Category: Champions of peace

Building Political Support for the Nuclear Ban Treaty in Congress and at state and local levels

Posted on by kathiemm

Zoom event: Saturday, April 24, 2021 10:30am-12:45 EDT

  Click here for Registration

10:30 AM – 11:00 AM: Global Support for the Nuclear Ban Treaty 

·      Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)

·      Thomas Hajnoczi, Former Head of Disarmament at the Austrian Foreign Ministry 

·      John Finnie, Member of Scottish Parliament

·      Vicky Reynaert, Member of the Belgian Federal Parliament 

11:00 AM – 11:20 AM: The US Congress and the Nuclear Ban Treaty 

·      Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (District of Columbia)

·      Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Michigan 13th Congressional District)

·      Rep. Jamie Raskin (Maryland 8th Congressional District)

11:20 AM -11:40 AM:  Supporting the Treaty at State and Local levels 

·      State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, Massachusetts 

·      Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, Easthampton

11:40 AM – 12:10 PM: Panel Discussion – “ICAN pledge – Collecting signatures in other nuclear-armed and nuclear-reliant countries” 

·      Heidi Kassai (ICAN Germany)

·      Tilman Ruff (ICAN Australia) 

·      Erin Hunt (Mines Action Canada/ICAN Partner) 

12:10 PM – 12:30 PM: Breakout Rooms – Writing to Your Elected Representatives

Participants will break up into small groups by state/region to write letters and emails to federal, state, and local representatives in their own states and districts.

12:30 PM – 12:40: Debrief and next steps

12:40 PM – 12:45 PM: Closure 

Background on the ICAN Pledge and Nuclear Ban Treaty:

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) went into effect on January 22nd of this year. Everything to do with nuclear weapons is now illegal in 54 countries, and that number will continue to rise. In countries where governments are not yet ready to sign this treaty, their elected officials are pressuring them to do so. Over 250 parliamentarians in Italy have signed the ICAN Pledge, nearly 200 in Germany, over 100 in Australia, and almost every member of the Scottish Parliament.

So far, ten members of the US Congress have signed the ICAN Pledge. Join us on April 24th to hear from Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and from ICAN campaigners around the world, on how they have successfully used the ICAN Pledge to build support for nuclear abolition in other nuclear-armed and nuclear-weapon-reliant countries. Also hear from US legislators who have signed the ICAN Pledge or are considering doing so. We will discuss how to get many more members of the US Congress to sign, and how this could begin to change the conversation about nuclear weapons in Washington towards a clear call for the abolition of these weapons. We will also look at how getting state and local legislators to sign the Pledge can help build pressure on Members of Congress to also sign.  

Event Co-Sponsors: NuclearBan.US, The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Massachusetts Peace Action, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF US), World Beyond War, CodePink, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Sierra Club, Veterans for Peace, Physicians for Social Responsibility, United Methodist General Board of Church and Society and Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Beyond Nuclear, Catholic Worker New York City, Center for Nonviolent Solutions, Coalition for Peace Action, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Engaging Peace, Inc., Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution Peace Task Force, Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace, Granny Peace Brigade New York City, Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, Hampton Roads Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Maryland Peace Action, Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, New England Peace Pagoda, New Hampshire Peace Action, Northampton Friends Meeting (Quakers), Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Nuclear and Carbon Free Future Coalition, Nuclear Hotseat Podcast/Broadcast, Nuclear Resister, NuclearWakeUpCall.Earth, Nukewatch, Nukewatch New Mexico, Oregon PeaceWorks, Outrider Foundation, Pax Christi Baltimore, Pax Christi Metro New York, Peace Action Maine, Peace Action New York State, PEAC Institute, Physicians for Social Responsibility Kansas City, Prevent Nuclear War Maryland, Resistance Center for Peace and Justice, Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, Tri-Valley CAREs, Upper Midwest Chapter World Beyond War, Veterans for Peace Chapter 27, Veterans for Peace Chapter 34, Veterans for Peace Chapter 80, Veterans for Peace Golden Rule Project, War Resisters League New York City, Women Against Military Madness, Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, War Prevention Initiative Jubitz Family Foundation. 

Cartoon: Engaging Peace is taking flight! Come along for the ride!

Posted on by kathiemm

by Joe Kandra, Kathie Malley-Morrison, Pat Daniel

Engaging Peace, the nonprofit we created in 2010 to promote peace and social justice education, is about to embark on a new venture. Specifically, the blog will be transferred to another activist organization–Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA).

Mass Peace Action is the largest peace organization in Massachusetts, with ties to other peace organizations around the country. Here are a few examples of its activities in 2020:

  • Hosted more than 70 webinars, with speakers like Noam Chomsky and Trita Parsi
  • Held dozens of events to protest war in the Middle East and intervention in Latin America; sent more than 10,000 emails to state and federal legislators and the White House
  • Surpassed 15,000 supporters, 1,000 subscribers on YouTube, and 5,000 followers on Twitter
  • Grew to eight working groups with active engagement of over 100 volunteers
  • Started the “Fund Healthcare Not Warfare” Campaign

MAPA’s Education Fund, like Engaging Peace, is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization.

