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JULY-AUGUST 2008 DISARM UPDATE

Posted May 10th, 2008 by carol.disarm

JULY-AUGUST 2008 DISARM UPDATE
 
 
 

And read the July international WILPF Peace and Security Working Group newsletter with more news fromWILPF Sections on disarmament and human rights actions and concerns
 
Check back with DISARM UPDATE often. It is continually updating.
 
 
October 4 to 12, 2008
 
(this page is still under construction, but you can access and use the resources) 
 
AUGUST CALENDAR
 
(Also see July Calendar, below, with more program resources, information and ideas)

August 1 to 31: Nuclear Free Future Month. Continue to work for a nuclear free future the entire month of August.
August 4: Posters and event registration forms are now available for Keep Space for Peace Week, October 1 to 12. DISARM! expects to begin mailing materials to Branches in mid-August. We plan to take posters and letters to Congress in mid-September before adjournment for the year. Begin planning your own Branch events now. For extensive resources and background information download the Outer Space page on Reaching Critical Will. In WILPF we are convinced that we must develop space law to prevent space warfare. Three WILPF members (Ray Acheson, Reginal Hagen and Carol Urner) are already involved in a small international PAROS working group on Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space. Download PAROS working group page, and contact Carol Urner if you are interested in joining us.
August 4: The possible suicide of the latest suspect in the "anthrax case" is discussed at length in a Truth Out article by Bill Simpich. Bruce E. Ivins, latest FBI suspect, apparently committed suicide on Tuesday, July 29. Simpich includes many links to other articles. Will this lead to genuine resolution of this troubling case? Many have suspected Administration collusion because it was such a good excuse for the Patriot Act, barrricading Washington, and making access to Congress so much more difficult for ordinary citizens.

August 6: Hiroshima Day commemorations and actions throughout the U.S.A., in Japan and around the world. Resources from WILPF are available at HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI DAYS.

