WILPF Members Pressure Nuclear Weapon Manufacturers and Fossil Fuel Companies—Cost of US support for Israel since October 7, 2023

Members of WILPF Peninsula/Palo Alto and San Jose branches and Pacific Life Catholic Workers from Redwood City, demonstrate outside the Lockheed Martin facility in Sunnyvale, CA on September 20th, 2024 as an action for Pressuring the Profiteers. Photo by Cherrill Spencer and used with her permission.

October 2024

WILPF members and other organizations demonstrate against nuclear weapons companies and big oil. 

A small number of very large companies profit from fossil fuels and nuclear weapons, and they spend millions on lobbying, elections, and propaganda to maintain their control over Congress and the White House."

These companies—and their investors—also care about their public image and reputations. Boycotts, divestment, and shaming are highly effective tactics made available by the Warheads to Windmills coalition to DISARM Committee members: 

Dianne Blais stood outside the headquarters of Raytheon and then Boeing in Arlington, VA, with appropriate signs; Eileen Kurkoski staffed a table outside Boston’s City Hall with games focused on the military budget; Cherrill Spencer stood outside the Lockheed Martin facility in Sunnyvale, CA, with a very long banner (see this article’s photo). Lockheed Martin manufactures Hellfire missiles, F-35 stealth aircraft, heavy artillery, and other items currently terrorizing the residents of Gaza. Peggy Dobbins and Ellen Thomas wrote to the CEOs of nuclear weapons companies. To get a sense of the variety of actions carried out from September 16th through 29th, click on this photo gallery: https://warheadstowindmills.org/action-gallery/
 

DISARM Committee members take part in World Beyond War NOWAR2024 conference
 

To mark the International Day of Peace, September 21st, World Beyond War held a global 3-day conference, streamed virtually, with in-person events in Sydney, Australia; Wanfried, Germany; Bogotá, Colombia; and Washington, DC, U.S. called, “Resisting the USA’s Military Empire.” Many thanks to our committee member Peggy Dobbins, who sponsored the conference as a “Peace Patron,” allowing us to have a table at the DC venue. Appreciation also goes to Dianne Blais, who staffed the table with our most recent flyers and informational materials on WILPF US. Recordings of all the many speakers’ talks can be found here: https://worldbeyondwar.org/nowar2024/

A report from Reaching Critical Will: Petrobromance, Nuclear Priesthood, and Police Repression

This Reaching Critical Will report analyses, from a feminist and gender-transformative perspective, trends and parallels in how the nuclear and fossil fuel industries operate and entrench their power; their impacts on communities, including gendered impacts; and the ways in which resistance against these industries is suppressed by police, militaries, and private military and security companies. You can download this detailed report from here.
 

Costs of War released two papers on the human and budgetary costs of war since October 7, 2023.

If you need extra motivation to become active in our various DISARM Committee campaigns, then read these two reports from the Costs of War project at Brown University: 

Report 1: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2024/USspendingIsrael   
Report 2: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2024/IndirectDeathsGaza 

Report 1 in Brief: U.S. spending on Israel’s military operations and related U.S operations in the region totals at least $22.76 billion and counting. This estimate is conservative; while it includes approved security assistance funding since October 7, 2023, supplemental funding for regional operations, and an estimated additional cost of operations, it does not include any other economic costs.

Report 2 in Brief: Provides an overview of the human costs of the Hamas strike and Israel's military operations since October 7, 2023, in Gaza and the West Bank. This report gathers previously published data to provide an overview of the direct and indirect deaths that have resulted and will continue to result, including from the destruction of public infrastructure and livelihood sources – for instance, 96 percent of Gaza’s population faces acute levels of food insecurity. According to an October 2, 2024, letter to President Biden from a group of U.S. physicians, 62,413 people in Gaza have already died of starvation.

DISARM asks you to do these two easy online actions right away 

The United States tests their aging Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capabilities from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, along the Pacific coast near Lompoc, California. By international law, the U.S. informs the world of the tests at least 3 days in advance. Activists from Northern and Southern California convene, by car, bus and train, at Vandenberg to protest these quarterly ICBM test launches. Sign-up below to get more information on ICBMs and to receive alerts when an ICBM test launch has been announced: https://defusenuclearwar.org/eliminate-icbms. Watch this short video of a speech given by DISARM co-chair Cherrill Spencer at the Vandenberg base gate in which she describes why we need to get rid of ICBMs: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=737008428436947

One of our ongoing DISARM Committee campaigns advocates for using international treaties to wage peace. Our committee member Judith Hand asks us to join your fellow concerned citizens of Earth to call upon leaders of all nations to acknowledge that the continued practice of war is a form of social insanity that can no longer be tolerated. Urge them to gather in unity and commit to an international agreement—through a treaty or other enforceable formal statement—to end international warfare and establish a global framework for an enduring, peaceful resolution of conflicts. 

Judith coordinates the “Project Enduring Peace” read more here: https://www.afww.org/project-enduring-peace.html 

We ask you to take action by signing the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/project-enduring-peace-petition

Please Join Our DISARM/END WARS Issue Committee

WE WELCOME NEW MEMBERS to our committee. We meet by zoom on the second and last Sundays of each month at 4:30 pm PT, 5:30 pm MT, 6:30 pm CT, 7:30 pm ET. 

To find out the zoom link and to request to join the DISARM listserv, write to disarmchair@wilpfus.org.