EarthAction

U.S. Mayors Call on Presidential Candidates to Make Nuclear Disarmament a Campaign Issue

Mayors for Peace delegation (L-R) Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui; Satoshi Karoki; John Burroughs; North American Coordinator Jackie Cabasso; Director Yasco Suehiro; Secretary-General Yasuyoshi Komizo  

On July 1, at the close of its 87^th Annual Meeting in Honolulu, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) unanimously adopted a bold new resolution, “Calling on All Presidential Candidates to Make Known Their Positions on Nuclear Weapons and to Pledge U.S. Global Leadership in Preventing Nuclear War, Returning to Diplomacy, and Negotiating the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons”. The resolution calls on “all Presidential candidates of all political parties” to make these “priority issues in the 2020 Presidential campaign”.  

The USCM resolution quotes Renata Dwan, Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, who “has declared that the risk of nuclear weapons being used again is at its highest since World War II, calling it an ‘urgent’ issue that the world should take more seriously”, and notes that according to the Congressional Budget Office, “U.S. spending for nuclear warheads, delivery systems and supporting infrastructure over the 2019 – 2028 period is projected to cost $494 billion, for an average of nearly $50 billion a year”.  

In remarks to a plenary session of the USCM annual meeting on Sunday, June 30, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, President of Mayors for Peace, declared: “As mayors, you are working every day for the wellbeing of your citizens, but all your efforts could be for naught if nuclear weapons are used again. I would also like to point out that, while every one of the nuclear-armed states is spending billions of dollars to modernize and upgrade their arsenals, that money could be much more productively spent to meet the needs of cities and the people who live in them.”  

Warning that “the U.S. announcement, followed by Russia’s, of their intention to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty effective in August 2019 are signs of deepening crisis among the nuclear-armed states,” the resolution “calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge their support for the joint 1985 declaration by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, that ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,’ as urged by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres”.  

The USCM resolution further “calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge, if elected, to lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war by renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first and by actively pursuing a verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.”  

The resolution observes that despite the fact that “the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which entered into force in 1970, requires the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China to negotiate “in good faith” the end of the nuclear arms race “at an early date” and the elimination of their nuclear arsenals,” “nuclear-armed states are engaged in nuclear weapons modernization programs.”  

And the USCM “calls on all Presidential candidates to pledge, if elected, to reverse U.S. opposition to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to embrace its humanitarian values and goals”.  

The resolution was sponsored by Mayors for Peace U.S. Vice-President T.M. Franklin Cownie, Mayor of Des Moines, Iowa and 18 co-sponsors including outgoing USCM President Steve Benjamin, Mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, and USCM International Affairs Committee Chair Nan Whaley, Mayor of Dayton, Ohio.  

The USCM, the nonpartisan association of 1,408 American cities with populations over 30,000, has unanimously adopted Mayors for Peace resolutions for 14 consecutive years. Resolutions adopted at annual meetings become USCM official policy.  

As noted in this year’s resolution, “Mayors for Peace is working for a world without nuclear weapons and safe and resilient cities as essential measures for the achievement of lasting world peace, and has grown to 7,756 cities in 163 countries and regions, with 215 U.S. members.”  

Mayors for Peace, founded in 1982, is led by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  

Click here to read the full text of the resolution with the list of 19 co-sponsors. And bring it to the attention of your mayor, your Congressional representatives, the Presidential candidates, and the TV networks that will be hosting the Presidential debates.  

For more information contact Mayors for Peace North American Coordinator Jackie Cabasso at wslf@earthlink.net. 

Webinar: Move the Nuclear Weapons Money - from destruction to sustainable development

Abolition 2000, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), UNFOLD ZERO and the World Future Council invite you to participate in a webinar on 
 

Move the Nuclear Weapons Money:
Divesting from Destruction. Investing in peace and sustainability

Tuesday July 30
5pm – 6:30pm Central Europe time
11:00 – 12:30 USA Eastern time 

Over the next ten years the nuclear armed countries plan to spend over 1 trillion US dollars on the nuclear arms race.

