 And then recording. Okay, great. Okay. I think we're live. I'm Christine on and welcome to our webinar. I'm first going to introduce Cindy Weissner of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance to give instructions on how to listen by Spanish Cindy. Buenas noches. Buenas tardes a todas y todo ex estamos muy felices que vemos a poder dar interpretación al español. Lo que les pedimos es que por favor vean el globo que dice interpretation. Thank you so much Cindy. Aloha from the Kingdom of Hawaii and thank you for joining us for this important discussion on the future of US foreign policy. My name is Christine on and I'm the executive director of women cross DMC a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean war. I'll be your moderator today. The this event was initially conceived to discuss the transnational feminist movements for Korea peace, but given the Biden Harris when we felt it was important to widen the conversation to discuss how feminists who helped win this election can help shape a new US foreign policy that prioritizes ending America's endless wars, including this one with North Korea. So tonight's discussion will focus on the role of feminist movements to reorient us foreign policy away from perpetual war and domination and toward interdependence and cooperation. We have four brilliant feminist leaders who was who will give us their insight. We'll hear from Gloria Steinem, the pioneering feminist author and activist Medea Benjamin the co founder of code pink Cindy Weissner executive director of grassroots global justice alliance and Diana Duarte, the director of policy and strategic engagement at Maudrey. And thank you to Maudrey code pink women cross DMC and GGJ for co hosting this event. Please let us know in the chat where you're joining from. And if you have any questions, please write them in the Q&A box. We have a tight program but we will have some time at the end to answer a few questions. But before we begin, we have Michael Knox chair of the US Peace Memorial Foundation, who would like to share a brief message. Thank you Christine. The US Peace Memorial Foundation was founded in 2005 as a 501C3 not for profit to honor Americans who work to end war. The foundation recognizes documents to work of and honors these courageous Americans by publishing the US peace registry, raising funds to build the US peace memorial as a national monument in Washington DC and awarding the annual US peace prize. Please visit us piece more.org to learn more about our mission. Today, we present the 2020 US peace prize. Previous recipients are a Jammu Baraka, David Swanson and right veterans for peace, Kathy Kelly code pink, Chelsea Manning, Medea Benjamin, Norm Chomsky, Dennis Kucinich and Cindy Sheehan. They are all role models to inspire other Americans to speak out against war and to work for peace. The foundation has well over 400 founding members and growing. Every year they nominate qualified individuals and organizations from the hundreds of Americans whose anti war work is documented in the US peace registry. You can read the details of the nomination process at US peace prize.org. This year, the founding members nominated five individuals and two organizations to be considered for the US peace prize. They are Christine on Daniel Ellsberg, Thomas Fox, Tulsi Gabbard, Alfred Marder, Whatcom Peace and Justice Center and World Beyond War. You can read about the anti war actions of the previous recipients and all nominees in our publication, the US peace registry in print and on our website. So I'm very pleased to announce that the US peace prize this year is awarded to the honorable Christine on for bold activism to end the Korean war, heal its wounds and promote women's roles in peace building. I've gotten to know Christine this year. Her work is documented in the US peace registry, and it's truly extraordinary. I hope that you'll take the time to read what she has done for peace. So thank you, Christine and congratulations to the honorable Christine on the 2020 US peace prize recipient. Thank you so much, Michael, and the US peace memorial this is the peace prize it's so big. And that was my daughter judge you who you present it. Thank you so much. It's so meaningful to have women cross DMZ recognized in this way. We've been working our butts off to end the 70 year Korean war. And I don't know is, am I being spotlighted everyone can see me okay yeah. We have been building the political will for peace to happen with North Korea and we've been doing it mostly recently through a vehicle called the Congressional House resolution 152, which calls for an end to the Korean war with the peace agreement. The resolution now has 52 co sponsors, which is including a Republican, and it's the result of grassroots peoples movements led by women. And we are normalizing the prospect of a peace agreement with North Korea because the status quo hasn't worked. In fact, the multiple crises, we are facing related to the pandemic climate change systemic racism. These are all a direct result of US militarism both at home and abroad. We need global cooperation and an interdependent approach to address today's challenges. And in the case of North Korea US policy has long been shaped by military generals intelligence officials and those with ties to arms manufacturers, people who have a vested interest or profit and perpetuating endless war. In fact, US policy towards North Korea has continually focused on pressure threat of military actions sanctions isolation to convince North Korea to give up their nuclear weapons. This is totally failed, while also fueling the extreme militarization of the Korean Peninsula, the continued separation of tens of thousands of Korean families, and the suffering of millions of North Koreans under punishing sanctions. We also see the scenario playing out in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and elsewhere where the long tentacles of US militarism reach US militarism not only has devastating consequences for the people in those countries, but also for all of us, in the United States where 53 cents of