WILPF NEWS
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
East Bay Branch
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.
You are invited to join us Saturday March 9. 10-12am
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD TO HELP PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE
Keep the pressure on Congress, Support President Obama.
Eliminate all military assault weapons and multiple ammunition, regulate gun sales with background checks.
WILPF has long protested that the biggest US export is weapons, especially small arms and now drones. The tolerance of the sale of military style weapons and ammunition to citizens needs to end.
There are examples of other countries changing policies that have worked. Australia has had no massacres and a 50% reduction in suicide and murders after they bought back military style weapons and outlawed them.
The issue of gun control is not just a national issue. It is a local issue here in the East Bay, where too many young people are dying in their homes and on our streets from violence and accidents due to the easy availability of guns and ammunition.
WRITE OR CALL TODAY:
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20500
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
Senator Dianne Feinstein Senator Barbara Boxer
331 Hart Senate Office Bldg. 112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3841 (202) 224-3553
https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me
https://boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/policycomments.cfm
GUN VIOLENCE PREVENTION TASK FORCE
Our own US representative Barbara Lee is a member of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. This task force works with mental health experts, law enforcement organizations, gun owners, and others to discuss and introduce a comprehensive approach to reduce gun violence and strengthen our nation’s gun laws. Recently the Task Force issued recommendations, available here. http://bobbyscott.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=829&Itemid=62
Write or call Representative Lee and support her and the Task Force recommendations on gun violence and for reinstating the legislation for Department of Peace
Oakland District Office
1301 Clay Street, Suite 1000-N
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: (510) 763-0370
https://lee.house.gov/contact-me/email-me
THE WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM IS NOMINATED FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
The International Peace Bureau has nominated WILPF for the Nobel Peace Prize 2013. Whether or not we receive the award, it is worth noting how we are viewed. Among the features that motivated this nomination are the work of Reaching Critical Will (and Disarm), Peace Women on Security Council Resolution 1325, Human Rights and work on CEDAW and CERD. Our founder Jane Addams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 for her work on many of the same issues.
You may recall that when the three women received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, it was noted that implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325 played a role in their successful struggle against violence in Liberia.
Marybeth Gardam, US WILPF Corporations v Democracy Issue Committee Chair writes:
“As always, I am so proud to be a WILPF member. Honestly, it has been some of the most richly rewarding work of my life, and I am just a ‘whippersnapper’ compared to those who have devoted so much of their lives to this organization and its work for peace. Of course, think how much more successful our work on all fronts would be if our efforts were not held back consistently by corporate abuse of power and ‘personhood’. Let us rededicate ourselves to our work in WILPF, no matter which issues on which we each are focused.”
THE PROBLEMS OF THE U.S.’S NEW LOW PROFILE WARS AND HOW THE MILITARY BUDGET CAN BE USED TO BRING PEACE AND SECURITY
The Oxford Research Group has a detailed analysis of the new military direction of the United States: http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/publications/articles_multimedia/remote_control_%E2%80%93_new_way_war/
“The combination of armed drones, Special Forces and private military amounts to a relatively low-profile form of warfare that is often regarded as a cheaper and less accountable means of maintaining security. At the same time the use of drones (UAVs,) in particular, is controversial for several reasons. One is the questionable legality of what may amount to targeted assassinations and a second is the quality of intelligence available to determine the actual targets. For example, there have been many instances of civilians being killed, especially when village compounds have been hit in Pakistan. Third is the ease with which UAVs can be operated without risking the lives of pilots, making their early use in a conflict particularly attractive. Finally, in Pakistan the civilian casualties and the perceived infringement of sovereignty have resulted in bitter public opposition to their use and a distinct increase in anti-American attitudes.
Here are the ORG’s recommendations for peace and security, using funds saved from decreases in the military approach to foreign policy.
1. Aid for sustainable community agriculture, shelter and health.
2. Funding in rural areas and urban areas where the rich and poor divide is spreading unrest and resentment.
3. Avoid drones and other drivers of resentment and disenfranchisement
For a comprehensive discussion of the problems with drone war see Madea Benjamin speech to WILPF San Jose link to: Part one and part two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRIDDILtcaQ&list=UUiWWLx_yqt4jMZMq5u4g59Q&index=6
EARTH DEMOCRACY AND THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE TOUR COMES TO THE BAY AREA
Nancy Price and other Earth Democracy members on the Precautionary Principle and Guardian of the Commons. See excellent video of Caroline Raffensperger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHYKBnI-Kfw&feature=youtu.be
The program will connect environmental, legal, social and economic justice issues. Discussion would focus on our particular local issues, such as fracking in the Monterey Valley, risk of nuclear contamination at Livermore Lab and need for GMO labeling. We will explore these ideas of Guardianship and the Precautionary Principle and how to implement them locally.
NEW WILPF-CALIFORNIA HAS ORGANIZING MEETING IN OAKLAND
A core team of representatives from most of the California WILPF branches met all day on January 19th to work on organizing an exciting new team called WILPF-CALIFORNIA. WILPF-CALIFORNIA will actively promote legislative bills and ballot measures as determined by consenting California WILPF Branches and at-large members at each Cluster Meeting and by inter-branch communication as the need arises.
A core committee will be empowered to write letters of support, join lobbying efforts, and endorse designated legislative bills and ballot measures in the name of all the California WILPF. The core committee will organize collective action among the branches and at-large members with greater efficiency and timeliness than now exists. It will streamline the process of getting endorsements and organizing lobbying. WILPF-CALIFORNIA will be a line of communication to all the branches for information dissemination, recruiting calls, letters to legislators, and quick decision-making.
Some issues that were discussed were supporting the California Disclose Act; working on the Move to Amend bill; working on state legislation opposing corporate personhood; working on legislation opposing or at least regulating fracking; supporting the New Health Care for All bill; supporting legislation to reduce or eliminate military-style weapons and ammunition being sold in California, as well as requiring extensive background checks; supporting the GMO boycott; working to close down the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant.
ACTION: ELECTION DISCLOSURE
Having just watched elections with billions of secret dollars spent without disclosure of who or what organization was spending we are back to the drawing boards to get legislature on disclosure in California. East Bay WILPF approved endorsement of SB 52, the California Disclose Act (Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections). To download a petition go to California Clean Money Campaign at www.CAclean.org./ You can also contact Loni Hancock, 1515 Clay Street, Suite 2202
Oakland, CA 94612. Phone: (510) 286-1333
Minutes of East Bay WILPF Planning Meeting: Feb 9, 2013
We agreed to give a reminder call a day or two before to our regular planning meetings members.
Members are planning to visit one of our longest and most active members, who has moved to a new residence in Santa Rosa. Madeline Duckles new address is in Santa Rosa . She would welcome cards and letters from her friends. Email us for her address.
The Gray Panthers www.WILPFEastbay.org/ are organizing with other peace groups to meet with Senator Barbara Boxer to lobby for new and stricter gun laws legislation and to oppose the use of weaponized drones. We are hoping representatives from Grandmothers against the War, www.gawba.org/, San Francisco WILPF, Smart Gun Laws, http://smartgunlaws.org/ Peace Action West, www.peaceactionwest.org/, and the California office of the Childrens Defense Fund. www.cdfca.org/. can join us. There was a discussion on the suggestion to also discuss the issue of the use of drones in warfare and the insecurity blowback that drone weapons are causing.