Those manufacturing the nuclear weapons are making a fortune, and are actively promoting the nuclear arms race. But everyone else suffers. Imagine how this money could instead end poverty, help reverse climate change, fund sustainable development goals, and support peace, education, health and welfare.

This webinar will explore strategies and actions to reverse the financial interests in nuclear weapons through actions to cut nuclear weapons budgets, end investments in nuclear weapons corporations, increase investments in peace and sustainability, and promote the economic value of peace.

Speakers:

• Laurie Smolenski, Institute for Economics and Peace, USA
  The economic value of peace
• Maevyn Davis-Rackerby, PNND, USA.
  Cutting nuclear weapons budgets
• Thies Kätow, World future Council/PNND, Germany
  Nuclear weapons divestment by states, cities and pension funds
• Rob van Riet, World Future Council, Chile/Netherlands
  The Climate/Nuclear Nexus: nuclear weapons and fossil fuel divestment 
• Clara Vondrich, DivestInvest, USA
  Lessons from fossil fuel divestment and impact investment

Chair:

Alyn Ware, Abolition 2000/PNND, Czech Republic/New Zealand.
Co-founder of Move the Nuclear Weapons Money 
 
Click here to register.

For more information see Abolition 2000 working group on economic dimensions of nuclearism and Move the Nuclear Weapons Money.

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation: Committed to a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

Read more about Ben Ferencz here in a recent EarthAction blog post.

Download Planethood, a free e-book by Ben Ferencz here. It’s a ‘must read’ for all who care about peace, justice and the planet.

Twenty years ago, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation played a role in the effort to establish the International Criminal Court. Respect for international law has been at the forefront of our efforts for peace and a world free of nuclear weapons since NAPF was founded in 1982.

That’s why we are so shocked and outraged at the U.S. government’s treatment of asylum seekers and migrants at the nation’s southern border: family separation, deplorable conditions in detention centers, and even deaths of children and adults alike while in U.S. custody.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines “crimes against humanity” as including:

• “Deportation or forcible transfer of population;”
• “Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law;”
• “Enforced disappearance of persons;” and
• “Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering.”

When such acts are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, it is indeed a crime against humanity.

Please take a moment to write to your Senators and Representative and tell them that they must do everything in their power to stop these crimes from continuing.

Whether acting as head of state, government official, or individual, under the Nuremberg Principles, anyone committing a crime against humanity is responsible under international law.

Ben Ferencz, a member of the NAPF Advisory Council and the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, called the Trump administration’s family separation policy "a crime against humanity."

Our elected officials, and each of us individually, have a responsibility to speak up against such crimes under international law.

Families must be reunited, and those seeking asylum must be treated with dignity.

Take Action

Nuclear Policies Impact Global Peace Index 2019 Rankings

The Global Peace Index (GPI) 2019 rankings, released earlier this month, demonstrate that ‘Global peacefulness has improved for the first time in five years.’

But for most of the countries possessing nuclear weapons their level of peace remains far below the global average, and in some cases has declined even further.

The United Kingdom is ranked at number 45 on the Global Peace Index, France is ranked at number 60, China at 110, USA at 128, India at 141, Israel at 146, DPRK at 149, Pakistan at 153 and Russia at 154.

Produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), the GPI presents the most comprehensive data-driven analysis to date on peace dynamics, trends, and key factors in developing peaceful societies. The Index also makes correlations between levels of Positive Peace and economic indicators, demonstrating the economic value of peace.

‘Higher levels of Positive Peace in a country correlate very closely with positive economic outcomes including stronger exchange rates and sovereign credit ratings and higher GDP growth, coupled with greater gender equality and better environmental resilience,’ said Laurie Smolenski, IEP Outreach and Development Officer.

Laurie Smolenski presenting the 2019 Global Peace Index rankings at the Washington DC launch of the GPI. Click here to watch the video of her presentation and following discussion.

Nuclear weapons and the Peace Index

While one cannot claim that the possession of nuclear weapons is a causative factor for the low level of a country’s peace rating, the correlation between nuclear weapons possession and low rankings is at least cause to question the argument that nuclear weapons enhance peace and security.

