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Civil Society Statement to the UN First Committee

November 12, 2014Newsadmin

The Alliance has endorsed the Civil Society Statement to the United Nations First Committee on Nuclear Weapons and the International Security Context. Over 100 organizations — international, national, regional and local, in 11 countries (plus 8 individuals identified for organizational purposes only) — endorsed this powerful statement underscoring the urgency of current nuclear dangers, which was presented to the First Committee on 28 October. For more information, please visit http://www.abolition2000.org/?p=3546.The final statement and list of endorsers is below:

Nuclear Weapons and the International Security Context

Civil Society Statement to the United Nations First Committee, 28 October 2014

At the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, states parties reaffirmed their commitment to a “diminishing role for nuclear weapons in security policies to minimize the risk that these weapons ever be used and to facilitate the process of their total elimination.”^[i] Nearly five years have passed; another Review Conference is in the offing. Nuclear stockpiles of civilization-destroying size persist, and progress on disarmament has stalled.[ii]

The commitment to diminish the role of nuclear weapons in security policies assumed that de-coupling nuclear weapons from conventional military forces would help facilitate elimination of nuclear arsenals. Yet there has been little progress in reducing the role of nuclear weapons. All nuclear-armed states are modernizing their nuclear arsenals. Modernization efforts include development by the leading nuclear weapons states of new nuclear-capable missiles, aircraft, and submarines that will incorporate advances in stealth and accuracy.^[iii] Publicly available information shows that nuclear weapons continue to have a central role in security policies, and in the case of the United States, the integration of conventional and nuclear forces in current war planning.[iv] Potential adversaries of the United States see its advantage in long-range conventional forces as a rationale for retaining and modernizing their nuclear arsenals.

The decoupling of nuclear from conventional military forces is further impeded by arms-racing in non-nuclear weapons of strategic significance. These include missile defenses, more accurate and powerful stand-off weapons, and concepts such as “prompt global strike” that aim to hit targets anywhere on earth with a non-nuclear payload in an hour or less. The United States has taken the lead, but many others are participating in this accelerating new arms race which is not constrained to a bi-polar confrontation.

Nuclear war will not come as a bolt from the blue. It will come when national elites misjudge one another’s interests in a conflict on the borderlands of some nuclear-armed country, and “conventional” warfare escalates out of control. This is all the more likely in the 21^st century strategic context where stealthy, precision stand-off weapons and delivery platforms face sophisticated and increasingly capable air and missile defenses, while electronic warfare measures target sensors and data-dependent systems. These elements can interact at levels of speed and complexity that defy human comprehension, much less rational decision-making.

For more than two decades, the political and military elites of the leading nuclear-armed states have engaged in perilous double-think about their arsenals. They have assured their publics that the continued existence of nuclear weapons in civilization-destroying numbers no longer presented a real danger because the risk of war among nuclear-armed states was a feature of the Cold War, now safely past. At the same time, they have done everything necessary to keep catastrophe-capable nuclear arsenals long into the future, as a hedge against the day when the most powerful states again might make war with one another.

Today we see a new round of confrontations among nuclear-armed states, in economic and political circumstances that bear worrisome resemblances to those that brought about the devastating wars of the 20^th century. Amidst one crisis after another from Ukraine to the Western Pacific, the world’s most powerful militaries brandish their nuclear arms, while claiming that “routine” exercises with weapons of mass destruction pose no danger, could never be misconstrued or get out of hand.

To those who view the world from the heights of power and privilege in nuclear-armed states, all this only gives further reason to hold on to the weapons they have, and to develop more. For the vast majority of humanity, struggling just to get by in a world of immensely stratified wealth and power, it means a return to madness, to a world where at any moment the people can be annihilated to preserve the state. The lack of urgency on disarmament in the ruling circles of the most powerful states should shock the conscience of every person who still has one.

The growing risks of great power war and use of nuclear weapons make the abolition of nuclear weapons all the more imperative. It is far more likely to succeed if linked to economic equity, democracy, climate and environmental protection, and dismantlement of highly militarized security postures. For our part, Abolition 2000 members and partner groups are organizing a large-scale civil society conference, march and rally on these themes on the eve of the 2015 NPT Review Conference, the presentation of millions of signatures calling for the total ban and elimination of nuclear weapons, and local actions around the world.[v]

— Statement coordinated by Western States Legal Foundation, Oakland, California, USA, a member of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons. Endorsed by 100 international, national, regional and local civil society organizations in 11 countries (plus 8 individuals for organizational identification only).

