Dialogue for Peace and Justice

July 2024

It is our responsibility as leaders to ensure we leave this earth in a better place than we inherited it. It's imperative that we look at the ways we utilize nuclear weapons and the threat thereof, and that we promote meaningful global dialogue to avoid nuclear war and create a culture of peace.
Mayor Quentin Hart of Waterloo, Iowa
Lead sponsor of "The Imperative of Dialogue in a Time of Acute Nuclear Dangers"

No More Hiroshimas! No More Nagasakis!
On August 6, 1945, an estimated 70,000 people died when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Miraculously, 32-year-old photojournalist Yoshito Matsushige survived. He was 2.7 kilometers from the hypocenter when the A-bomb fell. Walking around the city after the bombing, traumatized, he took five historic photos, including the one you see here. As the 79^th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approach, on August 6 and 9, the world is closer to nuclear war than at any time since 1945. It's more important than ever that we heed the warnings of the aging hibakusha (A-bomb survivors): What happened to us must never be allowed to happen to anyone again; nuclear weapons and human beings cannot co-exist; no more Hiroshimas, no more Nagasakis! It's time to act. FIND and ATTEND an in-person or virtual event.

Webinar Recording: Abolition 2000 Live from the NPT in Geneva!
The Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons is at the Second Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT PrepCom) at the United Nations in Geneva, with a delegation including Coordinating Committee members Jackie Cabasso (UFPJ National Co-convener) and Alyn Ware, colleagues from member groups, and representatives of affiliated networks, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (PNND) and Mayors for Peace. On July 26, halfway through the PrepCom, Jackie, Alyn, and Bill Kidd, a member of the Scottish Parliament and Co-chair of PNND, gave a live update from the UN, via Zoom, on the government deliberations -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- plus civil society activities at the conference. WATCH the recording. Passcode: 0yBv.eg0

U.S. Mayors for Peace Call for Dialogue in a Time of Nuclear Danger
At its annual meeting in June, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) unanimously adopted a bold resolution, titled, "The Imperative of Dialogue in a Time of Acute Nuclear Dangers." As the lead sponsor of the resolution, Mayor Quentin Hart of Waterloo, Iowa, writes in a July 5 op-ed in the Nation, "As an elected official and original sponsor of this resolution, I understand just how precious human life is. It is our responsibility as leaders to ensure we leave this earth in a better place than we inherited it. It's imperative that we look at the ways we utilize nuclear weapons and the threat thereof, and that we promote meaningful global dialogue to avoid nuclear war and create a culture of peace." READ the op-ed. Is your Mayor a member of Mayors for Peace? Find out and invite them to join! Photo: Mayor Quentin Hart, USCM

In a Perilous Time: Nuclear Dangers, Politics, and the New Cold War
Joseph Gerson, President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, will address the World Conference Against A-&H-Bombs in Hiroshma, reflecting: "UN Secretary-General Guterres warns that ‘Humanity is on a knife's edge. The risk of nuclear weapons being used has reached heights not seen since the Cold War.' In the U.S., our Supreme Court marked what may be the culmination of a sixty-year counterrevolution. Their recent decisions signal an end to constitutional democracy, replacing it with what one justice declared to be a 'king above the law.'" His speech is available now on Pressenza, an international online humanist journal. Read it here.

Pledge to Join the Poor People's Campaign Voter Mobilization
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C. on June 29 for the Mass Poor People's and Low Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March to declare "We are the swing vote!" Poor People's Campaign (PPC) National Co-chair, Bishop William J. Barber II explained, "We came here today to represent America's largest potential swing vote: poor and low-wage people who make this country work," noting that in every state where the margin of victory in 2020 was within 3%, poor and low-wage voters make up over 43% of the electorate. SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Rocio Saenz declared, "This election is about our democracy, our economy, our future. We won't be distracted and we won't be divided. When we organize, we win!" The PPC aims to mobilize 15 million poor and low-wage infrequent voters ahead of the Nov. elections. Will you help? SIGN THE PLEDGE.

