OMNI
UNITED NATIONS International Women's
Day (UNIWD) NEWSLETTER #8, March 8, 2021.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and
Ecology.
See: OMNI
Gender Justice Newsletter and OMNI Women’s Equality Day/19th Amendment
Day, August 26
2021
The
little-known radical history of International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is celebrated with everything from
flowers to breakfast. But the holiday started with a 1907 labor strike.
By Eleri Harris Mar 8,
2021, 9:10am
https://www.vox.com/identities/2021/3/8/22318412/international-womens-day-history-2021-strike
office.
Eleri Harris (she/her) is
a multi-award-winning cartoonist and editor living and working in
Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @elerimai.
Celebrating
International Women's Day! 3-8-21
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Shauna
Scherer, Population Connection <vp@populationconnection.org>
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12:12 PM (45 minutes ago)
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Dick,
Today, we’re celebrating women
by fighting for reproductive health care access around the world. The
ability to decide whether and when to have a child is fundamental to
improving people’s lives, while protecting our planet from rapid population
growth.
That’s why I hope you’ll join
us again to advance family planning programs for people around the world,
with your generous gift of $35.00.
Your continued support will
boost our collaborations with foreign health organizations in the
developing world. Today, I’d like to honor one inspiring woman who leads
Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka.
Dr. Gladys and CTPH keep
Uganda’s endangered mountain gorillas healthy and safe in Bwindi
Impenetrable National Park by addressing the public health needs of the
human communities surrounding the park. They improve infectious disease
control and community hygiene practices, while providing education
and access to modern family planning.
Rapid human population growth
at the edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park threatened the health and
homes of the mountain gorillas that live in the park. Gorilla habitats were
being destroyed by too many people drawing on the forest’s resources for
their survival. People’s encroachment into the park exposed gorillas to
human illnesses and diseases.
Dr. Gladys, a wildlife
veterinarian, saw a solution: CTPH initiated voluntary family
planning programs, in addition to other public health initiatives,
which have reduced the Bwindi region fertility rate, helping local people
and gorillas to live more harmoniously.
Thanks to your support, we’ve
been able to collaborate with CTPH since 2015.
That’s why I hope you’ll
consider making a generous gift of $35.00 today. Your donation will advance
vital relationships with community-based organizations such as CTPH in Uganda.
Human population growth remains
one of the most staggering challenges facing our planet today. But, thanks
to you, and with the work of visionary women like Dr. Gladys, we can make
progress!
So, please, consider making
your generous donation of $35.00 today to support these efforts and more.
Your gift will be doubled by our generous matching gift sponsor!
With many thanks, Shauna Scherer
VP for Marketing and Development
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2020
US Peace
Prize Awarded to Christine Ahn
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Michael
D. Knox, US Peace Memorial Foundation via gmail.mcsv.net 10-14-20
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12:22
PM (3 hours ago)
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Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser
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Christine Ahn
Awarded
US PEACE PRIZE
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The 2020 US Peace Prize has been awarded to the
Honorable Christine Ahn, “for bold activism to end the
Korean War, heal its wounds, and promote women’s roles in
building peace.”
 Michael Knox, Chair of the
Foundation, thanked Christine for her “outstanding leadership and activism to
end the Korean War and halt militarism on the Korean
Peninsula. We applaud your tireless work to involve more women
in peace building. Your efforts over the last two decades are greatly
appreciated in the U.S. and around the world. Thank you for your
service.”
In response to her selection, Ms. Ahn commented, “On behalf of
Women Cross DMZ and all the courageous women
who are working to end the Korean War, thank you for this
tremendous honor. It is especially significant to receive this award in
the 70th anniversary of the Korean War — a war that claimed
four million lives, destroyed 80 percent of North Korean cities, separated
millions of Korean families, and still divides the Korean
people by the De-militarized Zone (DMZ), which in reality
is among the most militarized borders in the world.
Sadly, the Korean War is known as the 'Forgotten War' in the United
States, even though it continues to this day. That’s
because the U.S. government refuses to negotiate a peace
agreement with North Korea while continuing to wage a brutal war of
sanctions against innocent North
Korean people and impede reconciliation between the two
Koreas. Not only is the Korean War the longest standing overseas U.S.
conflict, it is the war that inaugurated the U.S. military industrial complex
and put the United States on the path to become the world’s
military police.”
Read her full remarks and see photos and more details
at: www.USPeacePrize.org. You
are invited to attend a virtual event on November 11 with Medea Benjamin and
Gloria Steinem celebrating Ms. Ahn and her work with Women
Cross DMZ.
In addition to receiving the US Peace Prize, our highest honor, Ms.
Ahn has been designated a Founding Member of the US Peace Memorial
Foundation. She joins previous US Peace Prize recipients Ajamu
Baraka, David Swanson, Ann Wright, Veterans For Peace, Kathy Kelly,
CODEPINK Women for Peace, Chelsea Manning, Medea Benjamin, Noam Chomsky,
Dennis Kucinich, and Cindy Sheehan.
The US Peace Memorial Foundation directs a nationwide effort to honor
Americans who stand for peace by publishing the US Peace Registry,
awarding the annual US Peace Prize, and planning for the US Peace Memorial in Washington, DC. We
celebrate these role models to inspire other Americans to speak out against
war and to work for peace. CLICK HERE TO JOIN US!
Thank you very much for your support.
Lucy, Medea, Margaret, Jolyon, and Michael
Board of Directors
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DONATE ⋅ FOLLOW THE UN FOUNDATION
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UNFPA ramps up support
for women, girls during outbreak
The
United Nations Population Fund is ramping up supports for women and
girls as the coronavirus pandemic limits access to sexual and
reproductive health care and increases the risk of domestic
violence, says UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem. "We
must not forget that there are people we may not immediately see,
who are at great risk as a result of the consequences of the
crisis," Kanem says.
