WILPF International’s “Peace Train,” which traveled for 22 days from Helsinki, Finland (where the WILPF International Congress took place) to Beijing, China. The train stopped in key cities in multiple countries along the way, so that the over 200 riders could hear from local women about their concerns, in order to carry those messages to the Women’s Conference. WILPF US member Robin Lloyd will speak on the panel and show an excerpt from her hour-long documentary on the Peace Train and the UN Conference. You can find and view the film here.

Besides recalling the Peace Train and its effects, this panel, “Beijing Women’s Peace Train – Looking Back, Looking Forward” also seeks to identify what lessons the Peace Train experiment can offer us for today and tomorrow. When standard means of communication left out women’s voices, WILPF found a way to include them at the discussion table.

WILPF International is offering another panel that brings together feminist activists from different parts of the world on critical topics: “Feminist Alternatives: Challenge Militarism to Save Our Planet: Mobilizing on Gender, Militarism, and the Environment,” This panel confronts the interconnections between the crises of climate change, rising militarism, and capitalism.

Bringing it Home

WILPF seeks continuously to assess matters and situations around the world to identify what will help us advance the goals of peace and justice. The CSW this year will focus on the lessons of the 1995 Women’s conference and progress on the Beijing Platform for Action. Those of us fortunate enough to attend the CSW – this year and in prior years – bring back to our towns and WILPF branches our own lessons, as well as valuable information and insights.  

WILPF International was among the very first NGOs to be credentialed by the UN, and WILPF continues to closely track the work of the UN. Recent milestones include Security Council Resolution 1325, calling for women to have an equal place in peace negotiations, and the UN’s 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, WILPF recognizes how far the world is from accomplishing both the SDGs and the Platform for Action! In November, WILPF International issued a statement for the CSW firmly addressing this situation: “It didn’t happen!”  

To confront the militaristic and corporate influences at the UN, we must stay informed of UN work and better understand that institution. WILPF US supports such understanding of the UN’s work through our UN CSW programs – the Practicum and Local to Global – and through sponsorship of an ongoing presence at the annual UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (which addresses the progress on the SDGs). You, too, can be better informed by watching for future eNews articles on these topics.

If you are planning to attend the CSW this year, please help us inform you about WILPF activities there!  Send your name and email address to Secretary@wilpfus.org.

Ellen Barfield, Katherine Flaherty, Ellen Thomas, Sameena Nazir, and Robin Lloyd at 2018 ANA DC Days (photo from Robin’s camera).

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

March 2020

In the February eNews we all were invited to join three important peace conferences in April and May. Actually, it turns out there are five important events that the WILPF US DISARM/End Wars Committee is spearheading this spring and summer. These conferences and remembrances are interconnected and will mark this 75th anniversary year of the creation and use of the atomic bomb, and the establishment of the United Nations.

1) Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) DC Days: Capitol Hill, April 19-22.

ANA DC Days is an amazing learning experience for all involved. Register here: DC Days Registration.

For the past three decades a team of people who live in the vicinity of deadly radioactivity have provided this opportunity to learn what’s going on with nuclear weapons, power, and waste, both at nuclear facilities and in government agencies and Congress. Attendees are trained on how to lobby, and we can choose whom we want to visit and what we want to say, with a team of experts to help us.

WILPF US Disarm Committee has been a member of Alliance for Nuclear Accountability for much of its three decades, and every year several WILPF members attend. Cherrill Spencer, Nuri Ronaghy, Alan Shorb, and Ellen Thomas are registered so far this year.

We encourage all branches to send at least one person to this event, which includes an all-day teach-in on Sunday, April 19, then lobbying and gatherings Monday through Wednesday, April 20-22, in Washington, DC. Registration is $185. Student Registration is $85. Some funding is available for youth scholarships to cover partial costs of transportation and DC housing.

As the ANA DC Days registration page explains, “by registering for this event, you will receive:

• Meetings with key congressional and administration officials
• Training from experienced lobbyists and organizers
• Education on current nuclear issues from experts in the field and in DC
• Networking opportunities with like-minded activists from around the country
• Admittance to the pizza party on Monday night
• Admittance to the Awards Ceremony on Tuesday night
• An unforgettable experience!”

Please email us to let us know if you plan to attend!

2) Global Conference to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: Riverside Church (NYC), April 24-26

From Global Conference to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Facebook page, image courtesy of Gretchen Alther.

The Global Conference to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, aka World Conference 2020, will be held at Riverside Church in New York City, on April 24-26, 2020. There is no registration fee for attending the conference.

Robin Lloyd is spearheading a WILPF reception on Friday, April 24 at 2 pm for visiting atomic bomb survivors from Japan and other nations (including our own First Nations in Nevada), and hopes that WILPF members and other antinuclear activists from the New York metropolitan area will attend.

