A. Supporting Ban Ki Moon's 100 day WMD campaign (We Must Disarm) calling for abolition of Nuclear Weapons as the crucial first step
B.Preparing for September 21 International Day of Peace with the emphasis, as Ban Ki Moon requests, on eliminating nuclear weapons
C. Holding President Obama to his April Prague promises when he chairs the Security Council discussion on nuclear weapons disarmament and non-proliferation on September 24
D. Building support in our communities for abolition now, in our lifetimes.Yes we can! (Including use of WILPF petition campaigns, and projects for Proposition One, Nuclear Disarmament Day and stopping Minute Man III nuclear missile tests.)
E. Working with WILPF Reaching Critical Will and our NGO Networks (United for Peace and Justice and Alliance for Nuclear Accountability), partners and friends.
F. Saying NO! To The Nuclear Power Renaissance!
On June 13 United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki Moon gave an important speech launching a 100 day WMD (We Must Disarm) campaign leading up to the International Day of Peace on September 21. He is asking Governments and citizens of the world to focus on the important issues of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation as first steps to general and complete disarmament. Read this important speech here!
And for those who want to follow the campaign on Twitter, Face book or My Space, here are the links:
- WMD-WeMustDisarm on Twitter www.twitter.com/wemustdisarm;
- WMD-WeMustDisarm cause on Facebook http://apps.facebook.com/causes/298538/61588950?m=6949f328
- WMD-WeMustDisarm on MySpace www.myspace.com/wemustdisarm.
Also hear Ban Ki Moon on U-Tube speaking on 1325 and .the role of women in peace building and peace keeping. Here is one influential man listening to women for a change!
Sign the Declaration supporting UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon's messages on nuclear disarmament. Let's make our voices heard!
And share these links widely. This is the time for the 70% of U.S. citizens wanting to eliminate nuclear weapons to show their support.
B. Preparing to Celebrate September 21, International Day of Peace
Send your own reasons why we need nuclear disarmament to the United Nations. Click here, and enter and submit your own one sentence reason why we must eliminate nuclear weapons now. It is an important opportunity to register your support at this critical time -- and it may be published on Twitter and sent around the world.
Organize your own WILPF International Day of Peace event on Monday, September 21. Or celebrate a day or two early on the preceding weekend. For resources from the United Nations click here.
There are multiple resources for planning and ideas on the International Peace Day web site. Click here for the home page. The six buttons at the top lead to a wide variety of program resources and information.
- The first symbol of the four at the bottom of the page takes you to the Culture of Peace website with a wealth of resourcesfor planning a Peace Day event or finding one near you in which to participate.
- The last two of the four symbols at the bottom take you to the Peace day twitter and facebook sites with more resources that may be useful.
- And the UN symbol takes you to the pages devoted to Ban Ki Moon's WMD campaign for a world free of nuclear weapons. Hoever WILPF members choose to celebrate that day, surely an emphasis on the Nuclear Free Future we seek should be an important part.
It will take all of us to succeed, and WILPF offers a multitude of ways to act. Each of the three WILPF grass roots community projects below are generated by one committed WILPF woman determined to make a difference. Contact DISARM! co-chairs at nffchairs@wilpf.org if you need help in getting involved.
1) LET'S DECLARE AUGUST 6 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT DAY
AND ASK CONGRESS TO DO THE SAME
Wouldn't it be great if Congress did just that?
Well, we are on our way! Burlington Vermont Branch originted this campaign in 2008. They began with a petition to Congress asking that August 6 be declared national Nuclear Weapons Disarmament Day.They also circulated an on line version. They invited other WILPF Branches to join in their campaign, and ten did. Burlington Branch got their own Mayor to join, then their Senators and Congressman -- and latest news is that the Vermont legislature has now declared August 6 Nuclear Weapons Disarmament Day in that state!!! This is thanks to the work of the Burlington Branch and their active coalition building. Read the Branch press release here.
This year let's follow their lead. Learn how they did it and then plan your own campaign. Read the 2008 description here. Of course the best way to begin, as Burlington Branch did, is to invite your Mayor to become a Mayor for Peace and then move on from there.
This year they invited Jody Williams, Nobel peace prize winner for her work in gaining the land mines treaty. Watch and hear Jody William's talk to WILPF members and friends. She sounds ready to join us in organizing to put an end to both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. The local TV station also videoed the August 8 rally and march through the city center. After you've viewed some of the colorful march you can fast forward to see and hear Jody Williams again speaking at the open air rally.
If you have collected signatures this year on the WILPF petition calling on Congress to declare August 6 nuclear disarmament day please send them to
Locally you can hand deliver the petitions (either photo-copies or the original) to local Congressional offices. Ask for a personal meeting with Representatives and Senators. Don't despair if you are first directed to staff -- those relationships are also important. They can also lead to a later meeting with the Senator or Representative her/himself. Refer to Eight Tips for a Successful Lobby Visit. This was originated by WAND and is now used by FCNL, WILPF and many of our partner organizations.
