WLOE E-Newsletter March 4, 2003

International Women's Day; DAWN's call to resist the war against Iraq; Articles on the Bush & co. war plans

Women and Life on Earth is an international, multi-lingual project on women and peace, globalization and ecology. Our website is being woven at www.wloe.org If you are receiving our e-newsletter for the first time, welcome!  For comments, or to be removed from our list (which is never shared or passed on), send a return message.

• INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, MARCH 8:  Encircling the White House for Peace     
  
  On International Women’s Day, thousands of women and men from all walks of life will converge on Washington, DC for a women-led rally and march to encircle the White House for peace. For information on this and a series of women’s peace events March 3 – 9., see the Women’s Vigil Website or the Code Pink Website.”
  
  
• DAWN's Call to Resist the War against Iraq
  
  (DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES WITH WOMEN FOR A NEW ERA is a network of women scholars and activists from the economic South who engage in feminist research and analysis of the global environment and are committed to working for economic justice, gender justice and democracy. See their website at: http://www.dawn.org.fj/
  DAWN pays tribute to the millions of people who have gone out into the streets to demonstrate their stand for peace, most recently those who turned out on 15 and 16 February 2003 in over 600 cities worldwide, including Adelaide, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Sydney, Berlin, London, Rome, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Penang, Lahore and 20 other Pakistan cities, Manila, New York, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Suva, and Warsaw. DAWN shares the understanding that any war against Iraq is not about weapons of mass destruction or any of the other stated rationales, but about imperial greed and the abuse of human rights and power.
  DAWN calls upon all women and men
  ** in all war-mongering countries to continue holding their representatives fully accountable, including through campaigns pledging not to vote for individual politicians and political parties that have sought to justify and support unilateralism and preemptive attack instead of genuine multilateralism and the rule of law; and
  ** worldwide, to insist on the disarmament of all States and a total ban on arms sales.
  ** To resist patriarchal intolerance and all types of reactionary backlash against citizens rights, especially women's reproductive and sexual rights, as these are linked to militarism and fundamentalism.
  We want a world where equity, equality, diversity and genuine peace reign.
  DAWN condemns all leaders and governments that brutalize citizens, violate human rights, disregard international law, and use violence and destructive weapons as a currency of power. This condemnation extends to the Iraqi Government and Saddam Hussein, and even more so to the leaders of the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and others in the so-called Coalition of the Willing, who aided and abetted Saddam in the past and now propose to ignore majority public opinion to launch an unjustifiable war against the Iraqi people. We say "No to war, even as a last resort!"   
  
  
• NEW ARTICLES ON THE BUSH & CO. WAR PLANS – AND WHAT WE CAN DO TO OPPOSE THEM
  
  So Bush Wants Civil Disobedience? By Naomi Klein, AlterNet ,March 3, 2003
  “… During the Vietnam War, thousands of young Americans decided to break with their leaders when their draft cards arrived. And it was this willingness to go beyond protest and into active disobedience that slowly eroded the domestic viability of the war. What will today's conscientious objectors and military deserters look like? Well, all week in Italy, activists have been blocking dozens of trains carrying U.S. weapons and personnel on their way to a military base near Pisa, while Italian dockworkers are refusing to load arms shipments. Last weekend, two U.S. military bases were blockaded in Germany, as was the U.S. consulate in Montreal, and the air base at RAF Fairford in Gloucester, England. This coming Saturday, thousands of Irish activists are expected to show up at Shannon airport, which, despite Irish claims of neutrality, is being used by the U.S. military to refuel its planes en route to Iraq…”
  Read full story at: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15293
  Naomi Klein is the author of "No Logo and Fences and Windows." Her column appears in Globe and Mail.
  
  Personal Voices: Time For a New Anti-War Message By Karin Rosman, AlterNet, March 3, 2003
  …”My biggest problem with the peace movement's pro-inspections message is that it accepts the Bush administration's version of events – that UN inspections are about preventing terrorism by an evil dictator. Saddam's weapons were never the real issue behind Bush's drive to war… The peace movement needs not only to paint a vision of a better world, it needs to propose a strategy for achieving it…Because hope is something you do, not something you have, the American people have to be involved in building it. How? By campaigning to make our country independent of Mideast oil while creating millions of jobs in the new clean energy economy…” Read full text at: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15285
  Karin Rosman is an educational consultant in El Cerrito, California.
  
  
• WHAT WE CAN DO
  We have received several requests to send e-mails to UN Security Council offices, urging them to vote NO on any second resolution or approval of an attack on Iraq. The simplest of these is the following, so let’s:
  
  Flood The U.N. Offices With NO WAR eMails
  Simply copy and paste -- NO WAR -- VETO USA / UK into the subject line, and in the email body itself.
  Next: Simply copy and paste these email addresses into your BCC:
  france-presse@un.int, rusun@un.int, uk@un.int, chinamission_un@fmprc.gov.cn, bulgaria@un.int, info@cameroonmission.org, guinea@un.int, mexico@un.int, syria@un.int, ang-un@angolamissionun.org, chile@un.int, Pakistan@un.int, spain@spainun.org, contact@germany-un.org
  Please do this daily -- It will only take you one minute. And pass it on.
  
  A member of Women in Black UK wants to work with others on Depleted Uranium. This is her email address if anyone would like to make contact.lila.patel@ntlworld.com
  *********************************************************************************************
  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.