WILPF NEWS
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
East Bay and San Francisco Branches
September 2020
Get involved! Become better informed!
Work to Advance Peace, Justice and Human Rights
UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 9:30-11:30
Afghanistan: Peace in Real Time
The United Nations Association of San Francisco Peace Day Event
H.E. Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan’s first woman Ambassador to the U.S. and 4 panelists, including Fawzia Koofi, a member of the Afghan Parliament, President of Movement of Change for Afghanistan, and a Member of Afghanistan’s negotiation team with the Taliban discuss peace talks between the Government of Afghanistan and the Taliban that should soon be underway in Doha, Qatar.
They will discuss the progress of the talks to date, the major challenges they face and the impact the talks are already having on life in Afghanistan. While everyone is optimistic that the talks will reduce the fighting after 19 years, everyone is also concerned about the future for women, human rights and civil society in a new Afghanistan.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 3:00 PM
Obstacles to Nuclear Abolition: Telling the Truth About the Relationship between the US and Russia A Conversation With Alice Slater and David Swanson
Alice Slater is a member of the Lawyers Alliance for Nuclear Arms Control, Alice travelled to Russia and China on numerous delegations engaged in ending the arms race and banning the bomb. She serves on the Board of WorldBeyondWar and is a UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host, David is co-founder and executive director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2
#WeThePeoples2020 is a coalition of civil society organizations cooperating to promote the United Nations and UN-focused events from the International Day of Peace (Sep 21) until International Day for Non-violence (Oct 2) which include:
- Sep 21: UN Day for Peace and the UN 75th Anniversary High Level Event
- Sep 21-24: Sustainable Development Summit
- Sep 21-27: UN Climate Week
- Sep 26: UN Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
- Sep 30 UN Summit on Biodiversity
- Oct 1. High Level Meeting on Women
- Oct 2: UN Day of Nonviolence
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22 2:00PM
75 Years On: WILPF at the United Nations
Ray Acheson, the Director of Reaching Critical Will, International WILPF’s disarmament program, speaks about WILPF’s active role in disarmament efforts before and since October 24, 1945, the date the United Nations was founded.
SEPTEMBER ONE WILPF CALL
On the September One WILPF call, three women from Madison, Wisconsin talked about their work there to reform their local police department over the past four years. They offered 177 recommendations, including the creation of an independent monitor and a civilian oversight board that would consist of half Black community members who had lived experiences with the police. To hear this and other One WILPF calls, you can go to the One WILPF Call archives.
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ON FULL VIEW ON THE WEST COAST
With record heat, catastrophic fires, widespread toxic smoke and dangerous air quality, we in California are experiencing firsthand the consequences of Global Climate Change. Around the world, here are just some of the devastating consequences of not taking action:
- unprecedented immigrant and refugee crises
- weakened environmental regulations
- catastrophic droughts, floods and super-storms, rising sea levels, extreme weather
- food and water shortages
- melting of Greenland and other glaciers, and Arctic and Antarctic ice
- shift in the Atlantic Ocean Gulf Stream
WE MUST TAKE ACTION NOW TO STOP:
- watered-down labor rights with the COLLAPSE of the economic system
- huge government subsidies that prop up the fossil fuel and military economy while denying investment for green renewable sustainable energy and jobs. deliberately weak environmental regulations
- allowing the Military to dump huge amounts of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
- diverting funds from vital human services, infrastructure and education.
NATIONAL WILPF “CALL FOR PEACE“ CAMPAIGN
The WILPF US Board and Program Committee are initiating A Peace Campaign that has two parts:
Calling for a permanent extension of the UN Global Cease Fire which passed unanimously by the UN Security Council in 2020.
A 50% reduction in all US military spending with money moved to human and environmental needs like the Green New Deal, living wages, public housing, … This can be worked on at all levels from local to international.
TAKE ACTION TO PASS A FULL RELIEF PACKAGE
We need the full funding of the US Postal Service, replacement of the hundreds of sorting machines removed from service, and a full relief package that deals with COVID 19 and the other pandemics that we face in this country: systemic racism and rapidly growing poverty.
Sign the petition to demand McConnell bring the Senate back to DC to pass a full relief package that includes protection for the U.S. Postal Service.
NUCLEAR FACILITY IN SUNOL WITH HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
Anne Politeo, a member of SF WILPF, has looked into this issue based on an article by Prof. Alan Kuperman entitled “Bay Area Sitting on a Nuclear Time Bomb” in the SF Chronicle, July 2, 2020 and is writing a letter to Senators Feinstein and Harris “If the local public, and members of Congress, express concern about the facility, perhaps that could persuade the company to close it permanently, and encourage the government to remove the bomb-grade fuel ASAP.” Read the article and send letters to Senators Feinstein and Harris.
NOVEMBER ELECTION – TIME TO ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES!
You can become involved in increasing voter turnout : you can still write those VOTE FORWARD LETTERS to important Super State voters to personally encourage them to vote. Just go to Vote Forward to register and download 20 letters. All of the information you need is on their website. Besides addressing and stamping the envelopes, you write a personal comment on why you vote in every election. It takes about two hours to write 20 letters. Vote Forward will let you know when to mail your letters, which will be sometime in October. The goal is mailing 10 million letters. More than 5 million have already been written. To join a letter writing party or to make calls to targeted states to encourage people to vote, you can go to Swing Left East Bay and RSVP. Any questions? Email wilpf@wilpfeastbay.org.
WILPF US DISARM/END WARS ISSUE COMMITTEE
Working for a Nuclear Free Future!
- DISARM/End Wars develops resources and fosters coordinated Branch action each year for Hiroshima-Nagasaki Days during August Nuclear-Free Future Month. It also fosters Branch and member participation in Keep Space for Peace Week (early October) and Tax Day (April). Researches causes of US wars and seek peaceful resolution of current conflicts and prevention of future ones.
- 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.
- DISARM/End Wars members participate in visits to Congress, the Pentagon, and the Administration in Washington D.C. in cooperation with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability and their dozens of expert “nuclear watchdogs,” who are seeking an end to nuclear power, solutions to safely storing nuclear waste,, and abolishing nuclear weapons and power.
- DISARM/End Wars members and WILPF branches are visiting and petitioning their own legislators at home, seeking support of the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act” in the House.
- DISARM/End Wars supports members and branches in their own projects. Some have exposed local corporate and university war profiteering. Others launch projects on depleted uranium. Branches organize visits to Congress, peace vigils, peace camps, study groups, and children’s peace education.
- DISARM/End Wars works to raise consciousness about the environmental and economic effects of militarism, working with Raging Grannies, Mayors for Peace, World Beyond War, Black Alliance for Peace, Extinction Rebellion, Poor People’s Campaign, Veterans for Peace, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Code Pink, Peace Action, Abolition 2000, and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. DISARM/End Wars develops resources and works to educate the public about the importance of cutting US military expenditures, and demilitarize the police, in order to shift resources to crucial societal needs.
Next WILPF Planning Meeting: Saturday, October 10, 10 am to Noon.
If you would like to join us virtually, you are very welcome. Just send an email to wilpf@wilpfeastbay.org and we’ll send you the information you need to join the call.
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
https://www.facebook.com/WILPFEastBaySanFrancisco/
National WILPF www.wilpfus.org
International WILPF: www.wilpf.org