 Welcome everyone, we'll start in about one minute. If you want to put your names, pronouns and where you're zooming in from in the chat, that would be awesome. And if you have any reflections from the day, I know we've all had really eventful days. So any initial reflections, we'll get into it later. But if you want to start with any thoughts, any reflections from this year's IWD. Welcome folks. I'm going to be starting recording this session and it is going to be live stream. So if you wanted to turn your camera off or on or change your name or anything like that, please take a moment to do that because I'm about to start recording. The thing is being recorded. Hey, thank you all so much for being here on our last webinar of International Women's Day, definitely not our last action or our last thought or event connected to it. But our last time being in community together on zoom during the specific day. I want to thank all the speakers that we've had so far. We've had amazing discussions and speeches and videos and reflections from the day and many inspirational words that were push us into more action, more education and more inspiration for the days ahead. We're going to begin with a actually a reflection on one of the events that happened this morning in DC. It's from one of our coordinator from one of our code pink coordinators, Olivia. So I'm going to play. I'm going to share my screen and then play that for you all. It's a brief video, but it does give a great example of the amazing event that well, that's so beautiful and you can see more of that action and that event that happened this morning on our website. We have a lot of reflections from that and many other actions that happen today. I'm so excited to hear more about your reflections, your discussions, the actions you were at, the events and the conversations that you had. And I think there's no better way to start off as end of the webinar than with our very own Marcy Winogray, the coordinator of Code Pink Congress, a longtime anti-war activist who also serves as co-chair of the Peace and Ukraine Coalition and the co-chair of the End Wars and Occupation Team for the Progressive Democrats of America. Marcy, welcome. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much, Grace and Issa, Jodi, Linda, Dia, all of us. Code Pink, it's such an honor to be with you on International Women's Day 2023. And I love that video. It was short, but very powerful. You know, it's so beautifully choreographed. That's what we need, right? We need peace now. And that's what we're all about at Code Pink. I have been doing a lot of reflecting today about the impact of war on women around the world, a bit more specifically in Europe, where we have a crisis, you know, with women in Ukraine seeing themselves become more and more vulnerable, not just to weapons war, but also to confinement, to sexual harassment, sexual abuse, partner abuse, to having to traverse borders, unaccompanied young women, the women, likewise the women in Russia, losing hundreds of thousands of men to this senseless war. So on International Women's Day, we had Code Pink put out a petition, which Grace will post in the chat. Women don't let women drive war. Feminists say, fire Newland. Who is Victoria Newland? All right, she's number three in the Biden State Department. And she has a long resume of criminality, war criminality, starting in the Bush era when she was an advisor to Dick Cheney during the Iraq war and occupation. On up through the years, we see her in Ukraine in 2014, supporting the U.S.-backed coup there, engineering a transition government pushing for NATO expansion. And now, today, calling on the United States, we're actually promising Ukraine that the United States will support its attacks on Crimea, which is a serious escalation of the war in Ukraine. Crimea, you may remember, was his home to ethnic Russians. It was part of Russia for 200 years. It is where Russia has its naval fleet on the Black Sea. And Russia had leased this Sevastopol area of Crimea for its naval fleet. It had prior to the coup until 2042 and possibly beyond that. After the coup, there was concern that the United States might set up a NATO base, a missile base there, and Russia then annexed Crimea. Well, ever since then, we hear in neocons beating the drums for war in Washington, saying, Ukraine must take back Crimea. And that's where we see Victoria Newland today. You know, taking us to the precipice of World War Three. So please do sign that petition and share it and let everybody know that we need a new direction at the State Department, aka the War Department. All right, as co-chair of the Peace and Ukraine Coalition, I'm involved with working with people all over the country like yourself, some of you are in that coalition, to say, we want to cease fire now. We want to deescalate. We want peace negotiations and no more weapons to fan the flames of war, because the more weapons we give, the more people believe we can, the United States, Western powers, NATO, Ukraine can beat the Russians. And we know, well, even the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, knows this will not be one on the battlefield. We need to demand that Biden meet with Putin, that he has the power, right? He does have the power to end this tomorrow. So those are some of our demands at the Peace and Ukraine Coalition. I'm just going to take you briefly through our website so you see some of the tools at your disposal. We're asking everybody, everybody on this call and beyond to activate and organize. OK, here is our Peace and Ukraine Coalition website. We have a big march rally coming up March 18th. The main one is going to be in D.C. It's in front of the White House. Stop endless US wars, people's needs, fund people's needs, not NATO. All right, and if we scroll down, we'll see that we have where you can endorse this event, how you can get