This Commentary addresses the shortcomings of the current law of armed conflict in either reining in the horrific violence of the current wars or providing the groundwork for meaningful progress towards nuclear disarmament. It examines the common foundations underlying both the laws of war and the prevalent ways of talking about international matters, and their limitations in a time when authoritarian nationalists hold power in the world's most powerful states. The commentary suggests a different approach more grounded in human rights, and encourages a conversation across issues and movements seeking better understanding of the causes in this moment of resurgent identity-based nationalisms.

WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman in conversation with Dr. Carolyn “Rusti” Eisenberg about her new book, Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger and the Wars in Southeast Asia. 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.

This event was presented by United for Peace and Justice and cosponsored by Brooklyn for Peace, Historians for Peace and Democracy, Peace Action, Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, Massachusetts Peace Action, Peace Action New York State, and Veterans for Peace.

Tuesday, August 6, 2024, 8:30 am; Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab – West Gate. Join Western States Legal Foundation and alli IN-PERSON on the 79th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima for a rally and nonviolent direct action. LIVESTREAM at http://tiny.cc/AugActionZoom pdf event flyer

Statement of the Coordinating Committee of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons to the 2024 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee Meeting at the United Nations, New York City, Delivered by WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso, principal drafter WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman.

A joint statement of the Western States Legal Foundation, Peace Depot (Yokohama, Japan) and Basel Peace Office (Prague, Czech Republic), published by the Interpress Service News Agency.

At the close of its 92nd Annual Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 23, 2024, the final business plenary of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) unanimously adopted a new resolution, titled, “The Imperative of Dialogue in a Time of Acute Nuclear Dangers.” This is the nineteenth consecutive year that the USCM has adopted a resolution submitted on behalf of U.S. members of Mayors for Peace. PRESS RELEASE

U.S. members of Mayors for Peace by State

Join the Mayors for Peace Interest Group (google.com), a moderated list to share information, ideas and best practices for recruiting new U.S. members of Mayors for Peace and supporting and promoting Mayors for Peace activities in the U.S.

A Nuclear-Armed European Union? A Proposal Under Fire, with extensive quotes extensive quotes by WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso and WSLF Borad member John Burroughs, Interpress Service News, Jun 7, 2024.

A Russian Veto Threatens to Trigger a Nuclear Arms Race in Outer Space, with extensive quotes by WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso, Interpress Service News, May 7, 2024.

The last week of November 2023, during the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at United Nations headquarters in New York City, the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament, and Common Security and partner organizations gathered leading analysts and movement leaders from 13 countries in a round table discussion on the massive geopolitical changes that are destabilizing and restructuring the global disorder and their nuclear implications. They also organized a standing room-only public meeting on the same topic. WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso was a featured speaker at both events. Read her remarks to the November 28 round table here. Read her remarks to the November 29 public meeting here.

Nuclear Deterrence: An Unproven Gamble that Risks Humanity, features extensive quotes by WSLF Executive Director, Jackie Cabasso, IDN-In Depth News, December 3, 2023

Nuclear Tensions Loom Over War Zones, features extensive quotes by WSLF Executive Director, Jackie Cabasso, IDN-In Depth News, November 9, 2023

Western States Legal Foundation's Executive Director Jackie Cabasso and Senior Research Analyst Andrew Lichterman serve on the Coordinating Committee of United for Peace and Justice, a network of orgnaizations. UFPJ Member groups contribute time and skills to keep the network going. As part of this effort, Lichterman has maintained a resource page on the UFPJ web site on the Ukraine war since early 2022, and has added a resource page on the current, fast-developing crisis in Gaza (see links below.)

The Ukraine crisis: commentary, responses, and background

Israel/Palestine October 2023 War: Resources

The International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) has issued a statement titled “The Illegality of U.S. Cluster Munitions Delivery to Ukraine under International Law – and the Positive Obligation of the U.S. to Avoid or Minimize the Humanitarian Suffering Caused by These Weapons.” The statement notes that both the Russian and Ukrainian militaries have used cluster munitions in the course of the war, and argues that although the United States, Russia, and Ukraine are not parties to the Cluster Munitions Convention, the use of cluster munitions likely is illegal under general principles of humanitarian and human rights law. Western States Legal Foundation is a U.S. affiliate of IALANA. Read the statement here.

WSLF Executive Director, speaking on behalf of the Nuclear Weapons Convention working group of Abolition 2000, presented a working paper titled Abolition 2000 NWC Reset: Frameworks for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World to the first Preparatory Committee meeting in Vienna for the 2026 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference. The paper includes reflections provides an outline of possible approaches for establishing the framework for a nuclear-weapon-free world in a time-bound framework. You can find her statement here, and the working paper here.

Daniel Ellsberg Presente!

At this year's Hiroshima-Nagasaki action at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab we honored the life of our dear friend and nuclear disarmament champion, Daniel Ellsberg. In this time of growing global nuclear dangers, we gathered at the West Gate of the Lab at 9 am on Friday, August 4, for a solemn silent vigil to remember Dan and demand dismantlement of what he termed the “Doomsday Machine” — starting at the Livermore Lab, which continues to design and develop nuclear warheads. Following the vigil, we showed a new video compilation of Dan's most compelling and inspiring talks from past rallies at the Lab. Click here to see the video.

  Planning groups included: Asian Americans for Peace & Justice; Ecumenical Peace Institute; Livermore Conversion Project; No Nukes Action Committee; SF Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility; Tri-Valley CAREs; Western States Legal Foundation; Women's International League for Peace & Freedom

John Burroughs and host Philip Muldari discuss the film on KPFA’s Sunday Show. They talk about what was good about the film, including its depiction of the vicious McCarthy-era sidelining of Robert Oppenheimer, leader of the effort to design the first atomic bombs but after World War II a voice for restraint. And they talk about what is missing, not least that the Manhattan project was a vast industrial enterprise for production of plutonium and uranium 235, not just scientists gathered together at Los Alamos, New Mexico to design the bombs. Click here for the recording (starts at 1:06:40).