Full
Story: The Associated Press (3/28), India Blooms News Service (3/28)
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Happy
International Women's Day
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Restore
Humanity via gmail.mcsv.net
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Sun, Mar 8, 2020 11:21 AM (12 days ago)
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HELP US PROVIDE MAXI-PADS
FOR 1000 KENYAN GIRLS FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR!
Today is International
Women’s Day and we want to celebrate all women across the globe! The
women of Restore Humanity believe the best way to celebrate
International Women's Day is for each of us to look at other women and
find out what they really need--and then find effective ways to help
provide it.
Here in the US our focus tends to be on the necessity for our equality,
respect, and opportunity--and rightfully so! However, we are remiss if
we fail to notice the huge chasm between groups of women when it comes
to more basic needs. And what could be more basic, or more of a woman’s
issue than our periods?
While “lady-time” is no
picnic for anyone, for millions of women and girls worldwide it means
so much more than discomfort. Millions of women and girls do not have
access to maxi pads or tampons at all simply because they cannot afford
them. However, every woman knows that nature will still take its course
and “Aunt Flo” is coming whether you want her to or not. So
unfortunately these girls and women have to use things like mud,
sticks, leaves, pieces of a foam mattress, or old rags to try to manage
their cycles. Not only do these things not work, they sometimes cause
harmful infections.
The statistics are
staggering. For example, some estimates say that the average girl in
Kenya misses 4.9 days of
school every month, every single month of the school year. That means
they’re missing at least 20% of their school year due to lack of maxi
pads! That is just unacceptable. Period.
In 2012 I met with the
girl students at Sirembe Secondary School (In Kenya) to talk about life
and being a girl. At some point our discussion turned to the issue of
schoolgirls having sex with older men, which is a problem for many
reasons, not the least of which is the rapid spread of HIV. I asked
them why girls were doing this and the first answer I got was “they do
it to get money to buy things like maxi pads.” My jaw hit the floor. As
I was leaving I asked them if there was one thing that I could do to
help them, what would it be? Unanimously they said “Please buy us maxi
pads.”
Since then Restore
Humanity has provided maxi pads for the girls at Sirembe Secondary
School, even as their population has continued to grow rapidly (to over
700 girls). While getting them pads was the most important thing, the
impact on the environment was always in the back of our mind. The
plastic in maxi pads is non-biodegradable which means they stay in
landfills for about 800 years! So if we buy pads for 700 girls each
month, and if each girl uses that pack of 12 every month, that is 8,400
pads thrown away each month and 100,800 per year from just one high
school in rural Kenya! (432 million pads are
disposed of each month globally).
The good news is that 3
years ago we found a better way! An incredible social business in
Uganda called Afripads makes
reusable maxi pads that last for an entire year and they are amazing!
They employ 150 people in Uganda and upwards of 90% of them are women
(in all levels of the business). They partner with nonprofits and
women’s groups and have reached over 3.5 million women and girls with
their products! (Watch the video below to learn more!)
Another exciting
development is that Afripads is offering a special “schoolgirl
menstrual kit” which has five pads (instead of four) including one for
light days. They changed up their original product based on the
feedback of school girls and we are excited to get this improved
product to our girls! This packet costs around $5 and it lasts for an
entire year. I have tested them out myself and they are really
comfortable, they actually work really well, and they’re also really
easy to wash and take care of! There are so many reasons why we love
this program and here are just a few:
1. We help girls
be safe, stay in school, and manage their periods with confidence and
comfort.
2. We help the
environment in a big way.
3. We support a
social business in Africa that employs over 150 women.
4. AND it is cheaper!
We now spend around $5.00 per girl per year and we were spending
$12.00.
So pretty much it is a win, win, win, win. How could it
get any better than that?!?
HERE IS WHERE YOU COME IN
We want to buy 1000
packets of Afripads at the end of this month for girls 7th-12th grade
in Sirembe and at least one other secondary school in the area (high
school). Again, this packet will last these girls ALL YEAR!
We need to raise $5,000
by March 31st.
We have raised $1,400 of
our goal so far and only have $3,600 to go!
DONATE HERE
$25—COVERS 5 GIRLS FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR
$50—COVERS 10 GIRLS FOR
AN ENTIRE YEAR
$100—COVERS 20 GIRLS FOR
AN ENTIRE YEAR
$500—COVERS 100 GIRLS!!
DONATE HERE
Please watch this video
below to learn more about our partner Afripads!
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Copyright © 2020 Restore Humanity, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you have opted in.
Our mailing address is:
Restore Humanity
1655 Woolsey Ave
Fayetteville, AR 72701
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“The Political Economy of Women’s Liberation:
Margaret Benston & and the Rise of Social Reproduction Theory. “ Monthly Review (September 2019). Special Number of 5
articles and a poem.
2018
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WAND Celebrates International Women’s Day! 2018
Dear Dick,
WAND knows that if the world is have peace more women
need to be in the seats of
power at every level of government. That is why we are working to elect
progressive women to public office in 2018. Our job is to educate women
about
issues they won’t read about in the mainstream media. As our country is
about to
embark on a new nuclear arms race, we need to know who is profiting
from the
manufacture and maintenance of the most lethal weapons man has ever
Invented.
That is why we are forwarding this article
We especially honor today a woman who is challenging the world to end
the nuclear
nightmare and Ban the Bomb once and for all. Beatrice Fihn is Executive
Director of
the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
(ICAN).
Read more about Beatrice Fihn and the Campaign on our Facebook page and in this article at Common
Dreams.
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Copyright © 2018 Arkansas WAND, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you have subscribed to the
Arkansas WAND mailing list.
