ON-GOING ACTIVITIES

Out of Afghanistan, NOW – “Reach Out” at Union Square  

New Priorities Campaign

Recruitment of New Members

Truth in Recruiting  - The Full Picture

Landmine Clearance

Letter to the Editor

“Love Grandma” Book

 

 

Out of Afghanistan, NOW:

 

Bring our Troops and War Dollars Home

Join Grandmothers Against the War in a "Reach Out" at Union Square in San Francisco every Thursday from 12:00-1:00 pm.  We talk to - and leaflet - passers-by, Bay Area residents on lunch breaks and tourists about the need to bring our troops and war dollars home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

We meet at the corner of Powell and Geary at Noon.  We'll have the leaflets and banners and Grandmothers Against the War signs; all we need is YOU!

 

For more information contact us at info@gawba.org or phone (510) 845-3815.

 

 

Sample Leaflet:

 

CALL President Obama, Your Congressional Representative, and Senators

The Message is Simple:

BRING OUR TROOPS and WAR DOLLARS HOME

The war in Afghanistan began in Oct. 2001; in Iraq, March 2003. With all the deaths, injuries, and destruction, are we any more secure?

Also, taxpayers in California will pay $21.5 billion for proposed total Iraq & Afghanistan war spending for Fiscal Year 2011. That amount of money could fund:

           278,731 elementary school teachers  OR

           229,936 police/sheriff’s patrol officers  OR

           2.3 million military veterans receiving VA Medical care for one year  OR

           ALMOST THE ENTIRE STATE DEFICIT OF $25 BILLION

           < http://national priotiries.org/tools/tradefoffs/> has statistics for all states.

 

         Your Representatives need to hear that this situation is unacceptable.

Phone: President Obama 1-202-456-1111 (between 9am-5pm EST)

Congressional Switchboard (toll-free) 1-877-851-6437 or 1-877-210-5351

(Ask to speak to either of your senators or your congressional representative)

 

            Other grandmothers/concerned humans are welcome to join us in leafleting at

            Geary/Powell in S.F. on Thursdays, Noon-1pm.

Grandmothers Against the War

P.O. Box 9476, Berkeley, CA 94709

510-845-3815
 
www.gawba.org

    info@gawba.org

  

Photos

   Flyer

 

Back to top

 

 

Grandmothers Against the War urges you to sign on to the:

SF Bay Area Campaign for New Priorities

A number of Bay Area political and peace and justice groups have coalesced to support and foster the Campaign for New Priorities.  Grandmothers Against the War  is urging you to sign on.  Information is available here.

The "new priorities" include some of GAW’s  old priorities, but in this campaign we are part of a coalition pushing similar goals.  In short,

The Campaign's New Priorities

 

• End the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

       • Major systematic reductions in the Pentagon budget

• Immediate and significant increases in domestic investment in jobs, infrastructure, new technologies, education, health care, environmental protection, an effective social safety net, defense of Social Security and Medicare against threatened cuts, and all those efforts that enhance the Common Good of our society.

 

Do sign on at  New Priorities Campaign

Any questions, please e-mail or phone 510-845-3815.

 

Back to top

 

 

Recruitment of New Members

 

Join us!  If one of our on-going projects interests you or if you have an idea for another endeavor that fits into the goals of our group, please contact us.  One of the joys in working with GAW is that folks can devise their own actions and GAW will attempt to recruit volunteers to implement those actions.  If you just want to sit at home and write letters or make phone calls or even create leaflets, we want to hear from you! 

Contact us at info@gawba.org or phone (510) 845-3815.

 

Back to top

 

 

Truth in Recruiting  - The Full Picture

                                                  

Military recruiters have a very significant presence on many high school campuses.  We have taken on the job of countering their presence with that of grandmothers who want our youth to understand the "full picture".  What are the recruiters telling students that may be untrue?  What are the recruiters conveniently neglecting to tell them about military service?

To that end, we work in local high schools. It has been difficult to gain access to some schools, although the law requires that we be permitted to have such access.  So - we meet with principals, counselors, teachers, school superintendents, explain to them what we are doing, and eventually we are able to go into the schools with literature, set up tables at Career Fairs, and, if teachers invite us, speak to students in their classrooms.

 

We invite you to join us. The work can be as time-consuming as you wish, from delivering leaflets to school libraries and counseling centers, to tabling, to speaking in classrooms.

Contact us at Truth@GAWBA.org

 

Back to top

 

 

Landmine Clearance

 

Grandmothers Against the War is working with HALO USA to promote the clearance of landmines and other explosive remnants of war in Afghanistan.  These devices kill or maim an average of 80 people every month and hinder agricultural production, trade, and access to schools and water.

