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Why reinvent the wheel? We already have MOTHER'S DAY FOR PEACE !
Hellen Cooke from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom sent this to us:
'For Mother’s Day, remember Julia Ward Howe.
Julia, born in New York City on May 27, 1819, became a peace activist and suffragist. In 1870, she wrote The Mother's Day Proclamation; inspired by the Franco-Prussian war to call for mothers to be a civil and social force against war.
"While the war was still in progress, I was visited by a sudden feeling of the cruel and unnecessary character of the contest.
It seemed to me a return to barbarism, the issue having been one which might easily have been settled without bloodshed.
The question forced itself upon me, "Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters, to prevent the waste ofthat human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?"
I had never thought of this before. The august dignity of motherhood and its terrible responsibilities now appeared to me in a new aspect, and I could think of no better way of expressing my sense of these than that of sending forth an appeal to womanhood throughout the world, which I then and there composed."
Mother's Day Proclamation (1870)
Arise then... women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe away our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
To recap: "Let them meet first, as women -- to bewail --- to solemnly take counsel --- as a general congress of women without limit of nationality, --- an alliance of the different nationalities, on the the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace."
45 years after Julia's proclamation, 28th April-1 May 1915, an international women's congress met at the Hague, to do what Julia had requested. This international congress founded the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
I (Geraldine) would like to add:
In Australia at that time, from the Women's Political Association journal:
Woman Voter 4 May 1915:
'For news of the Women's Peace Conference, which opened at the Hague on 27th inst, we shall have to wait at least five weeks! Neither the "Age" nor the "Argus" has given us any information about it.
To be sure, they told us that the inability of English women to attend the Conference, because of the shipping being held up, has caused widespread amusement.' p.73 Prejudice and Reason some Australian women's responses to war 2013 www.prejudiceandreason.com.au
Eleanor Moore from the Sisterhood of International Peace (which became the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom), later said:
'A few weeks after the inauguration of the Sisterhood, a second group of women in Melbourne organised themselves as the Women's Peace Army. Their leader was the brilliant feminist Vida Goldstein ... she had as chief supporter Miss Cecilia John, and, a little later, Miss Adele Pankhurst ... These three had a strong following of intellectual women, one of whom, Miss Mary Fullerton, was well known as a novelist and poet.
The objects of the Peace Army were not essentially different from those of the Sisterhood, and the two groups might well have combined under one name, but for what might be called a difference in tone ...
When public opingion is inflamed there are two methods of seeking to influence it. One is to be provocative, taking the risk of reprisals, in the hope of making converts on the recoil. The other is called educational. It studies to avoid the particular phrase which will irritate listeners, and tries rather to draw them into discussion based on propositions with which, at the outset, all will agree....
There is a place for both, but they are better to work apart, especially at a time when a severe penaly may follow an unwise word. If one is to go to gaol for hindering recruiting (that was the sovereign offence in 1915), or to be ducked into the river by indignant men in uniform, it is something to know that the trouble came from the assertion of one's principle and not from the indiscretion of a colleague.' p.28 The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Ausatralia, Eleanor Moore 1948
Eleanor Moore, Cecilia John and Vida Goldstein were amongst those who attended the second International Women's Peace Conference in 1919. It was held at Zurich, not the Hague as expected. They were refused entry to France because they insisted on inviting women from the defeated countries to participate.
'The Necessity for Preparing for Perpetual War'
Women Voter 3 July 1919:
'Peace has come. Let those who can still deceive themselves celebrate it. Of peace I have little to say. It is unspeakable, what there is of it. We have saved the world from the Germans. Heaven send something to save the world from us.
The home Government, through Mr Churchill, has quite frankly explained the necessity for preparing for perpetual war.'
p.133 P rejudice and Reason some Australian women's responses to war prejudiceandreason.com.au
'Discords and Animosities which can only Lead to Future Wars'
Women Voter 1 September 1919:
'This international Congress of Women expresses its deep regret that the Terms of Peace proposed at Versailles should so seriously violate the principles upon which alone a just and permanent peace can be secured, and which the democracies of the world had come to accept.
By guaranteeing the fruits of the secret treaties to be the conquerors, the Terms of Peace tacitly sanction secret diplomacy, deny the principles of self-determination, recognise the rights of victors to the spoils of war, and create all over Europe discords and animosities which can only lead to future wars.' p.136 Prejudice and Reason some Australian women's responses to war 2013 Women's Web prejudiceandreason.com.au
The Women's Political Association and the Women's Peace Army were dissolved on the 18th December, 1919.
'History will proclaim you false if you are silent now. "Come out and be separate" from all that makes for war' said Vida Goldstein in 1914.
Don't we need to "Come out and be separate" now?
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Australia website is at http://www.wilpf.org.au/
For those who want the more 'provocative' activism too, well ...
