WAMM is hundreds of women and men empowered to make social change through volunteer activism!

OUR MISSION

WAMM is a nonviolent feminist organization that works in solidarity with others to create a system of social equality, self-determination and justice through education and empowerment of women. WAMM's purpose is to dismantle systems of militarism and global oppression.

WAMM has around 2100 member households, most of which are in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. We are consciously a local justice and peace organization, living our feminist principals by using a non-hierarchical organizational structure. WAMM is governed by a Steering Committee of volunteer activists who use consensus decision making. We program from the grassroots -- allowing activists to form committees and act on issues based on their own passions.


Brief History of WAMM: January 1982-July 2002

Beginnings
In the fall of 1981, ten women began to meet in Loretta’s Tea Room in Minneapolis to figure out how to most effectively respond to the threat of nuclear war, the huge increases in military spending and the massive slashes in human services budgets. Inspired by polls that showed most women were anti-war, yet as a group were not organized and empowered to challenge the government’s priorities, WAMM founders believed that by confronting our fear, anger and denial together, women could become the leaders of a movement to turn our country from the brink of nuclear holocaust to a peaceful and just society.

On January 16, 1982, the coldest day of the winter, over 100 women came to a founding conference. After the meeting, participants marched with signs along University Avenue in Minneapolis. An international news photographer took pictures and WAMM appeared in newspapers around the country. A tradition was born: Never a meeting without an action.

From the very beginning, WAMM published a monthly newsletter to inform our members and the community about peace and justice issues.

The 1980s
In the 1980s, WAMM opposed the nuclear arms race and the U.S intervention in Central America. An appearance on the Donahue Show brought hundreds of letters to WAMM from women around the country.

Locally, we supported Native American spearfishing rights, Minnesota nurses and P9 meatpackers strikes, the welfare rights group Up and Out of Poverty, the struggle to get Honeywell to stop producing land mines in coalition with the Honeywell Project, and joined coalitions for police accountability. WAMM members demonstrated against war toys by buying out one store’s supply before Christmas, then returning them all after the holiday.

WAMM became known for its creative and consistent legal nonviolent activism. WAMM members engaged in freeway bannering, weekly downtown marches, empowerment groups, visiting schools with “Tough Dove” the puppet, and distributing “Tools for Tough Times” packets to activate members.

The 1990s
In the 1990s, WAMM and coalition partners held the first protest in the U.S. against troop deployment leading up to the Gulf War, which lead to an appearance by WAMM Co-Director Lucia Wilkes on Larry King Live. Since then, WAMM has fought the deadly sanctions and continuing bombing of Iraq.

The interventions and bloody conflicts in Panama, Yugoslavia, East Timor, Somalia, and Israel/Palestine were another focus of WAMM’s anti-war work. A campaign against the “Contract On America” helped us link domestic cuts to military madness.

Locally, we worked against police brutality, and WAMM and coalition partners defeated attempts to mandate Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) in Minneapolis public high schools.

WAMM Today
Since September 11, 2001, WAMM has been focused on opposing the “war on terrorism” in all its forms, including attacks on the civil liberties of immigrants and activists. A new committee has formed to expose the danger of depleted uranium munitions, and we expanded WAMM staff hours to allow us to do a larger amount of program work.

WAMM continues to support direct action and coalition building, and we also encourage women to act through committees, empowerment groups, and individual activism. We are spreading the word of peace and justice into the schools and community organizations through our WAMM Action! E-mail list and website (www.worldwidewamm.org), a newly updated Speakers Bureau, literature tables, and regular public education forums.


WAMM Programs & Committees >>