Love in the Time of Covid, with Timely Resources
Published on March, 04 2020
Darien Elyse De Lu
WILPF US President
You're likely following the news, and you know how serious the situation is. I write to tell you: WILPF US continues, with a vision for the world. We're here, working on the issues you, our members care about; holding out for a just and peaceful planet, green and diverse.
With this message, I encourage you all: Embrace our WILPF traditions and the ancient ones, of powerful women. Of course, you men members, join in, too. Let's all of us become/continue connected, engaged, and safely active!
You in Action, with WILPF
Whether it's called Covid19, SARS 2, Novel Corona Virus, SARS-CoV-2, or by some racist designation, we know this pandemic illness forces us to change our daily activities and interactions and how we do activism. And we know that taking action is an important counter to depression!
WILPF US will offer special webinars in April, as well as our monthly ONE WILPF Call. Also, the April 7 national Program Committee conference call/meeting -- at 5 pm PT/7 pm CT/8 pm ET -- is open to all WILPF members. Be sure to read the upcoming April eNews for how to preregister and more details. Watch for short-notice announcements via upcoming eAlerts.
Are you able and ready to do more? We're here! All of our national-activism issue committees have periodic conference calls, to which WILPF members are welcome. (Also, see ways to be active locally, below.) Find out how to participate by contacting the issue committee chairs. Read about each of the issue committees on the Our Work webpages.
Be Free with Kindnesses!
Before there was the word intersectionality -- describing the special harms from intersecting oppressions, like racism, ablism, classism, and sexism -- WILPF had been focusing on connections and intersections for decades. In WILPF, we access analysis, address connections, and encourage global and local action. Currently, we see a devastating global effect from the intersections between animals, environment, and health -- and we see the people most subject to intersecting oppressions being the most at risk.
The national and international failures to take needed action are heart-breaking. Refugees are trapped in primitive camps, immigrants remain in detention, low risk prisoners stay crowded in jails and prisons, and the US homeless continue homeless. Around the world, people and countries pushed into poverty confront this crisis with little more than human determination.
But WILPF members are stepping up. One member organizes calls across the county, connecting 200 people for mutual aid initiatives. Another works with a team toward the goal of distributing 10,000 family food boxes by the end of the month. Others are sewing up protective masks.
If you're able to manage your own situation, help others locally: Inform yourself, reach out, help out. We can all call others, offering human contact and information. For the emotional and mental health -- as well as physical health -- of ourselves and others, let's practice daily "distant socializing". (For this more helpful expression, I acknowledge Pacifica network radio station, KPFA.)
Sheltering in Place with a Good Read
That's right: Stay home! We're protecting our own health and the health of our communities by minimizing the risk of physical contacts. Sure, many of us may be "binge viewing", as a way to cope with the trauma of these times. But I know that many WILPF members are avid readers: wouldn't you rather be reading?
Nourish brain and spirit! Rise out of the sadness, disorientation, anxiety, and data fog! Instead of surfing the web for yet one more article about the current news, seek out a broader perspective from thoughtful, informative, and progressive periodicals and books.
Remember the "classic" progressive magazines, like The Nation, Mother Jones, Yes!, Monthly Review, and Jacobin -- all with informative websites. (And, as it's name implies, Yes! magazine is devoted to positive contents.) Also, you can inform yourself from collected past WILPF eNewses on our website.
For books - including E-books -- there are many good and radical publishers and distributors. Consider ones like OR Books, PM Press, and Haymarket Books. (The last has two special offers just now: half off selected (paper!) books during Women's History Month and ten featured E-books for free.)
I must add that, even before this crisis, alternative news and media face tough economic times -- at the very time when we need them most! If you can, support them financially -- including your favorite news"papers" and listener-supported radio stations.
Through Two World Wars, a Prior Pandemic, and Over 100 Years
WILPF endures (and, yes, we, too, appreciate your financial support!). You, WILPF members and allies, are what makes WILPF strong. We count on you to keep yourselves and our movement safe and active.
Many of us connect with local branches and other local groups. While staying involved, protect your activist communities! Continue to meet virtually and/or electronically! Use options, including no-dollar-cost services. In addition to familiar ones like FreeConferenceCall and Zoom, note the others listed in the resources below (especially under Event Alternatives, on the first website).
Many phone lines are unusually busy, as is the internet. So plan remote meetings to start when carriers are less congested, at 15 or 45 minutes past the hour rather than on the hour/half-hour. (Thanks, Free CC, for that tip.)
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Organizing and Information Resources from the Left
My thanks to our ally, InterOccupy, for helping us hear about these community-focused alternatives. Note--in these unpredictable times, if something doesn't feel right (or left!) to you, research further before continuing.
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Keep on Moving Forward
The current limitations on contacts and economic activities may last for many months. Remember, in Montgomery, Alabama, the civil rights bus boycotters maintained solidarity for over a year. We can face this time, supporting each other.
Let us show the courage, resourcefulness, and group spirit that people in Cuba showed during the Special Period there. Cuba's population resolutely united through years of their Special Period, coping with shortages and hardships. They transformed institutions and practices; they used resources creatively, to benefit the majority of the people.
Cuba is a small island, still threatened by a powerful country. In this health crisis, the entire world is threatened by powerful forces: ignorance; recalcitrance; and individuals, within influential global systems, who often seek their own benefit, heedless of the costs to the planet and to fellow human beings.
Now let's demonstrate that humans do respond usefully to crises. This is our dress rehearsal for rising to the still greater threat: the climate crisis.
Leading our lives, making our choices free of fear, is our ideal -- one we aspire to. Tho' fear is a powerful motivator, we make better choices when moved by compassion, caring, and hope. Adding good information, analysis, insight, organizing, and energy, we can build the kind of wealthy society we envision.
Enjoy this offering of enthusiasm, hope, and aspirations -- a recording to listen to more than once. This virtual presentation, put together by the Commission on the Status of Women's Non-Governmental Organizations, was a sort of consolation prize after the cancellation of the 2020 CSW, scheduled for March 9-20 of this fateful year. In the presentations, women from all over the world share their inspiration and determination; remind us, at this 25-year anniversary, of the reverberations of the Beijing Women's Conference and Declaration and Platform for Action; and excite us about the upcoming (even if, perhaps virtual) Generation Equality Forum -- a global gathering, convened by UN Women.
Let Us Wake
Together, we are ringing the national alarm clock. WILPF US is up and running. I've checked with our primary independent contractors, who keep our operations going. They're all doing well, coping with working from home (along with variously numerous family members in a small space!). Likewise, our national WILPF leaders are doing OK and continuing in their activism as well as their frequently vital "day jobs".
Thank you to our workers -- paid and unpaid! That includes you, the WILPF members, active in your communities.
I began writing this on the first California morning of a glorious, flowering Spring. In the midst of confusion and calamities, we can still feel fortunate to be in a place to read this message, alive on a remarkable green and blue planet.
As President, I have the privilege of sharing an additional hopeful message from years ago, the far-sighted author of which is unknown to me:
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...imagine a new future, to dream in new directions. This is a gift we give to ourselves.
The world is on the edge, whatever prophesies may or may not say.
Stare deeper into the abyss, and wake up from the nightmare. Imagine a world where all are free and living in harmony with our planet.
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Health, Wealth, Happiness....and the time to enjoy them!
Darien Elyse De Lu
WILPF US President
