Women in the Peace Movement

Women long active in feminist organizations, women involved in other struggles against oppression, and women never before active in social movéments are funneling enormous energy into the Freeze, Physicians for Social Responsibility, WAND, ÇAN, and the many other factions of the growing peace movement.

In the past, women bartered their rights for the promise of peace. In the -1916 presidential race, feminist/pacifists faced the untenable situation of Supporting either Wilson, who ran on an anti-war platform, or Hughes, who ran on a suffrage platform. During the anti-war activities of the 1960's, women, exasperated by their second-class status within the peace movement, helped to form this wave of the wonien's movement. Lest history repeat itself, it is imperative that the connections between feminism and peace are defined and defended.

The profiles, perspectives, and activities presented here reflect the diversity of choices and pressures which women involved in the peace movement and the women's movement face today.

The Nuclear Freeze

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The dominant focus for disarmament movement activities in this country is the "bilateral nuclear freeze." The originator of the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign is Randall Forsberg.

Forsberg took a huge step in her political consciousness when she left her job as an English teacher at an elite girls' prep school and moved to Sweden in 1968. There, surrounded by Vietnam War resisters and a more politically aware society, she took a clerical job at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). She eventually proved her skills as a researcher and devoted herself "to understanding why people kill people, why there is organized violence, why nations go to war."

Forsberg returned to the U.S. and in 1980 founded a similar research center, the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies. It was there she developed the concept of the freeze-a "bilateral" halt on testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons systems. The Freeze Campaign was born in the spring of 1981 when a coalition of groups gathered in Washington and took

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up the campaign in earnest. It now exists in every state with a clearing house in St. Louis and a lobbying office in Washington.

In Ohio there are two Freeze offices, one in Columbus and one in Cleveland. The Greater Cleveland office oversees 15 community action groups and maintains a mailing list of nearly 1500. Approximately 70% of the individuals involved in the Greater Cleveland Freeze Campaign are women. And in this area at least, the women are in leadership positions. This past July, Polly Duncan became coordinator of the Cleveland Freeze 'office. She attended high school in Cleveland and graduated this past June from Dartmouth, where she studied international relations. She developed an interest in the disarmament movement during her studies abroad at the London School of Economics.

According to Duncan, women joining the Freeze Campaign span the spectrum of prior political experience. Duncan explained that one of the reasons women are so predominant in the Freeze is that although some work outside of the home, many are homemakers who have more opportunity to priori-

----Page-6/What She Wants/December,-1982---

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tize their time to work on the Freeze. The compelling concern for children also pulls many mothers into the movement. Duncan further speculates that women are less indoctrinated with the nuclear weapons mentality than men.

The philosophy of the Freeze is to first concentrate on community education and legislative pressure at the local level. Once this network has solidified, the Campaign will move on to the national level. Duncan

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sees the strength and success of the Freeze in this grass-roots orientation and the single-issue focus. Although economic and other issues are discussed, there is no conscious attempt to link other political perspectives, such as feminism, into the movement. However, women involved in the Freeze take other opportunities publicly to explore the issues and concerns of feminism,

For many, the Freeze is only the first step toward total disarmament. Nationally, the Freeze referendum won in 9 out of 10 states, but the opposition has only begun. Lobbying efforts in Congress and redbaiting are intensifying. If successful, the Freeze will eliminate defense industries which produce nuclear weapons, and, as Randall Forsberg states, "to dismantle 40% of the defense industry, to voluntarily halt advances in military technology-that is, unprecedented in human history."

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Women Speak Out/Photo by Janet Century

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Women Speak Out

With a membership of over 10,000 and branches in 25 countries, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is one of the oldest, largest and most active peace advocacy organizations in the world.

The League's origin is firmly rooted in the suffrage movement. Suffragists planning an International Congress for 1914 switched their focus to the peace effort with the outbreak of war. Thus the International Suffrage Congress became the Women's Peace Congress. With Jane Addams presiding, over 1,000 women gathered in The Hague. Their proposals included 1) a process of continuous mediation by neutral nations; 2) the setting up of a Society of Nations; 3) general disarmament by international agreement; 4) education of children for peace; and 5) an end to discrimination against women.

The Congress adopted the name Women's International League for Peace and Freedom to continue the peace effort, and established its international headquarters in Geneva. From the start, the organization recognized the indivisibility of peace and freedom and took a stand against discrimination based on race, religion and sex. Further to the credit of the organization are two Nobel Peace Prize winners,

Jane Addams, League President who in 1939 was the first American to win the award, and, less than ten years later, Emily Greene Balch, another League officer..

The League's commitment to women's issues, while perhaps not in the vanguard, has grown along with the women's movement. For examplc, they participated in the National Women's Conference in Houston in 1977 and worked for ratification of ERA, federal funding for abortions for the poor, and expanded child care.

A younger affiliate of the Leaguc, Women Speak Out for Peace and Justice, was organized in Cleveland in 1968 in opposition to the war in Vietnam. By the early 1970's they had evolved into a multi-issue organization, and in 1975 they joined the Women's International League. Their work is largely educating and mobilizing for action. They educate women to understand the need to commit themselves to the peace movement, to be leaders in the peace movement in their own communities, and to organize women to work for their own interests.

Although they are a peace advocacy group, the list

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