‘Nuclear deterrence is based on the threat of massive violence, plus military preparations to possibly launch such violence,’ says Alyn Ware, Co-founder of Move the Nuclear Weapons Money and Global Coordinator for Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND).

‘Such a provocative, violence-based security framework runs counter to a conflict-resolution approach, and tends to correlate to similar violence-based approaches in a country’s domestic policies and other foreign policies.’

Investing in violence or in peace?

Another aspect of the report relevant to the nuclear weapons issue is the relative levels of national and global investment in violence versus investment in peace.

‘The world continues to allocate enormous resources on creating and containing violence but very little on promoting peace,’ said Ms Smolenski speaking at a Move the Nuclear Weapons Money event at the United Nations on May 7, 2019.

‘The data from the GPI and the Positive Peace Report give some indication of the incredible benefits we would reap by divesting in violence and investing in peace.’

Some of these benefits are highlighted in the SANE Act (Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditure) which PNND Co-President Senator Markey intends to re-introduce into the US Senate within the next few months.

They will also highlighted in the Count the Nuclear Weapons Money action to take place in New York in UN Disarmament Week 2019.

Over 7 days an 7 nights, activists, legislators, religious leaders, youth, artists, celebrities and others will count out $1 trillion – the nuclear weapons budget for the next 10 years – and symbolically reallocate this to better purposes including peace, health, education, climate protection, renewable energy, poverty alleviation etc…

Click here for more information or to join the Count the Nuclear Weapons Money action.

From UNFOLD ZERO. Read more here

Take Action to Help Save the Korea Peace and Denuclearization Process

UNFOLD ZERO encourages you to take action to ensure the Korean peace and denuclearization process does not unravel and return the region to the nuclear confrontation we saw as recently as 2017.

The peace process got off to a promising start with the Winter Olympic peace initiative in PyeongChang in February 2018, followed by the inter-Korean peace summits in April 2018, May 2018, and September 2018 and the North Korean/USA peace summit in Singapore 2018.

However, the most recent summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi (Vietnam) ended abruptly with no agreement and no plan for future talks.

A key area of disagreement is on the sanctions regime. North Korea wants some sanction relief in return for incremental disarmament steps they have already taken and other steps they are willing to take, but the US is not willing to grant such sanction relief this early in the process.

South Korea has supported the call for incremental sanction relief to allow humanitarian aid and limited economic cooperation between them and North Korea. Indeed, this was agreed in the Panmunjom Declaration.

Without some reciprocal good faith action by the US and the UN Security Council - such as limited sanction relief - it's quite possible that the peace process will fail. Indeed, on March 15, North Korea's vice minister for foreign affairs said that Pyongyang is considering halting the diplomatic process (See Arms Control Today, What Comes Next in U.S.-North Korean Negotiations?)

Call on the UN Security Council to Ease the Sanctions

In light of these developments, on March 21, 55 South Korean non-governmental organizations joined together in an impassioned plea to the UN Security Council to lift all sanctions related to humanitarian assistance and to support reciprocal, incremental measures for peace, especially those agreed in the Singapore summit.

The letter to the Security Council, which was coordinated by People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, notes that the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council and the USA have hampered not only humanitarian aid to North Korea, but also the minimal economic cooperation that both North and South Korea desire, such as the resuming operation of Mount Geumgang tours and the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.

'As initial steps for peace, the two Koreas need to expand meeting and cooperation among them in order to end military tension and confrontation, and thus paving way for peace in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia,' says the letter. 'The sanctions against the DPRK, which impede humanitarian assistance and building of cooperative relationships between the two Koreas, must be relieved as soon as possible.'

Please take action by contacting UN Security Council members and supporting the calls in the letter.

Click here for a list of UN Security Council member contact emails.

Learn more at UNFOLD ZERO 

Renew Nuclear Arms Control, Don't Destroy It

The INF Treaty and the enterprise of nuclear arms control are at risk, as Andrew Lichterman of IALANA affiliate Western States Legal Foundation and LCNP's John Burroughs explain in the below IPS opinion piece. LCNP and WSLF helped develop a RootsAction-led online campaign enabling constituents to contact their representative and senators to urge action to save the treaty - please participate! As this piece explains, Congress has the authority and power to do so.

