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 2026
To join with your local WILPF activists, come to one of our monthly meetings of the East Bay and San Francisco branches. Reply to this email for details.
Our next meeting is Saturday, July 11th from 10am-noon.
“Stop Killing Us! – Clean up the Shipyard!”
“Bayview Hunters Point Can’t Breathe”
These were some of the many demands chanted at the Bayview Hunters Point Environmental Justice rally at S.F. City Hall on June 24.
Over 29 organizations gathered to demand that the Navy, City and State take immediate action on the pressing needs exposed by Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice and the Marie Harrison Community Foundation.
WILPF-SF members Anne Politeo, Arla Ertz, Barbara Blong and Betty Traynor were there with over 150 others to challenge the Mayor and Supervisors to act now after almost 100 years of betrayal and neglect of the people of the Bayview/Hunters Point community. The health and justice related problems of the ongoing radioactive and toxic contamination have not been re-mediated despite repeated failed cleanups at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund Site. The community demands include health reparations for impacted residents, retesting of the entire shipyard, cleanup to protect people, land and water, long-term health monitoring and pollution prevention, and more.
WILPF-San Francisco has been involved for many years in this fight for environment justice by the people of the Bayview/Hunters Point community. This is not new—The Hunters Point shipyard has been contaminated with plutonium, strontium-90 and many other radioactive and toxic chemicals since the U.S. Navy started bringing into the shipyard toxics-laden ships involved in nuclear testing in the Pacific in the 1940s and ‘50s. And the Navy evaded cleaning it up again and again to the point that it was declared a federal Superfund site in 1989. but it remains contaminated to this day, affecting the health of the Hunters Point community as well as all surrounding areas. The community members talked about the cancers, lung disease and other health issues they and their family members and neighbors have suffered over generations!
WILPF-SF with all the organizations at the rally demand accountability from the Navy and the Mayor and Board of Supervisors—Clean Up Hunters Point Now! We will be discussing this demand and what practical steps we can take at our next WILPF-SF and East Bay meeting in July.
Public Comment Opportunity:
Plutonium Pit Production Environmental Review
In October of 2024, a federal judge in South Carolina found that the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) failed to assess the environmental impact of their plutonium pit expansion plan at South Carolina and New Mexico facilities. This ruling results in a mandatory review of pit production at DOE sites across the United States, including the management of radioactive waste. Under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), this provides a critical opportunity for public scrutiny of and formal comment on these assessments.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has been facilitating weekly trainings webinars on how to submit a comment to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and US Department of Energy (DOE), which are moving forward with plans to produce plutonium pits—the bomb cores of thermonuclear weapons—at Los Alamos National Lab and the Savannah River Site.
There’s still time to make your voice heard before the end of the 90-day, court-mandated, comment period on the draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) regarding plutonium pit production. Deadline is midnight on July 16, 2026.
Join UCS for one of their upcoming training webinars on how to draft and submit a public comment and hold the DOE and NNSA accountable to fully consider the public and environmental risks that come with plutonium pit production. Comment periods help increase transparency to the public, and it is crucial that the NNSA and the DOE hear from scientists, experts, and community members like you. They will be hosting training webinars throughout the comment period to accommodate different time zones.
Date: Wednesday, July 1
Time: 6:00–7:00 p.m. PT / 9:00–10:00 p.m. ET
Register
Date: Wednesday, July 8
Time: 3:00–4:00 p.m. PT / 6:00–7:00 p.m. ET
Register
For sample comments and virtual hearing dates, visit https://pitpeis.com/. Submit your public comments to the NNSA before midnight on July 16, 2026.
PFAS No Más
Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom Earth Democracy Committee
Invite You to a FREE National Webinar
Stories about per– and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or “forever chemicals” are all over today’s news. It’s hard to avoid reading about these toxic chemicals in our food, products, and clothing, as well as in our water, soil, and air. WILPF’s Earth Democracy Committee and the Vermont PFAS and Military Poisons Coalition, a project of WILPF Burlington, VT, are pleased to present this FREE, 90-minute Zoom webinar, featuring a bilingual film (English/Spanish) about PFAS, pesticides, farms, and water. After the 16-minute film, titled PFAS No Más, three national PFAS experts will give short presentations on PFAS and pesticides, PFAS and health, and PFAS in biosolids/sludge/fertilizers. The program will end with questions from the audience to our panel.