Statement endorsed by:

Action AWE, London, United Kingdom

Arab Human Security Network, Damascus, Syria

Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, USA

Ban All Nukes generation (BANg, international)

Basel Peace Office, Basel, Switzerland

Beacon Presbyterian Fellowship, Oakland, California, USA

Beyond Nuclear, Takoma Park, Maryland, USA

Brooklyn for Peace, New York City, New York, USA

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, United Kingdom

Christians For The Mountains, Dunmore, West Virginia, USA

Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India

CODEPINK, USA

Code Pink Golden Gate Chapter (Bay Area Code Pink), California, USA

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Crabshell Alliance, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Democratic World Federalists, International

Earth Action, International

Ecumenical Peace Institute/CALC (Clergy and Laity Concerned), Berkeley, California, USA

Fairmont, MN Peace Group, Fairmont, Minnesota, USA

Fellowship of Reconciliation, USA

Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation, Washington, USA

Friends Committee on National Legislation, USA

Fukushima Response Bay Area, Northern California, USA

German chapter, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, Berlin, Germany

Green Shadow Cabinet, USA

International Network of Engineers and Scientists (INES)

INND (Institute of Neurotoxicology & Neurological Disorders), Seattle, Washington, USA

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)

International Peace Bureau

Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo), Japan

Jeannette Rankin Peace Center, Missoula, Montana, USA

Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, New York City, New York, USA

Le Mouvement de la Paix, France

LEPOCO Peace Center, Lehigh-Pocono Committee of Concern, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, Garden City, New York, USA

Los Altos Voices for Peace, Los Altos, California, USA

Metta Center for Nonviolence, Petaluma, California, USA

MLK (Martin Luther King) Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

Montrose Peace Vigil, Montrose, California, USA

Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center, Walnut Creek, California, USA

Multifaith Voices for Peace & Justice, Palo Alto, California, USA

Nafsi Ya Jamii community center, Oakland, California, USA

Nevada Desert Experience, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

No Nukes Action Committee, Northern California, USA/Japan

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Santa Barbara, California, USA

Silicon Valley Chapter, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Menlo Park, California, USA

Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Takoma Park, Maryland, USA

Nuclear Watch New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Nukewatch, Luck, Wisconsin, USA

Oakland CAN (Community Action Network), Oakland, California, USA

Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA

Office of the Americas, Santa Monica, California, USA

Oregon PeaceWorks, Salem, Oregon, USA

Our Developing World, Saratoga, California, USA

Pacem in Terris, Wilmington, Delaware, USA

Pax Christi International

Pax Christi USA

Pax Christi Long Island, New York, USA

Pax Christi Metro New York, New York City, USA

Peace Action, USA

Peace Action West, California, USA

Peace Action Staten Island, Staten Island, New York, USA

Peace Boat, Japan/international

Peace Foundation, New Zealand

Peaceworkers, San Francisco, California, USA

People for Nuclear Disarmament, Australia

Physicians for Social Responsibility, USA

Physicians for Social Responsibility – Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

San Francisco Bay Area Chapter Physicians for Social Responsibility, California, USA

Popular Resistance, USA

Prague Vision Institute for Sustainable Security, Prague, Czech Republic

Proposition One Campaign, Tryon, North Carolina, USA

Rachel Carson Council, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Reach and Teach, San Mateo, California, USA

Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA

RootsAction.org, USA

Scientists for Peace, Germany

Sisters of Charity Federation, North America

Sisters of Charity of New York, New York City, New York, USA

Soka Gakkai Internatioal (SGI)

Swedish Peace Council Sweden

The Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy

The Colorado Coalition for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Denver, Colorado, USA

The Ecological Options Network, EON, Bolinas, California, USA

The Human Survival Project, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

The Nuclear Resister, USA

The Peace Farm, Amarillo, Texas, USA

The United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society (international)

Topanga Peace Alliance. California, USA

Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), Livermore, California, USA

2020 Action, USA

United for Peace and Justice, USA

United Nations Association, San Francisco, California, USA

US Peace Council, USA

Veterans for Peace, USA

War Prevention Initiative, Portland, Oregon, USA

WarIsACrime.org, USA

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom – US Section (WILPF US

World Future Council (international)

World Peace Now, Point Arena, California, USA

Dr. Joseph Gerson, American Friends Service Committee, USA*

Stephen McNeil, American Friends Service Committee, Wage Peace program, San Francisco, California, USA*

Aaron Tovish, International Campaign Director, Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign*

David McReynolds, former Chair, War Resisters International*

Rev. Marilyn Chilcote, Parish Associate St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley, California, USA*

Sarah H. Lorya, MA, School Outreach Coordinator,

AFS-USA, Inc.*

Don Eichelberger, Abalone Alliance Safe Energy Clearinghouse, San Francisco, California, USA*

Libbe HaLevy, Nuclear Hotseat Podcast, USA*

*for purposes of identification only

[i] 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Final Document, Volume I, NPT/CONF.2000/28 (Parts I and II), p.15; reaffirmed by 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Final Document, Volume I, p.19.