Renew Nuclear Arms Control, Don't Destroy It

Andrew Lichterman and John Burroughs

NEW YORK, Jan 2 2019 (IPS) A hard-earned lesson of the Cold War is that arms control reduces the risk of nuclear war by limiting dangerous deployments and, even more important, by creating channels of communication and understanding. But President Donald Trump and his National Security Advisor John Bolton appear to have forgotten, or never learned, that lesson.

In late October, Trump announced an intent to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo subsequently states that the US will suspend implementation of the treaty in early February. While US signals have been mixed, initiation of withdrawal at that point or soon thereafter appears likely.

Agreed to in 1987 by the United States and the Soviet Union, the INF Treaty prohibits the two countries from deploying both nuclear and conventional missiles with ranges between 310 and 3420 miles.

The main reason cited for withdrawal is that Russia has tested and deployed ground-landed cruise missiles the treaty prohibits. Russia denies that the missiles violate the treaty and has made its own accusations, foremost that US ballistic missile defense launchers installed in Eastern Europe could . be used to house treaty-prohibited cruise missiles.

Read More

2018 EarthAction Report & Request

December 2018

 

Dear Friend of EarthAction,

Our current President and his allies, with their domestic and foreign policies, judicial appointments, rhetoric, insults, and name-calling have set our country and the world on a very dangerous course.

EarthAction has a key role to play in limiting the damage and getting the world back on track to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. That's why we need your support now, more than ever.

With your contributions over these last 26 years, EarthAction has made real progress in finding solutions to many of the world’s most pressing issues. Our work has helped to educate children around the world, provide health care to women, protect the lives of indigenous peoples and immigrants, stabilize our climate, and reduce the risk of chemical, biological and nuclear wars.

As one of our generous friends, you have—and will continue to play—a critical role in changing our national and global political landscape forever. I urge you to make a donation that will enable us to continue and expand our work in 2019.

There is so much more we can do, with your help. This is the time of year when many of us make our most meaningful donations to help change the world. I hope you’ll include EarthAction on your list of causes to support. Click here to contribute on our website, or send a check to EarthAction, PO Box 63, Amherst, MA 01004. Please make the most generous gift you can.

EarthAction remains unique in its ability to build global political will and create positive solutions on such a wide diversity of issues. Whenever there are opportunities to make change towards a world with more peace, justice, and environmental protection, we are at work making sure people understand the issues, appreciate what’s at stake, and know how to add their voice for change.

Your support is what makes it possible.

With gratitude for your generosity,

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Co-Founder & Executive Director

 

P.S.  Can't help spilling the beans a little … as you'll read in our EarthAction 2018 Campaign Report, Best Climate Solutions has given its 2018 International Award to our Climate Scorecard Spotlight Project for our “effectiveness in Communicating Climate Change Threats and Opportunities.” I'm very proud and very grateful for your help to make this possible. This is one more example of what we're doing together for democracy, peace, and the environment. Your donation today will help us continue that critical work in 2019. Click here to donate. Many thanks.

A Divided UN General Assembly Votes on Nuclear Disarmament Resolutions

Last week (Oct 24-30) was UN Disarmament Week, when member states vote on a range of disarmament decisions and resolutions.

Decisions are binding on the United Nations. Resolutions are indications of governments' positions and intent - they are not binding but can be very authoritative and influential if supported by key countries.

The deliberations and votes took place in an environment of increasing tensions between nuclear-armed States, and also an increasing divide between non-nuclear countries and those countries which rely on nuclear weapons for their security.

Click here to read more

Children's Peace Prize Winner Selected to Address UN High-Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament

On September 26, the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, world leaders will participate in a High Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament.

'The United Nations and its member countries should focus more on disarmament for sustainable development' says 2016 Children's Peace Prize winner Kehkashan Basu, who was last week selected by the President of the UN General Assembly to address the UN High-Level Meeting as one of the two speakers from global civil society.

