WILPF NEWS
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
East Bay and San Francisco Branches
Work to Advance Peace, Justice and Human Rights
JUNE/JULY 2022
ROE v. WADE: ABORTION RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
a letter to her constituents
After a decades-long coordinated assault on women’s rights by right-wing extremists, Roe v. Wade was overturned Friday in a 6-3 decision by an unelected conservative court.
I share the anger, outrage and devastation of the millions of Americans who have just lost the fundamental, precedented right to abortion care. This decision is a blatant attack on reproductive freedom and in direct opposition to the will of the people.
And we know it will be felt even more acutely for women of color, low-income individuals, young people, those in rural communities, LGBTQ+ communities, and others who already face higher barriers to care.
We are seeing the horrific consequences of minority rule playing out in real time—and this is only the beginning of their radical agenda to take America back in history.
This is the first time in history the Supreme Court is taking away a constitutional right. We cannot allow them to reverse the progress we’ve made to secure fundamental rights like access to contraception and marriage equality.
Now, we must support local clinics, health providers, abortion funds and nonprofits doing the ground work to connect those in states with draconian abortion bans to safe-haven states like California or provide access to medication abortion. We must ensure safe abortions are still accessible to the most vulnerable.
We must abolish the filibuster if we have any hope of passing meaningful legislation not only to enshrine Roe into federal law, but to stop gun violence, safeguard voting rights, dismantle white supremacy and police brutality, fight climate change, and address all of the most pressing threats of our time.
Politicians and justices should not be trusted to make health care decisions more than people themselves.
Best,
Barbara Lee
TAKE ACTION: Send a letter to Governor Newsom today, urging him to protect and expand abortion access.
MILITARY BOOTPRINT, CLIMATE CRISIS AND ACTIONS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN BAYVIEW/HUNTERS POINT
For those of you who were able to attend our May 15th virtual Peace Talk, we hope you were as excited as we were about the two speakers, their message, and their call to action.
We heard from Veterans for Peace activist Jim Janko about the enormous global environmental devastation of wars and the military, and from Greenaction Organizer Kamillah Ealom about the impact decades of military pollution has had on families living in Bayview/Hunters Point.
For those of you who weren’t able to join us, it was recorded and is now available on the WILPF-US YouTube Channel.
NOW IT’S TIME TO TAKE ACTION!
1. Let’s Tell City Hall: Protect our Health! Bayview Hunters Point Demands a Full Cleanup – not Cover-Up – of ALL Radioactive and Toxic Waste at the Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund Site. We demand City, State & Federal officials agree to: (1) Full retesting of the Shipyard and adjacent areas with independent community oversight. (2) Reject the Navy’s plan to leave radioactive & toxic waste buried and capped in our community where rising sea levels and groundwater will flood and spread the contamination into neighborhoods and the Bay, (3) Justice & Reparations for residents & workers harmed by contamination.
Email & Call: MayorLondonBreed@sfgov.org 415-554-6141
Shamann.Walton@sfgov.org, (415) 554-7670 Board.of.Supervisors@sfgov.org
2. Support House Resolution 767. Ask your Member of Congress to cosponsor resolution that DoD must report and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or send a thank you to your Member of Congress if they are already on the list of Cosponsors.
REGISTER TODAY FOR THE WILPF INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS
Making Connections: Environment, Social Justice and Demilitarisation for Feminist Peace
Learn more about the International Congress, register and pay for your ticket. The link is https://account.canapii.com/events/wilpf-congress-2022/preview
WHEN? July, 16 – 24, 2022 This year’s agenda consists of formal decision-making meetings on the weekends (July 16-17 and July 23- 24), and workshops, networking, and debate sessions during weekdays (July 18-22).
WHERE? Online via Canapii There will be a special orientation to Canapii for early registrants in June, and more throughout the month. There will be a quick video tour of the Canapii platform given by our Congress Event Coordinator, Valerie. Congress delegates will also be invited to attend a number of orientation sessions in June.
Interested in attending Congress? Then secure your ticket now! Registration is $15, or more to support other WILPFers’ attendance.
POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN MARCHES, RALLIES IN WASHINGTON D.C.
SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2022
Address by Bishop William J. Barber II
On Saturday, June 18, tens of thousands of poor and low-income people gathered with allies on Pennsylvania Avenue to lift the voices of those most directly impacted by poverty, racism, militarism, ecological devastation, the denial of healthcare and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism.
Bishop William J. Barber II, cochair of the Poor People’s Campaign, which organized the march and assembly, gave a stirring address to introduce those who shared their stories and plans to reconstruct American democracy. To read the entire speech, click here. Following are a few excerpts:
Today, on this land where our First Nation brothers and sisters first lived free, we are gathered because there are unnecessarily 140 million poor and low wealth people in this country. That’s 43 percent of the nation, 52 percent of our children, 66 million white people, 26 million black people, 68 percent of Latinos and Natives, and more than 60 percent of Asians who are entangled in the unjust weeds of poverty and bound up by the interlocking realities of systemic racism, refusal to pay a living minimum wage, bad tax policy, ecological devastation, denial of health care, the war economy and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism and white supremacy. This level of poverty in this nation—the richest nation in the history of the world—constitutes a moral crisis and a fundamental failure of the polices of greed…
This is why we are here, and we won’t be silent or unseen or unheard anymore.
We come to this Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Worker’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls because we must meet this moment. We have to meet in the streets and at the ballot box and in the political suites of this nation. We have cry loud from the pulpits and in the public square.
We know that our great moral and constitutional traditions declare that we must establish justice and ensure equal protection under the law for all people. We know that when the nation is moving away from the principles of life, liberty, justice and freedom for all people and there has been a long train of abuses, we must correct the nation. We are bound to do that by the basic vision of the Declaration of Independence and all the promises of our founding documents…
Let us be clear: we are not simply here for a day. This assembly is to declare the full commitment of a moral fusion coalition, led by poor and low-wealth people, from every part of these United States. We are black; we are brown; we are Native; we are Latino; we are Asian; we are young; we are old; we are Republican; we are Democrat; we are independent; we are from California to the Carolinas; we are from Massachusetts to Mississippi; we are from Georgia to the Great Lakes of Michigan; we are from the Apache lands to Alabama to Appalachia; we are from Montana to Missouri; we are from Alaska to Arkansas; we are from every place in this country, and we won’t be silent unseen or unheard anymore! …
We say to America, You have made a promise: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
What a day, what a day this will be! So until this promise is realized, we declare that this promise is non-negotiable, and we won’t be silent, unseen or unheard anymore!
Review and Future Involvement Planning
If you attended the Poor People’s Campaign rally on June 18, if you watched the rally virtually, we invite you on Tuesday, July 5 at 5:30 pm PDT / 6:30 pm MDT / 7:30 pm CDT / 8:30 pm EDT:
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Review of PPC rally events and
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of associated interactions with Code Peace and the peace contingent and
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of the Board retreat, meetings, and member lunch
Register here After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
How might the weekend’s testimonies, discussions, and experiences influence WILPF’s future work? This will be a time to share what we took away. If you watched with your branch or other group, please share your experience and impressions with us. Also, WILPF was well represented at the meeting of peace groups on June 19, and we will hear those recommendations for future peace collaborations. Also, on the 19th, the WILPF Board met and hosted a lunch for WILPF members in town.
If you missed the PPC rally, you can still watch it online at any time, here
Most of us are shaken and unsettled by the world’s tenuous status. We feel the urgency to work even more diligently for a stable, peaceful and just future for all Earth’s inhabitants. We’ll review what actions the PPC has set, for before the midterms. We must vote in historic numbers to ensure that – in Congress, in our state legislatures – all voices are heard!
A member of the Get Out the Vote Committee of WILPF’s 2022 Solidarity Action will address how branches and individuals working on GOTV can intersect with the PPC. Read the Seven Steps Before the Midterms.
Emily Keel and Rowan Fairgrove, WILPF4PPC Liaisons, ppc-comm@wilpfus.org
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