Our mailing address is:
Arkansas WAND
2510 Hidden Valley Drive
Little Rock, Arkansas 72212
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The Fate of the Earth Depends on Women
How a feminist foreign policy can save us from nuclear weapons.
https://www.thenation.com/article/nuclear-prohibition-beatrice-fihn/
Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and
explore the world with kindred spirits.
On October 20, President
Trump announced that the United States would pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty after
more than 30 years. In doing so, he ended an agreement that abolished an entire
class of nuclear weapons and recklessly pushed us to the brink of a new Cold
War. He’s brought us back to a time when the United States and Russia could
develop and expand their nuclear arsenals without restraint.
Trump’s decision is a
wake-up call as much as it’s a clarion call. It highlights the flaws of a
system in which one man can determine our collective fate, and makes clear why
all nations need to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was
adopted by 122 countries at the United Nations last year. By banning nuclear
weapons under international law, we can still pull the hand brake on a new arms
race.
In a series for The New Yorker, Jonathan Schell wrote a masterpiece on
the horrors of nuclear war. Schell’s series was such a tour de force that when
it was published as a book, The Fate of the Earth,
in 1982, The New York Times wrote: “It accomplishes what no other work has
managed to do in the 37 years of the nuclear age. It compels us, and compel is
the right word, to confront head on the nuclear peril in which we all find
ourselves.” Schell embedded his argument against nuclear weapons in human
stories. As with climate change, simply explaining the basic facts rarely
provokes action. Talking about the absurd number of nuclear weapons challenges
people only to reduce stockpiles, but describing what the fire following a
nuclear blast felt like at Hiroshima and Nagasaki makes us realize that these
are weapons of mass slaughter.
The breakthrough for
the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came after we showed political
leaders the faulty foundations of the realpolitik arguments underpinning the
nuclear world order. When it comes to doomsday weapons, the supposed realists
ignore reality. Reality like the 7,000-degree-Fahrenheit ground temperature in Nagasaki after
an American B-29 bomber dropped “Fat Man” on the city in August 1945, or the
radioactive rain that poured down later. Reality like the people in Hiroshima
crying out for help, although none was forthcoming because 42 of the city’s 45
hospitals had been instantly destroyed, and 90 percent of the doctors and
nurses killed or injured. Or reality like the testimony from inhabitants of the
Marshall Islands, where the United States conducted 67 nuclear blasts. One
resident, Dretin Jokdru, recalled trying to survive on fish: “We
got sick from them, like when your arms and legs fall asleep and you can’t feel
anything. We’d get up in the morning to go to our canoes and fall over because
we were so ill. We were dying.”
When
faced with these realities, the insanity of what we have done for the last 73
years becomes hard to ignore. Recognizing the threat to humanity from climate
change, ecological destruction, and nuclear weapons, we ask: “What is the fate
of the earth?” I’d answer that by borrowing from former secretary of state
Hillary Clinton: “The fate of women is the fate of the earth, and the fate of
the earth is the fate of women.” To state this more explicitly: The survival of
the human species depends on women wresting power from men. For too long, we
have left foreign policy to a small number of men, and look where it has gotten
us. MORE
https://www.thenation.com/article/nuclear-prohibition-beatrice-fihn/
Roughly 1,000 miles west of New York
City, a radioactive by-product of the Manhattan Project pollutes the air, soil,
and water. Now where do you picture a pile of carcinogenic waste from the
government’s most famous science project being stored? It’s not buried
underground or contained within a lead-lined storage tank; it’s not in a
secured government facility. It isn’t even in some remote field. No, this waste sits within the city limits of St. Louis, Missouri. When
a handful of St. Louis moms, families, and neighbors began experiencing headaches,
nosebleeds, and breathing problems one winter, they identified the problem and
organized. Now a bunch of moms in St. Louis are a regular feature at the State
Capitol, lobbying their representatives to clean up the mess that is killing
their community. They fittingly called their group Just Moms, and they are only
one example of the women around the world leading the charge to fix the
problems created by men.
Even if these weapons
are never used—which, by the way, is unlikely—they still harm people. In Texas,
contract workers at the Pantex Plant are removing plutonium cores from nuclear weapons by hand.
Why? Because they need to make room for a new generation of even more lethal
nuclear weapons. The United States is scheduled to spend at least $1.7 trillion
updating its arsenal, because our leaders are locked in an archaic view of
national security—one that believes against all reason that terror provides
safety.
Since
the dawn of the nuclear age, many serious men have said that we need to get rid
of these weapons, but they have lacked the vision, creativity, and strength to
do so. We can no longer leave it to the same men who created these problems to
solve them. As with so many issues, the consequences of men’s nuclear hubris
fall disproportionately on women. Women in Hiroshima and Nagasaki die from
cancer at twice the rate of men due to ionizing-radiation exposure. Findings
from Chernobyl indicate that girls are considerably more likely than boys to
develop thyroid cancer from nuclear fallout. Pregnant women exposed to nuclear
radiation face a greater likelihood of delivering children with physical
malformations or stillbirths, leading to increased maternal mortality. Near the
Semipalatinsk nuclear-testing site in Kazakhstan, one out of every 20 babies is
born with serious deformities. These effects will last for generations. MORE https://www.thenation.com/article/nuclear-prohibition-beatrice-fihn/
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Teen girls take on the
world:
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Bailey Leuschen, the UN Foundation
2-11-18 <donation@unfoundation.org>
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2:30
PM (2 hours ago)
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to me
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Dick -- on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, I thought
you might like to see the impact of Girl Up and the UN Foundation’s work
in action: the Women in Science (WiSci)
STEAM camp.
Every girl should be able to pursue her dreams in any field she decides,
but right now there are barriers for girls in the STEAM fields (science,
technology, engineering, arts and design, and mathematics).
That’s why Girl Up is partnering with the U.S. State Department,
Intel, Google, and several local partners to help close the gender gap
and increase opportunities for girls in STEAM education.