SAVE THE DATE: September 19, UFPJ Webinar with Rusti Eisenberg on her new book, Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger and the Wars in Southeast Asia
On September 19, UFPJ will present a webinar with Professor Carolyn "Rusti" Eisenberg on her book, winner of the 2024 Bancroft prize for works on U.S. history. Drawing on documents declassified in recent years, the book explores how management of the war and of U.S. diplomacy by Nixon and Kissinger shaped U.S. foreign policy in ways that still resonate. Professor Eisenberg also provides insights on the impact of the anti-war movement, including how it was viewed from the White House. Rusti Eisenberg, a founder of UFPJ member group Brooklyn for Peace and a former member of our coordinating committee, is uniquely suited to help us reflect on the Vietnam War, the impact of the anti-war movements, and the lessons we might draw for today. We have the date but are firming up the time; check the August newsletter for final details.

International Court of Justice finds Israel's Continued Presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful: UFPJ Gaza Resources
On July 19, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion finding Israel's occupation unlawful, and that it "is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible." The Court found that Israel must cease all settlement activities in occupied lands and "evacuate" all settlers. The Court also found that all states must not "render aid or assistance" to Israel's occupation. Advisory opinions are not binding, and powerful states often ignore their legal obligations. But as Palestinian lawyer Diana Buttu notes, this opinion will undercut the acceptance of the occupation and the settlements as "normal," and is one more tool to shift global perceptions of the occupation. Find these and other resources at UFPJ's Gaza war resources page.
Image: Rousseau Diderot, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

National Labor Network for Ceasefire: Webinar with Palestinian Trade Union Leaders and Letter to Biden Demanding a Ceasefire in Gaza and an End to Military Aid to Israel
On July 10, the National Labor Network for Ceasefire hosted a with conversation Palestinian trade union leaders, including representatives of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, the General Union of Transport and Communications Workers, and the General Union of Health Services Workers in Gaza on their struggles to live, work, and organize under devastating conditions of war and military occupation. Find the webinar recording here. On July 23, several of the Network's member unions sent a letter to President Biden demanding that the U.S. government "immediately halt all military aid to Israel as part of the work to secure an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza." Find the text of the letter here.

"Crisis of the West, Opportunity for the Rest?" Considers the Unravelling of the Global Hegemony of the United States
Walden Bello, former member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines and a leading figure in the opposition to the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship and in the successful campaign to oust the U.S. military bases from the Philippines, addressed a session organized by the Asia-Europe People's Forum. He argued that the decline of the U.S. empire has been caused by military overextension, neoliberal globalization, and the crisis of the liberal political and ideological order. Read Bello's address, "Crisis of the West, Opportunity for the Rest? Global NATO: Implications and Resistance."

Truth is the First Casualty: UFPJ Ukraine War Resources
The war grinds on, with the death toll now well past 100,000 and with intensifying attacks on energy systems and other infrastructure by the Russian military inflicting extreme hardship on Ukraine's population. On both sides, as is always the case, the search for truth has become a casualty of war. The Russian government has cracked down on independent media from the war's beginning, now banning the Moscow Times. Ukraine's journalists face growing threats of censorship. None of this helps those working for peace and for the right of people to determine their own futures freely together to understand a social world that is growing more interconnected and divided at the same time, at every level from the individual to the global. Find these and other resources at UFPJ's Ukraine resources page.

Webinar Recording: Debunking Dangerous Deterrence Theory and Moving Toward Global Nuclear Weapons Abolition, July 9, 2024
For too long, deterrence theory has been used as the legitimizing foundation for US and global nuclear weapons policy. Deterrence is rarely examined, let alone questioned, but it is often waved around like some verbal magic wand to justify extremely dangerous and exorbitant policies that threaten life on Earth. Speakers: Tadatoshi Akiba, former Mayor of Hiroshima, Japan; Professor Elaine Scarry, Harvard University, author of Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing between Democracy and Doom; Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, United for Peace and Justice, Mayors for Peace; and Emma Claire Foley, Defuse Nuclear War and Roots Action. Presented by Peace Action and the Campaign for Peace Disarmament, and Common Security. Watch the webinar recording here.

Interview with Bishop William J. Barber II: "White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy"
During the Aspen Ideas Festival in June, Bishop William J. Barber II, National Co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, was interviewed by Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans who led the charge to remove Confederate monuments that told a false history of the American South. The topic was Barber's new book, White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy, co-authored with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. As Barber explained, "[P]overty impacts all people and the entire nation. America must deal with all of her poverty because when we isolate it, when we marginalize it -- when poverty comes on the screen and we see a Black woman on welfare -- we demean and engage in a kind of racist depiction of Black people but we dismiss tens of millions of White people." WATCH this riveting interview.

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