This eALERT will provide you with ideas for actions you can take on and around Saturday, May 7 that advocate for a ceasefire and a negotiated peace settlement.
Your WILPF US DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee is dismayed that the war in Ukraine continues, thousands of Ukraine civilians have been killed and over 4 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries. There are two entities WILPF US members can seek to influence in order to bring this deadly war to an end: the US government and the United Nations, in particular the Security Council.
WILPF US is part of a large, international, coalition of peace groups called Peace in Ukraine, which has a website with resources to help us distribute various messages about ending the Ukraine-Russia war.
Messages for your Congressional Representative: deliver NOW through May 7th
We urge all WILPF members to do some action on Saturday, May 7, especially. Unlike the March 6th day of action for peace in Ukraine, when we asked you to demonstrate at street corners (thank you to the many who did!), we are focusing on educating our Congressional representatives and the general public about negotiations. These are the steps we believe are needed to bring this awful war to a negotiated close:
- Reduce the risk of nuclear war by removing intermediate and tactical missiles – both from NATO countries who host them and also from near the western Russian borders on the Russian side.
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Call for an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian forces (see the WILPF open letter to the UN Security Council).
- Call for Ukraine to declare itself neutral.
- Begin peace talks, hosted by the United Nations that include NATO, Russia, Ukraine and the USA.
Yes, there are many other details that need to be dealt with in order to end this complex war, but we are keeping the demands message simple in order to make its distribution easier. Your Congressional rep may be home between now through May 7, so try to make an appointment to tell them you want them to work on these four actions. You can also correspond with them after May 7th.
Messages for the General Public to deliver on May 7th
There is a peace alternative to the USA and NATO providing more and more weapons to Ukraine. The Peace in Ukraine coalition has flyers, posters, explanatory statements and talking points on their website that provide alternative messages about diplomatic ways to end the Ukraine-Russia war – rather than only providing more arms.
We ask WILPF members to go to their local Farmer’s Market, or other plaza with lots of foot traffic, on Saturday, May 7th and hand out the flyer you can download from the website. The resources section of the Peace in Ukraine website is worth a visit. Or you can make your own information sheet using the four demands listed above. As long as this war continues we, peacemakers, need to be talking to the public, so the flyer can be handed out in public places after May 7th.
Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper –aiming for publication around May 7th
We must counter the widespread public opinion that sending more weapons to Ukraine is the way to win this war! It is not a winnable war, and it has the potential to last for years – costing more lives, more US taxpayers’ money, more harm to the world economy and more degradation of the environment.
World Beyond War has written six different letters to the editor touching on these various outcomes of the war and what we should be demanding of our government. These sample letters are posted here for us to personalize and send to our newspapers, post on blogs, FACEBOOK accounts and Instagram. Please choose the one that resonates best with your sentiments and edit it for your town and mail it to your local paper.
Thank you from your DISARM/End Wars Committee chairs. Write to us at disarmchair@wilpfus.org with your comments or questions.
Cherrill Spencer
DISARM/End Wars Committee Co-chair
