Recent Branch news, in brief
Published on February, 10 2017
Left:Pittsburgh for CEDAW, from left: Marcia Bandes, WILPF; Jordan Hayes; Lee Fogarty, Zonta Club; Martha Raak, LWV; Judith Ruszkowsky, WILPF, Edith Bell, WILPF. Right: Maine member Suzanne Hedricks at the Rally of Unity in Augusta.
From Santa Cruz
On Sunday, February 5, WILPF Santa Cruz will celebrate the life and contributions of Jan Harwood, who, for more than 50 years, has been a vocal activist in the fight for nuclear abolition and peace. Jan, who with other Santa Cruz WILPF members, founded the Santa Cruz chapter of the Raging Grannies, marched in the Santa Cruz Women’s March on January 21 and still keeps a blog, Granny Jan’s Santa Cruz Blog, which already includes a couple of songs about the Trump presidency. The celebration is being called “Hats On to Jan Harwood: A Celebratory Tribute to an Unconventional Activist,” and those attending are encouraged to wear hats! Read more in the Santa Cruz “Good Times” article WILPF Honors Raging Granny Jan Harwood’s Activism.
From Christine DeTroy, Maine
On January 4, at the Alliance for the Common Good Rally of Unity in Augusta, Maine, held in the Hall of Flags of the State Capitol, Maine WILPF member Suzanne Hedricks shared her wonderful message. This was the fifth annual Rally of Unity, which aims to bring priority issues to the attention of the Maine legislators: “What are your concerns about what the state of Maine should be doing and the directions it should be going in? What do our legislators need to hear from the public?”
From Edith Bell, Pittsburgh
The Pittsburgh Branch planned the third screening of the documentary “Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible” for February 4, at another library. Past showings have been very well attended and followed by good discussions.
The Pittsburgh City Council has passed our CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women) ordinance and budgeted funding for the next five years. A celebration is scheduled, followed by continued work on implementation.
From Sacramento
Sacramento WILPF is happy to announce that we are hosting a Northern California Cluster meeting on Saturday, February 4. For those elsewhere in the US, out this way we do occasional Clusters to bring together branches from a large geographic area for sharing of branch activities and presentations and discussions on program topics. Of course, at this point in 2017, we anticipate a lively discussion of where our work might best go from here.
Some California WILPF branches have been engaged in successful campaigns on various WILPF issues, so we anticipate their input in our discussions, based on their experience. Nancy Price, chair of WILPF’s national Earth Democracy campaign, also looks forward to the lively participation of other experienced campaigners in her keynote presentation.
From Los Angeles
The WILPF Los Angeles Branch will celebrate International Women’s Day on Saturday, March 4, at its annual luncheon, with featured speaker Margaret Prescod, host of “Sojourner Truth” on KPFK (90.7FM). She is a long-time community-based women’s rights, anti-poverty, and anti-racist campaigner. Her work is local, national, and international and her range covers welfare rights, pay equity, a living wage for all workers, support for grassroots campaigners for justice in Haiti, opposing mass incarceration, environmental justice, and more.
