If you are going to see the documentary Countdown to Zero to learn more about nuclear weapons and how truly dangerous they are to our very survival, please download and print copies of this UFPJ information flyer to hand out at the movie. Some significant points were missed in the movie, including information about what you can do. Information and government accountability is what is needed, not fear and blaming “the other.” Nuclear weapons are dangerous in anyone’s hands.

Download flyer: COUNTDOWN TO ZERO? Or Fight for a Nuclear Free Future!

Some questions:

• Which nation invented nuclear weapons?
• Which nation has used nuclear weapons?
• Joseph Gerson in his book, Empire and the Bomb, lists 39 incidences of “nuclear blackmail,” when a country threatened to use nuclear weapons. Of those, 33 were made by which nation?
• Which nation has by far the largest conventional military forces?
• Which nation could most easily start the nuclear disarmament process?

The answer to all of these questions is the United States….

Did you know that when President Obama submitted the START Treaty to the Senate for ratification, he also submitted a Congressionally-mandated classified report outlining the Administration’s plan to maintain and modernize U.S. nuclear forces for the foreseeable future?

According to a White House fact sheet: “The plan includes investments of $80 billion to sustain and modernize the nuclear weapons complex,” including new bomb factories in New Mexico, Tennessee and Missouri, and “well over $100 billion in nuclear delivery systems to sustain existing capabilities and modernize some strategic systems” by the year 2020.

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) funding will increase by more than 40%, from $6.4 billion in FY 2010 to $9 billion by 2018 — 43% above what the US spent on similar programs during the Cold War!

While the U.S. government lectures and threatens Iran and North Korea about the evils of nuclear weapons, it routinely test fires nuclear missiles from Vandenberg Air Force base in California into the Pacific Ocean.  Two launches were conducted in June, and the U.S. “arsenal of hypocrisy” is poised for another unarmed warhead launch in September.   These tests are a visible symbol of the ongoing U.S. commitment to the nuclear threat as a central pillar of its foreign policy.

The Administration is promoting a nuclear renaissance, from weapons modernization, to more nuclear energy and new uranium mining on Indigenous land.  All of this despite a nuclear legacy of sickness and death.  Thousands of nuclear weapons workers at plants around the country are sick from exposure to radioactivity and other toxic materials, and many have died over the years.   Tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of communities have been impacted by this nuclear death industry.

Currently, in New Mexico, Hydro Resources Inc. wants to begin in situ leach mining of uranium that will contaminate an aquifer that is the sole source of drinking water for 15,000 Navajo near Church Rock.  It is also on a sacred Indigenous site.  The Navajo have a ban against uranium mining, but the courts are clearing the way for the new mine.  This disrespect happens again and again…

But the tide is beginning to turn!  In May, over 17 million signatures were delivered to the United Nations calling on governments to start negotiations on a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons without delay.

And in June, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the association of cities with populations over 30,000, unanimously adopted a resolution supporting U.S. participation in the global elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020 and calling on Congress to slash nuclear weapons spending well below Cold War levels and redirect funding to meet the urgent needs of cities.

Think Outside the Bomb, a national youth-led antinuclear network is organizing an exciting new “Disarmament Summer,” including a permaculture encampment, July 30th – Aug 9th near Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico.  Disarmament Summer will train a new generation of youth and organize creative nonviolent actions at Los Alamos on August 6th, the 65th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Join the global call to abolish nuclear weapons by 2020. Organize in your community to:

• Demand START ratification without a $180 Billion nuclear weapons modernization plan.  Dismantle weapons instead.
• Call for deep cuts in nuclear weapons spending and redirection of funds to create healthy jobs in a green energy economy.
• Stop permits for new uranium mines or nuclear power plants.
• Clean up and protect our water, air and soil.
• Support the 2010 RECA Amendment Act to expand compensation to uranium workers for radiation exposure.
• Demand healthcare and reproductive justice for impacted communities.
• Respect Indigenous rights – honor the Navajo uranium ban and protect Indigenous sacred sites.

Download flyer: COUNTDOWN TO ZERO? Or Fight for a Nuclear Free Future!

For more information visit the Nuclear Watch Blog.

Tell Congress you want an exit strategy from Afghanistan A panel from the AFSC Afghan Civilian Memorial Mural project by artist Janet Braun-Reinitz.

You can find the phone number for your members of Congress in the AFSC Congressional directory.

Today, we have a new opportunity to tell Congress to end the war in Afghanistan. Please call your members of Congress and tell them to support a new bill that calls for an exit strategy.

According to the Afghan Interior Ministry, the war in Afghanistan caused 173 Afghan civilian deaths in the last month. This number is a 33 percent increase over the same period last year reflecting the escalation of U.S. troops. The last 9,000 of the 30,000 U.S. troops that President Obama is sending to Afghanistan are currently being deployed. The number of casualties is likely to rise. The vast majority of the troops will go to Kandahar in support of an assault carried out by U.S., NATO and Afghan forces. Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan with a population of 300,000 people. There will be casualties and suffering.

Help end this war.  Make Congress legislate an exit strategy from Afghanistan.

Senator Russ Feingold and Representatives Jim McGovern and Walter Jones have introduced legislation that would require the Obama administration to submit a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. This bill is an important first step toward ending the war. Your phone call in support of this bill can help Republicans and Democrats reflect the desires of U.S. citizens and Afghans to end this war.

Tell your members of Congress that you want them to require the Obama administration to submit a timeline for withdrawal from Afghanistan now.

• Ask your senators to cosponsor S. 3197
• Ask your representative to cosponsor H.R. 5015.

