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Photo by Chris Cassell; used by permission of Pro Bono Photo

Proclamation for the Fourth Annual Global Women's March
January 18, 2020

The Global Women’s March is now three years old. This Global Women’s March was not born from celebration but out of protest and of demands for change. What we – and women around the world – are demanding is the right to vote – and to have our votes counted accurately, the right to hold public office, the right to work for equal pay and with safe working conditions, and for our human rights, including an end to discrimination.

Additionally, on a global level and all the more urgently today, we demand the right to bring about change through peaceful, non-violent, participatory action, and to address the political economy of violence.

The world is in a state of almost permanent conflict — declared, unfinished, or imminent. The causes of those wars lie not just in realpolitik and the supposed security of countries, but in economics and the need for resources. It was the lack of economic rights that sparked the uprisings in the Arab States, followed by demands for civil and political rights. These conditions motivate other people’s movements around the world.

WILPF US reasserts these demands! Social, human, and economic rights and justice – without discrimination and based on the recognition of the human rights of all – are central to peace and sustainable development. In the context of the 21st century, globalization, and the worldwide climate crisis, we must use the tools of the international and national systems to bring about these crucial changes.

There is much to be done – from the wars in African countries and in Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan in the Middle East; the instability in the Arab region; and the continuing US threats of war against Iran – to the critical need to address the climate crisis, global recession, and environmental degradation.

January 18, 2020, is indeed a day to recognize what women have accomplished and what has been done so far – and also a time to raise our voices, to protest, and to call on all of us to keep on working for peace!

For January 18, 2020, WILPF US declares this 2020 Proclamation for the Fourth Annual Global Women's March.

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
US President, Darien De Lu
Join us at www.wilpfus.org !

(This proclamation is based on the principles of WILPF US and International WILPF, as well as the International Women's Day 2012 statement “WILPF International's Statement on Celebrating International Women's Day” from 2012 is, on the WILPF US website.)

ENGAGE • CONNECT • LEAD
Amplify your voice with ours

Easy-to-Use Powerful Maestro Technology
ONE WILPF Calls are for all WILPF US members

Click here to see the archives of the latest Audio Recordings and Notes.  For prior year items, see the yearly archives in the sidebar.

Register for the next ONE WILPF Call
Calls are scheduled the second Thursday of each month at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern. If this changes, if you were signed up for email notices you will receive notification. (Email info@wilpfus.org for further information on how to receive the eAlerts.)  

Click here to register for the next scheduled call.

TALK with WILPF leaders from across the US.
PLAN sharing strategies and resources that work fo peace, planet, women’s rights, and human rights.
ACT TOGETHER for measurable impact on the causes that matter to you.

These calls use a powerful but easy to navigate conferencing technology that combines presentation and workshop time in break out rooms YOU help lead!

ONE WILPF CALLS are no longer limited just  to WILPF members. Discussion is preferentially for WILPF members, but all are welcome on the calls. Participants must pre-register. Click here to register.

ONE WILPF CALLS are just for WILPF members so you have to pre-register.

• Hear nationally known activists and speakers
• Participate in Q&A and discussions in response to the speakers
• Help plan WILPF actions and next steps for your community
• Help lead our national section and guide program

LISTEN TO WOMEN… FOR A CHANGE!

To suggest a speaker or topic, email us at 1wilpfcalls@gmail.com.

How To Participate
You can call in with your phone or using both your phone and your computer for a fuller communication experience. All voices will be muted during the general part of the call and open during Break Out Rooms.
PRESS 5 on your phone keypad if you have any technical problems.
PRESS 1 on your phone keypad during Q&A to raise your hand and get on the stack, or to vote in real time polls

Call Norms

• Be prepared and come ready to engage. Read the agenda, if you receive the WILPF eAlerts that provide it.  Seek to anticipate the discussion and do preparatory work ahead of time.  
• Balance your participation—speak and listen—and make sure everyone’s voice is heard.
• Look ahead to positive action, not back on ‘shoulda, woulda, coulda’.
• Stay Focused. Everyone is responsible for helping to stay on topic—capture off topic items in a ‘backburner’ and agree to discuss them later at a more appropriate time.
• Be concise and to the point.
• Be open to feedback.

Archived Audio Recordings and Notes

2020

April 9

Connection to the Earth and Sustainable Society in Harmony with Nature

Osprey Orielle Lake speaks for the Women’s Indigenous Climate Action Network (WECAN), an international organization that supports indigenous eco-activist women across the planet in their quest to make our world more sustainable and equitable while protecting precious resources and sacred land.

Osprey Orielle Presentation 15:55 minutes)with Q&A  (total, with both, of 65:47 minutes):

March 6

75 Years of Opposing Nuclear Weapons
Holding Space for Peace in a System Based on Destruction

Marking the 75^th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings may be the most important way we can raise awareness in 2020 of the dangerous ramping up of nuclear threats.  Even if you or your branch have never planned an anniversary action before, it may be time to begin planning for this August.    

