It's an exciting time for all of us who want to END THE WHOLE NUCLEAR ERA!

Published on November, 00 2017

Credit: Roots Action Network

By DISARM-End Wars Issues Committee by Co-Chair Ellen Thomas

Because of recent concerns about North Korea; Fukushima; nuclear facilities in the paths of hurricanes, tornados and fires; and the hazards of transporting radioactive waste, Americans have nuclear weapons AND nuclear power on their minds much more than before.

NEW! Contact Your Representatives In The US House of Representatives

As you know, WILPF-US has actively been supporting legislation in the US House of Representatives that DC’s Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has introduced in each Congressional term for the past two decades.  The bill, the NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION AND ECONOMIC AND ENERGY CONVERSION ACT, deals with both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. 

The newest version of the bill, HR 3853,  was introduced in September 2017 and we are again actively supporting it.  This bill addresses both industries we are focusing on in our “END THE WHOLE NUCLEAR ERA” campaign, launched last January at the Women’s March in DC and around the USA.

HR 3853 is the ONLY legislation in Congress that calls for complete, global abolition of nuclear weapons. It suggests how this can be accomplished - earmarking the money currently used for nuclear weapons to re-tool the weapons industries and retraining the workers to do something useful for society, like developing carbon-free and nuclear-free energy, environmental restoration, health care, education, and other human needs. Representatives Jan Schakowsky, Raul Grijalva, John Lewis, and Lacy Clay have said they will sign on to the new legislation this year. 

We need to contact everyone in positions of power about this new bill, HR 3853!

  1. Use the handy Roots Action letter that has been set up to make it easy to contact your Representative. Here is also a quick link that you can type into your internet browser and/or copy and share in emails to friends, colleagues, community:
    bit.ly/RootsAction4NortonBill
  2. Ask your Senators to introduce similar legislation in the Senate.

Exciting Updates on our WILPF-US Petition to Urge the POTUS and US Senate to Support (ratify) the UN Nuclear Ban Treaty

The first day the UN Nuclear Ban Treaty (“Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons”) was open for signing on September 20, 2017.  50 Member States signed their intent to follow-through on the ratification process and 3 Member States signed their ratifications of the Treaty!

Our USA process for ratification of a UN treaty requires the POTUS to sign after the US Senate gives its consent and that is what our petition asks them to do. Right now, they are scoffing at the ban treaty and its process. 

Our online and paper petitions have several thousand signatures so far! 

As of October 31, 2017, 1,555 signatures have been mailed in from the paper petition by WILPF members in California (591), Iowa (116), Massachusetts (55), Maine (16), Missouri (42), North Carolina (34), New York (6), South Carolina (22), Tennessee (98), Vermont (274), Washington (12), Wisconsin (158); from the Democracy Convention in Minneapolis (32) and from the World Beyond War Conference in the District of Columbia (99).

Help us get more signatures!

  1. Use our great online Action Network Petition HERE to the POTUS and Senate Members.
    Here is also a quick link that you can type into your internet browser and/or copy and share in emails to friends, colleagues, community: bit.ly/wilpfus-bantreatypetition
  2. Go HERE to obtain a paper copy of the WILPF-US Petition to the POTUS and US Senate Members and circulate it in paper form.  Then, follow the instructions for submitting copies of the completed petition pages to DISARM-End Wars issues committee co-chair Ellen Thomas at et@prop1.org
  3. Print out and circulate copies of the paper ban treaty petition at events and return them to the address at the bottom of each page.  You can also use the QR code at the bottom of that petition to sign and share the online petition

Links to both versions of these petitions can also be found at the top of the Proposition One Campaign website, which brought Voter Initiative 37 to Washington DC voters in 1993 (it passed!) and led to the introduction of Eleanor Holmes Norton's bill the first time in 1994.

For more information, contact Ellen Thomas at et@prop1.org.

 

 

 

Alert/Update Category: 
Updates