 Awesome. I'm going to get started. Hi everyone. Welcome to Code Pink's morning kickoff webinar for International Women's Day. As I said previously, if folks want to put and introduce themselves in the chat, putting their names, pronouns and where they're zooming in from. My name is Grace Siegelman. I am the Feminist Forum Policy Project Coordinator and administrative supporter here at Code Pink, and I'm so grateful to be in community with all of you today. I am guided in this work both at the Feminist Forum Policy Project and generally here at Code Pink, and I'm so grateful to be in community with all of you through the love for my community. Today's feminists today remind ourselves of the world we seek. We seek to contribute a world without war and violence, where militarism is replaced by cooperation and diplomacy, where poverty is eradicated by replacing capitalist structures of exploitation with sharing economies that take care of each other, where the goals of environment protection, racial equality and gender equality govern our policy decisions, and where international solidarity is the guiding principle for our foreign policy. Our love and community propel us into a new world. We want to thank all of our IWD organizational and individual members who signed on to our coalition and said feminists say no to war. Today is dedicated to community reflection and solidarity. We here at Code Pink thank you for raising up your voices against gendered violence, militarism, policing and the war economy. Our speakers actions and events today will continue to lead us towards peace, abolition, justice and a peace economy for all. We'll start today with our national co-director Danica. Danica graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor's degree in political science in November of 2020. And since 2018 she has been working towards ending US participation in the war in Yemen. At Code Pink she works on youth outreach as a facilitator of the Peace Collective. Code Pink's youth cohort that focuses on anti-imperialism and divestment. Welcome Danica. Hi Grace. Hi everyone. Thanks for having me. Yeah, like Grace said, my name's Danica. I'm Code Pink's national co-director. I'm based out of Chicago, Illinois. You see her pronouns. It's been special to be part of Code Pink on International Women's Day. I think it really contextualizes the moment we're living in and gives us a chance to have a deeper understanding of what it means to be in solidarity with women around the world. As someone who lives in the belly of the beast and part of an organization that operates within the belly of the beast, IWD gives us an important opportunity to reassess our values, our goals and our commitments to the oppressed peoples of the world, not just women, but the people that women love, their families, their friends, their children and their homelands being affected by US imperialism. On IWD, we're especially reminded to hear what solidarity looks like from the people of the world. You know, for Cuba it looks like ending the embargo and taking Cuba off the terrorist list so Cuban women and their loved ones no longer have to suffocate under an unjust blockade. For anywhere in the world affected by US military bases via pollution and violence, it means giving way with the 750 military bases spread out around the globe. For the victims of the war on terror for the last 20 years, it means closing Gitmo once and for all and putting an end to the use of armed drones. Imperialism and war is the highest form of capitalism. Its roots are in greed, its roots are in austerity for the masses, but everything for the wealthy and powerful. The same greed that drives wars also drives disinvestment in people here. Every single year the working class in the United States watches their lawmakers give billions of dollars to the military budget while the people get pennies. Our tax dollars are being used to kill women and the working class and the poor all over the world. And we sit with that on IWD. We notice it and we feel it so we can act. Because it's the scarcity mindset, the mindset where we don't have enough for all of us all over the world that fuels wars abroad and austerity here at home. So we as the movement can't operate on the scarcity mindset. If we want to create a world that we know is possible. Of course the ruling class that's paid off by weapons companies like Lockheed Martin don't want negotiations in Ukraine. They started drooling at the idea of more money coming their way when Russia invaded Ukraine and they said it like proudly at their board meetings. The CEO of Raytheon did last year he said we'd see great benefit from it when things started escalating. They don't have the same interests as us. We're calling for negotiations and cooperation in Ukraine and with China and all over the world on IWD because we know that war kills people. Prolonging war kills more people. It drives gender based disparities and conflict zones and around the world. When we see the world in abundance, you know, a world that has enough for all of us, we can see a path towards negotiation and cooperation, even if you can't see one right now. Negotiations are the only way wars end if your goal is ending it, of course. And in the same vision for a better world we also have a world that confronts the climate crisis together, a country that gives people housing education and health care. But to get there, you know, we need to be organizing and I feel like right now that sounds like a buzzword, like organize, organize, but I promise it's not. Be with people in your community, anti-war activists, go work with abolitionists, work with the unions