Next Update Due: Thursday, October 4

Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East Campaign
Save the Water Campaign
DISARM

WCUSP has learned to take bad news along with good.  A couple of weeks ago, we were heartened to hear that the Israeli Supreme Court agreed the Separation Wall must be re-routed away from the village of Bil'in, where there have been ongoing protests for months. This week, we are working on statements and suggestions for action on two issues: The Islamophobic comments made by Representative Peter King and Israel's declaration of Gaza as hostile territory. Both are unacceptable and have consequences related to human dignity and the ability to live a life free of physical and emotional trauma.  Please check the WCUSP area of our website to find the statements and follow up with action

Next Update Due: Thursday, Thursday, September 13

Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East Campaign
Save the Water Campaign
DISARM Issue Committee

Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East
WCUSP leadership team has conferred with our sections in the Middle East regarding what will be the most useful to them in their quest for peace and justice.  Two LT members, Yvonne and Barbara, were at congress in Bolivia, attending meetings of the International Middle East Committee, helping to draft a resolution on the region, which is being added to Middle East resolutions from International.  We also expect to work with the water campaign and disarmament issue committee to arrange a fact-finding tour to the region.  This third year of the campaign should see branches becoming more active in lobbying, calling for a real and lasting peace in the Middle East.

Next Update Due: Thursday, June 21, 2007
 
Important Update: June 10-11 Protest, Rally, Teach In, WILPF Contingent meeting space
Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East Campaign
Save the Water Campaign
DISARM Issue Committee
Haiti Issue Committee

Important Update: June 10-11 WILPF Contingent in Washington, DC March to End the Occupation!
The WILPF contingent will be meeting on the Northwest Corner of the West Lawn of the Capitol, on the corner of Pennsylvania and 3rd St. We will have a WCUSP banner and wearing WILPF buttons.

Program Update!  A look at What's Happening In WILPF Program  

Use Goodsearch!
Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East Campaign
Save the Water Campaign
DISARM Issue Committee
Haiti Issue Committee

GoodSearch
Just a reminder of the most painless option for creating an "income stream" for WILPF and JAPA--use the link below to put the Goodsearch.com search engine button at the top of your screen-register Jane Addams Peace Association as your "charity" of choice.  Every time you use it to look something up, it donates to WILPF!
http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbars.aspx

Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East
WCUSP is responding to comments on the Roundtables launched earlier encouraging branches to discuss a feminist vision for Middle East peace.  We've heard from some branches that you need materials, and others that the PowerPoint presentation still needed work.  We are updating the PowerPoint to make it more useful, and expect it to be ready before the next update comes out.  Leadership team member Odile Hugonot-Haber, who has just returned from Israel and the West Bank, met with our Israel and Palestine sections and helped with their work.  We look forward to further discussions with them at the International Congress in Bolivia.

Save the Water
Commission on Sustainable Development Conference (CSD) was well attended and fruitful.  Organizing by Aislinn Ummel and presentations by Nancy Munger and Ruth Caplan were very well received. The post cards asserting, “Water as Human Rights”, and statement against privatization of water are off and running and the electronic petitions are getting encouraging amount of signatures already.  It will be presented to the UN when enough signatures were gathered. In addition, the metal water bottles (recommended by the Water Campaign Leadership Team) are available for sale.  Contact Kate at kzaidan@wilpf.org. The preparation for our attendance at U S Social Forum is progressing.  The streaming banner symbolizing water and marine life will be on display at the forum.  It is “must see” item.  The workshops on “War, Water and Women” and “Our body Polluted Without our Consent” will be the topics of our presentation.

On April 28, the Northern California WILPF Branches held a cluster meeting hosted by the Fresno Branch. Nancy Price made a presentation for the Save the Save the Water Campaign on future actions in California for Blue October. The details have to be worked out, but will focus in various ways on bottled water in colloboration with other national groups. She also discussed the Security and Prospertiy Partnership of North America, the focus of an article in the latest "Peace and Freedome." At the end of the day, there was a trip to the Peace Garden at California State, Fresno, where the new bronze statue of Jane Addams has been unveiled.

DISARM!
Focus Issue:  URGENT! DISARM ACTION NOW! Includes legislative action information for the Program Update 

A look at What's Happening In WILPF Program

Use Goodsearch!
Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East Campaign
Save the Water Campaign
DISARM Issue Committee
Haiti Issue Committee
Advancing Human Rights
Building the Beloved Community

Just a reminder of the most painless option for creating an "income stream" for WILPF and JAPA--use the link below to put the Goodsearch.com search engine button at the top of your screen-register Jane Addams Peace Association as your "charity" of choice. Every time you use it to look something up, it donates to WILPF!

