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Peace Freedom MAGAZINE OF THE WOMEN’S &INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM Fall 2010 www.wilpf.org • Vol. 70 • No. 2 SHUT THEM DOWN! WOMEN SAY NO TO U.S. BASES INSIDE: REPORTS FROM GUAM, JAPAN, SOUTH AMERICA, CUBA PLUS: THE SECRET HISTORYOFNATO, MOBILIZE FOR APRIL The Women’s International League for In unprecedented Peace and Freedom (WILPF) numbers, young has been working since 1915 women led a youth to unite women worldwide who movement to protest oppose oppression and exploitation. WILPF stands for equality of all at Pagat Village on people in a world free of racism, Guam where the sexism, and homophobia; the U.S. military wants to building of a constructive peace take over 1,200 acres through world disarmament; and to create a Marine the changing of government priorities Corps firing range. to meet human needs. See story, page 4 WILPF has sections in 37 countries coordinated by an international office in Geneva. U.S. WILPF carries out its Inside This Issue work through grassroots organizing by WILPF branches. WILPF supports the Women in the Military and WILPF . .3 work of the United Nations and U.S. Mega-Base for Guam? . .4 has NGO (non-governmental Okinawa, An Island of Military Bases . .6 organization) status. Renaissance of Resistance . .7 Action for Congo . .8 Guatanamo: Past and Present . .9 U.S. Section WILPF: 565 Boylston Street, Second Mass Mobilization Set for April . .11 Floor, Boston, MA 02116; phone: (617) 266-0999; The Story Behind NATO . .12 fax (617) 266-1688; e-mail: [email protected] website: www.wilpf.org Middle East Nuclear Free Zone? . .13 Co-Presidents: Nancy Munger, Laura Roskos Run for the U.S. WILPF Board . .14 Treasurer: Ellen Schwartz WILPF Makes Mini-Grants . .15 Secretary: Deborah A. Garretson Peace Women Who’s Passed . .16 U.S. Director of Operations: Laurie Belton Bad Economy Pushes Water Privitization . .17 O Children Raise Money for WILPF . .18 Jane Addams Peace Association (JAPA): Peace Education . .20 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017 WILPF Interns . .23 phone: (212) 682-8830. JAPA is WILPF’s educational fund. Report From the Treasurer . .27 Acting President: Sandy Silver Branch Action News . .28 Executive Director: Linda Belle Triennial Congress Coming Up in June . .32 O Cover Photo: Christina Illarmo is a Filipina-Chamorro, born and raised on International WILPF: 1 rue de Varembé, 1211 Guahan. Her home, the southern most island of the Mariana archipelago is 8,000 miles away from Boston, Massachusetts where she currently studies social Geneva 20, Switzerland; phone: 41-22-919-7080; work. In May, 2010, Christina joined the delegation to represent the concerns fax: 41-22-919-7081; e-mail: [email protected] of Guahan at United Nations International Day of Action. Co-Presidents: Kersten Greback Annelise Ebbe Peace and Freedom is published by the Women’s International League for Peace Secretary General: Madeleine Rees and Freedom (WILPF), U.S. Section. Submissions welcome; please query first. O Letters to the Editor are welcome. Contact the editor at [email protected]. O Copyright © WILPF 2010, except where otherwise noted. For reprint permission, Editor: Theta Pavis Typesetting: Judy Mathe Foley call 617-266-0999. Editorial Assistance: Laurie Belton, D. Cline, Nancy Munger, Laura Roskos 2 Fall 2010 Peace & Freedom of war, not merely Women in the Military, gender equity within the ranks Women in WILPF of forces on the ground in conflict A New Perspective on Human areas. So how, exactly, does the Security, Military Spending struggle for equity of military and Gender women intersect with WILPF’s desire to put an end to the root causes of war—which are, in essence, structural By Nancy Munger and Laura Roskos inequalities? If women in the ranks are successful in improving their lot, but women in civil society are less “You could barely find us in the crowd. It was like successful or even lose ground, the world will have taken a where is Waldo in the puzzle? Women are outnumbered giant step backwards, away from sustainable peace. so it is very uncomfortable in the field.” Asha wants to make peace, and maybe she will. But that — 1st Lieutenant Asha Castleberry, U.S. Army, dream, in our view, could only be realized if WILPF and commenting on peacekeeping exercises held in other peace-loving women become her political allies and Managua, Nicaragua involving 400 police officers support system; in other words, only if Asha can remain as from 22 countries, of which only 10 were women.