The United Nations First Committee just voted on a fourth resolution regarding the effects of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing Depleted Uranium (DU). The text reiterates the U.N. Environment Program's repeated request for a precautionary approach to these weapons and 138 countries supported the vote on November 5. The United States, a producer and user of these weapons, together with the United Kingdom, France, and Israel, were the only four to vote against. They also sought to block similar resolutions in 2007, 2008, and 2010. The U.N. General Assembly makes a final vote this December. We need to hear your voice. Sign the petition now!
NEWS
Post date: Sun, 11/04/2012 - 18:43
Response to the Report of Main Committee III: Chairman’s Draft on Substantive Elements
May 20, 2010
The NGO Abolition Caucus of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference 2010 is generally opposed to the findings of the Report of Main Committee III: Chairman’s Draft on Substantive Elements released on Friday, 14 May 2010. In particular, the Caucus finds there is no evidentiary basis to support the Chair’s assertion in paragraph 6 that nuclear power contributes “in an important way to meet energy needs, improve health, combat poverty, protect the environment… thus helping to achieve the Millenium Development Goals…” The Chair's draft does not acknowledge that there is disagreement among states parties on the characterization of nuclear energy as sustainable and safe.
Indeed, numerous independent studies indicate that dollar for dollar nuclear power for electricity production is one of the most expensive ways to meet energy needs, when lifecycle costs are compared to solar, wind, geothermal, appropriate hydropower and biomass, as well as efficiency measures. This is also true for reducing carbon emissions as expensive nuclear power would actually exacerbate catastrophic climate change since there is less carbon emission prevented per dollar spent on costly nuclear technology compared to applying those funds to clean energy sources and efficiency.
Further, countless studies, including recent reports from Germany in three communities with nuclear reactors, indicate that there are higher incidences of cancer, leukemia and birth defects in communities with toxic nuclear power plants that pollute the air, water, and soil in the course of routine operations. A recent report from the New York Academy of Sciences, by distinguished Russian scientists, finds that the deaths from the disastrous accident at Chernobyl now number over 900,000. NGOs also draw attention to the devastating impact of uranium mining on the health and welfare of surrounding communities.
The Abolition Caucus also objects to the Report’s ostensible recognition of “the safety and security issues associated with nuclear energy as well as the need to resolve the issue of managing radioactive waste in a sustainable manner…recognizing the continuing international efforts to address those issues” while failing to acknowledge that the radioactive byproducts of nuclear power will remain toxic for 250,000 years. There is no known solution to safely store this lethal brew for the eons it would threaten human health and the environment.
Finally, while a great deal of emphasis is placed in the Report on handling radioactive materials produced by nuclear energy safely and responsibly, including contemplated transport of those materials from all four corners of the earth over land and sea, there is no assurance that accidents or theft with disastrous consequences can be prevented. Nor will the “peaceful” use of nuclear technology contribute to world peace, when so many more countries will have their hands on the where-with-all and know-how with which to make a nuclear bomb.
We urge the parties to support universal participation in the International Renewable Energy Agency, providing a truly “inalienable right” to energy from the sun, wind, and tides, a right to which no nation can be denied, and to initiate a phase out of nuclear power for the health of the planet and future generations.
Post date: Sun, 11/04/2012 - 18:38
Post date: Sun, 11/04/2012 - 17:44
Sign the UFPJ petition NOW supporting WMD Free Zone in the Middle East. WILPF DISARM helped design this one based on our own WILPF Iran statement.
Sunday November 11: Ring bells to end wars
Midnight, November 13-14: Stop another nuclear missile test at Vandenberg AFB. Follow MacGregor Eddy’s blog for WILPF actions and victories at Vandenberg Air Force Base. After seven lonely years of work many other wonderful folk and organizations are now joining us and the Catholic Worker there!
November 25 to December 10: Let’s End Wars and Gender Violence. Join WILPF Peace Women, and women’s organizations throughout the world to end domestic violence in our homes and the violence of war.
All month follow WILPF Reaching Critical Will First Committee Monitor as the UN General Assembly sets the disarmament agenda for 2013, including nuclear weapons abolition, space demilitarization, the arms trade, and depleted uranium. Read about our own special concerns like Depleted Uranium (p. 11) and the Middle East Nuclear Free Zone (p. 22). Learn about the First Committee here.
