[WCUSP] Race Street finale 2006

[Mary Day Kent]

Dear WILPF Board, colleagues, and movers and shakers in the movement for peace,

The office is deceptively quiet on this last working day of the "old" year, as we begin the various summing up
routines at the year end, along with preparing for the many actions, issues, concerns, and challenges coming
right up next week.

One of those grim markers approaching is the near inevitability that the death toll for US military in the Iraq war
will reach an official 3000 some time in the next few days, if not hours. ( The Johns Hopkins study showing the 
likely Iraqi  war death toll is over 650,000 since March 2003 is little marked nor long remembered in the US press.)
If you don't already know the details of vigils and protests organized near you to mark this moment, the UFPJ and 
AFSC websites have listings by area of all the events near you. In Philadelphia we are already past our local
grim number with over 400 murders in 2006, the majority of them by gunfire, the majority of the victims young and
African-American. 

January also brings a batch of dates to look for: January 4th the new Congress takes office and needs to be 
lobbied! January 11th there are events in DC and around the world to protest the detentions in Guantanamo--
shut it down/give it back! January 17-18th the Grannies for Peace, many of them WILPF members, are taking
their message to Washington! January 27-29th the UFPJ brings as many of us as possible to the streets of 
Washington to remind Congress that the election was meant to tell them to "support our troops-bring them home
alive now". Monday the 29th is the day for organized Congressional visitations.

WILPF FUTURE DATES TO REMEMBER :  the deadline for the next issue of Peace and Freedom magazine is 
January 12th. Getting the material in on time is the single most important thing we can do to help the editor get
the magazine to our members promptly. The theme for the issue is disarmament. Deadline for applications to be 
an official voting delegate at the International Congress is Jan. 30th.  Looking ahead, the WILPF Board meeting is 
scheduled for April 13-15th and the JAPA Board for the 27th-28th. (April 28th, 2007 will be the 92nd anniversary of 
the Hague  meeting of the International Congress of Women for Permanent Peace, the beginning of WILPF.)
Looking further ahead, the US Social Forum will be held in Atlanta, Georgia from June 27 to July 1st. WILPF is
organizing to play a strong role in this important event. Even further ahead, the International WILPF triennial
Congress will be meeting July 21-27 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. And, way ahead there will be more Board meetings
in the fall....Oct. 5-7 for the WILPF Board, Oct.19 for the Jane Addams Children's Book Awards and Oct.20 for 
the JAPA Board meeting. And, even more ahead, we can look forward to the summer of 2008 when the US Section
Congress will be hosted by the Des Moines, Iowa branch...dates and location still in the works.

With all best wishes for the year ahead, most of all that next year's message will NOT begin with another death
toll figure for an ongoing war in Iraq...or any new war anywhere else.


Mary Day 


Mary Day Kent
Executive Director
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
US Section
1213 Race St.
Philadelphia, PA 19107
www.wilpf.org
215-563-7110





 

 
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