Women for Genuine Security (WGS)

3rd reported Sexual assault by US Marine in Okinawa this year.

Third case this year of US service member suspected of sexual assault on Okinawa A U.S. Marine is suspected of sexually assaulting and injuring a woman in Okinawa in June, according to Okinawa prefecture, the third case of its type to surface on the island this year.

Please join me for this important film screening and conversation in Stockton- about Sanctuary. Film Si Pudiera Quedarme by Theo Rigby is a must-see. Film is bilingual-- event will be in Spanish and English.

Faith Leaders showed up in holy outrage and grief at Senator Alex Padilla’s office in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego and Sacramento this week. Biden says “it’s time to end this war” but the only power he and members of Congress have - is to stop supplying the weapons to Israel. Unimaginable suffering is happening each day. Our moral conscience and faith teachings of the sacredness of human life call us to end US complicity and stop sending weapons to Israel.

Faith Leaders Fast and March for Gaza : Indybay Demand that Senator Padilla act to Stop Arming Israel

Sharing this coverage of Mama's for Ceasefire in the Bay Area! Safety doesn't come from bombs.

Mamas for a Free Palestine: Safety Doesn't Come From Bombs | KQED The Mamas for a Free Palestine collective is made up of mothers across the Bay Area who say they are fed up with business as usual. While they are a relatively new group, these mothers are not new to activism and political organizing. With their children in tow, they are joining with other social ju...

Friends-- those of you in the Bay- Please join me and many others for part of this walk! Any time from 7 am- 7 pm..... Let's pray with our feet- on sacred land here in the Bay Area - to Gaza. As Thich Nhat Hanh says: “We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness.”
May each step be a prayer that affirms sacredness of life and land and build heart unity between all people.
If you can only walk a short time come to Leg 3--- 1.5 miles which will be a mass walk....along the west side of Lake Merritt in Oakland around noon.
Register here: bit.ly/gcpeastbay

Join us as we channel our collective grief and rage into prayerful action as we pilgrimage together as an interfaith community and call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza. while also advocating for our 4 objectives:
Enduring and Sustained Ceasefire, Immediate Flow of Life-Saving, Aid Release of All Hostages, and the End of Occupation for a Just Peace
This pilgrimage will be a daylong, 22-mile walk, broken into 5 shorter legs and marking the distance from Gaza City to the Rafah crossing refugee camp. It will begin at 7am in Berkeley and end at 7pm in Alameda and include scheduled stops along the way for prayer and action.
For more info, visit: https://bit.ly/gcpeastbay
To sign up, visit: https://bit.ly/gcpeastbayrsvp

Join us for the Interfaith Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage in the East Bay, CA! We welcome you to join us in a prayerful journey of interfaith solidarity with our Palestinian siblings through the East Bay Interfaith Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage. This effort is part of the global movement of Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimages happening in 18 countries and 145 cities. You can read more info...

Hello Friends and Families!
Women's Magazine KPFA Radio TODAY 1PM US Pacific

My show today features social and political developments in two very different parts of the world. First, Dr Kin Chi Lau, professor at Lingnan University in Hong Kong and founder of Global University for Sustainability, talk about the current situation after the major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant almost 13 year caused by the tsunami, where local people are continuing to deal with the impacts of the nuclear disaster and the Japanese government that continues to lie and falsify reports and deny responsibility. In the second half, UN Women Country Representative to Ethiopia, Ms Cecile Mukarubuga, a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, describes the transformation of her country after the genocide. This is a much-needed story as we watch the genocide unfolding in Gaza and relatedly in the West Bank.

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Here is an excerpt from final statement from 10th international meeting of International Women's Network against Militarism. If you want to read the whole thing, go to the link below:

In the six years since our last international meeting in Okinawa in June 22-26, 2017, the world has become more militarized and more insecure. We see more clearly than ever that we are
living in a world where militarism and globalized military systems support the accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of a few, predominantly in the Global North and elites in the Global South, at the expense of the vast majority of the world’s people and the natural environment. Indeed, we are embedded in a culture of killing, profit-making, domination, and control of people and the planet at any cost. These factors are not historical artifacts, but have been generated by European, US, and Japanese colonization, as well as the so-called Cold War. The resurgence of Right Wing and
fascist governments, the rise of religious fundamentalisms, and unbridled accumulation of profit--especially from life-supporting resources, such as water and Coronavirus vaccines, and from life-destroying weapons of war and militarism--have created profound insecurities all over the world. As part of this general condition, the US President and government officials, and national leaders in all our countries, insist on targeting China as the biggest global threat. In addition, China and North Korea are defined as the greatest threat in the Northeast Asia region.

Our governments have used these alleged “threats” to justify military responses including increased military budgets in all our countries and developing “First Strike” nuclear capabilities
in the region. In this scenario and, in others such as the “War on Terror,” the political, economic, military, and ideological dominance of the United States is unequivocal. Wars and
armed conflicts also are extremely profitable. Therefore, the governments and leaders who support the US position do so–even if they are flattered, coerced, blackmailed, coaxed, or
cajoled into compliance–to fill their own pockets and otherwise protect the economic and political interests of the elites in their locations. All are active participants in the culture of killing.

We reject all moves to gain popular support for increasing militarization and war in the Asia Pacific region and beyond. We reject the characterization of a particular people or nation as
The Enemy, often based on stereotypes and fear, to justify military action. Finally, we reject all double standards regarding human rights violations, military aggression, and violations of
sovereignty. All states and state actors must be held fully accountable for such violations.

As a feminist Network, we have witnessed and documented repeatedly the fact that women and girls bear the heaviest burdens of militarism, military bases and operations, armed
conflicts, and wars, with the burden distributed unevenly based on race, ethnicity, class, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality and citizenship status, and geography. Similar documentation by feminists beyond our region is evidence that this burden on women and girls is a global phenomenon.

