ftp.xmission.com/2014.06.ftp.xmission.com.tar/ftp.xmission.com/pub/lists/abolition-usa/archive/v01.n023

Internet Message Format | 1998-10-02 | 41KB

From: [e-mail] (abolition-usa-digest)
To: [e-mail]
Subject: abolition-usa-digest V1 #23
Reply-To: abolition-usa-digest
Sender: [e-mail]
Errors-To: [e-mail]
Precedence: bulk


abolition-usa-digest      Friday, October 2 1998      Volume 01 : Number 023




----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 20:32:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: Timothy Bruening <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) The Peace-Industrial Complex

One of the biggest obstacles to peace is the power of the
Military-Industrial Complex.  To bring about peace, we must convert it to
the Peace-Industrial Complex.  If defense contractors could make large
amounts of money at peaceful pursuits, they would no longer be opposed to
peace.  To do so, I propose that the following divisions be set up in the
Department Of Defense:

        I. Public Works Division to solicit bids from "defense contractors"
to build public transit systems in cities all over the U.S..

        II. Environmental Defense Division to solicit bids to build
anti-pollution systems and renewable energy systems, which the EDD would
then give to businesses and government agencies for free to stop them from
pollution.

        III. Anti-Crime Division to fight organized crime, using armies of
specially trained detectives, accountants, lawyers, and military personnel
to track down organized criminals.

I also propose that the U.S. Army reforest the Sahara and perform other
ecological missions.


- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 20:58:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: Timothy Bruening <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) How Peace Came To The World

In 1986, the Christian Science Monitor published "How Peace Came To The
World" (edited by Earl Foell and Richard Nenneman), a collection of essays
about how peace can come to the world.  Have you read it?  Has a sequel been
written?


- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 10:00:47 -0400
From: Rosalie Tyler Paul <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) The Peace-Industrial Complex

This is a great track to be exploring. If peace were $$profitable, we'd
have it.  Let's hear more ideas for moving in this direction. Rosalie Paul,
Peace Action Maine.




- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 10:22:36 -0400
From: Peace through Reason <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) News: Boeing $10 million fine for arms violations

10/01/98- USA Today -- http://www.usatoday.com/news/nds16.htm

             Boeing accepts fine for arms violations

             SEATTLE - Boeing agreed to pay a $10 million fine
             over allegations it disclosed American technology
             secrets to foreign companies working with the
             aerospace giant on the Sea Launch commercial rocket
             project.

             The fine, the largest ever for violations of the Arms
             Export Control Act, will not stop a U.S. Justice
             Department criminal investigation into the allegations
             that Boeing shared technical information with Russian
             and Ukrainian partners in the project.

             Boeing neither admits nor denies the allegation,
             spokesman Tim Dolan said Wednesday.

             The $500 million project to launch satellites from a
             floating platform in the Pacific Ocean has been on
             hold since the allegations arose in July. Work will
             now resume, officials said, with the first launch as
             early as next year.

             The violations did not damage national security or
             harm U.S. foreign policy, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
             quoted an unidentified source as saying.

             Part of the penalty - $2.5 million - will be used to set
             up a computer system so that government agencies can
             monitor all dealings among the Sea Launch partners.

             Boeing has a 40% stake in Sea Launch, and is overall
             project manager, but the technology primarily is that
             of other nations.

             The 3-year-old program, which has contracts for 18
             launches, will use a modified version of the Soviet
             SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile to boost
             satellites into space from a platform positioned at the
             equator.

             By The Associated Press

- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 12:30:08 -0400
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Chicago

Thanks Peter for lots of great suggestions.  I think we need to come out of
Chicago organized as a national campaign geared to the 2000 elections.  I
hope we can come out of this meeting with a Campaign Manager, who has had
experience managing a US Presidential Campaign.  I think we need to
organize by Congressional Districts, and try to establish a minimum contact
network by State.

I don't think Gore will have smooth sailing to the nomination.  In the
wings are Gebhardt, Wellstone, Kerry, and Bradley (who has been dropping
hints).  I hope we can set up a process at the meeting to reach each one of
them, and whoever else appears, and ask them to champion the abolition
banner--much like Gene McCarthy helped the country to organize politically
to end the war in Vietnam.  If none of them will do it, we need to get our
own candidate.(Jackson?, Brown?)

