WILPF of San Jose, California

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
and San Jose Raging Grannies

HOLIDAY PEACE FAIR
in past years

           GARDEN PARTY RAISES FUNDS FOR INTERNATIONAL WILPF TRAVEL FUND

Twenty of us gathered May 28 to listen to Anne and Phil Pflager play, to sing along with the Raging Grannies, and
enjoy fresh fruit from the farmers market. We donated $300 to help representatives from South America, Africa
and the Middle East to attend the August 2011 International Congress in San Jose, Costa Rica.

MADELEINE REES, after 'The Whistleblower'

A former UN human rights lawyer in Bosnia, Madeleine Rees now leads the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, an organization with sections in 37 countries. It maintains a presence at the United Nations as an official NGO, monitoring disarmament and human rights activities. Madeleine Rees is portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave in Laryssa Kondracki's film "The Whistleblower," about Nebraska cop Kathryn Bolkovac's experience in Bosnia uncovering sex trafficking. Click on photo to see 14 minute interview.

Report from UN Commission on Status of Women
Friday, April 15, at 6 pm (potluck) 7 pm program

HOLIDAY PEACE FAIR 2010

The 28th annual fair took place Saturday, Dec. 4, at Campbell United Methodist Church, 1675 Winchester Blvd, south of Hamilton. There are scenes from the event at sanjosepeace.org. Check the links below to see scenes from previous fairs.

We feature non-violent toys, books and games, international handcrafts, Fair Trade coffee and cocoa, and political T-shirts and buttons. Vendors are South Bay peace and justice groups. Homebaked desserts and inexpensive lunch are available.

This year's beneficiaries will be the Low Income Self Help Center and the American Indian Education Center (both in San Jose), as well as the Afghan Institute of Learning and the Veterans for Peace Iraq Water Project.

ENTERTAINMENT SCHEDULE -- 2010

        MCs: Anne and Phil Pflager (Annie & the Vets)
10:30 am Welcome & Opening Song w/Annie & the Vets
11 am San Jose Peace Chorale
11:30 am Announcements
12 Noon Raging Grannies
12:30 pm Annie & the Vets
1:30 pm Hala Dance & Karavansaray: Middle Eastern Dance
2 pm El Grito de la Cultura - Children's Mexican Dance Group
3:15 pm Closing remarks/song w/ Annie & the Vets
Coordinator: Shirley Lin Kinoshita

Linh Nguyen offered face painting during the supervised children's activities. Zoe is eager to begin. (photos by Joan Bazar)

Eigen tries out an oversize puzzle -- one of the alternative toys and games featured at the tables of peace and justice groups.

Preschoolers at the Grail Family services previewed some of the 31 new books donated April 28, 2010, by members of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, San Jose Branch.
WILPF member Roz Dean, who remembers the Grail when it was in a small house on San Antonio Street, expressed delight at the way the agency
has developed
Roz Dean presents Si Se Puede to Veronica Goei, [left] executive director of Grail Family Services.

new programs for children and families in the decade since it moved into more spacious headquarters at 2003 E. San Antonio Street.
"It's especially appropriate to give these books to the Grail's program, since these books are past winners and contenders for the Jane Addams Book Award." The 2010 awards are being announced this week at an event in Chicago at the home of Jane Addams, who pioneered community services for immigrants a hundred years ago at Hull House.
The Jane Addams Children's Book Awards are given annually to the children's books published the preceding year that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races as well as meeting conventional standards for excellence. For details, see www.janeaddamspeace.org.

Teacher Maria Frias [left] works with pre-schoolers.

Dwaimy Rosas-Romero [at left], family literacy and volunteer coordinator, oversees an array of programs for children up through age 9 and their parents. The children's library boasts a large collection of books in Spanish as well as bilingual editions in Spanish/English and Vietnamese/ English. The agency's website (gfsfamilyservices.org) and Facebook page abound with photos and articles about the families taking part in the programs.
WILPF San Jose meets at the San Jose Peace & Justice Center, 48 S. 7th St. For information on programs, call 408-294-0981.

Cluster goes statewide!

The WILPF Cluster Meeting on Feb. 27 in Palo Alto, was attended by 54 individuals. Hosted by the San Jose and Peninsula/Palo Alto WILPF branches, the agenda included "What's Happening in WILPF, Internationally, Nationally, and Locally and Where TO From HERE? "
Reports were heard from C.J.Minster and Joan Bazar on the international meeting in India, Sandy Silver acting president, JAPA and Paul Johnson, Treasurer of the Jane Addams Peace Association, Ellen Schwartz, new US Treasurer, and from Nancy Abbey, Nancy Price and others on the WILPF program/issues activities, members of the US WILPF Membership Council, and from the 10 participating branches.

Lois Fiedler chaired the day which included an afternoon process session on What's Ahead! The general concensus was first, concern about the issues working with the national office regarding membership, almost completely without official rosters and information.

and also for the group to work collobaratively on program and issues to create "a California WILPF presence," especially with regard to some of the California propositions we will be facing this year.
Each branch will provide a contact on a conference phone call to follow through on the ideas. Contact Lois, San Jose for more information. The group was invited to attend the WEST WILPF Gathering III to be held in Ashland, Oregon, July 15-18, 2010, with the opportunity to attend a Pulitzer Prize winning play, Ruined, about women refugees from war in the Congo. (www.osfashland.org) at the famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival. For more information on the West Gathering contact Millee Livingston, Sierra Foothills Branch.