there. Here are some more demands for that event and NATO and the hundred billion dollars in arms shipments to Ukraine. Now, now really filling the coffers of military contractors. And we have information on how you can get to D.C. if you want to be part of this. And if we continue to scroll, we'll see a calendar where we have other events, sister events. So here's a Medea's book tour. You can also check that out. But if we keep scrolling, we'll see, ah, there we go. Say no to endless wars. Chicago is going to have another event. And so is, hold on, let's see. That's the White House. Detroit will have a sister rally around March 18th. Yes, on March 18th and Arbor, Michigan, San Francisco. So that's where you can go to find out more about March 18th. That's what we're mobilizing for right now. Now, let's take a look at the About page. Under the About page, you can see some of the people, some of the organizations that are part of our coalition. We represent over a hundred organizations. And we list some of them under coalition. If we back up and click on coalition, we'll see some of our partners there. And we'll just quickly scroll down. You can see the steering committee. We have some major organizations. Code Pink launched this coalition in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion. We put out a statement that basically said, you know, we denounced this. We condemn this war, this invasion, while also acknowledging that the United States provoked it, that NATO provoked it with expansion. And with other decisions that were made along the way, specifically to install two ABM missile bases in Romania and Poland that could easily be outfitted for a first strike against Russia. Trump walked away from two important arms control agreements. Bush walked away from one. We had one left and now Putin has suspended that one. So this is dire. We have to take the situation very seriously. We we have to get organized and reach out, you know, to anyone that we think we can bring over because we realize this is a tough one. Right. We see people fractured all over the place. But the American public, the U.S. public, I should say, is getting weary of the money flow. Where are we at? One hundred and thirteen billion, half of that for weapons contractors to Ukraine. And in the latest polls, 48 percent down from 60 percent supported sending weapons. So less than half of the U.S. public supports sending these weapons that. The Congress is rubber stamping. OK, let's go to news and press, please. And just click on February 24th, days, day of action. Yeah, you can see some of the photos from actions that we scroll down that were held all over the country. And we're asking people, you know, get out there in front of your Congressperson's office, go inside, ask for a meeting, but also pick it outside because so many of them are rubber stamping these arms shipments to Ukraine. So we saw a protest in Massachusetts and San Francisco, Oakland, D.C., Milwaukee and so forth. All right, let's take a look at Act Now. Act Now, what should we do? Tell Congress to investigate Nord Stream tanks. No, thanks. We have a lot of one clicks. Sure, let's stop escalating U.S. Russia proxy war. There we go. Let's click on that one. We call these one clicks to Congress. Please do check out this page. And if you haven't already sent this message to your Congressperson, you can do it very easily. Just click on start writing and you've got a sample letter right there that you can send to your senators and to your house rep. And we have about, I don't know, three or four of these under Act Now. All right, let's go back to the website and check out resources. Let's say you are planning. You want to do something, but you don't know what you want to do. You just you just feel this sense of urgency, but you're not sure where to take this energy. Let's take a look at resources. We find that in the coalition, we have calls twice a month, the first and third Wednesday of the month, 12 30 Pacific, 3 30 Eastern. If you go to peace in Ukraine dot org and you just scroll down a little way, blue ways, you will see sign up here for the coalition. And if you sign up there, then you can get on our list to know, you know, to know when the next meeting is and the agenda and so forth. OK, so let's take a look at talking point statements, petitions and more. You click on a lot of resources here. So let's take a look at that petition. The first one petition for no more war in Ukraine. Here we go. Let's say you wake up. Saturday, there's a farmer's market. You want to be there? You want to be there with a sign? You want to be there with a banner and you want to be there with a petition? Our petition says our basic demands ceasefire, negotiations, no more weapons, billions for climate jobs, health care, housing. That's what we need. And we see areas where people can sign and give us their contact information. And with that, you can organize your base, right? To to go see your Congressperson to plan a vigil together to start organizing together. So that's a very powerful tool. I hope you'll use it. If we go back, we'll see some other tools that are available. All right. How about sample resolution? Now, this may have been written a while ago, so you might want to update it. But let's say you're a member of a union or a church or a temple, some sort of civic organization, the Rotary. You can take this resolution, which calls for a ceasefire, a diplomatic settlement. And for President Biden to meet directly with Putin, you can take that and ask for your organization to pass it. Even if it doesn't pass, you have started the conversation. So that's that's a powerful tool as well. Let's go back. But what else do we have? Sample letter to Congress, how to guide responses to misconceptions. Ah, how many of us have heard Putin attacked, you invaded Ukraine without any provocation. This was an unprovoked