NEWS

Bringing Human Rights to Life at Vermont High Schools & Colleges

Post date: Tue, 11/12/2019 - 06:46

Susan Marie Frontczak as Eleanor Roosevelt at the People Academy High School in Morrisville, VT. Photo by Bob Ackland.

By Marguerite Adelman
Burlington Branch Leadership Team

From October 8-11, 2019, the Burlington Branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) hosted programs on Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) at four Vermont high schools, as well as at Middlebury College and the University of Vermont (UVM).

Blanche Wiesen Cook and Marguerite Adelman Two different speakers participated in the programs. At the high schools, the featured presenter was Susan Marie Frontczak of Storysmith, a scholar, playwright, and performer who has presented living history programs around the world. Frontczak portrayed Eleanor Roosevelt and her work on the UDHR. This program reached 1,300 students and teachers at South Burlington HS, Peoples Academy HS, Rice Memorial HS, and Spaulding HS.

Photo: Burlington WILPF members Blanche Wiesen Cook and Marguerite Adelman pose in front of a life-size Eleanor Roosevelt. Photo by Clare Coss.

At the public programs at Middlebury College and UVM, the featured speaker was Dr. Blanche Wiesen Cook, a WILPF member and author of three volumes about Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One 1884–1933 (published 1992); Volume 2, The Defining Years, 1933–1938 (2000); and Volume 3: The War Years and After, 1939-1962 (2016). Volume One was awarded the 1992 biography prize from the Los Angeles Times. A New York Times review of the third volume called the entire biography a “rich portrait” of the “monumental and inspirational life of Eleanor Roosevelt.” NPR included the third volume in its “Best Books of 2016.” Dr. Cook’s program reached 120 community members, students, and teachers.

This year marks the 70^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Eleanor Roosevelt’s work chairing the committee that drafted this historic document: a testament to the enduring universality of the values of equality, justice, peace, and human dignity. The UDHR represents a milestone in the history of human rights, setting forth the 30 fundamental human rights that are to be universally protected.

In this time of spreading nationalism and gross violations of human rights across the globe, Eleanor Roosevelt noted that it is necessary for us all to work for human rights and peace. “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.… Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

Many individuals in the United States are unfamiliar with the UDHR. The presentations by Frontczak and Cook helped students and community members learn about, promote, engage, and reflect on human rights with the goal of encouraging everyone to stand up for human rights, every day. As the well-known Bob Marley song puts it: “Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.”

The program was supported in part by the Vermont Humanities Council, American Civil Liberties Union of VT, Amnesty International Champlain Valley, WILPF US, Anne Slade Frey Charitable Trust, Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation, WILPF Burlington, Green Mountain Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, and the Bernard and Sandra Otterman Foundation.

You can view the public program by Dr. Cook online at this link.

For more information, contact me at madel51353@aol.com.

Post date: Tue, 11/12/2019 - 06:26

By Nancy Price
Co-chair, Earth Democracy Issue Committee

The Government of Chile has accepted Spain’s offer to host COP 25 in Madrid, December 2-13. Now is the time to organize and mobilize for COP 25 locally, nationally and globally.

The urgency is clear given that the Trump administration has started the one-year process to formally “ditch” the Paris Climate, but this is hardly unexpected. The agreement stated that countries were not allowed to withdraw for three years from its signing on November 4, 2016. So on November 4, 2019, the very first day world leaders could do so, US Secretary of State Pompeo announced in a tweet that the Trump administration had taken the first step to withdraw the US from this important agreement. This singular and drastic action of the Trump administration could become effective November 4, the day after elections. So let’s not stop educating and mobilizing!

In a Common Dreams article by Jessica Corbett, May Boeve of 350.org is quoted as saying, “The moral outrage of this decision will be a powerful catalyst for action.” WILPF members, let’s turn our moral outrage into action!

Next Action will be Friday, November 29, Global Strike 4 Future, an event that was already planned for just before COP 25 begins December 2. Go to https://fridaysforfuture.org to register your event and for other important information. There are two more Fridays when major strikes will take place: December 6^th and Good Luck Friday the 13^th, which is, the closing day of the COP 25 Conference. The December 6^th “Friday For Future” strike is already announced. Keep checking Fridays For Future and 350.org for updated plans.

