Nuclear-Free Future tour

Text by Carol Urner,  Photos by Ellen Thomas, Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee

Nine WILPF Branches in California and three in Oregon participated in the Nuclear-Free Future learning and action program presented by Carol Urner and Ellen Thomas on behalf of the WILPF US Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee between January 21 and February 22.  Seven delegations have already visited local offices of their representatives in support of HR 1976 -- the only Congressional bill on abolishing nuclear weapons.  All branches began preparing for future face-to-face visits with their representatives. 

The tour was co-sponsored by Proposition One Campaign which had received a grant in memory of Jay Marx, who helped us so much in the past.   You can ask questions or invite Carol and Ellen to meet with your branch on any future tour by contacting Ellen Thomas et@prop1.org  Call or text 202-210-3886.

Carol Urner reports:

We were welcomed with enthusiasm and hospitality way beyond our expectations. We were invited to hold meetings and give presentations to members and friends from Los Angeles, Fresno, Santa Cruz, East Bay, San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto/Peninsula, Sacramento and Humboldt County WILPF branches.   Jackie Cabasso of Western States Legal Foundation (and WILPF) and Marylia Kelley of Tri-Valley CAREs (and Alliance for Nuclear Accountability) joined us in Oakland, where the room was packed with hard-core activists from around the Bay Area.

After Sacramento came Arcata and Eureka, for more meetings and a visit to The Golden Rule boat crew.

Carol visits with member of Golden Rule crew

In Oregon we had a productive meeting in Ashland, two meetings sponsored by the Corvallis Branch and almost an hour slot in the Portland Branch regular business meeting plus a purely social gathering.  We thought most of these meetings went well except two where we presented immediately after a long journey and were not in top form.  We also visited Washington State and gained one new branch in California.

We met individually with two members from the struggling San Diego Branch which sorely needs our care and support.  They arranged two Congressional visits with local staff for the four of us. Betty Traynor of San Francisco Branch and Joan Goddard of San Jose Branch arranged five such visits with WILPF constituents, including to Zoe Lofgren (in person), and local district office staff of Nancy Pelosi, Mike Honda, Anna Eshoo and Jackie Speier.

Constituents took the lead, and Ellen Thomas and I added background information on the bill and on the powerful new initiatives for abolition from 158 of the 193 UN members.  All who participated were great and we now watch for the needed follow-up.

In San Luis Obispo, we also met with one non-WILPF group in which a sole WILPFer, Liz Apfelberg, actively participates.  Mothers for Peace are doggedly pursuing the Department of Energy in the Federal courts in their effort to shut down Diablo Canyon, the last remaining nuclear power plant in California.  They all certainly deserve whatever support we can give. Their cause is our cause as well and we can learn much from their work.

And a visit to Ojai near Santa Barbara netted a whole new branch for WILPF!  Eleven new members are already registered, and I will be present for their launching and first formal meeting in early March. We hope to introduce them to all of you next month.

We also traveled to Washington State where we hoped to investigate possibilities for resurrecting the Seattle Branch or for starting a new one elsewhere. We made no real progress in that, but met some wonderful people with whom we can cooperate in promoting nuclear abolition and HR 1976. We learned much from Leonard Eiger, who arranged two visits for constituents and ourselves to visit Congressional aides of Representatives Suzan DelBene (Bothell) and Denny Heck (Tacoma). Leonard heads communications for Ground Zero, the watch dog outpost next to the Bangor submarine base just 20 miles west of Seattle. There the largest collection of nuclear warheads in the United States awaits doomsday in the nuclear submarines stationed there. We stayed two nights at Ground Zero and in the daytime explored the area with a local nonviolent activist who had many stories of courage and persistence to share.

Helen Jaccard upper left, with Veterans for Peace in Seattle

The last visit of our trip was with our committee member Helen Jaccard. She is now working for Veterans for Peace, arranging ports of call for the storied Golden Rule sailing ship which was built in the 1950s by Quakers determined to stop US nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands by sailing into the testing zone. It was sunk, however, in a Hawaii harbor before the journey could begin. Now, rebuilt by Veterans for Peace, it is sailing for nuclear weapons abolition. We attended a VFP meeting with Helen and presented HR 1976. We asked that it also be promoted as part of the journey. It is the only nuclear weapons abolition bill now in Congress, and outlines a program similar to what President Obama proposed in Prague.  It does not ask for unilateral disarmament but simply that the US Administration lead the global effort for nuclear weapons abolition rather than lead a new devastating nuclear arms race, as at present.

Now we rest, catch up, evaluate and learn from successes and failures on our first tour promoting HR 1976 as we prepare for similar travel on the East Coast in April. On the East Coast we intend to participate in Alliance for Nuclear Accountability DC Days http://www.ananuclear.org April 17-20, and we invite others of you to join us there. Please contact us about this and other details via Ellen Thomas et@prop1.org

in peace, Carol Urner  
cell: 503 320 9108

A World Without Nuclear Weapons – Community TV interview with Carol and Ellen in Santa Cruz – January 30, 2016

PHOTO (top of page): Carol Urner at Portland Branch meeting 2/13/16