in your city, get to know them. In Chicago we're starting to have potlucks to make sure we all know each other and show up for each other every month because none of us will win without all of us winning. There's a bunch of ways to get involved in CodePink. I'm sure our campaigners throughout the day will be talking about it on these webinars. You can join our coalition to ground the F-35, which is a campaign I'm leading, codepink.org forward slash ground the F-35. You can also join the peace in Ukraine coalition, or you can volunteer with the China's Not Our Enemy campaign. If you don't have a movement home just yet, you definitely have one with us. And so thank you for being with us on IWD. And thank you, Grace, for hosting this webinar. Thank you so much, Danica. And I put all the links that she talked about in the chat. We will have other people from China's Not Our Enemy as well on both in this call and later today. We will now hear from Dr. Mahal Halal. Dr. Mahal is a Muslim Arab American and expert on institutionalized Islamophobia, the war on terror, and counter narrative work. Dr. Halal is the author of the book, Innocent Until Proven Muslim Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and Muslim Experiences since 9-11. Her writings have appeared in Vox, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Newsweek, Business Insider, and Truth Out, among others. Dr. Halal is the founding executive director of Muslim Counterpublics Lab, an organization that works to disrupt, subvert, dehumanizing narratives that are designed and deployed to justify state violence against Muslims. This includes serving as a founding steering committee member of the Guantanamo Survivors Fund, which provides small grants to the men transferred out of detention. Through her work at MCL, she also co-coordinates the For Us Not Amazon Coalition that challenges the presence of Amazon and greater Washington DC area. She has worked at a number of human rights, social justice organizations, including the Institute for Policy Studies, the Government Accountability Project, and Center for Victims of Torture. Additionally, Dr. Halal is an organizer of the Witness Against Torture, with Witness Against Torture, an organization that organizes and advocates for the closure of Guantanamo Bay Prison, and an end to torture. Dr. Halal earned her doctorate in May 2014 from the Department of Justice, Law and Society at American University in Washington DC. She received her master's degree in counseling and her bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and practicing Arabic calligraphy. Welcome. Thank you so much, Grace, and thank you, Danica. It's such a pleasure to be with you both and all of you today on International Women's Day. Next time I will definitely be shortening my bio because I'll just wait too long. But thank you for reading all of that. So, you know, Grace asked me to speak today. You know, what I really want to talk about is the ways that Muslim women have been used to justify military intervention for one. And obviously we saw this in both, you know, domestically with, there was a case of Nour Sanlan, but also in particular in Afghanistan. When the United States, of course, wanted to go to war in Afghanistan and not as if there was anything that could stop them. But they were specifically utilizing a narrative on the oppression of women in order to justify a war that could then free them. I want to just quickly read an excerpt from my book that talks specifically about this. So, in the section I'm going to read, I'm talking about a quote from Laura Bush, who also talked in the context of the war in Afghanistan and in the earliest days of the war on terror about the need to free Afghan women and therefore contributing to this overarching narrative around the United States' role in freeing the oppressed Muslim women. So, let me read from here, making explicit the link between the freedom of Afghan women and the use of military interventions. She said, stated, and this is Laura Bush, Afghan women know through hard experience with the rest of the world is discovering the brutal oppression of women is a central goal of the terrorists. This statement was presented in turn in the terms of the heroic narrative that drew the average person into a mythical story that allowed them to see themselves as heroes, rather than representing a genuine interest in the fate or daily reality of Afghan women, though this sentiment represented nothing more than a cynical attempt to legitimize the US led war by repositioning it as a just and moral endeavor. And when we look at US wars and Afghanistan is a very emblematic example right, looking at how Muslim women's oppression has been engulfed in this narrative of why the United States needs to go to war. And that Muslim women need to be freed from the terrorists. It's really important to sort of when we're thinking about and analyzing the war on terror in terms of narratives as well as policies, thinking about this particular piece. When we look at gender more broadly, and how it's played out in the war on terror. One of the great examples an unfortunate example involving war crimes was that of a book read where the US government specifically in the torture that was suffered by individuals detained at the prison. They were using ideas of gender norms in the torture of those in the prison. The idea is about what Muslim cultures about how Muslims relate to each other in terms of gender to infuse those understandings into the ways and the tactics that Muslims were being tortured in. So again, there's a weaponization, not just of women, but also gender, more broadly. The