A look at What's Happening In WILPF Program

Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East Campaign
Save the Water Campaign
DISARM Issue Committee
Haiti Issue Committee
Advancing Human Rights

Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East
Women Challenge U.S. Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East (WCUSP) campaign is looking for a few women to add to our Leadership Team for the campaign. The basic requirement is a strong commitment to peace in the Middle East. It would help if candidates take a particular interest in human rights pertaining to the Middle East, as well as for persons of Middle Eastern background residing here in the U.S. Or, you might have an interest in the relationship between the two occupations: Israel over Palestine and the U.S. over Iraq (and Afghanistan). Some interest/knowledge about lobbying, or ability to maintain contact with branches, or speak about our issues would also be helpful. If this is you, please contact us, as we would like to add members during the next couple of months.

Save the Water
The Water Campaign brochure is ready for anyone interested to print it out of http://wilpf.org/water-about. Defeat Fast Track! The water campaign has launched our postcard campaign. Download at http://wilpf.org/water-action. The Cape Cod branch is collecting signatures on two petitions, pledging not to buy bottled water, and to the UN to declare Water as a Human Right. These will be made available to branches soon. New England activities include showing “Thirst” DVD last week and participation in a wonderful Human Rights Fair at a Cape Cod High School. Metal water bottles will soon be available through WILPF office. Contact person is Kate Zaidan [kzaidan@wilpf.org] at Philadelphia office. Olivia Zink, member of the Save the Water team, gave a presentation to the Goucher College Branch, who are excited abuot working on the campaign to kick Coke off their campus. A group of Maine water activists, known as The Commons had drafted a ballot initiative to ensure that groundwater in Maine to be protected to the same degree of protection that surface waters are. It became obvious that a letter from Nestle’s attorneys that they were already meddling in the process and, had urged specific wording for the ballot measure drafted by the Water Common activists to suit corporate interest angles. For more information http://onthecommons.org/node/1118.


DISARM!
Go to www.disarm.wilpf.org for current info on TAX Day vigil materials and legislation moving 60 billion from military to support of children's health and education. WILPFers in NYC can attend the WILPF DISARM and Environment workshop with Bruce Gagnon at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (New York). The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Prepcom meets in Vienna, also April 30 to May 11. Read how you can support the NPT by urging your Representative to co-sponsor H Res 68. All that and more on DISARM UPDATE.

Haiti
The Committee is in the process of developing a workshop on Haiti for presentation at both the US Social Forum (USSF) and the WILPF Congress in Bolivia. Committee members are coordinating the USSF workshop with co-sponsors: the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti and Trans Africa Forum. The Committee will proceed with visits to embassies of countries that are part of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti urging them to reconsider their participation. With the resumption of Congress this week, Committee members will continue lobbying efforts on debt cancellation, granting Temporary Protected Status to Haitian refugees and pursuit of an investigation into the role of the US in the 2004 coup d'etat.

Program Update! A look at What's Happening In WILPF Program

Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East Campaign
Save the Water Campaign
DISARM Issue Committee
Haiti Issue Committee
Advancing Human Rights Issue Committee

Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East

Our WCUSP Toolkit for the Visioning Project and ongoing Middle East campaign is now on-line at www.wilpf.org/campaigns. A grant request was submitted seeking funding for the Visioning, including reproduction costs and travel expenses for facilitators.Our 10 Reasons for Challenging U.S. Policy in Palestine and Israel have
been personally presented, thanks to Kate Zaidan, to many of your Congressional representatives. We also did an action alert on International Women's Day focused on Palestinian women, children and seniors in prison.

Save the Water

The Water Campaign brochure was completed, and now available on our website for you to download at www.wilpf.org . Kate Zaidan met with Washington DC Branch members to discuss national WILPF programming concerns and to strategize “Stop Fast Track Trade Negotiation that trades away our water”. Fast Track is up for renewal June 30th this year. Some of the actions being considered are: talking points on Fast Track related to water a postcard to send to every member in branches in selected Congressional districts, and Lobbying work would include collaborating with like-minded organizations such as Sierra Club. We are preparing 4 water related workshops at U S Social Forum in Atlanta this summer. Olivia Zink did presentation at Goucher College in Maryland and Nancy Price presented her program for Philadelphia YWILPF branch. UN’s 15 th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) is being held at the New York Headquarters of the United Nations and the Water Campaign is hosting a side event. Great Lakes governors received copies of summery of Compact on Water. We will continue with follow up work on this. Rep. Dennis Kucinich had joined the other lawmakers to fight privatization of Great Lakes water.


