Saturday, February 27, 3 – 4:30 pm PST; 4 – 5:30 pm MST; 5 – 6:30 pm CST;
6 – 7:30 pm EST
Featuring:
Seth Shelden, Liaison to the United Nations for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), awardee of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation; National Co-Convener, United for Peace and Justice; and North American Coordinator, Mayors for Peace
Introduced and Moderated by PLC member, Jim Haber
- How is the disarmament movement working to build momentum and halt nuclear proliferation?
- How is the change in national leadership affecting nuclear weapons policy?
- How are linkages being made with climate justice and racial justice movements here and abroad?
- As old anti-nuclear campaigners age out, what is inspiring younger activists to confront the nuclear legacy?
These, your questions, and more will be explored in this stimulating zoom presentation. For the meeting link, click here.
Password, if needed: nde (for Nevada Desert Experience, our zoom host)
The Pacific Life Community (PLC) is a network of spiritually motivated advocates for nuclear abolition and human rights in general. We are committed to ending nuclear weapons and war-making through nonviolent direct action along the Pacific Rim in collaboration with the global peace movement.
The PLC has gathered every year near one of several nuclear weapons related facilities in the western United States around March 1 to commemorate the largest and first hydrogen bomb test by the United States that day in 1954 in the Bikini atoll of the Marshall Islands. The winds were knowingly (according to evidence) blowing towards the neighboring island of Rongelap (as well as The Japanese fishing vessel the Lucky Dragon 5, also caught in the radioactive fallout). Radiation sickness and being treated as dehumanized guinea pigs has dogged the people of Rongelap ever since. The Japanese antinuclear movement erupted following the retriggered trauma caused by the irradiation of the crew of the Lucky Dragon 5.
For 14 years, the creed and annual practice of the PLC is to cry out against the immoral and illegal madness of nuclear weapons and the decades long, nuclear racism of the United States. This year, as the struggle for Black Lives Matter continues to resonate and internationalize, we are duty bound to draw attention to the fact that this struggle is yet another case of deadly, violent, white supremacy and settler colonialism. Another urgent backdrop for this year’s Bravo Nuclear Memorial Weekend is the acceleration of climate crises worldwide. The carbon footprint of making a nuclear weapon might not be especially remarkable. But if used, the climate devastation will be vastly multiplied. Whose radar screens are these connections on, and what is to be done?
At the conclusion of PLC nuclear test memorial weekends, we vigil at a nearby nuclear weapons facility like a Trident submarine base, a missile plant, or the Nevada Test Site. Several members usually take federal or state charges for impeding in some way the ongoing crimes there that are unavoidable with nuclear weapons arsenals, even leading to legal proceedings and even jail time.
This year, we are encouraging people to act, but not with potential arrest actions. Three ways to join us on March 1:
- Socially distance vigil at a local site connected to the nuclear weapons complex with visuals to be uploaded and shared together on social media, starting with the PLC Facebook page
- Sign our March 1 e-letter to President Biden so he knows people want nuclear weapons abolished, not upgraded.
- Use #nuclearban as much as you possibly can on March 1 (…and then some!)
For more information about this year’s (or past) Pacific Life Community, Bravo Test Nuclear Memorial weekend, find us on Facebook or our website.
If you have any questions, contact Jim Haber at haber.jim(at)gmail.com