every tax dollar goes to the Pentagon. We will never be able to achieve our goals of affordable health care, free college tuition, or reversed in climate change, as long as we spend $730 billion on the US military. Today, Women Cross DMZ, Madre, Global Justice Alliance, and a bunch of other organizations including Code Pink, we are part of a feminist peace initiative. We released a framework document called a vision for a feminist peace, building a movement driven by US foreign policy, which you can read at feministpeaceinitiative.org, achieving our vision of a feminist foreign policy for peace and justice requires democratizing the process of shaping US foreign policy to center the experience and wisdom and the leadership of those most impacted by US militarism. It also means broadening the US peace movement to make stronger connections between the war at home and the war abroad. So let's dive into this conversation. I'm honored to hand the first question to Gloria Steinem who needs no introduction. So my first question to Gloria is you've witnessed many elections in your lifetime. What are the most significant takeaways from this election and historic moment for feminist movements? Gloria. Oh, Gloria, I think you might be on mute. There we go. Okay, okay. Sorry. But first, I want to say how important it is to me that we cross the DMZ together because that was a huge, huge symbolic gesture that you organized and led all of us. So thank you for that. So throughout this election. Obviously, we had the least rational and or competent president in the history of the nation. And he was removed, which is a huge relief. And also, we have the first woman and woman of color vice president, who is enormously strong and competent and inspiring. And so, you know, both of those events were unique one a relief and one a barrier breaking. That's all. Well, I mean, how long do we have for five minutes. You know, it's very important that we recognize the role of women of color and especially black women in this in this election, because it has never been more clear that they were the champions of democracy, and of getting out of the vote. You know, it's, it's, there's, it's always been true, even from the beginning of the women's movement that black women were a way disproportionate element of it. But I think now we see at a national level, how, how important and how clear that is. And, you know, we have not seen a degree of voting and participation. This has even exceeded that during the Vietnam War. So that is is record breaking. I'm hoping it's not just because people weren't at work this time. I'm hoping it's because they were really engaged and participating. And, and I think, I think it truly is. Of course, there is some resistance in this country to becoming for the first time, majority minority you might say, for the first time, the United States will is about to be a majority people of color nation. And what you have seen is some degree of panic and resistance on the part of a percentage of the country to that fact. But I do think that that's diminishing, I think it's the pain of, of transition, and soon, you know, that we will be more related to the world, I think, because we will look more like the rest of the world. Better food, better, better music. I do think it's very positive, and that we are seeing a profound change. Of course, it's going to be a time a difficult time as as we transition out of the unique presidency, which was an accident really and not supported by the majority of the country, but profoundly supported by about a third of the country that was resisting the changes that that I've just described. But I do think that we are beginning to see a true democracy and also, and also the beginning of a feminist foreign policy, which means the ability to use women and count women as peacemakers. It has always been the case in every study that if women were at the peacemaking table, there was, it was more likely that there was a peace agreement, not perhaps because we're smarter or, you know, better human beings, but just because we don't have our masculinity to prove we were more likely to be able to come to a peaceful agreement. So, I do think you know we've seen this from the Irish peace women to you know we've seen this in many ways in the past and I believe now we will see it in my own country in a big way. I have one question before we pass it on to the next speaker but 55% of white women voted for Trump. And I, I would say that's part of the, the resistance that you're talking about the shift. A large proportion of those. Yeah. Sorry. There's a kind of time lag sorry. A large proportion of those women are dependent. Those white women are dependent on the incomes of white men. And so some of them are voting the interest of white men, rather than voting their own. Some of them really are racist, and have that kind of resistance as well. So it is clear that black women in this country are in the leadership of the movement towards democracy. Thank you very much. Glory we have more questions. I'm going to turn now to Cindy. You've been on the front lines, organizing grassroots to get out the vote and mobilize resistance in multiple scenarios including the one we're facing now which is a potential to coup by Trump to not seed ground to Biden and Harris. Tell us about how feminist grassroots organizers, especially the black indigenous people of color helped win this for Biden and Harris. Hello to everybody. What an amazing time we're in right we just need to applaud and take a collective breath of celebrating of the defeat of a misogynist racist authoritarian. So let's all give ourselves like shout out I want to see you in the chat I see people from all over this country. Yes, I want to be able to hear the sea put out the applause because we did that y'all like we did that, and we know it's not over, but we did that. It's so important not only for us here in the United States, but for everyone around the world who is flat fighting against global authoritarian. So that's really, really important, right. Very, very important. Thank you. I want to