Submitted to the California Public Energy Commission, July 25, 2023.

June 5, 2023. At the close of its 91st Annual Meeting in Columbus, Ohio, on June 5, 2023, the final business plenary of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) unanimously adopted a new resolution, titled, “Calling for Urgent Action to Avoid Nuclear War, Resolve the Ukraine Conflict, Lower Tensions with China, and Redirect Military Spending to Meet Human Needs.” This is the eighteenth consecutive year that the USCM has adopted a resolution submitted by U.S. members of Mayors for Peace. The resolution's lead sponsor, Mayor Frank Cownie of Des Moines, Iowa, and U.S. Vice-President of Mayors for Peace, commented: “This resolution carries on the U.S. Conference of Mayors' proud tradition for nearly two decades of standing for the non-use and global elimination of nuclear weapons.” Press Release

Op-Ed by senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman, IDN-In Depth News, January 26, 2023.

Viewpoint by WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso, IDN-In Depth News, December 26, 2022.

A Western States Legal Foundation Commentary by Andrew Lichterman. This working paper suggests some different ways to think about wars and their causes and the role of peace movements.

Writing about the Biden Administration's new Nuclear Posture Review for the Institute for Public Accuracy, on October 31, 2022 Western States Legal Foundation's Executive Director, Jackie Cabasso, said: “With the Russian government's alarming nuclear threats in Ukraine and the world closer to nuclear war than at any time since the darkest days of the Cold War, the Biden administration's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) could be read as pouring gas on the fire. Rather than issuing a clarion call for diplomacy, military restraint and new, non-nuclear global security arrangements, the new NPR doubles down on the centrality of nuclear deterrence — the threatened use of nuclear weapons — in U.S. national security policy.” That day, Jackie was interviewed about the NPR by Paul DeRienzo for WBAI News in New York City (listen here) and by Dennis Bernstein on KPFA Flashpoints (listen here, starting at 31.05). On November 14, she was interviewed by David Swanson on Talk World Radio (watch the video here).

This webinar, presented by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accompanying nuclear threats with reference to the applicable international law, and divergent approaches of peace advocates to the war, and whether prevalent geopolitical frames provide an adequate perspective for viewing the war. The speakers were John Burroughs of Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and Andrew Lichterman and Jackie Cabasso of Western States Legal Foundation. John is the principal author of the paper End the War, Stop the War Crimes; Andrew is the author of the paper The Peace Movement and the Ukraine War: Where to Now?; and Jackie is a key actor in peace and disarmament networks. October 27, 2022.

“Where We Are Going: Nuclear Arms, Treaties and Defense Spending,” a panel-audience discussion, took place on October 11, 2022, as part of this year's Which Way the Wind Festival in Eureka, California. The panelists, Dr. Robert Gould, President, SF Bay Chapter Physicians For Social Responsibility, Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, and Dale Preston of Hirosoft International, discussed current threats posed by nuclear weapons, efforts to reduce the dangers of nuclear weapon usage and the long-term health effects of radiation. They also discussed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and how to begin to rein in the out-of-control US military budget, which adds to global instability and delivers profits to major military contractors while doing little to make the US or the world a safer place and diverting resources needed to deal with climate change, health care and social inequities. Watch the recording here. Read Jackie's text here.

Op Ed by WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso, August 28, 2022.

"The 10th NPT Review Conference didn't fail because it couldn't produce a final document. It failed because the nuclear-armed states haven't made good on their fundamental nuclear disarmament obligation under Article VI of the Treaty, undertaken 52 years ago, nor on the promises and commitments to action items that would lead to nuclear disarmament they agreed to in connection with the indefinite extension of the Treaty in 1995 and in the 2000 and 2010 final documents." Read more.

Join Western States Legal Foundation and allies for a virtual rally commemorating the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with Daniel Ellsberg and Oleg Bodrov from Russia.

Western States Legal Foundation Commentary by Andrew Lichterman, senior research analyst, March 4, 2022

Themes explored include:

The attack on Ukraine by the government of Russia and its military forces is an illegal war of aggression and must be strongly condemned. Threats by the Russian government to use nuclear weapons and the confrontation among four nuclear-armed militaries underscores the grave danger posed by this crisis, and the unacceptability of war in an interdependent and fragile global society.

We must have a global peace movement aligned with no states. We admire and support the courage of the people in Russia who have taken up that task, acting nonviolently to oppose their government's illegal war.

There should be immediate and unconditional negotiations to end hostilities, and then to work towards a fair and inclusive common security framework in Europe. But even if a greater catastrophe is avoided, the end of hostilities only will begin the struggle to define a global reality much changed. There will be a campaign by those who hold power in the United States and many of its allies to respond with more arms racing, hardening the confrontation not only with Russia but with China. This will only increase the risk of war among nuclear-armed countries.

We must work harder to develop an independent discourse that can ground an understanding of the forces driving authoritarian nationalisms, resurgent arms racing, and war.

Time to start stopping the wars: No war in Ukraine, then no war anywhere.

Statement on the Ukraine Crisis by the United for Peace and Justice Coordinating Committee, January 29, 2022. WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso and WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman serve on the United for Peace and Justice Coordinating Committee. Andrew Lichterman was the lead drafter for this statement.

The Ukraine crisis: commentary, responses, and background

Resource web page on the Ukraine crisis prepared for United for Peace and Justice by WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman

In 1970, at the height of the Cold War, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) came into force. Under the Treaty, which today includes all but five UN member states, five states acknowledged to possess nuclear weapons, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China (N5), agreed to pursue nuclear disarmament, and all other states agreed not to acquire nuclear weapons.

52 years later, this NPT core bargain has still not been fulfilled. Four more countries outside the NPT now have nuclear weapons (Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea), and there are still over 13,000 nuclear weapons distributed among the nine countries.