[ii] See Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris, “Worldwide deployments of nuclear weapons, 2014,”Bulletin of Atomic Scientists online, 2014.

[iii] Hans M. Kristensen and Robert S. Norris, “Slowing Nuclear Weapon Reductions and Endless Nuclear Weapon Modernizations: A Challenge to the NPT,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 2014 No.70 p.94.

[iv] Nuclear weapons continue to be a core element of NATO’s strategic concept, with the nuclear arsenals of the United States, France, and the United Kingdom considered to be the “supreme guarantee of the security of the Allies.” Active Engagement, Modern Defence : “Strategic Concept For the Defence and Security of The Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation,” Adopted by Heads of State and Government in Lisbon, 19th November 2010. The 2014 Master Plan of the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command, responsible for the missile and bomber elements of U.S. nuclear forces, states that “AFGSC [Air Force Global Strike Command] will maintain and improve its ability to employ nuclear weapons in a range of scenarios, to include integration with conventional operations….” U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command, Strategic Master Plan 2014, p.9. Russia’s most recent publicly available military doctrine document states that “ [t]he Russian Federation reserves the right to utilize nuclear weapons in response to the utilization of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and (or) its allies, and also in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation involving the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is under threat.”

Peace Fellows Now Open!

November 7, 2014Blog Postsadmin

The Peace Fellows Program at Hofstra University is officially accepting applications for the 2015 spring semester!

The LI Alliance Peace Fellows Program is working with Hofstra’s Center for Civic Engagement to find undergraduate and graduate students that are interested in peace, nonviolence, and alternatives to war and conflict.

This fellowship is open to Hofstra University students only.

Our Peace Fellows Program introduces participants to deliberative discussions using the National Issues Forum, advocacy and organizing, as well as a great range of social justice networking opportunities with professors, board members, and local activists. Past fellows have gone on to work for congressional campaigns, non-profit organizations, and independent news media outlets. The semester-long program will include readings, weekly meetings with briefings and discussions, lectures, training in deliberative dialogue techniques, and an assessment of the program.
Please fill out the application here: goo.gl/CSozJd and send in a resume, two references, and a copy of your schedule to longislandpeace@gmail.com.

We will review your answers and follow-up with a request for an interview as soon as possible.

Questions for 2014 Congressional Candidates

October 7, 2014Blog Postsadmin

The alliance has come together to set up a series of questions to ask all 2014 congressional candidates to answer at candidate forums and call-ins based on relevant foreign policy issues. Please use this as a guide and send us any feedback and/or answers. Please return responses to: LI Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, P.O. Box 301, Garden City NY 11530

FOREIGN POLICY QUESTIONS FOR

2014 LI CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES

1. Do you support or oppose the repeal of the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force, allowing the executive branch to use military force? Why?

2. Do you support or oppose current U.S. policy of providing training, assistance and weapons to rebels to defeat ISIS in Syria and Iraq? Why? Is there an alternative?

3. Do you support or oppose the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces in Afghanistan sooner than the Adminstration’s proposed 2016 date? OR do you support keeping about 10,000 forces in Afghanistan as agreed to in recent Bilateral Security Agreement? Why?

4. How would you avoid a new cold war between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine? What specific actions would you propose?

5. Would you vote for or against cuts in the Trillion$ military budget to support needed domestic programs? Why? What would you cut?

Noura Kiridly on War in the Middle East

September 24, 2014Blog Postsadmin

I know you’re probably tired of hearing about the Middle East at this point. I know a lot of people are because I see it and hear it and read it all the time with comments like, “let’s just bomb the middle east and be done with it,” or “there will never be stability in the Middle East so why do we talk about it,” or “I hope all muslims die” because according to them, Muslim and Arab is synonymous, or referring to everyone as terrorists. Or, if you’re more politically correct, you’ll say something like, “I don’t really care” and “I don’t follow politics.”

I understand that you want to read about other things and that the Middle East seems far away and just a crazy place where a lot of barbaric things happen and maybe there are even random buzz topics you can recite, like “Sunni-Shitte conflict” or “Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” But I want everyone to really try and understand something, deeply and truly. People — real, living, breathing, eating, loving, people — live in these countries. They are not others; they are not barbaric; they are people exactly like you, and they suffer every day from the rapid and continuous destabilization of their countries, the entire region, the political and economic structures, and live in fear for the future. They are forced with the unpleasant question of leaving a home they grew up in, leaving their culture behind, and trying their best to move somewhere else or live a life in constant fear of death and destruction of everything they’ve worked for their entire lives. I want you to understand that we have been at war with the Middle East for decades. I want you to understand that we have consistently invaded and consistently put leaders in power that have done nothing good for the countries at hand. I want you to understand that money and greed are behind 90% of political actions.

I want you to understand that this is a GENOCIDE.

The number of people who have died is unreal…the number of refugees…the pure lack of hope for one’s own country. I want you to understand that as you sit and read this right now, history is evolving beyond your borders and I want you to understand that one day a white, pretentious guy with a degree from a fancy private school will make documentaries and movies and start a museum and write in political papers and teach a class about the genocide that happened in the Middle East like there was nothing we could do about it then. I want you to remember what I’m saying: When we grow up and there are museums about what the Middle East used to be, what it looked like before it was destroyed, America and Americans will make money off of the backs of the culture and the people they are killing. I want you to know that the more destabilized a country becomes the more extreme its citizens become for survival. I want you to understand that people everywhere need jobs and need money and need to feed their kids and they will do what it takes to get to that goal. I want you to know that people will take jobs over terrorism anywhere, any day — assuming they have that choice. I want you to know religion doesn’t have much to do with this; it is poverty, hopelessness, lack of resources, and residual anger from the loss of family members/regions that contribute to extreme actions. When I go to talks about the region, about the ever-feared and ever-hyped “ISIS” I realize that the white savior complex we read about in textbooks still exists. American exceptionalism still exists. I want you to know that Western foreign politics destabilized the entire Middle East and continues to do so. This is why it is the way it is.

I want you to know that there is NO GOOD WAY to have an occupation of a country. It hurts the country occupied to a degree you cannot imagine — but it also hurts American troops, American families, American dollars. I want you to know that when you hear about ISIS beheading people and you think bout how horrible they must be, that we do that every single day in this country. We let people in this country go poor, go hungry, go homeless, and we kick them around. We strike drones down on countries; we smash them to bits without respect and ruin towns and centuries of history.

I want you to ask yourself if that is okay and if we haven’t evolved enough as a society, as humans, to see the problem with that. I want you to think if that is the correct response to a humanitarian issue.

All you journalist students who benefit off of the hype of ISIS or talking about a humanitarian issues that a group is facing: I want you to think about the root of all the problems these people are facing and dig a little deeper. I know it is hard for people to understand what is going on in a region they’re not from and I don’t blame anyone. The media is completely horrible and a joke. But, in all my ranting, please do me one favor and get angry. Get angry that we are entering into ANOTHER WAR right now and you don’t have enough money to pay off your school loans. Get angry that we are killing people in mass numbers and your name will be tied to it. Get angry that there is a lack of compassion. Get angry that you can’t access accurate and good information about what happens in the world. Get angry because the citizens in countries that are effected by all these horrible things are angry, or hopeless, but their opinion isn’t heard and won’t ever have a big enough venue to be heard. Get angry because my anger, or anyone who is Muslim or from the Middle East will never hold as much weight as yours will. Please try to get angry and look for different opinions and try to form your own, or question your own.

We’re going to war everybody, and if you think things are going to slow down, re-think that, and get angry.

Written by Peace Fellow Noura Kiridly and reproduced here with permission.

Newsday Letters: Call to war in Syria Not Examined

September 23, 2014Blog Posts, Newsadmin

Executive Director Margaret Melkonian was published in Newsday this weekend calling for no war in Syria:

Responses from our elected officials on Long Island were very disheartening and ignored, once again, the perilous consequences of U.S. military intervention. Entering into another war in the Middle East disregards the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan — that there is no military solution to end these civil wars, and that airstrikes will only fuel Arab anger and increase terrorist recruitment as their civilians are killed.

Rather than airstrikes, the United States should use our leverage and power for negotiations. A long-term political solution is required that includes the United Nations and all parties of the countries involved.

We cannot afford another decade of war; it will destroy our country and our democracy. This president was elected to end wars, not to start a new one in Syria.

Margaret Melkonian, Uniondale

Editor’s note: The writer is director of the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives.

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/letters/letters-call-to-war-in-syria-not-examined-1.9298544

Update on Our Past Fellows!

August 22, 2014Blog Posts, Photosadmin

With summer slowly coming to an end and students moving back onto campus, we’ll shared some of the activities our Peace Fellows have been up to since the program ended and throughout the summer on our Facebook page. Here are the posts:

Meet Mishaina Joseph!
This summer she went to the inaugural PULSE institute, a week long program spent discussing issues like sexuality, gender, race, socio-economic status. This is part of the Sustained Dialogue Network, whose mission is to create personal relationships through dialogue as a mean of conflict resolution. Everyone is asked to talk about these issues through a personal lens, making it easier for people to relate to one another. She is excited to share that the group of 5 students who attended are committed to bringing the program to campus.
She says, “ I cant wait to show the Hofstra community what we have planned for them.”