 

GAW will reach out to religious, business and other organizations and arrange for a HALO representative, who has served as a director of mine clearance, to talk about HALO’s work.  GAW representatives will then lead a discussion.

 

GAW aims to raise awareness of issues and problems especially important to explore as the United States sends additional troops to Afghanistan.  Discussing landmine clearance and the history of the wars that brought them into existence is an excellent way to begin a more wide-ranging exploration of the situation in Afghanistan today.  Any funds collected will go directly to HALO for its work in Afghanistan.

 

If you are interested in working on this project or have suggestions of groups that might be receptive to this talk, please contact Grandmothers Against the War at landmines@gawba.org or phone 510-845-3815. 

 

There are many tasks to perform; you need not be conversant with the situation in Afghanistan.  Indeed, you need not even lead a discussion, if you prefer not to do so.

 

Back to top

 

 

Letter to the Editor

 

 Write with Other Like-Minded Folks

 

Think better working with others?  Grandmothers Against  the War has initiated a letter-writing group that gets together at Tobey Wiebe’s home every other Tuesday.  The idea is for those who think and perhaps write better collectively to formulate letters to editors of newspapers/magazines/blogs or to the President/ Congress/ local officials, etc. The group will even consider writing editorials.  If you are interested, please contact Tobey Wiebe via tobey@gawba.org.

 

Write in the Comfort of Your Own Home or Local Coffee Shop

 

* You need not leave home to write letters.  Code Pink has developed an effective tool for writing letters to editors.  Please see:  Codepinkaction

 

* GAW has developed a sample letter to promote letters in communities outside the usual liberal bastions.  We encourage you to send this letter, an edited version of it, or the link to Code Pink’s web page to your contacts outside the Bay Area and thereby make it easier for them to write to their local newspapers.  Following is the letter that we have written.  You or your contacts should change it in any way that you or they think will make it more effective.  Please ask your friends to send it to a local newspaper over their signatures. If any do get printed, please let us know at info@gawba.org.

 

Check out the letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle :  “The page hasn’t turned”  from GAW member, Helen Isaacson, at SFgate.

 

 

          Sample Letter:

 

Recent polls show that a majority of Americans oppose the war in Afghanistan; the Obama administration is now sending additional troops to the area.

 

Do you remember the reason given for attacking Afghanistan?  President Bush demanded that the Afghan government extradite Osama Bin Laden; the Afghans agreed to do so if the U.S. produced evidence of his guilt. Instead of providing the evidence, the U.S. invaded in violation of international law that allows a country to wage war only under an immediate military threat.

 

The U.S. didn't give its real reasons for invading Afghanistan: the U.S. strategy to dominate militarily that part of Asia; to put pressure on Iran, China and Russia; and probably to secure a safe route for natural gas pipelines.

 

As the time of the invasion in 2001, the U.S. stated goals were to 1) destroy al-Qaeda, 2) build democracy in Afghanistan, and 3) relieve the suffering and oppression of Afghan women.

 

Eight years later, President Obama's national security adviser, former Marine General James Jones, said: "The al-Qaeda presence is very diminished.  The maximum estimate [in Afghanistan] is less than 100…"  The government of Afghanistan is widely acknowledged to be inept and corrupt.  Conditions facing women in Afghanistan are deplorable and the human rights of all people are flagrantly violated.

 

It is urgent that we immediately withdraw all our forces; the U.S. cannot police the world.

 

Back to top

 

 

Love, Grandma” Book

Inspired by one woman’s urge to “write something to my 10-year-old granddaughter … to help her to live positively in the world   she must grow up in,” GAW launched the Love, Grandma” Letters Project.  Considering our age and experience — we’ve   lived through so many wars! — we decided we were well qualified to pass onto younger generations the helpful lessons we have learned.  We gathered letters from like-minded individuals for publication in a book.

Since November 2007, Love, Grandma: Activists Write is available as a paperback for $ 7.50. You can order the book here .

By distributing the book widely we want to persuade people to take action against the occupation in Iraq, military intervention in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and any proposed military action in Iran. Through readings in libraries and senior centers we have wanted to encourage readers to write their own letters to their grandchildren and share them with us.

Back to top

 

CODE PINK: Women say NO to war

Sign Petition to stand in solidarity with the women of Afghanistan as they speak out against the surge http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/424/t/8834/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2125

Back to top

 

<<  Future Actions and Events

<<  Past Actions