congratulate my sister Christine on and women cross DMZ for your tireless work for peace and Korea, and I'm so honored to be in this conversation with my fellow feminist Diana media and Gloria. I also work with grassroots global justice action fund, the rising majority and I'm on the leadership team of the frontline campaign. Today I would be remiss if I don't say anything about today being veterans day and really dedicating and lifting up the leadership of anti war organized veterans that are on the frontline standing side by side with movements that basically are doing incredible work, leaving right and really saying taking that first stand to say no to endless war so I just want to shout them out and wherever you can support the anti war veterans organizations in particular about face who's a member of GTJ. So, Christine you asked me about the frontline right and the frontline was started as a vision of led by the electoral justice project of movement for black lives and the working families party, and many other movement formations to really do three things. Defeat Trump, defeat Trumpism and defeat neoliberalism right and we started this campaign of really with the goal of aligning thousands of organizations and mobilizing millions of individuals. And this campaign is trying to actually electoral eyes, the largest protest movement in US history right. And we want to make sure that we have to defeat Trump and that that fight is still not over you know electorally through popular vote we have defeated them through electoral outcome, but we know that the state wing is doing every single maneuver to undermine democracy, and we need to continue to deal a blow to this continued threat of fascism, and really making the movement, the protagonist in this wave of progressive governance. And so there was like thousands of local community based organizations statewide power building networks unions national organizations collectives formations right. People came together and really in different key cities and territories like Detroit Atlanta, Philly, Milwaukee Phoenix the Navajo nation really delivered the vote right 74 million people and counting voted against Trump and Pence and is neofascist administration. And so it's clear that we're there's signs right there's signs based on the decisions of the firing of the of who who's getting fired right now that Trump is not going to concede, and he's going to do everything in his power with the help of the party to discredit the outcome, and we need to be vigilant right we cannot be complacent, we need to celebrate, we need to take some rest but we need to know that this, we need to prevent, you know, his insistence on staying in power. And so that's going to be really, really important right. The other thing is, is that we need to be clear that women, non binary people, feminists black and brown native working class API folks working at folks were at the helm of many of these organizations from the local level to the statewide level to the national level. They were, and we are unapologetic about our politics. We condemn racial and gendered capitalism and imperialism, we are visionary and our transformative demands. And we have a skill set around collaboration and coherence, and we are also clear that we need to build alternatives right alternatives to what exists right now. And many organizations and movements, we've been for many years have been really being clear right we're clear that we're fighting for the terrain that gives us a better opportunity to advance our demands right so there's the black lives matter the movement for black lives has come up with the Breathe Act. Those of us in the climate and environmental justice movement are pushing the thrive agenda and as a gateway to the Green New Deal. We've been putting forward a people's charter right the working families has put out people's charter. We're looking at structural democracy reform right in terms of abolishing the filibuster and hopefully abolishing the electoral college. Folks have been Medicare for all the heroes act to bail out people not corporations right we have to eradicate covert and do some radical public health measures to be able to heal right not only our communities heal and we need to be able to be able to think about this moment as a way to consolidate our specific constituent demands or our issue demands and lift them up as movement demands. And I think that in this Biden Harris victory. We need to be able to put pressure to force the administration, you know, away from austerity measures or from beefing up the military budget, and really pushing continuing to push the movement demands around divestment divestment defunding the police the divestment out of ice out of the military and really investing in a regenerative what we call in grassroots global justice a regenerative anti racist feminist economy. Thank you so much Cindy. I'm going to turn now to media Benjamin and just reminder to keep your remarks to four minutes and under media what do we know about what a Biden US foreign policy agenda will look like and just to add there is a question from Jackie Capasso that Biden just announced his transition team for the Defense Department and that's what 18 out of 23 of them were women so media let's hear from you about what what do we see coming. Well, I'm the bummer in all of this we have the speakers who celebrated Trump hopefully leaving. And now I want to talk about Biden's potential foreign policy, if we don't put enough pressure on him and Gloria and your honor I'm wearing this shirt that says the truth will piss this truth will set you free but first we'll piss you off. So, we might get pissed off right now, because we know it's not about women. Yes, there are a number of women on this transition team and there are a number of women that Biden is putting forth in his cabinet that we deal with foreign policy, one of this is in rice and other one Michelle Flournory. They are not feminists. And first let me say there are certainly some positive things that we can expect from a Biden administration. He wants to rejoin the Paris