States parties to the NPT meet every five years to assess progress and agree further steps.  The 10th NPT Review Conference was due to take place in May 2020 and, having been postponed several times, was scheduled to start on the 4th of January in New York. This latest attempt to convene the conference was postponed again due to the omicron variant currently rampaging across the world.

On January 10, 91 civil society organization issued a Joint Statement From Civil Society to the States Parties of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including extensive policy analysis and recommendations. WSLF Executive Director, Jackie Cabasso, and Board Member John Burroughs were members of the drafting committee. A video recording of the statement has been made, with sections read by Cabasso, Burroughs and allies from around the world.

Join us Friday August. 6 and Monday August 9, virtually, at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab. to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tune in, abolish nuclear weapons, connect the dots, and act for change.

On August 6, there was a virtual rally from 9:00 – 10:45 am PDT. The following speakers were filmed live at the gate to the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab: Nobuaki Hanaoka, a Nagasaki hibakusha; Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs; and John Burroughs, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and Western States Legal Foundation. They are followed by pre-recorded presentations by keynote speaker, Daniel Ellsberg, Marcina Langrine and Benetick Kabua Maddison, Marshallese Education Initiative; Tsukuru Fors, Pacific Asian Nuclear-Free Peace Alliance; and Nell Myhand, California Poor People's Campaign. Music was provided by Betsey Rose and Benjamin Mertz. To view a recording of the entire event combining live and prerecorded portions, click here. For more details, download the media advisory here.

Texts of speakers' presentations

Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs

John Burroughs, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and Western States Legal Foundation

Jacqueline Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation (Call to Action)

Op-ed by WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman, Common Dreams, July 6, 2021

Op-ed by WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso, In Depth News, July 5, 2021.

by Andrew Lichterman, senior research analyst, Western States Legal Foundation. Text of a presentation at the Asia Pacific Working Group webinar, "The U.S.-China competition and its impact on the people caught in the middle," June 9, 2021.

This webinar, presented by United for Peace and Justice, featured three Western States Legal Foundation board members. Click here to view a recording of the webinar. See below for text of the presentations from the panelists and for additional resources.

The recent entry into force of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons brought a welcome positive moment to a bleak disarmament landscape. But none of the nuclear armed states have joined the Treaty, and all are expanding or modernizing their nuclear arsenals. This webinar, hosted by UFPJ, provided an update on nuclear weapons policies and programs and an overview of relevant developments in international law. It also suggested the need to rethink familiar approaches to disarmament, and to shift the focus of disarmament advocacy from recognizing the effects of nuclear weapons to analyzing the causes of nuclear arms racing and of the risks of war among nuclear-armed countries – the same root causes driving many of our other most pressing crises.

Webinar presenters:

Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, based in Oakland, California, since 1984. In 1995 she was a "founding mother" of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, and she continues to serve on its Coordinating Committee. Since 2007 she has served as an Executive Advisor to Mayors for Peace. She is a National Co-convener of UFPJ. Jackie was the 2008 recipient of the International Peace Bureau's Sean MacBride Peace Award.  Presentation text part 1 part 2

John Burroughs, Senior Analyst for the New York City-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP). He has represented LCNP in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meetings and negotiations on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. His articles and op-eds have appeared in publications including Fordham International Law Journal, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Arms Control Today, Newsweek, and Newsday. Presentation Text

Andrew Lichterman, policy analyst and lawyer with the Oakland, California-based Western States Legal Foundation. He has represented peace and environmental activists in a variety of settings, and also taught at alternative law schools for many years. He is a member of the United for Peace and Justice Coordinating Committee. Presentation text

Readings and other resources

75 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Quest for Nuclear Disarmament; Where Do Things Stand? Remarks by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation to the Democratic 21st Century Club of Santa Clara County, CA, October 20, 2020.  Read her remarks here. Watch the video recording here.

Nuclear Weapons under the Biden Presidency Remarks by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, Peace & Planet webinar: The International Disarmament Agenda: Civil Society Voices From 7 Key States, February 23, 2021. Read her remarks here. Watch the video recording

Building a Moral Fusion Movement – Resource paper by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, for New York State Bar Association International Law and Nuclear Weapons Conference, November 12, 2020. Read the paper here. Watch the video recording of her remarks here (starting at 1:50:10).

Remarks of John Burroughs, Conference on International Law and Nuclear Weapons 2020, New York State Bar Association, November 12, 2020

Building Blocks for Nuclear Ban Treaty: NPT & Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, John Burroughs, Inter Press Service, November 2, 2020

Human Rights Versus Nuclear Weapons: New Dimensions,Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, January 2021

Contributors: Roger Clark, Ariana Smith, Peter Weiss, Daniel Rietiker, Bonnie Docherty, and Andrew Lichterman

U.S.-Russia Nuclear Arms Racing: Still Crazy After All These Years, Andrew Lichterman and John Burroughs, Truthdig, March 16, 2018

"Nuclear Disarmament, Civil Society, and Democracy," Andrew Lichterman, Disarmament Forum, 2010 No.4

Rethinking the Military-Industrial Complex, Western States Legal Foundation working paper 2018, by Andrew Lichterman.

Nuclear Weapons: Why Are They Still Here? August 6, 2020 Presentation by Andrew Lichterman.

How, in the midst of an economic and public health crisis, is the U.S. set to spend hundreds of billions on new nuclear weapons which could never be used, add nothing to national security, and actually increase the risk of nuclear war? Funding for these extremely dangerous weapons systems will come up soon in Congress. The NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security, with co-sponsors, the Unitarian Universalist Association, UN Office, and Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, presented three leaders to clarify the key issues and discuss possible plans of action.