war, unprovoked, unprovoked, unprovoked. That's all we keep hearing, right? From corporate media, from the White House, you think about that. When have you ever heard that phrase before in relation to a war? The more it's like he who does protests too much. The more you say unprovoked, the more people wonder why you keep saying that, right? Because it was provoked. We know that. And so here are some responses that you can give when people say that. All right, provoke the Russian invasion by supporting the expansion of NATO, sending arms to Ukraine since 2014. Ukraine had agreed to a peace accord in 2015, the Minsk Peace Accord. Recently, Merkel from Germany, she said, oh, you know, we were just biting time while we armed Ukraine for what, for what we see today. And that's and that's unfortunately the reality. So that was a provocation got background on NATO. Let's keep going, screwing a little bit. You can't negotiate with Putin. Negotiations will never lead anywhere. How many of us have heard that? I've heard it. OK, you know what? Since this war began, Ukraine and Russia have been negotiating grain shipments, the flow of grain out out of Ukraine. They've been negotiating prisoner swaps. They've been negotiating UN inspections of nuclear plants. So, yes, we can negotiate. We have to negotiate. We have to remind people that Russia is a country of one hundred and ninety three million people, one hundred and fifty different ethnic minorities and six thousand nuclear weapons. Regardless of what we think about Putin personally, we need to demand that our State Department, our White House, our president sit down and negotiate. All right, let's go back and see what other tools are available to us. I know my time is almost up here. We have sample letters to the editor. Keep going social media, the letter signed by Russian scientists. OK, flyers. Let's take a look at flyers. You go to the farmer's market, you go to your church, you go to your temple, you go to a college, you can print out these half page flyers. No more war, diplomacy, not war. And as we scroll, we'll see flyers that are more specific about the economic impacts. You know, we have, what, 30 percent of the United States is food insecure, doesn't know where their next meal is going to come from. We saw what happened in East Palestine. Those in Flint, Michigan still don't have clean water to drink. And yet we're hurling, hurling billions and billions of dollars into this war. OK, I also want to show one other thing on this page. If we take a look, keep scrolling and we go down to templates, templates for writing letters to the editor. Please, tonight, tomorrow, write a letter to your local editor. It's really hard to get printed in the Washington Post. That's like a megaphone for the White House. It's hard to get printed in the New York Times. They're now a stenographer for the Pentagon. We saw that yesterday with their almost comical, if it weren't so serious, reporting that somebody says somewhere that the United States did not, Biden did not plan the sabotage of the Nord Street pipeline. That really was the work of some ad hoc group of Ukrainians. All right, here are templates you can use to write a letter to the editor. Do you have to use this? Absolutely not. But it's a place to start and we found that it really helped people. So take a look at it, you know, as we mark February 24th as the date Russian invaded Ukraine, we must understand. Or as we mark International Women's Day, or as we mark upcoming Earth Day. However, you want to phrase it, what must we understand about this crisis? OK, thank you. And finally, I'm sorry. OK, all right. So I think that's that we're good for the website here. We can close out the website. And I just want to invite everybody on this call to join the Peace and Ukraine Coalition. Be on our next call next Wednesday and we'll send you the date, the time and so forth. And we'll talk. We'll have speakers. We'll organize breakout groups so we can have one on one conversations about the challenges and opportunities that we face as we build a strong antiwar movement in the United States. So thank you so much for this time. It's wonderful to be with all of you. Awesome. Thank you so much, Marcy. You're for all those amazing resources and spots of communication and being able to be in community and discussion with those who are also dedicated to the Peace and Ukraine. And there's many and shout out to you, Grace. Shout out to you and Tamah, who have done amazing work on this website. So thank you. And here's the website in the chat, too, for folks to get involved in the coalition, to be involved in those. To you said they we you guys meet twice a month. Is that correct? Yes, we meet the first and third Wednesday of the month, 12 30 Pacific, 3 30 Eastern. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Marcy. And now we are going to watch a short video from the reflections of Karinka Kiltcher, an actress, singer and activist. We will hear from her talk about her relation to International Women's Day and Feminist Antiwar antiwar and anti militarist organizing. Thank you for joining us today. I've known you for so many years, and you've always been a fierce fighter for peace and justice, for the rights of women and you've been you've been arrested. You put your body on the line. You are fearless. You you know the violence of the patriarchy and you don't let it stop you, even if you're shaking. You don't let it stop you. So on this International Women's Day, the women that you've worked with in the forest, let's remember them and what would you call us to do today? Thank you so much, Marcy. And yes, my name is Koryanka. I'm Ketchua Machi Parade from the jungles and highlands of South America. And I don't know. My family in Peru and just working a lot with my indigenous brothers and sisters down there over the years. One of the things that I just always found so