Place Your Order for WILPF and Earth Democracy materials. Click here and scroll down to view items. Place your orders now to receive promptly. You can download banners to print yourself or have them printed.

WILPF US Sash
New, revised Climate Justice+Women+Peace Infographic Cards (a Spanish language version will be ready soon)
Climate Justice, Women+Peace banner
Climate Strike poster
Peace & Planet Before Profit banner
Poor People’s Campaign banner

What have we been doing these 25 years? This COP 25 Summit is the 25^th anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). You can watch UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa’s short presentation on this important milestone and the need for greater ambition and action to achieve a greener, sustainable, more prosperous future here. And scroll through the “Report on Key Milestones in the Evolution of International Climate Policy” here.

Statements on Chile’s Cancellation of COP 25

On October 30, the Government of Chile announced that it would not host COP 25 owing to “the situation that the country is undergoing.” Immediately there were two responses.

First, on October 31, the Women and Gender Constituency (WGC), one of the nine stakeholder groups of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), issued this important statement: "Social Justice & Climate Chaos: Feminist Response to Cancellation of COP25". It calls for urgent climate action before the Paris Agreement of 2015 enters into implementation in 2020. The statement also analyzes the current state of the “social revolution” in Chile, with women and feminists on the frontlines of protest, explaining that it:

mirrors the demands and mobilizations of social, economic and ecological justice and feminist movements around the world – reverberating loudly in their demands for basic human rights, for bodily autonomy, for access to water, food, education and universal healthcare, to dignified and decent work, and to a peaceful, healthy, safe, and sustainable environment.

Second, 350.org put our their “Demand for a People’s Climate Summit” and petition calling for the “UN to kick the polluters out of the climate talks and give them back to the people…to civil society, social movements, Indigenous peoples, frontline communities, and the public at large to shape a global response to the climate crisis.” Even though Spain will now be hosting COP 25, I expect this “Demand” will have global support. You can read and sign the petition here.

Read Harvard Professor Naomi Oreskes’s "Discrediting Science Is a Political Strategy" where she discusses why climate deniers have run out of excuses.

For more information, contact Nancy Price at nancytprice39@gmail.com.

Post date: Tue, 11/12/2019 - 06:10

Syrian refugee families who came from Kobani district living in refugee tents in Surac district in Turkey in October 2015. Photo credit: Orlok / Shutterstock.com.

By Odile Hugonot Haber
for the Middle East Issue Committee

Now that President Trump has declared that ISIS is gone, perhaps it’s time to take a break from wars and urge our representatives to use diplomacy again instead of bombs.

Since 9/11, wars have been raging in the Middle East. First Afghanistan, then Iraq, Syria, and now Yemen. All these countries have been devastated by huge coalitions led by the US declaring a war on terrorism and bombing them. Huge amounts of bombs, and an army of drone strikes have hit many, many times, killing and maiming millions of people, destroying the infrastructure, pouring toxic materials all over the ground, and contaminating the water.

These conflicts have amounted to nothing less than an Armageddon of sorts for the people who lived there. The populations who have been attacked are some of the poorest on earth without access to political or military power. Ancient towns and communities have been ravaged, and entire peoples have been exterminated or forced to flee. A huge amount of refugees have been created from these wars that have gone where they could to save their lives: Jordan, Iran, Europe, Greece, Turkey, Italy, England, Germany, and the Nordic countries.

These endless wars have cost our whole generation more than we can tell in human costs. They have also cost trillions of dollars, which benefits the arms makers and their industry, but means devastation for everyone else, including US military families and taxpayers, since this is money that could be spent on health care, infrastructure, green initiatives, and other needs.

Whether the causes for going to war were fictional or real, the results have been calamitous for human beings on all sides of these conflicts. Common sense morality has been the first casualty in the West, as murder is being discussed on radio daily, sometimes as a terrible thing, but sometimes as a good thing, depending on the actors.

The US army is broken, and many veterans have taken their own lives, leaving their families mourning in despair. More than 6,000 veterans have killed themselves each year since 2008, at a rate 1.5 times higher than adults who never served in the military, and the suicide rate among female veterans is even higher—1.8 times that of non-veteran women. (These numbers are from a 2018 Guardian article).

