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April 16, 2008

Malicious Attack Takes Down Women's Peace Organization Website

Someone hacked into WILPF's server through a subdomain and brought down the entire US Section network's online capabilities. Since Tuesday evening, wilpf.org has been unavailable. All online property has been compromised, including our email addresses and member listservs.

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, US Section Acting Executive Director Laura Roskos is working with our web consultant and web hosting service to resolve the problem. Priority is being given to getting our website back online and investigations will continue to pinpoint the cause of the problem.

WILPF is the oldest women's peace organization, dedicated to women's participation in all political decision-making processes, a cessation of violence, and the creation of a just and peaceful world. Two of our foremothers are the only American women (so far) to win Nobel Peace Prizes: Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch.

You may have heard of our Great Day slogan: "It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

Support WILPF - Purchase Great Day Products from Northern Sun. WILPF copyrighted that sentence in 1978 and receives royalties for all products sold featuring our slogan and children in a playground image.

Read about our work to expand the reach of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security at our Peace Women Project website.

Learn about Creating a Critical Mass of Political Will for Nuclear Disarmament at our Reaching Critical Will website.

The above two projects are coordinated by WILPF international and reside on a more secure server.

Posted by cj at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)

April 6, 2008

Gender: Harder to Forget Than Ethnicity

Let me be clear: if one must make a hierarchy of inequality, white privilege affords me greater access into the halls of power than being a woman diminishes. Nevertheless, as a woman, my voice is less powerful than my male counterpart, particularly when advocating for peace and justice. How often are women dismissed as having "motherly inclinations" towards peace, incapable of understanding the harsh necessity of war? How often must our national leaders who happen to be female castrate themselves on the decks of warships to assure a foolish electorate that they are man enough to command an army?

Nicholas Kristof has a powerful Op-Ed in today's NYT, "Our Racist, Sexist Selves," that reminds us of the power of genitals. I speak plainly because this truth is so often denied in both the mainstream media and popular culture: Women Are Not Equal. The Women's Movement Cannot Be Dead. There Is Much That Still Needs to Be Done to Create Gender Equality. Los Derechos de Las Mujeres Son Los Derechos de Humanidad.

The Call for Social Upheaval
Until the nonviolent political and social upheaval that accepts female sexuality alongside female political, business, and cultural acumen is accomplished;

Until we start talking about the real ethnic differences that divide us, and the common humanity that unites us;

Until free-trade capitalism's reliance on extreme economic disparity is confronted;

Until democratic dialog inspires as much participation as American Idol voting,

the Movements for Change must continue.

Posted by cj at 10:41 PM | Comments (0)