Tuesday, January 28, the New York City Council will hold a joint hearing on Res. No. 976 and Int. No. 1621. This proposed package of legislation represents a powerful and progressive declaration of NYC’s support for nuclear disarmament and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (endorsing the ICAN Cities Appeal), while providing a mechanism for policy and education related to NYC’s nuclear weapons legacy and subsequent nuclear weapons-free zone status, and also calling for NYC to divest public pension funds from producers and manufacturers of nuclear weapons.
Thanks to the tremendous organizing efforts of the New York Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (NYCAN), both bills now have a super-majority of co-sponsoring Council Members, but your support during the hearing phase is still very important.
We encourage you to promote your support for both bills:
(a) Attend the hearing and press conference— details are available here. Show your support by joining the press conference on the steps of NY City Hall at 11 am. The hearing begins at 1 pm.
(b) Testify at the hearing — you may sign up at the beginning of the hearing to speak. We note that spoken testimony must be limited to two (2) minutes.
(c) Submit written testimony — you may bring your statement to the hearing and/or email it, by 5pm EST on January 28th, to hearings@council.nyc.gov (please copy Robert Croonquist at rcroon@gmail.com so that we may keep track of submissions). We note that there are no restrictions on written testimony.
(d) Follow the hearing — it may also be possible to follow the hearing on the City Council live-stream and/or WNYE television.
(e) Promote the hearing and your support for the bills — respond to and share the Facebook event and tag us on Facebook and on Twitter.
Learn more about New York City’s Policy and Practice on Nuclear Weapons, From the Manhattan Project to Nuclear Free. This new background paper published by Pace University’s International Disarmament Institute provides a historical overview of the development of New York City’s NWFZ and other relevant policy protecting New Yorkers from the humanitarian and environmental consequences of ionizing radiation.
In Solidarity,
United for Peace & Justice Coordinating Committee