Israeli/Palestinian Conflict Still Important

Paris Peace Conference of 1919 In the midst of these catastrophic happenings, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict seemed small and disappeared from the news, while Palestinian human rights have continued to be disrespected, and their land has been taken more and more by the Israelis, such that many no longer consider the two state solution to be viable.

Photo: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

The United Nations (UN) needs to look at the situation on the ground and call the many parties to peace, with negotiations for rebuilding, creating stability again, and thinking in terms of establishing a long and secure peace. This can be accomplished through measures such as a Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone, safe zones, safe cities, no man’s land. We need to build safe and verifiable mechanisms to ensure real peace on the ground. It is possible. The science is there, what is lacking is the will.

But how many more wars can we afford humanly speaking?

Our planet is on the brink of disaster, water is contaminated, fires are raging, and total depletion is coming fast. Climate change also calls for our involvement and for our money to be moved to providing concrete solutions rather than waging wars. As Greta Thunberg says, “We must act.” Our children are appealing for reason and peace, for actions that are restorative, healing, considerate, and will build a reasonable future for them.

To call for a comprehensive peace conference on the Middle East, one that is thoughtful about the whole earth, seems to be not only urgent but necessary.

There have been smaller efforts that we can build on. A small Middle East peace conference for Israel and Palestine was started in Paris on June 3, 2016, and met again in January 2017, in which the participants reiterated all the previous resolutions, such as 338 and 242, insisting on the importance of “two states ...living side by side in peace and security to achieve an enduring peace.” They supported all the recommendations of the Quartet (released on July 1, 2016) and noted the dire humanitarian and security situation in Gaza.

The participants underscored the importance of the Arab Peace initiative of 2002 as a comprehensive framework for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They supported all peace efforts in the area including a new UN resolution 2334, passed by the General Assembly (GA) in December 2016, which clearly condemned Israeli settlements and all forms of violence.

It has been too long since focused attention was given to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At this time, we need more than words. Actions must be taken, steps must be devised. Diplomacy could start there, but must evolve into all other countries of the Middle East that are in ruins and in need of immediate attention.

The US cannot retire its army from the Middle East and leave a complete mess behind!

It must call for an International Peace Conference. Just as the US has built these huge coalitions for war, it must reassemble them to build peace, to build processes that will emerge as the future diplomatic new world that supports lives on this planet. We can create a cooperative process that will involve all members of the coalitions to rebuild countries, create jobs, and build a new future based on proven techniques to mitigate climate change and solutions that will sustain lives in their many different forms.

Stressing mutual security and a culture of nonviolence, as well as a rapprochement of cultures, is needed. This is not to ignore that tribal and historic enmities exist in the region but to recognize that they have been fanned by wars. The call for vengeance must transform to a call for redemption and peace with justice.

To end the war system and create a global security system and a peace culture, we must engage a diplomatic process that is bigger than one that involves just heads of state. Whole peoples must participate, and all the parties must be invited to the peace table.

Post date: Tue, 11/12/2019 - 05:58

The St. Louis Branch 50 years ago.

By Lynn Sableman
St. Louis Branch

Joyce Best, a teacher, librarian, and activist for peace and racial equality, was honored on October 6, 2019, with the Ethical Society of St. Louis’s Ethics in Action Award. Joyce is a longtime WILPF member and leader, having joined the St. Louis chapter in the early 1950s and served in many leadership roles throughout the years.

The Ethical Society of St Louis, part of the American Ethical Union, has given out its Ethics in Action award since 1976, and recipients have included many prominent civic leaders and institutions. Joyce was honored as a “lifelong activist for peace, justice, and racial equality.” The Ethical Society expressed particular pleasure that Joyce was one of just a few of its own members to receive the award.

Joyce grew up in conservative rural Nebraska but was drawn to reading, literature, and progressive action from her earliest days. After she moved to St. Louis, she began working at the St. Louis Welfare Office where she met her future husband, Steve Best. Joyce and Steve became active members of the Committee on Racial Equality, and they participated in many early interracial actions for desegregation and racial equality.

Joyce worked as a teacher and then as a librarian, and because of her lifelong love of books, she particularly enjoyed choosing books for her libraries. In the 1970s and 80s, Joyce served on a state board of school librarians, who were tasked with developing a state policy for school book censorship. After Joyce retired as a librarian, she volunteered for about 10 years for the Reading is Fundamental program.