On this ONE WILPF Call, two anti-nuclear powerhouses share their perspective on organizing in 2020 and beyond against the Administration’s shocking increase in nuclear weapons spending.

Featured Guest Speakers Marylia Kelley of Tri-Valley CARES in Livermore, CA and Jackie Cabasso of the Western States Legal Foundation and Mayors For Peace, are experts on the dangers and threats of new nuclear weapons. They offered practical ideas for how to confront the rising tide of new nukes being advanced by our government. Listen to now, while there’s still time, to plan for August 2020 events.  

Announcements
Earth Democracy Military Poisons Tour.
The Cuba & Bolivarian Alliance Committee.
Women,Money & Democracy Committee.
Poor Peoples Campaign.
DISARM.

For Burlington VT WILPF's program DVD Hibakusha Stories:  Testimonies of Atomic Bomb Survivors (2 hours), while they last, contact madel51353@aol.com. Or watch it online here. 

Click here for Marylia Kelley’s presentation
Click here for Jackie Cabasso’s presentation
Click here for Call Textpad with link to references
VT Branch Anti-Nuclear Resources

February 13

Planning for Discernment & Success
A Leadership Training Session for Issue Committees, Branches and At-Large Members

Important announcements from WILPF US and select issue committees:
The Poor Peoples Campaign, Women, Money & Democracy, DISARM, Earth Democracy, and President Darien DeLu on this year’s Commission on the Status of Women events in NYC in March.  

Case Study: Planning for Success
Marguerite Adelman from Burlington VT WILPF provided glimpses into what makes her events so effective, well-planned, attractive to local funders, and able to connect with the local school system.
Her tips for being more organized and effective can help make your branch and your events more visible and successful.  For more info contact Marguerite at madel51353@aol.com    

Discerning the Way Forward for Your Projects
Good planning begins with choosing the right action for your community and setting planning timelines, budgets and goals.  A SWOT Analysis can help you choose wisely and make long term plans that will expand your circle and create success.  
SWOT = Strengths,Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats. 

The Powerpoint presentation of this HOW-TO Training is available here. 
The notes and talking points are available here.
Planning For Success CASE STUDY: Listen to Marguerite Adelman of the Burlington Branch here.   
Consider reviewing this presentation with your branch and local leaders. 

January 9

Planning for Activism in 2020

Featured speaker Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap of MOVE TO AMEND spoke about the upcoming (January 21st) 10th Anniversary of Citizens United and the work Move To Amend has done to advance the We The People Amendment to the US Constitution. Kaitlin cited the heavy toll dark money concentrated wealth have had on diminishing our democracy, silencing the voices of ordinary Americans, and she offered ideas for resistance and action.  

A new PROGRAM PLANNING PROCESS at WILPF US was introduced.  

Planning for a 2020 SOLIDARITY ACTION THEME was begun, centralizing the 100th Anniversary of SUFFRAGE and ways that WILPF could use that event to inspire activism for the 2020 Presidential Election.  

Announcements included advance planning for the POOR PEOPLE’s CAMPAIGN in June, Cuba & Bolivarian Alliance Committee events in March, DISARM events in New York in April and the 75th Anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing in August.                        

Listen to Kaitline Sopoci-Belknap's presentation
Listen to Members Forum

For archives from 2019 and earlier calls, see links at the top of the side bar to the right.

November 18, 2019            

Dear WILPF member and friend of WILPF:

WILPF women activists are standing up, speaking up, and organizing in strategic ways.
That’s what WILPF does: We organize. We speak out. We DON’T give up!

WILPF is making noise while calling out racism, fear-mongering, and war for profit.  We’re confronting corruption and supporting grassroots solutions. But we still have a long way to go to confront disastrous patriarchy and unsustainable late stage capitalism with its armed and monied powers. We need you with us.

United with peace women in Venezuela, the Korean Peninsula, and across the globe, we continue to move forward our hope for peace, planet, and economic justice.  I’m sharing some stories about solutions we’re working on. So much is required to organize cohesive, consistent, strategic actions work. We’re able to keep going because of donors like you.

I know you’ve donated before and care deeply about peacemaking and strengthening women’s voices.  

Will you support our work with a gift before the end of 2019?

We’re asking for a gift that stretches you a bit because challenges today are stretching us – to do more with less. With your gift we pledge to keep up WILPF’s proud tradition of activism.

You have been a vital supporter of WILPF. Any amount helps, but if you are able to donate $250, we’ll send you a WILPF BUTTON along with our gratitude, to wear to your next protest, demonstration, or march – or anytime!  

Your gift will help train other activists and connect you to the strong WILPF network across the nation and around the world.   

