WILPF NEWS
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
East Bay and San Francisco Branches
December 2019 edition
Get involved! Become better informed!
Work to Advance Peace, Justice and Human Rights
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JOIN WILPF for a special RECEPTION
to meet Melissa Torres from WILPF International
Jan 5 1-3 San Francisco Public Library
PLEASE RSVP by Thursday, January 2, 2020 by sending an email to BLN.SF.CA@GMAIL.COM
Dr. Torres has been a member of WILPF US since 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women through the Practicum in Advocacy Program at the United Nations.
Dr. Torres was selected as a WILPF US Emerging Leader by the US Board. Her proposal for the US Section’s first committee and prioritization of Immigration and Border Militarization proved successful and resulted in a partnership with the Mexican Section. The focus of this partnership was on the US-Mexico border and an ever-growing US defense budget which funds the militarization, inhumane practices, and, in her words, “the over-policing of Latinx bodies on both sides of the border.”
At the Centennial Conference in 2015, Dr. Torres co-presented with the Mexican Section on the need for WILPF Sections to partner with neighboring sections on border policies affecting both populations. She has worked with the WILPF International Human Rights Program. She works with WILPF International’s contribution to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.
Dr. Torres is of Mexican descent, was born on the US-Mexico border, and raised between both countries. Her focus (both in and out of WILPF) is the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. She is a research scientist (she holds a PhD in Social Work), and currently works at the University of Texas at Austin as the Director of Human Trafficking Research at the Bureau of Business Research. She founded the Latin American Initiative at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, which connects Spanish-speaking students to universities and human rights agencies in Latin America. Dr. Torres is also highly involved with the American Red Cross, serving as the Deputy Director of Latino Engagement and Outreach.
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ONE WILPF CALLS
A good way to become involved from your home is to join our Monthly One WILPF calls on the 2nd Thursday of the month. Please join us.
Next ONE WILPF Call–Thursday, January 9, 4pm
To register click on link below and you only need to pre-register once https://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/NW7UOTL6KBLOV3E Past calls are available to listen to here:
https://wilpfus.org/story/one-wilpf-calls#archive
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Feeling frustrated it helps to GET INVOLVED! and JOIN US at OUR NEXT PLANNING MEETING Saturday Jan 11 10am-noon we will meet in a members home for statigic planning. Replay to this email if you are interested in attending.
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Military is poisoning our water see www.militarypoisons.org
“The Pentagon’s reckless use of fire-fighting foams containing cancer-causing agents has contaminated California’s soil, groundwater, and surface water. The military has been poisoning California with these fluorinated surfacants for the last 50 years. They’re covering it up and they’re lying about it.
The foam contains Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of man-made chemicals that includes 5,000 other chemicals. They have been linked to a host of cancers and adverse developmental effects on the unborn. It contributes to a host of childhood diseases, thyroid, immune disease and cancers. “This stuff will dwarf the impact of Agent Orange DDT and asbestos combined.” For more see the movie DARK WATERS.
View the trailer for this new film about PFAS chemical contamination in Parkersburg, a small West Virginia town. We urge you to see the film and take action on its warnings with WILPF’s new handout!
On the handout, we explain that PFAS chemicals were used in both consumer products and in the military’s special fire-fighting foam for hot jet-fuel fires. We encourage the reader to learn more about our project: The Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water by going to the www.WILPFUS,org Earth Democracy website
Water and environmental justice groups are already saying this may be the film that will outrage the public. Both DuPont and the military knew, since the 1940s, that PFAS chemicals were carcinogenic. Yet they looked the other way to protect profits and escape liability! Is Dark Waters the film that will move people to demand action, not only by our state government but also by Congress?
Take Action
Please take time to see this movie and offer our handout to moviegoers.
Let’s get out the word about our project on The Pentagon: Exposing the Hidden Polluter of Water — and about the Department of Defense’s responsibility for the drinking water crisis and health crisis on bases and in surrounding communities.
WORLD WATER DAY Pat Elder will be on a 20-city California tour will draw attention to the public health crisis caused by the military’s reckless behavior. He is the author of “Military Recruiting in the United States” Save theses dates for WILPF sponsored events celebrating World Water Day: March 31 Berkeley UU, March 22 San Francisco Women’s building. Other speakers include Patricia Haynes Public Heath professor on the health impacts and Gar Smith on the history of enviromentalism in California and the new exposures by the military.
TAKE ACTION NOW: WILPF DISARM End Wars has organized WILPF member participation in gathering signatures on a petition to the Senate, in support of the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. WILPF is a founding member of Nobel Peace Prize-winning ICAN and supports the legislative work of NuclearBan.US.
EXPLORE WILPF TODAY
Local branch web pages
www.WILPFEastBay.org or www.WILPFSF.org
WILPF East Bay
P. O. Box 13083, Oakland, CA 94661
WILPF-San Francisco
P. O. Box 590253, San Francisco, CA 94159
Http://www.facebook.com/WILPFEastBaySanFrancisco/
National WILPF www.wilpfus.org
International WILPF: www.wilpf.org
www.facebook.com/WILPF
PEACEWOMEN and REACHING CRITICAL WILL