Peace & Freedom: 2023 Fall/Winner issue

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In chapter 8, Threlkelddocuments the efforts ofGeorgia Lloyd and EdithWynner, second-generationactivists who promoted theirmentors’ ideas. In 1944, theycollaborated on Searchlighton Peace Plans: Choose YourRoad to World Government,a compilation of theories andplans for world governmentthrough history. “The bookwas not a bestseller, butit was timely, and it madeGeorgia Lloyd (family photo).enough of an impact inWashington that Eleanor Roosevelt invited the two to dinnerat the White House in June 1944,” Threlkeld notes (167).Once nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima andNagasaki their concern grew. Along with Albert Einstein, thetwo women argued that “the atomic age necessitates internationalenforcement.“ Einstein wrote in the Atlantic (November1945) that the secret of the bomb should be closely guardedby a world government. “Do I fear the tyranny of a WorldGovernment? Of course I do,” he added. “But I fear still morethe coming of another war.”Another bestselling book at that time, The Anatomy ofPeace by Emery Reves, argued that the UN was not theanswer. He characterized it as “the pitiful miscarriage of thesecond World War” and an “unholy alliance stillborn in SanFrancisco.” He saw that the UN was set up from the startto favor control by the superpowers, instituting their vetopower in the Security Council and making appointments tothe General Assembly undemocratic. The only solution, hewrote, was a world government.My father, William Lloyd, also worked for the Campaignfor World Government, and spent considerable time inWashington in 1938 and 1939 promoting a call for a worldconstitutional convention. He managed to get a member ofCongress, Jerry Voorhis of California, to introduce a plan for aworld convention “which shall draw up a constitution for anall-inclusive, democratic, nonmilitary federation of nations.”Threlkeld also discusses the many groups that formed afterthe war, including the World Federalists and Americans United.Surprisingly, she doesn’t mention World Citizen #1 GarryDavis, an admirer of Lola and Rosika. 1 Davis was a bomberpilot during World War II, and the trauma of dropping bombson cities prompted him to give up his US passport in Paris in1948. His act of defiance was widely covered by the internationalpress, and he became a hero overnight. He declaredthat governments are the cause of wars. He traveled for therest of his life with his own world citizen passport. 2 As a result,he spent time in many prisons, yet remained a crusader forworld government until his death in 2013.Reading Threlkeld’s book in 2023, as militarism runs rogueacross the world and a major war in the center of Europeobstructs the delivery of food and energy to peoples everywhere,it seems obvious that new ways of thinking and newmass movements must emerge. However we decide to moveforward, the ideas discussed in this book are essential.Life Before DolphinsThe cover of Uribe’s bookpictures Georgia Lloyd and EdithWynner.Kirmen Uribe is a Basquelanguage writer who wonthe National Prize for Literaturein Spain in 2009 forhis first novel, Bilbao–NewYork–Bilbao.During the Franco dictatorship,Uribe was raisedby a group of free-thinkingwomen, including his ownmother and aunt. With thisinspiration, he decided towrite a book that wouldfocus on feminism and thepower of nonviolence. Heapplied for and received agrant from the New YorkPublic Library to do research in the papers of Edith Wynnerfor a novel on Rosika Schwimmer.The result is Life Before Dolphins, which intertwines threestorylines in a nonconventional narrative form. Unfortunately,the English version has not been published yet. But Uribe sentme an initial English translation.He describes Rosika Schwimmer as “one of the mostimportant intellectuals of her era: the first woman to benamed ambassador ofa country, a renownedspeaker, and an esteemedchampion of social rights.The same woman whosome time before haddefended women’s rightto vote in the majesticparliament built on theLola Maverick Lloydshores of the Danube,16 | PEACE & FREEDOM FALL/WINTER 2023
PostscriptAt the 100 th anniversary of WILPF in 2015, lawyerCharlotte Dennett and I submitted a resolution to ourhighest body proposing the democratization of the UN.The resolution had been endorsed by Burlington WILPFand WILPF US.Endorsement and Support for a UN WorldParliament or Parliamentary Assembly“We propose an enlarged United Nations: with a WorldParliament, made up of members elected by the people(similar to the US House of Representatives), that wouldbalance the General Assembly, which is made up ofrepresentatives appointed by national leaders, includingdictators. This body could have the same rights andauthority as the General Assembly.”This proposal was summarily dismissed by WILPF Internationalleadership without a vote. Could it be revived?when she was a very young activist who awed the politicalclass with her speeches and along the way became famous forher armless glasses, an image reproduced in every newspaperof the Austro-Hungarian empire. The same woman who inLondon had been press secretary of the International Women’sSuffrage Alliance and fomented a pacifist movement to tryand avert World War I….”In the first few pages of the book, he describes Rosika’s1929 defense of her right to American citizenship before theUS Supreme Court. Her case, Schwimmer v. the United States,had reach the court after successive appeals and thirteen previousdecisions in which seven judges had ruled against her.Ultimately her outspoken statements in court torpedoedher appeal: “I am an uncompromising pacifist. I am an absoluteatheist. I have no sense of nationalism, only a cosmicconsciousness of belonging to the human family.” She refusedto carry a gun.Uribe’s book is a sometimes lighthearted chronicle of hisresearch at the New York Public Library from 2018 to 2021,interspersed with reminiscences of his youth growing up witha group of revolutionary women.Contact Uribe if you would like more details about hisbook, or if you have an idea for an English language publisher!kirmenu@gmail.com.For more background on Rosika Schwimmer, watch thisYouTube video from the Global Democracy and Justice LectureSeries.Notes1 I got to know Garry when he sought me out in Burlington, VT, on oneof his trips north to see his family. We became friends and he shared hislife story with me.2 See more at worldservice.org.No Mow MayContinued from page 14.modifications can be successful and allay fears of personalneglect, neighbor complaints, or leaving the impression of noone at home or the property being abandoned. 2Get Started Where You LiveThere are many helpful resources available at https://beecityusa.org/no-mow-may/,including FAQs, summaries of publishedstudies, webinars (such as “No Mow May: Bringing YourCommunity on Board”), No Mow Ordinance Examples, and aNo Mow May Affiliate Promo Kit. Each region is different solearn what works for your habitat.Our experience taught us that you should start as earlyas possible, do your ordinance research ahead of time, andengage with your city council, health department, mayor’soffice, or other local officials. Be prepared to tell them whatyou’re proposing and why, and find various ways to start theconversation in your community (including your local media).Bee City USA’s advice is sound: “There are no set rules.What you choose to do is up to you, and what your localordinances allow. Do what you can now, make incrementalchanges over time, and learn as you go.”Notes1Blooming Prairie Nursery is a family-owned business in Des Moines thatspecializes in growing and installing native Iowa prairie flowers, grasses,and shrubs.2In some situations such as Home Owner Associations (HOAs), memberscan offer proposals that may be amenable to the members, such as askingfor a portion of the land to be left unmowed. First Unitarian Churchin Des Moines agreed to post two yard signs in a prominent spot on abusily travelled route asking the landscaper to mow around that areaduring May.PEACE & FREEDOM FALL/WINTER 2023 | 17
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Page 3 and 4: Working in a Fire ZoneBy Darien De
Page 5 and 6: US-DPRK Relations Since 2000United
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Page 13 and 14: of Armenians by the Turks that kill
Page 15 and 16: DC-Maryland-Virginia Branch Builds
Page 17: The Fearless FourBy Robin LloydBurl
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Page 27 and 28: In MemoriamYvonne Simmons, a Voice
Page 29 and 30: In MemoriamCarol Urner, Tireless Ad
Page 31 and 32: The Detroit Branch focused the Apri

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