United for Peace & Justice invites you to join us for a special webinar: “End Racism. Build Peace”

 Wednesday, September 21, the UN International Day of Peace

Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on September 21. The United Nations General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire. But achieving true peace entails much more than laying down arms. It requires the building of societies where all members feel that they can flourish. It involves creating a world in which people are treated equally, regardless of their race.

The 2022 theme for the International Day of Peace is “End racism. Build peace.”  To mark this day, United for Peace & Justice hosted a webinar on Wed. Sept. 21, at 8 pm EDT/5 pm PDT.

 Our distinguished speakers include:

Vernita Pearl Fort, a former United States diplomat, an Evolutionary Systems Ecologist, Political Economist, and Democracy Research Scholar at the University of Illinois Global Institute, Urbana-Champaign. Vernita also serves on the Board of the Center for United Nations Constitutional Research. The title of her current work and manuscript-in-progress is: “The Africana World and Regenerative Global Democracy: Transforming the United Nations and the International Order through the Arts of Transitional Justice.”

 Dr. Vincent Intondi, author of “African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement,” is a leading authority on the intersection of race and nuclear weapons. Dr. Intondi is a professor at Montgomery College (MC) in Takoma Park, Maryland, where he teaches U.S. and African American history and directs MC’s Institute for Race, Justice, and Civic Engagement.

George Friday, UFPJ’s National Organizer, grew up in a rural low-income community in North Carolina in the 1960s. She holds degrees in Political Science, Economics and African American Studies from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. George is a Board member of Peace Action and a co-founder of the Black Liberation Caucus of WILPF. She serves on the North Carolina and National Coordinating Committees of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

About the image, above:

In order to further promote peace education in member cities around the world, Mayors for Peace hosts an annual children’s art competition inviting children from 6 to 15 years old who live in Mayors for Peace member cities to submit artworks on the theme of “Peaceful Towns.”

 The Mayors for Peace 2021 President’s Award 1^st place article was Honoka Yamada of Hiroshima, Japan (14 years old). Here’s her message:

“My home town of Hiroshima wishes for a peaceful world without nuclear weapons. We fold paper cranes with a prayer for peace. Regardless of different nationalities, skin color, culture and religion, our wishes for peace are borderless and connected by a rainbow bridge. This painting depicts people from various backgrounds holding hands and sharing paper cranes. Children from around the world cross over a rainbow on the back of paper cranes. With a wish for a world in which children can walk into a bright future in their “peaceful towns,” I designed the picture with a motif of glittering stained glass.”

The post September 21 UN International Day of Peace: “End Racism. Build Peace” appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

The recent entry into force of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons brought a welcome positive moment to a bleak disarmament landscape. But none of the nuclear armed states have joined the Treaty, and all are expanding or modernizing their nuclear arsenals. This webinar, hosted by UFPJ, provided an update on nuclear weapons policies and programs and an overview of relevant developments in international law. It also suggested the need to rethink familiar approaches to disarmament, and to shift the focus of disarmament advocacy from recognizing the effects of nuclear weapons to analyzing the causes of nuclear arms racing and of the risks of war among nuclear-armed countries – the same root causes driving many of our other most pressing crises.

This webinar featured three internationally recognized advocates for nuclear abolition. 

Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, based in Oakland, California, since 1984. In 1995 she was a “founding mother” of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, and she continues to serve on its Coordinating Committee. Since 2007 she has served as an Executive Advisor to Mayors for Peace. She is a National Co-convener of UFPJ. Jackie was the 2008 recipient of the International Peace Bureau’s Sean MacBride Peace Award.  Presentation text part 1 part 2

John Burroughs, Senior Analyst for the New York City-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP). He has represented LCNP in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meetings and negotiations on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. His articles and op-eds have appeared in publications including Fordham International Law Journal, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Arms Control Today, Newsweek, and Newsday.  Presentation Text

Andrew Lichterman, policy analyst and lawyer with the Oakland, California-based Western States Legal Foundation. He has represented peace and environmental activists in a variety of settings, and also taught at alternative law schools for many years. He is a member of the United for Peace and Justice Coordinating Committee.  Presentation text

Readings and other resources

75 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Quest for Nuclear Disarmament; Where Do Things Stand? – Remarks by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation to the Democratic 21^st Century Club of Santa Clara County, CA, October 20, 2020.  Read her remarks here. Watch the video recording here.

Nuclear Weapons under the Biden Presidency – Remarks by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, Peace & Planet webinar: The International Disarmament Agenda: Civil Society Voices From 7 Key States, February 23, 2021. Read her remarks here. Watch the video recording here.

Building a Moral Fusion Movement – Resource paper by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, for New York State Bar Association International Law and Nuclear Weapons Conference, November 12, 2020. Read the paper here. Watch the video recording of her remarks here (starting at 1:50:10).