Bruce Knotts
Director at the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations, where he was directed since 2008. Before that, he served as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State with notable service during the Nairobi Embassy bombing 1998, Embassy Khartoum, Sudan, Regional Refugee Coordinator for West Africa, and Deputy Chief of Mission in The Gambia. His final tour was in the Bureau of International Organization at the Department of State.

Dr. John Burroughs
Senior Analyst for the New York City-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. He has represented LCNP in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meetings and negotiations on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. His articles and op-eds have appeared in publications including Fordham International Law Journal, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Arms Control Today, Newsweek, and Newsday.

Jackie Cabasso Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, based in Oakland, California, since 1984. In 1995 she was a “founding mother” of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, and she continues to serve on its Coordinating Committee. Since 2007 she has served as an Executive Advisor to Mayors for Peace. In the U.S., she is a National Co-convener of United for Peace and Justice. Jackie was the 2008 recipient of the International Peace Bureau's Sean MacBride Peace Award. Unfortunately, the video recording is not useable, but you can read John Burroughs' remarks here and Jackie Cabasso's remarks here (please read them in this order).

This webinar, the first in a series planned in the runup to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, now scheduled for August, featured civil society speakers from the United States, Russia, China, the UK, Israel, and Iran, including WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso.

Wide-ranging discussion of nuclear ban treaty with WSLF Board member John Burrough, Senior Analyst with Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, and historian Peter Kuznick of American University.

A conversation with Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation Hosted by Paul George, Emeritus Director, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center Recorded January 14, 2021.

Commentary by Andrew Lichterman, senior research analyst, Western States Legal Foundation, in Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Human Rights Versus Nuclear Weapons: New Dimensions, January, 2021.

Submission by Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and Western States Legal Foundation to the United Nations Human Rights Committee During its Periodic Review of the DPRK, January 4, 2021

On December 10, 2020, United Nations Human Rights Day, the Abolition 2000 Youth working group held two virtual sessions to launch its new international Youth Fusion Campaign. The Youth Fusion Campaign seeks to brings together youth working on nuclear disarmament with those working on peace, climate, disarmament of other weapons, human rights, justice, sustainable development and building back better from the pandemic. It also organizes forums and events for inter-generational dialogue, so that youth and those more experienced can listen and learn from each other and build cooperation for more effective policy action.

Western States Legal Foundation's Jacqueline Cabasso, a "founding mother" of the Abolition 2000 Global Network, welcomed Session 2 of the launch on behalf of the Abolition 2000 Coordinating Committee. Read her remarks here. Watch the recordings of Sessions 1 and 2.

On November 12, 2020, the International Section of the New York State Bar Association hosted an all-day virtual conference on nuclear weapons and international law. Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP) and Global Security Institute (GSI) co-sponsored and co-organized the conference. An exceptional group of experts in law, policy, diplomacy, and advocacy joined high-level officials from the United Nations and the United States to examine the application of international law to nuclear weapons and policy and advocacy strategies for the control and elimination of the weapons and preventing their use.

Conference highlights include:

Hans Kristensen's (Federation of American Scientists) overview of World Nuclear Arsenals, Modernization Programs, and Employment Doctrines and Policies in Panel 1. (Video recording starts here.)

United Nations (UN) High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu's keynote addressing the current status of the global nuclear regime. (Watch video recording starting at 2:10:05)

Remarks by John Burroughs (Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy Senior Analyst and Western States Legal Foundation Board member) on the Role of the United Nations in Panel 2. (Video recording starts here, beginning at 2:29:55)

A special lunchtime dialogue on responding to the greatest threats to humanity featuring Jerry Brown, former California governor and current Executive Chairman, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Jonathan Granoff, GSI President.

Western States Legal Foundation Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso describes her long history of working at the intersection of law and anti-nuclear activism in Panel 5, Approaches for Advancing the Rule of Law and Morality as Concerns Nuclear Weapons. (Video recording starts at 1:27:30.) During her presentation, Cabasso urged support for “broad coalitions” addressing the interrelated issues of systemic racism, poverty, militarism, and environmental devastation, calling special attention to the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

A comprehensive conference report with links to video recordings, speakers' biographies and texts of remarks is available here.

On October 9, 2020 Western States Legal Foundation Executive Direcgtor Jacqueline Cabasso made a virtual luncheon presentation to the Democratic 21st Century Club of Santa Clara County. Watch the video recording here. Read the text of her remarks here.

On September 26, 2020, the United Nations International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, Western States Legal Foundation joined #WeThePeoples2020, a collaboration of over 100 organizations, in a global civil society virtual event. Western States Legal Foundation Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso was a presenter in a plenary session timed for the Americas/Europe/Africa. Read her remarks here.

A workshop on Nuclear Weapons, the Right to Life and the Right to Democracy, was organized by the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy as part of the online event. Presenters were Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation, and John Burroughs and Danielle Samler, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. John Burroughs also is a member of the WSLF board.

Workshop report Remarks of John Burroughs, Andrew Lichterman, Danielle Samler

“Tackling Twin Calamities: Policy, Activism, and Art to Combat Climate Change and Nuclear Weapons,” was hosted by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation with the support of Bombshelltoe, Zero Hour NYC, and the Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the United Nations.

The speakers were:

Alexandra Bell, Senior Policy Director, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation;

Melaika Andrike and Jasmine Alik, National Nuclear Commission, Marshall Islands;

Dr. Ivana Hughes, Director of the K=1 Project, Nuclear Studies Center at Columbia University;

Phoenix Armenta, Community Air Liaison, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project and member of the WSLF Board;

Ashish Birulee, Activist from India;

Runa Ray, Fashion Environmentalist and Founder of Peace-Activism; and

Charlotte McCurdy, Interdisciplinary Designer and Researcher, and Creator of After Ancient Sunlight.

H.E. Ambassador Kairat Umarov, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations, delivered the introductory remarks.

Watch the recording here.