Ellen Thomas has been invited to speak at “Of Women, Disarmament & Non-Violent Strategies” workshop to be held on Saturday, April 25, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm. She will also be filming the plenaries to post on YouTube later, and hopes to live-stream on facebook "if I can get the knack of it."

Planning to attend the Global Conference from WILPF so far are Cherrill Spencer, Nuri Ronaghy and Alan Shorb from California, Eileen Kurkoski and Joan Ecklein from Massachusetts, Odile Hugonot Haber from Michigan, Ellen Thomas from North Carolina, Jean Verthein and Alice Slater from New York, Marge Van Cleef from Pennsylvania, Dianne Blais from Virginia, and Robin Lloyd from Vermont. Six of these people are signed up to share three double rooms at the Marriott Hotel in Edgewater, NJ; reservations are for the nights of April 23-29. Other rooms can be obtained. If you plan to attend the conference and would like to stay at the Marriott, contact Cherrill Spencer cherrill.m.spencer@gmail.com, who is keeping track of WILPF participants.

3) Stop the New Nuclear Arms Race Conference: Maryville, Tennessee, May 22-25

Graphic from Stop the New Nuclear Arms Race Conference home page, courtesy of Ralph Hutchison (OREPA).

The list of presenters and participants at Stop the New Nuclear Arms Race already includes campaigners from the US, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Australia, and more, including Susi Snyder (WILPF, PAX, Don’t Bank on the Bomb), Alicia Sanders-Zakre (ICAN), K.A. Garlick (Conservation Council of Western Australia), Hideko Tamura, hibakusha (via Skype), John Schuchardt (House of Peace), Ardeth Platte, and Carol Gilbert (Catholic Workers). Marge Van Cleef and Ellen Thomas will be tabling and filming at this event, and we hope other WILPF members and students will attend.

Workshop topics are The Ban Treaty, Don’t Bank on the Bomb, Campus Connections to the Bomb, Mayors for Peace/Cities Appeal, and Resistance. On Monday, May 25, there will be a tour of the Oak Ridge Nuclear Weapons Complex.

Registration is $200 per person for a shared room, $300 for a single room, including food and lodging for three nights. Space is limited, beds are available on a first come, first served basis.  

A limited number of scholarships are available for Next Generation participants (under 30). Contact OREPA at orep@earthlink.net for information, and please inform Ellen Thomas if you plan to attend.

4) No War 2020 Conference: Ottawa, Canada, May 26-31

No War 2020: Divest, Disarm, Demilitarize is sponsored by World Beyond War. Here is the conference Facebook page. This conference is being held in proximity to the CANSEC, a huge North American military trade show.       

Canadian Voice of Women for Peace are major planners of this conference. We are building connections with them, and plan to initiate a network of communities opposed to the F35 nuclear bombers.

We hope WILPF branches located near F-35 bases - Tucson, Madison, and Boise - will send a representative, to help create an even stronger WILPF presence at the conference and the gates of CANSEC. Robin and Burlington WILPF will coordinate our participation in this conference. Contact Robin Lloyd if you can go!

5)  Remembering the Bomb: Trinity (July 26), Hiroshima (August 6), and Nagasaki (August 9)

Let’s make sure no one can forget that it’s the 75th anniversary of the creation of the atomic bomb! And let’s make it interesting and visual!

Last summer, Japanese Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) shipped six large boxes of paper cranes to WILPF US. We want to make those cranes available to all the branches! Perhaps one or two of the branches would be willing to help with this project?

We also want to collect and share information about films, books, and songs, about how to make paper cranes and floating lanterns, and about who plans to do what, where, and when. If you have anything to contribute to this collection, let us know!

We want to collaborate and coordinate with other groups like Raging Grannies, Physicians for Social Responsibility, World Beyond War, Veterans for Peace, and others you can name.

For all this, we need your help! Please share your ideas with us, and if you want to use paper cranes in your Hiroshima & Nagasaki events, let us know!

Please contact Ellen Thomas or 202-210-3886 (cell and text) and Robin Lloyd if you plan to attend any of these events.

Photo from Darien De Lu and the WILPF US Des Moines office.

By Tura Campanella Cook
Past President, Jane Addams Peace Association

March 2020

Do you remember the original Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Seals? The original silver and blue book seals listed WILPF as a sponsor of the award. After our two organizations split, this design could no longer be used for the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award.

Would you like some WILPF-JAPA seals for books awarded pre-2013 or for sentimental reasons? We are glad to send you 50 assorted silver and blue seals for a $20 donation to the Jane Addams Peace Association (JAPA).

Proceeds will be used to provide JACBA books to low-income libraries and schools.

If you are interested, contact Tura at past_president@janeaddamspeace.org. You can find past and present JACBA winners here.