NEWS

By Michael Ippolito
WILPF US National Communications Coordinator

Mark your calendars for the upcoming Technology Training Calls: February 18, March 4 & March 18. These calls take place on Mondays at 8 pm EST, 5 pm PST. You can register by clicking here.

These trainings are usually held twice a month and once you are registered, you will regularly get the reminders 24 hours and 2 hours before each call.  

The trainings can be customized to cover what you are looking to get out of them. You are welcome to email Michael@TeamGood.org in advance about what you would like to get out of the trainings or to simply say you will be on the call.  

There are 2-3 trainers on these calls. Each training usually goes 20-25 minutes, so on one training call you will be able to get into as many as four different trainings, or if you prefer, you can stay in one training for the duration of the call. We work to customize the trainings for the people who attend them and try to meet your needs.

We cover how to use Facebook, Twitter as well as a technology called Slack, the Maestro call interface, and general technology questions. WILPF US also has accounts on Pintrest and MediaRevolt.org which we will be glad to show you how to interact with.

Any questions about the trainings, technology in general, or the other social media platforms please email michael@teamgood.org and/or fellow WILPFer julie@teamgood.org. Julie is one of the regular trainers on these calls.

International peace activists gather on Friday, November 16, outside the Dublin Post Office. Nancy Price of WILPF US, in a purple coat, is toward the left of the group and is holding one side of a WILPF sign. Photo: Ellen Davidson.

By Nancy Price

On November 16-18, 2018, some 300 peace activists representing over 35 countries gathered at the Liberty Hall in Dublin, Ireland, for the first International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases. WILPF US is a member of the No US Foreign Military Bases Coalition, a new campaign to close all US Military Bases and NATO bases on foreign soil. Read more about this campaign here. And here’s a map of global U.S. troop presence.

Around 60 people attended the conference from the US, and thanks to a generous donor I was also able to attend as a member of the US Coordinating Committee, as was Anne Atambo, founder of WILPF Kenya, who was a panelist on the Africa/AFRICOM panel. In addition, I had the great pleasure to also meet Khadija Ali, a founder of WILPF Chad now living in London, and WILPF women from Norway, Scotland, and Italy.

Conference speakers represented countries from all continents, including Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, United States, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Poland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Czech Republic, Israel, Palestine, Kenya, D. R. Congo, Japan and Australia.

Read the full Press Communiqué here and Press Reports published by different groups since the conference can be found at www.nousnatobases.org.

There were inspiring keynote and plenary speakers, for example, Mairead Maguire, Nobel Prize winner from Northern Ireland, Dr. Aleida Guevara, member of the Cuban National Assembly and daughter of Che Guevara, Clare Daly TD, a member of Dail Eireann, the National Parliament of Ireland, Alfred L. Marder, President, U.S. Peace Council, who spoke via Skype, and many more from campaigns and organizations around the globe.  A full list of confirmed speakers is here.

Videos of the conference are posted at www.nousnatobases.org and you may consult the Dublin Conference Schedule to select the day and event. Friday evening included an opening with Keynote and International speakers, and Saturday and Sunday had multiple plenaries. With the schedule, you can scroll through the video to find the panel you wish to watch. The Sunday Report Back on Next Steps from the Regional Breakouts begin at 5 minutes/34 on the Sunday video.

Here is also an excellent, 14-minute video made by Il Comitato “No Guerra No Nato alla Prima Conference Internationale Contro le Basi Militari USA/NATO” with many of those interviewed speaking in English, French, Spanish, and Italian.  As Jeannie Toschi Marazzani Visconti says at 3 minutes, with 114 air and naval bases, the entire country is one US/NATO base.

Professional photographer Ellen Davidson has posted a wonderful treasury of colorful photos of the rally at the Dublin Post Office at www.stopthesewars.org/ELLEN-DAVIDSON/ The Dublin Post Office is where Patrick Pearse, leader of the 1916 Irish Rebellion, read out the Proclamation of Independence from the United Kingdom.  

Ellen Davidson’s site also includes photos of the entire conference, and of the Monday protest at Shannon Airport, where US military flights, often for renditions, violate Irish Neutrality. Check out www.shannonwatch.org.

Is it time to mobilize – on World Water Day?

No matter the World Water Day theme for March 22, 2019, maybe it’s time to highlight the military’s pervasive contamination of water sources and the impact on the health of women, children, and our families around the world.  

