September 6th  marks the 150th anniversary of Jane Addams' birth. The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom celebrates the life and legacy of Jane with the launch of the Advancing Women as Peacemakers tour.
 
The tour features international women peace activists who link Addams' role as peacemaker with current efforts by the United Nations to empower women.

Addams, creator of the first settlement house serving the poor in Chicago, led an effort to stop World War I in 1915 by traveling to Europe and meeting with women from opposing sides of the conflict at The Hague, Holland. In 1919, she became the first president of what has become the oldest women's peace organization in the world:  The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

In addition, October 30th is the 10th anniversary of the UN Security Council's commitment to support women's participation in ending war and creating sustainable peace (SCR 1325).  By linking Addams' sesquicentennial with current efforts of women worldwide to end violence, WILPF will highlight the essential roles women perform as global caregivers, mediators and negotiators, and political leaders. On this tour, women from central Africa, India and Colombia will meet with U.S. women who are struggling for justice in their own communities.  An outcome of the Advancing Women as Peacemakers initiative is to develop a U.S. action plan for the implementation of SCR 1325 and present it to the UN Commission on the Status of Women when it meets in New York early next year.

In this issue:

• Advancing Women as Peacemakers Calendar of Events
• The Whistleblower Premiers in Toronto
• 10 Years after SCR 1325
• Celebrate Jane by Reading
• Be a Peacemaker - Protest Vandenberg Missile Test

Advancing Women as Peacemakers Calendar of Events

September 2010

6th: Jane Addams's 150th Birthday!

7th:  11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cake and Ice Cream Party at the Lion's Den, Rockford College, Rockford IL.

8th: 12 to 1 p.m. Birthday Bash sponsored by the Hull House Association, Daley Plaza, 50 West Washington Street, Chicago, IL.

10th: 4 to 6:15 p.m. Celebration of Women as Peacemakers at the Lola Maverick Lloyd House, 455 Birch St. followed (at 6:30) by book signing at the Bookstall at Chestnut Court, 811 Elm St., Winnetka, with Louise W. Knight, author of Spirit In Action, a new biography of Jane Addams.  

11th: 10 am, Louise W. Knight reads from Spirit in Action, Community Meeting Room, Main Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., Evanston, IL. 

12th: 7 p.m., Terry Greenblatt (Urgent Action Fund for Women) speaks on "Global Women's Activism: Navigating the Road to Peace at the Speed of Non-Violence," Friends Meeting House, Boulder, CO.

13th: 6 p.m., Launch of Spirit in Action, Louise Knight's new biography of Jane Addams, Demos, New York, NY.

16th: 7:30 p.m., Talk and Book Signing with Louise Knight, Arcadia University, Philadelphia, PA

21st: 12 noon, Lucinda Marshall (Feminist Peace Network) celebrates International Day of Peace at Mount Mary College, Wauwatosa, WI.

24th:  12 noon, "From Hull House to Human Rights: A Jane Addams Symposium," Center for Work Education, City University of New York, NYC.

October 2010

17th: 3 p.m., Louise Knight: remarks on Addams and the early history of the women's peace movement, Borders Bookstore, Palo Alto, CA

18th: 7 p.m., Screening of Pray the Devil Back to Hell followed by discussion with WILPF International  President Annelise Ebbe, Cape Cod Cultural Center, Yarmouth, MA.

19th: 7 p.m., Louise Knight reads from Spirit in Action, Books Inc., Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Street, San Francisco, CA

November 2010

9th: 7 p.m., Louise Knight, Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Avenue, across from Cleveland State University, Cleveland Heights, OH.

Additional events planned for Boston (MA), Monterey (CA), New York City (NY), Palo Alto (CA), Portland (OR), Sacramento (CA), San Francisco (CA), San Jose (CA), Wellesley (MA)

The Whistleblower Premiers in Toronto

Poster for The Whistleblower

The Whistleblower, a film about a female UN Peacekeeper in Bosnia who uncovers a sex-trafficking ring and its connection to the UN, is due to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13.

Madeleine Rees, now the WILPF International Secretary General, was then head of the office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bosnia.  She demanded that colleagues involved in the sex trade in Bosnia, including some UN officials, international peacekeepers and police, be stripped of their immunity and prosecuted.  She accused Jacques Paul Klein, the former head of the UN Mission in Bosnia, of not taking the UN's complicity in the country's increasing sex trade seriously enough.  In the movie, Madeleine is played by Vanessa Redgrave. Speaking about The Whistleblower, Madeleine says "This is not a film about prostitution. There is an important role for WILPF to play in following up on the issues raised by the film: post conflict militarization, marginalization and exclusion of women, corruption and exploitation."

Click here to go to the page about the movie on the Toronto International Film Festival's website.

10 Years after SCR 1325: Conflict Prevention Mechanisms

On September 2, 2010, Mary Robinson (Realizing Rights, Council of Elders), Bineta Diop (Femmes Africa Solidarité) and Nyaradzayi Gumbonzyanda (World YWCA) critically discussed the concept of conflict prevention under Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325, and the local, national, regional and international mechanisms which should be linked with prevention strategies. The event "10 years after UN SCR 1325: Conflict Prevention Mechanisms," was attended by over eighty representatives from Member State delegation, the UN and civil society and chaired by Madeleine Rees (left, in photo), Secretary General of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Read more here.

Celebrate Jane by Reading

Louise Knight in the garden at Hull House Photo Credit: Joseph Barabe

Celebrate Jane by reading Louise Knight's new biography Spirit in Action.

The first new biography in nearly forty years, Knight brings a 21st century consciousness to her exploration of Addams's work and ideas. Spirit in Action has been published just in time for Jane's sesquicentennial.

"Addams did not define peace as the absence of war, she defined it as, "the unfolding of worldwide processes making for the nurture of human life," Knight said in an interview with Voice of America.  Addams' commitment to the needs of others and her international efforts for peace was recognized in 1931 when she became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Gloria Steinem writes about Spirit in Action: "Jane Addams lives in these pages. So does her work and wisdom on such ongoing concerns as immigration, the intertwined restrictions of sex and race, striving for peace in a nation at war, and acting locally while thinking globally. Thanks to Louise Knight, we can meet an experienced organizer and a friend we need right now."

Read the Chicago Tribune review of Spirit in Action here.

Be a Peacemaker - Protest Vandenberg Missile Test

Protest the launch of a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from Vandenberg Airforce Base to the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands. The protest and vigil will begin at 11:45 p.m. on Sept. 14 and will last 90 minutes (until 1:30 am on Sept. 15. We will assemble at the front gate of the Vandenberg base, across from Vandenberg middle school, six miles north of Lompoc in Santa Barbara County (CA). There will be a charter bus from several pick up points in Northern CA. For up to the minute details or to reserve space on the bus, check MacGregor Eddy's blog.

Although the test missile will not be armed, the development of thermonuclear warhead delivery systems (ICBM's) is illegal under Article VI of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.