June 2023
The need for whistleblowing in my area of so-called national security is that we have a secret foreign policy, which has been very successfully kept secret and essentially mythical.... I'm saying there's never been more need for whistleblowers.
Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg Presente!
The world has lost a champion. The movements for peace and justice have lost a hero, a role model, an inspiration, and a dear friend. On June 16, Daniel Ellsberg died peacefully at his home after generously warning us, in his own inimitable way, about what was coming after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February. That same day, a remarkable, moving, and enlightening interview with Dan's son, Robert Ellsberg, was published. In the interview, Robert explained, "Even when I was a child, my father tended to talk to me about 'grown-up' things: his concerns about the Vietnam War, his discovery of Gandhian nonviolence, his thoughts on history, empire, the human capacities for evil and for changing the world, the meaning of truth, and the perils of nuclear war. In that way, I don't suppose he was a typical father." May he rest in peace.
Hundreds of Poor People, Faith Leaders from 30+ States Descend on Capitol Hill for Three-Day Poor People's Campaign Congress, Demand Action to Address Death by Poverty
Poor People's Campaign leaders came together on Capitol Hill June 19-21 to highlight poverty as an American death sentence and demand action to end murder by public policy. The Poor People's Campaign Moral Poverty Action Congress brought together hundreds of poor and low-wealth people and faith leaders from across the country to strategize and demand that addressing poverty be on the nation's agenda heading into the 2024 elections. The Congress opened with an event highlighting a recent report citing poverty as the fourth leading cause of death in America. Following Congressional visits, impacted people and faith leaders rallied at the Capitol, where participants spoke out about how poverty is an American death sentence that has directly impacted their lives and their families. Watch the video recording. Read more.
Poor People's Campaign State Fact Sheets -- 2023
In 1968, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders launched a Poor People's Campaign to tackle what he called the "Triplets of Evil" -- systemic racism, poverty, and militarism. Fifty years later, activists revived that multi-racial fusion movement to carry on the fight against these injustices, as well as the growing scourge of ecological devastation. Since 2018, the Institute for Policy Studies has served as the research arm of the modern-day Poor People's Campaign. In 2023, the Poor People's Campaign, the Kairos Center, Repairers of the Breach, and the Institute for Policy Studies are taking stock with the release of new, updated fact sheets that examine the state of poverty and inequality at the national level in the U.S. as well as extensive data for each of the 50 states and D.C. Find your state's fact sheet here.
Global Spending on Nuclear Weapons Increases to $82.9 Billion
Global spending on nuclear weapons has increased for the third year in a row as the nine nuclear-armed states continued to modernize and expand their arsenals. According to a new report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), all together the nine countries spent $82.9 billion, 3% more than in 2021. That is $157,664 spent per minute on nuclear arms in 2022. As Jackie Cabasso, with Western States Legal Foundation, told a reporter working on a story about this study: "The nuclear weapons budget and the military budget more broadly are about more than just morality or guns vs. butter tradeoffs. We also need to be cognizant of the purposes and interests that nuclear weapons and militarism serve, and how perpetual war preparations manifest a culture of violence that runs from the top to the bottom of our society."
U.S. Conference of Mayors Adopts New Resolution "Calling for Urgent Action to Avoid Nuclear War, Resolve the Ukraine Conflict, Lower Tensions with China, and Redirect Military Spending to Meet Human Needs"
On June 5, the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) adopted a new resolution, submitted by U.S. members of Mayors for Peace, "Calling for Urgent Action to Avoid Nuclear War, Resolve the Ukraine Conflict, Lower Tensions with China, and Redirect Military Spending to Meet Human Needs." The resolution notes that "cities are playing an increasingly important role in subnational diplomacy, and Mayors for Peace, founded in 1982 and led by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is working for a world without nuclear weapons, safe and resilient cities, and a culture of peace, in which peace is a priority for every individual." For first time, a USCM resolution on nuclear disarmament lends the organization's support to a specific legislative measure, H. Res. 77, "Embracing the Goals and Provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons."
Webinar: NWC Reset: Frameworks for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World -- July 12; 8am PT / 11am ET
The Abolition 2000 Working Group on the UN Disarmament Agenda and a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) is hosting a webinar on July 12 at 8 am PT/11 am ET to explore the legal, technical and institutional measures and frameworks to facilitate the global elimination of nuclear weapons. The webinar will include discussion of NWC Reset: Frameworks for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World, a working paper to be distributed at the August 2023 Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting for the 2026 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. The draft working paper includes reflections on the political environment for comprehensive nuclear disarmament, an outline of possible approaches for establishing the framework for a nuclear-weapon-free world, and recommendations to the 2023 NPT PrepCom. Register here. (Or register for the Asia/Pacific session.)
UN Report Finds Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of Detainees at Guantánamo That May Meet the Legal Threshold for Torture
The UN Special Rapporteur (SR) on Counterterrorism and Human Rights released an unprecedented report on the detention facilities and the legal proceedings at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base. The SR was the first UN investigator ever to be granted access to the detention facilities in their more than 20-year history. The report found that solitary confinement, restraints, use of force to remove detainees from their cells, and inadequate health care constituted "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law." The report was equally critical of the failure to conduct legal proceedings that provide justice and accountability for the victims of the 9/11 attacks, citing systematic rendition and torture and "the entrenched legal and policy practices of... protecting those who ordered, perpetrated, facilitated, supervised, or concealed torture" as "the single most significant barrier to fulfilling victims' rights." At a press conference the SR stated unequivocally, "Torture was a betrayal of the rights of the victims of the 9/11 attacks." View the press conference. The U.S. government issued a brief response.