Lobby with the WILPF delegation and Alliance for Nuclear Accountability on April 25-27. Join the new national War Profiteers Network and use new materials from Reaching Critical Will on corporations near you profiteering on nuclear weapons and space militarization. Let's work for a peace economy! Check it all out on www.disarm.wilpf.org. Read reports from WILPF members on the newly formed No Foreign Bases Network, and the Global Network Space for Peace Conference in Darmstadt, Germany.

Haiti

Rep. Maxine Waters’ recently introduced a resolution calling on the International Financial Institutions to cancel all of Haiti's debt. The Committee will encourage all WILPF members to contact their members of congress to urge more support for this bill One of our Committee members will attend the upcoming meeting in Bolivia. There may be a Haiti workshop at the Congress organized by the US Section. A Haitian Women’s Collective, KOLEKTIF FANMI PRIZONYE POLITIK (Political Prisoners’ Families’ Collective) is seeking solidarity with the Haiti Issue Committee. The Collective is trying to free family members who happen to be Haitian political prisoners. These prisoners were put in jail after the February 29, 2004, coup d'etat and many have been held in detention, without charge, for as long as three years. The Committee will write a letter of support for them and their cause and continue to discuss other ways to demonstrate our solidarity.

Advancing Human Rights

WILPF Online BookRead , April 16th to May 15th, 2007
Join our second Online Bookread and discussion with other WILPF members on Jan Maher's book, Most Dangerous Women: Bringing History to Life Through Readers' Theater. The book, and the play within the book, document the efforts of nearly a century of women's involvement in the peace movement focusing on WILPF and women recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. This bookread will provide another opportunity to add to the tools that WILPF has developed for promoting peace and inspiring others to join the peace movement. Join us by contacting scotty@wilpf.org.

 

Program Update!  A look at What's Happening In WILPF Program

U.S. Social Forum
Save the Water Campaign
DISARM Issue Committee
Haiti Issue Committee

U.S. Social Forum WILPF is planning a robust presence at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, June 27-July1, 2007.

Attention! All Campaigns and Committees:  submit your proposals as soon as possible since space for programs is limited and cannot be guaranteed.  Proposals are due March 1!

U.S. Social Forum
Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East Campaign
Save the Water Campaign
DISARM Issue Committee

U.S. Social Forum
WILPF is planning a robust presence at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, June 27-July1, 2007.

Attention! All Campaigns and Committees:  submit your proposals as soon as possible since space for programs is limited and cannot be guaranteed.  Proposals are due March 1!

Submit proposals to: http://www.ussf2007.org/node/add/content_ussf_2007_session_propos
Please send duplicate proposals to Kate Zaidan at kzaidan@wilpf.org so WILPF can coordinate and publicize our work effectively.

Women Challenge US Policy: Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East
Several branches have asked for our Visioning Project toolkit to help discuss developing a feminist, activist U.S. policy in the Middle East.  We have nearly completed toolkit materials.  Until we send it, use the Study Guide to help you.  We also encourage discussions around Jimmy Carter's book, "Peace Not Apartheid," hopefully leading to a deeper understanding of complexities in the ongoing Middle East struggle.  We encourage linking the dual
occupations: Israel over Palestine, and the U.S. over Iraq and Afghanistan.  We remind members that articles posted on the website from WCUSP reflect the views of their authors, and may not represent the views of our leadership team or of the campaign.

Save the Water Campaign
At the Save the Water Campaign launched the Great Lakes Initiative, including the initial phone calls to the WILPF branch leaders who are active in the region. We are inviting them to participate in exploratory work to gather information regarding the extent of awareness of the problems related to pollution, access to portable water etc.  Depending on the responses, we would consider organizing regional forum or conference for the region to coordinate save the water actions. We held two member and branch-wide conference calls  on Feb. 5 and 6 to include people who are interested in the campaign who have not been active with the leadership team.  There was infusion of new energy as well as exchanges of branch activities, such as our presence at the Commission on Sustainable Development, presentations in University of Maryland Baltimore County campus and more.

DISARM!
Read EYE on Congress Alerts on 2008 military/domestic budget. Join March 5-9 DISARM visits to Congress. Send letters re budget and/or disarm issues c/o Kate Zaiden for hand delivery. Register now for March WILPF seminar on global military spending ( Geneva), GN annual space meeting (Darmstadt), April ANA D.C. Days, May NPT Prepcom (Vienna) or June Social Forum (Atlanta).   DISARM team members observe challenges to U.S. nuclear and war policies under international law.  All details at www.disarm.wilpf.org .