On Saturday 20 November, 2010 eight purple placards gave Sheffield a message: Say No to NATO. Women from antiwar groups spelled out these words in a display that took them into the pre-Christmas crowds outside Sheffield Town Hall on the day that Heads of State gathered in Lisbon to endorse a new ‘Strategic Concept’ for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Sheffielders took leaflets, sometimes asking “What’s NATO?” .

The women were out on the street to increase awareness that NATO, a relic from the Cold War era, and is an ever-expanding, aggressive, nuclear-armed alliance of Western states. Its aim is to protect the worldwide economic interests of the USA and other relatively rich countries, isolating and threatening those, like Iran, North Korea and China, who don’t do their bidding.

The women’s action was part of a Europe-wide day of protest by feminist antimilitarists. It was mounted by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (Sheffield branch), supported by women from other peace organisations. Alongside women in London, Italy, Germany and other NATO states, they were pointing out that military expenditure steals money from the education, health and housing services badly needed by women, who carry the main burden of domestic life. In war, women suffer displacement, rape, loss, injury and increased responsibilities.

“NATO is a dinosaur” said WILPF women, “Security can only be achieved through justice, conflict resolution and ridding ourselves of fear.  ‘NATO is part of the military industrial complex that has given us endless war and destruction. We are here to demand a return to our lost humanity and the rule of international law.”

“‘Women’s voices aren’t heard enough.  They ought to be part of the decision-making. They ought to set the agenda.”

Off The Shelf Event 18 October 2010

Sheffield WILPF joined many others at an ‘Off the Shelf’ event on 11 October to launch a new book of poems and recipes by Development and Empowerment for Women’s Advancement (DEWA) entitled “Different Cultures One World”.  DEWA is the successor to the Northern Refugee Centre Women’s Development Project now closed due to lack of funding.  You can order a book at dewaproject.wordpress.com.

Sheffield WILPF had a stall at another Off the Shelf event on 18 October” organised by Sheffield Fems.  Feminist Kat Banyard read from her book “The Equality illusion – the Truth about Women and Men Today”.

Womens War film flyer

All welcome.

1. Voices of African Women:

supporting their campaigns to end the violence and exploitation suffered by women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Niger Delta and elsewhere.

2. Human Security not Military Security:

focusing on the 2010 Strategic Defence Review and no replacement of the Trident nuclear weapon system

3. Strengthening Women’s Rights:

UK WILPF has joined the European coalition on the Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR) campaign to make the UN really work for all women.

News and Reports:

• The Branch had a successful stall at the Friends of the Earth Hustings meeting during the recent election campaign.
• We ran a workshop on Women and Climate Change at the Peoples’ Conference for Climate Justice run by Sheffield Campaign Against Climate Change on 24 April.
• Sheffield WILPF had a successful stall at the Green Fair on 26 June, when people eagerly singed our petition to end exploitation of workers (the majority of whom are women) who produce goods for supermarkets.

Upcoming event:

Saturday 24 July 2010 from 2.30 pm. to 5.30 pm

Beauchief, Sheffield

WILPF Garden Party

.Guest Speaker: Pat Pleasance, UK WILPF President.

Bring and Buy stall, Afternoon Teas.   Everyone welcome.

Details: 0114 235 3127.

The Branch Training Day on 28 November was led by Sasha Jesperson and Orlanda Ward.  It gave a small group of WILPF-ers and others the opportunity to look carefully at our own organisation and learn some useful methods of campaigning and media work

We had Adele Robinson Adele Robinson, Corporate Equality Manager Sheffield City Council at our November meeting, to tell us about how the City Council’s Gender Equality work will be affected by the Equalities Bill.

Two of us took the special train to London for The Wave demonstration prior to Copenhagen, where we met up with other WILPF-ers and joined the march to Parliament Square, giving out the leaflet on Climate Change UK WILPF has produced.

Our AGM re-elected all the officers and in addition we are planning to work more collectively, with a small group getting together before each meeting to share the forward planning and running of our activities.

We are also hoping to join with other women’s groups in Sheffield for an International Women’s Day event.

On 28 November nine WILPF members and supporters met with Sasha Jesperson and Orlanda Ward for a busy, productive and entertaining day.

We started by doing a fun exercise which helped us understand our different personal strengths and weaknesses.  We talked about the campaigns, both within WILPF and otherwise, that we had each of us been involved with during the past year.  These ranged widely, from encouraging more young people to ramble in the local countryside to the work that the WILPF branch had done as a branch and our joint campaigning with other local groups.  Our recent cooperation with the local National Assembly of Women and Sheffield Fems on a day conference “World Wide Women Working for Change” showed how well we can jointly run successful events.

Sasha outlined our three current campaigns and their progress so far: “Voices of African Women” (VoAW), “Human Security not Military Security” and “Strengthening Women’s Rights”,  We noted that the Branch has already been working on the first two issues and has brought them to the attention of other women’s’ groups.  Sheffield National Assembly of Women is taking up the VoAW issue with their contacts and the local Women in Black vigil has featured both issues in some of its monthly city centre vigils.

We noted that UK WILPF has produced an updated leaflet on Climate Change and Women to give out at The Wave demo. on Climate Change in London on 5 December.

Orlanda outlined a strategy for increasing our media work and making it more effective.

We worked on strategies for a possible WILPF or other campaign.  One group set out a plan for a seminar on: “Sheffield connecting with African Women”. The other group planned a conference on “Caring for the Carers”.  We looked at targets for publicity, drew up a press release and discussed how to counter comments and difficult questions from opponents.

We felt the day had been really helpful, not only for WILPF, but also for other groups we might be involved with.  The contributions from everyone there were challenging, interesting and positive, all learning from each other.