PAT ELDER and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILP)
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom is a 106-year-old international peace organization. It was founded in 1915 by Jane Addams and 2,000 international women who met at The Hague to stop World War I. Since 1915, WILPF has continued to connect human rights and economic and environmental justice to the roots of war. WILPF enjoys Consultative Status at the UN and monitors its work through its programs on disarmament and women and peace and security. WILPF members have won the Nobel Peace Prize several times, most recently as part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
WILPF’s Earth Democracy Committee is committed to the precautionary principle (i.e., "When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.") and to the guardianship of future generations and the human right to water.
In the summer of 2019, the Earth Democracy Committee and Pat Elder envisioned a project on the military and per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals”). They began with a focus on California, the U.S. state with the largest number of military bases, as well as some of the highest levels of documented PFAS contamination.
In the fall of 2019, the Patagonia Foundation funded the California project on PFAS and the Military. While the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their original plans and eliminated some of our events in California, the website that was created--Military Poisons--began to gain visitors from across the country.
Other individuals and groups wanted to participate. The Earth Democracy Committee saw a way to bring this project to other states through a revamped and improved website; the formation of intersectional state coalitions of peace, health, water, and environmental groups; and a clear focus on the military and its use of PFAS in our communities, contaminating our ecosystems and our bodies.
Pat Elder and WILPF Earth Democracy
continue to seek funding for state coalition work and are currently focusing on Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maryland.
Funders
Our work has or is being funded by the Patagonia Foundation; the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice (CHEJ); WILPF US; WILPF Earth Democracy; WILPF Burlington Branch; the Downs Law Group; and the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund Inc.