Ongoing War in Ukraine: Actions You Can Take

Collage of photos of Greater Phoenix WILPF’s demonstration on March 6 against the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, with other peace groups. Photos taken by husband of WILPFer Barbara Taft, used with permission.
 

By Cherrill Spencer and Ellen Thomas
WILPF DISARM Committee

April 2022

In an eAlert, we urged WILPF members to join with local anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons groups to hold non-violent demonstrations in visible places on Sunday, March 6,  and to post photos and reports on the WILPF SMART Facebook page. An international coalition of peace groups chose the day for activists all over the world to get out on their hometown streets to protest against war and militarism, using the illegal Russian invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine as the common theme. Another theme is opposition to NATO for the reasons given in this 2008 statement by WILPF International.

We thank these branches who sent us photos and information about demonstrations on March 6 (listed alphabetically by state): Greater Phoenix, AZ; Humboldt, CA; Peninsula/Palo Alto, CA; Columbus, GA; Brunswick, ME; Detroit, MI; Philadelphia, PA.

Photo: Danita Gibson Lloyd of Fannie Lou Hamer Branch, Columbus, GA, on March 6.  Photo by Theresa El-Amin, on WILPF SMART YouTube channel
 

Biden and Congress Use Ukraine War as Excuse for Increasing 2023 Military Budget

WILPF US is a partner in the “Cut the Pentagon” coalition and the DISARM Committee has been working, with WILPFers’ help, to reduce the military budget for some years. We cannot let the Ukraine crisis lead to increases in military spending!

According to senior administration officials, President Biden is expected to ask for $813.3 billion in defense and national security spending for fiscal year 2023 when he releases his budget request around the end of March. The request would represent a $31 billion increase over the $782 billion in defense spending included in the government funding bill Biden signed into law earlier in March. Congressional leaders are saying the war in Ukraine justifies Pentagon increases and will swamp progressives’ effort to bring Pentagon spending under a bit more control. Like with their successful push last year, Republicans are already pushing to go beyond the president's already bloated request.

Congressional debate on the military budget starts in the Armed Services Committees of the House and Senate, and so we need to be writing to those committees’ members to urge them not to be influenced by the war in Ukraine in their budget discussions, that a diplomatic solution is what will bring the war to an end. You will find the names of these committee members here and here. If you are a constituent, a letter from you will count for more, but we ask all WILPF members to write or phone the House and Senate Armed Services Committee members to tell them not to raise the military budget to $813.3 billion for the fiscal year 2023. Say that you’d rather your taxpayer’s money be spent on nuclear abolition, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, providing universal health care and education, improving public transit, etc.

Weapons Manufacturers Looking to Increase Their Profits From Russia-Ukraine War

We call on WILPFers to join the Global Mobilization to #StopLockheedMartin on April 21, the same day Lockheed Martin holds its 2022 Annual General Meeting. Lockheed Martin is by far the largest weapons producer in the world. From Ukraine to Yemen, from Palestine to Colombia, from Somalia to Syria, from Afghanistan and West Papua to Ethiopia, no one profits more from war and bloodshed than Lockheed Martin. People are asked to arrange a demonstration outside one of the hundreds of Lockheed Martin facilities!

Russia Heightens Its Nuclear Weapons’ Readiness Level

The DISARM committee is working with various other peace organizations to increase US political support for the TPNW. The world moved closer to a nuclear catastrophe with the order by Russian President Vladimir Putin to put his nuclear arsenal in combat readiness amid his country’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The only sure way to avoid a nuclear war is to abolish all nuclear weapons, which is the goal of the TPNW.

Two tactics we are using are (1) to persuade members of Congress to sign the ICAN pledge to support the TPNW and (2) to get more co-sponsors for the Eleanor Holmes Norton Bill, H.R. 2850 this session, which supports the TPNW and would use the saved money to retool and retrain the arms industries instead to produce carbon-free, nuclear-free energy, and other essential needs.

The NuclearBanUS working group has a marvelous tool for keeping track of what Representatives have or haven’t signed the ICAN pledge and co-sponsored H.R. 2850, and how to reach their appropriate staff to persuade them to do so. We hope WILPFers will continue to take part in this ongoing campaign, which evolved in part from the Nuclear Free Future Campaign of Carol Urner, Nuri Ronaghy, and Ellen Thomas from 2009 to 2019. Please write to disarmchair@wilpfus.org if you’d like to join this or any other effort - this is a level 2 activity that you can do from home.  “What’s a level 2 activity?” you may well ask. See below:

Image from back page of Peace & Freedom Magazine, fall/winter 2021

A Spot of Good News

In a slew of bad news we are reading every day: On March 23, Côte d’Ivoire became the fifth West African country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), following Benin, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria. At the continental level, ten other African countries have already ratified the TPNW and 29 have signed it. In total, 60 countries have ratified the TPNW to date. [See ICAN for updates.]

Adios, Robin Lloyd!

Images from 2016, 2017, and 2018: Robin Lloyd

The DISARM/END WARS Issue Committee says “THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!” to retiring Disarm Co-Chair, Robin Lloyd for her many years of service to WILPF US, WILPF. We are overjoyed that she will stay on our committee and continue her important work in Burlington with WILPF Vermont.

Welcome, Bruce Shay!

Thanks also to Bruce Shay of the Greater Phoenix Branch, a helpful and creative DISARM/End Wars Committee member who has agreed to serve as a co-chair with Cherrill Spencer and Ellen Thomas, elected unanimously at the March 13, 2022 meeting. Bruce lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and is a member of the WILPF Phoenix Branch. Bruce’s activism started in 2008. During a Pace e Bene training, a feminist approach to peace and justice issues led him to WILPF.
 

Bruce, Cherrill, and Ellen can be reached at disarmchair@wilpfus.org. Please write with your questions or comments, and let us know what’s happening for peace and sanity in your neighborhood!