powerful in our communities is that the women would always be on the front lines and they would stand with the men and in between the men because I feel like as women, we have such strength and power in our femininity and in our nurturing nature. And, you know, with our traditional knowledge and understanding of our environment and of what it means to be a parent and bringing life into this world. And so I feel like deeply inside of all of us intuitively we have this understanding of how precious this life is that we live and our connection to Mother Earth and nature and how that's such a fragile and beautiful, special balance and delicate nature. Yet I something that's always inspired me. I love flowers because flowers are so soft and beautiful, yet so resilient. And if a flower can still grow and make it in this world, I think to myself, so can I. And so on this International Women's Day, I want to encourage everyone to find strength in their in their vulnerability, strength in their femininity, strength in what we are able to bring into this world and also the knowledge of knowing what we need to protect and continue protecting for all our future generations to come. So thank you so much. You're welcome. Amazing. Thank you, Issa, for screen sharing for that. Now I have the privilege of being in discussion with an organizer who was on the streets in action today for International Women's Day. We are joined by Linda Yuan, who is a proud grassroots organizer working in conjunction with Code Pink. She is a baker and photographer, and she recently founded the US China People's Friendship Association Southeast Michigan chapter. She lives and works in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is a child of Chinese immigrants and has lived in the Midwest all of her life. Hi, Linda. How are you? I'm well. Thank you, Grace, for the kind introduction. Sorry, I had to fiddle with my computer. Yes, I would love to hear just about your reflections and how was International Women's Day for you? What did you do? Who were you in community with? How did the day go? Hmm, right. Well, just recently, my colleagues and I, we formed the Southeast Michigan chapter of the US China People's Friendship Association. We just started having meetings and we had every intention to do an event today to promote our organization, but we're a small group, a new group that didn't come together, unfortunately. But I also have been protesting for ceasefire negotiation with a local anti-war group for this past year. And we're pretty tight. And so we were ready to promote flyers to promote the March 18th rallies in D.C. and Detroit. So so we went to the center of campus today to distribute those flyers dressed in pink and with a basket of chocolates, kisses. So we were offering people kisses and sharing information about the rallies. So yeah, that's what we did. Yeah, it was great. Jodi, Jodi encouraged us to disrupt the war machine with with joy. And that's what we did. You know, lots of lots of smiles and people wishing us, you know, happy International Women's Day. Well, that's how we would approach people. We would offer a flyer and greet them with happy International Women's Day. Right. Yeah, we only unfortunately it was only me and one of my other colleagues who was able to be out today. So and both of us work. So we were only able to carve out an hour of our time. We didn't have any detailed conversations today, but yeah, just good vibes. And it was great to be out. And just to feel like we were part of a continuation of women throughout history, standing up, protesting against war, you're protesting for, you know, a better society. And just to be a part of that lineage felt very powerful. Yeah. And also I guess today I realized what makes, what makes some activism possible. It really is the community. I mean, I really couldn't have done it had my friend Libby not been with me. I would have felt so ridiculous. Well, just me personally, I would have felt very odd being out there by myself, but being out there with a friend made all the difference. And so I just realized, you know, that that is the power of working with other people, you know, just sensing each other's comradeship and, you know, and love. I mean, it really, really, it really is everything. So if the group is small like we were today in Ann Arbor, just me and Libby, or if it's on the China it's not our enemy zooms with Jodi and Wei and Jeffrey. I mean, yeah, that's what it's all about, right? So. Yeah. And I think that's what International Women's Day is all about, like you're saying. We all have such busy lives and dedicate ourselves to other things and family and friends, but taking an hour, a moment, whatever out of your day to reflect on, we are contextualized in such a bigger movement in the anti-war anti-imperialist divest movement and to just kind of reflect on that and reflect on our actions no matter how big or how small. Like Marcy was saying as well, I think that's so powerful. I also know you guys had an action on Saturday as well. Do you have any thoughts on that too? Oh yeah, thank you, Grace. Yes, Saturday we had our first public event for our Southeast Michigan chapter of the Friendship Association. And it was amazing, a dozen people turned out, and this was after a snowstorm, where the streets were clogged, they hadn't had a chance to get the snow plows out. The city was actually telling people not to travel. And still a dozen people turned up at the local library. And yeah, it was really beautiful. We had a scholar, Dr. Chan join us, and he led us in a discussion of the construction of the Chinese character for peace and just breaking down the layers of it and explaining just the beauty of the language and sharing a bit of the culture too. And yeah, well, the character consists of two words, He Ping. He is, it consists of a basic character for grain and then a basic character