Do You Know What Time It Is? Updates from the Disarm Committee

WILPF members Roberta Ahlquist and Cherrill Spencer plus other pro-Palestine activists with banner they showed to President Biden’s motorcade when he visited the San Francisco Bay Area on February 22, 2024; Credit: Cherrill Spencer

By Cherrill Spencer and Dianne Blais
Disarm Issue Committee

March 2024

• The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has announced that the Doomsday Clock remains at 90 seconds to midnight, “due to ominous trends that continue to point the world toward global catastrophe.”
• WILPF members are hitting the streets and phones to call for a Ceasefire in Gaza, NOW!  
• January 22, 2024 was the third anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).  An impressive new book by Timmon Wallis, “Warheads to Windmills: Preventing Climate Catastrophe and Nuclear War”, is now available to share facts and ideas.  
• It’s time to hold a watch party for the Oscar awards ceremony on March 10th and inform your friends and relatives that the danger from nuclear weapons did not stop in the 1960s as one might suppose from the end of the Oppenheimer film.

Do You Know What Time It Is?

On January 23, 2024, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that the setting for the Doomsday Clock will remain at 90 seconds to midnight, “due to ominous trends that continue to point the world toward global catastrophe.”

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic graphic that warns the public about how close we are to destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making. It is a metaphor, a reminder of the perils we must address if we are to survive on the planet - nuclear risks, climate change, disruptive technologies, and biosecurity.  

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

January 22, 2024 was the third anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Every year on this date, WILPF members are asked to do as many suggested actions as possible, every day of the year!  Here were some ideas provided by the Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative.

The Warheads to Windmills Campaign urges us all to support Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s HR-2775, this session’s number for the “Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Conversion Act.” which supports the TPNW, and diverting funds from weapons production to producing carbon-free, nuclear-free energy, environmental restoration, and other human needs.  The campaign has been successful at signing up organizational endorsers.

WILPFUS has been promoting Ms Norton’s bill in every session since she introduced it in 2004.  Please sign our online petition to the President (who could sign the TPNW today and thus start the process of disarming the US of its approximately 5000 nuclear weapons). Also, do phone your US Representative at the Congressional Hotline: 202-224-3121 and ask them to co-sponsor HR-2775 TODAY!  

Warheads to Windmills

An impressive new book by Timmon Wallis, “Warheads to Windmills: Preventing Climate Catastrophe and Nuclear War”, is now available.  He spoke about his book with David Swanson of World Beyond War,

“To survive the climate crisis, we need money, brainpower and infrastructure for the most effective climate solutions,” Timmon wrote in the description. “Those resources are currently being squandered by the nuclear weapons industry. We'll also need the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters to stop pointing nuclear missiles at each other and start building unprecedented global cooperation. Can we ‘feed two birds with one scone’ by converting assets from nuclear weapons of mass extinction to evidence-based climate solutions?

“This book is a tool kit for campaigners on both issues to work together on treaties, divestment, boycotts, lobbying, legislation, education, conversion and more. It debunks myths, frauds, and distractions,” the description continues. “It's full of well-documented facts and figures, tools and strategies, personal and political inspiration for swift, decisive action.”

Dianne Blais and Katherine Flaherty at the January 13 rally in Washington DC; Credit: Dianne Blais]

Timmon is touring the country, speaking in bookstores and other venues. If you would like to invite Timmon to speak to your branch, or can help set up an event at a local bookstore, please contact anduin@nuclearban.us

Gaza Actions

DISARM members have been involved in many Gaza actions since October 7, 2023. Cherrill Spencer and other Palo Alto, CA WILPF members showed their End the Genocide and Ceasefire NOW signs to President Biden as he was driven to and from a nearby fundraising event on February 22. 

Above is a photo of two WILPFers at the January 13 event in Washington, DC. Bread and Puppet (one of the oldest nonprofit political theater companies in the country) brought birds and "Ceasefire Now" banners from Vermont to DC. You can see some of their white puppets in the background.

Oscar Watch on March 10

As you know, we have been using the “Oppenheimer” film to highlight the awfulness of nuclear weapons. Now the film has been nominated for 13 Oscars. We can use the Oscar awards ceremony on TV to inform our friends and relatives about the ongoing horrific effects of nuclear weapons. Please arrange a "watch the Oscars" party in your home for your friends and family and tell them about the whole nuclear enterprise and why WILPF is against it. Use this trifold brochure and this list of actions to support the TPNW at your watch party.  The Oscar awards ceremony is on ABC on Sunday, March 10 starting at 4pm PDT. The 13 nominations the film has received means it could win an Oscar at any moment during the 2–3-hour ceremony.

Please JOIN WILPF SMART on Facebook and share YOUR photos and ideas! 

And check out the Disarm Committee! Disarm Meetings are held the 2nd and last Sundays at 4:30 pm PT, 6:30 CT, 7:30 pm ET. Attending meetings are members throughout the US doing amazing work to make this a more peaceful world. 

Two are:

• Hideko Tamura Snider, celebrating her 90th birthday and the release of her updated book One Sunny Day about her experience of the Hiroshima bomb, usually attends.
• Ellen Thomas, who spent 18 years in front of the White House, educating visitors about the dangers of nuclear war, is a co-chair of the committee.

Come to the meetings and hear about our 11 campaigns, and tell us about yours.  Write disarmchair@wilpfus.org and check out this link for more info.