Contact our WILPF NUKE DISARM DAY PETITION COORDINATOR with questions or for more information. She has been coordinating this campaign nationally as well as in Vermont. You can send any signed petitions to
2) INVITE THE 2010 PROPOSITION ONE
ROAD SHOW TO YOUR COMMUNITY!
The Proposition One 2010 Road Show, promoting local initiatives for nuclear weapons abolition, may be heading your way right now. This is a good time to begin planning a Road Show event in your community.
WILPF DISARM! co-chair Ellen Thomas and WILPF member and former Washington D.C. Peace Center Director Jay Marx are now touring the country with the Road Show. And they are encouraging peace activists (including WILPFers) in states that have the initiative and/or referendum to follow the example of Washington D.C. and get an initiative similar to their Proposition One on the local ballot.They spent two months in the southwest promoting abolition of nuclear weapons and the conversion of nuclear and other arms industries to provide for human and environmental needs.
In August and early September WILPF Branches arranged meetings in Tucson, Santa Barbara, Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Jose and Portland, Oregon and they spoke at the WILPF co-sponsored midnight vigil at Vandenberg Airforce base (see below.)
During September and October they hope for invitations to visit WILPF Branches and members in Colorado, Utah, Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
You can reach Jay Marx, Campaign Coordinator at marxjay@gmail.com and Ellen Thomas, Executive Director at et@prop1.org. They can also be reached on Ellen's cell at 202-210-3886.From them you can also learn more about other WILPF initiatives as we focus on creating a Nuclear Free Future for ourselves and generations to come.
Click here to read the story of Proposition One from the 28 year long vigil in front of the White House to the the sucessful initiative campaign to the legislation now in Congress. Ellen and Jay are encouraging similar initiatives around the country to build the groundswell of citizen support needed to make nuclear weapons abolition a reality.
The Road Show is endorsed by both WILPF DISARM! and Washington D.C. WILPF Branch. Other endorsers, include CODE PINK and Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
3) PROTEST THE CONTINUING UPGRADING AND TESTING OF
MINUTE MAN III NUCLEAR MISSILES
Once again the U.S. war hawks have defied the world-wide call for nuclear disarmament. Another nuclear weapon Minute Man III nuclear missile test from Vandenberg Air Force Base occurred onAugust 23, during Nuclear Free Future month.This was the second test launch during the Obama Administration and an indfatigable WILPF member organized midnight vigils at both of them. Even though the missiles were not armed with nuclear warheads, in WILPF we believe these launches send a dangerously contradictory message to a world expecting leadership from the USA toward nuclear weapons abolition.Read about the missiles and view photos here.
View photos and a slideshow here from the June 29 vigil. (Hint: At bottom of first slide you can set the number of seconds per slide. so there is time to read the captions.) Thirty protesters, including WILPFers and their friends from Code Pink, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Western States Legal Foundation and Global Network made the long night journey from San Francisco, Los Angeles and cities between to participate. You can also read the report posted on the WILPF web.
Before the June launch almost three hundred WILPF members and friends signed on to our WILPF letter to President Obama protesting the June 29th launch of the Minuteman III and urging cancellation of the test. The letter was also faxed with the "signatures" to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice.
Make your voice heard now. Click here to enter comments on the White House website. It takes only a few minutes. Notes must be short and clear. Urge your friends to send them, too. The President needs to know we support his goal of nuclear weapons abolition -- but also know they can never be abolished while the nuclear extablishment clings to its nuclear addicition.
E. Working With Reaching Critical Will
And Our NGO Partners And Networks
e) Abolition 2000
a) WILPF Reaching Critical Will Resources : These are especially helpful for those seriously preparing themselves to educate their communities and/or Congress for a Nuclear Free Future.
On WILPF Reaching Critical Will (at the UN in New York) you will find important information to share with your your community, your local newspapers and with your own Congressional delegation and staff.
- Follow in detail progress at the Conference on Disarmament, sole UN disarmament negotiating body which is finally moving forward again after 10 years with no program of work due largely to U.S. recalcitrance.
- Click here to read the thirteen practical steps toward nuclear disarmament that all nations party to the NPT, including the USA, agreed to take eginning in 2000. After election of a new Adinistration later that same year most of those steps were rejected by the Pentagon and the State Department. For the next eight years nuclear disarmament negotiations remained stalled in the Conference on Disarmament..
- Read details of the successful Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty Prep Com which eight U.S. WILPF members attended in May. U.S.WILPF gave a seminar for delegates and NGOs on U.S. Prospects for a Nuclear Free Future. A U.S. delegate was in attendance. . Read the report by Susi Snyder and AnnJanetteRosga on page 8 of the NPT News in Review.
- Follow the General Assembly First Committee which meets in October to discuss and propose resolutions on disarmament issues.
- Research, expose and/or dialogue with Dirty Dozen nuclear weapons producing corporations in your community that promote and profit from the nuclear industry.