for mouth. And basically he was just explaining that the very practical origins of the Chinese people, people's desire for peace all these 5,000 years, just taking care, first and foremost, taking care of the people. And that being the primary concern of the government, not imperialism, imperialist capitalist powers like to imply and project upon China. And it was just really beautiful to have him explain it and then to sketch it out and then to have everybody try their hand at it too. And then at the very end, he read a poem from the Tang Dynasty, an anti-war poem, and he translated it. So it was just the event just came full circle and people who came to our event, they came with varying degrees of understanding of the present situation, but everybody came with an open mind and it was just so promising to think about the discussions that we will have going forward. Yeah, and so we'll have a follow-up meeting on Saturday inviting those people back to join us to do some more brainstorming, to ask them what questions they have about China, past, present, future, to stimulate programs that we can put on going forward. And then of course, we'll invite those people who couldn't come because of the snowstorm. Yeah, a few friends rolled back and said they were sorry they couldn't make it, so that'll be really great. So yeah, we're just taking it step by step and just really, you know, back to what I said about just the energy that you get from being with people. I mean, it was just wonderful being with, you know, these good-hearted people in our community who want to learn and understand and who don't believe that war is the answer. And so I felt like our group grew, you know, double in size on Saturday, maybe three times in size. Yeah, our core group was just like three or four. Yeah, and so, yeah, just to have that happen and experience that on Saturday was really uplifting. And so, yeah, that's the report from Ann Arbor. Yes, oh yeah, and then going forward too, we hope to connect our group, our new members with Code Pink and make them aware of the awesome lobbying that Jody and Wei are leading us in, you know, on the China issues. So we'll be able to pull in more people and empower them to be activists for peace on this issue. Yep. Thank you so much, Linda. Thank you for offering those reflections and just amazing actions that you guys are putting on in such a short time as such a new group that is so exciting. And yeah, just to hear about reflections in action today in person is so amazing and we're gonna keep up that spirit. I'm so excited to welcome Adia Benjamin. She's the co-founder of Code Pink and author of several books, including her most recent War in Ukraine, making sense of a senseless conflict. I have asked her to hear today just to talk about general reflections from today. I know she was in action and in person at multiple events and just general connections to the day as a whole in Women's History Month. So we welcome Adia Benjamin. Welcome, Adia. Hi, thank you so much. So nice to be in family here at the end of the day for us on the East Coast. On the one hand, I'm very upbeat hearing Linda, the wonderful stuff you're doing and it was so great when I got a chance to come out and visit with you and when I hear Marcy talk about all the actions, it gets me very excited. First, I'll start out with some depressing kind of things that happened today because we were in the halls of Congress and after that beautiful action that you saw with the parasols and the peace banner, which was very uplifting, we then went around to Congress and we decided that we would go to the women because it's International Women's Day that had signed on in October to the letter to Biden calling for negotiations, that letter that was withdrawn after 24 hours. And our idea was to go back to them and say, you were right the first time, go back and please call for negotiations. And I would say in general, our reception was very positive. We got a lot of hugs, we got a lot of photos. We got a lot of people saying, oh, we missed seeing you in the halls of Congress for almost three years, the public wasn't allowed into Congress and it's just recently, in fact, I must say, it's thanks to the Republicans being in charge of the house that that was opened up. In fact, there are little plaques on the walls of some of the Congress people saying, you're here because the Republicans won. So, you know, we had a nice reception on the one hand, but on the other hand, we're not able to get a commitment from our quote, friends in Congress to introduce a new letter, to write a new resolution. The most that we could ask them for that they thought about was doing some kind of public statement or even a tweet. But there, I don't believe that they're gonna really follow through on it. They are just so scared to go against Biden and the leadership of the Democratic Party right now. And we were saying to them, this is being manipulated by the right, it's the extreme right that is calling for negotiations, it is introducing resolutions, it's the extreme right that are using this and they're going to use this as a electoral issue to blame the Democrats for the war. But so far they're not listening. And while I think that some of them in their heart of hearts understand that the most rational position is one of negotiations, others of them, we were really horrified to hear them say, and I'm not gonna name names right now, but people who have been around and part of our, we thought peace community for many, many years are saying that the Russians are out to get us and the Chinese are out to get us. This is coming from quote, progressive Democrats. And it's just startling and you don't really know even where to begin in responding to that. So we have a lot of work to do. The other excuse that some of the Democrats who acted like they were on our side used is that they're hearing a