How to Donate  
Whether you contribute online or by mail, you have the option of giving directly to WILPF without a tax deduction, or you can receive a tax deduction by directing your payment through our nonprofit fiscal sponsor, the Peace Development Fund (PDF).
 
Online
Click here to donate online ».
It is easy and safe. Follow directions to give directly to WILPF or through PDF.  
 
By Mail
To donate directly to WILPF without a tax-deduction, make your check payable to "WILPF-US" in any amount and send to the address below.
 
For a tax-deduction, make your check payable to "WILPF-PDF".   
 
Whichever option you choose, mark "EOY APPEAL" in the check memo and mail your contribution to our office at:

WILPF US,  
PO Box 13075  
Des Moines, IA 50310

In Solidarity,

Darien De Lu 
WILPF US Section President   

Learn more about the powerful work WILPF has been doing in 2019 and will continue into 2020

A Big Win in California!
WILPF members joined forces with others to pass a new state public banking law, setting an example for other states to follow.  Public banks can free municipalities from greedy Wall Street banksters by letting us direct local investment to local projects that support our values. 

Public banking offers the potential for system change and a more equitable economy.

WILPF Energizes Women to Leadership
This year our ONE WILPF Calls brought inspiring speakers and enabled planning across the US for marches, teach-ins, and protests around our three national Solidarity Actions.
                        
"Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war”
       — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Your Gift Fuels Our Outreach!

An Important Win, but Just Short of What We Need

WILPF’s Earth Democracy Issue Committee developed a new project that highlights the military’s  reckless use of toxic PFAS chemicals.  We’ll collect health data from communities whose water has been contaminated by nearby military bases.
 
We received a grant from Patagonia Foundation, but for $6,000 less than we requested.  We have to make up that shortfall!  Help us alert affected communities, support local community leaders, and advocate for life-saving regulatory changes.

Your gift can help complete this project! Help us reveal the heartbreaking health data the US military knew about but covered up for decades. Learn more about this project here.

And the Children Will Lead Us
From Greta Thunberg’s Climate Strike, to the Florida gun control activists, to the Sunrise Movement, to the WILPF-backed Our Children’s Trust lawsuit, demanding the Constitutional “right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life” – young people are leading efforts to save lives and the planet. 

WILPF is investing energy in education and outreach to the younger generation with so much potential for system change.

Photo by Glenn Ruga. New York Climate Strike, September 20, 2019.

Burlington, VT WILPF continued their powerful collaboration with local public schools to offer a retrospective on Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in follow-up to last year’s project on Hiroshima survivors.  

In Westchester, NY, WILPFers organized a display of peace posters done by children from the 1970s, reminding the public of the enduring hopes of children for peace. This was the first project of the newly relaunched branch.  

Working Smarter & More Strategically in Coalition
Internally, WILPF US is retooling and modernizing our processes and structures to become more agile, more visible, and more effective. A new plan for our program work will keep our issue work more strategic and cohesive. We’re encouraging new strategic national and local collaborations with exciting partners. Already we’re seeing successes.  

Corporations v Democracy
WILPF’s newly relaunched Corporations v Democracy Issue Committee is producing an update of their powerful Corporate Power Study Course and creating a Feminist Economic Toolkit, to help women create powerful local solutions.

WILPF US Practicum

Our 2019 WILPF US Practicum brought young women from across the US to participate in the March Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), connecting with international women peacemakers and learning how to put theory into practice – taking it from the global to the local level.

Donate today to empower a feminist voice for global peace.

Addressing Poverty and Economic Injustice
Once again our members joined the actions of the Poor People's Campaign, which is poised for a large mobilization in June 2020 to keep the pressure on candidates.

We'll continue our relentless resistance in 2020, with your help!
Please support our work before January 1^st.

Our new friend Captain Katie sent her crew and photographer Aj Traeger on her own boat and Katie skippered the Golden Rule in front of Diamond Head for a re-enactment of the classic 1958 photo of Golden Rule.

By Helen Jaccard
VFP Golden Rule Project Manager
December 10, 2019

After sailing for twenty days across the vast Pacific Ocean, the Golden Rule peace boat arrived back in Hawai’I on July 31, 1919, 61 years after her storied voyage to stop nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific.

Veterans for Peace President Gerry Condon and Col. Ann Wright were among the cheering supporters as the Golden Rule came through the channel towards Wailoa Harbor in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai’i.

Captain Milosz Kaczorowski, First Mate Tom Rogers and crew members Chris Mayer and Tate Furr were welcomed by Native Hawaiian Elders Keoloha Piscotta and Desmon Haumea at a press conference on August 2. It was a wonderful and moving occasion – several of us, including the Elders, were in tears.

Helen Jaccard, a member of the WILPF Disarm/End Wars Committee, read a Resolution from the Hawaii State Legislature welcoming the Golden Rule and crew to Hawaii. And so our 2019 Hawaii adventure began!

