WILPF NEWS
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
East Bay and San Francisco Branches
January 2020
Get involved! Become better informed!
Work to Advance Peace, Justice and Human Rights
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Ann Wright’s
EVENTS TO BE RESCHEDULED
SPEAKING on Gaza Freedom Flotilla, Iran, China, and more!
Ann Wright is a retired United States Colonel and retired U.S. State Department official, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq war. She received the State Department’s Award for Heroism in 1997, after helping to evacuate several thousand people during the civil war in Sierra Leone. She is most noted for having been one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
WORLD WATER DAY
Pat Elder will be on a 20-city California tour which 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 THESE DATES for WILPF-sponsored events celebrating World Water Day:
Saturday, March 21st at 7pm at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1606 Bonita Ave, Berkeley, CA 94709 Church,
Sunday, March 22nd at the San Francisco Women’s building. Other speakers will include Patricia Haynes, a Public Heath Professor, who will speak about the health impacts and Gar Smith, who will speak about the history of environmentalism in California and the impact the military has had on our environment.
We will have more details about these events in the next newsletter.
Melissa Torres from WILPF International
addresses Local Branches
Melissa Torres spoke to local WILPF branches recently. She is a recognized leader in Immigration and Border Militarization and she is on the WILPF International board. She has been elected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women through a Practicum in Advocacy Program at the United Nations. Dr. Torres was also selected as a WILPF US Emerging Leader by the US Board. Her focus is on the US-Mexico border and the ever-growing US defense budget which funds the militarization and inhumane practices at the border. She also 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 was raised between both countries. Her focus is the protection of displaced Latinas in the Americas. She teaches now at Baylor University on Human Trafficking Research and social work. She attended our meeting with her new husband from Cuba.
She urged us to consider ways we benefit from more diversity. She encouraged our local members to reach out to women of color and younger women, and to hold the national WILPF board accountable for welcoming diversity and youth at all levels of leadership in the organization.
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.
WILPF SUPPORTS: STOP THE MONEY FINANCING CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate activists announced a new campaign that aims to send a message to Wall Street: “Stop financing fossil fuels and deforestation and start respecting human rights and Indigenous sovereignty.” “Money is the only language that the fossil fuel industry speaks.” —Ka Hswa Wa, EarthRights International
Organized by a coalition of climate, youth, and Indigenous groups, Stop the Money Pipeline officially launched in a weekly civil disobedience series that actor and activist Jane Fonda kicked off called Fire Drill Fridays.
Link to livestreamed teach-in, which will feature Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, a Dënesųłiné woman (ts’ékui), member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and first Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action; Greenpeace USA executive director Annie Leonard; and Bill McKibben, co-founder and leader of the global environmental advocacy group 350.org, These three climate change acitivists issued a joint statement about the Stop the Money Pipeline mobilization.
“A chorus of high profile voices—including scientists, the United Nations, European central banks, and the IMF—have all sounded the alarm about the role of the finance industry in driving climate destruction, but so far their calls for action have fallen on deaf ears,” the statement said. “The Stop the Money Pipeline mobilization will bring together a number of existing campaigns targeting the worst offenders in each part of the financial sector.”
“We cannot solve the climate crisis until banks and insurance companies step up and stop financing environmental destruction.”
—Liz Butler, Friends of the Earth U.S. explained that “climate chaos is already decimating the world, from worsening wildfires to widespread flooding and devastating droughts. Wall Street banks and insurance companies are fueling this crisis by pumping billions of dollars into fossil fuel projects that destroy local communities and our environment.”
“With Australia burning and Jakarta underwater, the science is clear that every new investment in fossil fuels is committing the world to climate chaos and human rights violations on a massive scale,” he said. “Fossil fuel producers are already being held accountable in courtrooms around the world. The financial sector should take note, take action or take cover.”
Other groups involved in Stop the Money Pipeline include Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA, WILPFus. Sunrise Project, Future Coalition, Divest Ed, Divest-Invest, Native Movement, Giniw Collective, Transition U.S., Oil Change International, 350 Seattle, EarthRights International, Union of Concerned Scientists, Majority Action, The YEARS Project, and Amazon Watch.
While the campaign’s broad demand is that “banks, asset managers, and insurance companies stop funding, insuring, and investing in climate destruction,” the advocacy organizations have identified three primary and initial targets: JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock, and Liberty Mutual.
“As the world’s largest investor in fossil fuel companies, BlackRock is effectively financing disinformation campaigns that have delayed climate action for decades,” declared Kathy Mulvey, a campaign director at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Investors need to expect more and tolerate less from fossil fuel companies—and tell them to swiftly get on board with climate action, or get out of the way.”
BlackRock announced RECENTLY that it is joining the Climate Action 100+ investor initiative. Members of the BlackRock’s Big Problem network responded by calling the move a “first step in the right direction” and urging the firm to “go beyond words and actually make meaningful changes to the way it wields its power.”
According to the tenth annual Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card, released in March 2019 by RAN and other groups, 33 global banks have collectively poured at least $1.9 trillion into the fossil fuel industry since world leaders adopted the Paris climate agreement in December 2015. And fossil fuel companies will be held accountable.”
Organizers see Stop the Money Pipeline as the next phase of the global movement fighting for divestment from fossil fuels and investment in renewable energy, which has secured commitments from over 1,150 institutions with more than $12 trillion in total assets, according to a real-time tracker from 350.org’s Fossil Free project.
Feeling frustrated? It helps to GET INVOLVED! JOIN US at OUR NEXT PLANNING MEETING Saturday Feb 8 10am-noon
San Francisco Public Library
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, February 13, 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
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