Also investigate the Disarmament pages of the WILPF Geneva website for a variety of resources you can use to educate yourselves and your community on nuclear disarmament.
b) United for Peace and Justice Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Human Security Working Group: The WILPF DISARM! Leadership Team has decided to emphasize cooperation with this working group as we prepare for the NPT.We have begun by describing the program and featuring the UFPJ sponsored petition in an all member e-alert. The petition will be officially launched this month and be presented next spring to President Obama, President Medvedev, and to Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the assembly of delegates at the UN Nuclear Non-Proliferatin Five Year Review Conference. Access and sign the on line petition here if you have not already done so. Then forward it to your friends.
To learn more about WILPF's contributions to the UFPJ petition campaign and plans leading up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferaion Review Cnference in May 2010 Click Here.
Joseph Gerson of New England American Friends Service Committee is a national leader of the UFPJ nuclear abolition campaign and his article in Common Dreams gives both excellent background for the current campaign and an outline of overall plans between now and May, 2010. The DISARM chair and two other members of the U.S. WILPF DISARM! Leadership Team participated in the New York planning meeting of which Joseph writes.
WILPF is a dues paying member of UFPJ and DISARM! also has three permanent representatives active in the Nuclear Weapons Abolition working group. It is chaired by Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of Western States Legal Foundation and also a WILPF member. Read and share Jackie's perceptive article, Rhetoric vs Reality, on the continuing obstacles to real progress toward nuclear disarmament. DISARM! regards this as a basic document for our own work.
Unfortunately the UFPJ Nuclear Free Future website was not updated in time to receive reports on events for Hiroshima/Nagasaki days this year. Reports were sent instead to Peace Action, another UFPJ member.
Jackie is also the U.S. coordinator for Mayors for Peace. (See f below.) We are proud of Jackie and her wonderful contributions on nuclear abolition to the international and national movements, as well as to all of us in WILPF. But she is definitely on overload and needs our help and support.
c) Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA): WILPF belongs to this network as do WAND, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Peace Action and most of the professional nuclear site watch dogs around the country. Explore the list of other member organizations, Use any of the fact sheets (posted in the lower right hand column on the home page) as hand outs or resources. The fifteen WILPFers who joined ANA for lobbying and training during D.C. Days in April delivered these fact sheets to Congress members and/or their staff. Let DISARM! know if you can use ANA resources in your community to stop nuclear power plants, get clean up of nuclear waste or to educate on the CTBT adn the need for nuclear weapons abolition NOW. Send queries to nffchairs@wilpf.org. And start planning now to join ANA D.C. Days in April next year.d) Nuclear Weapons Free World: click here to read a new letter to President Obama relevant to his chairing of the UN Secuity Council October 24 on nuclear weapons disarmament and non-proliferation. This is for orgnizational sign up only, and WILPF Branches are invited to sign.Deadline is October 1.
Learn about the campaign and download some of the resources and fact sheets. Explore the campaign page to see the web sites of almost fifty of our national partner co-sponsors, and also download by state some of their many affiliates. U.S. WILPF is already a member of the campaign network and WILPF Branches are also invited to sign up with the campaign and participate in this nationwide joint effort. With the support of Reaching Critical Will WILPF has much to contribute nationally and in our own communities.
e) ABOLITION 2000: Go to the Abolition 2000 website for information on the Flame campaign, the World Peace March, IRENA, the model treaty on nuclear weapons abolition and much, much more. WILPF is a member of this iinternational network of over 2000 NGOs working for nuclear weapons abolition. Susi Snyder, our dynamic WILPF Secretary General in Geneva, is on the Executive Committee.
f) Mayors for Peace (click here) has only Mayors and City Councils as members, but we WILPFers have been enlisting many of our own Mayors in this campaign: Check the list of 2,635 member cities to see if your Mayor is listed there. If not Mayors for Peace will supply the materials needed for his/her enlistment.
If your Mayor is a Mayor for Peace ask her/him to sign the Hiroshima-Nagasaki protocol, which would commit all nations party to the NPT to cease production of nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles immediately and begin negotiations (involving all UN member states) on a treaty abolishing such weapons.
Read the background information for Mayors on the protocol, including names of Mayors who have already signed in 2008-09. These include Mayors of cities with WILPF Branches such as Boston, Burlington, DesMoines, Newton MA, Ashland and Portland OR, Sacramento, Santa Barbara and San Francisco. Ask your own Mayor to participate in local commemorations.and, better yet, declare August 6 Nuclear Weapons Disarmament Day.
U.S. Mayors (including many who are not yet Mayors for Peace) unanimously adopted a resolution calling on President Obama to take the initiative in negotiations for the treaty abolishing nuclear weapons!!! Mayors of Burlington Vermont and Santa Barbara were among the eight Mayors who sponsored the resolution. (Bravo to those WILPF Branches!)
Support the Mayor's resolution on Hiroshima/Nagasaki days and beyond! Sign and circulate the petition for no targeting of cities and for nuclear weapons abolition by 2020. This is a great petition to circulate at WILPF and coalition Hiroshima/Nagasaki events. Petitions should be returned to Mayors for Peace for delivery to the United Nations at the NPT.
Together WE CAN ACHIEVE A NUCLEAR-FREE FUTURE!
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Contact: nffchairs@wilpf.org
565 Boylston Street, Second Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02116
