Using our power to stop war

By Joan Bazar, Communications Committee

Acting on the theme Women’s Power to Stop War, Nobel laureates led a walk across the DMZ in Korea, and US Section members back from the events in The Hague are carrying the powerful message to branches around the country. 

Learn more about the May 24 effort to bridge the divide in Korea by international peace activists Mairead Maguire (Northern Ireland) and Leymah Gbowee (Liberia) online.  Organizers included Gloria Steinem, filmmaker Abigail Disney and US WILPFer Gwyn Kirk.

Arrange for a speaker in your city on the inspiring events in The Hague by contacting the US Section office. President Mary Hanson Harrison has addressed a UN Association gathering and joined with Detroit President Laura Dewey in presentations. Melissa Torres (Texas), our International Board representative, and the rest of the delegation are available to speak, along with dozens more who attended the Conference.

Robin Lloyd (Vermont) writes of her thoughts on attending a graveside memorial in the Netherlands for Australian and New Zealand casualties of WW I in How War is Remembered.  Anne Hoiberg (San Diego) reflects on seeing the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell and hearing Leymah Gbowee in The Hague:

Leymah Gbowee, one of four Nobel Peace Laureates at the Women’s Power to Stop War conference held in The Hague in April 2015, raised several questions: Can’t women do something about war? Can’t women do something about the enslavement of women and girls, about prostitution? Can’t women in the USA do something about Blacks being killed? Can’t women do something about the degradation of our planet?   Can’t women do something about the attempts to separate us into categories, such as religious or political pigeonholes?

We can’t be silenced. We women can do something about war; we women can do something about Blacks being killed in the US.  Women have to say something—to keep the dream of peace alive. We women can raise our voices to stand up to politicians and get in their space. We can do the unthinkable. We in WILPF can cause trouble in a good way, just as women 100 years ago protested the madness and horrors of war, and just as women did under Gbowee’s direction in Liberia, as shown in Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

We have to do something—to turn the world upside down for permanent peace.

Mary Hanson Harrison urges branches sponsoring report backs: “Please use this wonderful opportunity as a recruitment tool and the possibility of fundraising for GROWING WILPF!”