Women for peace

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Women for Peace - under this name, women's groups in the West and East act as part of the international peace movement that emerged in the 1970s from the work of Irish women against the Northern Ireland conflict and that spreads very quickly internationally.

According to their own statements, the various groups in the FfF are committed to a peaceful world. The peace is intended to all people and justice are mainly due to the fulfillment of basic needs among people. Any conflicts that arise should be resolved without violence, through mediation and negotiations. Important principles are also the equality of women and men worldwide as well as the inclusion of the point of view and life experiences of women and men in all areas of life (see gender mainstreaming ).

Germany west and east

In West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany, almost a hundred new women's peace groups emerged between the 1979 Congress of Courage against nuclear power and militarism, the appeal to incite women for peace of February 27, 1980, and the environmental women’s conference in Copenhagen in June 1980, encouraged by the appeal printed in the taz Scandinavian women for disarmament between the superpowers who, as autonomous women's peace groups, initiate a variety of actions and campaigns, especially against the nuclear arms race in East and West. These non-violent actions also became a model for women behind the Iron Curtain, which was somewhat broken by the concert by Joan Baez with Bettina Wegner Pentecost in 1982, as was the case with the balloon action on the Wall in 1987 by Hannah Kotowski, Eva Epple and Eva Quistorp. The initiators of inciting women for peace and women for peace in the Federal Republic are feminists Eva Epple, Eva Quistorp , Detel Aurandt, Heidemarie Langer and Hanne-Margret Birckenbach . A total of around 40,000 signatures were collected and handed over for the UN Women's Conference in Copenhagen in June 1980, all without internet and even without fax at that time.

From March 1 to 8, 1981, following a call from Ricarda Steinbrecher and Eva Quistorp, West German women's groups organized a nationwide week of action in hundreds of cities in the Federal Republic on the subject of atomic energy and nuclear weapons, peace education and environmental education, images of violence in the media, violence against women, disarmament etc. Together with the Scandinavian Women for Peace, initiated by Eva Nordland from Oslo and Hilka Pietaala from Helsinki, Eva Quistorp and other women organize a. a. Doris Elbers the participation of many women from Berlin and the Federal Republic in the Peace March 1981 from Copenhagen to Paris, which ended with a wonderful rally there with Julie Christie and the Greenham COMmon marching band, where also May 24th as an international day of action of women for peace and disarmament was proclaimed at the suggestion of Lynne Jones of the END and Eva Quistorp.

The founder of Women for Peace, Eva Quistorp, organized a women's plenum in West Berlin that the Academy of Arts filled with Susanne von Pacenszky and Peggy Parnass and Sophie von Behr u. a. and to follow up the 1981 Copenhagen-Paris peace march. From this meeting, the group Women for Peace (Peace March with Hildegard Klimmeck, Carola Elbers and Doris Elbers) emerged. Several peace marches should take place across Europe. A route from Berlin to Bremen should also lead through the GDR, which was not allowed by the GDR authorities.

But in 1982 another international women's peace march was planned and prepared by women for peace, organized by Hildegard Klimmeck, Carola Elbers and Doris Elbers, Hannelore Pantzke, Marianne Gose and many others from the Berlin women's center on Stresemannstraße. The "Peace March '82 Berlin-Vienna" is supported by Eva Quistorp from the coordination committee in Bonn and the European Liaison Committee and END throughout Germany and Europe. Ellen Diederich and the 1950s singer and peace activist Fasia Jansen from the Ruhr area accompanied the Peace March '82 to Vienna with great commitment during the six-week uninterrupted nonviolent campaign, where they were received by the Minister for Women, Johanna Dohnal.