Wage Peace,

Mary Zerkel and Peter Lems

American Friends Service Committee
1501 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
http://www.afsc.org/

Josh Stieber and Ethan McCord from Bravo Company 2-16, the company depicted in the WikiLeaks “Collateral Murder” video, have created an open letter to the Iraqi people. Please help spread Josh and Ethan’s message of reconciliation and responsibility.

http://www.lettertoiraq.com

Sincerely,
Iraq Veterans Against the War

American Friends Service Committee

Afghanistan Campaign: 637 S. Dearborn, Chicago, IL  606026

www.afsc.org, afghanistan101.blogspot.com, mzerkel@afsc.org

As we mark the beginning of the 8th year of the war in Iraq, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For Peace stand united in our call to bring all troops home and take care of them when they get here.

Although we are heartened by President Obama’s promise to bring all troops home from Iraq by August, we are saddened and outraged by the losses and injuries that continue to be incurred by service members and their families, and untold numbers of Iraqis. We also ask, with the economic crisis and it’s “jobless recovery” and the impact of the mortgage and credit crises, to what will the troops be coming home and who and what will they be leaving behind?

Our service members are coming home to a system and structure that is woefully inadequate to address their physical, economic and mental health needs. In a devastated economy, the needs of their families and support systems are unmet and grow increasingly inadequate and substandard.

With the removal of troops, we know that non-combat troops and permanent bases are being left in Iraq that will continue to drain U.S. resources both human and financial, and have a deleterious impact on the people of Iraq.

Finally, we stand firm in shared opposition to the expansion of war in Afghanistan and the escalating death and destruction due to war. For our troops to come home from often multiple deployments in Iraq and turn around to redeploy to Afghanistan, for another war without solution or strategy, is no victory for anyone, but is a loss for everyone.



A message from Shawn Granberry of watchiphop.com

My name is Shawn Granberry and I am the CEO of watchiphop.com.  One of our goals is to use the power of hip hop to bring positive change to our communities.  Hip Hop United is working with the Ella Baker Center’s Heal the Streets Fellowship to organize a peace walk in honor of all homicide victims in our area.  The peace walk is an arm of of Team Ella Baker in the Oakland Running Festival.  The peace walk will cover the 5k course of the Oakland Running Festival on March 27th, 2010 at 6:30 pm.  Along with a local all-star cast of hip hop artists we are organizing a host of friends, fans, local officials, ministers, youth organizations, community activist organizations and people who care to take part in the peace walk.  We are hoping that you will help us put the word out and join us.  This is just a start of a movement where the streets become a part of the solution.  We feel we have a common struggle.  We want peace in our streets as well as oversees.  The Iraq war is unjust and takes resources that should be used to help people in our own streets.  We need your help in our common struggle, PEACE!

Thank you,
–
Shawn Granberry
Hip Hop Music Channel, Inc.
415.374.5203
shawndgranberry@gmail.com
www.watchiphop.com
“Music is our weapon”

Peace Walk, March 27th, 2010, 6:30 pm, Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

Peace Walk at Oakland Running Festival, March 27th, 2010, 6:30 pm, Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA

PLEASANTONIANS 4 PEACE is sponsoring a candlelight Vigil in front of the Museum on Main, 603 Main Street, downtown Pleasanton, for the second year anniversary Vigil of Pleasantonians 4 Peace, March 10, Wednesday, at 7 PM. This is the anniversary of the seventh year of conflict in Iraq. We will reflect on the human and monetary costs of the war, honor our veterans who have sacrificed, and visualize ways of moving beyond this conflict to a more peaceful world. We are planning to continue this monthly event, the second Wednesday of the month, as long as necessary.

Questions??  Call Cathe Norman at (925) 462-7495; Matt
Sullivan at mjs7882@gmail.com; or kdowding@pacbell.net.

Please see our New P4P web site. www.Pleasantonians4Peace.org

There is a stunning “peace deficit” in the 2011 federal budget just unveiled by the White House.

It proposes $708.2 billion in spending for the Department of Defense — the highest military budget in the history of our country. Of that money, $159.3 billion will go for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Administration is also asking for a $33 billion Supplemental to pay for the troop increase in 2010, on top of the $138 billion already allocated.

Though President Obama’s rhetorical commitment to nuclear disarmament has received worldwide praise, his administration’s 2011 budget request increases direct spending on nuclear weapons by 10% over 2010, to $7 billion. Over the next 5 years, the Administration intends to boost nuclear weapons spending by more than $5 billion!

Federal dollars are being poured into weapons and warfare, while our states, cities, communities and families are suffering from a lack of funds for urgent human needs: for new jobs, health care, housing, repair of infrastructure, social services.  The Obama budget includes expenditures for many worthy domestic purposes. But the size of these programs is far too small and they are already under attack because of the deficit.

It is vitally important that we link issues and publicize this point: we cannot solve our domestic problems so long as our tax dollars are being squandered on unnecessary, destructive and foolhardy military projects.

TAKE ACTION!

Call your member of Congress and let them know you are outraged by the upside-down priorities in the proposed 2011 federal budget. Tell them its time to end the wars in Afghanistan and to use our tax dollars to solve economic problems here at home. Congressional Switchboard: 202-224-3121

Join this month’s brown bag lunch vigils on Wed. Feb. 17th outside Congressional offices, sponsored by UFPJ member group, Progressive Democrats of America. Check here to see if one is planned in your district or for tips on organizing one.

Join the growing international campaign to demand the elimination of nuclear weapons. Find out how: Disarm Now! For Peace and Human Needs.

United for Peace and Justice will continue to function as a national network committed to both peace and justice. Please make a generous donation so that we can continue our vital work.

Help us continue to do this critical work: Make a donation to UFPJ today.

UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
PO Box 607; Times Square Station; New York, NY 10108