We recognize that the root cause of these conflicts is the struggle over power, control, and ownership of natural and human resources for profit. These battles for power continue to shape and to dictate relationships between, among, and within countries and peoples, and life on earth as we know it. These battles have sped up the destruction of the natural world and have created devastation that could have been prevented--such as the massive destruction of Guåhan (Guam) by Super Typhoon Mawar we witnessed as we were meeting....

IWNAM Final Statement Philippines Meeting May 2023.pdf

2000 march in Okinawa calling for removal of all US bases.

Peace march held in Okinawa to call for removal of all U.S. bases　 | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis Hundreds of activists took part in a peace march in Okinawa on May 13 to call for the removal of U.S. bases from the southernmost prefecture and to remember the devastation left by World War II.

“Shouldn’t we be investing and uplifting new pathways to genuine security, conflict resolution, and collaboration between nations instead of being blind to the costs of a permanent state of war? “

Letters: Fleet Week glorifies U.S. military’s warmongering and awful environmental, human rights record Chronicle readers also react to Newsom’s College Corps students and breaking legs to...

“We would be used as human shields for military bases, not the other way around,” Yoshikawa said. “We don’t want to be used and we don’t want our seas, forests, lands and skies to be used in the conflicts of states.” This important article uplifts the international letter we signed with 87 other organizations. https://theintercept.com/2022/09/06/japan-okinawa-taiwan-military-base/

As Taiwan Tensions Build, Concerned Okinawans Push for U.S. Military Base Closure Bill Clinton promised to close the base in 1996. But plans for more construction and a heightened focus on the Pacific put the islands and their unique biodiversity at risk indefinitely.

The International Women's Network Against Militarism honors and celebrates Ohlone indigenous water protector, Corrina Gould & the West Berkeley Shellmound in our Love Letters to Water series. Thank you for your words, actions and enduring global legacy. https://www.instagram.com/p/CcQv_j0Mc9t/

Today we honor Corrina Gould, long-time water protector from Chochenyo Ohlone Territory (Northern California): “The Bay Area has been the home of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Ohlone people since time immemorial. It has been occupied over the last 250 years by the Spanish Missions, Mexican Rancho period and the continuous occupation of the U.S. government. Since the time settlers have come to our lands and waters, the destruction of our waterways and pollution of our waters have been on-going. Imagine at one time a few hundred years ago, every creek in the Bay Area was so fresh, you could drink out of it. Today almost every one of our creeks are culverted underground, caged by cement, polluted by years of chemical run-off and trash. All of this happens daily since contact, but when the Navy bought Bayview Hunters Point in the San Francisco Bay during WW2 it contaminated the lands and waters with radiation. It now is comprised of three federal superfund sites. When the Navy left Bayview’s Hunters Point, it became a neighborhood of poor people of color that now face some of the worst health problems in our territory. The Navy left without cleaning up this area and is to blame for the increased rate of asthma and pulmonary disease in people that live on this site and in surrounding neighborhoods. This horrible pollution has affected the Native Tribes that have fished on this Bay for thousands of years because our fish have become polluted as well. Anyone who has lived by subsistence fishing, including many of our newly arrived migrant communities are unable to feed their families safely by fishing in the Bay. It is advised that children and women under the age of 50 only eat a small portion of some fish caught in the Bay or none at all. It is also advised to not eat the skin of fish caught in the Bay. The pollutants caused by the military station and the remnants of radiation and heavy metals have ruined our traditional way of life. We pray for our waters’ health and the health of all our relatives that live in these waters.” #SaveWestBerkeleyShellmound #Run4Salmon#ProtectSacredSites

Starting tonight at midnight-- 24 hours of Women's Programming in honor of International Women's Day. The International Women's Network -- experiences and voices from Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, Korea, Japan and the US will be featured- on Love Letters to Water ( US Militarism's threat to Water and Life) at 9 pm PST..... https://kpfa.org/blog/international-womens-day-2022-special-broadcast/

International Women's Day 2022 Special Broadcast | KPFA KPFA will be celebrating International Women’s Day in 2022 with a 24-hr special broadcast that kicks off at midnight on March 13th and goes until midnight on March 14th. For a detailed list of programing, times, and hosts go here or check the video below!

Celebrate International Women's Day Today & International Water Day! The International Women's Network Against Militarism's: Love Letters to Water:

Because...."A sustainable environment is key to genuine security. Militarism & preparations for war take land that could be used for growing food & other generative uses....Sustaining the environment means returning occupied lands to people who have been displaced- most of whom are indigenous peoples such as in Okinawa, Hawai‘i, Guåhan & Diego Garcia (Indian Ocean)..... cleaning up environmental contamination at current and former military sites...Genuine security involves supporting people who are farming sustainably, protecting land & water, & restoring wetlands & fishponds"

The US military is poisoning people's drinking water and aquifers in Hawai'i and Okinawa with fuel leaks. President Joe Biden must do what is right- and clean up military toxic spills - and close down bases- affecting Hawai'i and Okinawa now. This is an amazing speech this week in Hawai'i from Tina Grandinetti.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXmWD6cgBhz/

Tina Grandinetti (@tina.grand), a member of @oahuwaterprotectors, breaks down the myths of US military necessity and advocates for a genuine security in which WE keep us safe. “The first step in this fight is to #ShutDownRedHill. The second step is to make sure that this burden and this danger doesn’t get dumped on other places or other people in Hawai’i or the Pacific or anywhere in the world. And the third step is to hold the military accountable for their lies - and their biggest lie is that they ‘keep us safe’.” #ShutDownRedHill