WILPF’s response to the current situation and uprisings is to continue activism, holding high our values and goals. Our statement names the unacceptable:
Statement on the Murder of George Floyd and the Calls for Change
We stand in solidarity with the protestors of police brutality and systemic racism calling to defund the police, because Black Lives Matter. No one should have to suffer the heavy emotional and physical burden of generations of inequality, constant oppression, discrimination, and trauma.
The pandemic of racism has taken George Floyd’s life. He joins countless others who have been killed due to racism. Here are just some of their names: Treyvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Freddie Grey, Walter Scott, Eric Garner, Ezell Ford, Sandra Bland, John Crawford III, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, Emmett Till and many more.
Enough is enough!
We must defund the police and shift the money to public health and mental health services, housing, and other human needs.
Help Spread the Statement and Additional WILPF Responses
Across the country, people of all races are in the streets because they recognize that the situation is intolerable. WILPF supports the protests and, as a peace and justice organization, stands for systemic changes toward our ultimate goal of ending war and the causes of war. WILPF’s work for peace is based on doable alternatives, specified in our further declaration, Police and Workplace Murders: Two Intersecting Pandemics.
Take action in the streets and in multiple ways! Your letters to the Congress and to the editor, op-eds, blogs, social media posts, and other outreach can inform people about our statement on the murder of George Floyd and the related interconnections we identify:
- racism and government violence
- poverty and current economic policies
- ecological devastation and social injustice
- militarism and corporate influence
Be part of the WILPF contingent in the Poor People’s Campaign Action on Saturday, June 20.
WILPF sees oppression based on race and poverty as important causes of war. We support the call of our ally, the Poor People’s Campaign, for participation in the PPC’s June 20 virtual Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March on Washington.
At-large members and branch members — join the PPC’s virtual Mass Assembly by registering now. Use this WILPF-specific link .
Police and Workplace Murders
In our document, Police and Workplace Murders: Two Intersecting Pandemics, we call out the high toll both of racism and of the huge economic inequalities in the US. With background information through numerous links, we call for change and positive alternatives. We makes the wider connections between government spending choices and the violence of social decay.
New Action Groups Forming
Your acts, small or large, long-term or one-time, can help build momentum for WILPF’s Program 2.0 actions and activities. Various WILPF ad hoc groups are coalescing.
Volunteer and/or find out more about our social media plan, the Rapid Response Campaign, the virtual Mini-Congress, and more. Contact Info@wilpfus.org .
Peace through justice!