Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

Meet at the corner of MLK, Jr. Blvd and Doty St. For more information, call Tim at 608-630-3633.

Held at a different location every Saturday. Join us and bring your signs. Contact info@peaceactionwi.org for more information.

The first Saturday of the month  - the location is: Martin Luther King Plaza, 909 Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., Racine.

For the remaining Saturdays, it will be at the NW corner of Highways 31 and 20. Park in the SW corner of the Kohl's parking lot near the AT&T store.

Supported by the Racine Coalition for Peace and Justice. We have signs, banners and flags available for all. Check this website for updates and weather concerns.

Free Palestine!

Meet at Decker and Main.

Action Alert: The Driftless Palestinian Solidarity group has a petition to demand that Senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and end financial aid to Israel's military. If your group is interested in getting signatures, please email driftless.solidarity@gmail.com. Thank you for your help!

Meet at Main St & 4th Street South. Contact Deborah at dbuffton@yahoo.com for more information.

100 West Lawrence Street. All are welcome. For more information, contact Ronna Swift at ronnajean61@gmail.com.

The 3rd Friday of each month is Peace Stand time in Eau Claire, going on since 2004. We gather with signs at Hwy 93 & Golf Road, 5-6 pm, we visit one another and sometimes we sing. Stand and be counted. Contact for more information: helpsmeet@usa.net.

Dear Friends, Sept 2024

It is with great sadness that we write to tell you that it is time to end the monthly 4th Tuesday Vigil at Volk Field in Juneau County.  But we are also feeling deep gratitude for all the years we were able to be present with so many of you at the gates of Volk Field

In reporting on the first vigil on December 2011 at the gates of the WI Air National Guard Base Joy wrote:

We were there because it is our responsibility and our right to remind our government, our military, that they are committing war crimes through the use of drone warfare. We believe that what our government is doing is illegal and immoral and we cannot sit idly by and let this continue.

And here we are 13 years later with the RQ Shadow Drones still based at Volk Field and personnel there being trained in using them. Literally thousands of people have held banners and signs, as well as chanted or sung at the entry to the base. Some of us also wave to the drivers and passengers of the approximately 200 vehicles exiting the gates at the end of their work day. About half the time we get waves back and even an occasional peace sign. (Wisconsin nice in one of its best forms.)

The base officials, however, have had a different response to us. The military personnel at the gatehouse film us, and have Juneau County Sheriff’s vehicles coming in and going out the entrance and exit roads to show us we’re being watched.

We have also “crossed the line” five times by walking onto the base in an effort to talk to or just deliver a letter to the Base Commander or delegate. Our actions of nonviolent civil resistance were in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019. Once we stepped onto the base we were immediately stopped, and when we refused to leave we were arrested and taken to the Juneau County Jail for booking and to be charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.  Each time we went to trial to continue our witness, and the judge would immediately dismiss the disorderly charge.  Each time we were found guilty of trespassing and had to pay a fine of around $215.

On one occasion several of us went on one of the “open to the public” narrated bus tours of the base which ended at the National Guard Museum. When we tried to hand out a quarter page leaflet about the drones, we were told that was propaganda and not allowed. We were again arrested. This time we refused to pay the fine and went to a jury trial. Since the jury was not allowed to hear expert testimony about how the drones are engaged in a violation of international law, we were found guilty.  When we refused to pay the fine because our First Amendment rights to free speech were violated we were sentenced to and served five days in jail.

We spell out this history because, if anything, the use of drone warfare has become even more widespread and egregious, and at the same time it has become normalized and accepted.  The need to oppose drone warfare is more important than ever. Yet is also true, that participants at the Vigil are now just a handful of older people. Thus we need to consider if the time has come to look at other ways to deal with the rampant U.S. militarism that causes death and destruction all over the world.

Over one half of our country’s discretionary budget is spent on past and current military costs resulting in the belief that we can’t provide adequate health care, housing, education, or stop hunger. [See the pie chart from the War Resisters League “Where Your Income Tax Really Goes.”]

Also, the U.S. now uses drones (aka unmanned aerial vehicles) in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and more recently in Ukraine and Gaza. It’s estimated that 90% of the victims are not militants, but people in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A project by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism says the minimum number of strikes from 2010-2020 was 14,040 and there were between 10,888-20,830 casualties.  This is a big range of people who have been killed because the government largely runs the drone program in secret, and does not share any statistics.

In Afghanistan many people, including many children, have PTSD because these drones can circle overhead for 24 hours and no one knows when or on whom these bombs will be dropped on. The military and CIA personnel who engage in this program of “remote control killing” actually have higher rates of PTSD than those engaged in combat because they can see what happens when their bombs are dropped.

The following organizations are some of the groups to be in touch with if you want to learn more about remaining engaged in the work for peace and justice.

·       BanKillerDrones.org

·       Fellowship of Reconciliation

·       Friends Committee on National Legislation

·       Jewish Voice for Peace

·       Madison-Rafah Sister City Project

·       National Priorities Project

·       Nuns on the Bus/NETWORK

·       Physicians for Social Responsibility

·       War Resister’s League

·       Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

·       Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

·       World Beyond War

·       Veterans for Peace

We’re sure our paths will continue to cross even if not at Volk Field. Thanks so much for your support over the years. Feel free to be in touch with questions, ideas and thoughts.  Joy is at 608-239-4327 or joyfirst5@gmail.com and Bonnie at 608-320-0569 and blb24@earthlink.net

Peace,

Bonnie and Joy

Co-organizers for Wisconsin Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars