For Immediate Release

Contact: Matt De Vlieger

Phone: (917) 410-0119

Website: www.unitedforpeace.org

Email: info.ufpj@gmail.com

Twitter: @unitedforpeace

Actions Speak Louder than Words: Obama Must Meet With A-Bomb Survivors & Cancel $1 Trillion for New Nukes

Nat’l Peace Network Delivers Letter With 1,500 Signatures to White House

TODAY, ahead of his trip to Hiroshima, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is delivering a letter to President Obama. Since Saturday, 1,500 activists across the country have signed on to the letter urging the President to go to Hiroshima, but not empty-handed. The signers demand that the President meet with hibakusha (A-bomb survivors), terminate plans to spend $1 TRILLION on new nuclear weapons over the next three decades and initiate a process to negotiate the elimination of nuclear weapons as required by the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

“Despite committing the U.S. to “seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,” Obama’s record on nuclear disarmament is dismal, having supported spending $1 trillion over the next 3 decades to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal,” said Jackie Cabasso, Director of Western States Legal Foundation and Co-Convener of UFPJ.

“We don’t know exactly what Obama will say or do in Hiroshima, but we know what he should do. And while it’s unlikely that the President will act on our demands, it’s very important that we make them, and that he hear them from as many people as possible.”

Here’s a link to a PDF version of UFPJ’s letter to the President:

https://www.unitedforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/UFPJ-Letter-to-President-of-USA-Barack-Obama-re-Hiroshima-and-Nuclear-Disarmament.pdf

The letter can still be signed here: https://www.unitedforpeace.org/2016/05/21/petition-obama-nuclear-abolition-hiroshima/

Jackie Cabasso and Joseph Gerson are available for interviews and to provide expert information and opinions. Their bios can be found below.

Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of Western States Legal Foundation & Co-Convener of UFPJ

Jackie Cabasso is an advocate and organizer for nuclear disarmament, non-violence, and environmental protection. Her work encompasses local and international grassroots organizing and activism, including nonviolent direct action; advocacy; and research and analysis published in numerous articles and books. Since 1984 she’s served as E.D. of Western States Legal Foundation (WSLF). She’s a founder of Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons and U.S. coordinator for Mayors for Peace.

Jackie’s extended bio can be found here: http://www.wslfweb.org/aboutwslf.htm

Joseph Gerson, Director of American Friends Service Committee’s Peace and Economic Security Program
Joseph Gerson serves as AFSC’s disarmament coordinator and as director of the Peace and Economic Security Program. He has worked with AFSC since 1976 and plays a leading role in building collaborations among U.S., Asian, and European peace and nuclear weapons abolition movements. His work focuses on challenging and overcoming U.S. global hegemony, including its preparations for and threats to initiate nuclear war and its military domination of the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Joseph’s extended bio can be found here: http://www.afsc.org/media-kit/bios/joseph-gerson

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