End the war economy! Develop an economy for peace!Participants and presenters will explore ways the military and corporations support each other and profit from endless war. We will share tools and strategies for transforming our war economy into the peace economy we want and need.
There will be special emphasis on
• rampant corporate profiteering in multi-trillion dollar Middle Eastern wars for oil, and even larger budgets sought by the Pentagon to develop robotic warfare and control the solar system and earth below.
• the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v FEC, affirming corporate constitutional rights of personhood and allowing corporations to spend unlimited money to control our elections.
• tools and strategies for ending endless war and building a peace economy with racial justice, care for the planet earth, government of, for and by the people, and with economic justice and human rights for all.
Theater, in the form of short skits, will be used to introduce basic concepts and invite participant response. These will be followed by group discussion and/or break-out groups, participatory exercises, and sing alongs with WILPF’s popular Raging Grannies. Participants will share a variety of resources and tools from WILPF and their own and cooperating organizations. They will explore positive alternatives that can help us build the beloved community. These include ways we can use the network of United Nations Human Rights and Disarmament treaties to make possible the world we want.
Our Democratic Right to Safe Water and HealthSafe water for personal and domestic use is essential for health and life. New science shows how trace amounts of chemicals and heavy metals in water cause life-threatening diseases and disrupt normal cognitive, neurological and reproductive development from cradle to grave. This accumulating “body burden” of toxics creates a “precondition” for disease at any time in life, even many years after exposure. Alarmingly, research shows how a mother’s “body burden” affects fetal development and the content of milk for the nursing child. Industry, agriculture and the military, the worst offenders, lobby government to lower regulations and fight in court against fines.
This workshop will lead participants in a discussion of how to reframe this issue from one of regulation that actually permits degrees of harm to that of asserting our rights. U.S. corporations, given the rights of persons in the 19th century, have no right to harm the bodies of natural persons. We, the People, must assert our fundamental, inalienable right to be free of involuntary invasion of our bodies by disease-causing toxics. Steps for communities to take to assert this democratic right will be presented such as: adopting a Precautionary Principle Ordinance for a city to act with “precaution” to prevent harms to the environment and protect public health even when full scientific evidence about cause and effect is lacking; and passing a “Chemical Trespass Ordinance” to prohibit corporate chemical bodily trespass, establish strict liability and burden of proof standards for chemical trespass, and subordinate corporations to the people.
Water Warriors Strategy SessionThis four hour workshop will give Water Warriors from many areas an opportunity to share their struggles to obtain access to clean, affordable water and to discuss their vision and strategies for advancing those struggles. The People's Water Board is a coalition of organizations based in Detroit, Michigan that have come together to confront: 1) the devastating lack of access to water faced by thousands of low income people who have had their water shut off; 2) water pollution due to industrial irresponsibility and an aging wastewater infrastructure; and 3) the effort of corporate interests to gain control of Detroit's water system.
¡Acabemos con la economía de guerra! ¡Desarrollemos una economía para la paz!Participants and presenters will explore ways the military and corporations support each other and profit from endless war. We will share tools and strategies for transforming our war economy into the peace economy we want and need.
There will be special emphasis on
• rampant corporate profiteering in multi-trillion dollar Middle Eastern wars for oil, and even larger budgets sought by the Pentagon to develop robotic warfare and control the solar system and earth below.
• the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v FEC, affirming corporate constitutional rights of personhood and allowing corporations to spend unlimited money to control our elections.
• tools and strategies for ending endless war and building a peace economy with racial justice, care for the planet earth, government of, for and by the people, and with economic justice and human rights for all.
Theater, in the form of short skits, will be used to introduce basic concepts and invite participant response. These will be followed by group discussion and/or break-out groups, participatory exercises, and sing alongs with WILPF’s popular Raging Grannies. Participants will share a variety of resources and tools from WILPF and their own and cooperating organizations. They will explore positive alternatives that can help us build the beloved community. These include ways we can use the network of United Nations Human Rights and Disarmament treaties to make possible the world we want.
Nuestro derecho democrático al agua potable y la saludSafe water for personal and domestic use is essential for health and life. New science shows how trace amounts of chemicals and heavy metals in water cause life-threatening diseases and disrupt normal cognitive, neurological and reproductive development from cradle to grave. This accumulating “body burden” of toxics creates a “precondition” for disease at any time in life, even many years after exposure. Alarmingly, research shows how a mother’s “body burden” affects fetal development and the content of milk for the nursing child. Industry, agriculture and the military, the worst offenders, lobby government to lower regulations and fight in court against fines.
This workshop will lead participants in a discussion of how to reframe this issue from one of regulation that actually permits degrees of harm to that of asserting our rights. U.S. corporations, given the rights of persons in the 19th century, have no right to harm the bodies of natural persons. We, the People, must assert our fundamental, inalienable right to be free of involuntary invasion of our bodies by disease-causing toxics. Steps for communities to take to assert this democratic right will be presented such as: adopting a Precautionary Principle Ordinance for a city to act with “precaution” to prevent harms to the environment and protect public health even when full scientific evidence about cause and effect is lacking; and passing a “Chemical Trespass Ordinance” to prohibit corporate chemical bodily trespass, establish strict liability and burden of proof standards for chemical trespass, and subordinate corporations to the people.
Guerreros del Agua Sesión de EstrategiaThis four hour workshop will give Water Warriors from many areas an opportunity to share their struggles to obtain access to clean, affordable water and to discuss their vision and strategies for advancing those struggles. The People's Water Board is a coalition of organizations based in Detroit, Michigan that have come together to confront: 1) the devastating lack of access to water faced by thousands of low income people who have had their water shut off; 2) water pollution due to industrial irresponsibility and an aging wastewater infrastructure; and 3) the effort of corporate interests to gain control of Detroit's water system.