lot from the Ukrainian community. We want more weapons, we need these weapons and not enough from us. Now, honestly, I think that's an excuse. I think they are hearing from us because I know some of the ones who said it have been interrupted in their town halls several times even and have refused to address the issues when they've been interrupted in the town hall. So, they are kind of saying the old make me do it and we were saying to them, we want your leadership, do what is right. So we have a long way to go. And I think that it was reinforced by hearing some of the vitriol in some of the hearings that we just popped our head into with the Republicans. There was one hearing that was about the origins of COVID in which the Republicans just wanted to bash China over and over and over again. There was a hearing on the chaos surrounding the withdrawal from Afghanistan in which the Republicans wanted to bash Biden for leaving Afghanistan. And then we had a vote today that perhaps is something that might give us hope because it was a war power resolution introduced by somebody from the right, Matt Getz. But it was also, believe it or not, endorsed by the Progressive Caucus. And that was to get US troops, there's still 900 troops left in Syria. And to say they would have to be out of there in 180 days unless Congress actually took a vote and said they wanted them there. And it lost, but it got 103 votes. And I think that's something that we can build on because we're going to have to build on a left-right kind of coalition in Congress to get anything that could move to have some kind of majority and possibility of actually winning. So I wanna end by talking about how important International Women's Day is for me having been a part of Code Pink for 20 years now and how important it is that we're talking just to less than two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and how seminal that was in the founding of Code Pink and how much Jodi and I hold that very, that horrific invasion very close to our hearts as we do all of this work. And some of us who are the older people on this call also come out of the Vietnam War movement where our loved ones were being killed every day. Now it's other people's loved ones who are being killed every day. It's the loved ones of Ukrainians, both civilians and it's loved ones of the families of the soldiers who are Ukrainian and the Russian. And so I wanna end on this World War II song. I'll just give the lyrics that I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier. I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier. I brought him up to be my pride and joy. Who dares to place a musket on his shoulder to shoot some other mother's darling boy? Let nations arbitrate their future troubles. It's time to lay the sword and gun away. There'd be no war today if mothers all would say I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier. What victory can cheer a mother's heart when she looks at her blighted home? What victory can bring her back all she cared to call her own? Let each mother answer in the years to be. Remember that my boy belongs to me. Thank you. Thank you so much, Medea, for continuing to talk about community and reflection, but also put everything in perspective and contextualization. We still have so much more work to do. There is the link in the chat that will give you access to the rest of the events going forward for this month, including the March 18th events. And we just wanna end on a video from Sonia Guajahara, a Brazilian Indigenous activist environmentalist and Brazil's first Minister of Indigenous Peoples. So I'm gonna share my screen and end on this video. You all know that she could be in Brazil, right? She could be there with her relatives, with all the women, with all the boys, but at this moment she's here with us. Today I'm in another position, of Indigenous leadership, and even now in my life, I assume the position of Minister of Indigenous Peoples in the Lula Government. So she's now in another role. She's not in the social movement anymore. She's not now aside, but she's still on the side of the struggle representing the Indigenous Peoples in the new ministry as a ministry of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil of the Lula Government. Yeah. So we take it very important to increase the visibility and the protagonist of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. It is a very important ministry because it's a ministry that also can enhance and empower the visibility of the struggles of Indigenous Peoples from Brazil. We fight because we believe in the power of transformation of people. We go to transform themselves. We fight because we believe in the power of transformation of people. We go to transform themselves. And we are also there believing in the possibility of transformation of the spaces of the region. So that's now we're also applying politics in Brazil and the decision-making process so we'll resume and we'll see if you'll make a vision. Well, I want to thank you all so much for being in community with us and for coming to all three webinars that we've had today. We've had amazing speakers throughout and I want to thank everyone who was on every single webinar who contributed. I want to thank my co-coordinator Issa who helped me with technology throughout the day and continued to work through all the crazy zoom, mishaps and everything. Issa, if you want to again plug the hashtags and maybe talk about the photos and any reflections you've gotten online from today. Excuse me, is there any room opportunity for question and comment? We are wrapping up. We had the midday webinar. Yeah, I just wanted to remind everyone that we are currently, sorry. It's very, I raised that question and the fact that Benjamin, she's here, I missed the chance to be at her talk when she was in San Jose State University about her book. I