Disarm/End Wars August report

Map illustrating the next Nuclear Free Future tour.

Submitted by Carol Urner and Ellen Thomas, Co-Chairs of Disarm/End Wars

We’ve begun planning for the next Nuclear Free Future tour, and have received a $2,500 mini grant. We have invitations now from WILPF branches in Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Des Moines, and St. Louis, and from Physicians for Social Responsibility in Kansas City. (See map above.) We would appreciate more invitations and places to stay along the route, people to meet with, and representatives’ offices to visit with constituents. Carol is not able to come this time, so we want others to help. It’s a wonderful way to express your support for nuclear disarmament. Ellen invites people from the branches to join her for parts of the tour, especially those working on nuclear issues: contact her at et@prop1.org.

Members of the Disarm/End Wars Committee were very busy with Hiroshima/Nagasaki days in August, and many of our branches were involved. We haven’t collected all the reports yet, but very large events were organized by Marylia Kelley and Jackie Cabasso with East Bay and San Francisco Branches involved at Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Labs and Lockheed Martin, which is a leader in the corporate support of nuclear power, weapons, and policies, making a lot of money. A number of reports of the Hiroshima events have been posted on the WILPF-US Facebook page.

In Portland, the Branch shared the US Conference of Mayors’ Resolution, which Jackie Cabasso helped to write. All cities over 30,000 people are members of this organization, and since 1994 there’s been an annual strong resolution for abolition of nuclear weapons. This year’s is a very powerful statement. The only weakness is it doesn’t mention the ban treaty, which is the most exciting thing in the UN right now. But they mentioned it last year. The mayors passed it unanimously. In Portland, OR, the mayor issued an excellent proclamation on the US Mayors’ Resolution, urging all Portland citizens to honor Hiroshima/Nagasaki Day and support nuclear weapons abolition.

The mayors need help in making their communities aware. We need to remember our mayors are our best friends, and we must make it possible for them to speak out. They do these wonderful resolutions each year but most of the mayors are afraid to speak of them in their communities because of the domination of military industries.

We also received a grant from JAPA to bring our international president to the World Beyond War conference in Washington, D.C., September 23 to 26, and we encourage all branches to get representatives there. It’s a wonderful opportunity to build an End War effort and to work on all of our issues.

JAPA also gave us an additional $3,000 for our ongoing projects, so we will have some welcome funds for WILPF work on banning militarized drones, for shutting down nuclear power plants, and for the work Charmaine Whiteface and about six of our committee members are doing to support a moratorium on uranium mining. We also received a grant for our annual mailing on Keep Space for Peace Week. We are now preparing the packets with posters and other information for Branch contacts and for our committee. International WILPF has co-sponsored this week for a dozen years, through Reaching Critical Will. This year communications failed, so WILPF is not listed on the poster, but we expect it to be again next year.

We also encourage our members to submit their own disarmament projects to JAPA. Branches should also feel free to do so.

We need to put more emphasis on common projects we can all support at the same time. We already have some that many of our Branches support every year, such as Hiroshima/Nagasaki week, Keep Space for Peace, and Tax Day. We just have to communicate and share resources more efficiently. A top example is Human Rights Day on December 10, and another is International Women’s Day in March. Some Branches also celebrate women’s suffrage day in August: Portland has had some great events on this day in past years.

In Disarmament, we know that at least a couple dozen Branches are already involved in Hiroshima/Nagasaki events urging nuclear weapons abolition. And for the past three years, we have had a tremendous increase in support and resources because Branches in other nations are now supporting us in the new GDAMS Movement. This is a Global Day of Action on Military Spending, with creative actions worldwide. It deliberately coincides with U.S. tax day, because it is our military expenditure, military sales, and military adventures that are making progress toward sustainable peace impossible. We think it is tremendously important that we cooperate fully with this GDAMS movement, and they offer terrific resources for us to use.

There are other dates we would like to see developed, like September 26, the new UN day for complete elimination of nuclear weapons.