climate Accords very positive rejoin the WHO so we can work with the world to eliminate coven renew the start treaty with Russia, get rid of the global gag rule. He says he wants to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal which is absolutely essential for any kind of peace in the Middle East. And we hope he'll go back to the Obama policy of renewing relations with Cuba and lifting some of those sanctions, but apart from that what I see is his bringing on in his circle and his own history of people who see the world in terms of the US should be in the lead. In fact, he has written about the US should be at the head of the table whereas we as feminists, we think about round tables where we can all be discussing things together. I mentioned Michelle Flournory she was in the Defense Department under Clinton and Obama where she supported the wars in Iraq, as did Biden, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria represents the revolving door in and out of the Pentagon to make firms to make a whole lot of money with Pentagon contracts, and she sees China as a threat, and that justifies a new generation of weapons and keeping this bloated Pentagon budget. So, without pressure, I see the Biden administration continuing the US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria, although he just like Trump said they were going to end the endless wars. I see him being very close to Israel as he has been his whole career. He called the Saudis a pariah state which is a very good start and says he wants to get out of the war in Yemen, but we really have to pressure him because that's going up against the military industrial complex. In Latin America, I see him continuing very neoliberal policies towards Latin America and supporting conservative governments there and keeping pressure on Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba. Christine you can talk more about what you see happening around Korea. Well, I want to end by saying, I don't see him without pressure, doing anything to cut the Pentagon budget. And that's something I hope we will talk more about. Thank you. And right on time. Thank you, Medea. So, so meaty. I'm turning now to Diana, Diana Duarte from Madre, building out when Medea just shared, and knowing that Madre has been working for decades to support women's movements in the global South, give us a concrete example of how Biden's foreign policy might impact these women. Yeah, and it's great that I'm able to follow up on Medea because, you know, I think that there's a lot of continuity there. So first, you know, we can start off by acknowledging all the ways that the past four years have been painful and destructive for women's rights and for gender justice worldwide. So one of the ways that the Biden foreign policy agenda can have an immediate impact will just be to reverse some of those harmful policies so Medea named some of these but to emphasize their gender impacts, you know just consider the life saving change of repealing the global gag rule, which blocks US funding from abortion services worldwide by Biden is likely to do that immediately which means that millions of women will gain access to abortion care and reproductive services. Or we can think about all of the vital multilateral agencies of the Trump administration defunded from the UN population fund to the World Health Organization. We know that funding for healthcare services is essential, and especially in a pandemic when people's need for treatment and care just skyrockets. The public authorities are unable to meet that need, the responsibility to care falls to women and girls who carry out the vast majority of that work worldwide so we're moving those harmful policies will have a significant positive impact on women's worldwide. But I'm you know I'm hearing this a lot you know we're also here because we know that this is not just about the end of Trump. We know that a US foreign policy that US foreign policy in general has a direct and significant impact on communities worldwide. And this fact has been true across administrations for decades, just as it has been true that feminist grassroots organizers and human rights advocates like our partners worldwide have fought hard to demand and end to policies that harm their communities, and to advance those that are more just, peaceful and sustainable. And again, you know the question we're asking ourselves is, how can we compel Biden to break with the worst impulses of the past, and chart a new course forward. You know he's been saying that he wants to re engage with the world but again on what terms. Is it is it one where once again the US seeks to dominate its so called adversaries or can we imagine a new approach. And you know the specific example I want to bring up is is about economic sanctions, which have become a US foreign policy tool of choice. There is a foreign policy orthodoxy that sees economic sanctions as a kinder or gentler alternative to war. And as we all know economic sanctions are just war by another name they inflict collective pain in order to generate a political result. They make food more expensive they increase unemployment they reduce access to medicines and medical equipment. And again, women and girls shoulder much of the responsibility to to care for families and communities under these economic attacks. In the Biden administration, sanctions have been used with incredible frequency and we've seen their devastating effects on a lot of the countries we've named already so Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, Yemen and Cuba. And the Biden administration may not be eager to abandon these sanctions regimes, you know just today the Wall Street Journal had an article that framed it as Biden's choice right sorting out which sanctions to retain. We have to be ready to make clear the consequences of these choices to the Biden administration, and namely when they violate people's rights and inflict collective punishment. So demanding an end to the use of economic sanctions. Thank you so much Diana, and oh my God I'm just loving the chats you guys are the