Working directly with the girls was the highlight of my year. Through
access to education, mentorship opportunities, and leadership training,
Girl Up’s WiSci STEAM camp promotes gender equality and empowering teen
girls all over the world.
But don't take my word for it, Dick. See for yourself:
Thanks for supporting our work,
Bailey
Bailey Leuschen
Program Officer, Girl Up
United Nations Foundation
P.S. Applications are still open for our 2018 WiSci camp in
Namibia! Share this exciting opportunity
with a teen you know >>
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2017
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Democracy Now! Daily Digest
A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman &
Juan González
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Women's Antiwar Diplomacy During the Vietnam War
Book:
Women's Antiwar Diplomacy
During the Vietnam War
http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/2157
Jessica M. Frazier
Reviewer: Dr Jon Coburn
(Also review in Peace & Change Journal, October 2017)
Date accessed: 23 October, 2017
Jessica M.
Frazier’s Women’s Antiwar Diplomacy During the Vietnam
War Era illuminates a consistently overlooked feature of
anti-war activism; the transnational exchanges and relationships forged between
US women and their Vietnamese counterparts. In addition to enhancing the
historical status of such endeavours, Frazier explores the impact these
exchanges had on the women who took part. Covering the period from 1965 to
1978, she counters traditional depictions of US feminists’ cultural
imperialism, instead arguing that women ‘crossed geopolitical boundaries to
criticize American Cold War culture, not promote it’ (p. 3).
Women’s Antiwar Diplomacy makes three
important observations; 1) it demonstrates that exchanges with Vietnamese women
influenced the development of feminist thought in the US; 2) it shows how
anti-war activists created space for political action, undercutting the
authority of government while successfully performing citizen diplomacy; and 3)
in doing so, it explains how US women used the otherwise divisive Vietnam War
to form ‘effective transnational relationships on genuinely cooperative terms’.
Although avoiding a couple of avenues for further analysis, Women’s Antiwar Diplomacy is a worthy addition to
historiography of the Vietnam War.
Frazier’s
persuasive and compelling account must be read in conjunction with the work of
Mary Hershberger and Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (1), who both chart how US
activists engaged with Vietnam during the war. Wu’s explication of ‘radical
orientalism’ evidently influenced Frazier’s argument in particular (p. 4) and
both effectively demonstrate how US women admired their Vietnamese colleagues
while criticizing the reactionary imperialism of their own country.
Women’s Antiwar Diplomacy differs in
two significant ways. First, while Frazier’s work is somewhat more descriptive,
she provides insight into specific trips and instances of citizen diplomacy
currently lacking from Vietnam War historiography. Her discussions of Women
Strike for Peace’s (WSP) 1965 Jakarta Meeting, the 1968 Conference of Concerned
Women, and the 1971 Indochinese Women’s Conference highlight overlooked but
decisive acts of citizen diplomacy conducted by women during the war. Coverage
of POW release and the sterling work of the Committee of Liaison with Families
of Servicemen Detained in North Vietnam (COLIAFAM) restrains acknowledgment of
North Vietnamese torture (p. 127), but demonstrates how women secured the trust
of the DRV and could ‘gain more information on the POW issue’ than government
officials and diplomats (p. 51). Additionally, Frazier brings neglected
historical figures into the foreground, illuminating the transnational activism
of Diane Nash, Anne McGrew Bennett, Elizabeth Sutherland Martinez, Elaine
Brown, and Cora Weiss among others.
Second, Frazier expands her analysis to demonstrate how US women’s
political views evolved as a result of these encounters. The influence of
leftist activism and the anti-war movement on the development of women’s
liberation has been noted at length, but Frazier takes this a step further. She
notes that Vietnamese women, ‘as both subjects and objects, helped to mold
American feminisms’ directly (p. 4). Crucially, Frazer explains that the
feminist movement must not be depicted as a monolith, but as a conglomeration
of various outlooks. As such, different women drew different conclusions from
the example of Vietnamese women. Women Strike for Peace activists idolized
their Vietnamese counterparts, but developed feminist consciousness and new
perceptions of maternal roles when they witnessed mothers taking up arms to
defend their children. Women of color viewed the Vietnamese both as
revolutionary exemplars and feminine role models. Women’s liberationists
meanwhile, perceived the legal, economic, and social rights enjoyed by women in
Vietnam as exactly the gains they wished to achieve in the US. http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/2157
The book’s
opening vignette evocatively frames the study with Frazier explaining that ‘a
single photograph provides one of the few pieces of evidence’ of the historic
1965 trip to North Vietnam by Women Strike for Peace (WSP) activists Mary
Clarke and Lorraine Gordon (p. 1). The first two chapters concentrate on the
role played by self-described ‘mothers,’ with WSP as a key feature. Here, Women’s Antiwar Diplomacy offers a comprehensive
assessment of maternal politics. Frazier demonstrates how visitors’ status as
mothers helped them find common ground with their hosts while also stymying
criticism back home (p. 26). Maternal identity created political space through
which women could subvert the authority of the government.
Yet Frazier importantly highlights that ‘maternalism was both a
tool and a reality’ (p. 33). WSPers created a sympathetic image of Vietnamese
women by highlighting their similarities to ‘ordinary’ American housewives and
mothers, but when facing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the
aftermath of their trip, they distinguished themselves as ‘the only group of
American women who have had the opportunity to speak with “the other side”’ (p.
16).
Frazier also shows that conceptions of motherhood were not static.
She documents the change in attitudes well, particularly when explaining
ongoing tensions between nonviolent motherhood and violent resistance on behalf
of children. Encounters with Vietnamese women exposed members of WSP to new
perspectives of gender roles as they heard from mothers willingly fighting for
their children (p. 11). As Frazier writes, the Jakarta excursion was a
transformative moment in WSP’s history, changing activists’ definitions of
femininity, motherhood, and perspectives on pacifism (p. 28). An additionally
important feature of transnational exchanges was the manipulation of Vietnamese
womanhood in order to suit domestic US audiences (p. 15).
