Plan Your “Season of Peace” Spring Actions

By Nancy Price
Earth Democracy Issue Committee

Plan your “Season of Peace” Spring Actions…for International World Water Day on March 22, the No to NATO 70th Anniversary Summit March 30-April 4, and Earth Day on April 22.

I know you all are making plans for one, two, or maybe all of these days of action!

Here are updates….

March 22 – World Water Day

In the past, we’ve singled out assaults on fresh water sources: bottled water company profiteering and contamination from fracking, pipeline breaks and leaks, agricultural chemicals, and spills from animal feed lots and coal-ash holding ponds from coal-fired electricity plants.  

We are now creating a new campaign with WILPF members Pat Elder and H. Patricia Hynes, director of the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice to educate and mobilize the public on the impact of military activities at US and foreign bases that contaminate air, land, and water and impact the health of base personnel and their families and residents in surrounding communities. We want to bring the environmental and public health groups into the peace movement.

Get to Know Pat Elder

On February 14, Pat Elder  will speak on the ONE WILPF call, 4 pm pacific and 7 pm eastern, and on February 27 he will be on the WILPF Fresno “Stir It Up” Program hosted by Earth Democracy’s Jean Hays from  3–3:30 pm pacific time on the Pacifica Network KFCF FM at 88.1 on the dial.

On February 22, Pat will begin a cross-country drive with his daughter from Los Angeles to D.C. stopping at ten military installations to highlight contamination at these sites on Facebook, and to talk with base and community members. Each day, we’ll post his findings on our FB page and Twitter.

For World Water Day, a one-page double-sided 8 ½ x 11 handout on “Military Impacts on the Environment and Public Health” will be posted on the Earth Democracy home page to print out for tabling. The color 5½ x 8 Infographic card will be ready by late March to order for Earth Day, April 22. Be sure to also order the Climate Justice+Women+Peace card from Marybeth Gardam at mbgardam@gmail.com.  

Photo credit: Ellen Davidson. International peace activists at the first International Conference Against US/NATO Military Bases held in Dublin on November 16, 2018.

March 30-April 4 – A Call for National Mobilization to Oppose NATO, War, and Racism

April 4 is the 70th Anniversary of NATO, the day Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech at Riverside Church in New York, and the second anniversary of the Black Alliance for Peace.

In Washington, D.C., six days of events and actions are planned.  

Details are posted here and here. Be sure to check back often for updates, places to stay, and information on buses.

Briefly: March 30 – March and music; March 31 – concert and conference; April 2 – all-day No to NATO, Yes to Peace and Disarmament Counter-Summit; April 3 – Yes to Peace Festival to Unwelcome NATO; April 4 – procession from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial to rally at Freedeom Plaza and nonviolent demonstrations outside the NATO meeting; Evening – Black Alliance for Peace, Second Anniversary program, No to Compromise, No Retreat in the Fight to End Militarism and War, 7-9 pm.

Events in major US Cities and in NATO countries will be posted here.

Here’s what you can do in your community on April 4th:  

Organize a public reading of King's speech in your community. Historians say it was a turning point in the peace movement. It’s time to lift up this speech for another turning point.  

Three thousand (3,000) people listened to his “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech at Riverside Church in 1967. In moving from civil rights to a critique of capitalism and war, King called for a “revolution of values.” He envisioned “a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation,” and cautioned “a nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”  

Find your local Veterans for Peace chapter to work with. Let your local press and community TV station know the details.

Of course, you can always table, march, and demonstrate in front of corporate headquarters, at a factory where weapons or components for the war machine are produced, or at the main gate of a military base, Or you can hold a vigil for peace outside your Congressperson’s district office. Or stand with a few people at an intersection with signs: End Wars; System Change: From War to Peace: Love Peace; Women say NO to NATO. Use your imagination.

Earth Day – April 22

I know that many branches and members have long-standing events planned with other groups. Be sure to place your bulk order for the Climate Justice+Women+Peace card and for the new “Military Impact on the Environment and Health” infographic card that will be ready at this time. For details, email Marybeth Gardam at mbgardam@gmail.com.  

A handout on the “Origin of Earth Day and the Lewis Powell Memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce” will be posted on the Earth Democracy page to print for tabling.