Meet Tara Hamilton!
Tara was a member of our first Peace Fellows program in the spring of 2013. She has continued studying Early Education and History into her third year. Last semester she was inducted into the History Honor Society Phi Alpha Theta. She’ll be treasure of Hofstra’s chapter of the Roosevelt Institute, the biggest national student-driven policy organization.
She has worked with the alliance as an intern since her fellowship ended and we are happy to have her on board once again this upcoming year!

Meet Johannes Sorto!
He says, “Since being part of the first Peace Fellows Program, most of my time has been spent at 88.7FM WRHU, Hofstra’s own radio station, where I host a morning talk show discussing current events. I have been following events around the world very closely and have been doing my best effort to inform my community about issues in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Meet Blaine Volpe!
This summer, she interned for Senator Sherrod Brown as a legislative intern in Washington, D.C.. She was also re-elected as President of Hofstra Democrats and is now the Long Island Region Chair of College Democrats of New York . She’s also been working as Vice President of Hofstra’s chapter of the Roosevelt Institute and Treasurer of the Pre-Law fraternity, Phi Alpha Delta.
Blaine has also managed to pick up two new majors, Global Studies and Geography.

Meet Denisse Girón!
Right after her time in the program ended, Denisse began a 6-month fellowship with Make the Road New York and then brought her experience there to campus when she joined Hofstra’s Center for Civic Engagement as a fellow. She has also been working with the online magazine Everyday Feminism since January and this summer she interned at The Brotherhood/Sister Sol in West Harlem to work on fair policing and youth organizing.
We are happy to have her work with us again as an intern this upcoming year!

Meet Jeanine Russaw!
Jeanine is now a senior, graduating in May 2015. After completing the pilot Peace Fellows program as a sophomore, she has had internships with the political news program at NY1 and has become a freelance writer for PeaceVoice.info and WagingNonviolence.org. This semester she will be interning with Democracy Now!
Her work will be expanding on her blog, jeaninerussaw.com — be sure to check it out!

Existential Threats of Nuclear War and Climate Change

August 15, 2014Newsadmin

Rev. Mark Lukens of Bethany Congregational Church, East Rockaway, and board member of LI Alliance, made the best case for uncompromising, total opposition to war, and for a moment, even made the abolition of war seem attainable:

“These kinds of gatherings represent our willingness and courage to look fearlessly and critically at ourselves, cherished sacred cows,” he told the gathering. “It is only that kind of willingness, courage that allows us to have hope that maybe we can change the future – break the cycle of violence that is too much our history.”

World War II is probably the last war that is widely considered “the good war,” but, as he noted, “In its final days in order to bring an end to that bloodiest of all wars and defeat enemy that threatened the very foundation of human civilization, the United States, on this day in 1945, dropped an atomic bomb on city of Hiroshima, and a few days later on Nagasaki – and in a blink of an eye, in the effort to defeat a terrible foe, we committed an instant genocide of our own, taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of human beings- civilians and soldiers – unleashed on history a Pandora’s box of utter annihilation, the madness of mutually assured destruction and forever altered the ecology of our planet, even as US legitimate use of mass destruction on civilian population, and hung sword of Damocles on entire human race, a threat to entire existence on planet, we deal with to this day.

“You can argue the morality of that decision, and good men and women stand on both sides, but there can be no doubt about its legacy – like fallout, a nuclear event remains with us, polluting the air we breathe, the water we drink, poisoning the atmosphere – It is accepted, if not a legitimate means of waging war, and creating a blueprint for a pattern of atrocities we see repeated over and over again, from Bosnia, to Afghanistan to Syria to Gaza.”

“Worst of all, is the erosion of bonds of our shared humanity as the possibility of annihilating those who stand in way of national, religious aspirations, political desire – has gone from unthinkable to realizable, even the very same nations who went to war precisely to end that madness.

“That’s why events like this one tonight are so important, why it matters so much we have gathered.

“We won’t put the genie back in bottle through sanctions, threats of military force, or any of those strategies that, like bombing, make us the image of those we hate – we won’t alter the arc of human history by self-justifying..

“Because change, if it is to be, can only come by altering the paradigm, by standing up as we are this evening to mourn, remember together those whose lives were taken, not as inevitable casualties of justified war but for who they really were, women, and men and children just like ours, people with hopes and aspirations, shared with those they loved, as human beings created in image of god, their lives uniquely valuable, uniquely precious and worthy of our concern –

“By bringing that message to the world, to assure that no matter how necessary, how worthy the cause, there is no such thing as a good war, because every war is about death of the innocent, the devastation of that which can never be replaced, every war destroys our planet, every war steals a bit of our future and takes from us a piece of our collective soul.

“As our planet becomes smaller, hotter and so many of our people, more desperate, we have no more pieces left to give. We can’t hide behind our arsenals any longer – as the suffering, destitute pound at our gates.

“We have to demand for ourselves as well as them, an end – not just Iran, North Korea but right here at home as well.

