Women Strike for Peace

Women Strike for Peace

Women Strike for Peace was based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is an organization that advocates for international disarmament. It was founded in 1961 as a "national movement of women against the arms race and for the fulfillment of human needs."

About

One of the first acts of the group was to assign CPUSA member Selma Rein to arrange WSP's affiliation with the WIDF.

As at March, 1982, WSP's national coordinator was Ethel Taylor, and its national legislative coordinator was Edith Villastrigo. WSP members have comprised a substantial proportion of U.S. delegations to World Peace Congress'. WSP has been working in support of the local "nuclear freeze" initiatives, aiding in Ground Zero and PSR events, and carrying out effective "lobbies by proxy."

The Zill report notes that WSP went to Rep. Millicent Fenwick with 85 proxy cards and asked her to use her influence to hold hearings on Euro-missiles and the Middle East as well as arms control efforts. The three-day hearings by the House Foreign Affairs Committee commenced on February 27, 1982.

Communist connections

Bella Abzug and Women Strike for Peace

During the 1960s Women Strike for Peace maintained close relations with the Communist North Vietnamese.

In 1972 Congresswoman Bella Abzug went with a WSP delegation to Paris to meet with Viet Cong and North Vietnamese representatives. In a subsequent Congressional hearing, 10 out of the 12 top officers of WSP took the Fifth Amendment when asked about Communist Party USA membership.

WSP Newsletters

The Women Strike for Peace (WSP) WSP National Legislative Office at 201 Massachusetts Ave., N.E., #102, Washington, D.C., 20002, used to send out a newsletter on legal-sized paper detailing their lobbying activities in Congress and with related groups. These newsletters often provided important information on how they worked, who they lobbied, who they had contacts with, and the names of their D.C. staff and regional members.

• April/May 1983 newsletter:
• Elizabeth French - as WSP contact re lobbying against the "re-licensing of the nuclear reaction and radioative Cobalt-60 at the Armed Forces Radiological Research Institute (AFRRI), in Bethesda, MD."
• Ellen Fleming - "Musical Evening with Ellen Fleming, Guitarist/Folksinger" and with Marco & Bridgette of "Peace Child"
• Lucille Kenny - re WPS Steering Committee meeting, April 26th
• Adalyn Davis - re "debate between Paul Warnke and State Dept. rep., Reston Community Center (unclear if Davis is a WSP member or not)
• Carolyn Kazdin - "WSP Educational Night: Carolyn Kazdin, just back from Nicaragua, will speak and give a brand new slide show on events there"

• January, 1985 newsletter:

National Legislative Office:

• Paula Echeverria
• Elizabeth French
• Lucille Gundersen
• Lucille Kenny
• Elissa McBride
• Ruth Pinkson - has been identified as a member of the Md/DC Communist Party
• Sheila Rotner
• Edith Villastrigo

WSP National Coordinator:

• Ethel Taylor

Subjects written about:

• Time to Normalize US/Cuba Relations
• Co-Existence or No-Existence
• Reprint of letter in the "Wall Street Journal" by *Rep. Thomas J. Downey - Representative, (D-NY) entitled "Keeping Pace in the Arms Race".

Tom Downey was a hardcore leftist who basically swallowed the Soviet's "peaceful coexistence" line.

• Reprint of a letter from Rep. Robert Edgar - (D-Pa), which said:

"I want you to know how important it is for you and other members of Women Strike for Peace and other peace groups to keep writing to and calling their representatives in the Congress. Handwritten, specific letters are very helpful, focusing on a single issue. Face-to-face meetings with your representatives are also important in informing them of how you feel on a particular issue."

"With the election of Ronald Reagan, we who care about arms control and peace must redouble our efforts to push Congress to understand the urgency of the dangerous times we are living through."

"I am proud of the work that Women Strike for Peace has done and I pledge to continue my efforts to bring peace in our time by controlling the arms race." [NB: Notice the strong resemblance to Britain's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his remarks on dealing with Hitler and the "Munich Agreement" which essentially led to World War 2.]

"Taken from a letter from Congressman Edgar to Ethel Taylor, National Coordinator of WSP"

[NB: Edgar went on to lead the leftist National Council of Churches (NCC) and kept them on the far-left of the religious spectrum, especially in regards to anti-Americanism and being very anti-Israel and pro-PLO].

• March, 1985 Newsletter:

National Legislative Office:

• Elissa McBride - 10 week intern, Jan- March, 1985, on "Nuclear-Free Pacific Day".
• Paula Echeverria
• Elizabeth French
• Lucille Gundersen
• Irene Koch
• Adele Lehr
• Elissa McBride
• Ruth Pinkson - an identified member of the CPUSA, HCUA Baltimore/Maryland Hearings, 1950's. Died in 2010. Wife of identified CPUSA member Ray Pinkson
• Anna Rodieck
• Edith Villastrigo - active in the CPUSA front, the U.S. Peace Council

Article on the Volga Peace Cruise, a project of the CPUSA and other leftist groups in the US and the Soviet Union. Groups they met with in the USSR included key Communist operations including the Institute U.S. and Canada Studies (which reportedly is run by the KGB and the CPSU - See "The War Called Peace", p. 163, including the identification of Georgi A. Arbatov, as a member of the CPSU Central Committee.

Other groups they met with were Institute World Economic and International Relations (sic); Kiev Peace Committee; University of Friendship; Moscow Radio; Agricultural Life newspaper; Leningrad Peace Committee]] and the magazine Soviet Life.

• Charlotte Oram - 1984 cruise participant
• Martin Oram - 1984 cruise participant

Key sentence by the writer (unidentified) about the cruise was: "Best of all we came back convinced that the Russian truly want peace and an end to nuclear arms."

World Peace Council connection

The first official World Peace Council conferencein the U.S. was the Dialogue on Disarmament and Detente held January 25-27, 1978, in Washington, DC.

It was sponsored by a small committee including and World Peace Council Presidium member Communist Party USA functionary and Amalgamated Meatcutters Union vice-president Abe Feinglass.

Attendees included Katherine Camp, International President of the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, Rep. Ron Dellums, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers president William Winpisinger, Edith Villastrigo, legislative director of Women Strike for Peace, Connecticut State Representative Irving Stolberg and Illinois State Representative Peggy Martin Smith.

A luncheon was held to honor World Peace Council president Romesh Chandra that was attendedby California Congressmen Philip Burton, Don Edwards, Dellums and New York rep. Charles Rangel.

External links

• Women Strike for Peace website

References

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