Use of the term ‘citizen diplomats’ necessitates caution,
especially as the extent to which activists derived authority to speak on
behalf of their respective nation is complicated. Nevertheless, Frazier makes a
convincing argument that transnational exchanges were diplomatic missions. By
depicting such meetings, she shows the significance of women’s intervention in
the Vietnam War. There is deserved coverage of WSP’s historic 1965 meeting with
VWU and WUL activists in Jakarta, highlighting the formality and international
scope of the event and noting that Vietnamese and Indonesian officials
personally endorsed the conference (p. 12). Depicting the 1968 Paris Conference
of Concerned Women, Frazier illustrates US and Vietnamese women’s ability to
set aside their differences and talk peace more quickly than their political
leaders (p. 37). Later, we see the instrumental role played by women in freeing
POW’s and establishing liaison networks with their families through COLIAFAM
(p. 51). During the stalled peace talks in 1972, it was women who ‘took the
place of US diplomats’ by traveling to Paris to keep communication going (p.
115).
Chapters three, four, and five delve into the crux of Frazier’s
argumentation. First, she examines the development of ‘third world’ feminist
networks through the Vietnam War. It is a thorough dissection of how individual
US women from different backgrounds saw their own struggles in the example of
North Vietnamese women and the NLF. Where WSP saw mothers, Mexican-Americans,
African Americans and Asian Americans observed revolutionaries embroiled in a
struggle for liberation against oppressive racist imperialism. The detailed
biographical case studies of Elizabeth Sutherland Martinez, Elaine Brown, and
Pat Sumi demonstrate Frazier’s engaging writing as she shows the powerful
politicizing effect of travel to Vietnam during the war. Each saw the
Vietnamese as examples for those who felt oppressed and isolated in the US, and
they returned home with a heightened awareness for the racism and sexism they
faced.
Chapters four and five further demonstrate that transnational
exchange with Vietnamese women influenced feminist thought and cultivated
anti-imperialist critiques of US politics and society. In one sense, Frazier
makes the practical case that diplomatic conferences transformed women into
confident political leaders (p. 80). Moreover, she persuasively argues that the
Vietnam War generated feminist perspectives on military actions, sparking
debate about the relationship between sexism and imperialism. Here, the book
affirms its central premise, arguing against the decades-long tradition of
historians highlighting ‘instances when white Western women have supported
imperialist endeavours by declaring that women in colonies needed to be saved
from their traditional cultures’ (p. 101). Instead, US women sought
collaboration. For the VWU, NLF, and American activists, US intervention in
Vietnam actually impeded the development of women’s rights and caused
inequality. This, Frazier argues, is an international context that much of
second-wave feminist literature overlooks (p. 80). With US imperialism
recognized as a common enemy, Americans ‘looked to Vietnamese women as the
vanguard in women’s struggle for liberation’ (p. 94).
Women’s Antiwar Diplomacy shows
the extent of such reassessments of US militarism. Anne McGrew Bennett, as a
Christian feminist, began questioning the patriarchal basis of her religion.
‘Could it be,’ she asked, ‘that the drive for dominance, power, control by men
is rooted in an identification of the male sex with attributes of God’ (p.
107). Vietnam also awakened ecofeminism as women connected male-led violence,
chemical warfare in Vietnam, and imperialist destruction of the ecology (p.
48).
Frazier does not depict transnational exchanges as entirely
successful. She notes considerable resistance to women’s involvement in the war
as well as the struggles activists endured in being taken seriously as
spokespeople. In what is probably an unintentional allusion to the contemporary
post-truth climate, Frazier charts Barbara Deming’s difficulties convincing US
audiences that American planes were bombing civilians. Attendees would only
accept her word if she had ‘actually seen any planes in the sky?’ Even
possession of US-made anti-personnel cluster bombs was not enough proof of
wrongdoing (pp. 23–4). Similarly, visitors could expect severe denunciations and
charges of treason, even if deploying their status as ‘ordinary’ mothers.
Still, further rumination on the subsequent public outreach of
these excursions would provide more insight into effectiveness of these
exchanges. Women notably experienced pushback, but how did these exchanges
affect wider public impressions of the Vietnamese? For example, did reports of
strong, independent Vietnamese women reinforce or erode the stereotype of South
East Asian ‘dragon ladies’ (p. 13)?
The final chapter, discussing how the end of US intervention in
Vietnam affected transnational relationships, is an important coda to the
book’s themes. Frazier once again demonstrates her stylistic flair in the
chapter’s opening, deploying an engrossing historical allegory to highlight the
instinctive coordination that women’s groups in different countries developed
during the course of the Vietnam War (p. 122). The chapter documents the
sterling and underreported efforts of Cora Weiss to secure medical aid and
humanitarian attention for the Vietnamese, as well as women who observed
reunification initiatives, adoption programs, POW releases, and the
continuation of war-related violence.
Frazier shows that the rise in humanitarian endeavours provoked
greater scrutiny on the inner workings of Vietnam, while the disappearance of
the ‘common enemy’ in the postwar period caused a divergence in the priorities
of women’s groups. Meanwhile, the chapter weaves the end of the war into the
context of US feminism in the 1970s. UN International Women’s Year in 1975 and
the 1977 National Women’s Conference saw feminists drawn away from anti-war
activism towards the cause of global and domestic women’s rights (p. 134).
Vietnam fell away as a priority. Significantly, when Saigon fell, the
prescribed role of women in the DRV shifted. Nguyen Thi Binh, previously lauded
as an icon by western feminists, was demoted from foreign minister of the PRG
to minister of education. A number of American women, previously admirers of
Vietnamese gender equality, expressed disappointed with the return to sexist
assumptions and emphasis on women’s maternal responsibilities (p. 135).