For many years, and through the present time, Joyce has handled St. Louis WILPF’s Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, in which children’s books are donated to St. Louis school libraries. Joyce has purchased the books with her own funds, and each year, at the annual meeting of the St. Louis WILPF chapter, she describes and reads from the books, with their themes of peacemaking, ethical conduct, and interracial harmony and diversity.

In addition to WILPF, CORE, and the Ethical Society, Joyce (often with her late husband Steve) was also active in the Lenz Peace Research Association and the American Youth Hostel association. They were also founding members of Freedom of Residence, an organization that drew attention to housing discrimination toward African Americans. As part of that work, the Bests served as white couples in fair housing tests.

Several of Joyce’s colleagues from WILPF spoke at the award ceremony on October 6. One of them, Jane Mendelson, concluded her remarks with these comments: “In conclusion, I have to say that this self-described ‘little girl from Nebraska’ chose a remarkable life path. Growing up in a rural community of white Christians, where she never encountered a Jewish or black person, briefly exposed to sociology in college, she chose, with her husband, to promote racial equality, peace, and justice in St. Louis in every way she could. I feel privileged to help in honoring her today.”

Post date: Tue, 11/12/2019 - 05:55

In October, longtime WILPF member Ann Fagan Ginger (front row, third from right) was honored by Bay Area branches for her human rights advocacy. Photo by E Williger.

By Barbara Blong
San Francisco Branch

Neither power outages nor fires dimmed the respect and admiration that brought folks out on October 27, 2019, when WILPF East Bay and San Francisco held a reception honoring long-term WILPF member Ann Fagan Ginger, a renowned lawyer, educator, and international human rights and treaty advocate. This event was the Bay Area’s October 2019 Solidarity Action on International Treaties.

Ann, Executive Director Emerita of Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute (MCLI), a sentinel for human rights in Berkeley, California, has successfully argued a civil liberties case in the US Supreme Court. She has provided expert testimony for several UN Human Rights Committees, taught courses on peace law and human rights at a number of law schools, and is now in the final editing of her 23^rdbook: Our 100 Human Rights.

When Ann spoke at our afternoon program, she pointed out that few of us are aware of all of our human rights, particularly those found in international treaties. Our 100 Human Rights makes UN treaties accessible and describes each of the rights in these documents: US Constitution Amendments, statutes passed by Congress, court opinions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the UN Charter.

Walter Riley, MCLI Board President, spoke of Ann’s continued work for peace and justice law through MCLI's involvement in local issues of housing, homelessness, and sex workers.

Judith Mirkinson, president of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and a WILPF member, acknowledged the relationship of international human rights and international law as the foundation of Ann's work and said that women attorneys today stand on Ann’s shoulders.

Past MCLI Board President Steven Bingham spoke of Ann’s concept of using international law in American courts, of her remarkable tenacity and follow through, as well as her books of history. He claimed: “Ann is a jewel in our midst!”

Many more people spoke and everyone at the October 27th celebration agreed wholeheartedly with Steven. Now we are happy to share our treasure Ann Fagan Ginger with all of you!

Post date: Tue, 11/12/2019 - 05:46

Jan Corderman and Patti Lawson read Malala’s Magic Pencil to a third-grade class at Edmunds Elementary School in Des Moines. Photo credit: Mary Ann Koch.

By Jan Corderman
Des Moines Branch

Talking to a young audience about what it felt like to be afraid to walk to school is something that Malala Yousafzai does very well in Malala’s Magic Pencil, her carefully crafted story about her childhood that was one of the 2018 Jane Addams Children’s Book Awardees.

When Jan Corderman and Patti Lawson read the book to Patti’s son Kingston’s third-grade class at Edmunds Elementary School, they weren’t sure how to talk about what happened to Malala when she defied the Taliban and demanded that girls be allowed to receive an education. But they needn’t have worried; Malala chose the perfect words, as she did so often as a child, and continues to do to this day.

Yousafzai started a blog at age 11. Her words appeared anonymously on the Urdu language site of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for everyone in her native Pakistan to hear.

