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Engaging Cities in Advocacy for a Nuclear Weapon Free World
Things to do Contact Information pdf flier for Engaging Cities campaign
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THINK GLOBALLY/ACT LOCALLY: WORKING WITH YOUR MAYOR FOR THE ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND OTHER PEACE AND JUSTICE ISSUES Is your mayor a member of Mayors for Peace? If so, work with your mayor on nuclear disarmament and other peace and justice initiatives. If not, persuade your mayor to join and get active! Mayors for Peace: One hundred twenty-eight U.S. mayors in 35 states are members of Mayors for Peace. Cities enrolled include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Fayetteville, AR, Honolulu, Houston, Kansas City, MO, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Oakland, CA, Olympia, Philadelphia, Portland, OR, Providence, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Santa Fe. Mayors for Peace internationally is headed by the dynamic mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The organization has grown dramatically from less than 600 members in 2003 to 2,317 cities in 130 countries. Find out if your mayor is a member: www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/membercity/northamerica.html At its June 2008 Annual Meeting in Miami, the prestigious U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) unanimously adopted a far-reaching resolution put forward by Mayors for Peace entitled "Support for the Elimination of All Nuclear Weapons by the Year 2020." The resolution recommends that the U.S. government "urgently consider" a specific proposal - the "Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol", a framework agreement for elimination of nuclear weapons - as a means of "fulfilling the promise of the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] by the year 2020, thereby meeting the obligation found by the International Court of Justice in 1996 to 'conclude negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.'" The resolution also encourages USCM members to participate in the delegation and activities being organized by Mayors for Peace at the third NPT Review Conference Preparatory Committee Meeting in New York in May 2009, and to sign the Cities Appeal being circulated in support of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol and to encourage other elected officials in their cities to do likewise. Persuade your mayor to:
Almost two decades after the end of the Cold War, the U.S. government is conducting a planning process aimed at sustaining the ability to design and manufacture new nuclear weapons for many decades to come. Despite having the world's most advanced conventional weapons and spending more on its military than does the rest of the world combined, the United States is determined to maintain dominance in nuclear weapons as well, maintaining thousands of nuclear warheads and the missiles, planes, and submarines to deliver them. The underlying assumption is that under all foreseeable circumstances, the U.S. will keep thousands of nuclear weapons for most of this century, together with the capacity to reconstitute an even larger force. By continuing to lead the world in nuclear weapons technology, the United States makes new arms races more likely, and ignores the promises it has made to work towards the elimination of these ultimate weapons of mass destruction. The endless pursuit of military advantage also diverts resources that should be used to build a world that is both fairer and more sustainable, a far better way than the threat of force to reduce the tensions that lead to violence. The NPT acknowledges this, stating in its preamble that "the establishment and maintenance of international peace and security are to be promoted with the least diversion for armaments of the world's human and economic resources." We face grave challenges to our ability to give all of our people lives that are healthy, safe, and secure. Spending tens of billions of dollars to build weapons of mass destruction and the laboratories and factories to maintain them does nothing to solve the real problems we face. It will not feed, clothe, house, or educate a single child. It will not provide health care for the millions who can not afford it. It will not educate our work force, or restore decaying infrastructure, or provide cleaner, less costly energy. Spending on nuclear weapons also creates fewer jobs than public spending on these kinds of programs – programs that provide real security, that build a healthier economy at the same time that they provide immediate improvements in peoples' lives. All the elements of our dilemma are brought together in our cities. Large-scale attacks on cities are the marker of total war, of the near complete breakdown of civilization itself. The nature of modern cities also makes manifest our interdependence, and the complexity of bringing real change to even a single large city– in how we provide millions of inhabitants with even the basics of food, energy, transportation, housing, and meaningful work– illuminates the true magnitude of the challenges we face. If we can come to understand fully the effects on our cities of a half-century of arms racing, of its climate of fear, diversion of resources, and erosion of democracy, we will have made a start towards choosing another path. We hope that you will join us in working with your mayor and Mayors for Peace to engage your community in the work of creating a nuclear-weapon-free world. Contact: Jackie Cabasso, Mayors for Peace North American Coordinator; Western States Legal Foundation, 655-13th Street, Suite 201, Oakland, CA 94612; (510) 839-5877;
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