kind of last thing I want to mention is around resistance. So, in the war on terror and I do a lot of work on Guantanamo. Obviously all the men out all the people in Guantanamo are men. Right. And so not only does this leave a lot of women behind whether their mothers sisters daughters wives, right, who are left to pick up the pieces of the violence. The violence that the men are doing. Right. There's also a lot to say about the ways that women are resisting. And it's women that have typically women, femmes who have been on the front lines of resisting the violence state violence in the war on terror. And this doesn't get recognized enough right it doesn't get recognized because there's a patriarchal structure, not just external to the community but also internal to the community. So, it's important and it's great to be on this webinar for this reason to really uplift the voices and experiences and movements that women have been leading to resist state violence. And I organize as a Muslim woman, and I know many other Muslim women who are organizers, right. And we're often marginalized in different spaces, right, whether it's a Muslim space, whether it's a white non Muslim space there are a lot of places where we are marginalized inside linked. So today I really want to ask for and call for an uplifting in Muslim women in particular, who have been on the front lines, who have been defending their communities, who have been rejecting the violence that our communities have been have endured, and who at the same time, have had to fight back consistently against the negative stereotypes and the constructions of Muslim women. I'll leave it at that and again I'm just really happy to be in this webinar to be in this space, where we can really uplift women's voices. Thank you so much Dr hello and thank you to Danica and everyone who has already exemplified both our missions here at Code Pink but also just the missions of International Women's Day, and the mission for Feminist Women's Day mission policy and a world committed to care and community. We have a contribution from Sylvie Jacqueline Nodomo, a peace activist and the founder of Wilf Cameroon, who is also the current president of Wilf. She has some words for us to reflect on and act on during International Women's Day. Ladies from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. On the occasion of International Women's Day, we want to send an urgent call for peace in the world, a bold step to save our planet. Currently, there are 110 situations of armed violence that amount to an armed conflict on the international humanitarian law. 110 and some have lasted for more than 50 years. In each of those conflicts, ordinary people are having their lives destroyed, their dreams lost, land laid waste, and the prospect ever getting justice and peace in distant hope. In 1915, Wilf called for an end to the carnage of the First World War. On International Women's Day 2023, with our sister's organization, we call for an end to all wars and for this madness to stop. Inequality between people and between nations, economic systems of operation, and militarism as a way of thought. The wise diagnosis of our four models at Wilf in 1915. It is the same now only our fault line have deepened and the threat of nuclear war is a reality. Whilst the threat to the planet from climate change and the destruction of our ecosystem should be our primary concern as a species, it is not. Instead, we witness governance structures which assess states centric and not global security, one base on economic and military power. They refuse to comply with international law and to adhere to the Charter of the UN and the promise to never again subject future generations to the horrors of armed conflict. It is time for really people to take control and to protect our planet. This was must stop. Thank you so much. And if folks have comments, reflections and thoughts on this video, or other speakers that have already spoke or other IWD values, please continue to post them in our chat. We now welcome Julie Tang, a retired judge from San Francisco Superior Court. She established and presided over the first domestic violence court in San Francisco. Upon retirement, Judge Tang co-founded Comfort Women Justice Coalition that built a memorial to comfort women to the comfort women to address sexual violence and sexual slavery against women. She also co-founded Pivot to Peace to educate and mobilize between the US and China. Welcome Julie. Thank you Grace. Can you hear me? Yes. Very good. You know, before this presentation, I did a little research on the origins of International Women's Day. There are a lot of versions, but the one that I believe most aptly describe the reason why we're here is that it was originally called International Labor Women's Day. And it has a strong socialist historical background rooted in radical socialist feminist politics. And its origin can be traced back to European and North American women's labor movements for pay equity, and it emerged around the turn of the 20th century. But then looking at what's happening today, the celebration of the International Women's Day have shifted mostly to non-Western countries. It is an official holiday in 25 mostly third world countries, such as Uganda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cuba, Mongolia and Russia. And in China, it is a holiday and women get a half day off work, not men, not the men. In San Francisco Chinatown, the Chinese women's community is getting together today. And that's why I'm all dressed up in a big banquet of several hundred people to celebrate International Women's Day, which I will