Remarks of John Burroughs, Conference on International Law and Nuclear Weapons 2020, New York State Bar Association, November 12, 2020

Building Blocks for Nuclear Ban Treaty: NPT & Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, John Burroughs, Inter Press Service, November 2, 2020

Human Rights Versus Nuclear Weapons: New Dimensions, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, January 2021
Contributors: Roger Clark, Ariana Smith, Peter Weiss, Daniel Rietiker, Bonnie Docherty, and Andrew Lichterman

U.S.-Russia Nuclear Arms Racing: Still Crazy After All These Years, Andrew Lichterman and John Burroughs, Truthdig, March 16, 2018

“Nuclear Disarmament, Civil Society, and Democracy,” Andrew Lichterman, Disarmament Forum, 2010 No.4

Rethinking the Military-Industrial Complex, Western States Legal Foundation working paper 2018, by Andrew Lichterman.

Nuclear Weapons: Why Are They Still Here? August 6, 2021 Presentation by Andrew Lichterman.

The post The Enduring Nuclear Threat; A Deeper Look: Webinar Recording appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

We are grateful to all the UFPJ presenters:
Sue Udry, Defending Rights and Dissent

Netfa Freeman, Coordinating Committee Member of Black Alliance for Peace

Here is a link to the Black Alliance for Peace Video

 Ann Suellentrop, Board Member of PeaceWorks Kansas City

Ann also works with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

 Brian Garvey, Massachusetts Peace Action

Massachusetts Peace Action’s Raytheon Anti-war Campaign

Cries from Every Corner for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

 Carley Towne, Code Pink

Divest from the War Machine Campaign

Manzoor Cheema, organizer at Project South

Member, Muslims for Social Justice

And it was a privilege to hear from Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. UFPJ is a proud national mobilizing partner of the Campaign.

The post Gathering of UFPJ Members Features Work of Six Groups appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

This is a Virtual Screening & Benefit.  This screening, on September 21, the UN International Day of Peace, will benefit UFPJ and other participating organizations.

For the film trailer, click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsTCWm7lGcQ.

And to purchase tickets that benefit UFPJ, click here:  https://watch.eventive.org/wearemany/play/5f3d42f40a2ebc00781176ca

Don’t forget about UFPJ’s upcoming Member Group Gathering 12 September, 3-4:30 pm Eastern / 12-1:30 pm Pacific. 

Six UFPJ member groups will share their current work: 

 Massachusetts Peace Action’s Raytheon Anti-war Campaign

• Black Alliance for Peace’s opposition to imperialism and war against black people
• Defending Rights and Dissent, Washington, D.C., “Whose Streets? Our Streets!”
• Muslims for Social Justice, Peace and Justice in the South
• CODEPINK’s Divest from the War Machine’s local organizing on the West Coast
• PeaceWorks, Kansas City opposition to the trillion-dollar update of our nuclear arsenal

And, we will hear about the on-the-ground work of the Poor People’s Campaign A National Call for Moral Revival with Rev. Liz Theoharis.  UFPJ is a proud national mobilizing partner of the Campaign.

Afterwards we will discuss plans and strategies for our shared efforts and movement building!

If you are a member group representative and have not received an invitation to the Member Group Gathering, please contact UFPJ’s national organizer, George Friday, for further information at info.ufpj@gmail.com.  If you are a member of an organization that might like to join UFPJ, please read our Unity Statement, and if it is consistent with your principles click here to join or contact George at the e-mail address above.

In Solidarity,

UFPJ Coordinating Committee 

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Three speakers: Emad Kiyaei (Iran) from the Middle East Treaty Organization project; Tarja Cronberg (Finland), from the SIPRI European security program, and; Jamal Abdi, president of the US-based, National Iranian American Council, shared their thoughts on how we have reached the situation we’re in, what the different interests in play are, and how events may pan out in the near future, with the 2020 NPT Review Conference on the horizon.  The webinar was moderated by Abolition 2000 Coordinating Committee member, Sharon Dolev (Israel), with the Israeli Disarmament Movement.

Click here to read a summary report and watch videos of the presentations.

The post The Breakdown of the Iran Deal – Global perspectives appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

March 25 Call

March 19 Call

Join Shailly Gupta Barnes of the Kairos Center  and environmental attorney Mark Dunlea for the second of two national calls on Global Days of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS).

Wednesday, March 25, 2020  
8:15 – 9:15 pm EDT;  7:15 – 8:15 pm CDT;  6:15 – 7:15 pm MDT;  5:15 – 6:15 pm PDT
Click here to register.

You also can listen to a recording of the first GDAMS briefing call, held on March 19, featuring Lindsay Koshgarian of the Institute for Policy Studies and Bill Hartung of the Center for International Policy. Click here to read Bill Hartung’s new Pentagon Spending: A Primer.

Lack of preparedness for the COVID-19 epidemic reveals the potentially grave consequences of slashing social safety net spending while deluging the military-industrial complex with our tax dollars. Trump and the Pentagon are pressing yet another massive increase in military spending. Critics from Washington think tanks working with the Poor People’s Campaign, reinforced by grassroots activists across the country are demanding that money be moved from wars and preparations for wars to addressing our urgent human needs: health, climate, housing, education and more.