'The nuclear arms race, in particular, should be halted and the $100 billion global nuclear weapons budget be redirected towards ending poverty, reversing climate change, protecting the oceans, building a sustainable economy and providing basic education and health care for all humanity,' says Ms Basu, who was also named last week as one of Canada's Top 25 Women of Influence for 2018.

'Instead, the nuclear armed States are squandering resources and keeping their nuclear weapons poised to strike. One mistake would cause a humanitarian disaster, robbing children and youth of their health and future, and maybe even ending civilization as we know it.'

The High Level Meeting on the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day) will involve Presidents, Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and UN ambassadors presenting either their hopes and aspirations for nuclear disarmament or their excuses for keeping the nuclear arms race going. It falls on the anniversary of the incident in 1983 when a nuclear war was almost fought by accident.

When an incoming US ballistic missile attack was detected at the Serpukhov-15 nuclear warning centre, duty officer Stanislav Petrov, defied protocol and reported a false alarm. He was right. The satellites were wrong. And his action, which is chronicled in the award winning movie The Man Who Saved the World, prevented a potential nuclear calamity the life of which we have never experienced and hope never to see.

The lesson of the 1983 incident, and the 15-20 other times we have nearly had a nuclear exchange, is that nuclear deterrence could fail - and that failure would mean game over,' says Jakob von Uexkull, Founder of the World Future Council. 'As such, the nuclear armed States have to replace nuclear deterrence with better ways to achieve security, just as the overwhelming majority of other countries have already done.'

'Regardless of what the governments do at the UN, civil society will step up its action for nuclear disarmament,' says Ms Basu. 'The most powerful lobby for the nuclear arms race is the nuclear weapons industry.'

'From Oct 24-30, in locations around New York, we will count the $1 trillion nuclear weapons budget for the next 10 years and demonstrate how this money can be reallocated from the nuclear weapons industry into the Sustainable Development Goals and other areas of human and environmental need. This includes direct cuts to nuclear weapons budgets, and divestment from the industry, and is part of the global campaign Move the Nuclear Weapons Money.'

From Basel Peace Office. Learn more here

What are you doing for Nuclear Abolition Day September 26, 2018?

UNFOLD ZERO thanks everyone who took action for nuclear disarmament on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Days. (See Global list of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day actions).

Now we look forward to September 26, United National International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Abolition Day), and the day in 1983 when a nuclear war was almost initiated by accident (See The Man who Saved the World).

Nuclear Abolition Day 2018 occurs as world leaders (Presidents, Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers...) are in New York for the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Key actions and events for Nuclear Abolition Day

• Sep 26 High Level Meeting. The United Nations will hold a half-day High-Level Meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on September 26. The High-Level Meeting is just a forum for governments to make statements. However, it can be used to promote key initiatives. Click here if you would like to attend the High-Level Meeting as an observer (space is limited and August 25 is deadline for application).
  
  In addition, two civil society representatives will be chosen to speak at the High Level Conference. The UN Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) is preparing a nomination list. Contact UNODA for more information.
  
  
• Support the UN Summit. The UN decided to hold a three-day High Level Conference (Summit) on Nuclear Disarmament in May 2018. However, pro-nuclear forces have managed to have the Summit postponed, and are now trying to have the Summit canceled altogether (See Nuclear Weapon States' Long Arm Seen Behind Deferral of Landmark UN Conference). If the Summit proceeds, it could provide important opportunities to make concrete progress on nuclear war prevention and disarmament initiatives, such as de-alerting, no-first use, nuclear stockpile reductions and building more support for the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

Action: Sign the Avaaz petition supporting the UN High-Level Conference

Action: Send a letter to your government urging them to support the UN High-Level Conference

Other actions and events

UNFOLD ZERO and Abolition 2000, the global civil society network for the elimination of nuclear weapons, are collating a list of actions and events around the world for Nuclear Abolition Day.

Please inform us of events that you are organizing or know about.

From the UNFOLD ZERO newsletter. Learn more at UNFOLD ZERO