“For those who are yet to be, we have to make peace – and not just for some of us, all of us, because no less than the very survival of all of us is at stake.”

These quotes were taken as part of Examiner, here: http://www.examiner.com/article/hiroshima-local-activists-seek-end-existential-threats-of-war-climate-change

Jeanine Russaw on #BringBackOurGirls

August 10, 2014Blog Postsadmin

Our former Peace Fellow Jeanine Russaw was published in PeaceVoice (Oregon Peace Institute) last month, talking about the #BringBackOurGirls campaign and the effectiveness of online activism. Check out the full article below and here.

Global Justice for Our Girls: Hashtags and Selfies Still Aren’t Enough
by Jeanine Russaw

Thirty. Twenty. Fifteen.

She puts up a good fight: struggling, kicking, and biting are just par for the course. Not to mention, she’s used to it; it’s happened before. Ten. Five. She lets out an agonizing scream. Zero.

It’s too late. She’s gone. Thirty seconds is all it takes for a girl to be taken from her world and everything she knows. For the276 Nigerian girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram in April 2014, life was forever changed in 30 seconds and they are not even aware of the barely consistent tweeting and micro-blogging that has been done on their behalf. Sixty-three of the girls escaped earlier this month, and there are Nigerian governmental attempts to provide reparations. But there is a lot more to be done for the women and girls remaining – in Nigeria and beyond – and hashtags and selfies just aren’t enough.

“Every year, at least another two million girls worldwide disappear because of gender discrimination.” Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wu Dunn found this distressing statistic on their quest to shed light on deadly sexism with their 2009 book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

The chilling reality of sexism in the developing world presented by Kristof and Wu Dunn is one that often keeps me awake at night. Perhaps the most troubling is the lack of meaningful action taken by my fellow Americans who, aside from the occasional hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, or a selfie with a poster, are not immune to apathetic attitudes in the face of blatant sexism – even in their own backyards.

Of course, hashtags and selfies by themselves are not inherently bad. Rather, the problem lies in what they represent. This form of citizen media is indicative of nothing more than a fad and when the trend fades away, so does the concern. Since when did it become okay for the lives of innocent young women to be viewed as “the next big thing?” All of a sudden, it was considered “hip” to care about the wellbeing of women and post a selfie with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls – as if that is actually going to transport the ladies to a safe home with their families.

The rising use of this hashtag occurred with First Lady Michelle Obama’s own influential selfie. While there can be no fault found in the Obama’s support for the delicate situation, sensationalism can often blind us to the issue at hand. We become infatuated with the idea of taking some immediate military action as opposed to actually acting on our ideals. Hashtags and bombs are not the only options.

I’m not suggesting that we have to get on the next plane heading to Nigeria and demand to meet with Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, but we can at least take the time to become educated about the true goings on of Boko Haram beyond Twitter and #BringBackOurGirls. Only then can we think logically about our collective role in the struggle.

There are many options we can take to help provide justice for girls and women in Nigeria and worldwide, and we should feel compelled to do so. Of most importance is to actively align ourselves with organizations and activists who are already working against global oppression of women. Such as She’s the First, which sponsors worldwide female education with the intention of “creating our next generation of global leaders.” Another example is Girl Up, which has been active in bringing awareness to ongoing gender discrimination by “uniting girls to change the world.” Then there is my personal favorite, Kristof and Wu Dunn’s Half the Sky Movement, which “turns oppression into opportunity for women worldwide.”

And, our fight against gendered violence can’t stop at man-made, national boundaries. As the release date of Kristof and Wu Dunn’s latest book, A Path Appears, approaches, we must realize a serious injustice: that geographic location is often the only difference between our suffering and their suffering. As a young American woman, I am no different than those of Nigerian descent. That could just as easily have been me – or you – had I been born of Nigerian parents as opposed to Americans ones. Remove the geographic, genetic lottery and an injustice to one looks a lot more like an injustice to all.

How do we make the world safer and eliminate the terror for those of us born without a Y chromosome? No, the answer is not:Let’s hashtag a selfie about it! As well, the answer is not: Let’s send over some advisors and weapons! Our fight against global sexism and gendered violence must remain resolute, but preventing and eliminating gendered injustices, at home and abroad, must center on active participation in and full support of civil society movements already engaged in the struggle.

Jeanine Russaw (@jMarieRussaw), writing for PeaceVoice, is a multimedia journalist, freelance writer and a senior at Hofstra University majoring in journalism and global studies and concentrating on human rights reporting and female/minority empowerment.

Things to Remember When Talking About Immigration

August 7, 2014Blog Postsadmin

Another year has passed with a failure to bring a comprehensive immigration reform to the Congressional floor. With this in mind, the greater organizing community has even shifted away from reform and brought new attention toward ending deportations by asking President Obama to use his executive powers. But now with the increasing number of child migrants currently in the news, immigration has once again been the subject of ridicule and condemnation from mass media outlets and even our own political leaders. Oh, how easily we seem to forget history.

