FEBRUARY 2024
Given... the current level of offensive Israeli military hostilities which have been enabled with U.S. munitions, we demand that any and all present and future deliveries of military weapons and munitions to Israel be suspended until the State Department conducts a full investigation of possible violations of U.S. law.
Veterans For Peace Letter to Secretary Blinken
February 11, 2024
ALL OUT FOR MARCH 2nd -- Mass Poor People's and Low-Wage Workers' Statehouse Assemblies
On March 2, the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival (PPC) is organizing nationally-coordinated Mass Poor People's and Low-Wage Workers' Assemblies in 32 State Capitals and DC. Watch the promo video. When over 140 million Americans are poor or living with low wages, it's time for systemic change. Poverty is the 4th leading cause of death in the richest nation in the world. Politicians who continue to make concessions for the wealthy yet leave families and children to die in poverty are guilty of policy murder. The PPC is building a movement led by poor and impacted folks, building across all lines of division, in order to topple the interlocking pillars of racism, poverty, militarism, environmental destruction and this country's distorted moral narrative. On March 2, join a PPC State House Assembly near you!
WEBINAR -- Brooklyn for Peace: The Impact of the War on Gaza on Health Care and Human Rights; Thursday, February 29, 2024, 7pm EST; 6 pm CST; 5 pm MST; 4 pm PST
Dr. Alice Rothchild is the featured speaker. Dr. Rothchild is an author, filmmaker, and physician, who focuses on human rights and social justice. She has made many trips to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, most recently in August 2023. She is a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council and serves on the board of the Gaza Mental Health Foundation. The webinar will explore the impacts of the war on health care and human rights. Aspects to be discussed include the state of health care before October 2023, the impact on civilians of massive bombing and dislocation, has international law been violated, and the most important question of all - What can we do? Register here.
UFPJ Gaza Resources: the Gaza Crisis and the Erosion of International Law
"Today's diplomatic complicity in the catastrophic human rights and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is the culmination of years of erosion of the international rule of law and global human rights system," writes Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard in Foreign Affairs. Every additional U.S. veto of UN Security Council cease fire resolutions further undermines faith in the fairness and effectiveness of the post-WWII international law system that the U.S. played a leading role in creating. This despite a spiraling humanitarian catastrophe that UN and NGO relief agencies state require an immediate ceasefire so they "can provide, at the very least, the bare essentials: medicine, drinking water, food, and shelter as temperatures plummet." Find these and other resources at the UFPJ Israel/Palestine War resource page. Image: Rousseau Diderot, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Leap Year Day! Warheads to Windmills: Webinar on Twin Existential Threats
Thursday, Feb. 29 (Leap Year Day) at 7pm EST; 6pm CST; 5pm MST; 4pm PST, the Veterans 
For Peace Nuclear Abolition Working Group presents "Warheads to Windmills: addressing the threats of climate and nuclear weapons before it's too late." Join Dr. Ivana Hughes, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and Dr. Timmon Wallis of NuclearBan.US and the Warheads to Windmills Coalition to discuss the urgency of addressing both Climate Change and Nuclear War as twin existential threats. Learn how to build a mass movement that can put an end to these threats. Questions and discussion with the audience will follow. Learn more and register here.
Register for the 2024 Virtual Korea Peace Advocacy Week
Registration is now open for the 9th annual Korea Peace Advocacy Week, which will take place virtually from March 18 through 22. This nationally coordinated effort, organized by the American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, United Methodist Church -- General Board of Church and Society, and Women Cross DMZ, brings together hundreds of peace activists to participate in meetings with members of Congress to advocate for legislation that supports a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. Individual participation consists of joining an online training session on March 4 and attending two or three 30-minute online meetings with Congressional staff to advocate for H.R. 1369, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act. It's clear we need a non-military solution to the security crisis in Korea -- now. Register here by March 1.
Veterans For Peace Demands Termination of Weapons to Israel
On February 13, Veterans For Peace sent a letter to the State Department and its Inspector General demanding suspension of weapons shipments to Israel and an investigation of possible legal violations. The letter stated that there are "credible reports of genocide and violations of humanitarian rights laws and treaties being perpetrated by Israel and that those crimes are being enabled by past and contemplated provision of weapons and munitions to Israel by the Department of State." It also stated that VFP believes the State Department employees have "intentionally and materially failed to discharge their responsibilities" to comply with applicable laws concerning arms transfers, and that "employees of the Department may be culpable of genocide and of breaking other criminal laws." See the VFP press release here and the letter here.
PEACEWalk 2024: Silence the Drums of War
In the tradition and spirit of the many wonderful long-distance walks for peace, Veterans For Peace has initiated a National Project to begin April 27, 2024, and walk from Augusta, Maine, to arrive in Washington, DC, in July. We'll be walking for the wellbeing of all people, for peace and an end to the threat of nuclear war and all wars, and for an environment that supports all life. PEACEWalk 2024 will be open to all who love peace and want to walk for it. This walk is dedicated to the memory of Daniel Ellsberg, who, shortly before he died last year at 92, wrote, "The current risk of nuclear war, over Ukraine, is as great as the world has ever seen." We need to heed his words. Walkers will arrive in Washington, DC, on July 6 to join a summit and rally to protest the 75th anniversary commemoration of NATO. Get involved in PEACEWalk 2024.
