<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 5.50.4916.2300" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/3360524.html">http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/3360524.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P>The other day, a Twin Cities woman called the office of Women Against
Military Madness in Minneapolis, saying she was worried and angry about the
possibility of war with Iraq. President Bush, she said, her voice shaking, is
leading the nation into an endless war, and she feared her grandchildren would
inherit a world filled with hatred and aggression.</P>
<P>The staff member who took the call agreed that the situation is terribly
frightening but said there are concrete actions that people opposed to war with
Iraq can take.</P>
<P>"If I have to become an antiwar protester at age 53," the caller said with
resolve, "then darn it, I will."</P>
<P>Codirector Jen<!--cq--> Randolph Reise, 24, said the 20-year-old
organization, known as WAMM, is getting many calls like that, from people who
hadn't previously considered themselves activists or even antiwar. Since the
terrorism of Sept. 11, WAMM membership has risen by 355, to 1,528.</P>
<TABLE class=photoright cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=115 align=right
border=0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD vAlign=top><A
onclick="window.open('','3360524', 'width=532,height=572,resizable=0,status=0,scrollbars=0')"
target=3360524
href="http://www.startribune.com/images/embed/3360524_48815.html"><IMG
height=160 alt=""
src="http://www.startribune.com/stonline/images/news22/1wamm13.e.jpg"
width=115 border=2></A>
<DIV class=fontsize1 style="MARGIN-TOP: 3px">WAMM founders</DIV></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD height=6></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=fontsize1>Judy Griesedieck</TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD class=fontsize1>Star Tribune</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P>Most members are middle-class Twin Cities-area women who are white and
middle-aged or older. Many are longtime peace activists. However, "We're
attracting more and more younger people and people from a variety of
backgrounds, which is encouraging," Reise said. Men are welcome. So are people
of color.</P>
<P>"This is not a fringe movement," she said. "I believe it's amazing how many
Minnesota people are coming out against the war. We're trying to be a voice for
sanity, and people are responding."</P>
<P>Longtime WAMM member Marie Braun of Minneapolis can testify to that. She
recently saw a need for big lawn signs that show opposition to the war, so she
contracted with a printer for 100 2-by-4-foot signs reading, "Say no to war on
Iraq, call your congress person." She wondered whether she had ordered too many.
As it turned out, no problem. They were in big demand, and she has a waiting
list of 250 people who are willing to spend $10 each to cover costs.</P>
<P>Said Polly Mann, a WAMM founder who's now 82, "The office is jumping."</P>
<P><SPAN class=subhead>20 years ago </SPAN></P>
<P>When WAMM was founded in 1982, the United States was increasing military
spending, stockpiling nuclear weapons and cutting budgets for education and
health. Mann and Marianne Hamilton, two longtime peace and civil rights
activists, were inspired by polls showing that most women were antiwar but not
organized to challenge government priorities.</P>
<P>Mann would say, "Polly, we've got to do something about this," to which
Hamilton would respond, "Yes, Marianne, you do." And Mann would say, "Yes,
Polly, you do."</P>
<P>So finally together they did. They gathered a group of women at Loretta's Tea
Room in Minneapolis to form what became WAMM, fretting at first that the name
might sound violent.</P>
<P>"We used our Christmas card lists to get the money to start up," Mann
recalled recently. "We sent a letter to people we thought might have $100." They
raised enough to rent an office and hire a staff. That staff, she said, made the
difference between the long-lasting WAMM and the many other peace-and-justice
groups across the country that come and go. "We can get more done" because WAMM
is known for a sustained effort and as a center of information, she said.</P>
<P>"Never a meeting without an action" was the motto from the start. The first
meeting was near the University of Minnesota on a January day when the
temperature was a nasty 20 or 30 below, but the women vowed to make their
organization known. They walked down University Avenue with anti-military signs.
They marched only a block or two, but a New York Times reporter in Minneapolis
for an unrelated purpose happened to see the tiny demonstration and wrote about
it.</P>
<P>That was the beginning of WAMM's visibility. It has become known for creative
press-gathering activities, praised by sympathizers and denounced by detractors
as silly, useless and harmful to national interests. (Members say they get
thumbs up, thumbs down and middle fingers up when they're making their views
known.)</P>
<P>• In 1992, Christopher Columbus' name vanished from the Minneapolis street
named in his honor. Members of WAMM and the Spirit of the Lakes Church covered
street signs on Columbus Avenue with paper sleeves naming Indian leaders of the
past and present.</P>
<P>• WAMM members showed their opposition to "war toys" by trying to buy out a
supply of guns and toy soldiers at a Maplewood Target store on the Friday after
Thanksgiving in 1986 and 1987. Television coverage was heavy. The activists
later returned the toys -- for refunds -- and said they'd made their point.</P>
<P>• In August 1990 WAMM and other local antiwar groups held the first protest
in the United States against troop deployment leading to the Gulf War, which led
to an appearance by then-codirector Lucia Wilkes on CNN's "Larry King Live."</P>
<P><SPAN class=subhead>Less glamorous </SPAN></P>
<P>Not all has been so media-inviting. Without attracting much attention for
years, WAMM members have protested, written newsletters and circulated
petitions. (Some were arrested, although WAMM, to protect its tax status,
doesn't plan or cosponsor events that call for civil disobedience.)</P>
<P>They've opposed U.S. military action in places from Panama and Nicaragua to
Iraq and Afghanistan. They speak to classes and provide materials to
public-school teachers "to better educate students about U.S. foreign policy,"
especially in the Middle East. They advocate federal funding for education and
health care, "instead of a bloated Pentagon budget and corporate welfare." Mann
ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 1988 on a peace-and-justice platform.</P>
<P>Since Sept. 11, 2001, WAMM has focused on opposing "the war on terrorism in
all it forms, including attacks on civil liberties of immigrants and activists,"
according to Reise.</P>
<P>Of the group's $125,000 annual budget, 82 percent comes from member
donations, most of them small, Reise said. (Annual membership costs $40.) The
rest comes from grants of about $1,000 to $3,000, primarily from churches.</P>
<P>As for Iraq, Reise and Mann said, the United States hasn't tried hard enough
to find nonmilitary solutions. To Reise, part of the tragedy is that "it's hard
to see options when we're so close to war. We need to be dealing with root
problems -- poverty and injustice -- before it comes to
this."</P></DIV></BODY></HTML>