She openly defied those who believe that children, especially girls, should not be allowed to go to school. In her book she says, “My voice became so powerful that the dangerous men tried to silence me……. But they failed.”

The class was delighted to hear about Malala winning the Nobel Peace Prize at the young age of 17. They also loved repeating the words she said to the Nation State Leaders at the UN on her sixteenth birthday, “One Child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”

After a discussion, at their teacher’s suggestion, the students used their “magic” crayons to draw pictures of their wishes for their community and the world.

Des Moines Jane Addams Book Club

Vonnie Salem presented the books to the entire student body and faculty at Samuelson Elementary during an all-school gathering. The books then go to the school’s library for students to check out and for the teachers to integrate into the curriculum. Both Vonnie and the students look forward to this opportunity made possible by the Des Moines Branch.

Joan Engler gave the books to her three sons who are writers and union leaders, and their families. Her grandchildren are immersed in activism from a very young age and love the books too. They tell the stories of other children, like them, who are emotionally impacted by events in their communities and by telling their stories show that they can make a difference.

Jan Corderman and Mary Ann Koch
Jan Corderman and Mary Ann Koch read Before She Was Harriet to third graders at St. Joseph School in Des Moines. Photo credit: Barb Basch.

Jan Corderman and Mary Ann Koch have been visiting St. Joseph School in Des Moines for a few years now. Mrs. Barb Basch, a third grade teacher at St. Joseph, commented after the visit, “This year Miss Jan & Miss Mary Ann visited our classroom and read Before She Was Harriet. My third graders loved listening to the story, enjoying the pictures, and learning about this time in history through discussion during the story. They especially liked doing a ‘picture draw’ where each student recreated a scene from the story and colored it. I then took their drawings, laminated them, and made a book as a keepsake for our class. This is the fourth year we have participated in this project and my students always comment that it is one of their favorite activities throughout the year!”

Before Mary Ann turned the chairwoman’s duties over to Doris Covalt & Vonnie, she took a collection of the books to EveryStep, whose mission is to empower individuals, support families, and strengthen communities.

What’s in Your Drinking Water?

Post date: Tue, 11/12/2019 - 04:49

Credit: Shutterstock.com

By Nancy Price
Co-chair, Earth Democracy Issue Committee

Do you know what’s in your drinking water? Today, we are facing a national and global drinking water crisis caused by a large group of dangerous, toxic, man-made chemicals known as PFAS. PFAS chemicals are called “forever chemicals” – they bio-accumulate and take forever to break down in the environment. Exposure to these chemicals is associated with chronic, life-threatening, and fatal diseases throughout life including problems for the developing fetus and young children, different cancers, immune systems disorders, and much more.

Today, 110 million or more Americans are drinking PFAS-contaminated water and over 98% of people globally have PFAS in their blood. PFAS chemicals are found in placental tissue, umbilical cord blood, and breast milk.

From the 1950s on, PFAS chemicals were manufactured and widely used both in commercial consumer products and by the military. Corporate scientists and managers and the US Department of Defense all knew PFAS chemicals were highly toxic and carcinogenic, but they looked the other way to protect their profits and avoid liability.

Firefighters at Peterson Air Force Base Among the PFAS group, PFOA and PFOS, developed by DuPont and 3M, have been used the most over the decades in consumer products such as: nonstick cookware (Teflon), food packaging, waterproof clothing, stain-resistant furniture & carpeting (Scotchgard), cosmetics, and artificial turf. Today, these chemicals are leaching out of landfills where these products have been dumped and are degrading.

Photo: Firefighters at Peterson Air Force Base conduct live training with AFFF. Notice the grassy area just beyond the foam. July 21, 2014. Photo by Michael Golembesky / US Air Force.

PFOA and PFOS were also used in a specially formulated AFFF (aqueous film-forming foam) form developed by 3M in the 1970s for fighting intensely hot jet fuel fires. Used on military bases in constant firefighting trainings, drills and with actual fires, AFFF is responsible for contaminating the land, and has been seeping or flowing directly into water sources for military base residents and those in surrounding communities. Newer replacement GenX chemicals are considered potentially just as toxic.

The Environmental Protection Agency has still not set a legally-binding Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for these chemicals to protect the environment and drinking water sources. Therefore, the Department of Defense continues to argue that they cannot set a MCL level.

