WILPF at the 2013 Democracy Convention
Published on August, 15 2013
by Nancy Price, Earth Democracy Issue Committee Co-Chair
WILPF was a National Sponsor of the Democracy Convention and a co-convener of the Earth Democracy Conference, one of the nine conferences that made up the convention that took place in Madison, WI August 7–11.
National and international policies based on neoliberal economics, corporate globalization and "free trade, which aim to commodify, privatize and profit from almost every aspect of nature are destroying local communities and cultures and the ecosystems on which all life depends. Earth Democracy is juxtaposed to this system and is grounded in the inherent rights of all living beings and Mother Earth.
The Earth Democracy Conference was grounded on the "Declaration" adopted by the Ecojustice People's Movement Assembly at the 2010 US Social Forum which states: "We support the conclusion that only by 'living well,' in harmony with each other and Mother Earth, rather than 'living better,' based on an economic system of unlimited growth, dominance and exploitation, will the people of this planet not only survive but thrive."
Many Madison WILPFers opened their homes to visiting WILPF members from other Branches and to some of the speakers for Earth Democracy. There were panels sponsored by WILPF Issue Committees, and Emily Busam, the Earth Democracy Summer Intern, posted reports of the days events to the WILPF blog and to the WILPF Facebook page.
You can read the agenda of the entire Convention here and of the Earth Democracy conference here. Here’s the complete list of presenters and the list of presenters from WILPF are: Jim Allison, Susan Freiss, Marybeth Gardam, Nancy Price, Randa Solick, Ellen Thomas and Carol Urner.
We will all have come together Thursday evening at the WILPF Peace and Freedom Dinner hosted by and prepared and cooked by the Madison Brach and local friends and cooks. This is an exciting conference—coming together to work to build a broad, diverse grassroots democracy movement based on the fundamental and universal principles of human, civil, labor and earth rights leading to a world peace and a thriving earth.
A thank you from Nancy Price, Earth Democracy Issue Committee Co-Chair:
I would like to add a special thanks to the Madison WILPF Branch members who went out of their way to offer hospitality to other WILPers who came from out of town to the Democracy Convention either as participants on panels or just to attend the Convention. It was wonderful to see Tana Hartman and Ellen Thomas who drove long distances to attend, and Carol Urner who flew in from Portland, Randa Solick from Santa Cruz, California, Marybeth Gardam from Des Moines, and Jim and Toni Allison from Bloomington, Indiana. I am no doubt missing others that I don't know personally and thank them, too, for coming to Madison. Most importantly also, Madison WILPFers opened their homes to panelists for the Earth Democracy Conference that WILPF co-convened which made their participation as panelists financially feasible. Furthermore, the Madison Branch put on a splendid, delicious and greatly appreciated "home cooked" with locally grown produce Peace and Freedom Dinner on Thursday night August 8, which was attended by well over 200 people from both the Democracy and the Veterans for Peace Conventions. Many people remarked how wonderful it was to have such a community meal together.
The Democracy Convention was a great success and video from the Convention as a whole and the Earth Democracy confernce in partucular will soon be posted to the Democracy Convention website so be sure to go to www.democracyconvention.org.
The WILPF Earth Democracy logo which appears here was designed and donated by www.ciafront.org.