most engaged audience keep the chats going. My next question is to Gloria, I mean it's kind of building on what's already been said, Medea mentioned Michelle for an oil or Susan rice or we've even heard Samantha powers, being at some level of Biden's cabinet as secretaries. We've seen how hawkish women aren't necessarily advancing a progressive or feminist agenda. And then there have been a number of questions in the Q&A about the link between militarism and toxic masculinity. What are we supposed to do in this moment Gloria. We've seen the maturation of feminist movements. We've obviously you know on this issue of US foreign policy, there's obviously such a brick wall. That's not just a glass ceiling but it's a brick wall and how do we how do we take on this issue about just having women in these leadership positions that are regressing agendas for us. And you're on mute again. There's a couple of brilliant analyses of exactly what has to happen. And the point of feminism is not about biology, you know it's it's not about. Wait, did I do it. Okay. The point of feminism is not about biology, it's not about electing or putting women into authority simply because we are women. It's about a worldview, which undoes the beginning of every hierarchy by undoing the ideas of gender and race that are there or the beginning of our ideas of hierarchy and looking at the content. So, it is not enough to put a woman in power, it depends which women and whose policies, and there are certainly some men who are better feminists and some women. It is, as always, it is about the content. And I think we've had here such brilliant, brilliant listing of some of the concerns that I hope that we will put that online so we can all lobby for it. Great. And, you know, and you and I were talking yesterday just in preparation for tonight's conversation. You know I loved what you said was, which was, you know, we also stop asking daddy. So, we also do what we did, such as crossing the D so I mean I'd love for you to speak a little bit more about the importance of, of having agency and taking action. Yes, you know I do think that from the family to foreign policy. We have had a habit. Well cultivated ancient habit of looking to males for authority and allowing a hierarchy to exist in the home, which means that women care for children more than men do. Actually, men equally caring for children is the way men often become more have more idea of attention to detail of the importance of daily demands you know I mean it helps boys and men to be educated as full human beings. So, you know it is about the substance, it's not about the biology of who is in control, or the race of who is in control, but the fact that who is in control and has influence is looking at the substance, not at labels, not at issues of race gender or class, but of the content of a profound deep democracy that has to do with the individual human talent of each person and our birthright to be able to express that talent and to look at others for the to discover that talent without the blinders of gender or race or class or nationality. Thanks Gloria, I'm going to now turn to Cindy. What are some strategic opportunities for feminist movements I know that there are some new formations building on some older formations, but there are some that are really being led by black indigenous people of color in this political moment and it's crucial for grassroots social movements working on the domestic agenda to take on foreign policy because you know there's this binary, you work on domestic issues, you work on foreign policy, and we know that there is a continuum of violence, especially against women and queer folks so I want to hear from your perspective why it's so important to be organizing, you know, across this binary to do away with it. There's a way to kind of bridge the what Gloria was saying and what others have said is that, you know, we have to be very clear about the diversity of neoliberalism, right, and so I think it's not about sort of whether you're a woman or a queer or whether you're young or whether you're, you know, whatever it is, it's more about I think what I want us to be very mindful about it's what's the politic right what is the politic and the practice of the people and I think that it is true simultaneously that we're at also at a watershed moment right where we have seen the to the sort of fight to the front of again the most massive movement 27 million estimated people on the streets in defense of black lives right in terms of really that radical mobilization that that has happened in this past period right feminist from all around the world from Chile to Mexico to Poland right and sort of this new right this new moment where we see young people in the climate strike where we see indigenous people stand defending territory and sacred sites right and I think that there's a new emancipatory politic and articulation and some of that has to do with we have to be able to see what hasn't worked and what at this moment in the 21st century, we need to actually gravitate to. So one thing it for us at grassroots global justice, our slogan is no war, no warming, build a feminist economy for the people and the planet. We always understood the strategic role of frontline indigenous black Latin X API and grassroots movements here in the US, but also what it means to be in the belly of the beast right with the US led global imperialism and our movement allies across the global movement from Honduras to Chile to Palestine Nigeria Bolivia Venezuela Cuba the Philippines all across the world. They've made it very clear that as part of our grassroots internationalism must include the strengthening of the capacity of our movements to intervene in this US military and political interventionism around the world right. And I think that part of it is that we need the dire need to build a frontline anti war anti mill. We lost. Oh yeah Cindy we lost you for a few oh geez. Cindy. Can you repeat your last. Yeah. Are you back. Yeah, so maybe just repeat again the last. I don't know where I left off y'all from frontline