Let’s learn from Pat Elder who spoke on the panel of on the Impact of bases on the Environment and Health highlighting how base activities impact base residents and those in surrounding communities. He speaks here and in the Italian film #No Guerro #No Nato at 8 minutes/40.

Here are two of Pat Elder’s recent articles: "An Empire of Bases Poisons Water, Threatening Its Own Collapse" and "How War Pollutes the Potomac River".

Inset photo: Anne Atambo, founder of WILPF Kenya, speaking at a panel on Africa/AFRICOM. Photo: Nancy Price.

A march to reclaim Armistice Day organized by Veterans for Peace began near the World War II memorial, went on to the memorials for the Korean War and Vietnam War, and ended at the World War I Memorial. Photo: Nancy Price.

By Odile Hugonot-Haber and Nancy Price

On November 10th, Odile Hugonot-Haber, Alan Haber, and Nancy Price met up at the Peace Congress in Washington, DC, and to participate on Sunday the 11th in a rally organized by Veterans for Peace on the 100th Anniversary of the World War I Armistice.

When Trump announced he wanted a huge military parade on Nov. 10, the No Trump Military Parade coalition came together to stop the parade. By August 2018, 250 groups, including WILPF US, Disarm and Earth Democracy, signed on to an open letter, the estimated $92 million cost was leaked, and on August 17 Trump canceled the parade.

After continuing discussions, the idea for a Peace Congress to End Wars at Home and Abroad took form. On November 10, advocates for peace and economic, racial, environmental, and climate justice came together to develop a strategy, goals, and actions based on the following principles of unity:

• End US wars at home and abroad
• Create a peace economy that meets the necessities of people and protects the planet
• Respect the self-determination of all people and nations
• Create transformative change by building a movement of movements

The inspiring day started off with an opening panel of speakers who focused on the current environment of the social and economic “wars” at home and US imperialism abroad, and ways to build the peace movement. The plenary speakers included: Joe Lombardo, UNAC: United National Antiwar Coalition; Ajamu Baraka, Black Alliance for Peace & 2016 Green Party Presidential Candidate; Cheri Honkala, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign & 2012 Vice Presidential Campaign; Angela Bibens, Red Owl Law and Standing Rock Legal Collective; Netfa Freeman, Institute for Policy Studies, who works on issues of African solidarity and police violence; Bernadette Ellorin, BAYAN-USA, who spoke about the Philippines.  

The rest of the day was admirably facilitated by Margaret Flowers as an open general assembly with participants—movement leaders and activists—using a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis to identify the strengths of ongoing campaigns, obstacles to building a stronger and more effective movement, opportunities, goals, and next steps. In particular, the Peace Congress called for building race and age diversity into the movement.

Flip-chart pages were posted around the room listing current campaigns and calendar of activities in the US. Four points for future organizing were identified: 1. Political influence, 2. Nurture future generations, 3. Connect to the working class, and 4. Mobilization and long-term planning.

During general discussion, Odile writes: “Alan and I spoke about The Megiddo Peace and said that rather than speak of the ‘war system,’ we wanted to emphasize building a peace culture and consolidating the peace movement in order to gather together demands and bridge silos. We spoke of building a peace infrastructure like obtaining State Commissions for Peace and Justice and a Department of Peace, and of the need to actively assemble all the demands for Peace and Justice from the many organizations, presenting them in a comprehensive and organized list, and pushing them forward during the 2020 elections.” 

The next day, Sunday, Odile, Alan, and Nancy again met up at the #ReclaimArmisticeDay rally, a day to remember the horrors of war and the need for peace. Armistice Day is celebrated in most countries around the world, but in 1954 President Eisenhower renamed this day Veterans Day.  

Kevin Zeese summarizes the day: Veterans who served in different wars and military families impacted by the war spoke followed by allied groups working for peace. The group then began a solemn march near the World War II memorial and on to the memorials for the Korean War, Vietnam War, and World War I.

The march was led by a single-file procession of veterans wearing signs that described the reality of war. There was one person with a sign for each of the 20.6 veterans, mostly under 35, who commit suicide each day (see the signs in the opening photo). At each memorial, the group placed a wreath. The march showed opposition to war when many were visiting memorials commemorating war on Veteran’s Day. Here’s a short history of Armistice Day.