A pink cake was given to Paki Wieland in gratitude for her wonderful hospitality at the Code Pink House during the 2019 ANA DC Days. WILPF US has signed on to many Code Pink letters. From left: Alex Rose, Ariel Gold, Kina Thorpe, Paki Wieland, Robin Lloyd (co-chair of WILPF’s Disarm/End Wars Committee), and Janice Sevre-Duscynska. Photo (selfie) by Alex Rose. 

By Eileen Kurkoski, Secretary 
Darien De Lu, President

December 2020

Do you know what WILPF supports and stands for? That’s a loaded question, because both WILPF International and WILPF US stand for a lot! Of course, our website reports many WILPF US positions, especially as reflected in the eNews archives and the webpages about Our Work. Also, sometimes WIlPF US issues statements, such as our Statement on the Murder of George Floyd and the Calls for Changewhich is one of a number of statements and resolutions on our website.

More often we strengthen our influence by working in alliance with other organizations. Branches and the national issue committees can choose, independently, to endorse actions and initiatives consistent with WILPF principles. Issue committees are the primary ones to recommend that national WILPF also signs on to calls for action, open letters, and campaigns. Some of the related issues make it into our emailed news articles and alerts but others don’t.

As your president, I signed WILPF US onto various meaningful peace and justice initiatives from many ally organizations initiatives last year, such as the Hands Off Iran! global campaign and the Global Appeal to Save International Law. Also, two of our issue committee leaders, Ellen Thomas (Disarm/End Wars) and Nancy Price (Earth Democracy) created a “Climate Actions for the Next President” letter for others to endorse. You can see more of the 2019 sign-ons, endorsements, and co-sponsorships here.  

In the eventful, election year of 2020 we’ve signed on to far more actions and items. Our ally, Code Pink, has been the originator of several foreign policy-focused sign-on letters to the Biden campaign, in anticipation of the incoming administration. We’ve been part of opposition to nuclear weapons and to radiation storage and dumping. We’ve signed on in support of income for caregivers. We became a Protect the Results partner to work to help prevent a presidential election coup. You can see that the 2020 list is long!

No doubt 2021 will bring us many more opportunities to endorse, co-sponsor, and sign on to important efforts with our ally organizations. If you have suggestions for ways to improve our sign-on process, please share them by emailing President@wilpfus.org.