wanted to ask this question and this is, I think this is a great opportunity if I can ask her and I hope she can answer my question. Please do. Hi, how are you? First of all, I have been following food pink and supporting food pink for many years and I have a lot of respect for what you guys, this organization have achieved in the past as a woman organization, very powerful. Unfortunately, ever since the uprising in Iran, since the death of Massa Amin, I'm sure you guys know about this. If you do not, if you have not heard or you don't know, I like to know who that is because it's a big news in the last three, four months. So anyway, I'm gonna jump to my question. As a woman organization that cares about women's right, especially on this day, as an international woman, knowing what's been going on in the last four months and of course it's been going on in the last 40 years in Iran and this Islamic Republic of Iran has been trying to push the women's right in the back and keep them in the house. Even as a result of their fight and struggle on the daily basis, they manage to continue their fight and as the most recent uprising, which was as a death of a Massa Amin, you guys have seen it, what was happening. What I was interested to, I would like to know and I'm puzzled to be honest with you that why women organizations such as Cork Pink have not been silent and has not made any statements in support of this movement. And I said it earlier in the other meeting, I mean in section, the second part of the meeting of today, that none of the, nobody in this gathering today even mentioned Iran once. I'm not talking about Iran right, so I'm talking about women's rights. I'm talking about that this movement that the world has been hearing it. I do understand that there is, I have been following it. I have been part of this protesters in San Francisco organizer and I understand why media is not covering it, that media is either partly Republican and Democrats. I am deeply questioning and I want to know today or tonight from one of you, please answer this question. Why you guys have been quiet about Iran and women's rights and this movement? Isn't it time to speak? If there is a reason to explain it and then I can maybe have a follow up question, please. Yeah, I'll talk and then I'll let Jodi because she's more involved in the day to day of the organization. I know that I personally in the organization have spoken out, we put out statements in support of the women's struggle. We are in direct touch with women in Iran. We have advisors to Code Pink that have been very involved in civil society, women's organizations even before these protests started. We have given financial support to women's organizations in Iran. We do the same thing about Afghanistan. We've been also very supportive of women's uprisings there. We've been very supportive of women in Saudi Arabia that have been struggling for their rights, women in the United Arab Emirates that have been struggling for their rights. So I think we're very consistent. Some people have faulted us for actually going to Iran. We do believe that it's important to meet with people. We met with all kinds of women's groups when they were there, women for peace, mothers for peace, women entrepreneurs, women students. We also met with government officials just like we think it's important to meet with government officials in all places where our government has a negative relationship. We wish that Biden would meet with Putin. We think it's important to talk and have dialogue and try to have relationships, but we definitely support the women's movement in Iran. And Jodi, if you wanna add anything to that, thank you. Sure, and thanks for asking the question. I actually started out this morning in an hour and a half webinar with Banash Sayed. And together we both spoke about the movement of the women and that this is a day that started with women. It's the day on March 8th in Russia where the textile workers rose up and said, we need bread and we need peace. So we started the morning sharing with hundreds on Zoom about what's happening in Iran. And then just earlier this week, Medea and I joined a call of lawyers from Afghanistan and Iran that have come together to call for a, to say what's happening to the women in Iran and Afghanistan is a genocide of women. And so these lawyers are moving forward together, representing the women from both countries to do this legal battle. From the very beginning, we've been speaking out and saying, in sanctions, so that there's some sense, immediately, I think that was our first call, that if you end the sanctions, then there's more opportunity for people to be talking on social media, to be sharing, to be connecting because we don't want them to be isolated. We spoke out right away. To see, it's like Iran is a big huge piece of my heart and so I care about it deeply. And whenever I speak, I always say, I'll never have an opportunity in my life to be as courageous as the women in Iran. Not only are they courageous recently, but they have always been courageous and leaders and fearless. So I'm sorry that you have that impression of us. The only lever that we can really affect is our own government. And so we stand with, rise with the women in Iran, but could pink, our actions are directed to where people can actually have effect? And we don't have an effect, a place where we can affect where the violence against the women in Iran is actually happening from. So maybe that's, you don't see an action, but we have been raising money, we have been sending support. So you don't think the fact that 14 things Islamic Republic of Iran is anti-imperialist. Therefore, we have to consider them as a country on our side, and we should not criticize them as much as they, because their report card of that government, of that system about women's rights. And in general, we only work, our work