Seriously, we have really forgotten key parts of the immigration conversation.

Many people around me don’t seem to know how to talk about immigration. Most play it off with a simple “Yeah, it’s a difficult situation” in an attempt to appease my feelings, while a few others charge head first into the economics of allowing more citizenship. Between the fear of insulting my Latino heritage and purposefully trying to insult it, many of those I’ve run in to seem to have forgotten a lot of details that really frame why we need an immigration reform.

So this is a note to all of those out there talking about immigration — students, political leaders, self-proclaimed Liberals, community organizations, friends, and family: when talking about immigration, let’s not forget…

1. The History of US Intervention

“They never teach us in school that the huge Latino presence here is a direct result of our own government’s actions in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America over many decades — actions that forced millions from that region to leave their homeland and journey north.”

That’s one of the opening lines in the film Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, originally a book written by journalist Juan Gonzalez. This book outlines the long history of the United States’ intervention in Latin America, including countries like El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico. Now, if there was one book that I could recommend to all those immigration “experts,” it would be this one. As a historian, it’s important to me to acknowledge the US’s intervention, military aid, and financial assistance to oppressive government in Latin American throughout the 20th century.

One of the biggest examples out of these is Guatemala. In 1944, a civilian government was finally elected on a platform of ambitious land reforms. However, The US’s C.I.A. helped orchestrate a government overthrow against President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 and installed a right-wing military dictator that would benefit them and the United Fruit Company. For the next forty years, Guatemala was plunged into political civil war.The leftist groups against the government aligned with the Mayan tribes, which eventually turned the right government against all Mayans. This soon became a ‘dirty war’ tactics: In 1966, Guatemala pioneered the use of forced disappearances through U.S.-trained death squads, tortures and executions, and even dropping bodies into the Pacific Ocean.

The height of the civil war was reached under dictator Efrain Rios Montt, who was a graduate of Fort Benning military base in Georgia. Ríos Montt enjoyed close ties with the Reagan administration and with conservatives in the United States and his reign is known as the bloodiest period in Guatemala’s history. During that time, the Guatemalan government led a campaign to wipe out an estimated 70,000 indigenous peoples.

When Fox New correspondences claim that immigrants come with a history of violence, I only shake my head at the thought that the true history of violence comes from the United States. What would have these countries been today without North American political manipulation?

And just think — this is only one summary of the US’s intervention in Latin America. Interested in the history of other countries? Check out the Center for Justice and Accountability’s easily accessible one-pagers.

2. This Isn’t Just a Latino Issue

We frame immigration as solely Latino issue and that’s a problem. Although Latinos may be statistically the highest number of undocumented immigrants currently in the US, we are by far not the only ones.

Remember how a few seconds ago we outlined how the US liked to put its two cents in Spanish-speaking countries? Well, the same is true in a lot of other places.

Take Haiti, for example, which shares an island with the Dominican Republic. When the U.S. invaded in 1915, they drafted a new constitution and founded the Forces Armées d’Haiti (FADH), an institution that ultimately become an obstacle in creating democracy in the country during the 20th century. Outside of Haiti, the US government is notorious for supporting the Dominican dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, who made it a mission to wipe out any trace of Africanism while in power. In 1937, Trujillo ordered an attack on the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, slaughtering tens of thousands of Haitians as they tried to escape. The American occupation and support for Trujillo left a strain on Haiti-U.S. relations and disparity in Haiti.

Escaping the results of this, many Haitians live abroad, chiefly in regions by North America. In the United States alone there are an estimated 975,000 people of Haitian ancestry, according to the last census. The Center for Immigration Studies claims that at the best estimate, there are between 75,000 to 125,000 undocumented Haitian immigrants in the country.

The story of Asian immigration isn’t all that nice either, even when taught in classrooms. This can date back to 1882 and the Chinese Exclusion Act. During the early stages of the gold rush in the 1840s, Chinese immigrants were barely tolerated and generally not well received. The exclusion act ceased all immigration of Chinese laborers.

At the same time, the American government began targeting Asian immigrants by passing the Page Act of 1875. This said that anyone considered “undesirable” would not be allowed to enter, with a special emphasis on Asian women. By not allowing women to enter through the US borders, the Chinese were unable to create families that fostered their cultures, as well as leaving American men married to Asian women during World War I ultimately helpless. The act was also successful in keeping the ratio of females to males low.

It wasn’t until the 1940s when these acts were fully repealed, allowing growing waves of Asian immigration. Currently, Indians, Chinese, and Filipinos are the largest Asian ethnic groups immigrating to the United States.