What You Can Do

Here are some actions you can take to become informed and to help build the broad intersectional movement we need right now:

Go to the movie Dark Waters with friends and family, opening at a theater near you on November 22. Discover the lengths DuPont went to hide the truth about PFAS and to avoid liability. And read the book on which the movie is based, Robert Bilott’s Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont (Atria Books, 2019).

Dark Waters Opens This Fall

On November 22, the feature film Dark Waters opens at movie theaters featuring Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, and Tim Robbins.

Here’s the real story Behind 'Dark Waters' about a corporate lawyer turned environmental crusader against the corporate criminal, Dupont Corporation, that's polluting the water in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Help rally around the call for closing US bases and to end militarism and wars and to liberate the billions of dollars from the military budget. This is necessary in order to fund the Superfund cleanup of contaminated military sites, to fund health care for on- and off-base victims of contaminated water, and to repair and build new “state of the art” public, not privatized and corporate owned, drinking water and water treatment systems to fully realize the human right to water for all.

Read Pat Elder’s articles at www.militarypoisons.org about the extent of PFAS contamination on military bases, especially in California, as part of Earth Democracy’s California project, “The Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water.”

Help Earth Democracy and Disarm/End Wars spread the word on the extent of the military’s contribution to the global environmental and health crisis.

Together, we can build a broad, intersectional movement of environmental, health, water justice, and peace groups to protect the environment and the health of current and future generations.

Post date: Tue, 11/12/2019 - 04:39

By Ellen Thomas
Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee

From November 6 to December 13, every weekday is a “Ban Nuclear Weapons” national call-in day! WILPF-US, NuclearBan.US, Code Pink, and World Beyond War urge you to call your representative to promote the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and to support moving the money from nuclear weapons and other arms industries to carbon-free, nuclear-free energy production, environmental restoration, health care, education, housing, and other human needs.

Please take just five minutes to call your representatives DC Office at 202-224-3121, and say, please co-sponsor HR-2419, the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act” introduced by Eleanor Holmes Norton!

Even better, ask for a face-to-face meeting with your representative when he or she is at home, so you can explain in person why HR-2419 is so important for the future of your community, and for the world!

You can find the text of the bill, and sign an online letter asking for co-sponsorship, at http://bit.ly/prop1petition, and you can learn about the history of the legislation at http://prop1.org.

Download and read Warheads to Windmills: How to Pay for a Green New Deal by NuclearBan.US for an analysis of how to make this happen!

And please, when you call, let us know who you talked to, and what was the result! Email me at et@prop1.org

Post date: Fri, 11/01/2019 - 14:36

WILPF US is a member-driven organization. All members are welcomed and encouraged to join national issue committees.

To form and maintain an issue committee, please click here. Issue committees, along with all WILPF committees, follow the US WILPF Committee Guidelines, Best Practices & Information. To find out how to get involved in an issue committee, please contact the chair(s) of the committee. That contact information is listed on each committee page.

Through our issue committees, the passions of our members are translated into activities and projects for our nationwide branches and members. WILPF US issue committees continuously seek to involve interested branches, their members, and at-large members-and to share ideas, projects, actions, and resources with them. Issue committees work in alignment with our integrated and interconnected national priorities, consistent with the broad themes of US program work.

Members can also form new issue committees!

To qualify as a recognized issue committee, a new committee must address the Issue Committee Benefits and Guidelines for Standards (established by the Program Committee on Oct. 1, 2019):

Have a minimum of five members, with geographic diversity
Have meetings at least quarterly
Take, disseminate to committee members, and maintain (for at least a two-year period) meeting minutes
Have the opportunity, at least every three years, for changes in leadership
Maintain webpage content, updating as required (and at least every 18 months)
Develop objectives and actions with at least some measurable, outcome-oriented goals
Develop its own projects to achieve the issue committee goals
Welcome any WILPF member who wishes to participate

Please contact info@WILPFUS.org for more info on how to form a new issue committee. If you encounter any difficulties in communicating and working with the issue committees, please contact Info@WILPFUS.org.

Post date: Thu, 10/17/2019 - 08:04

DC’s Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton on April 27, 2015, shortly after introducing the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act.”