Frazier’s explanation of shifting alliances in the war’s aftermath
makes explicit an important feature of her argument – that US women did not eulogize
Vietnamese culture and society uncritically. They did not naively venerate
America’s ‘enemies’ simply to highlight their own country’s failures. Their
later criticism of failures to maintain gender equality show this. Instead,
they celebrated Vietnamese culture and gender roles based on a rational
assessment of its merits.
The scope
of Women’s Antiwar Diplomacy is not strictly limited
to American perspectives of transnational exchange. Frazier neatly interweaves
her narrative of US women’s activism with appreciation for the actions of
Vietnamese. She notes that VWU and WUL delegations often had their own
motivations for meeting, often centering on the desire to illustrate their
determination for liberation (p. 14). It is important to acknowledge that such
initiatives were part of Ho Chi Minh and North Vietnam’s broader attempts to
secure international sympathy for their cause, which Frazier mentions on a
number of occasions (p. 99). Similarly, Women’s Antiwar Diplomacy provides
illuminating profiles of Vietnamese women. Frazier importantly highlights the
influence Nguyen Thi Binh had on western feminists, while the biographical
discussion of Ngo Ba Thanh’s anti-war initiatives is a particular highlight of
the book.
Nevertheless, the narrative is predominantly focused on American
activists and would benefit from some more insight into the Vietnamese story.
From the outset Frazier notes that gauging Vietnamese perspectives ‘is more
difficult to determine because US voices dominate most of the available sources’
and the Vietnamese sources that do exist often emerged from ‘those who were
closely connected to the North Vietnamese government and generally agreed with
the official line on the war effort’ (pp. 5–6). Yet some more could be done to
show the extent to which diplomacy was collaborative and a two-way exchange of
ideas while depicting how transnational meets changed the lives and outlooks of
Vietnamese activists. Such a suggestion may run counter to the book’s premise
that US women did not act as cultural imperialists, yet it would further
demonstrate how Vietnamese activists engaged with the wider world. For example,
Frazier touches briefly on the Women’s International Democratic Front (WIDF)
and relations between Vietnamese groups and those in the Eastern bloc. While
very illuminating, mention of this is all too brief. The WIDF is often
discounted from ruminations on Cold War transnational activism (something this
reviewer is guilty of themselves). Extending the discussion to include
Vietnamese relations with groups outside of the US would add enlightening
context.
Reflections
on the Vietnam War frequently acknowledge that the conflict and its legacy
divide society. In contrast, Frazier demonstrates how the war brought people
together across borders. ‘By war’s end,’ she writes in her conclusion, ‘women
had created networks such that, despite national, social, political, and
economic differences, they collaborated on terms dictated by those asking for
assistance’ (p. 142). Yet there is a lingering issue of the legacy left by
transnational exchanges. Women’s Antiwar Diplomacypresents
a favorable assessment of such trips, yet many participants are still
considered traitors by some. Jane Fonda, for example, is actively detested by
veterans groups. Similarly, women who met with POWs and recounted the welcoming
experience of visiting North Vietnam were criticized for their supposed
naivety. Frazier justifiably emphasizes the building of bridges between
citizens of warring nations. She confronts this in her conclusion,
acknowledging that the ‘memory of the war still divides US society’ but that
‘evaluating American and Vietnamese women’s relationships leads to a different
conclusion’ (p. 142).
Frazier
makes an illuminating case that Vietnam only mattered while it represented
issues at the heart of US culture and society, but persuasively asserts that
the example shown by Vietnamese women during the war fundamentally influenced
the development of women’s liberation in America. As such, Women’s Antiwar Diplomacy During the Vietnam War Era provides
a compelling rumination of cultural imperialism, US feminism, and anti-war
activism. Read in conjunction with Wu and Hershberger, it draws attention to
overlooked events and emphasizes the significant work conducted by female citizen
diplomats during the war.
http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/2157
FWD: she knows the power of the
vote
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Chris Carson
3-8-17 via mail.salsalabs.net
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7:06 AM
(6 hours ago)
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to me
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Dick,
Today
is International Women’s Day, the one day set aside all around the world to
celebrate the incredible social, economic, cultural and political
achievements of women—and to highlight the imperative for full equal
rights, everywhere.
The
theme of this year’s celebration? BeBoldforChange!
And if
you’re looking for bold, you won’t have to look any further than the
remarkable woman the League is honoring as one of our three Democracy
Defenders this month, Olga Hernandez.
In case
you missed my earlier email introducing Olga, you can see it below.
Congratulations
again to Olga … and, on this International Women’s Day, thank YOU for all
that you do!
Chris
Meet the League's second Democracy
Defender.
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Dear Dick,
The right to vote is something Olga Hernandez, a League
member has never taken for granted.
Maybe because she was born in Cuba. Maybe because she was 18
before she became a U.S. citizen.
And maybe because, as one of the driving forces in the
League of Women Voters of Virginia for more than 20 years, she has seen
how the faces of new voters—from high school students to new
citizens—light up when they get their first voter registration card.
That’s why Olga has invested so much of her time and energy
into defending voters’ rights and expanding citizen access to the ballot…
… and that is why we chose her as the
second of three Democracy Defenders we’re highlighting
in March as part of our celebration of Women’s History Month.
Olga became involved with the League of Women Voters of
Virginia shortly after she and her husband moved to Fairfax, just outside
Washington, DC, in 1995. After serving as President of the LWV of the
Fairfax Area from 2000 to 2005, she went on to serve as Vice President
and then President of the LWV of Virginia.
She has organized and moderated senatorial and gubernatorial
debates, lent her energy and expertise to the State Board of Elections
and many civic organizations, and become a respected source for reporters
from the Washington Post and other media covering
controversial election law proposals.
