The Spring/Summer 2022 issue of Peace & Freedom will appear soon in your mailboxes.
Dear WILPF Members,
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The Spring/Summer 2022 issue of Peace & Freedom magazine will appear soon in your mailboxes. Watch for the print issue, and let your friends know that the magazine is available as a PDF on the WILPF US website.
Click here to view PDF as "turnable pages" using Yumpu.
This issue’s overarching theme is “Listen to Women for a Change,” and the voices here are worth listening to. These wise authors tackle racism, gun violence, poverty, and voting rights. They alert us to the dangers of militarism and bring to life important histories, including the original 1915 Women’s International Conference at The Hague and the long struggle for voting rights in the United States.
In the Spring/Summer 2022 issue:
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President Darien De Lu provides an inspirational message in free verse, honoring WILPF’s more than a hundred years in existence, calling on readers to “reach out, across,” and describing how the women of WILPF “cultivate community in these shattered times.”
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Shilpa Pandey reflects on how “all through history we can see how women as far away from each other geographically as India and America have continued to inspire each other’s journeys as rights activists.” As membership chair, she believes “there is no better way to connect than in an international organization like this one,” and also acknowledges that WILPF US needs more participation by women of color to “stay relevant and keep up.”
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In her role as chair of the Anti-Killer Drones Group for the Disarm Committee, Eileen Kurkoski has learned a great deal about developing technology and how it is being used in increasingly dangerous ways to wage war. Here, she reports on the benefits, problems, and dangers of technology, including a new generation of autonomous weapons that will lead to a “new multilateral arms race” which, “if allowed to run its course, will eventually become a race toward oblivion.”
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In a Q&A with Fresno Branch member “Dr. Jean” Kennedy, she describes why she decided to start the monthly group “Unpacking Racism and Discovering your Blind Spot(s)” and how those meetings have deepened relationships in the Fresno Branch. The group has listened together to the stories of Black firefighters and others in the local community. “There’s no way we can fight racism without fighting it together,” she says.
- Printed comments from the January 2022 forum on gun violence hosted by the Detroit Branch, “After Oxford: A Mental & Public Health Forum,” are exceedingly relevant right now. Detroit Branch President Laura Dewey suggests, “The solutions are there, and even modest ones would be effective.” Jayanti Gupta, a March For Our Lives activist, calls out politicians for “signing our death warrants” and asks all of us to get active on this issue. Leslie Adadow, an experienced school social worker, provides strategies that schools can adopt for a safe and supportive environment. Community Dispute Resolution Specialist Barbara L. Jones offers suggestions to help us “build relationships and enter into difficult dialogues and discussions”.
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Ashley Carrington summarizes the long, sweeping history to gain voting rights for all in the United States, focusing on “the incredible power of women” in these struggles. Given the many new attacks on voting accessibility, she states: “Now more than ever the voices of women are needed to make sure the true ideals of democracy are protected, upheld, defended, and respected.”
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Taking us to an April 2022 Poor People’s Campaign march and vigil at a coal mine owned by the Manchin family in West Virginia, Emily Keel describes the testimonial, movement-building methods of the PPC. She details the “interlocking injustices” of poverty and how it “intersects with gender, race, ability, age” to lead to “a compounding of disadvantage.” WILPF US will “continue to support the campaign in its mission to heal the wounds of our society,” she writes.
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Gloria McMillan shares the many reasons we need to “listen to ‘The Hague Women’ of 1915” today. Describing why and how the 1915 Women’s International Conference was organized, she shows us the radically different approach these women took, the still relevant things they advocated for, and how they modeled “a whole new way of working from the margins and overcoming press-created hysteria.”
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Nancy Price sings praises about a recently published “remarkable book” of collected writings by at-large WILPF US member Pat Hynes entitled Hope, but Demand Justice. Nancy stresses, “Peace & Freedom readers will find convergence with WILPF’s many program areas” in this book, and she highlights specifically “Pat’s expertise about the impact of militarism on women and children,” as well as Pat’s many writings on climate crisis and citizen action.
In other contributions:
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Janet Slagter explains what happens at a WILPF International Congress and describes some unique aspects of the upcoming 33rd International Congress to be held July 16-24, 2022. She encourages all WILPF US members to attend and enjoy the experience of getting to “meet amazing women from around the world who work on the issues you believe in.”
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Odile Hugonot Haber discusses how “the Middle East lies bleeding like a wide-open wound” and how “the United States continues to build and sell weapons and grow wars” in the region, leading to more despotic regimes. “Women from these countries are victimized and discounted, and at the same time they are among the most active in trying to patch up their societies.”
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Enjoy this new feature – a Summer Reading List recommended by the following WILPFers: Tura Campanella Cook, Jack Herbert, Cindy Domingo, Marybeth Gardam, Mary Bricker Jenkins, and Marlena Santoyo.
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Jan Corderman’s Treasurer’s Report stresses that WILPF US’s main mission is “to create the peaceful transformation we wish to see in the world.” She highlights the important bequest gifts received in 2021, and brings our attention to two new branches in Atlanta and North Carolina.
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Joan Ecklein’s Boston Branch sister, Eileen Kurkoski, shares a beautiful remembrance of Joan, who was “an expert in community organization and a stalwart protester of…interconnected issues: banning nuclear weapons, promoting diplomacy and not war, and calling for systemic change to rectify injustices to women and people of color.”
- The branch round-up includes demonstrations, rallies, conferences, and other events from recent months, including commemorations of the first anniversary of the TPNW’s entry into force, March Global Day of Action Against War events, and actions on Tax Day.
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Women's International League for Peace and Freedom/US Section
Friends House | PO Box 13075 | Des Moines, IA 50310 | 617-266-0999 | www.wilpfus.org
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