be joining after this webinar. So it seems like the rest of America, however, some people have never even heard of International Women's Day. Why such a neglect? Some people assert that it is because the International Women's Day is associated with feminist labor movements within a socialist political context, a touchy subject in the US mainstream, or perhaps our government and corporate leaders, which are made up mostly of men, are uncomfortable about a day reserved for women to demonstrate on issues that pertain to women, pay equity, foot shortage, child labor, sexual violence. So the less sad, the better. And that's why I'm extremely pleased that Codepin has arranged for us to come together globally to speak in the same voice, bear witness to the common struggles that we face and join hands to say no to war. You see, our Defense Secretary and Army generals have been very heavy on the rhetoric of war, with a mindset that war seems inevitable. And our lengthy record of direct and indirect involvements in war with countries such as Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, and now Ukraine. These generals may be telling us something that they know better, and that is the United States is again preparing itself to take on another war, this time with a formidable country, China. And if that should happen, massive deaths and destructions is guaranteed to occur and would take us to World War Three. For women in particular, can we guarantee that history will not be repeated? Let us not forget that the worst and the largest sexual crimes ever committed against women in modern history are those committed during war. In World War Two in Asia, the Japanese armed forces legalized gang rapes against Asian women and Dutch women under the conflict women system. The brutal mass rapes of women during the Holocaust in the Bangladesh Liberation War, and when 200 to about 400,000 women were raped and rapes during the Bosnian War, the Rwandan genocide, the Congolese conflicts, show us that mass rapes are an integral part of any war. During the pandemic, finger pointing and blaming China for the pandemics drove Asian people in the United States to become subject of hate from a large segment of the American population. Over 11,500 cases of hate incidents were self reported within a year to the Stop AAPI hate website. But the worst brutality was reserved for Asian women. In March 16, 2021, a white man serially visited three health spars in Atlanta, Georgia to look for Asian women to kill, and he ended up killing six of them. He said he killed Asian women because he had sexual problems with Asian women. So accordingly, it is the women's fault. After the Atlantic murders attacks against Asian Americans, especially Asian women continue in the United States. The Asian American Foundation reported in a survey of 2,414 adult Asian American women, 74% of Asian women reported experiencing racism and or discrimination. As an Asian women, I too fear for my safety from these racial haters. But as my friend KJ Nol always reminded us, he's a journalist and also a mental health worker. The way to deal with fear and rage over injustice is not to hide away and hope everything will go away, but to work constructively, especially among others who share the common experiences to eradicate the roots of those problems. And I believe that that's what we're doing today. Our country's leaders are currently working hard at manufacturing consent for war with China by spreading propaganda and is stealing fear and hate among Americans towards China. They are planning that as soon as the Ukraine conflicts are overdone with, then China will be the main focus of war. So these leaders have not made a case for the war, except by demonizing China, creating a fiasco over a weather balloon. And you notice nothing has been reported of what was in those four balloons that they shot down with the F-22s, including the one that they call a spy balloon. Women have an important role to play in promoting peace and protecting ourselves, our families and society from war. I applaud Co-Ping and all the speakers here today from the international community and the dedication towards peace and the willingness to share their respective communities concerned for women with all of us. Pivot to peace and organizations which I co-founded with a group of peace activists is working closely with Co-Ping to call out our government leaders that China is not our enemy. This statement is not a peer slogan. It means war is not an option and China is not an enemy to go to war with. Today on International Women's Day, let's assert ourselves and to tell our government leaders. China is not a threat to all our enemy and women do not want war. And women will join hands and solidify to form a peace movement to fight against any efforts to take us to a war. Thank you so much Co-Ping and we want permanent peace. Thank you for everybody. And in a short while I have to take off to celebrate International Women's Day and eat a lot of good food. Thank you. Thank you so much Judge Julian. Thank you and have a wonderful celebration. Now we welcome Teddy. Teddy Ogborn is Co-Ping's war is not green coordinator. They are a climate activist and organizer based in New York City. Originally from Littleton, Colorado, they earned a BA in comparative literature from Hartford College in 2019 before working at the intersection of climate and anti-militarism. Teddy has worked as a film festival director, fencing coach, film producer and high school English teacher in France. Welcome Teddy. Thank you Grace. Thank you everyone for being here on International Women's Day. And I'm ready to bring