All month join our campaign to stop drones and robotic warfare. Contact mvc@igc.org the campaign coordinator to learn about WILPF Branch death marches and participation in monthly actions at Beale Air Force Base. In WILPF civil disobedience is a personal option chosen by some and a matter of individual conscience.
And PARTICIPATE IN ONE or more of our informal working groups as DISARM-END WARS moves into 2013. What better way to spend some hours of our lives than in building a better world for our children, grand children and generations to come?
WILPF members are welcome to participate in any of the DISARM/End Wars working groups. CONTACT DISARM/End War carol.disarm@gmail.com or et@prop1.org for more information.
DISARM/End Wars aims to:
I. ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS by 2020
II. SHUT DOWN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS and the whole nuclear chain
III. KEEP SPACE FOR PEACE – end space militarization and prevent cyberwarfare and robotic warfare
IV. END WARS and prevent new U.S.wars and occupations
V. DISMANTLE THE WAR ECONOMY
Post date: Sun, 11/04/2012 - 17:40
Endorse WILPF's Statement on Iran here.
We in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section (WILPF US) are dismayed by current drumbeats for war and calls for increased sanctions on Iran. This is reminiscent of build up to the Shock and Awe invasion of Iraq in 2003. Fear of nuclear weapons development is again given as the rationale. This time there are major differences and alternatives that could move us toward the global abolition of nuclear weapons. The way will not be easy but is infinitely preferable to the dangerous war that will inevitably be the result of current policies. It is time to lift the sanctions and to stop the war talk. We need to open the way to future peace and stability in the Middle East. We urge women and men committed to a world of peace, human rights and security for all to participate significantly in coming negotiations.
The Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone (WMD FZ) is a positive alternative to war and military actions for which United Nations (UN) member states have been working through the UN since 1980. At the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference all 187 nations party to that treaty, including the United States, agreed unanimously to hold a high-level conference among the Middle Eastern states to establish a WMD Free Zone. This year, for the first time, it is possible to begin the negotiations on the proposed WMD Free Zone treaty. Helsinki was chosen as the site for this high-level conference (the “2012 Helsinki Conference”) in which all Middle Eastern States are invited to participate. The goal is to ban nuclear, chemical and biological weapons use, production, stationing, stockpiling or transport in the Middle East.
Read the full statement here (PDF).
Endorse WILPF's Statement on Iran here.
Post date: Sun, 11/04/2012 - 17:23
On December 10, 2012, Human Rights Day, the World March of Women (WMW) has called for women around the world to organize a 1-hour action from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. (your local time) highlighting the values of equality, justice, freedom, solidarity and peace and showing our resistance against militarization. These values are reflected in the WMW’s Global Charter for Humanity as a vision of the type of world women want. Because of our common values, WILPF and the Cuba and Bolivarian Alliance Issue Committee have been part of the WMW network that is composed of hundreds of feminist organizations in five different continents including the U.S.
Begin organizing a one hour action of your choice to join this international action. Women around the world are counting on our solidarity! For more information and to publicize your action, please contact Cindy at cindydomingo@gmail.com.
24 hours of Feminist Action across the World
Background:
During the 8th International Meeting held in the Philippines in November 2011, WMW delegates from all five continents met to assess our 2010 Third International Action and to debate how we see the WMW as a movement to be reckoned with for the year 2015, and our challenges, strategies and concrete actions for the 2012 – 2013 period.
For 2015, we envisage ourselves as a strong, permanent, feminist, anti-capitalist movement that is present in many more countries, that builds an internationalism rooted in local struggles and puts an end to the isolation of communities who directly suffer the impacts of militarisation and the advance of capital into all areas of life. A movement that acts in alliance with other mixed movements, which, in turn, commit themselves to fighting patriarchy both in their practices and discourse. A movement capable of building specific alliances with other women’s organisations, while constantly reaffirming our political positions. A movement that, by strengthening international solidarity, strengthens local struggles. We want a WMW in which all women feel represented by the feminism that we are building; where there is a greater presence of young, rural, indigenous and migrant women; and that represents all women suffering from oppression. A movement with greater autonomy and self-sufficiency in financial terms, with clear international demands, capable of expressing the struggles of all peoples. A movement that allows us to transcend victories: to go from temporary autonomous zones to permanent autonomous zones.