Ukraine Resources: The Second Summer of the War
The war goes on, and United for Peace and Justice continues to bring a variety of perspectives via our Ukraine Resources Page from its member groups and other voices around the world, with an emphasis on those from Russia and Ukraine. In the last few months we have added several reflections on today's Russia as the inheritor of empire, including What kind of decolonization do we need? by Ilya Budraitskis and The Case Against the Russian Federation: One Year Later, Oleksiy Radynski. Recent entries also include contrasting perspectives on the Vienna international Summit for Peace: Vienna's International Summit for Peace in Ukraine Issues a Global Call for Action, by Medea Benjamin, and Why the 'International Summit for Peace in Ukraine' is not conducive to peace, by Christian Zeller.
CODEPINK Congress: Let's Talk About Crimea!
During the recent International Conference for Peace, we heard directly from Ukrainians, representatives from across Europe, North America, Russia, and participants from the Global South. The conference addressed the dramatic consequences of this war for the people in their countries. It culminated with an urgent global appeal, the "Vienna Declaration for Peace," calling on all sides to work for a ceasefire and negotiations. In conjunction with this meeting, CODEPINK Congress coordinator, Marcy Winograd, organized a virtual briefing by journalist Rick Sterling, who recently returned from Crimea, to update us on the political climate, as well as Tamara Lorincz, an activist with the NO to NATO Network focused on State Department censorship of dissenting views on Crimea, as well as the war in Ukraine. Watch the webinar here.
Living in the Shadow of a Massive Nuclear Weapons Production Plant
PeaceWorks Kansas City is growing and building its resistance to the nuclear weapons production plant in its backyard. The plant is massive with plans to almost double in size. PeaceWorks has been re-ignited by the addition of young people determined to bring awareness to the dangers of nuclear weapons. Recently members attended DC Days, lobbying their Kansas and Missouri legislators, working to spread the word through poetry, and held their 13th Memorial Day Remembrance Rally where three people were arrested. Catch up on all this activity in the latest PeaceWorks Newsletter. And learn more about the lobbying in a very informative KKFI episode.
Webinar Recording: Nuclear Fusion "Breakthrough"?
Late last year, the Department of Energy claimed a major advance had been achieved at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a massive laser fusion project at the Livermore National Laboratory, a nuclear weapons lab. This webinar, presented by the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, examined the unlikelihood that nuclear fusion will be able to make a contribution to addressing climate change, the role of the NIF in nuclear weapons research, and the international law implications of continued nuclear weapons research and development. The panelists were Dr. M.V. Ramana, University of British Columbia, Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment (Livermore), and John Burroughs and Ariana Smith, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. View the webinar here.
In Love and Honor of Daniel Ellsberg
June 16th, we lost a movement giant; Daniel Ellsberg, who faced decades in prison for telling the American people the truth about the Vietnam War, passed away. In 1971, Ellsberg photocopied what would become the "Pentagon Papers", a damning account of what the U.S. was really doing in its war on the people of Vietnam. Dan's life represents a strong resistance against war and military propaganda that will poke at the U.S. military industrial complex for as long as it exists. To further honor his legacy, CodePink just launched its #DivestFromWar 2023 Toolkit which has multiple timelines demonstrating which companies are profiting from militarized violence in Palestine, Yemen, and Somalia. The toolkit also includes a history of divestment as a movement tactic -- and a history of what divestment has accomplished globally in the last 50 years.
Golden Rule Makes a Splash at the United Nations
"The Golden Rule anti-nuclear sailboat and her intrepid crew arrived to Chelsea Piers in New York City on May 17 to a wonderful reception, followed by ten days full of amazing events…. the historic peace boat made an (uninvited) guest appearance in New York City's Fleet Week 'Parade of (war) Ships.' With its ruddy tan bark sails emblazoned with a peace sign and the logo of Veterans For Peace, the Golden Rule was a jaunty counterpoint to the Navy's grey display of weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps most exciting of all were our meetings with United Nations missions... Mexico's mission hosted a meeting where Veterans For Peace and the Golden Rule team met with 12 U.N. missions, including New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cuba, South Africa, Austria, Indonesia, Ireland, Costa Rica, Kiribati, and the Holy See." Read Gerry Condon's full account.
What Birthright Trip Brochures Don't Tell You
A free trip to Israel might sound like good innocent fun, right? Wrong. It is a part of a harmful propaganda campaign. Birthright trips perpetuate the occupation of Palestine by manufacturing a sense of Israeli ownership and entitlement over Palestinian land and erasing the history of the indigenous Palestinians who have lived on that land for generations. Israel wants to put forward an idealized view of the country by intentionally leaving out its history of ethnic cleansing and using these trips to fortify that false history. Take action and tell JNF to stop funding these trips. Learn more on why we call for a boycott of birthright on our latest webinar "Not Just A Free Trip: How Birthright Perpetuates the Occupation of Palestine."
Head of Marine Corps Confronted over Destruction of Guam Amid Ongoing Military Expansion
June 13, following a trip to China, CODEPINK co-founder Jodie Evans went to D.C. to take its message of peace to committee members and other important members of Congress. Jodie took over the stage at the Heritage Foundation's event, "Leading Change in a High-Stakes World: A Conversation with the Commandant of the Marine Corps." The event featured General David H. Berger who since taking his command has had his mind set on driving a war with China. Displaying a China Is Not Our Enemy sign, Jodie disrupted the war mongering pep talk to defend the indigenous people of Guam and call out General Berger's destructive plans to militarize the Pacific and fuel an avoidable war with China. We must be cooperating with China and Asia Pacific for the planet and the people, not making enemies. Jody shares more about her recent trip here. Learn more about CODEPINK'S China campaign here.
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