Kinshasa's
Street Children

Friday, Oct. 16
San Jose Peace & Justice Center,
48 S. 7th Street
Potluck at 6 p.m., Program at 7 p.m

Gilbert Mulamba's film, Kinshasa's Street Children, documents the street children phenomenon in the context of the current state of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The film presents historical footage of foreign intervention and shows how the exploitation of Congo's resources threatens the country's social fabric.

A Q&A session follows, with attention to Silicon Valley's connection to the crisis in the DRC. Makuba Sekombo of Mobilization for Justice and Peace in the D.R. of Congo will be on hand to answer questions about his homeland. See www.friendsofthecongo.org for info on the DRC.

Pedro and the Captain -- The Psychology of Torture

Adrianne Aron, PhD, will spoke Sept. 18 about survivors of torture, those who carry out this practice and the role of U.S. training. She is co-editor of "Writings for a Liberation Psychology" by Father Ignacio Martin Baro and, most recently, translator (into English) of Mario Benedetti's play "Pedro and the Captain" (the dramatic interchange between a Latin American prisoner and his torturer--Cadmus Editions, 2009). Dr. Aron is a clinical psychologist based in the Bay Area who has documented the torture of refugees applying for political asylum.

How to Convert War to Peace with Ellen Thomas

Ellen Thomas, a national and international peace and justice activist, spoke in San Jose about her cross-country roadshow and efforts to convert nuclear and military funding to human needs, including the Proposition 1 campaign. She has led a peace park vigil in front of the White House since 1984, and she is co-chair of the WILPF Disarm, dismantling the war economy committee. For more on the campaign, go to http://prop1.org. For more info on local work, contact Granny Shirley at 408-255-6559 or grannies(at)wilpfsanjose.org.

Lois (in pink) narrated, Katy (in orange) represented the future of WILPF, Grannies Joan W, Shirley (partly hidden), Bonny, Roberta and Essie sang "Peace, Peace, Peace."

94th Birthday Party
Nourished by slices of history and chocolate cake, we celebrated the activism and sisterhood of WILPF on April 18, 2009. Some were surprised to hear that WILPF's parallel congress had decried the 1919 Treaty of Versailles as punitive and laying the foundation for future war, that WILPF in the 1920s sent fact-finding delegations to China, Haiti, Nicaragua and Indo-China to unmask imperialism, warned in 1932 of the growing totalitarian threat in Germany and opposed U.S. entry into WWII. The goal has always been to create conditions for peace with justice. We continue into the 21st Century informed by our international sister-sections in 37 countries and our offices at the UN in New York and Geneva, invigorated by the Raging Grannies and hopeful that the Y-WILPF will flourish with the energy of women under the age of 35.

Meg reads dispatch as Emily Greene Balch at 1915 conference.

Paula Rochelle, Saratoga resident and WILPF member, arranged with librarian Peggy Baker for the Saratoga Library to feature the six 2008 winners of WILPF's Jane Addams Children's Book Award.

The Escape of Oney Judge: Martha Washington's Slave Finds Freedom, the winner in the Books for Younger Children Category, is written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully and published by Farrar Strauss Giroux. Mrs. Washington declares that young Oney is just like one of the Washington's own children, but Oney is not fooled. On the night Mrs. Washington tells Oney she will not grant her freedom upon her death, Oney thinks quickly, acts courageously and flees. Expressive watercolors within this well-researched biography portray the bravery of Ona Maria Judge, an African-American woman who claimed, and fought for, the right to have "no mistress but herself."

We Are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin by Larry Dane Brimner, published by Calkins Creek, an imprint of Boyds Mills Press, Inc., is the winner in the Books for Older Children Category.
Working behind the scenes because of his sexual orientation and unpopular political stands, African-American pacifist and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, a trusted adviser to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Succinct prose, powerful quotations and fresh historical photographs place the story of Rustin's life alongside the story of the March, revealing the breadth and depth of Rustin's decades of commitment to confronting racism and promoting peace in the United States and in countries around the world.

One book has won honors in the Books for Younger Children Category.
One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II, written and illustrated by Lita Judge is published by Hyperion Books for Children. After discovering one thousand yellowed foot tracings in her grandmother's attic, Lita Judge wrote this tribute to her grandmother who had used these newspaper tracings to find appropriately-sized shoes to send to needy German families in the aftermath of World War II. A combination of paintings, collages of original photographs and reproductions of foot tracings underscore the message of compassion at the heart of this family story.

Tessie Parker and daughter, Laney, 1, get a look at A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, on display in the Children’s Department of the Saratoga Library. Tessie Parker and daughter, Laney, 1, get a look at A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, on display in the Children’s Department of the Saratoga Library. Paula Rochelle, left, and Joan Goddard, background, arranged for the display of the books.

Joan Goddard, a Campbell resident and national board member of the Jane Addams Peace Association, displays books with librarian Peggy Baker. (Joan Bazar photos)