The appeal "For a nuclear weapons-free Europe in East and West" formulated a vision:

“Let's imagine the dream come true. In the morning we wake up from a deep sleep and hear that the strength, diversity and unity of the peace movement has managed to induce the USA and the USSR to adopt a moratorium: we will no longer produce, deploy or deploy any new nuclear weapons with immediate effect. All nuclear weapons and missiles existing in their own country are rendered harmless, all bases are dismantled. The governments of the countries of the world will agree never again to pursue a policy of 'defense' through armament and repression. The one billion dollars a day spent on armaments are now being spent on peace work and justice. The people of the world are called to shape and determine this future ... "

- Peace Ways - Six weeks of pleasure and frustration on a peace march

The 1982 Peace March (1200 km non-violent action) for a world free of nuclear weapons, against war and violence and against environmental destruction, concludes with the “Vienna Appeal” by women for peace and the Danube women, a reception at the Federal Chancellery in Vienna, a peace camp and a large final rally attended by tens of thousands of people. Under the overall direction of Eva Quistorp there is once again an international women’s peace conference in Vienna and the international day of resistance of women for peace on October 17, 1983 in the action week of the peace movement, co-organized by Elke Dünow and Barbara Senft in Bonn.

Co-organized u. a. by Eva Quistorp, as spokeswoman for Women for Peace in the management of the KA of the Peace Movement and the Secretariat of the Congress for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Europe in West Berlin in May 1983, further women's peace marches took place in the summer of 1983, hikes. Pilgrimage marches, human chains and vigils for a nuclear-free Europe from Poland to Portugal and a nuclear-free world.

In 1983, Women for Peace of the Berlin Peace Marching Group again planned and organized another large international women's peace march. It began at the Petra Kelly Tribunal in Nuremberg with the appeal by Hildegard Klimmeck and Eva Quistorp. Daniel Elsberg and Philip Agee were among the first to sign. At the START negotiations of the nuclear powers in Geneva, women for peace called for 1,300 km of uninterrupted nonviolent action. The organizers were Hildegard Klimmeck, Ulrike Fink von Wiesenau, Carola Elbers and Doris Elbers. For International Women's Day, together with Hildegard von Meier and many others, they organized a women's chain between the US embassy and the USSR consulate in Berlin-Dahlem and supported the candle campaign by Ulrike Poppe and Bärbel Bohley on Human Rights Day on December 10, 1983 in East Berlin.

Women for Peace were (through Eva Quistorp) in the management of the coordination committee of the peace movement leading the organization of the great Bonn peace demonstrations 1981-1983, the support of the blockade in Mutlangen, later in Hasselbach, the demos in Stuttgart and above all through their initiative on the human chain 1983, which the DFG / VK then organized with the churches and trade unions represented, a special women's peace campaign was the encirclement of the Hardthöhe (location of the Ministry of Defense). Women for Peace networked across Europe and partly worldwide with the coordination of Europe-wide peace demonstrations between Athens, Paris, London, Madrid, Amsterdam, London. At the great peace demonstration in New York on June 12, 1982, Eva Quistorp spoke with Wim Bartels from IKV Holland, for the European peace movement, and stood between Pete Seeger and representatives of the Pacific Islands and Jesse Jackson, Bella Abzug, Susan Sarandon, Coretta King, Paul Simon and Johnny Cash, who all supported the peace movement against Reagan's policies at the time. At the peace conferences in Prague and Moscow as well as at the great nonviolent border campaign of Greek women on the divided island of Cyprus : "We come in Peace" women for peace were represented by Hildegard Klimmeck, "Ambassadors" over the wall were Eva Epple and Hannah Kotowski. The call for women for peace was signed by Bärbel Bohley and Katja Havemann shortly after Bettina Wegner at her concert with Joan Baez Whitsun in 1982 in the Waldbühne, and so in 1982 on the initiative of Bärbel Bohley , Katja Havemann, Ulrike Poppe and Irena , Irena formed in East Berlin Kukutz , Heide Bohley founded an initiative group Women for Peace, as a result of which around 40 autonomous women peace groups were founded in the GDR. From the beginning, the initiative group has been in contact across borders with the groups Women for Peace in West Berlin and the women from the END in Great Britain. The external reason for the establishment in the GDR is the passing of a new military service law in March 1982, which also provides for the inclusion of women in general conscription. 150 women signed a joint protest letter to Erich Honecker . In the 1980s, women in the GDR opposition were particularly active against the GDR's security policy with a variety of spectacular actions . In 1989, numerous GDR peace women were significantly involved in founding the citizens' movements of the so-called Wende-Herbst .