my campaign into alignment a little bit with the conversations that we've been discussing. The war is not green campaign like coordinate for Co-Pink. The war is not green. I think a lot of people initially especially in the climate movement need a little bit of education bringing up to speak on this because that's precisely why it exists in the first place is to bring the climate justice movement, the climate change movement and the anti-militarism movement together and doing so in a feminist light and with the feminist I think is really, really crucial. It'll lay a little bit of that out now. As our co-founder Jodi Evans likes to say education is such a crucial cornerstone for reaching peace. And as Grace laid out in my bio, I've kind of had a bit of a winding path getting to Co-Pink, you know, majoring in comparative literature and things like that but it's because I'm someone that I've always felt like a very interdisciplinary person and I think that's why I found my home very much in environmental justice and in peace work because it really sits at the crossroads of all the issues that we face today and that we're working together to fight. Environmental justice is a very complicated, very interesting and rewarding movement to be a part of. It means we're fighting for the fair and meaningful treatment and involvement of everybody regardless and because of their race, their gender, their sexuality, their income, etc., in the decisions that we're making to develop towards a sustainable and green future. So, for a long time, I suppose we could just call it then the environmental movement, solely focused on like the destructive dams and ending fossil fuels, right? And you say from that perspective, without the environmental justice component, once those things are done, you know, mission completed, we can go home. And once you bring in environmental justice and specifically considering gender and environmental justice, you get a lot more complicated and you realize the intersection of the movements that you need to work at. So that's what's led me to this work in anti-militarism and anti-capitalism as well here in New York City, which I'm really excited to be a part of. I think about climate crisis and gender and of three main things. I guess to get to those three main things, I want to learn a little bit more specifically why. And that is especially in this country because the United States military, the planet's largest single institutional leader, and I should say it's also a procurer of fossil fuels as we've seen in conflicts and U.S. occupations at least across the world. And so ending militarism and ending the climate crisis go very, very hand in hand. And yeah, this conversation isn't enough within the environmental movement. So when I think of climate crisis and gender, there's sort of three main pillars that come to mind. The first one is to be in survival and domestic tasks, which will be and are exactly by the climate crisis in rural areas. Women often those that are tasked with water, which as water sources dry up, they have to go great and greater distances to do so to get more and more of their time and disenfranchising them and and and and happening any effort to allow women to enter the workforce, for example, or to participate in society in other ways. And this goes equally for the task of childcare as men often in communities have to go farther from home and perhaps migrating across orders to do so. This includes of course food and crops shortages that planet eats and we continue to pull over our climate tipping points, food and crops that may be grown locally are failing more and more every year which is exacerbating these these mass migrations. It should be all of these issues disproportionately of color across the global south. Particularly within the lens of this campaign and militaries in the United States. One example that I would like to amplify is United States military base and fuel fueling station in Red Hill in Hawaii. This is a jet fuel station military fuel station that has been leaking leaking jet fuel toxic chemicals into the water table for four years now and people have visible lesions on their body from consuming this water. And while very very very technically Red Hill is now shut down the EPA continues to and the United States Navy continues to push off the date at which the entire operation needs to be decommissioned. And as I've just laid out of course, it's oftentimes women that bear the brunt of the labor, the childcare, the health care that goes into tragedies such as these. And when it comes to mind around gender disparities in the climate crisis is that it accelerates the escalation of armed conflict as mass climate migration provides nationalists and fascists, fascists to other populations which may be migrating across their borders providing them opportunities to take control and enact violence across their countries. We see this now even in the United States. This is becoming a major factor for migration across Central and South America, as people seek to bring their families or seek economic opportunity in the United States. And we have seen, you know, across previous administrations and yes in this present administration, the criminalization detention and racist treatment of people crossing the border for that safety. And it has been used as a working point and fascist reason to enact violence against those communities which are seeking safety, many times as a result of the climate crisis. And as violence disproportionately affects women. And it must be said, and this is true, whether it is in the middle of the military conflict or after quote