Internationally, the NPT will be meeting again in New York this spring.  It
was an utter disgrace last time.  Maybe this is the time to have a parallel
PrepCom and bring up Zia Mian's amendment proposal.  We need to get some
friendly governments to participate.  Perhaps MPI can help us here.
Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
15 East 26 St.
New York, NY  10010
212-726-9161(tel)
212-726-9160(fax)

GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000: A Global Network for the Elimination
of Nuclear Weapons



- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 13:03:55 -0400
From: Norm Cohen <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Chicago

Dear Friends,

     As someone working out in the trenches in southern New Jersey, I'd caution
you that while all of these ideas going by are fine for those who know about
abolition 2000, or care about nuke weapons, to the vast majority of "ordinary
joes" our issue just does not ring a chord with them (basically their eyes
glaze over and they start talking about some tangential issue like water
pollution). And this goes for the vast majority of local college students I
talk to.
     Let me toss out this suggestion: the only way to get our message out to
the masses is through the media, so would it be possible to copy what amnesty
intl, greenpeace, farm aid, etc have done so well: an internationally televised
special concert (or series) in late 1999 on a theme like "peace in the new
millenium" (something sexier than that). We must have contacts with musicians,
performers, networks, couldn't this be pulled off?
    This is not in any way to criticize the wonderful work we do; I've been in
it since 1981, many of you longer than that; its just a question of how we best
move from preaching to the choir to preaching to the masses.

Peace

Norm Cohen
Executive Director
Coalition for Peace & Justice
PO Box 2344 Cape May NJ 08204
609-886-7988
ASlater wrote:

> Thanks Peter for lots of great suggestions.  I think we need to come out of
> Chicago organized as a national campaign geared to the 2000 elections.  I
> hope we can come out of this meeting with a Campaign Manager, who has had
> experience managing a US Presidential Campaign.  I think we need to
> organize by Congressional Districts, and try to establish a minimum contact
> network by State.
>
> I don't think Gore will have smooth sailing to the nomination.  In the
> wings are Gebhardt, Wellstone, Kerry, and Bradley (who has been dropping
> hints).  I hope we can set up a process at the meeting to reach each one of
> them, and whoever else appears, and ask them to champion the abolition
> banner--much like Gene McCarthy helped the country to organize politically
> to end the war in Vietnam.  If none of them will do it, we need to get our
> own candidate.(Jackson?, Brown?)
>
> Internationally, the NPT will be meeting again in New York this spring.  It
> was an utter disgrace last time.  Maybe this is the time to have a parallel
> PrepCom and bring up Zia Mian's amendment proposal.  We need to get some
> friendly governments to participate.  Perhaps MPI can help us here.
> Alice Slater
> Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
> 15 East 26 St.
> New York, NY  10010
> 212-726-9161(tel)
> 212-726-9160(fax)
>
> GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000: A Global Network for the Elimination
> of Nuclear Weapons
>
> -
>  To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
>  with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
>  For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
>  "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.





- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 11:27:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Peace Action - National Office <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Chicago

Norm!
    Wonderful idea, I had a similar one myself and believe that such an
event would provide nice entertainment during our Congress next year in
New Mexico.