with Iran is about peace. It's not, which government is anti-imperialist? Our work in Iran has always been about peace. One last question, I'm done. We oppose the Iranian government. I think we oppose any religious government. We oppose the government of Israel. We oppose Islamic Republics. We believe that there should be a separation of church and state. And so we have never supported the system in Iran. Okay. My last question is, so it was very difficult to find any woman speaker in exile who are that being fighting for their rights to at least as a speaker on this program or to, you know, on this special day, was it too difficult to find them and invite them? Well, I'm sure Grace reached out to, there were definitely women from Iran on the list that Grace reached out to. So we can't help if they don't respond, but there were definitely, when we made the list of who could speak, today there were women from Iran. And, you know, maybe my fault because I started out the day with Banashay, she was worn out by the time we finished this morning at eight o'clock. But let's also remember that our job here is to influence our government. And that's what we're focusing on. You know, we could have made this a day of speakers from Saudi Arabia, from Afghanistan, from the Emirates, from Egypt, from Iran, and we didn't. It was about what are we doing? How are we gonna change our government? How are we gonna move our government to be one that supports the rights of women at home and around the world? And as I mentioned, and Jodi is 100% correct, we had a wide asking of people to come on and talk. And I knew that we did not have, we did not have a speaker from Iran and from the feminist Iran uprisings coming to speak today. So that's why I did take a huge portion of the radio show that I recorded with Issa last night to dedicate it to recordings and speeches and quotes from current organizers, educators, academics who are talking about not only the current feminist Iranian uprisings, but the years and the work that's happened both on the ground and within the diaspora, dedicating it to Iranian feminist uprisings. I put that recording in the chat if you wanna listen to it and if you wanna take any reflections on that as well. And I've also included our page on our website dedicated to Iran. And as I said, if you have any action support resources that you want me to include in the follow-up email tomorrow that I'm sending out, I will already have many Iranian actions and a support to add to that email, but I would love your contributions as well. I think we are going to end the night from our very own. But I just wanna thank you for that question because we do so much. And it's really hard to put it all in one place, but that you asked the question so that we could clarify, I'm super grateful for. So thank you. And thanks for all your engagement and activism. Yeah, thank you all. Yes. And again, my feeling from the feedback I get from the community when I talk with them because I try to encourage them to pay more attention to the recording. And the response I get is not positive. I hope that you guys can do something to change that, whatever that image is and understanding of the North Indians. Thank you. And thank you. Yeah, I think I agree with Jodi and that we always need a reminder to be uplifting. We're doing so much work as our most anti-war activists. So to be uplifting all the work we're doing and to continue uplifting all of our organizers and co-sponsors and community members is so important. So thank you for your contributions today. I think we are going to end with Wei has put together a song for International Women's Day that she is gonna share with us to close out. If anyone has any last reflections they wanna put in the chat as she shares this video. It's very powerful and I am so grateful to Wei for doing this. So go ahead, Wei. Grace, you're too kind. And oh, actually I have to be enabled to share my screen. Oh yeah, I thought I made you a co-host but let me do it again. Oh yeah, Grace you're too kind. I feel like as campaigners we're sort of like out there doing actions or maybe we're speaking under webinars but really without Grace, our admin team and also our communications team who helped me produce this video we couldn't be able to have all these message and all the report back to you all. So here we go. Thank you so much, Wei. That was beautiful. And the most perfect way to end International Women's Day 2023. I wanna thank all of you so much for being here. If anyone has some last words of reflection to put in the chat or if Jody or Medea have any last words or reflections they wanna share. Code Pink has been rallying around International Women's Day for many years. So if you have any final reflections. Just thank you Grace and Issa for your leadership for holding this container for bringing us together today and for sharing so many voices. Thank you. May we go forward and this war and all wars and move our country from one that relies so much on militarism to one that understands that the world is moving ahead with a different kind of set of values we better get on board. Thank you so much. And I want to end as well with uplifting our ongoing events on March 18th. They are in connection to the 20 year anniversary of the criminal and US invasion of Iraq. And we're partnering with the answer coalition and the People's Forum. Currently there are rallies in DC, Chicago, Detroit and Arbor, LA, San Francisco and many more to come. This webpage has both all of those events but also transportation if you want to go to a different event that might be farther than you as well as online actions that are happening that day. So thank you all so much. Have a great rest of your night and please continue sending us feedback reflections at infoatcodepink.org. Thank you all so much and have a wonderful night. Thank you. Thank you. Yay. Bye everyone.