unquote natural disasters which are becoming more and more frequent as a cause of the climate crisis. What comes to mind is gender disparity in representation or maybe I should start talking about gender parity in representation. In this instance I'd like to amplify the message of the climate clock climate clock is a really great organization it's a teaching tool, which displays the amount of time that we have to avert a 1.5 degree Celsius tipping point. Right now it says something like six years and I think 400 days for us to mitigate our crucial. And that's climate clocks deadline but it also includes many lifelines these are things that we can work for as a society and as human populations to advance freedom liberation safety and the face of the climate crisis for everybody and they've recently added a gender parity lifeline which is really exciting. And they're having parliaments only can be 6.5% of all representatives and you don't have to be a sociologist or a mathematician to know that number should be about doubled for for gender parity for And that has huge impacts on climate change and in order to mitigate and address the consequences of climate change. One study showed that countries parliaments which have 38% or more women had considerable more force cover during those terms which as as many as we know, force covers absolutely crucial for protecting the water cycle and as carbon sinks for these countries I know this is a huge goal for for Kenya, for example. And so really can't be understated that the representation element and gender parity in leadership whether that is at the governmental level is absolutely crucial for addressing the climate crisis and anti militarism. And so many of us know we can't depend only on our fights for representation we can't just vote away our problems we must take action. And Code Pink, as many of us are familiar, are has been very active in taking action, calling for peace in Ukraine so I want to uplift this of course as well because all the factors that I've just listed are happening presently in Ukraine whether those are on the ground environmental disasters or the continued emissions of fossil fuels or continued grabs for fossil fuel extraction, which are polluting the planet and increasing gender disparity and gender based violence around it must be said that by the beginning of this year about $100 billion had been approved from the US to aid the military in Ukraine and this number is a stark reminder that I believe at the conference of the party, the UN climate conference about six years ago, nations agreed to give $100 billion to underdeveloped nations to mitigate climate related factors and stresses, which has yet to be done, but we are so ready and ready for the country to give $100 billion to war, which is destroying our planet, both, you know, in extreme ways on the ground there make rendering farmland unarable unusable and contributing vastly to carbon emissions. Specifically on that front, you know, this is a huge example of how the US military protects big oil and is fighting for control of big oil. One of the preeminent scholars on the Pentagon and climate change and at a Crawford writes that we are locked in a cycle of acquisition of fossil fuels and then the protection of that acquisition. So we don't we simply don't have time, both because of crop crop failures worldwide and the carbon budget that we have as displayed by the climate clock, we simply don't have time for these kind of this kind of war and for war at all. And it will disproportionately affect people of color and women around the world. So that's how we know that we need to be fighting this war. The other in order to ensure the safety of everyone around the world, because it's it's truly is and many scholars have shown us it truly is one of the only ways that we can ensure and enter the climate crisis is to end war and we can start that with any of the war in Ukraine. Right now, my war is not green campaign has an action that you can sign where environmental groups are calling on President Biden to initiate peace negotiations now on environmental grounds. So please go ahead and sign that all. There's a Google form as well. Thank you everyone. Thank you Teddy and all the links and events and actions that we have been talking about throughout this webinar have been posted in the chat but will also be sent throughout this webinar and all the other webinars throughout the day, and I will also be sending them out to anyone that's RSVP for this event. So if you haven't caught some of them, or you haven't caught every single word from everyone's discussions they will be posted on going. So thank you so much Teddy to close out or kick off and send us into this International Women's Day, we welcome Jodi Evans Jodi is the co founder of code pink and the after school writing program 826 la and serves on the code pink board of directors, she has been a visionary advocate for peace for several years and inspired motivator Jodi invigorates nascent activists and reinvigorate seasoned activists through her ever evolving always exciting methods to promote peace, whether in board rooms or war zones legislative offices or neighborhood streets, Jodi's enthusiasm for a world at peace infuses console, conciliation, optimism and activism wherever she goes. Welcome Jodi. Thank you so much Grace and what a beautiful day, a lovely to spend it with such powerful voices for peace. And, you know, just that reminder of this day was created by women around the world but really it was the women workers in Russia, who, you know came together on March 8 and said we need bread and we need peace. And that is