We’ve now been to all of the major islands – Hawai’i, Maui, Lana’i, Moloka’i, O’ahu, and Kaua’i. Each is different and special, and each has welcomed Golden Rule in wonderful, unique ways!

The message of the Golden Rule’s Pacific voyage, to “Challenge Nuclear Madness and Militarism,” resonates strongly in schools, Buddhist temples, Friends meetings, community centers, Rotary Clubs, and peace & justice groups. The Honolulu Friends Meeting and Veterans for Peace Chapter were particularly important in organizing amazing events for the Golden Rule Project.

With tensions running high between the US, North Korea, Russia, and China; the US withdrawing from arms control treaties; and a new nuclear arms race underway, this journey of the Golden Rule couldn’t come at a more important time.

The goals of the voyage to Hawai’i, the Marshall Islands, Guam, Okinawa, Korea, and Japan are to:
➢ Support the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons;
➢ Support steps to avert the possibility of nuclear war; and
➢ Raise awareness of the dangers of all nuclear activities and militarism to the environment and humanity.

Hawai’i is the perfect first leg of this journey, since it is a prime target for nuclear missiles coming from Asia. Hawaiians became very aware of this possibility with the false alarm of a nuclear attack last year. The Hawaiian Islands are also home to dozens of military facilities, some of them huge.

A longer article about why challenging nuclear madness and militarism begins in Hawai’i will appear in the next issue of Peace & Freedom.

ICAN Cities Campaign Makes Progress in Hawai’i

As a result of the Golden Rule Project, on November 6, 2019, the City and County of Honolulu joined the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons “Cities Campaign” in urging the US to ratify the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the "Back from the Brink" framework.

Left: Golden Rule crew with Mauna hands. This gesture has become a symbol of support for Mauna Kea and the indigenous people fighting against TMT and their plan to build a telescope on this sacred mountain.

The grassroots “Back from the Brink” Call lays out common-sense steps that the United States should take to reform its nuclear policy, including: Declaring a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons; taking the ICBMs off hair-trigger alert; stopping the $1.7 trillion nuclear “modernization” program, taking away any US President’s sole, unchecked authority to launch a nuclear strike, and negotiating for a verifiable reduction and elimination of all nuclear weapons.

The same Honolulu resolution welcomes the Golden Rule to O’ahu! We also received welcomes and acknowledgment of the need to eliminate nuclear weapons from Maui County and Kaua’i County!

Press Coverage of the Golden Rule

The Golden Rule anti-nuclear sailboat, a project of Veterans for Peace, was featured on the front page of the Sunday edition of Hawaii's largest newspaper, the Star Advertiser. Please see the post on the VFP Golden Rule website, with impressive photos of the front page spread. Here is the link on the Star Advertiser website (though you need to pay to read the full article). And here are a couple of videos: a short Star Advertiser video and a longer VFP video Making Waves: The Rebirth of the Golden Rule. Thanks to Ann Wright, who sent hundreds of emails to the press about the Golden Rule. Persistence pays off!

Above: The Golden Rule VFP ship in Hilo, Hawai’i.

Golden Rule was also featured in a two-minute television segment on Hawaii News Now!

Jon Letman, a supporter on the island of Kaua'i, wrote a great article "Do Unto Others" for Instick Media about the Golden Rule and her history.

We have received a lot of media on other Hawaiian islands, including Maui and the Big Island of Hawai'i. Helen Jaccard has been interviewed on radio several times. The statewide article in the Honolulu paper and the TV coverage are a big breakthrough!

Golden Rule and Phoenix Together Again

On June 30, 2019, Jessica Reynolds Renshaw visited the Golden Rule. Helen Jaccard read the correspondence for accepting the baton back from the Phoenix to represent both boats on this voyage.

Jessica and her family sailed the Phoenix of Hiroshima into Honolulu onto the same dock as Golden Rule in 1958. They took the baton and finished the voyage to the Marshall Islands while the crew of the Golden Rule were in jail. They represented both boats in 1958 in the attempt to stop nuclear bomb tests.

Both boats sank in 2010, and although Veterans or Peace, Quakers, and other old wooden boat lovers managed to restore Golden Rule, Phoenix of Hiroshima remains at the bottom of the Mokolumne River (Sacramento River Delta). The Reynolds family and the Phoenix's Board of Directors spent years trying to get the boat raised so she could be restored, but she is too far gone. With sadness, they had to give up on the dream of the two boats sailing together to the Marshall Islands and Japan next year.

The Phoenix Board of Directors donated $11,000 to help the Golden Rule and Jessica brought a nicely mounted piece of the Phoenix for the Golden Rule to carry. This time, Golden Rule will represent both boats in an effort to bring about global nuclear disarmament and end the possibility of nuclear war.

Thank you for your generosity!