Bruce
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 > From [e-mail]  Fri Oct  2 09:54:28 1998
 > Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 13:03:55 -0400
 > From: Norm Cohen <[e-mail]>
 > Organization: Coalition for Peace and Justice
 > To: [e-mail]
 > Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Chicago
 > References: <[e-mail]>
 > Sender: [e-mail]
 > Reply-To: [e-mail]
 >
 > Dear Friends,
 >
 >      As someone working out in the trenches in southern New Jersey, I'd caution
 > you that while all of these ideas going by are fine for those who know about
 > abolition 2000, or care about nuke weapons, to the vast majority of "ordinary
 > joes" our issue just does not ring a chord with them (basically their eyes
 > glaze over and they start talking about some tangential issue like water
 > pollution). And this goes for the vast majority of local college students I
 > talk to.
 >      Let me toss out this suggestion: the only way to get our message out to
 > the masses is through the media, so would it be possible to copy what amnesty
 > intl, greenpeace, farm aid, etc have done so well: an internationally televised
 > special concert (or series) in late 1999 on a theme like "peace in the new
 > millenium" (something sexier than that). We must have contacts with musicians,
 > performers, networks, couldn't this be pulled off?
 >     This is not in any way to criticize the wonderful work we do; I've been in
 > it since 1981, many of you longer than that; its just a question of how we best
 > move from preaching to the choir to preaching to the masses.
 >
 > Peace
 >
 > Norm Cohen
 > Executive Director
 > Coalition for Peace & Justice
 > PO Box 2344 Cape May NJ 08204
 > 609-886-7988
 > ASlater wrote:
 >
 > > Thanks Peter for lots of great suggestions.  I think we need to come out of
 > > Chicago organized as a national campaign geared to the 2000 elections.  I
 > > hope we can come out of this meeting with a Campaign Manager, who has had
 > > experience managing a US Presidential Campaign.  I think we need to
 > > organize by Congressional Districts, and try to establish a minimum contact
 > > network by State.
 > >
 > > I don't think Gore will have smooth sailing to the nomination.  In the
 > > wings are Gebhardt, Wellstone, Kerry, and Bradley (who has been dropping
 > > hints).  I hope we can set up a process at the meeting to reach each one of
 > > them, and whoever else appears, and ask them to champion the abolition
 > > banner--much like Gene McCarthy helped the country to organize politically
 > > to end the war in Vietnam.  If none of them will do it, we need to get our
 > > own candidate.(Jackson?, Brown?)
 > >
 > > Internationally, the NPT will be meeting again in New York this spring.  It
 > > was an utter disgrace last time.  Maybe this is the time to have a parallel
 > > PrepCom and bring up Zia Mian's amendment proposal.  We need to get some
 > > friendly governments to participate.  Perhaps MPI can help us here.
 > > Alice Slater
 > > Global Resource Action Center for the Environment
 > > 15 East 26 St.
 > > New York, NY  10010
 > > 212-726-9161(tel)
 > > 212-726-9160(fax)
 > >
 > > GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000: A Global Network for the Elimination
 > > of Nuclear Weapons
 > >
 > > -
 > >  To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 > >  with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 > >  For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 > >  "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >
 > -
 >  To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 >  with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 >  For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 >  "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 11:40:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jackie Cabasso <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) REGIONAL REPORTS FOR CHICAGO MEETING

REGIONAL REPORTS FOR CHICAGO MEETING

Dear Chicago meeting participants,

    One day is a very short amount of time to plan a national campaign!  In
order to keep our agenda moving effectively, the planning committee would
like to encourage those of you with groups that are part of existing
REGIONAL abolition networks to present coordinated reports.  We are aware of
regional abolition networks in Michigan, Florida, Northern California,
Colorado, New England, and Metro New York. (Let us know if there are
others!) Rather than having each person report on their individual group's
"micro" activities*, we'd like to hear how the different regions are
organized, and a little bit about their priorities, plans, and activities.
People from a region might want to talk in advance about how to divide up
their presentation.
(Note: Don't worry -- if your group is not part of an existing network,
you'll still get to make a report.) The purpose of this reporting is inform
and inspire each other, and also to piece together a picture of our existing
"infrastructure"and resources and identify gaps.  Following are some
suggested questions to consider in planning your regional report:

*How do you define your region? (ie. geographical boundaries)
*How is your regional network organized? What's its history? (very brief)
*How many groups are involved?
*How often do you meet?
*What are your priorities?
*What kinds of activities are you involved in? (*Here's where you can give
examples of "micro"    activities)
*What resources/tools do you have to share? (eg. videos, t-shirts, sunflower
seeds, etc.)
*What are you planning for the future?
*Is there anything in particular that your region asked you to bring/propose
to the Chicago
  meeting?

    Thanks for your cooperation.  See you in Chicago. -- Jackie
   ********************************************
       WESTERN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION
           1440 Broadway, Suite 500
             Oakland, CA USA 94612
              Tel: [phone]
              Fax: [phone]
               [e-mail]
   ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 **********
   Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons


- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 20:04:35 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Chicago

Let me say again I would urge a name that doesn't need to be explained (Like
abolition 2000) and a single message, like Stop the War. What succeeded in
Vietnam was due in part to the simplicity and resonance of the message.