the day that this was launched in what 1917. So, you know, we need bread and we need peace continues. It's a, it was a very effective day I think seven days later the Russian Revolution was successful and one of the things they called for was the end of the czar so you know maybe call the end of imperialism and war. And the war economy on this day. So, happy to be with all of you. I want to talk about 20 years ago. We were in Washington DC with over 10,000 women and men and pink. We march from Martin Luther King, well we had an amazing rally with some 70 women speakers. We march to in front of the White House behind a banner that said, you know, women call for peace and justice. When we got down to the White House, a phalanx of police were blocking the White House had surrounded the White House far and totally blocked off Pennsylvania Avenue. We checked this had never been done in history. So just the power of women is frightening to power, and just a reminder of the power of women when we get together, and we stand together how powerful that is and how much it frightens others. We get down there, 35 women had been holding the banner removed them aside and I pulled them over to the cops to try to like have this conversation with them like, Why are you here we have this amazing group of women why are you keeping them from going in front of the White House to call for peace. And Rachel bagby started singing, said, you know, set us free old slave him, and Alice Walker started speaking with one of the black cops and said, you know, my family was slaves my ancestors were slaves, and they built this house and you're keeping me from it. And he let go his hand we all got to go in. And I said, you know why, why did you let go your hand what what moved you. And he said, I couldn't go home to my wife and said I kept Alice Walker away from house. So yet the power of women in so many ways and the power of love. So that was the beginning of our first celebration of International Women's Day today we're on zoom, but in 10 days on the 20th anniversary of the war and rock that we were not able to stop. We will be gathering out in that same place on Pennsylvania Avenue. We hope with you standing against this war in Ukraine against this proxy war US Russia proxy war, and saying, we need diplomacy now with let's like we're calling for diplomacy today, we're calling for diplomacy, we're calling for cooperation Thank you judge Julie for bringing up what the United States is doing to China, right now, it's driving a war on China. And, you know what we try to do it could paint which is to raise up the cost of war, because somehow wars become some abstract idea, the people are willing to get behind it don't they know the cost of war. And today let's talk about the cost of war to women just in Ukraine. As we speak to with the women in Ukraine. You know we realize that there's 8 million refugees, that is, an unhoused family that isn't unhoused women. And most of those refugees by the way are women they were not letting with men out of the country. They were not with women in Ukraine and they are being raped by the Ukrainian men, because there are so few women left and they're not allowed to complain about it, because it would look you make Ukraine looks so bad. And they call it their and Frank moment where they are hiding their sons and their husbands and their fathers away, because from 18 to 60 you're being taken into into conscription. So those, you know, they're now hiding the male members of their family, even as now females are being driven into conscription. So, on this day, we have women in the world that are being affected by war across the world. And that's the war of sanctions. That's the war of poverty. That's the war of the war economy on the women and the people of the world. And today we come together inspired by those women before us, inspired by those women that were a spark for the Revolution and Russia. That has continued to this day that women and and it's really you know working women we here in the United States it's not we don't see it as a big as a holiday but if you live around the world. It's not a holiday of women and men in the streets who remember the power of women and who are there for the for the working people of the world to call for justice and peace. So, you know, we have I think probably been already shared a letter to Biden saying no to war on this International Women's Day we're encouraging everyone to use hashtag IWD and war. I'm sure when you use that hashtag you're also using the hashtag International Women's Day. So we're in this, the flow in the river of the International Women's Day tweets but with our own that says IWD and war that we're entering the conversation that we always do with a message for peace with a mess message calling for the end to war and devastation, and that it's been driven from the American countries. And I think the connection today that I think is really important and I want to bring up because it is, you know, one of the things that we recognize as international feminists is the patriarchy is a system and it's a system globally, and patriarchy is not a gender. It's a form of oppression and violence. So we have many women around the world that joined with the patriarchy and we have many men around the world that join with revolutionary feminists. So on this day, let's you know, it's an, it's a day that was created by international feminists. And so it's a feminist holiday. As international feminists, it could ping today we're calling on President Biden to fire under secretary of state Victoria Nuland, because she is failing at her job as the diplomat of