NEWS

WILPF U.S. has been busier than ever. Sisters (and brothers) joined across the nation to carry out a vision of a transformed world at peace, where there is racial, social, and economic justice for all people everywhere.

This month, we bring you a blog posting by Cynthia Enloe, research professor at Clark University on her thoughts on Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's announcement that the Pentagon is lifting its ban on women in combat. Darien De Lu, Chair of the Bylaws Committee explains how you can get involved with WILPF. Carol Urner, Chair of the DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee tells about the 2013 Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Abolition Treaty.

The 2013 Commission on the Status of Women is coming up in March. Learn about all the events going on and how you can get involved. We also bring you stories of solidarity with our Transform Now Plowshares friends, a birthday celebration for former WILPF International president Edith Ballantyne, and share the inspiring and moving play by Jim Allison of Move to Amend, "The Prosecution of Judge Waite."

We invite WILPF U.S. Branches and Issue Committees to send articles along for inclusion in WILPF eNews, published in the first week of each month. To find out more, please email newsletter@wilpfus.org. Read the eNews here.

In February, the WILPF DISARM/End War Issue Committee is launching our 2013 Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Abolition Treaty. We will work closely with Reaching Critical Will to end our nation’s Faustian bargain.

Our committee members are already working to break all links in the nuclear chain, believing that all of them—from uranium mining to plutonium production to nuclear weapons to nuclear power, nuclear waste and depleted uranium are already threatening the full range of  earth's life forms and the health of the planet itself.

The bodies of women and children are especially vulnerable to radiation from the nuclear industry, and our water, soil and air are increasingly under attack. And the threat to future life on earth will continue growing through the generations if we can not cure addiction to the bomb and the nuclear industry.

Whatever your own primary concerns in WILPF plan to spend at least some time in 2013 on abolition of nuclear weapons as a necessary step toward demilitarization, disarmament and ending wars.

Check out resources from Reaching Critical Will and I-Can for achieving nuclear abolition by 2020. Investigate WILPF supported international events and U.S. events during February, March, April and May. We hope to supply many possibilities for action in the weeks and months ahead.

Image credit: Image courtesy of Abolition 2000 network, of which WILPF is an active and founding member
 

National Bylaws Committee and Others Invite Volunteers

You can be a significant part of building WILPF US as a dynamic organization!  The ad hoc Bylaws Committee, having successfully completed the projects of its first 18 months of functioning, is seeking a few additional new members.

Now, with last year's first member-vote on Bylaws amendments,  WILPF US members know much more about the committee and its work.

You could be part of this national committee!  You can get to know WILPFers from across the country who work together really well.  We have congenial, interesting and often entertaining monthly conference call meetings - and we get a lot accomplished!

Of course, we realize this work is not everyone's idea of fun! If you'd like to be more involved in national WILPF in some way, whether this or something else might be it, please contact the Nominating Committee (email nominations@wilpfus.org). We'll be glad to work with you to find a mutually beneficial connection!

But maybe you do  think you might be someone who would like to join the Bylaws Committee?

You must have been a member of WILPF for at least a year and be comfortable using email for communications. Beyond that, you don't have to meet all the qualities below exactly, but if these generally describe you, you might fit right in as an effective member:

• You have been active (for at least six months) on a WILPF committee of some kind or in a branch.
• You are willing to meet monthly via conference calls and to communicate between calls via email.
• You understand that revising Bylaws and monitoring our organization's compliance with them is a long-term process, so you anticipate a commitment to the committee of at least two years.

Probably you'll want more information before actually applying.  Please contact the committee with your questions—or to request an application—at bylawreview@wilpfus.org. 

Did you know? You can use the same email address to send us your suggestions for changes in the Bylaws. You can read the updated Bylaws at http://wilpfus.org/about/wilpf-us-section-laws.
 

Dear California WILPF Branches and Members,

Coming out of the Women’s Congress for Future Generations in Moab this past summer, we four WILPF members are enthusiastic about bringing the idea of Guardianship of Future Generations and the Precautionary Principle to all our California members and branches. To that end, we’re scheduling a California tour, between March 22 World, Water Day, and April 22, Earth Day. This is an invitation to your branch or to a local cluster of WILPFers to host an event, which would include other local allies, at which we would like to co-facilitate the discussion of these seminal ideas with the local sponsoring organizations and participants at the gathering.  

We can visit you on March 22/23, April 5/6, April 12/13, April 19/20—or any dates in between. For the convenience of branches and members in organizing, we could consider dates a bit before or after March 22 and April 20.

What we’re bringing is a total package interconnecting environmental, legal, social and economic justice issues—so likely co-sponsors and other participants will be local groups concerned with these issues, uniting the community in responding to our urgent problems using these inspiring tools and ideas.

Discussion would focus on your particular local issue involving local people. Our role would be to help you explore how to utilize these ideas of Guardianship and the Precautionary Principle and to implement them locally. 

To liven up the discussion and add a dimension of awareness and hope, we can engage in some activities designed by Joanna Macy. We will also interweave 350.org’s “Do The Math” campaign about the urgency of dealing with climate change and how to develop local divestment from companies involved in fossil fuels. 

Here in California, many communities are or will soon be dealing with fracking for oil and natural gas.  The Precautionary Principle states that a local government has to be assured that a product or an activity is safe before approving its use; if such a local ordinance were in effect, it would give us a tool for protecting our natural commons. The Science and Environmental Health Network has worked with Harvard Law School for two years to produce templates for local ordinances that local governments could use in considering how to protect our land, water, air, minerals and environment for future generations. More generally, we all know we’re responsible for how we pass the world on to future generations. They’re our descendants—we owe it to them! But it’s also for us—it’s how we can protect our health and the health of our surroundings, now. 

We’re excited; these inspiring ideas offer great hope and possibility for effective action. A growing international interest in these principles has been building for decades; actually, some cities and countries are already starting to implement these ideas. 

We recommend that the best format for this program would be a Friday evening and about four hours Saturday morning, but we could also adapt it to a whole day’s program, or even just a few hours of presentation and discussion. We want to accommodate to your needs; we could put on a simple event on the weekday or night of your regular Branch meeting. We’re flexible and want to respond to whatever day and time is best for you.

Please contact us at catour@wilpfus.org with responses to this announcement and questions.  

We look forward to hearing from you right away so we can start to plan together!  

This is a great way to start the New Year!!! 

Sincerely, 

Jean Hays, Nancy Price, Mathilde Rand, and Randa Solick for the WILPF Earth Democracy  Committee

P.S.: Please open the attached draft to read about a bold plan for a National Commission and a United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Future Generations as well as local action.

Image credit: By artist Ann Altman from Silverton, Oregon, www.annaltman.com

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