So much brain power is involved in thi s effor it would not seem beyond the
scope of people's capabilities to deal wih one of the first orders of
business, the name of the campaign.

Peace and health,

colby lowe

- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 18:38:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jackie Cabasso <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Chicago: a few odds and ends for the mix

Pamela Meidell has offered to synthesize the ideas and proposals posted on
the US abolition list-serve for presentation at the Chicago meeting.  Here
are a few odds and ends for the mix:

1) City resolutions -- A number of US cities (and many more in other
countries) have already passed resolutions supporting nuclear abolition.
(Check out the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's Abolition 2000 website for a
list of cities, as well as a model resolution: www.wagingpeace.org/abolition
2000) While I wouldn't make pursuit of city resolutions a high priority in
isolation, it is an activity that can easily be built into other local
organizing efforts, in conjunction with town meetings, etc. For example, in
northern California, groups in different cities host the quarterly
gatherings of our regional Abolition 2000 network.  The local host group
tries to get their city to pass an Abolition resolution around the time of
our meeting.  So far we have succeeded in getting Oakland, Santa Rosa and
Davis, CA to pass abolition resolutions. In some cases (though not
neccesarily in our experience), the process of convincing a city to pass
such a resolution can provide an organizing and media opportunity in and of
itself.
        A related idea is to revitalize the Nuclear Free Zone (NFZ) movement
by going back to cities that passed NFZ ordinances in the 1980's and getting
them to reaffirm and update their positions by passing  abolition
resolutions. In addition, abolition resolutions might be "piggybacked" onto
new NFZ laws, which tend to focus on nuclear waste and transportation
issues.  Note that over the last few years, a large number of Native
American nations have declared themselves NFZs as part of their effort to
resist nuclear waste dumping on their lands.  Chuck Johnson, the former
director of Nuclear Free America has recently established the Nuclear Free
Zone Project, a clearinghouse for NFZ information, in Salem Oregon. His
e-mail address is: [e-mail]/phone: [phone]

2) Someone at our September northern CA Abolition 2000 meeting suggested
that we organize our US abolition campaign by Congressional District.  This
idea really captured my imagination, not only as a vehicle for supporting
specific candidates or legislation (although that could certainly be
useful), but more because of its potentially transformative nature. What I
mean is that, over time, by identifying or establishing a viable and visible
local abolition group in every Congressional District, we could invade every
"cell" of the body politic. I think I'm getting a little carried away with
my rhetoric, but I'm sure you get the idea....
   ********************************************
       WESTERN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION
           1440 Broadway, Suite 500
             Oakland, CA USA 94612
              Tel: [phone]
              Fax: [phone]
               [e-mail]
   ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 **********
   Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons


- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 18:38:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jackie Cabasso <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Chicago and beyond: Food for Thought

Greetings, USA Abolitionists,

        This message is from me, personally, not speaking on behalf of the
planning committee.  Thanks to Joseph Gerson for reminding us of the enormously
difficult political hurdles we face as we attempt to build a powerful US
movement
for nuclear abolition. I am inspired to re-post Betty Burkes' incredible speech
from our Oakland, CA Abolition 2000 conference in Feb. 1997 (below,
following this
message).

        On the subject of the year 2000, speaking only for myself, as one of
the principle drafters of the Abolition 2000 Statement I always viewed the
year 2000 as a goal or aspiration for the completion of negotiations on a
treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons within a timebound framework, rather
than as a "realistic" date.  What Abolition 2000 conveys to me is a sense of
urgency about the need for the nuclear weapon states to "start talking"
NOW!! If anything, the urgency has increased since 1995.  I strongly agree
with Joseph about the need to plan a long term campaign strategy, but I urge
us not to get hung up on the use of the year 2000 as a "marker."  (I'm not
ruling out a name change at some point -- how about, "Abolition NOW!") Perhaps
it would be useful to think of the remaining time before 2000 as a lead up to
the beginning of a "countdown" to abolition in the new millenium. After all,
after 2000 there are scheduled to be 999 more years beginning with 2_ _ _
(if we make it).  Looking at it that way, I'm sure we'd all agree that our
goal is Abolition 2000 rather than Abolition 3000! -- Jackie
Cabasso
===========================================================================
WHAT CAN ONE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT
LEARN FROM ANOTHER?