this country, she's not only not calling for diplomacy. But she is driving this war as she drove the war on Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. So what we do is some of this is we do not remain silent, we gather together we join together, and we together. So inspiring to see Olivia in the halls of Congress this morning with her beautiful. We also do it with beauty and in ways that are disarming and inspiring. So Olivia did that this morning with 24 pink umbrellas the circle of the peace sign, and the and the peace sign in between in the rotunda of Congress was beautiful with a banner behind it saying peace now. So, being visible for peace, holding it in our hearts first on holding it in the space that belongs from with love of all with connection to all, and then acting and engaging and being visible and being beautiful and being what pieces, which is a aspect for the justice and needs of everyone in the world. And as Teddy so beautifully said you know that the planet that we live on that feeds us that nourishes us that houses us that war is the most devastating thing to the planet. So, from your heart, may you, you know, stand up today be visible today be sharing you can go to at code pink at Instagram and Twitter, and Facebook and share what we've been sharing the visuals and actions. So, you know, share our call today to, you know, fire Newland, we used to give pink slips it but I'm afraid that that that metaphor is is not not understood so much anymore we used to get pink slips when we were fired and when we started keeping 20 years ago we would dress up in pink slips and say fire bush. I wish I had my pink slip today to say fire Newland. Because war drives oppression gender violence, the women are the first to pay the price of war and they are doing it today around the world. So, let us be engaged. Let us remember let's stand on the shoulders of the women that have come before us. Remember them spend time today remembering those she rose that shoulders you stand on it have inspired you to be who you are that have been those strong voices that have spoken out. You stand on their shoulders really consciously today, pick up a book and read something that inspired you from a woman, and then be engaged in every way you can take a sign to your farmers market today or someplace that's visible. Be a stand for peace today and every day but let's start with today and let's start with joining us in the streets on March 18, where we can be visible together in the East Coast please we have, I think, 20 cities where we're taking buses from, and we have but we have, you know, Penn Avenue outside the White House. Think about being there with the throng of women and men saying no to this war. Think about what it will do for the anxiety in your heart because we know it could pink the only only recognizable feature of hope is action be in action with us and all the ways you can thank you for being with us. Peace and bread. International Women's Day. Thank you Grace for hosting for holding the container for being so amazing thank you, ESA for holding the container of all the actions on International Women's Day. Thank you for all the voices that have spoken out today, and we'll see you later. We have more to come. We have Alice Walker. Later at the last session we have the indigenous leader of Sonya from Brazil that will be joining us so stay tuned be inspired could think we say educate inspire and activate may we all be tuning forks for peace. Thank you Jodi and thank you to all the speakers. I'm going to take I'm going to give it to ESA right now to talk about our International Women's Day toolkit and further actions and ways that you can be contributing to our coalition today. Hi everyone. Thank you everyone for your your amazing words. Check in if anyone is planning to do any in person actions today as Jodi mentioned to use that hashtag IWD and wars along with International Women's Day. And if you do take to the streets please send me photos I'm going to share my email right now, and we can make sure to uplift those. And if you don't have a poster if you don't have a banner it's not too late. We have some info on our toolkit website, some inspiration you could head to FedEx you can print things out at home. It's a great hub if you wanted to have some visuals at your in person actions. Thank you so much ESA and thank you for everyone who is here today speaking everyone who came into be to be in community with us. We have two more webinars today. The second one being at 2pm Pacific 4pm Central 5pm Eastern, and the end of the day reflection 6pm Pacific 8pm Central 9pm Eastern. Both webinars will have more speakers, both from Code Pink and Global Voices, as well as time to reflect and discuss International Women's Day 2023 and as multiple speakers presented ongoing actions and events to promote and to be thinking about as we head through women's history month I thank you all for being here for our first webinar. This link will gain access for you for the other two webinars as well. So don't be looking out for another zoom link this is the one you'll use. This is ESA said if you are in action in person today please be tagging us using the hashtag IWD and war and all the other International Women's Day hashtags that are being used. Thank you all so much, and I'll see you at the next webinar. Excuse me. There's no, there's no, there's no question and answer, or can I make a comment if I may. The last webinar that we have will have a time for reflection and discussion as well the last webinar of the day. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. Have a good day everyone see you soon.