WLOE E-Newsletter 30 January 2003:
Globalization; Don't attack
Iraq!; Women's action
This month
we launch our e-mail ‘Newsletter’ service in German and English, with brief
reports on women and peace, globalization and ecology, offering links to useful
websites. In this time of tension and war, international solidarity is crucial.
Help us grow and be part of the international web of information and support.
Make a contribution (see end of message); copy this newsletter and send it to
your friends.
- GLOBALIZATION
In January tens
of thousands attended two major international gatherings of the “surging movement
against corporate-driven globalization” (Focus on the Global South newsletter):
the Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad, India and the World Social Forum, which
met for the third time in Porto Alegre Brazil, January 23-28. Our next issue
will have more women’s voices from these meetings. Here the views of economist-activist
Susan George from Porto Alegre:
“In one sentence,
our movement must accept the most difficult task ever undertaken in human
history: we have to democratise the international system and force it to serve
the needs of everyone. As we are all aware, that system and its major actors
currently serve only the need and the greed of a tiny minority.” Read
her full speech and more from the World Social Forum at: http://www.ipsnews.net/fsm2003/27.01.2003/nota17.shtml
and from Focus
on the Global South http://www.focusweb.org
- DON’T ATTACK IRAQ!
"Shock and
Awe": read this commentary from The Black Commentator (commentary, analysis
and investigations on issues affecting African Americans) “The
War Party wants the world to know that there is no escape from the raging
superpower. Very soon, the U.S. military will stage a show more shocking and
awful than can be imagined, for the benefit of a global audience. As Ullman
envisions, it will be "rather like the nuclear weapons at Hiroshima."
The intent is to break the will of the species. Iraq is merely a convenient
stage, Saddam Hussein an extremely unfortunate prop.” http://www.blackcommentator.com/27/27_commentary.html
People
around the world are saying NO to the Bush & Co. plans for war on Iraq.
What can people do? Mina Hamilton has updated her “Twenty-Five Things You
Can Do To Resist the War Against Iraq”, which you can find on our website
at:
http://www.virtueller-exhibitionismus.de/wloe/WLOE-en/action/25ways.html
George W. Bush
Must Answer to the People - adapted from Ramsey Clark's address to the half
a million demonstrators at the January 18th National March on Washington to
Stop the War on Iraq organized by International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop
War & End Racism): "The
U.S. Constitution provides the means for preventing George W. Bush from engaging
in a war of aggression against Iraq, and from advancing a first strike potentially
nuclear preemptive war. It's called impeachment." http://www.votetoimpeach.org
Vote
No to War: the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition also has a “vote no to war” petition
campaign.
It reads: “The U.S.
Congress did not represent me when it voted to authorize George W. Bush to
carry out an illegal war against Iraq. Thousands will die needlessly unless
the people stop this war drive. I join with millions of people who believe
that the $200 billion planned for war against Iraq should be spent instead
to fund jobs, education, housing, health care, child care, assistance to the
elderly and to meet people's needs.”Download
a petition for signing at: http://www.votenowar.org/printable.html
- WOMEN’S ACTION:
“Oh, be joyful to be a warrior in this great time!” – “Granny D” at age 93
“Yes, we must stop
this war. We must stop this attack on our Bill of Rights. But we are bailing
out our flooding boat with our straw hats if we do not look to the cause of
this insanity.” Doris
"Granny D" Haddock celebrated her 93rd birthday this past weekend.
On Jan. 25, 2003 she spoke to a cheering crowd of 400 in Keene, New Hampshire
USA, near her hometown of Dublin. We are include her remarks in full because
they eloquently express an ecological-feminist world-view, and because this
brave elder deserves to be heard. Check out her website for good links and
more speeches: http://www.GrannyD.com and http://www.cppax.org
“My family
belongs to a group of families who, together, provide for the annual income
of a local farmer, in exchange for the food he produces. It is an organic
operation, which not only means that dangerous chemicals are kept out of the
foods, but also out of the soil and the water that flows eventually into the
rivers and seas. How
we live shapes the entire world. I am no angel. I buy clothing that is a bargain
and I look at the tag with guilt if it is from some faraway place where the
workers may be abused. My part of New England used to be a great textile center,
so I also care about the fact that my purchasing may take jobs from my neighbors.
What we drive, what
we buy, the entertainment we choose, the way we use electricity and water
-- all of these things matter. Our little decisions work for or against our
dream of a fair world that spins along with nature in balance and with people
living well in their local economies.
Poverty happens, war happens, imperialism happens, when all the little bad
decisions of a nation's people accumulate and find political expression. Just
as an unbalanced mind can accumulate mental stresses that can grow and take
on a life of their own, so the little decisions of our modern life can accumulate
to the point where our society finds itself bombing other people for their
oil, or supporting dictators who torture whole populations --all so that our
unbalanced interests might be served. When
we look at Mr. Bush and his war machine, and his rising campaign against our
own freedoms and civil rights, we must think of it all as a mental illness
that has come over the American mind. It is our illness.
Yes, we must stop
this war. We must stop this attack on our Bill of Rights. But we are bailing
out our flooding boat with our straw hats if we do not look to the cause of
this insanity.
Sanity is in finding
alternative energy rather than blowing up our Appalachian Mountains for their
coal. Sanity is in buying bicycles or at least hybrid cars rather than bombing
other people for their oil. It is in supporting our family farmers, especially
the organic farmers, rather than suburbanizing all our land and turning to
factory foods that are more health hazard than nutrition.
We cannot have world
peace without peace in our own lives. We cannot attack our planet by the way
we live, and then go off to a peace rally and hope to set right all the imbalance
we have caused. Peace is first a private matter. It cannot grow except from
there.
I know I will be
in jail before Mr. Bush is out of the White House. I know some of you will
too. I know I will give my all to stop this unwarranted invasion of the world
by this disturbed man and his disturbed friends. I urge you to fight as well.
I urge you to go to the peace march in New York City on February 15 and be
a part of the largest American uprising in modern history.
But I ask you to
do it not in anger, but in joy. Not in frustration, but in peace. Aren't we
privileged to live in a time when everything is at stake, and when our efforts
make a difference in the eternal contest between the forces of light and shadow,
between togetherness and division? Between justice and exploitation? Oh,
be joyful to be a warrior in this great time!
And be joyful because
your house is in order. Your friends have your friendship. Your lover has
your love. Your community has your support. Be peace itself at war with war
itself. Take time for yourself and for your peace of mind. Look at your lifestyle
and begin to make the adjustments you think wise and appropriate.
Will we rise to
this battle? If so, we cannot lose, for rising up to it is our victory. Will
we rise up? Will we represent love in the world? If we represent love in the
world, you see, we have already won.”
**********************************************************************************
Women and Life on
Earth is an international, multi-lingual project on women and peace, globalization
and ecology.
Women and Life on
Earth, Marienstr.
19/20, 10117 Berlin,
Germany
To comment, contribute, sub- or unsubscribe to
this informal list, please send a return message.info@womenandlife.org
Our work depends
on your support. US$ checks to WLOE can be sent to PO Box 146, Turners Falls,
MA 01376 USA.
For tax-exempt donations, see:http://www.womenandlife.org/WLOE-en/action/support-fs.html
In Germany: GLS Gemeinschaftsbank,
Konto-Nr: 105 421 100, BLZ: 430 609 67, Kontoinhaber: Women and Life
on Earth e.V.