* connected to “women” as she is to the Army. But how could that happen? sha is exceptional. All of the women participating We know that women who pursue careers in public in WILPF’s Practicum in Advocacy at the U.N. services—as social workers, public defenders, public Aduring this past spring’s Nuclear Nonproliferation health professionals, probation officers and police offi- Treaty Review Conference were brilliant and engaged, but cers—are often motivated by romantic ideals of communi- Asha stood out because she is an active member of the ty as a space of nurture and justice. These women question U.S. armed services. the model of top down social control, often endorsed as a How could an active-duty servicewoman find her bottom line requirement of public safety by officials and political home in WILPF? candidates for office. These women, on the other hand, are As an African-American woman, Asha is bull’s eye actively seeking and inventing new techniques that incorpo- center for the U.S. military’s recruitment strategy which rate ideas from human rights, trauma recovery and non-vio- targets black women and Latino men. She’s also at the lent communication. It is not a big leap from their ideas crux of ongoing struggles to define the appropriate mean- about public safety to WILPF’s ideas about human security. ing and implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325, which mandates greater gender sensitivity in the Add Your Two CENTS delivery of humanitarian aid and more female representa- Since the mid-1980s, WILPF U.S. has encouraged its tion in peace negotiations and peace keeping. And this is members and government officials to think about human Asha’s vision for her service in the military – to make security rather than national pride and border defense. This peace. In order to pursue that goal, Asha is using aid from year, we’ve joined WILPF International in launching a the armed services to augment the fellowship she’s been new initiative, Changing Every Nation’s Thinking about awarded by Columbia University. This fall she began a Security (CENTS), which uses a human rights legal frame- graduate program in International and Public Affairs at work to leverage cuts in military spending. We all know Columbia. that military spending is the biggest barrier preventing our Many in WILPF were excited when the first all government from fulfilling the economic human rights of female-peacekeeping brigade was organized by India for people living in the United States. CENTS challenges us to service as part of the U.N.’s mission to Liberia in 2007, understand how human rights legal mechanisms can be and buoyed when this same strategy was used in assem- used to pressure the U.S. Congress and the U.N. in very bling the Bangladeshi unit dispatched to Haiti this spring. strategic and focused ways. But, as all WILPF sections and At the same time, WILPF sections in Europe have become members internationally work simultaneously, using this increasingly enraged by government attempts to co-op the same strategy, we hope that together our efforts can lead to gender equity provisions of SCR1325 as rationale for a demonstrable reduction in military spending by a majori- recruiting more women into the armed services. WILPF’s ty of the U.N. member states by 2015. position is that SCR1325 requires a whole new approach to resolving the inequalities that constitute the root causes Continued on page 10 ® Peace & Freedom Fall 2010 3 U.S. Military Plans Mega-Base for Guam (Guahan) Women Organizers Lead Opposition By Christina Illarmo he women of Guahan are worried. Most of the den” for the people of Okinawa. To this end, an agreement world knows our homeland as “Guam,” a name was made to reassign thousands of Marines stationed in Tloaded with heavy connotations of U.S. militarism. Okinawa to Guahan. When this agreement was signed not But for us, Guahan, (which means “we have” in our a single person from Guahan was present. Our local lead- Chamoru language) is a name that resonates with all that is ers were not consulted and when they voiced concerns precious: a 4,000 year-old matrilineal culture, close family they were summarily dismissed. It is worthwhile mention- ties, and a deep respect for the island’s natural resources. ing that recent reports indicate that this transfer of Marines To the U.S., we are a colony and potential mega-base that from Okinawa to Guahan will not reduce the collective will house the largest amount of weaponry in the Pacific. military burden in Okinawa. While Okinawa, Hawai’i, Everything we hold dear is now at stake as the proposed California, the Philippines, and South Korea have refused military plans include the destruction of 71 acres of reef to to allow the construction of additional military bases, we berth a nuclear aircraft carrier, which would turn a sacred were never asked. archeological site into a live-fire shooting range. The plans would also bring an influx of 79,000 new residents (a 45 percent increase to the overall population), all of which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said will fur- ther damage our strained infrastructure by depleting our fresh water source and contaminating our oceans with raw sewage.