Building the “24 Hours of Feminist Action across the World” is key in our strategy to achieve this vision.
Some guidelines:
On the 17th October 2005 we performed actions from midday until 1 pm in each consecutive meridian, in a 24-hour vigil of Feminist Solidarity, thus showing our support for the Women's Global Charter for Humanity and its values. The "wave" began in the Pacific Islands (New Caledonia, Samoa and others) and continued throughout Asia, Middle East, Africa, simultaneously in various countries of Europe and then in the Americas.
The proposal presented at the 8th International Meeting is to repeat this action and experience. National Coordinating Bodies (NCBs) are free to organise any action to be inserted as part of that journey.
Date: 10th December 2012.
Time: Each country organises a 1-hour action from midday to 1 pm (local time)
The contents:
As our priority, we would like to highlight the five values of our Women’s Global Charter for Humanity: equality, justice, freedom, solidarity and peace, linking it up with the four WMW Action Areas.
We invite the NCBs to freely organise their activities, but expressing our views on the current socio-political-economic context: capitalism in crisis reinforcing patriarchy with increasing conservatism, militarization and land-grabbing, wrapped up in the logic of expanding market boundaries.
Some countries and regions have already started the debate around priorities for the 24 hours. Europe wants to emphasize the right to abortion and public health, while Oceania, environmental issues. A special focus on our resistance against militarization and criminalization of social struggles can link these different themes and strengthen our common action. Paraphrasing the Filipino poet Joi Barrios: being a woman is like living in a constant war.
Actions may express our alternatives: feminism as a project / process of transformation, WMW Action Areas, WMW demands within regions and countries (for example, the European campaign on the impact of crises on women’s lives), and women’s resistances within territories.
Declarations:
The IC and IS will write and disseminate a short international declaration that contextualises our struggles at the international level, and expresses our political analysis and demands. We would like this declaration to be written in more poetic language.
The international declaration can be translated into regional declarations that will focus on specific struggles, resistances and alternatives.
A symbol:
We need to have a strong symbol (such the solidarity quilt in 2005), that permits us to link local realities into a global action. One idea is to create a blog linked to the WMW website in which NCBs can post a photo just after their event, with the aim of ‘completing’ the planet/globe by the end of the day, building a kind of online “solidarity and feminist quilt”.
Another idea is to create ‘human’ messages, with many women in a line (each one holding a letter to spell out words and sentences)... NCBs can then take pictures of these messages and send them to other NCBs in their region or in the world.
We ask NCBs and Participating Groups to discuss and send further ideas on how we can symbolically express this action to the IS and their regional IC members.
Mobilisation target:
In 2005, 35 countries participated in the 24 Hours of Feminist Solidarity, and in our 8th International Meeting 35 countries also participated. We therefore believe that organising the 2012 24 Hours of Feminist Action in 35 countries is a feasible goal, but we will challenge ourselves to go beyond this number.
Information recording:
We will send guidelines before the actions, explaining to NCBs what kind of information we need to receive, what kind of images, etc. This will make it easier for us at the IS and the IC to systematise reports on the action – before, during and after it.
Another idea is to organise ‘live-streaming’ of the 24 Hours of Feminist Action, with live coverage of actions via the internet. We are looking into how to put this idea into practice.
Post date: Sun, 11/04/2012 - 17:09
We have a beautiful
mother
Her green lap
immense
Her Brown embrace
eternal
Her blue body
everything we know.
(Alice Walker)
In late September, four California members of the Earth Democracy Leadership Team – Jean Hays, Fresno; Randa Solick and Mathilda Rand, Santa Cruz; and Nancy Price, Davis – attended the first “Women’s Congress for Future Generations” in Moab, Utah. This gathering of women, with some men attending as invited “witnesses,” was co-sponsored by Peaceful Uprising and the Science and Environmental Health Network. The purpose of this Congress was to recognize “our gratitude for the Earth’s wondrous bounty, to fulfill the special responsibility that women hold as the first environment for future generations,” and to seriously consider how to protect and preserve the earth and all living beings for future generations as presented in the “Declaration of the Rights Held by Future Generatoins and Bill of Responsibilities for Present Generations.