Thanks in large part to leaders like Olga, over the last
decade the League has tirelessly advocated to protect the rights of
millions of Virginians and directly empowered hundreds of thousands to
successfully cast a vote.
She is, in other words, the perfect example of why the
League of Women Voters has been the country’s preeminent advocate for
voters and defender of voters’ rights for more than 96 years!
Congratulations to Olga Hernandez for being a Democracy
Defender!
And thank you, , for joining Olga in doing your part in
Making Democracy Work®!
Sincerely,
Chris Carson
President
P.S. If you would like to extend your commitment to the
League’s vital work to protect voters and expand citizen participation in
our democracy, please make a generous gift to the League by
clicking HERE now.
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We don't work without
women.
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The Global Zero 3-7-17 Team via mail.salsalabs.net
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4:19
PM (3 hours ago)
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to me
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Dear Dick,
Tomorrow, many women around the world
are walking away from paid and unpaid labor as part of a global day of
action for equality, justice, and human rights. It will be a Day
Without A Woman, and all of the women of Global Zero plan to join. We
hope you can strike with us or find other ways to show your support.
As one of the few organizations
staffed mostly by women that’s working on the front lines of nuclear
nonproliferation and global security, we know few issues are as
dominated by men as this one. Whether you’re looking at organizational
charts, coalition calls, academic panels, or press coverage, women’s
voices are chronically underrepresented.
This imbalance fails to reflect the
powerful role women have played in the struggle for a world without
nuclear weapons. From Coretta Scott King and Dagmar Wilson, to Valerie
Plame and Jennifer Allen Simons, to a rising generation of young women
championing our cause, we know women have always led progress on this
issue. And we’re confident the world will look very different once
there are as many women around the table as men.
We also recognize
that tomorrow’s strike is an exercise of privilege. Many
women simply can’t afford to miss a day at work or at home. With that
in mind, there are a few other things you can do to show your support.
You can:
·
Attend a rally (click here to
find one near you)
·
Raise awareness by
wearing red
·
Shop only at small
buesinesses, especially those owned by women
·
Express support on social
media using the hashtags #DayWithoutAWoman and #IStrikeFor
·
Donate to an organization
fighting for women's equality (here's a list of five)
You can find more information on A
Day Without A Woman here.
In solidarity,
Meredith, Lilly, Mary, Jessica, Anna, Jennifer, Haneen, Rashi and the
rest of the Global Zero team
Global Zero is the
international movement for the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
Sent by GLOBAL ZERO | 1342 Florida Avenue NW | Washington, DC 20009 USA
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Be Bold for Change
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Eric Grignol, UUSC hello@thegoodbuy.com via bounce.s7.exacttarget.com
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2:07 PM
(36 minutes ago)
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to me
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Dear Dick,
On
this International Women’s Day, we
celebrate the millions of remarkable women leading the way to forge a better
working world. And look how far we have come! In 1972, men owned 96% of the
businesses in the United States. Today, one in three businesses is owned by a
woman.
That’s great progress, but we’ve still got more work to do to ensure a more
inclusive, gender-equal world! The 2017 theme for International Women’s Day
is #BeBoldForChange. At UUSC’s The Good Buy,
we are partnering with strong women from around the world who run
cooperatives, own businesses, and transform their communities.
This year, we are celebrating IWD by highlighting the work of these
remarkable women in a new series called “Meet the Makers.” I invite you to
get acquainted with the women artisans behind the goods you choose and the
fair-trade purchases you make. This series will share the stories of women
like Dolores, a farmer in Honduras who
ensured that a plot of land was registered in her name to grow her own coffee
organically, unlike her husband who uses pesticides for his crops. Dolores’
efforts helped her gain income independence. And Kanta Ji, a papermaker in India who
works with a fair-trade cooperative, earning 20-30% more than conventional
markets. Through Meet the Makers you
will have a chance to get to knowVeronica, a wool artisan in Bolivia,
using her weaving skills to earn a reliable income which allows her to
send her kids to school, and Moo Kho, a refugee resettled in the U.S.
who is now a master candle-maker training others. You can read about these
inspiring women’s lives and others like them on The Good Buy’s blog.
These stories are just a few examples of how women aim to
#BeBoldForChange everyday. Take part in the online celebration of
International Women’s Day by following the hashtag #BeBoldForChange, and
sharing these posts!
Of course, don’t forget an easy way you can support the success of women’s
achievements in the global economy every day: Shop women-made, fair-trade
products!
Cheers,
Eric Grignol
UUSC’s The Good Buy
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Unitarian Universalist Service Committee | 689 Massachusetts
Avenue | Cambridge, MA 02139-3302
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2016
CELEBRATE UN
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
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WAR RESISTERS LEAGUE
Resisting
War at Home & War Abroad since 1923
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Celebrate
International Women's Day
with us!
Are you in NYC? Join
AF3IRM tonight to celebrate our personal
& political victories with poetry, dance and musical
performances at our International Women's Day
Happy Hour.
All proceeds go towards our programs, including our
annualSummer School for Women's Activism!
For a full list of events, please go to our website
& join us! Action Link!
»
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Happy International Women's Day!
Hi! We are members of the New York City
chapter of AF3IRM--a national organization of women engaged in
transnational feminist, anti-imperialist activism. Join AF3IRM & War
Resisters League today as we celebrate our herstories and engage in a
collective retelling of history to include women, queer, and trans
community members.
As we reflect, we question the choices
available to us as women.How has the freedom to choose one’s clothing,
partners, jobs and career path liberated women as a whole? What choices do
women from the working class, in both industrialized nations and the
Global South, have? What does liberation for women look like? And, how
is my liberation different and intertwined with another woman’s
liberation? How does feminism create a path towards the kind of humanity
we envision?