from frontline for. Okay, so basically that we need to be able to, you know, build a demilitarized movement really breaking the binary between foreign and domestic and I think that hasn't helped us it hasn't helped us in our strategy. It hasn't helped us in our articulation right. We also know that we have we're building a radical black left multi racial front that includes all of us right and we have to be able to not I know that most of us organized from a point of impact or interest, but we have to be able to uplift each other's demands in this political moment right. And the other thing is that we know both under the Democrats and under, you know republicans and under Trump's regime. We saw blatant support of political coups right in Venezuela right like naming Guadalajara as the president, or in Bolivia, or in the Honduras, or supporting the violent military attack of the indigenous mass party and in Bolivia right. We've seen the militarization of our border, the oppression of, and the force mass migration and exodus, what follows after like political and military intervention, and, and we've seen the separation of families with now more than 600 children and 66 children whose parents haven't been able to be a located, and then the horrific violence state occupation in black communities here in the US, and then the criminalization of land and water defenders like in the no dapple campaign right. And all of these things is, is part of our, our understanding, you know, of racial and gendered capitalism and imperialism, and we need to be able to articulate what those fights, how, how, how we stand, and how we talk about like, if we fight for the police, for example, if we fight for a Green New Deal, if we fight for Medicare for all, there is a direct connection with divesting from the police, divesting from ICE, divesting from the military industrial complex, but also not just looking at it economically, politically about what then communities begin to look like when we actually, and this is where we bring in the feminist articulation right. Those of us as feminists talk about the defense of our bodies, our territories, our dignity, our knowledge, our communities, our world, and that we want to be in right relationship with people with nature, where we want to re center economy around air and reciprocity, and not capital and not profit being the center. And I think that that's what's important is that this is a moment to not only be what we're fighting against but what we're fighting for and be again, so clear in that articulation that people all around this country and all around the world and if anything the pandemic has shown us is like we have an opportunity to live very dramatically different. That really begins to shift what I think we're up against so whether it's Biden we know we're in a fight for our lives right first we got to get Trump out of here but I think that the clear thing is, is that we need something outside of all of this and I think if that's one thing people take out of it's like our vision is broader than all of this, but we also have to be clear that this is a long term protected Yep, here here. Just to move us along so that we have a little time for q&a I'm turning to Diana, which builds nicely on what Cindy was talking about. Just last month, representatives Jackie Spear, Barbara Lee, Lois Frankel they introduced a house resolution for US feminist foreign policy, which reflects the growing debates about the need for progressive and feminist foreign policy. What are the opportunities for action and shaping those debates moving into 2021. Diana. Well, there's opportunity in the fact that this is even a topic of conversation you know in in the, in addition to the house resolution that you noticed. I'm thinking about, you know the many progressive groups that have been putting out platforms and principles and calling for a new progressive foreign policy, you know we've contributed to this through the feminist peace initiatives vision document calling for a movement driven foreign policy. I know that code pink in their work through the feminist foreign policy project have offered, you know alternative policies about looking at relations with China imagining a care economy and beyond. So the question is, of course, how do we move from principles to action, how do we, how do we build from here, how can we ensure that we're building power and moving towards transformation. And it's, it's about more than any one policy change, it's about a fundamental reorientation in the values that drive our foreign policy, especially when it comes to confronting militarism and advancing peace. So what is that current paradigm that we need to change. It's the one that says that we are only safe when we have military supremacy over the world. It's the one that says that the US is locked in a competition with the rest of the world and that our success lies in our dominance particular particularly against so called adversaries like China and Russia. And I acknowledge that reorienting away from this is is a tough sell because this paradigm enjoys a lot of bipartisan support. That was totally obvious when we saw Trump and Biden arguing on the debate stage over who could be tougher on our enemies. After then debating over what policies can best offer, you know, collective peace and our well being. And it's also obvious when Biden says that the US has the strongest military in the world and that as president, he will quote ensure it stays that way. So we have to insist on the kind of foreign policy analysis that goes beyond gender parity or having women at the table, or increasing global aid budgets for women as important as all those things are. We have to have a foreign policy lens that helps us like shake ourselves loose from being trapped in in these paradigms of dominance and competition and where our notion of security depends on militarism and the use of violence. And, and to do that we frankly need a bigger constituency, you know we need to build a massive community of broad based support for policies that can advance a collective progressive