Let’s Pressure the Profiteers and WILPF Branches Commemorate Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings

Members of WILPF TUCSON, Veterans For Peace, The Tucson Peace Center & Tucson Raging Grannies demonstrate at the entrance to the Air Force Base called Davis Monthan in Tucson, AZ on 6^th August 2024; Credit: Debi Livingston, used with permission.
 

By Cherrill Spencer and Ellen Thomas
Co-chairs of DISARM/End Wars Issue Committee

September 2024

Please pressure the profiteers from September 16–29

A small number of very large companies profit from fossil fuels and nuclear weapons and spend millions on lobbying, elections and propaganda to maintain their control over Congress and the White House. But these companies – and their investors – also care about their public image and their reputations. Boycotts, divestment and shaming are very effective tools we can use to pressure the profiteers. It’s been done before and we can do it again!

Help us target seven of the top nuclear weapons companies and seven of the top fossil fuel companies during these two weeks: one per day.

The Warheads to Windmills website has all the details of which company to protest against on which day and where to find their offices in your home state. For example, General Dynamics has 183 facilities spread over most states and we will focus our actions against them on Wednesday September 18^th. The interactive map also shows where actions have been planned. You can post YOUR action to their calendar here.

Here is the map with names of fossil fuel companies we want you to target from September 23-29. How about pestering the CEO of Koch Industries on the 28^th of September? This website has sample letters to write to these SEVEN companies’ CEOs!  Even if there is not a facility near you, you can sit at home and write to these CEOs.  

This action against nuclear weapons companies overlaps with the ICAN Week of Action September 16-23 — no money for nuclear weapons and get institutions to divest from nuclear weapons manufacturing companies. See this website to learn about the ICAN campaign.

Short Reports from Nine WILPF Branches who Held Events to Recall the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (listed alphabetically by branch area)

• Atlanta, Georgia: see link.
• Boston, Massachusetts: On August 4, 2024, Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment held their annual remembrance of the Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki co-sponsored by American Friends Service Committee and Mass Peace Action. Eileen Kurkoski and Virginia Pratt were in attendance to represent the Boston WILPF Branch. The event is both a memorial remembrance of the horrible nuclear attack and bombing as well as a call to action to prevent any future nuclear attack. This year the event was indoors due to thunderstorms. Kevin Maher, the Executive Director for the Cambridge center of the Soka Gakkai International - US Buddhist Community, was the keynote speaker. He talked about how their founder was personally impacted by the bombing, and his lifelong dedication to making the world a more peaceful place where such a horrific act would never happen again. After his speech, participants in the audience shared individual inspiration for continued effort to promote a world without nuclear weapons.
• Burlington, Vermont: See this link and watch this video of their action.
• Fresno, California: WILPF Fresno was one of the co-sponsors of the two events taking place in early August commemorating the lives lost and victims of the two atomic bombings 79 years ago. We have prepared a statement supporting nuclear abolition to be passed out after each event.  It starts: “We teeter on a precipice no human has ever experienced before. It is a precipice of great evil. We say evil because with one detonation of one thermonuclear warhead, millions of lives will be gone. We say evil because with one warhead will come more warheads and billions of lives will be gone. We say evil because a general exchange of nuclear weapons would end most life on Earth.”
• Outside Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Livermore, California: The Annual Hiroshima Commemoration at Livermore Lab happened on August 6^th and was live streamed. It was attended by several WILPF members. Read this detailed article with photos and quotes from the many speakers.
• Monterey, California: At Lovers Point Beach Cove in Pacific Grove, CA on August 3^rd, the Monterey County branch of WILPF invited the public to gather for a peace-lantern floating ceremony to honor those who suffered and still suffer from the 1945 bombings by the United States on the people of Japan.
• Santa Cruz, California: DISARM Committee co-chair Cherrill Spencer, gave the keynote speech at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembrance event on August 4th, at the Clock Tower, in downtown Santa Cruz. Spencer’s main point was that commemoration is not enough and, as a start towards the necessary nuclear abolition, we must get rid of the ICBMs sitting in the middle of the US. Watch a video of her speech here.
• Tucson, Arizona: Members of WILPF TUCSON, Veterans For Peace, The Tucson Peace Center, Tucson Raging Grannies and some local churches demonstrated against nuclear weapons at the entrance to the “Davis Monthan” Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ on August 6^th, 2024. See photo above.
• Washington DC: This summer was the 43rd annual National Capital Area Hiroshima Nagasaki Commemoration, organized by DISARM co-chair Ellen Thomas, among others. They held a virtual online commemoration on August 5^th. One of the speakers was Oregon WILPF member Hideko Tamura, a survivor of Hiroshima. Her talk then and on other zoom calls can be seen on the WILPF YouTube channel.  

On August 8th, to remember Nagasaki, members of the WILPF DC, MD, VA Branch joined the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Region in Lafayette Park for the annual candlelight vigil beside the 43-year White House Antinuclear Vigil. This is where Ellen Thomas vigiled for the abolition of nuclear weapons and conversion of the war industries for 18 years.

Please Join Our Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee

WE WELCOME NEW MEMBERS to our committee. We meet by zoom on the second and last Sundays of each month at 4:30 pm PT/6:30 pm CT/7:30 pm ET. 

To find out the zoom link and to request to join the DISARM listserv, write to: disarmchair@wilpfus.org.