COMPARING ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
WITH ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

Text of speech delivered by Betty Burkes,  President of the U.S. Section of
WILPF, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, at the Northern
California Abolition 2000 Conference on February 22, 1997.

    I sincerely believe that the best thinking happens when we are fully
engaged in the process of discerning the questions, naming the challenges
they present to us personally and collectively, and then framing an inquiry
that allows us to think critically about the issues and finally to fully and
deeply, with our whole heart, journey beyond where we have erected barriers
and perhaps gotten stuck either in our hope that things will change or our
fear that they will not.

    Looking back to the past, to history, helps us make sense of the present
and is an opportunity to discover new possibilities for the future. I am
pleased to be here today among America's most dedicated deviants and
unshakably decent individuals whose willingness to accept individual and
collective responsibility, and whose impulse to act against injustice may,
someday, secure this planet for future generations.

    So what if anything does Abolition 2000 have to do with the Abolition
movement of the 1830's, 40's, 50's and 60's?  Is there a relationship
between the goals of that movement and Abolition 2000?  The Abolitionist
movement failed to secure the socioeconomic transformation of the nation
that it supposed the abolishing of slavery would conclude.  If the abolition
of nuclear weapons does not secure such a transformation in the power
relationships of the nation, then we will have failed to secure the peace
and security we all hope for.

    What can one Abolitionist movement learn from another?  First, the
Abolitionist movement was revolutionary and those involved embraced the
revolutionary realities of the anti-slavery agenda.  Herbert Aptheker holds
that the Abolition of slavery presupposed a revolution of power
relationships in America.  The institution of slavery was a major component
of the social, political and economic order in the U.S. and to attack
slavery was inescapably to call for extensive social change.

    It was a highly organized movement, with local, and national associations,
constitutions, publications, elected or appointed leaders and full-time
activists--professional revolutionaries.  They were women and men who, in
solidarity, defied the social and moral conventions of their times.  They
refused to accept the limitations and negative images society sought to
impose upon them.  Many of them left the safe and privileged comfort of
ignorance and thrust themselves into arenas.  They were clearly out of step
with their neighbors.

    Henry Thoreau mused that if an individual does not keep pace with her
companions, perhaps it is because she hears a different drummer.  "Let her
step to the music which she hears, however measured or far away."

    The Abolitionist movement was a black-white movement.  It was a male-female
movement.  It was fully conscious of its challenge to property rights and
was a fundamental challenge to the constructions of power and money.  Black
people were the first and most lasting Abolitionists, those who endured it,
survived it and combated it.  Without the initiative of the Afro-American
people, without their illumination of the nature of slavery, without their
persistent struggle to be free, there would have been no national
Abolitionist movement.  The participation of black people in every aspect
was indispensable to its functioning.

    Racism permeated slavery in the United States--characterized it, justified
it, and sustained it.  Racism permeates the culture of war and weapons in
the U.S. today, characterizes it, and sustains it.

    Abolitionists understood that the abolition of slavery was not just a moral
or ethical issue, but it had far reaching consequences for reorganizing and
reordering the social, political, and economic habits of America; that if
they were successful, it would revolutionize power relationships in America
forever.  They were not successful.  The Abolitionist movement is not to be
confused with the abolition of slavery. Slavery was abolished, but by order
of the government, not by the white abolitionists, not by blacks.

    Howard Zinn reminds us that it was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves,
not John Brown.  "In 1859, John Brown was hanged, with federal complicity,
for attempting to do by small-scale violence what Lincoln would do in large
scale violence several years later, without conscience or heart--end
slavery.  With slavery abolished by order of the government, the dominant
group could set limits to emancipation.  The ending of slavery did not lead
to radical reconstruction of national politics and economics, but a safe
one, in fact a profitable one.

