Ten women met at Loretta’s Tea Room, which was owned by one of the WAMM founders, in the 2615 Park Avenue building during the fall of 1981. Marianne Hamilton and Polly Mann called together Cathy Anderson, Pam Costain, Moira Moga, Eleanor Otterness, Pat Powers, Mary Shepard, Lucille Speeter, and Mary White to discuss the change in the national government spending priorities, from human services to military spending. This discussion was intensified by the on-going threat of nuclear warfare, and the women were inspired to bring change. Finding polls and information that showed most women were anti-war, they needed an organization that empowered women to challenge the priorities of the current government. These women wanted a platform for women to become leaders who would demand a peaceful and just society. Thus, WAMM was born.

The next year, on January 16, 1982, on the coldest day of the winter, more than 100 women came to the WAMM founding conference at the Newman Center near the University of Minnesota campus. It was imperative to get information into the hands of the public. Therefore, the women of WAMM decided that a monthly newsletter would be necessary to inform the public about peace and justice issues.

Following the meeting, the women marched with their signs along University Avenue in Minneapolis. With this action, the newly minted organization had gained its first moment of notoriety. A stringer reporting for The New York Times covered the event, and a photo showing women with signs that read “Moms Against Bombs” and “Women Against Military Madness” was published in the Times and picked up by newspapers around the country! From this conference, a tradition was born:  Never a meeting without an action!  This mantra is followed to this day.

In the 1980s, WAMM opposed the nuclear arms race and U.S. interventions in Central America. Several committees were developed to tackle the many injustices happening around the world. Members appeared and were interviewed on The Donahue Show. From this moment in the national spotlight, hundreds of letters were sent to WAMM from women around the country – all in support of the work being done.

Over the years WAMM made connections between international and local instances of violence and injustice. WAMM members actively supported Native American spearfishing rights guaranteed by U.S. treaties by standing peacefully on lakeshores as witnesses to the bitter, racist taunts of whites who opposed those treaty rights.  WAMM members picketed with nurses challenging unfair hospital contracts in the Twin Cities and P9 union meatpackers in Austin, Minnesota, striking Hormel Foods.  In coalition with local activists, WAMM supported the rights of families receiving welfare support, confronted incidents and patterns of police brutality, and challenged the Minneapolis-based corporate headquarters of weapons manufacturer Honeywell Corporation to stop producing land mines.

Making the statement that war is not a game, WAMM members demonstrated against war toys by buying out one store’s supply of the toys before Christmas, only to return all the war toys after the holiday. From actions such as these, WAMM became known for its creative and consistent non-violent activism. WAMM began freeway bannering, weekly marches, empowerment groups, a speakers’ bureau, counter-recruitment efforts in schools and providing resources to the community looking for answers in a troubling time.

In August, 1990, WAMM worked with coalition partners to hold the first protest in the U.S. in opposition to troop deployment that ultimately led to the first Persian Gulf War. The co-director at the time, Lucia Wilkes, appeared on CNN’s “Larry King Live!” to discuss the WAMM position, to say no to war. The slogan, “Who will profit? Who will die?” was used on signs and buttons that were requested by peace groups and shipped around the country. Following the Gulf War, WAMM continued to fight deadly sanctions and demand an end to the bombing of Iraq.

Beyond Iraq, WAMM worked against interventions in Panama, Yugoslavia, East Timor, Somalia, Palestine/Israel.  In Minneapolis, WAMM promoted police accountability by working within an activist coalition to establish an independent “Civilian Review of Police” Board. When that board ultimately was implemented, and the coalition determined the board was powerless, WAMM worked with other coalition members to monitor and publicize the board’s ineffective nature.  Another coalition organized to support post-Gulf War conscientious objectors fighting persecution by military hierarchy and defeated attempts to introduce Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) in Minneapolis public high schools.

Over the years, WAMM members traveled to Vietnam, Iran, the Philippines, Cuba, Libya, and Iraq, bringing back eye witness reports from these areas, including the voices of the people who were suffering from U.S. military involvement in their countries.

It was in the spring of 1999, in response to the U.S. bombing of Yugoslavia, that WAMM, together with other local peace groups, started a weekly peace vigil on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue bridge spanning the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota (in solidarity with people in Yugoslavia who were standing on their bridges), that continues to this day.   WAMM chose to continue the vigil after the end of the Yugoslav war with a focus on opposing the sanctions on Iraq, which were responsible for the death of 3,500-5000 Iraqi children a month, and later the wars on and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Over these many years, vigilers have frequently raised their voices relative to a number of issues:  threats of war against Iran, North Korea, Libya, Mali, and Syria; torture; attacks on civil liberties; the use of drones and other weapons of war; and U.S. support for the occupation of Palestine, always calling on our government to fund human needs, not war. The bridge vigil drew very large numbers of people leading up the Second Gulf War on Iraq in 2003 and was an inspiration to many who started vigils in their own communities across the state of Minnesota and as far away as Sacramento, California.

Following the bombing of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001, WAMM joined with coalition partners in a news conference calling for the “force of law; not the law of force” and three weeks thereafter to protest the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.  In 2002/2003, leading up to the Iraq war, they helped organize large demonstrations, protests and rallies that drew thousands of people.  The world-wide response to the impending war on Iraq was so large that it led a New York Times correspondent to write that “there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion.”  Prior to the war on Iraq, WAMM designed and sold more than twelve thousand lawn signs that read “No War on Iraq; Call your Congressperson, and from 1999 – 2012, sponsored 13 Annual Candlelight Services for Child Victims of War. 

WAMM also organized numerous fasts, educational events, visits to the offices of congressional leaders, annual speaking tours for peace activists Sami Rasouli and Kathy Kelly, and hosted a variety of national and international speakers who spoke about sanctions, U.S. foreign policy, conscientious objection, the U.S. weapons industry, the arms trade, Palestine/Israel, and other topics related to military madness.  A second weekly vigil focused on the plight of the Palestinians was started in St. Paul by the WAMM Middle East Committee.

In this decade, as the U.S. has expanded its attempts to police the world, WAMM has spoken out against the U.S. wars on Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen, and has educated its members about other covert wars that the U.S. is waging in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The End War and Drone committees continue to call attention to the U.S. involvement in the production, sale and use of the weapons of war, including drones, the new weapons of choice, and new tactical nuclear weapons.  The Second Monday Movie Committee shows monthly movies on relevant topics and the WAMM Newsletter continues to be an excellent source of information for WAMM members and others in the community.  WAMM members have joined with Black Lives Matter, Minnesotans Against Islamophobia, the protests at Standing Rock in North Dakota, striking nurses, immigrants, the $15 an hour minimum wage movement, and others seeking justice.  They have highlighted the connections between the U.S. war machine and climate change and the ongoing danger of nuclear weapons, the only weapons of mass destruction which have not been banned by the international community.

And much more!

During the Covid pandemic WAMM had to transition to protesting using car caravans and having committee meetings on Zoom.  WAMM was a part of the upsurge for Black lives in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd.  In the fall of October 2023 the movement for Palestine exploded nationally.  WAMM has had a weekly protest for Palestine on the corner of Summit and Snelling in St. Paul for over 20 years and it became a place where people took their outrage about the genocide they saw streaming on their phones!  WAMM participated with the Free Palestine Coalition to organize protests of thousands of people and launched their own campaigns focusing on getting the city of St. Paul to divest from companies profiting from Israel's genocide - including Waterfall Securities and Skydio drones.