This year's rally at the Livermore Lab, held virtually, kicked off two days of nationally broadcast programming on the historic 75th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Speakers included noted historian and author Gar Alperovitz, Pentagon planner and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Nagasaki A-bomb survivor Rev. Nobuoki Hanaoka, Marylia Kelley of Tri-Valley CAREs, singer Betsey Rose, Western States Legal Foundation's Jackie Cabasso and more. Watch the video recording here. Read Jackie's Call to Action here. The unprecedented August 6 and August 9 virtual event was organized by more than 160 organizations, including Western States Legal Foundation (WSLF), working together through the #stillhere Hiroshima Nagasaki 75 collaboration.

Later in the day on August 6, WSLF Senior Research Analyst Andrew Lichterman made a 15- minute presentation discussing how we might explore the connections among the persistence of nuclear weapons, economic inequality, racism, and the fossil fuel-based economy that drives climate change at the level of common causes. Click here for the text Nuclear Weapons: Why Are They Still Here? Click here for the full August 6 schedule and video (Andrew Lichterman's presentation begins at 6:14:55)

For the full August 9 schedule and video link click here. A message from Congresswoman Barbara Lee kicks of the August 9 programming. Check out both days for an extraordinarily diverse set of inspiring, informational, and artistic presentations.

At the close of its 88th Annual Meeting, held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on June 30, 2020, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) Executive Committee unanimously adopted a sweeping resolution Calling for Human-Centered Security in a Time of Global Pandemic. The new resolution calls on the President and Congress: to support United Nations Secretary-General Guterres’ call for an immediate global ceasefire and international cooperation to address the COVID-19 pandemic; to reconceptualize security in human-centered terms, and to redirect funds currently allocated to nuclear weapons and unwarranted military spending to support safe and resilient cities and meet human needs; and to lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war and actively pursue a verifiable agreement among nuclear armed states to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.

The Abolition 2000 Annual General Meeting on May 23 unanimously adopted a statement condemning recent reports of White House discussions to resume nuclear weapons testing: “Absolutely Unacceptable: Resumed Nuclear Explosive Testing,” drafted by board member John Burroughs, Daniel Ellsberg, and WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman. Statement Press Release

Presentation for the Abolition 2000 2020 Annual General Meeting, May 23, 2020, via Zoom. by Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation.
Video Text

This was one of nine presentations from an international panel to spark thinking for a strategy session at the Annual General Meeting of the Abolition 2000 Global Network for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Video of all the talks can be found here.

The 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference was scheduled to meet April 27 – May 22, 2020, the 50th anniversary of the Treaty's entry-into-force, at United Nations headquarters in New York. Due to public health concerns related to the global pandemic of COVID-19, the Conference was postponed to a later date, as soon as the circumstances permit, tentatively in January 2021.

In light of the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty, its abrogation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the Iran deal) and the deteriorating international situation, this Review Conference is considered critical to the credibility of the NPT regime and to prospects for future nuclear arms control and disarmament measures. As we have done since 1994, Western States Legal Foundation (WSLF) had planned to have a delegation at the NPT conference to observe, to organize and participate in educational events and conferences, and to make a presentation to the assembled governments during the designated civil society session.

All of these plans had to be dramatically altered after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-governmental organizations decided to submit a joint statement from civil society to the States Parties to the NPT and WSLF was invited to join the drafting committee. This statement was drafted by Ray Acheson (WILPF); John Burroughs (Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and WSLF Board member); Jacqueline Cabasso (Western States Legal Foundation); Akira Kawasaki (Peace Boat); Daryl Kimball (Arms Control Association); Allison Pytlak (WILPF); Alicia Sanders-Zakre (ICAN); Susi Snyder (PAX); and Carlos Umana (IPPNW). It was signed by 90 organizations.

A short talk to the San Francisco Bay Area Poor People's Campaign Moral Budget reading group, March 28, 2020, by Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation

Panel presentation at the Soil Not Oil Conference, San Francisco, California, September 9, 2019

Dinning Room Gray Area/Grand Theater 2665 Mission St. San Francisco, 3:40-5:10pm

Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director of Western States Legal Foundation in Oakland Marcia Campos is President of the Board of Directors and adjunct Faculty of the Western Institute of Social Research (WISR) Andrew Lichterman is a policy analyst and lawyer at Western States Legal Foundation

Climate change is an existential threat, one that could wipe out much of the human population of this planet. Nuclear weapons long have been known to pose similar dangers, and yet public concern about them has receded. This is so despite the renewed dangers of arms racing among countries that still possess enough nuclear weapons to end human civilization in a day. The connections between these existential threats remain largely unexplored in the movements sparked by accelerating climate change. Both have impacts that have disproportionately affected colonized and indigenous people. This workshop aims to encourage discussion on the relationship among movements working to confront these fundamental challenges facing humanity. It will include a perspective on the Cold War era movements of the global South, whose contributions to nuclear disarmament work during that time largely have been overlooked.

Bay Area groups will jointly mark the 74th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the Livermore Lab, where the Trump Administration is presently spending billions to create new nuclear warheads.

The Tuesday, August 6, 2019 commemoration is titled Designing Armageddon at Livermore Lab: Rally, March and Nonviolent Direct Action for Nuclear Disarmament. Participants will gather at the northwest corner of the Livermore Lab (Vasco Road and Patterson Pass Road). The rally will begin at 8 AM and will feature music, speakers, poetry, art and more. There is free parking at the event site.

Daniel Ellsberg will deliver the keynote address. Ellsberg is the military analyst and whistleblower who shone a bright light on U.S. policy and helped end the Vietnam War when he released the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg published an award-winning memoir in 2017, “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner.” He remains a brilliant analyst, commentator and sought-after speaker.

Nobuaki Hanaoka, an atomic bomb survivor, will be the rally’s special guest speaker. Hanaoka was an infant when the bomb fell on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. His mother and sister died from illnesses linked to radiation poisoning and his brother died at age 39 from premature aging associated with fallout from the bomb. Hanaoka is a retired minister in the United Methodist Church, who came to the U.S. following seminary training in Japan. He has settled in the Bay Area where he speaks, writes and teaches on topics of peace and human rights.