    The emancipation following the end of slavery, was essentially a betrayal
of the abolitionist movement.  The ending of slavery did not bring justice
or freedom to the emancipated slave or to free blacks.  The persistence of
racism prevailed.  Power relationships did not change.

     One hundred years later, the civil rights movement began as an appeal to
white America's conscience and evolved into an insurrection that was
violently and successfully put down.  That is my fear for the Abolition 2000
movement, that we not be maneuvered out of our revolutionary vision for just
and environmentally sustainable communities.

    If nuclear weapons were abolished tomorrow, like slavery, by order of the
government, we would not have the radical reconstruction of national
politics and economics to ensure such communities.  The dominant group would
once again control and limit our emancipation from nuclear weapons, derail
what we seek through the Abolition 2000 movement.

    To realize a secure and livable world for our children and grandchildren
and all future generations, the stated goal of Abolition 2000, requires more
of us than achieving a world free of nuclear weapons.  Securing a livable
world for our children and grandchildren and all future generations requires
that we make some inquiry into the culture of war and violence we inhabit,
check out how we participate and are organized to acquiesce in our own
exploitation.  Like the Abolitionist movement of the 19th century, Abolition
2000 must be about reshaping the principle of power upon which our culture
is based.

    I want to read a quote from Starhawk's book, Dreaming the Dark.  "We must
shake up all the old divisions, like race, gender, class.  The comfortable
separations no longer work.  Though we are told that such issues separate;
that rape is an issue separate from nuclear war, that a woman's struggle for
equal pay is not related to a black teenager's struggle to find a job or to
the struggle to prevent the export of a nuclear reactor to a site on a web
of earthquake faults.  All these realities are shaped by the consciousness
that shapes our power relationships.  Those relationships in turn shape our
economic and social systems.  They are presently shaping the destruction of
the world."

    The institution of slavery was a major component of the social order in the
United States, and to attack slavery was inescapably to call for extensive
social change.  Nuclear weapons is a major component of the social order in
the United States now, and to attack them is a call for social change in the
world.

    We are a culture organized around death, killing, war, profit, and
violence, where power is based on the principle of power-over others. Power
over is the power of punishment, weapons, competition, the power of
annihilation that supports all the institutions of domination.  Nuclear
weapons serve the preservation and continuance of that culture.      As I
consider my involvement in this abolitionist movement of the 1990's, I ask
myself, "Is Abolition 2000 preparing to give leadership and study to
reordering this culture when we are successful in abolishing nuclear weapons?"

    One of the defining qualities of the Abolitionist movement was anti-racism.
Is that a defining quality of Abolition 2000?  Does it need to be? Have we
confronted our personal weapons of racism, classism, elitism, and
heterosexism in our movement to Abolish nuclear weapons?  We live in a
culture that glorifies war to the extent that the dominant class is even
willing to destroy the planet rather than chance the outbreak of
uncontrollable democracy.  How do I participate in destroying the planet?

    The slave-holding class possessed wealth far in excess of any other
property owning class prior to the Civil War.  They owned all the arms of
the federal government and controlled its domestic and foreign policy. This
economic and political domination assured the slave-holding class effective
control over the structures of the society.      The Abolitionist led a
movement whose basic claim was the termination of the bases of this power.
It meant the overthrow of the ruling class in the old way such a class can
be overthrown, by the elimination of the property upon which its power
rests.  In this case the ownership of human beings.

    The system of slavery, like the system of nuclear weapons, had needs that
conflicted with the ethical and moral views of the Abolitionist which
resulted in communities of Resistance.  It is in the wisdom and persistence
of those communities that our success rests.  Perhaps another question in
this inquiry is, do we activists against nuclear weapons have the courage to
revisit what the civil rights movement left undone?--To demand the
reorganization of power relationships in this country?  Are we willing to
take on the iron triangle of power, to resist the gang of three, the
Pentagon, the corporations and Congress?  After all, Alice Walker says that
Resistance is the Secret of Joy.  Abolition without revolution is our
failure to wrestle with the real issues of peace and freedom.

    We have all been deeply shaped by the culture we live in.  The attitude s
of war are embedded so deeply that we are rarely aware of them.  Only when
we know how we have been shaped by the structures of power in which we live
can we become the shapers.  Knowing our history is a beginning.

