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organizing & activismI am a founding member of the East Asia-US-Puerto Rico Women’s Network against Militarism (124k PDF), which links scholars and activists dealing with the negative effects of US military bases, budgets, and operations on local communities, and the US-based group: Women for Genuine Security. A key part of our shared work has been to redefine security – an idea often identified with military security. We argue that genuine security requires four conditions:
(LINK TO refs to WRITTEN WORK ON REDEFINING SECURITY) I’m also involved in Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, started in 1915 by women from nations involved in World War I, and currently active in over 40 countries. In 2005, I participated in Fashioning Resistance to Militarism, and was a US project associate for 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005, an exciting effort to showcase 1,000 women from 150 nations who are working for peace and justice. I support Health Care for All—California, a campaign for single-payer health care for everyone in the state regardless of income, pre-existing condition, or immigration status, and the Community Food Security Coalition. These are crucial aspects of genuine security. I’ve been a board member of Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND) Education Fund that seeks to empower women to act politically to reduce violenceand redirect excessive military spending to unmet human and environmental needs. I’ve been on the “writing team” for several collective statements generated by feministconferences and gatherings: Frontline Feminism (40k PDF), Gender and Human Security statement (36k PDF, for the Hague Appeal for Peace) and the Building a 21st Century Transnational Women’s Movement My current involvements have grown out of my participation in the Greenham Common Women’s Peace movement in Britain in the early 1980s, which was a turning point in my life. |