Disarm-End Wars Actions and Opportunities

By Co-Chairs Robin Lloyd, Barbara Nielsen, and Ellen Thomas, and EWNE Campaign Organizing and Capacity Building Adviser Michael Ippolito

Disarm-End Wars has been talking since last November with the founders of a new effort based in Northampton, Massachusetts that is supporting the TPNW: NuclearBan.us. Timmon Wallis and Vicki Elson are asking individuals, organizations, and local governments to become “Treaty Compliant” by pledging to boycott and not to invest in any of the 26 companies making money on nuclear weapons, and informing these companies of their actions. They are also offering workshops to groups around the country, and will be speaking soon to our Burlington (Vermont) and Boston branches and are planning on touring in California later in April. We are considering formal collaboration with nuclearban.us, who have just also joined the ICAN collaborative. Their focus will be a good fit with our work on the national petitions we have to the POTUS and US Senate, and in support of the Norton bill in the US House, and the work our branches and members are already doing on Mayors for Peace efforts around the country. More information here.

Disarm-End Wars & WILPF-US Section’s “END THE WHOLE NUCLEAR ERA” Campaign Connects with the National Poor People's Campaign—and also our “Move the Money” Campaign from our Women, Peace and Security Agenda. We are pleased to report that we will be planning actions around the third week of the PPC, Memorial Day, as that campaign focuses on veterans and militarism. Please check with Mary Bricker-Jenkins at WILPF4PPC@gmail.com for updates on the PPC, to sign up for the “LOOP” email updates, and for general PPC questions. Contact any of our committee co-chairs, below, for our committee actions around Memorial Day’s PPC connections.

Reminder: Spring Days of Action to End Wars at Home & Abroad. We are actively planning for, participating in, and supporting the “End the Wars at Home and Abroad Spring Days of Action” happening over the weekend of April 14-15, 2018. We know of major actions planned in Chicago, Minneapolis, the San Francisco Bay Area, and elsewhere. These April actions have come out of the no-US-military-bases-on-foreign-soil coalition and conference in Baltimore last January. See noforeignbases.org for more information on the coalition.

Use this website to endorse, send info on your action and see what’s happening near you. Let us know what you are doing locally! Send photos and info, and ask questions, to Ellen Thomas, email below.

Tax Day 2018—Tuesday, April 17: Let us know what you are doing by sending photos and info to Ellen Thomas, email below.

In conjunction with the high level United Nations Conference on Nuclear Disarmament to be held May 14-16, 2018, in New York City, the three Disarm-End Wars co-chairs received an invitation on behalf of all US WILPFers to be honorary money counters for Count the Nuclear Weapons Money, a major civil society action also taking place in New York City. (Info on the UN conference from Reaching Critical Will here). Please contact co-chair Robin Lloyd (info below) if you could attend this civil society action and count money with her. For planning purposes we need to know ASAP who might be able to attend.

Are you planning ACTIONS in April and May? What are you doing, branches, groups, and at-large members? Join our Disarm-End Wars Committee email listserv and conference calls to share information; and send photos and information for public posting on our WILPF US Facebook page. Please send info to Ellen Thomas, email below, or to request being added to our committee listserv.

Join our weekly Twitter calls on Wednesdays and invite everyone you know to do the same! We are promoting our national petition to the POTUS and US Senate to ratify the UN Nuclear Ban Treaty (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – “TPNW”). Find our petition here. Calls are open to everyone, including non-WILPF members. Time is 4 pm / 5 pm / 6 pm / 7 pm for 2 hours or as long as you can join us on the call. Register here. Questions? Ask Barbara Nielsen, email below.

Join Us for Social Media Training on a Monday night, 5 pm / 6 pm / 7 pm / 8 pm. Hesitant to join in the Wednesday Twitter calls—think you need to learn more, first? Great—we’ll train you on a Monday night! Register here and then join in the fun. We’ll help you set up an account for Twitter or Facebook, and then show you what to do on our Wednesday Twitter calls. Questions? Ask Barbara Nielsen, email below.

For more information, contact the co-chairs:
Robin Lloyd (robinlloyd8@gmail.com); Ellen Thomas (et@prop1.org); Barbara Nielsen (bln.sf.ca@gmail.com)