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Light Up America -- Women Rising for Peace
and Justice: Put a light in your window
to symbolize your commitment to peace. Turn your
car lights on during the day with a sign in your
window. It can be placed in the window or back of
the car window. Let's flood America with light to illuminate the darkness.
The sign is available here as a downloadable PDF
file, courtesy of Hina Pendle -- Click
here to download (it's only a tiny 3 kb file).
Women Rising for Peace and Justice
Friday, January 17, 2003
Women’s Anti-War Day of Action
Part of a National Week of Resistance for
Justice and Peace in the spirit of Martin Luther
King
War, poverty, and racism, the three evils named
by Martin Luther King, are intimately linked to
the oppression of women. Together they form strands
of a rope binding people worldwide. Untangle that
rope by joining in a women’s day of action. In conjunction
with a week of resistance to the U.S. war against
Iraq, we weave a multicolored web of peace, to bind
and transform the warmakers.
Why a women’s action? Because women have a unique
stake and a valuable perspective on issues of war
and peace.
Poverty is a women’s issue: The vast majority of
people worldwide living in poverty are women and
children. The war against Iraq will divert desperately
needed funds from social programs, health care and
education.
Racism is a women’s issue: Women of color and women of discriminated groups bear the double burden of race and sex oppression.
War is a women’s issue: Women die under the bombs,
see their homes, families, and ability to provide
for the next generation destroyed. War exalts the
values of toughness, hardness and aggression that
a patriarchal culture assigns to men, and denigrates
compassion, nurturing, tenderness, and love.
Make January 17 a day to express
our solidarity with the women of Iraq, Palestine/Israel,
Colombia, and other war-torn areas of the world
and call for a shift of national priorities away
from war and militarism and toward a national agenda
that affirms life.
Come to Washington DC for Martin Luther
King weekend:
- Hold our women legislators accountable, and support, reward, and generally cheer on the women of courage among our elected representatives.
- Weave a web of peace in a candlelight vigil and ritual at dusk on Friday, January 17.
- Participate as a contingent in the January 18 peace march.
- Form women’s affinity groups to participate in the larger, all-genders nonviolent civil disobedience on January 19—and use our peace web to bind and transform institutions of war.
- Join the Women’s Peace Vigil at the White House. The women’s peace vigil was initiated on November 17, 2002 and will continue through March 8, International Women’s Day. The vigil is a constant presence directly in front of the White House and a constant reminder to the decision-makers in Washington, DC, that millions of people in the U.S. and around the world oppose a pre-emptive attack on Iraq. Drop by the women’s peace vigil while you’re in DC for the MLK Jr. weekend activities or any other day. For more information, call. (202) 393-5016. Consider extending your stay in Washington DC so you can to join the vigil. The Vigil can help you with housing if you are participating in the vigil for at least two days.
All actions are women initiated and women led, but men are welcome to join and/or support.
Organize in your home communities!
- Organize a women-led candlelight vigil in your community at dusk on Friday, January 17. Encourage participation by the diversity of women and women’s groups that make up your community.
- Stand with Women in Black in your community in opposition to the war.
- Organize a meeting, teach-in, speak-out, and/or press conference on how women in your community are affected by the three evils of poverty, war, and racism.
- Lobby your women Senators and Representatives. Set up meetings with your women representatives to ask them to speak out against war and push for a national agenda that reflects the values of peace, compassion, generosity, and recognition of the interconnectedness of the whole human family. We need them to use their positions of power to lobby for our agenda!
- Contact the media. Organize localy a women against war press conference that includes women from the business and labor communities, religious women, women community leaders, and others. Write opinion pieces and letters to the editor and call in to radio talk shows to put out the message that women oppose war and want the $200 billion that would be spend on a war against Iraq redirected to health, education, housing and the welfare of our children.
- Put a light in your window to symbolize your
commitment to peace -- and/or use the downloadable
sign available at the top of this page.
International Women:
We ask for your support and solidarity. Please let us know if you can plan a vigil or activity in support of our actions, and send us your messages of support.
Please post your events to www.unitedforpeace.org,
and/or www.codepink4peace.org. For more information,
contact the Women’s Peace Vigil at 202-393-5016.
You can also join our organizing listserve by sending
an email to ufp_womenscaucus-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
with ‘subscribe’ in the subject heading.
Mid January is THE crucial time to stop
the war against Iraq. Thousands of people
are expected to come to Washington, DC on the Martin
Luther King Jr. holiday weekend to participate in
anti-war protests and commemorate Dr. King’s legacy
of organizing against war, militarism, and injustice.
United for Peace, the new national anti-war network,
and Black Voices for Peace are coordinating a week-long
calendar of anti-war activities, including a non-violent
civil disobedience on Jan. 19. International ANSWER
is calling for a mass rally on Jan. 18 with a solidarity
rally in San Francisco. Black Voices for Peace is
organizing a conference for justice and peace on
Jan. 20 and is encouraging churches throughout the
country to incorporate a peace and justice message
into their services that Sunday.
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