UFPJ Ukraine Resources: As the War Enters its Third Year, the Russian Government Further Tightens Repression
Two years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government continues to suppress all visible opposition. Anti-war sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky has been rearrested and sentenced to five years in prison. Opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, something of a surprise antiwar presidential candidate, has been banned from running. Alexei Navalny, likely the opposition figure most feared by Russia's ruling group, has died in murky circumstances in prison. As Ilya Budraitskis writes, "Navalny's [2018] campaign showed tens of thousands of people that political participation is a real alternative to the narrow world of private interests and indifference into which the Putin government has so painstakingly pushed Russians for years." Find these resources and more at the UFPJ Ukraine resources page.
Surviving an Era of Pervasive Nuclear Instability; A Call for Grassroots Activism
"If current trends persist, we are likely to encounter a succession of major nuclear crises in the months and years ahead, each potentially more dangerous than the one before," warns Michael Klare in the Nation. "To prevent these from triggering a nuclear apocalypse, we will need wise and prudent leadership by our top officials -- and a mass public campaign to insist on such prudence." While acknowledging the difficulties in building a mass movement around nuclear issues, Klare ends on a hopeful note: "Here and there across America--and in the world as well--people are becoming more aware of the rising threat of nuclear war and taking steps to reduce that danger." Citing some examples, he concludes: "These are still undersized efforts; but they are a start, and they point us in the direction we must go if we are to ensure human survival."
Mayors for Peace Calls for Peaceful Resolution of Armed Conflicts and the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
On Feb. 22, the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki issued a Joint Appeal, which begins: "It has been almost two years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. While this protracted war shows no signs of coming to an end, the global state of turmoil has intensified even further due to the conflict between armed forces in Israel and Palestine, and ongoing warfare continues to deprive countless citizens of their lives and livelihoods. On behalf of the Mayors for Peace network, we offer our sincerest condolences to all of the victims and call for a ceasefire at the earliest possible date." Mayors for Peace, founded in 1982 is working for a world without nuclear weapons, safe and resilient cities, and a culture of peace. As of Feb. 1, Mayors for Peace has grown to 8,363 cities in 166 countries, with 227 U.S. members. Is your mayor a member?
NEW REPORT: Don't Bank on the Bomb
A new report, "Untenable Investments: Nuclear Weapon Producers and their Financiers," provides an overview of investments in 24 companies heavily involved in the production of nuclear weapons for the arsenals of the U.S., Russia, China, France, India and the UK in 2023. The report finds that financial institutions held more than $476.8 billion in bonds and shares, while also providing $342.6 billion in financing. US-based Vanguard remains the largest single investor, with $72.4 billion invested in the nuclear weapon industry. The report, produced by PAX and ICAN, provides a detailed analysis of the nuclear weapon-related activities of these companies and the contracts awarded to them. It also names the financiers that continue to seek profit from the nuclear weapons industry. Download the Executive Summary. Download the Full Report.
The Commemoration of the Criminal Bravo H-Bomb Test Is a Cry for a Nuclear Free World
70 years ago, on March 1, 1954, The U.S. government tested a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The "Bravo" test deposited fallout over a broad expanse of the western Pacific, resulting in the deaths of Japanese fishing crews and Pacific Islanders, and health effects to residents of the region that reached across generations. In a Common Dreams commentary Joseph Gerson, President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, wrote that those who gather at commemorations in the Marshall Islands and Japan "will not only be marking the 70th anniversary of the devastating Bravo test and honoring those victimized and lost. We will also be reminding the world of the Hibakusha truth that 'human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist.'" Read the full commentary here.
Nuclear Abolition Movement Alive and Well, Despite the State of the World
The Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons held its 28th annual general meeting online on February 3. The meeting (held in three sessions to accommodate people in different time zones) included campaign reports, strategy discussions and movement building, with the theme "Keeping the Network Connected" and a focus on youth initiatives and intergenerational cooperation. The breadth of turnout (with participants from Asia, the Pacific, Middle East, South America, North America and Europe) and the large number of reports from inspiring nuclear disarmament campaigns and initiatives from around the world, demonstrated that the global nuclear abolition movement is alive, active and influential, even during these difficult times. UFPJ is proud to be an Abolition 2000 affiliated network. Read more.
WEBINAR RECORDING -- Building a World Without Nuclear Weapons: An Urgent Imperative
On Jan. 27, to celebrate the third anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the second anniversary of the publication of Archbishop John Wester's pastoral letter calling for nuclear disarmament, Pax Christi and dozens of co-sponsors, hosted an online forum focused on the increasing threat of nuclear war and what ordinary citizens can do to prevent it. The speakers were: Archbishop John C. Wester, of Santa Fe, NM, who in 2022 led the way in the U.S. Catholic Church with his groundbreaking pastoral letter on nuclear disarmament; Dr. Ira Helfand, past President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War; and Marie Dennis, Senior Director of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and past Co-president of Pax Christi International. Learn more and watch the recording here.
Bay Area Billboard Unveiling Amplifies Outcry Against Military Spending
On Jan. 28, over 100 people gathered at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Oakland California, where organizers announced the placement of six billboards in Oakland and Berkeley that challenge the U.S. government's immoral military spending. As Congress continues to invest 62 percent of our discretionary budget in war, devastating nations around the globe--as well as our own--and creating unparalleled death and suffering, these neon yellow billboards, sponsored by World Beyond War, state a simple fact: "Three percent of U.S. military spending could end starvation on Earth." A reception followed, with a lineup of speakers from a who's who of local peace and justice groups including World Beyond War, CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace, and the California Poor People's Campaign. The event was a benefit for Food Not Bombs. More info, photos, and videos here.
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