Rafael Jesus Gonzales, the first poet-laureate of Berkeley, and Marylia Kelley of Tri-Valley CAREs will also be featured. Immediately following the rally program, at approximately 9:15 AM, will be a "call to action," in which participants will be invited to march a short distance to the Livermore Lab West Gate. At the gate, Japanese activists will lead a traditional bon dance. Everyone is invited to participate.

Following the dance will be a commemorative die-in and symbolic chalking of the bodies to mimic the “shadows” left by men, women and children vaporized by the A-bomb blast. Those who choose will then peaceably risk arrest. Others will conduct a legal witness and support.

The media advisory for the event is available here: media advisory

A brochure for the event is available here: front back

On July 1 at its 87th Annual Meeting, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM), unanimously adopted a bold new resolution, "Calling on All Presidential Candidates to Make Known Their Positions on Nuclear Weapons and to Pledge U.S. Global Leadership in Preventing Nuclear War, Returning to Diplomacy, and Negotiating the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons". The resolution calls on "all Presidential candidates of all political parties" to make these "priority issues in the 2020 Presidential campaign". Resolution Text Press Release

Presentation by WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman at an NGO side event on Social Movements and Disarmament Work in a Time of Economic and Ecological Crisis during the 2019 PrepCom for the 2020 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, New York, May 6, 2019

Presentation by WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman at a conference on Growing Nuclear Risks in a Changing World: New Thinking & Movement Building, New York City, May 4, 2019.

Statement of the Western States Legal Foundation to the Third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, May 1, 2019. An abridged version of this statement was presented by Western States Legal Foundation Board President Phyllis Olin.

Presentation by WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman at an NGO side event on Human Rights, Democracy, and Nuclear Weapons Sponsored by Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy during the 2019 PrepCom for the 2020 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, New York, May 1, 2019.

On January 17, 2019, the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear weapons hosted a webinar on the imminent unilateral withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty by the United States. The webinar featured speakers from the United States and Europe. WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman provided the view from the U.S., including some reflections on the 1980's disarmament movements that helped bring the INF treaty about. The webinar was moderated by WSLF executive director Jacqueline Cabasso. Video of the webinar and other materials on the INF Treaty are available online at the links below.

Andrew Lichterman, The INF Treaty and Peace Movements Then and Now, presentation for the Abolition 2000 Webinar “Preserve the INF Treaty,” January 17, 2019. video   text   Full webinar and supporting materials

Related: Op Ed, "Renew Nuclear Arms Control, Don't Destroy It," by Andrew Lichterman and John Burroughs, Inter-Press News Agency, January 2, 2019

Address to a Seminar for Citizens in Japan, South Korea and the U.S., Meiji Gakuin University, Shirogane Campus, Tokyo, Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, November 19, 2018

Statement to the Opening Session Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, November 16, 2018

Workshop talk, "Our Divided World: The Quest for Nuclear Disarmament and the Growing Dangers of Wars Among Nuclear-Armed States," Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, November 18, 2018

For more information click here

On Monday, August 6, 2018, people gathered for a rally and nonviolent direct action at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and opposing the maintenance and modernization of nuclear weapons. On this memorable day we will join millions of peace advocates around the country and the world to say “never again” to the use of nuclear weapons – and to call for their global abolition.

The keynote speaker was Daniel Ellsberg, famed whistleblower and author of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. Other speakers included atomic bomb survivor Rev. Nobuaki Hanaoka, Korea expert Professor Christine Hong, Pennie Opal Plant, co-founder Idle No More SF Bay, and WSLF executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso. For video of the event, click here.

Presentation of the Western States Legal Foundation to the 2018 Preparatory Committee Meeting for the 2020 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, by Andrew Lichterman, Senior Research Analyst, Delivered by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director.

Friday April 6th, 7:30 p.m.
North Berkeley Senior Center
1901 Hearst Avenue at MLK, Berkeley, California

pdf flyer for the event

A forum on the dangers of war in Korea, options for a peacefulsolution, and prospects for a movement leading to that outcome.

Christine Hong is Associate Professor of Literature and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz and is the author of the forthcoming book, The Price of Inclusion: Race, Militarism, and the Pax Americana in Cold War Asia and the Pacific.

Michael T. Klare is the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies and the defense correspondent of The Nation. He is the author of The Race for What's Left (2012), Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet (2008), Blood and Oil (2004), and Resource Wars (2001).

Andrew Lichterman is a policy analyst and lawyer with the Oakland, California, based Western States Legal Foundation. He has represented peace and environmental activists and engaged in environmental litigation relating to nuclear weapons. His current work focuses on US nuclear weapons programs, global disarmament efforts, and the global economy.

Moderator: Jackie Cabasso, the Western States Legal Foundation.

Andrew Lichterman, WSLF senior research analyst, panel talk at "War or Peace in Korea? A forum on the dangers of war in Korea, options for a peaceful solution, and prospects for a movement leading to that outcome," Berkeley, California, April 6, 2018.

by Andrew Lichterman, Senior Research Analyst, Western States Legal Foundation, and John Burroughs, Executive Director, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Truthdig, March 16, 2018. Putin’s speech, US Nuclear Posture Review, origins of current situation, arms control treaties and international law, and more.

A conversation with Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, recorded March 6, 2018. Produced by the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Palo Alto, CA.

Consulate of Mexico
532 Folsom Street San Francisco, CA 94105
Tuesday March 20, 2018, 5pm-7pm.

Click Here to RSVP for the event.