August 9: Nagasaki Day memorials and actions.
August 13: Launch of an ICBM with three dummy warheads from Vandenberg Air Force Base. This is one of a series of tests to ensure readiness of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal for Armageddon. WILPF DISARM and Global Network agreed to co-sponsor a vigilat Vandenberg. In the end only MacGregor Eddy, a nurse from Salinas, Sandee Scott a nurse from Pacific Grove and Sheila Baker from San Luis Obispo were there to witness the launch on schedule, shortly after 1 am.At 5:00 am they gathered again at theVandenberg gate to protest. They did not leave public proerty or cross the line, but nonethelesswere met by abouttwnety heavily armed soldiers who sought out and arrested WILPF member MacGregror Eddy. Read the story in the Santa MariaTimes. Also read MacGregor's own account of her arrest and her attempt to convey to thesoldiers that the launch was illegal.
August 14-17: Think Outside the Bomb conference for "under thirty-fives" in Boston Massachusetts. This is the second annual conference if this network of students and young professionals who are anti-nuclear activists. Ray Acheson of WILPF Reaching Critical Will and David Meieran, our Bite the Bullet web master, were enthusiastic participants last year. Travel stipends are available.
August 15: WILPF International Officers issue a statement on the current crisis in Georgia, calling for women's active participation inthe search for peaceful settlement of the dispute as mandated in UN Security Council Resolution 1325. They also call foran mmediate halt to arms transfers in the region and forboth Georgians and the Russians to clear unexploded weapons inthe area and to rebuild what they have destroyed.
August 15: Agreement is signed by Poland and USA to install ten missile defence interceptors on Poish soil. Russia protets and threatens possible military action against Poland.
And continue developing your plans for Keep Space for Peace Week October 4 to 12.
JULY CALENDAR
July 1: Diplomacy may be working with Iran! Iranian Foreign Minister signals possible acceptance of latest six-nation proposal to resolve the current crisis according to today's National Security newsletter from NTI.
July 1: Representative Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) says no chance for a U.S.-India nuclear power deal in 2008 according to the NTO Global Security Newswire.
July 1: Des Moines WILPF sends us a copy of the blog referred to by Fran Korten, founder of the magazine YES!, in her stirring key note speech at the Congress. Representative Gary Ackerman is also author of a bill calling for what amounts to a blockade on Iran -- which could be interpreted as an act of war. It already has 222 co-sponosrs! Our good friends Kucinich, Lee, Woolsey and Watson have not co-sponsored it, but many other progressives have done so! Our Congressional delegations are now on their July recess, and it is very important to contact them and urge House members to vote against H Con Res. 362 and Senators to reject S Res 580. Go to Library of Congress: Thomas enter the bill numbers as written here to see co-sponsors, text and other information.
July 2: Read the friendly column on our Iowa WILPF Congress in the DesMoine Register. Thanks to the wonderful work of the DesMoines Branch and the good spirit of members determined to work through our problems together and keep moving forward, many of us thought it the "best WILPF Congress ever!"
July 3: Sign the petition now to Stop Missile Defense Bases in the Czech Republic. WILPF DISARM is supporting this world-wide nonviolent effort which is an outgrowth of the April international Global Nework conference held in Omaha, home of the U.S. Strategic Command -- the most dangerous place on earth. Explore the Czech web site about this spreading non-violent movement. Go to the Global Network website to read about the world-wide fast to stop the U.S. base, rejected by 70% of the Czech people. Three members of our DISARM leadership team were among those participating in the fast.
July 4: Working for PAROS. a UN Treaty on Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space Read the WILPF fact sheet on PAROS and share it widely, including with your Congressional delegation. How better celebrate the 4th of July than working for PAROS and peace in outer space? Read our new PAROS Working Group page of resources and ways to Keep Space for Peace through space law. Thanks to Ray Acheson of WILPF Reaching Critical Will for organizing this! Read there how to join the international PAROS Working Group and list serve.
July 5: The United Nations Report on the UN World Space Week in 2007 is now available for purchase from the United Nations book stores. Over 50 reports of Keep Space for Peace events are included and many are from our own WILPF Branches in the United States as well as from WILPF events in Australia, Germany, Norway, WILPF in Geneva and in the UK. You can also download the report from the web, but do so only if you have a new computer that can handle a document with 400 megabytes. You will find it here at 2007 UN World Space Week.
July 7: Regina Birchem calls our attention to a petition to Barack Obama we can sign urging no war on Iran.
July 8: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Affairs Minister, Karel Schwarzenberg signed the hugely unpopular Star Wars radar deal this morning in Prague despite opposition of 70% of the Czech population and thousands of Europeans. But the struggle to stop this unwanted military base is not over yet. Keep checking the Czech Non-Violence web site of Jan Tamas and his friends for the latest updates. Those of us who joined the global fast on June 22 feel very close to this effort. (Thanks to Bruce Gagnon of Global Network.)
July 14: The Third Biennial Meeting of States on Small Arms began on Monday, 14 July at the United Nations in New York. The conference is reviewing the implementation of the UN Programme of Action that was adopted in 2001 to "combat, prevent, and eradicate" the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons (SALW). These weapons kill 1000 people and seriously injure an additional 3000 people per day. They gravely affect development, public health, economic, social, and political stability, and international, regional, national, and human security. Reaching Critical Will and the Arms Control Reporter are providing daily online coverage of this important conference and of side events. Please see below for an update from the first day of the conference and for information on how to follow the proceedings and how to take action. (Thanks to Ray Acheson at WILPF Reaching Critical Will.)
July 14: Read Reaching Critical Will General E-News Advisory chock full of important current disarmament news from WILPF! List of topics with in-depth links follows:
July 15: 43 nations, including Arab staes and Israel, join to work for a WMD Free zone in the Middle East! Prime Minister Olmert of Israel joins leaders of Arab and European nations in launching the Union for the Mediterranean. They agree to wor for abolition of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in the Region. Membership in the Unon includes Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and all member countries of the European Union. Libya at present has observer status. (Thank you, Ellen Thomas of NucNews and the WILPF DISARM! leadership team.).
July 16: Trinity Day - the day that the first atomic bomb was detonated over the pure white sands of Alamogordo. Let us work for theclosure of this time in history where the splitting of the atom and the creation of the ultimate weapon of destruction was given the name of God (as recognized by those who practice Christianity) by the "Father of the Bomb", Robert Oppenheimer. (Thanks, Shannyn, for reminding us all.) Continue with renewed energy with plans for Hiroshima-Nagasaki days and August Nuclear Free Future month.And take some time to refresh your knowledge and meditate on Trinity -- become the destroyer of worlds. (Thanks, Shannyn)
July 16: House votes 238 to 180 to send Kucinich's article of impeachment HR 1345 to the House Judiciary Committee for hearings. John Conyers, WILPF sponsor, is chair. And the issue is now bi-partisan with 9 Republicans voting YES and 10 abstaining Hearings should be on C-Span. Use WILPF legislative tookit to write to media and your Representative now! (Thanks Sue Gracey, Boston WILPF for the alert!)
July 17: U.S. to station diplomats in Iran for the first time since 1979, reports the British Guardian. Ambassador Burns will meet with Iranian diplomats in Switzerland on July 19. (Thanks again to Ellen Thomas and NukeNews.)
July 23: Truth Out publishes a hard hitting article on the official U.S. Army free video game which targets children, claiming it is in "Violation of International Law." Here is yet more evidence to submit to Congress as follow-up to the effective WILPF shadow report presented to the Commission on the Rights of the Child Committee in Geneva last February. Read Jean Verthien's WILPF blog on the meetings in Geneva of U.S. WILPF members with U.S. government officials there for hearings on U.S. non-compliance with certain articles of the Optional Protocol on Child Soldiers. Her second blog is on the hearing before the CRC on the following day, May 22. The UN CRC has recommended changes in U.S. laws and practice to prevent miltary recruiters from pursuing children, and to substitute peace and human rights education for militaristic education in our schools.
July 24: Our Mil-Corp ConneXion Project has another friend in the Senate! Freshwoman Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), a former prosecutor and Missouri state auditor, delivered an impassioned speech in the Senate calling for firings by night fall of auditors in the Pentagon accused by the Government Accountability Office of hiding damaging facts about the performance and costs of weapons systems. Take notice St. Louis WILPF Branch!
July 25: Public hearings on President Bush's abuses of power begin in the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by John Conyers of Detroit, Michigan. Last week, Conyers told Congressional Quarterly that his committee’s actions will be limited to a public hearing. “We’re not doing impeachment, but [Kucinich] can talk about it,” Conyers told CQ. Read a more favorable article from the Nation here.