    With knowledge and insight, Abolition 2000 must abolish nuclear weapons by
we must also reorder the relationships of power in the world, in order to
secure our goal of a livable planet for our children, and grandchildren and
all future generations.

- -----------------------------------------
To reach Betty Burkes, please contact WILPF, 1213 Race St., Philadelphia,
PA, 19107 USA
Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; E-mail: [e-mail]
   ********************************************
       WESTERN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION
           1440 Broadway, Suite 500
             Oakland, CA USA 94612
              Tel: [phone]
              Fax: [phone]
               [e-mail]
   ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 **********
   Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons


- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 23:28:48 -0400
From: Norm Cohen <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: (abolition-usa) Chicago: a few odds and ends for the mix

Hey, maybe I'm missing something here. We've got Peace Action organized already
in, what is it, 27 states; there's WRL, there's the other active groups. Peace
Action is doing Peace Voter '98 work & will do PV 2000 work in many cd's and
certainly abolition is a major theme. So isn't this a framework already in
place?

Norm Cohen
Coalition for Peace & Justice
NJ CD2

Jackie Cabasso wrote:

> Pamela Meidell has offered to synthesize the ideas and proposals posted on
> the US abolition list-serve for presentation at the Chicago meeting.  Here
> are a few odds and ends for the mix:
>
> 1) City resolutions -- A number of US cities (and many more in other
> countries) have already passed resolutions supporting nuclear abolition.
> (Check out the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's Abolition 2000 website for a
> list of cities, as well as a model resolution: www.wagingpeace.org/abolition
> 2000) While I wouldn't make pursuit of city resolutions a high priority in
> isolation, it is an activity that can easily be built into other local
> organizing efforts, in conjunction with town meetings, etc. For example, in
> northern California, groups in different cities host the quarterly
> gatherings of our regional Abolition 2000 network.  The local host group
> tries to get their city to pass an Abolition resolution around the time of
> our meeting.  So far we have succeeded in getting Oakland, Santa Rosa and
> Davis, CA to pass abolition resolutions. In some cases (though not
> neccesarily in our experience), the process of convincing a city to pass
> such a resolution can provide an organizing and media opportunity in and of
> itself.
>         A related idea is to revitalize the Nuclear Free Zone (NFZ) movement
> by going back to cities that passed NFZ ordinances in the 1980's and getting
> them to reaffirm and update their positions by passing  abolition
> resolutions. In addition, abolition resolutions might be "piggybacked" onto
> new NFZ laws, which tend to focus on nuclear waste and transportation
> issues.  Note that over the last few years, a large number of Native
> American nations have declared themselves NFZs as part of their effort to
> resist nuclear waste dumping on their lands.  Chuck Johnson, the former
> director of Nuclear Free America has recently established the Nuclear Free
> Zone Project, a clearinghouse for NFZ information, in Salem Oregon. His
> e-mail address is: [e-mail]/phone: [phone]
>
> 2) Someone at our September northern CA Abolition 2000 meeting suggested
> that we organize our US abolition campaign by Congressional District.  This
> idea really captured my imagination, not only as a vehicle for supporting
> specific candidates or legislation (although that could certainly be
> useful), but more because of its potentially transformative nature. What I
> mean is that, over time, by identifying or establishing a viable and visible
> local abolition group in every Congressional District, we could invade every
> "cell" of the body politic. I think I'm getting a little carried away with
> my rhetoric, but I'm sure you get the idea....
>    ********************************************
>        WESTERN STATES LEGAL FOUNDATION
>            1440 Broadway, Suite 500
>              Oakland, CA USA 94612
>               Tel: [phone]
>               Fax: [phone]
>                [e-mail]
>    ********** Part of ABOLITION 2000 **********
>    Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
>
> -
>  To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
>  with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
>  For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
>  "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.




- -
 To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.

------------------------------

End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #23
**********************************

-
 To unsubscribe to $LIST, send an email to "[e-mail]"
 with "unsubscribe $LIST" in the body of the message.
 For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
 "help" to the same address.  Do not use quotes in your message.