Mexico has consistently provided pioneering leadership in nuclear disarmament diplomacy, from the 1967 Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco), to the adoption by the United Nations, on July 7, 2017, of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The Treaty of Tlatelolco, established the world’s first nuclear weapon free zone in a populated region, inspired subsequent nuclear weapon free zones now encompassing 116 countries. The historic Ban treaty, adopted by a vote of 122 – 1, represents the total rejection of nuclear weapons by most of the states that don’t possess or rely on them. At the same time, nuclear-armed states boycotted the negotiations, and the dangers of nuclear war have grown to levels not seen since the Cold War.

This tertulia offers a timely opportunity to discuss and celebrate Mexico and Latin America’s contributions to nuclear disarmament and to empower participants to add their voices to the nuclear weapons debate.

Presenters: Marcia Campos, Program Director, North of Tlatelolco Project, and Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director of Western States Legal Foundation.

Peace Groups Call for Extension of the Olympic Truce, Postponement of Joint US-South Korea War Games, Dialogue and Diplomacy

Sunday, February 25: 5:00 – 8:00 pm
Café Valparaiso
1403 Solano Avenue, Albany, CA

Albany, CA – Representatives of Bay area peace groups will gather Sunday, February 25, from 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm to watch the closing ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, and call for dialogue and diplomacy with North Korea. The watch party will take place at the Café Valparaiso, 1403 Solano Avenue, Albany, California.

Speakers at the Olympic Closing Ceremony watch party will include Paul Liem, Chair of the Korea Policy Institute, and Ann Wright, US Army Colonel, (ret), former US Diplomat, now with Women Cross DMZ and Veterans For Peace. Rafael Jesus Gonzales, Poet Laureate of Berkeley will read a new poem written specifically for this occasion. Claire Greensfelder, representing NoWarWithNorthKorea.org, a campaign of INOCHI / A World Without Armies, will unveil their new billboard and bumper sticker campaign that will be officially launched next week.

Full press release here: MSword pdf

The Department of Defense has removed the full text of the unclassified Nuclear Posture Review from its web site, providing only summary materials and fact sheets. The full text of the NPR is available at the link above.

6—8:30 pm
Western Institute for Social Research
2930 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA (near Berkeley Bowl)

On December 10, the Nobel Committee will present the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Nuclear disarmament advocates around the world will be celebrating. Please join Western States Legal Foundation to celebrate the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize and our 35th anniversary! Learn about the direct line from the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco to the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty! For a flyer with more information, click here.

This commentary also appeared on the web site of Tikkun Magazine, with an introduction by Michael Lerner.

WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso was a presenter at the Divest From the War Machine Summit organized by Code Pink on Oct. 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. Watch her presentation here.

Read a summary of the day here.

Other notable presenters included Ajamu Baraka, Andrew Feinstein, Jarrett Smith, Susi Snyder, Vijay Prashad and Larry Wilkerson. Watch all of presentations here.

Read a summary of the event and texts of the presentations at http://www.scrapweapons.com/event/un-first-committee-side-event-on-general-and-complete-disarmament-sponsored-by-chile/

WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso serves as national co-convener of United for Peace and Justice. Hear an interview with Jackie about UFPJ's work and the current state of the peace movement on Counterpoint Radio, at http://counterpointradio.org/2017/mp3/171016c-ctpt-cabasso.mp3

Information Brief by Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and Western States Legal Foundation, September 22, 2017

“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.” – President Donald Trump, speech at United Nations, September 19, 2017

President Trump's threat of total destruction of North Korea is utterly unacceptable. Also unacceptable are similarly threatening statements made in pieces carried by North Korea's state-owned news agency. Instead of making apocalyptic threats, the two governments should agree on a non-aggression pact as a step toward finally concluding a peace treaty formally ending the 1950s Korean War and permanently denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. and North Korean threats are wrong as a matter of morality and common sense. They are also completely contrary to bedrock requirements of international law – law which is part of the law of the land under the U.S. Constitution. Both countries, by engaging in a cycle of threats and military posturing, violate prohibitions on the threat of force to resolve disputes and on threats to use force outside the bounds of the law of armed conflict. Trump's threats carry more weight because the armed forces of the United States, capped by its immense nuclear arsenal, could accomplish the destruction of North Korea in short order.

Read the full text of the information brief at either of the links below:

Html: Html: http://wslfweb.org/docs/ThreatsofTotalDestructionAreUnlawfulandDangerous.htm

PDF: PDF: http://wslfweb.org/docs/ThreatsofTotalDestructionAreUnlawfulandDangerous.pdf

Truthout Op-Ed, Sunday, July 16, 2017 By WSLF Senior Research Analyst Andrew Lichterman

Press release

Text of Resolution

WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso and Senior Research Analyst Andrew Lichterman appeared at this conference, which explored the links between nuclear abolition, social and economic justice and moving the global economy to a path in balance with the planet’s ecosystems. Click here for video of the conference presentations.

The process that initiated negotiations for a ban on nuclear weapons has raised awareness of the catastrophic consequences of nuclear weapons. But despite growing mobilizations for social and economic justice and moving the global economy to a path in balance with the planet’s ecosystems, in the nuclear-armed states there still are no significant movements for the elimination of nuclear weapons. To build a global movement to abolish nuclear weapons, we must also better understand and raise public awareness of the renewed danger that nuclear weapons could be used in warfare. And if this movement is to garner enough power to be successful, it must make common cause with those working for a world that is more fair, more democratic, and more ecologically sustainable.

This conference highlighted the impact of nuclear arms on the diverse communities most directly affected by their development, testing and use.

In one of its final acts of 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted with overwhelming support a landmark resolution to begin negotiations on a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons. This historic decision heralds an end to two decades of paralysis in multilateral nuclear disarmament efforts.

Throughout June and July of 2017, governments will negotiate a ban on nuclear weapons at the United Nations. WILPF and our coalition are hitting the streets to celebrate and also demand a good treaty that prohibits these weapons of mass destruction once and for all!