By Ellen Thomas
Co-chair, Disarm/End Wars

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, US Section, is announcing a National Call-in Day to promote the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, on Friday, November 1, while our US Congress members are back in their local district offices.

On this important day, please take just 5 minutes to call your Representative’s District Office and say, please co-sponsor HR-2419! Even better, ask for a face-to-face meeting with your representative so you can explain in person why HR-2419 is so important for the future of your community, and for the world!

HR-2419 is the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act,” introduced 14 times so far by DC’s Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. It not only supports the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, it also earmarks the trillions of dollars that will be saved for transformation of the arms industries to providing carbon-free, nuclear-free energy, and for other human needs such as health care, housing, education, and environmental restoration. HR-2419 could provide the funding for the Green New Deal!

Eleanor Holmes Norton with Beatrice Fihn Photo: Eleanor Holmes Norton introducing HR-2419 on April 30, 2019, with Beatrice Fihn of ICAN.

So far Representatives Jim McGovern (MA) and Ilhan Omar (MN) have co-sponsored HR-2419 in 2019. Mr. McGovern has also introduced a House Resolution “embracing the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.” If your Representative balks at co-sponsoring HR-2419, please ask that s/he at the very least co-sponsor H.Res 302, which isn’t binding, as HR-2419 would be, but it does give your Representative an opportunity to show support for the UN ban treaty.

Other Representatives who have co-sponsored Norton’s bill during past sessions and are still in the US Congress are Raul Grijalva of Tucson, Lacy Clay of St. Louis, Steve Cohen of Memphis, Sheila Jackson-Lee of Houston, John Lewis of Atlanta, and Jan Schakowsky of Chicago, all in the House Progressive Caucus.

Congresswoman Norton has asked us to particularly focus on members of the House Progressive Caucus, who are the most likely to co-sponsor.

Please let us know that you have called your representative on the WILPF Congressional call-in day, November 1st, 2019! Please keep calling until you get results! If you don’t get results, ask for a meeting! And keep us informed!

Congressional Committee Lists and Suggested Scripts

Click here for lists of relevant committees and caucus members (pdf format)

SUGGESTED SCRIPT – 1 (For those who have not co-sponsored)

SUGGESTED SCRIPT – 2 (For those who have already co-sponsored in the past (Raul Grijalva (Tucson, AZ) , Lacy Clay (St. Louis, MO), Steve Cohen (Memphis, TN), Sheila Jackson-Lee (Houston, TX), John Lewis (Atlanta, GA), Jan Schakowsky (Chicago, IL), all in the House Progressive Caucus)

Hi, my name is ____, calling from ____(city/town)____. I want to thank Representative _________ for co-sponsoring Eleanor Holmes Norton’s “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act” in the past, and to urge co-sponsorship of this session’s version, HR-2419, which has been updated to support the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and earmarks the billions of nuclear weapons dollars saved per year for converting the arms industries to produce carbon-free, nuclear-free energy systems, and to provide for other human needs such as health care, education, and environmental restoration ... the funding for the Green New Deal! I’m calling to seek a face-to-face appointment with Representative ____ either here, with me, as soon as possible, or in Washington, DC during the week of November 12 to 15, with my colleagues in Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, who plan to be in DC that week. We want to go over the improvements to the bill (Get the names of the legislative director and the scheduler in DC, and send the information, and what they said, to et@prop1.org, please!)

SUGGESTED SCRIPT – 3 (For those whose Representative is a Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs or Armed Services Committees (listed in pdf of committees, with notes in red if they have co-sponsored in the past or this session)

Hi, my name is ____, calling from ____(city/town)____. I’m calling to urge Representative _____ to co-sponsor HR-2419, the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act,” which supports the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and earmarks the billions of nuclear weapons dollars saved per year for converting the arms industries to produce carbon-free, nuclear-free energy systems, and to provide for other human needs such as health care, education, and environmental restoration ... the funding for the Green New Deal! This legislation has been introduced 14 times by Eleanor Holmes Norton, each time referred to the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, where it has remained, with no action. It’s past time to bring this wonderful idea to the entire House of Representatives, and I urge Representative ____ not only to co-sponsor HR-2419, but also to help get it out of the _____ Committee for debate and vote.

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Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

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