AF3IRM values War Resisters League's work to end all forms of
violence. Please support WRL by making a generous donation of $50 today!
“Choice is only possible when everything is
equal,” says AF3IRM founder Ninotchka Rosca.
Yet, public policies and initiatives
attempt to hand us the kind of feminism that perpetuates the very systems
that stifle our ability to choose. Let's take for example, the Women’s Tactical Association,
a national organization of female officers, military personnel, and
civilians who promote and encourage training among female law
enforcement to enhance and refine skills in the areas of firearms,
combat mindset, and fitness.
Is this the kind of choice we need to lead
towards collective liberation? No! This is a #FEMINISTFAIL! Militarization,
war and imperialism disproportionately impact women and the global
south. The freedom to pull a trigger does not address rampant global
inequality or create access to jobs, education, or physical and
emotional safety.
For nearly a month, members of Congress
from across the aisle have been debating to extend draft registration to
women. This comes at a time when the Supreme Court must decide on the
constitutionality of draft registration for men. The Supreme Court decision
would impact the choice to register or not. However, the debate has moved
from the constitutionality of the draft registration to women’s rights to
choose to register for the draft. Essentially pointing to sexism and
exclusion of women as a basis for not only maintaining but extending draft
registration. American consciousness has spoken on this issue and in the
1980s there was a groundswell of resistance to draft registration. The
United States government is silencing the voices of resistance that say no
to preparation for war. We call this another #FEMINISTFAIL.
We challenge the mythology of choice
surrounding the opening up of the military and expansion of the draft to
women and members of the LGBTQ community. Military bases hypersexualize and commodify women as
comfort and rest and recreation for soldiers. While high rates
of sexual harassment and sexual assault of women and LGBTQ soldiers is
used as a tool of war.
As transnational feminists of
color, we recognize that our struggles here at the local level
are connected to other women’s struggles across the globe. Our
feminism must move across nations, land, and borders to be truly
intersectional and purposeful.
For the past 25 years AF3IRM has worked
tirelessly to dismantle the systems of oppression which have historically
and continue to marginalize and deny us a say in creating the options to
make choices between.
Stand in resistance and in celebration
with us as we remember our journeys as women & transnational
feminists.
In solidarity,
AF3IRM, New York City Chapter
*Photo credit: (Top) AF3IRM- NYC Chapter;
(Bottom) AF3IRM National. Los Angeles International Women's Day Rally
on Mar 6, 2016.
AF3IRM’s diverse, multi-ethnic membership
is committed to militant movement-building from the United States and
affects change through grassroots organizing, trans-ethnic alliance
building, education, advocacy, and direct action.
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2015
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 Ann Wright, Op-Ed,
NationofChange, 2014: We, the
International Women's Delegation to Gaza,
greet you on International Women's Day. Although we can never know your
suffering as you feel it, we hold you in our hearts, and pledge to you our
continuing, ever-deepening solidarity. We will tell your story to all who
will listen. We will tell your story to our Parliamentary and Congressional
representatives so they can better understand the injustice they support and
the suffering they cause by the billions of dollars they send to Israel and Egypt.
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Saturday, March 8, 2014
Dear WAND Activists:
Today on March 8, recognize
International Women’s Day and click here to urge your Members of Congress
to co-sponsor the Women, Peace, and Security Act (S. 1942 / H.R. 2874) to ensure that the voices and
concerns of women are heard on matters of peace and security!
In a speech to the UN Security
Council, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power stated:
"Women's participation in conflict prevention, mitigation, and
recovery is vital to the maintenance of international security and peace.
Not a sideshow, but vital." Women and girls are disproportionately
affected by crisis and conflict.
Over the past two decades, the nature
of war has changed. Today 90% of casualties in armed conflicts are
civilians, an overwhelming majority of whom are women and children.
Sexual violence, abduction for sexual slavery and for fighting, and
forced displacement have emerged as strategic new tactics of war. Yet
women constitute fewer than 8% of peace negotiators and fewer than 3% of
signatories of peace agreements. Even worse, perpetrators of violence and
abuse during conflict are typically given a seat at the table while those
committed to peace – often the women – are left out. Of the five women
present at the Geneva II Peace Talks to end the violent civil war in Syria
– none had a seat at the negotiating table.
By enacting the Women, Peace, and
Security Act of 2014 (WPS Act), we can ensure that women's voices are
heard on matters of peace and conflict. The WPS Act would turn the U.S.
National Action Plan (U.S. NAP) on Women, Peace, and Security into law
and ensure that women are equal partners in all U.S. diplomatic, development,
and defense related work. The purpose of the U.S. NAP is to strengthen
the role of women in peace-building and conflict prevention processes;
protect women and girls from gender-based violence in conflict areas; and
ensure women and girls have equitable access to humanitarian assistance
during crises and disasters.
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who
introduced the act to the Senate, stated "For too long, women have
been left out of peace negotiations - even though they are
disproportionately affected by these conflicts. From Northern Ireland to Liberia, women have proven
how valuable their contributions are to peace talks, conflict prevention
and conflict mediation, so it is critical that we ensure that women are
at the table."
This
year, in recognition of International Women’s Day, email your Senators
and Member of Congress and ask them to sign onto the Women, Peace and
Security Act (S. 1942 / H.R. 2874)!
Let us make sure that women’s voices
are heard on the most important issue of all – peace.
Sincerely, The WAND Team
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WAND, Inc
691 Massachusetts Avenue | Arlington MA 02476
322 4th Street NE | Washington, DC 20002
250 Georgia Avenue S.E. Suite 202 | Atlanta, GA 30312
UNITED
NATIONS International Women's Day (UNIWD) NEWSLETTER #7, March 8, 2018.
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2018/03/un-2018-international-womens-day-march.html
END UNITED NATIONS International
Women's Day (UNIWD) NEWSLETTER #8, March 8, 2021.
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