The women for peace and many peace women are still active. Some have brought the topic into European politics, others continue to work in global women's peace networks and specific aid campaigns for women and children in war and crisis regions: Chernobyl, Bosnia, Central America or Chechnya. With the campaign for Resolution 1325 , in which Eva Quistorp and Heide Schütz and Ellen Diederich were active at the World Conference on Women in Beijing, which was then officially adopted on October 31, 2000, women for peace during the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and then coordinated an institutional contribution in various countries to ensure that violence against women on the one hand, their everyday work and their services for conflict resolution and the prevention and ending of wars on the other hand are taken more seriously, respected and financially and organizationally supported by the UN and NGOs. Some of the Women for Peace are now grandmothers for peace , others continue to work at medica mondiale and are currently present at the conference in London with Angelina Jolie, as in the criticism of violent media and excesses of violence, which is unfortunately necessary in many places around the world, as it was also through the Iraq war 2002-03 originated. They can also be found in the sustainability debates and in the implementation of the Rio Conference 1992 Agenda 21 in climate protection projects and in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and the CEDAW reports together with UNWOMAN and the NGO conferences on RIO plus 20 and the UN climate conference in Warsaw 2013.

Switzerland

In Switzerland , the international disarmament conference, which took place in New York in 1977 , was the decisive factor in establishing FfF groups in all Swiss cities. The national umbrella organization Women for Peace Switzerland was founded in 1994.

In Switzerland, the work of the peace women involves launching and supporting initiatives and petitions as well as participating in consultations . In addition to concrete political and lobbying work with politicians, FfF Switzerland organizes public information events, protest and memorial events. Public relations work is also supported by the production of radio programs, newspaper articles, the writing of letters to the editor and the publication of books.

See also

literature

  • Antje Finger, Ingeborg Michael: Looked closely, never remained silent, immediately contradicted, acted the same - documents from the fabric of hypocrisy 1982–1989, resistance of autonomous women in Berlin East and West . Educational work for democracy and environmental protection (ed.), 1990, ISBN 3-927995-00-2 .
  • Almut Ilsen , Ruth Leiserowitz (Ed.): Be loud! The women for peace in East Berlin. Ch.links, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96289-065-0 .
  • Ulrike Poppe : Women for Peace. In: Hans-Joachim Veen (Hrsg.): Lexicon of opposition and resistance in the SED dictatorship. Propylaea, Berlin / Munich 2000, ISBN 3-549-07125-6 , pp. 135-137.
  • Eva Quistorp (Ed.): Handbook of life. Women fight against environmental degradation . Burckhardthaus-Laetare-Verlag, Gelnhausen 1981, ISBN 3-7664-0104-1 .
  • Eva Quistorp (Ed.): Women for Peace. Analyzes, documents and actions from the women's peace movement . Päd-Extra-Buchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-88704-101-1 .
  • Eva Quistorp: Scheherazade. Voices of women against the logic of war. Luchterhand, Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-630-71027-1 .
  • Eva Quistorp: Women for Peace. In: Peace in Germany . Goldmann Verlag, 1982.
  • Wolfgang Rüddenklau: Troublemaker. GDR opposition 1986–1989. Basis-Druck, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-86163-011-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sylivia Scherr, Paul Langrock: Friedenswege - Six weeks of pleasure & frustration on a peace march . Self-published, Berlin 1982, OCLC 123913421 .
  2. ↑ See Kreisky-Archiv, Vienna