feminist piece. This is the kind of constituency that will hold enough leverage to force change in both policies and in those overarching paradigms that that guide us. And so we can do that by forging alliances between the peace movement and other progressive social movements that we've been saying are already growing in power like those for racial justice and those seeking climate justice, and to create more and stronger channels for foreign policy discussions. So you know those social movements have built an invaluable organizing infrastructure, you know that network of connections that we can activate across communities and across borders to build our people power right now. And, and crucially those movements represent and are led by communities of color that have been disproportionately impacted by US militarism both here at home and abroad. And so our efforts to shift policies must build on their leadership and break down the silos that separate policy spaces from the demands of movements. And I just have to add here that publicly recognizing the leadership of those who bring that experience like we just did a few moments ago for our dear colleague and friend Christine is a key way that we make that progress by acknowledging that leadership. And so finally as we draw ties between policy and social movement spaces. One exciting avenue that I see is to build relationships with this expanded crew of new and progressive leadership in Congress like Corey Bush and Mondair Jones and Jamal Bowman. You know they bring already a strong movement orientation and a drive to change business as usual. And so what we can do is, you know connect those progressive policymakers with social movements here and around the world so that we can build knowledge together build power together and help them bring that drive for change into the foreign policy realm. Thank you so much Diana. And now we're going to turn to media to bring it home. So media, I mean, I stayed with Gloria, the night of the women's march and, and you and I marched together that day after Trump's inauguration the platform whether it was intentional or not. We broadly addressed us militarism wars or foreign policy, and given the major crises facing assault the pandemic climate change the economy requires doing away with the binary between domestic and foreign. What is the call for feminist movements, especially in the US at this moment. So exactly what we're doing now, which is to start by educating each other and it's fabulous that we have hundreds of people on this webinar. We have to do more reaching out to the women's organizations the feminist spaces to encourage more of this bringing in of the foreign policy issues into their work as you said Christine when we started will never have the money for for all or for the Green New Deal or free college that young people deserve in this country if we don't cut the damn Pentagon budget. We can continue to spend so much of our money on weapons that go to kill people. And let me just throw in the little fact that four of the five CEOs of the largest weapons makers now are women. So we need to bring these issues that we talked about into the Women's March and all these others feminist spaces. I want to honor Christine again for being an example of the way we can build a constituency that Diana you talked about we have to bring more of a constituency and you have done an amazing job with the Korean Americans and I think. Unfortunately, oftentimes the diaspora in this country is a part of the problem, the Cuban Americans have been as well in Americans and many conservative Korean Americans but you have been an unbelievable role model of how to build up the constituency of progressive Americans in the diaspora. And I hope we'll get to hear from you before we close this out. And I think we need to do more of that with the other groups in this country that are related to the issues that we've been talking to like the devastating Diana talked about there is a large Iranian American community, most of them conservative but there's a progressive national Iranian American Council that has been organizing among the Iranian community here. And that's very important because let's remember we're up against a huge military industrial congressional security complex. It's massive lobby groups like a pack that keep us tied to Israeli apartheid. We have to build a stronger constituency that wants to stop this bleeding of our money to the military and I would say one thing I would love us to do some focusing on is that when we put forth the agenda on what Biden should do on day one support the DACA young people the Muslim ban the gag rule that those kind of things. We should also say, and the US support for the war in Yemen because it is the most catastrophic war going on in the world right now. And the people of Yemen are suffering from hunger from color and now from coven with the largest percentage of deaths per capita or per people person infected. So that should be on the number day one Diana I'm glad you and others have brought up the issue of China and the mindset because this military industrial complex is always looking for an enemy. We know that the war on terror doesn't seem to be very high up in the minds of the American people because we care more rightly so about issues like the economy, the pandemic, the climate crisis, systemic racism. They, they, they in this military industrial complex are now saying that China and Russia are the enemies. We don't need and we can't afford another cold war, especially with nuclear armed countries. They are not our enemies. And we need to be thinking and bringing people into the mindset of a multipolar world, not where one superpower controls the agenda. And to support alternatives we have now at the UN a treaty that prohibits nuclear weapons we've got to get the US on board to join that treaty and to support alternatives and other countries. Right now in the middle of the pandemic there's one country that has shown the world what international solidarity looks like and that's Cuba. A country being crushed by the US we have to lift up the Cuban doctors and nurses who are traveling around the world to cure people and help stop this pandemic. We have to show in places like China how they stopped the pandemic and what can we learn from them. And I want to end by by saying that there is one country that showed us how to stop a coup in a really glorious way, and that is Bolivia. Despite the fact that the US and the US supported organization of American states supported that coup. The Bolivian people and particularly the indigenous people rose up in 11 months to overthrow a crushing coup and have now brought a progressive government back. And yesterday we saw the return of Aval Morales to Bolivia. So let's celebrate the people of Bolivia show that coups can be undone like we're trying to undo the coup that Trump wants to do right now. And that people can come together to form positive alternatives that we in this country need and the world is waiting for. Fabulous Medea thank you so much for covering the whole globe with your knowledge of foreign policy and movements to resist militarism. I we have like four more minutes and I'm not sure how to wrap this up and I tried my best to weave in some of the questions from the Q&A, as I directed them to some of the speakers but maybe it would be nice to just have some closing remarks from all of our speakers. I think we have to close with you telling us about the work on Korea and what you expect from a Biden administration and what we can do to support your work. Oh my God, well I feel so much gratitude and Medea like your point about the organizing of Korean Americans I mean that has been an extraordinary team that we've put together at women cross TMZ Hyun Lee and echo they're just remarkable you know fully bilingual organizers and we couple that with this like kick ass team in Washington DC led by Elizabeth Beavers and and Catherine killer it's just like the seamless one two punch of grassroots organizers and like strategists and I just feel like we kind of want to I mean kind of what we've we've seen it's still a slow cooker it's still we have so much work to do but this is a 70 year war and I just feel like oh my God we could be on the precipice of ending the longest standing US overseas conflict that ushered in the military industrial complex and it's not just a symbolic because we know that the two Koreas have signed an agreement they shook hands at the DMZ they said we are going to transform the Korean Peninsula into a land of peace and that we've not just like democratize like the impact of the Korean war on people's lives by sharing the stories and you know organizing and giving space for these multi generational Korean Americans to tell their stories and like push back against you know people like the senator that you know that that was the from New Jersey my God the Cuban American guy. Yes, I mean Menendez and and the guy you know Corey Gardner who was defeated thankfully in Colorado that you know we pushed back against them with this lived experience of Korean Americans who are still divided from their families in North Korea and for a moment there it was like their sufferers were just like taken aback but that's why we do this that's why we democratize that's why we don't just let US Korea policy be dictated by the retired military generals or the revolving door of people that work at SICE or Brookings and then head back into the you know working for Boeing or Lockheed. That's why we're doing what we're doing with the feminist peace initiative that was started by women cross DMZ, Madre and grassroots global justice Alliance that Medea and Code Pink and you know movement for black lives about face like all the amazing feminist anti-war anti-militarism internationalist leaders have come together to say we need a new anti-war peace movement in this country that really links the struggles domestically with the struggle abroad and that all of the crises that we are confronting today takes an international approach it doesn't you know and we have to redefine security and I feel like we have a golden opportunity to do so and yes the Biden administration is going to be difficult they are going to go back to the strategic patients era of the Obama administration but it's going to be us they're not going to change but if we mobilize if we build power if we democratize foreign policy then we have a shot at saving this country and really truly building a just and peaceful and equitable society in the world and you know I just I like want to end with my favorite favorite quote from the South Korean feminist feminism perfects democracy and I feel like that's the closing message for this webinar and we mustn't lose sight of it we have such incredible vision we have it's not just about our vision of collective care and reparation and trying to be in line in just principle with each other in the planet but it's the process and you know what Gloria always says we are not ranked we are linked and and that's how we're going to do it and I think that's enough I feel like I've talked talked my heart out and I just have so much gratitude for all my sisters many of you who walked across the DMZ or we were bust across the DMZ and but we walked to the DMZ Cindy joined us he fat from moderate joined us it's this is this is you know this is the best of true internationalist feminist solidarity and I know there are many Koreans that joined from South Korea today and I just you know I extend my gratitude to all of you for being with us and we're going to change this country because we have so much goodness to fulfill that that's just waiting for us so I think that's it I think we're as the Hawaiians would say we're POW and and the work to be continued so visit feminist peace initiative.org and endorse the statement join our amazing feminist anti militarist initiative and thank you all for joining us tonight. All right. Much love to everybody. It's been fun. Thank you all. Thank you. Gloria, thank you Deanna. Thank you Medea. Thank you Christine. Thanks to our interpreters and thank you to everybody who joined us and yeah, la lucha sigue. Si se puede.