Immigration is not just a Latino issue. By excluding other groups from joining talks about immigration, we lose support, allies, and a true unification to bring progressive policy forward on the Congressional floor.

3. Our Most Marginalized

Like most of history, men seem to be at the forefront. I will continue to push back and say that there are 3 vital groups that we need to include in any talk of reform, too: children, women, and queers.

The current child migration crisis has actually brought a lot of light to youth and immigration. The importance of the “new” crisis is that the numbers have reached a peak.

It’s about damn time we addressed the crisis with our youth.

The reality, however, is that youth and children have always been crossing our borders. In 2010, the film Which Way Home documented the hardships youth between the ages of 12 and 18 faced when crossing the US-Mexico frontier. By that point, about 8,000 children were being led in either alone or through smugglers across the North American border. And why were they leaving? Many haven’t seen their parents in years and this is their attempt at a family reunification. But others are assuming responsibility as young adults and they want to get jobs in the United States to work and send money home for their parents.

Those left back at home are also important people to think about. The decision to emigrate to North America is big for all members of the family, but wives remaining in native countries are too often left out of the dialogue.

A majority of the time, men are the ones to leave for the states, leaving wives and children at home. And the journey into the US is not easy and immigrants cross knowing that they may not make it to the other side. Statistics show that deaths along the Mexican border have gone up almost 30% within the last two years. This leaves women to raise kids alone without that extra income. They can be left with few options: lean on family for financial support and care, send their kids out to work instead of school, or take the risk of trying to cross the borders themselves. And there is no need to argue to growing levels of violence against women on the border.

When their partners do make it across, wives are often left without communication from their partners starting from the first day of leaving up until they can find a source of communication — which can be weeks. And then there is always the possibility that their husbands may decide to never communicate with them. I’ve seen men fall in love with other women here in the states and leave their families back at home in favor of their new ones. What are mothers to do then?

And then we take a look at the queer community.

Before the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down last year, LGB people could not benefit for marital benefits like heterosexual couples. This meant that although a couple, one being a US citizen and the other an immigrant, may have been together for as long as an international visa permitted, the couple could not get married in any state and the non-citizen partner could not file for citizenship if (somehow) married. Once their visa was up, the couple was forced to separate or stay in constant fear of being deported. Luckily, DOMA was struck down and immediately couples rushed to the altar.

The new challenges comes when policing queer bodies. Last year, the National Center for Transgender Equality released a report, stating that undocumented transgender immigrants are “among the most vulnerable to discrimination and violence in employment, housing, healthcare, and opportunities for citizenship under current US immigration law.” Approximately 39% of undocumented transgender people say that they have lost their jobs due to workplace discrimination. And with the accessibility of public documents, transpeople could easily be outed by someone else.

If a transgender person is arrested, they face the possibility of time in immigration detention centers. According to the report, that could mean being forced into segregated detention similar to solitary confinement. In a worst case scenario, they can be sent back to their home countries.

Immigration is an issue that can be brought forward with policy that benefits those that most need it. I completely understand that is not an easy conversation to have. With the back-and-forth game our government plays with immigrant lives, many have slipped out of this important conversation. But here is to loud call to our community and political leader to remember our people — ALL people.

This post was crossposted with permission from the writer.

Hiroshima 69th Commemoration

July 30, 2014Upcoming Eventsadmin

69th Commemoration of Hiroshima

Wednesday August 6, 2014

7:30 p.m.

“It is Time to Abolish Nuclear Weapons,

Climate Change and War”

A CALL TO CONSCIENCE!

Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock

48 Shelter Rock Rd. Manhasset, NY 11030

Music by Willow

SPEAKERS:

HON. MICHELLE SCHIMEL

New York State Assemblywoman

MICHAEL D’INNOCENZO

Professor of History & Harry Wachtel Distinguished Teaching

Professor for the Study of Non Violent Social Change at Hofstra

REVEREND MARK LUKENS

Bethany Congregational Church, Chair Interfaith Alliance

MARGARET MELKONIAN

Executive Director Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives

SHIRLEY ROMAINE

Actress, Co-chair Great Neck SANE/Peace Action

This program is dedicated to the memory of JONATHAN SCHELL:

writer, teacher, anti-nuclear activist, author of Fate of the Earth.

SPONSORS: Great Neck SANE/Peace Action,

The Social Justice Committee of UUCSR and

The Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives present

SUPPORTERS:The Interfaith Alliance LI; Pax Christi LI; Islamic Center of Long Island; Reach out America; The North Country Peace Group; Suffolk Peace Network; Peace Action New York State; Womanspace

Info: UUCSR, 516-627-6560, www.uucsr.org – Great Neck SANE/Peace Action, 516487-3786 –

LI Alliance, 516-741-4360 – www.longislandpeace.org – longislandpeace@gmail.com