This free program on PFAS is scheduled for Tuesday, July 7th at 7 pm Eastern (6 pm Central, 5 pm Mountain, and 4 pm Pacific). Register for the program here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/T9t1exxUSbeldVgKUpQJkw.
Panelists include:
Dr. Kyla Bennett, Director of Science Policy with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), was an EPA employee who became a whistleblower. With experience in law, ecology, and government, Bennett is a unique resource for communities fighting PFAS contamination.
Dr. Jamie DeWitt is the Director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) at Oregon State University. With a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Neural Science, DeWitt has more than 20 years of experience leading innovative research in environmental toxicology and human health.
Dr. Laura Orlando is the Senior Scientist at Just Zero. Her work includes research on toxic chemicals in landfills, drinking water, and sewage systems and their exposure pathways — including technological, economic, and political influences — with the overarching goal of pollution prevention.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about PFAS and gain some insight into what you can do to ban it in your community, your state, our nation, and the world. If you need more information, contact VT PFAS and Military Poisons Coalition at pfasinfo@wilpfus.org.
No War on Cuba!
A Statement by WILPF U.S. Section
We, as human beings and as members of the Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom – US Section, have stood with the Cuban people for decades in asserting their right to self-determination and national sovereignty. In this period of US threats of direct military intervention and the oil embargo, we state the following:
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We are opposed to any US attack on Cuba.
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We condemn the US threats and imperialist rhetoric directed against Cuba. We reject the series of false narratives which attempt to provide justification for an attack on Cuba, including the baseless charges against former President Raúl Castro for the legitimate defense of Cuban airspace in 1996.
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We recognize that when we defend Cuba, we defend not only Cuba’s right to autonomy, sovereignty and self-defense, we also defend each other. The current US regime’s violence and lawless behavior can be and has been directed at anyone and any country perceived to be in opposition to Trump and his government’s use of power.
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We support Cuba’s commitment to peace and its firm determination to exercise the inalienable right to self-defense.
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We recognize and honor the determination of the Cuban people to advance and maintain the rights of women, children, LGBTQI+ people and persons in situations of vulnerability.
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We declare our solidarity with the Cuban people and our intention to aid them in this time of US-imposed suffering and crisis. We recognize that the suffering caused by US coercive measures falls disproportionately on the most vulnerable, including women, children and seniors.
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We know that the Cuban people’s great achievements in healthcare, education, and social rights set a great example of what can be accomplished when human needs are prioritized over profit and war. The US regime is punishing Cuba for the crime of setting a good example that threatens the US imperialist, capitalist model.
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We call on all WILPF members to stand with Cuba, to be public and vocal about Cuba’s rights to sovereignty and peace, to protest to legislators and media for an end to all forms of US economic and military warfare against the people of Cuba. We condemn the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the US on Cuba, including:
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The economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, which has been in place for almost 65 years. It is the longest blockade in world history, and the highest expression of a cruel and inhuman policy, illegal and illegitimate, and deliberately designed to cause hunger, disease, and desperation among the Cuban people.
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The false and spurious inclusion of Cuba on US lists (State Sponsors of Terrorism, Trafficking in Persons Report, Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998) which seek to further isolate Cuba economically.
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The recent attempts to block any source of income for Cuba, including attacks on tourism, Cuba’s international medical program, trade, and financial transactions.
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The declaration by the Trump regime on January 29, which declared Cuba “an unusual and extraordinary threat” and imposed an energy blockade on Cuba, threatening countries which normally supply petroleum to Cuba. This has produced extraordinary suffering in Cuba.
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The increased threats and economic coercive measures declared in May 2026, including threats applying to third countries or commercial entities which carry out otherwise normal economic transactions with most segments of the Cuban economy.
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We call on WILPF International and all sections of WILPF to join the international campaign NO WAR ON CUBA! to end the illegal US war against Cuba.
2026 International Virtual Congress
Hosted by WILPF Cameroon
Intergenerational and Intersectional:
Feminist Unity to Confront Global Crises
WILPF’s 34th Congress will open on 17 July 2026 with a welcoming session hosted by WILPF Cameroon, and will continue from 18 to 20 July. Due to financial constraints, it will mainly consist of essential formal decision-making meetings.
Check out the agenda and make sure to subscribe to the Congress newsletter and follow myWILPF to stay updated on all the latest news and opportunities! Register here.
EXPLORE WILPF TODAY
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WILPF East Bay, P. O. Box 13083, Oakland, CA 94661
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National WILPF www.wilpfus.org
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Peace Women https://www.peacewomen.org/
Reaching Critical Will https://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/
