Session Recaps

 A CALL TO ACTION FOR A NUCLEAR-FREE FUTURE -                                                              Carol Urner and Ellen Thomas  (WILPF)

Octogenerian Carol Urner described a lifetime of peace work in America and overseas and her work in the last several decades on WILPF’s DISARM Issue Committee, with particular emphasis on Opposing Nuclear Weapons and Drones.
 Carol shared the podium with Ellen Thomas, herself a dedicated peace activist who protested outside the White House against nuclear weapons for 18 years.  Both women have been working through Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom and the United Nations NGO Reaching Critical Will for the dismantling of the nuclear weapons systems in America and around the world.  They reported that 177 countries have agreed to ban nuclear weapons, but the US is not one of them.  Recenty the US Mayors for Peace Association has taken up the Cause of Nuclear Weapons and is actively working to get a Treaty on the table for the White House. 

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has also submitted the latest version of legislation to move towards nuclear disarmament.  Her bill, 2012 HR 1650 needs support.  WILPF members and the public are asked to sign on to support this piece of legislation, and to help the US Mayors for Peace to promote Nuclear Disarmament by the year 2020.  Carol noted that there is a parallel effort among other countries, led by Iran, to ban nuclear weapons in the Middle East.  They discussed the horrific effects of nuclear weapons, including the depleted uranium tipped weapons the US has used in the Middle East since the first Iraq invasion in 1990.  And they talked also about efforts of the energy industry to keep promoting nuclear energy, and the efforts of opponents to shut down dirty radioactive nuclear plants around the US which are leaking toxic chemicals and radiation into the ground water and aquifers.

THE RIGHT RACE: AN INTERACTIVE EXERCISE EXPOSING WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CORPORATION IS A PERSON WITH CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.                                       Egberto Willies and Daniel Lee (Move To Amend)

This interactive exercise gets an audience or study group off their seats to experience first hand the obstacles to being heard in a society dominated by the 1%.  Participants lined up against a wall and were questioned about their own personal privileges and obstacles, using ‘step up’ and ‘step back’ directives for each.  It became clear how difficult it is for ordinary human persons to move forward and be heard in the arenas of power when so much power and money is aimed at keeping them back. 
 
COMMUNITY ACTION TOOLKIT FOR EARTH DEMOCRACY                                                  Randa Solick and Carolyn Raffensperger (WILPF)

The audience walked through the concept of the PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE and GUARDIANSHIP OF FUTURE GENERATIONS, using methods and documents that have been successful for community organizing around these principles in several cities across the US.  The rich array of animal and biological life have rights.  This effort is to get cities, states, communities to pass resolutions that insist on proper valuation of resources and living things before they are extracted from the earth or abused for profit… and that force development plans to take into consideration the welfare of future generations, providing protection and not passing along financial or earth ‘debt’ to those generations to come.   The tool kit is a valuable resource and is usually part of a 1.5 day learning conference/workshop that WILPF is pleased to travel to present to various communities and organizations. 

IN THE CROSSHAIRS:  HOW CORPORATIONS AND AUSTERITY ARE TRANSFORMING EDUCATION AND WORK IN AMERICA                                                                           William Watkins, Kimberly King, Todd Price and Ben Manski

This panel discussed the impact of our changing economy on the world of work and the world of education.  We are experiencing the transition from an industrialized to a digitized society… and the impact for most Americans has so far not been too good.  Amid the push to privatize everything in America, Education is being influenced by changes at the root of society.

In the past education has been dominated by a “School to Factory” mentality.  But with the world of work moving away from manufacturing and towards technology, with almost 50 million people unemployed (not always included in the government figures), Labor is changing and Education is changing.  Schools are being re-engineered to be consistent to the new labor market.  They are being codified and assisted in this by the No Child Left Behind legislation and the Race To The Bottom. 

In Chicago they’ve closed 51 public schools in the last year.  They will be back for more.  Once you close down 150 schools in a city, you’ve dismantled the local public education system, making it ripe for privatization. 

While tech companies only an to hire the top of the math and science classes, what does that mean for employment for the rest of us, as robotics replace many of the jobs that were once available?  A de-schooled society is one with systemic unemployment,  The only solution is to reorganize the ownership of production… socialize… even Communize the factories and corporations.  Vulture capitalists have already played their hand.  They have no more solutions for the poor and middle class.  Our only option is to play our hand.  We will have to reorganize society for our own survival.