It was an inspiring opportunity in the beautiful surroundings of Arches National Monument and Canyonlands to begin the collaborative discussion on protecting the rights of both present and Future Generations—the subject of Earth Democracy’s subcommittee on the Rights of Nature/Guardianship of the Commons. It provided the opportunity for the four of us, who brought Carolyn Raffensperger to California last spring to speak, to deepen our understanding of the issues and strengthen our commitment to join the collaborative effort in WILPF and with other organizations in the conversation on how to realize the goal of protecting present and future generations. You may read about the schedule of events here and listen to an audio of the proceedings here.
On the final day of the Congress, a draft “Declaration” was discussed with many edits proposed within the somewhat limited time available. A recent communication from Congress organizers describes the next stage as a collaborative effort to create a “living, breathing document that will evolve over time as we add new input and new voices” recognizing that the Congress was but one conversation in a continuum—one that we wish to deepen through word, art and action. Women have long cast their concern forward. Conversations about Future Generations preceded this Congress. And there are important conversations going on in parallel. We hope to begin the process of mapping and knitting together this wisdom, and in the future, harnessing crowdsource technology to connect, to continue these conversations, and to amend and ratify a living Declaration of the Rights of Future Generations.” Until the blog site for the collective editing process is announced, please read the current “Living Draft: Declaration of the Rights Held by Future Generations and Bill of Responsibilities for Present Generations" and use it in your work.
This Spring 2013, Earth Democracy plans to engage with California Branches and Clusters in a program on the Precautionary Principle, as a tool for protecting the local commons of nature and public health, and on the concept of guardianship and the rights of future generations and responsibilities for present generations. Look for a formal announcement of the spring CA Earth Democracy tour and program in December eNews.
And, don’t forget to join the Earth Democracy list serve. If you wish to join in the work of one of the Earth Democracy subcommittees: Right of Nature/Guardianship of the Commons; Food Democracy/Local Economy; Global Warming/Renewable Energy; and Human Right to Water and Health, please email Leadership Team members at teamearthdem@wilpfus.org. We are looking for those of you with a passion for any one of these subjects to contact the Leadership Team and volunteer to be a subcommittee co-chair or a member of one of the sub-committees. We need you help to lift up the work of these committees and welcome all your creative contributions from organizing, research and writing to art, rap, slam poetry, songs and more. Please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Image credit: By artist Ann Altman from Silverton, Oregon, www.annaltman.com
Post date: Sun, 11/04/2012 - 17:06
Post date: Thu, 10/25/2012 - 17:37
Remember the Kellogg-Briand Treaty?
On this Armistice Day, November 11, 2012, celebrating the end of World War I, we invite you to join Veterans for Peace and other organizations, endorsed by WILPF Disarm/End Wars Committee, in an action to call for the end of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to stop the potential war in Iran, by tolling bells on November 11, whether they be church or town hall or hand-held, in as public a place as you can find. While calling for our troops and arms to come home, we should remind people that the U.S. signed a non-aggression treaty 84 years ago.
At the end of World War I, most Americans rejected war as a way of solving problems via the Kellogg-Briand Pact. U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand drafted a treaty in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them." Parties failing to abide by this promise "should be denied the benefits furnished by this treaty." It was signed by Germany, France, and the United States on August 27, 1928. Soon thereafter, it was signed by Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, British India, the Irish Free State, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. 39 other nations deposited instruments of definitive adherence to the pact by the time it went into effect in 1929.
The US Senate voted 85-1 to ratify.
Legitimate self-defense was allowed, but no wars of aggression, and nations should settle their disputes without war.
Although it hasn't always been respected, the treaty has never been rescinded. It's still there, in force, just nobody pays attention to it.
If you want to leaflet, you can use information from Wikipedia or from Veterans for Peace.
Let's reclaim November 11 for PEACE and put an end to war! Our government has renamed November 11 Veteran's Day, and made it another day celebrating the military and militarism. The U.S. failure to join the rest of the world in supporting the League of Nations helped sweep the Kellogg Briand Pact under the rug. But now, despite frequent U.S. resistance, we have a United Nations, the World Court, the World Criminal Court and a strong network of international laws including Kellogg Briand. Help End Wars Now!
Let us know what creative ideas you have ahead of time, and send us pictures and reports afterwards.
Image credit: Alotor via Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License
