Cape Cod Branch
www.wilpfcapecod.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Nancy Munger
508-255-6869
mungbean54@hotmail.com
WILPF, a 90-year-old Women's Peace Organization,
Sees Middle East Peace, Water Resources as Key Issues:
Launches New Programs on International Women's Day
March 8, 2005: Celebrating International Women's
Day, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) announces
two new cutting-edge programs as the organization begins its tenth decade
of organizing to end war. WILPF has addressed the root causes of war and
called for negotiated settlements to end them since its founding at The
Hague in 1915.
Noting that future wars to control the world's resources will be over
water rather than oil, Laura Santina, chairperson of WILPF's new "Save
the Water" campaign said, "It's appropriate to announce WILPF's
Save the Water campaign on International Women's Day. There's no question
water is a women's issue." The program will educate and organize
communities to address the scarcity, misuse and rapid "marketization"
of water where corporations take private control of this vital resource
around the world.
Cape Cod WILPF members Jacqueline Fields of Sandwich, Laurie Gates of
Chatham, and Elenita Muniz of Brewster were at the International WILPF
Congress in Sweden, where the theme was "Women & Water,"
and have worked with the national campaign committee to fashion "Save
the Water." They also coordinate a local WILPF committee that will
be carrying out this work on the Cape.
WILPF members from around the country chose these priorities to work and
focus on in the next three years. Making the link between the campaigns,
Mary Day Kent, WILPF's Executive Director, said, "Control and access
to water is as fundamental to the conflicts and violence in the Middle
East as control of oil, and more fundamental to sustaining life on this
earth. Water is a human right. All people must have equal access to it
on a not-for-profit basis."
The second campaign, "Women Challenge U.S. Policy: Building Peace
on Justice in the Middle East," will educate wider audiences to speak
out against United States' policies promoting war and violence in the
region rather than peaceful solutions to the Israel-Palestinian conflict,
and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.