Before the Engaging Peace archive moves to its new site, we want to thank all our readers, guest authors, and donors for sharing our work towards peace and social justice over the last 11 years.

What a wonderful journey it’s been, starting when we first imagined a blog to making it happen, becoming a nonprofit, adding the newsletter, and growing our contacts to over 900. Over more than a decade, Engaging Peace has published over 1,000 posts (which prompted almost 5,500 reader comments), more than 100 monthly online newsletters, and over 60 political cartoons.

During that time, we were honored to have contributions from over 90 guest authors and illustrators, dozens of interns, and hundreds of commentators.

We most especially offer thanks to our donors who supported EP and helped us meet our budget, and to our board of directors (Doe West and Alice LoCicero) for helping to guide EP through a host of decisions and milestones.

Although Engaging Peace, Inc. as an organization will close, Kathie, Pat, and the EP cartoonist, Joe Kandra, will continue to publish occasional posts and cartoons on the MAPA site.

The best news of all is that our efforts for peace and social justice will continue within a larger constellation of activists within Mass Peace Action. Our work is their work, our goals are their goals. Please continue to participate in these efforts toward a more peaceful and just world for ourselves, our children, and the future of the earth.

Action: If you would like to sign up for MAPA’s e-alerts, just click here. And please be sure to watch for new posts and cartoons from Kathie and her team on the MAPA site.

May The Unseen Be Seen

Posted on by kathiemm
Statue of Truth outside the Supreme Court of Canada in the capital City, Ottawa in the province, Ontario. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Tomkinsr at English Wikipedia

by Caitlin Johnstone

May what is unseen become seen.

May the hidden dynamics of oligarchy and empire be revealed to all of humanity.

May the depravity of the powerful be exposed before everyone.

May government secrecy end.

May the public become aware of the pervasiveness of mass media propaganda.

May people realize that they’ve been deceived about the world since childhood.

May there be a widespread recognition that things are not as they seem.

May obfuscation and distortion be replaced with truth and clarity.

May the public grow more conscious of the reality of class dynamics.

May the public see money for the made-up game that it is.

May people begin clearly perceiving the horrors of war and economic sanctions, and feel it all.

May awareness sink in of the need for urgent climate action.

May we clearly see the existential need to begin collaborating with each other and with our ecosystem before we destroy it all.

May we all become conscious of racial and sexual dynamics and inequalities.

May we all look squarely at the unacceptable cruelty of factory farming.

May manipulators and abusers everywhere be recognized for what they are.

May abusive dynamics everywhere be clearly seen: in nations, in communities, in families, in relationships.

May unwholesome interpersonal relationships move into clarity or meet a natural end.

May unjust restrictions on consciousness-expanding substances be ended.

May everyone everywhere become conscious of their inner workings.

May our psychological trauma move into the light where it can be healed.

May our unconscious mental and perceptual habits move into consciousness.

May we all become conscious of the illusory nature of self and separation.

May we all become conscious of how experience is really happening.

May we all become conscious of our own true nature.

May we all see clearly what is happening, both inwardly and outwardly.

May we use our clear perception to move efficaciously in this world, and collaborate as one toward health and harmony.

May we build a sane and healthy world together that is based on truth and clear seeing.

Amen.

______________________

Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my new book Poems For Rebels (you can also download a PDF for five bucks) or my old book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge

Ending US wars

Posted on by kathiemm

by Michael Knox

If, like me, you are sick of our country’s involvement in endless wars, but you think there is nothing anyone can do to stop the murder, an article I recently published in Truthout can change your mind. The piece is an excerpt from my book, ENDING U.S. WARS by Honoring Americans Who Work for Peace.


“The old cliché about a fish not knowing it’s in water has survived for a reason. Our cultural currents can drive us toward normalizing or, worse, glorifying what we might otherwise find objectionable….

The U.S. honors its military and reinforces warrior behaviors with holidays, ceremonies, parades, Hollywood movies, TV shows, and memorials to soldiers, wars, and wartime presidents. Individual military members/veterans enjoy medals, promotions, vanity license plates, tax exemptions, free admissions, reserved parking spaces, airline boarding preferences, veteran discounts, and other privileges. These honors and privileges reinforce militarism in the U.S.; no other group of citizens is as revered.

Joe Biden ended his inauguration address, presidential victory speech, and his Democratic National Convention nomination acceptance speech with the words “And may God protect our troops.” Donald Trump usually ended his speeches with “God bless our great military.” Patriotic ceremonies and public recognitions of the military are so commonplace that few Americans even think about, much less question, them.”

To enjoy a rich discussion of the steps countless Americans have taken to resist and overcome the normalization of war, you can read the whole book, available at major bookstores.