Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
East Bay Branch May Newsletter
Visit our web page www.WILPFEastBay.org
Contact us at wilpf@wilpfeastbay.org
Meetings are 2nd Saturday of the Month 10am-noon
110 41st St. (Piedmont Gardens) just off Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.
There will be no planning meeting in June because of the yard sale.
Reminder WILPF East Bay Fundraising Yard Sale
Saturday, June 9th 10-4
1300 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley 94709 (Margot Smith’s place)
We could use small furniture, art and antiques, small appliances, jewelry books, CD’s, DVD’s, games, toys, sports equipment. Please no clothes, no broken items, and nothing too big or too heavy.
To donate items to the sale, bring by Margot’s place either on Friday, June 8th and leave on her back deck, or bring it by between 9 and 10am on the day of the sale.
We also really need volunteers on Saturday June 9. We need people from 9-10am to help set up, then anytime between 10-4 to help sell, and then from 4-5pm to help clean up. To volunteer, email us at wilpf@wilpfeastbay.org.
East Bay WILPF joins forces with Women for Peace.
Projects and ideas were discussed. It was agreed to study the possibility of a Resource Center for Peace. It was agreed to contact Common Agenda to determine the need for a Peace Resource Center.
West Coast World Court of Women on Poverty in the US. It was reported the first World Court of Women on Poverty in the US held in Oakland beginning May 10th link to http://weap.org/WCW/updates-on-the-world-court.
The historic approach of the World Court of Women is to analyze and propose actual solutions. The focus of the conference was on how women are affected by broken systems leading to poverty, joblessness and financial insecurity, foreclosures, homelessness, endless war, a broken and racist justice System, health care insecurity, poor and crowded schools.
You can also see stories and testimonies at: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=yBO3aqbXazk&list=UUAjTdShbXzc6QJwEcaOXwkg&index=3&feature=plcp/
East Bay WILPF agrees to support Tri-Valley CARE’s
“Communities Against A Radioactive Environment.”
(www.trivalleycares.org/)
Support 4 Key Amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act
The $642 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has passed through the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) with many onerous and controversial provisions. (So controversial that 237 amendments have been offered on the NDAA.) Tri-Valley CAREs wants to bring the following four amendments to your attention to take action. (How to take action follows…)
When viewing the NDAA on the whole, perhaps the most striking overall impression is that in this era of “austerity” the Republican controlled HASC added hundreds of millions of dollars to nuclear weapons programs OVER the already too generous funding the administration requested. To address this, Representative Jared Polis (D-Colorado) has introduced Amendment #165 that would strike funding for nuclear weapons activities beyond the administration’s budget request.
Several provisions in the NDAA would gut oversight and safety at nuclear weapons sites, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. One NDAA provision puts the defense contractors in charge of safety and another weakens oversight by the independent Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Thankfully, an amendment has been offered to undo the damage. Sponsored by local Representative George Miller (D-Martinez), Amendment #167 would remove the bad language and delete the weakening provisions, thus maintaining the existing safety protections for workers and the public.
Additionally, the NDAA adds $100,000,000 to the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos, depite the administration’s request that the facility be put on a 5-year delay. Amendment #67 offered by Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) would eliminate funding for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility in the authorization bill.
Our local Representative, John Garamendi (D-Livermore), has offered Amendment #130 to require that Congress receive further studies and analyses regarding the costs associated with building a third U.S. Ground-based Midcourse Missile Defense site to be located on the East Coast. His amendment would halt the reckless forward momentum and funding in the NDAA for an East Coast Missile Defense site.
Out of the 237 amendments being offered, these four are key to addressing the dangerous effects that the NDAA would otherwise have on nuclear weapons policy, facilities and communities across the country. A vote is expected soon.
So, what can you do to support these efforts? Needs immediate action!
CALL OR EMAIL YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS ASAP, urging him/her to support Amendments #165, #167, #67 and #130 to the National Defense Authorization Act.
To find your Representative’s phone number, you can use this searchable online congressional directory http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/
or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Representative’s office.
We are also in support of Barbara Lee’s amendment (#158) requiring the complete and rapid withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan, and urging them to Vote NO on the excessive $646 Billion Pentagon budget request!
This year, two amendments were offered regarding the Afghanistan War – the Lee amendment would have ended combat operations immediately. The bipartisan McGovern/Jones amendment would have codified the timetable already given by Obama (all combat troops out by end of 2013, all troops out by end of 2014) and would have required the president to get permission from Congress if he wanted any troops to stay beyond 2014. The Republican leadership refused to allow the bipartisan amendment to be debated because they were afraid it would pass. (Even if you think this time frame is too conservative, the reality is that it would have been a HUGE victory if the amendment had passed.)
You are invited to an Oakland Event to meet two amazing women from Cuba on Sunday, May 27, from 3-5 at 605 Mira Vista Avenue in Oakland.
Please note that WILPF was one of the three founding organizations of U.S Women & Cuba Collaboration and our WILPF Women, Cuba and Venezuela Issues Committee works closely with the Collaboration.
U.S. Women & Cuba Collaboration invite you to a fundraising reception with Norma Vasallo, Chair of the Women’s Studies at Cuba’s University of Havana, and Norma Guillard, educator and leader in the struggle against homophobia in Cuba. Also joining the reception will be Catherine Murphy, Director and Producer of “Maestra,” a film about the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign that eradicated illiteracy in one year. Norma Guillard joined the campaign at 15 and is featured in “Maestra.” Vasallo and Guillard are in the Bay Area as part of a Cuban delegation attending the Latin American Studies Association Conference. Don’t miss this opportunity to dialogue with these important women leaders from Cuba!
Mariela Castro, daughter of President Raul Castro, will be attending the conference and we will be inviting her to the reception as well. Mariela is a leader in the struggle for gender and sexual rights and founder of CENESEX (National Center for Sex Education). Looking forward to seeing you.
Kindly RSVP wilpf@wilpfeastbay.org