GDAMS 2020 will take place from April 10 – May 9.  We hope that you will consider organizing a local event. To help you prepare for this year’s GDAMS and for longer term efforts to change our national spending priorities, we have scheduled an inspiring briefing call featuring  these two leading authorities on military spending and alternatives.

Shailly Gupta Barnes is the Policy Director at the Kairos Center. She coordinated and edited the Souls of Poor Folk: Auditing America report for the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, working closely with the Institute for Policy Studies. This report looked at the evolution of the key themes of the Campaign over the past 50 years and its findings informed the current Campaign’s Moral Agenda and Demands. Read more about the Souls of Poor Folk  and Moral Agenda at poorpeoplescampaign.org.

Mark Dunlea is an attorney associated with the National Lawyers Guild, was a co-founder the Green Party in New York. He is a leading climate change activist with 350.org, and news correspondent for WOOC Radio who speaks widely about the Green New Deal. He formerly served as executive director of the Hunger Action Network of New York State and has run for Congress.

Lindsay Koshgarian: Lindsay’s work and commentary on the federal budget and military spending has appeared on NPR, the BBC, CNN, The Nation, U.S. News and World Report, and others. Now at the Institute for Policy Studies, her work is at the intersection of military and domestic federal spending. She got her start as a clinic worker and organizer at Planned Parenthood in central and suburban Philadelphia, and led economic development and affordable housing studies at the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute prior to joining the National Priorities Project in 2014

Bill Hartung: Bill is director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. He has also served as a Senior Research Fellow in the New America Foundation’s American Strategy Program and is former director of the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute. He specializes in issues of weapons proliferation, the economics of military spending, and alternative approaches to national security strategy. Hartung was the director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. Prior to that, he served as the director of the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute. He also worked as a speechwriter and policy analyst for New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams.

Ruth Benn, of the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee and the New York War Resisters League has prepared a fine short peace announcing this year’s Global Days of Action on Military Spending along with background about this U.S. and international campaign. Click here to read the article.

Click here to register for the March 25 briefing call

The post Global Day of Action Against Military Spending Briefing Calls appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

You can listen to a recording of the webinar by clicking on this link.

For decades, Lisa’s focus on civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action has put her on the frontlines of change. She has supported countless movements including from Battle of Seattle in 1999 to Standing Rock and Ferguson. Recently she has partnered with Extinction Rebellion.

Shut It Down includes historic, behind-the-scenes details from some of the most important resistance movements of the past three decades, and ways that direct action can be a radical and effective means for transforming society.

United for Peace & Justice Coordinating Committee

The post Webinar: How to Make this the Decade of Building Power, Movement Fusion, and Action! appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

What: Divest Oregon from war coalition call
When: Tuesday, September 10th at 6pm – 7pm
Where: Join with your telephone or computer
RSVP here to join and receive call-in details
Contact: maya@codepink.org

You can spread the word about divestment by writing a letter to the editor of your local paper. We make it very easy too!  Just fill out this form and a pre-made letter will be sent for you, or put a personal touch about why you think Oregon should divest from the war machine  and then hit send. Then let me know if you see your letter published!

Towards a Weapons Free Future,
Maya from CODEPINK and United for Peace & Justice

The post Oregonians: We’re talking about ending war. appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

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 international webinar will explore strategies and actions by parliamentarians and civil society 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.

Click here to Register

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

This is the third in a series of webinars being organized by our colleagues in the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, on various nuclear disarmament issues and campaigns.

The UFPJ Coordinating Committee

The post Invitation to Join International Webinar: Divesting from Destruction; Investing in Peace and Sustainability appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.

Sign up for the webinar!

Divestment is an incredibly powerful tool we’re using to end the financing stream to corporations that are making a killing on killing. We have the power to revoke their license on profiting from death and destruction by leveraging power where we have it:  our retirement funds, schools, municipalities, churches, and banks. It’s also a powerful tool to build the anti-war movement in your community.

We’ll take a closer look at winning strategies and tactics, lessons learned, and case studies behind divestment campaigns. I’ll be talking about our current projects with two other accomplished activists: David Swanson, Co-founder and Executive Director of World Beyond War and Susi Snyder, Nuclear Disarmament Program Manager from PAX and author of the Don’t Bank on the Bomb reports.

What: Webinar on divesting from the war machine

When: Tuesday, July 2 at 8:00PM – 9:00PM Eastern

Where: Your telephone or computer

Register!

The webinar will be livestreamed on CODEPINK’s Facebook page at this link. RSVP to the Facebook event and we will send you a reminder as it is about to start. You will also have the option of joining via Zoom on your computer or telephone. RSVP to receive the zoom call-in details!

Towards a weapons-free future,

Maya, CODEPINK, and UFPJ

The post Learn About War Divestment: July 2nd Code Pink Webinar appeared first on United For Peace and Justice.