The Women’s March to Ban the Bomb is a women-led initiative building on the momentum of movements at the forefront of the resistance, including the Women’s March on Washington. It will bring together people of all genders, sexual orientations, ages, races, abilities, nationalities, cultures, faiths, political affiliations and backgrounds to march and rally at 12 PM – 4PM Saturday, June 17th 2017 in New York City! Click here for more information.

This event also included talks by Daniel Ellsberg, Adam Hochschild, and David Hartsough.

Presentation of the Western States Legal Foundation to the 2017 Preparatory Committee Meeting for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, by Andrew Lichterman, Vienna, May 3, 2017.

Presentation of the International Association Of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms to the 2017 Preparatory Committee Meeting for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, delivered by Jacqueline Cabasso, Vienna, May 3, 2017.

On Monday, March 27 2017, negotiations will commence on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons at the United Nations in New York. The International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) has prepared a discussion paper discussing elements that should be included in such a treaty. The principal author of the discussion paper is John Burroughs, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, and a member of the Western States Legal Foundation board. WSLF senior research analyst Andrew Lichterman also contributed to the paper.

On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2017, Foreign Ministers and high representatives of the 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean met in Mexico City to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco. This historic treaty, signed in Mexico City, established the first nuclear weapon free zone in a populated region. Mexico City is also the seat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin American and the Caribbean (OPANAL), which oversees implementation of the treaty. OPANAL is the only regional body in the world devoted entirely to the achievement of nuclear disarmament and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Jackie Cabasso, executive direction of the Western States Legal Foundation and national co-convener of United for Peace and Justice, hand-delivered a message to the participants in the conference, "Congratulations on 50th Anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, Nuclear Free Zone. May it spread to the whole earth," on behalf of 7,440 signers of an online petition. Click the link above for photos and more.

A conversation with Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, February 8, 2017.

Mayor Frank Cownie of Des Moines, Iowa, lead US city for Mayors for Peace, delivered these remarks to the International Affairs Committee of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) at their winter meeting in Washington, DC. The USCM is the non-partisan association of U.S. cities with populations of 30,000 or more. WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso, North American Coordinator of Mayors for Peace, worked with Mayor Cownie to draft these remarks.

Chapter in Rethinking General and Complete Disarmament in the Twenty-First Century, United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs, 20l6.

Western States Legal Foundation (WSLF) is proud to be a co-sponsor of this year's annual Hiroshima-Nagasaki action at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab on Tuesday, August 9, 2016, the 71st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki. The theme for this year's commemoration is “Disarm Now: We Stand with Nuclear Survivors for Global Justice.” We will gather at 8 am at the corner of Vasco & Patterson Pass Roads in Livermore for a rally, followed by a march to the Lab gate and nonviolent direct action.

We are sorry to report that our very special guest, Tony de Brum, former Foreign Minister and current Ambassador for Climate for the Marshall Islands, had to cancel his plans to come to the Bay area due to illness. Instead, John Burroughs, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy in New York, and WSLF Board member, will speak on the Nuclear Zero lawsuits brought by the Republic of the Marshall Islands against the world's nuclear-armed states for their failure to disarm as required by international law. Dr. Burroughs is part of the legal team arguing the cases before the International Court of Justice. The rally will also feature Nagasaki A-bomb survivor Nobuaki Hanaoka, WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso, and others.

For more information and additional details:

Click here for August 9 Livermore Lab flier.

Click here for an updated Media Advisory.

Click here for an op-ed co-authored by WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso, “Must demand that the nuclear-armed states disarm,” published in the East Bay Times on August 5, 2016.

For additional information: (510) 839-5877

Press Release, June 28, 2016 Resolution with list of sponsors official version (scroll down to third resolution)

Tuesday, April 5--The day after the anniversary of this prophetic speech (1967) and his assassination (1968)
Public, Shared Readings at noon, 2 pm and 4:30 pm.
Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza, in the amphitheater in front of Oakland City Hall, near 12th Street City Center BART.

April 5 – 18, 2016 have been designated as Global Days of Action on Military Spending by the International Peace Bureau, to challenge military spending and call for redirection of funds to meet human needs. Military spending continues to increase, with the Administration's 2017 budget request for the Pentagon, nuclear weapons and aid to foreign militaries rising to nearly $623 billion. Endless U.S. wars and occupations have cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars, while the needs of growing numbers of Americans go unmet. Dr. King's “Beyond Vietnam” speech laid bare the relationship between U.S. wars abroad and the racism and poverty being challenged by the civil rights movement at home. “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today--my own government.” King's words are as relevant today as nearly half a century ago. Organizers of the readings honor the full legacy of his work opposing militarism, racism and poverty.

Sponsoring Organizations: Asian-Americans for Peace & Justice; BAY-Peace: Better Alternatives for Youth; Bay Area Black Worker Center; Bay Area Women in Black; Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI); East Bay Peace Action; East Point Peace Academy; Environmentalists Against War; Haiti Action Committee; Jewish Voice for Peace-Bay Area; Labor Committee for Peace & Justice; Nafsi Ya Jamii; Peace & Solidarity Committee of SEIU 1021; Priority Africa Network; United for Peace & Justice-Bay Area; Western States Legal Foundation; Women's International League for Peace & Freedom (SF & East Bay) Media Advisory Event Flyer

On January 13, WSLF and several other organizations sent a letter to President Obama, initiated by the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, calling for a moratorium on the testing of hypersonic precision weapons. Letter (pdf)

This weekend, just one week before the biggest climate talks of the decade kick off in Paris, a huge coalition is coming together for a very special mobilization. Western States Legal Foundation is a co-sponsor. Please join us!

The Northern California Climate Mobilization will bring together grassroots groups, local nonprofits, and activists from all walks of life -- to challenge climate catastrophe and call for a just transition to 100% renewable energy! “No wars. No nuclear weapons or power.” Read the Principles of Unity at http://tinyurl.com/ovjcnyb Event Flyer

We'll gather this Saturday in Oakland -- here are the details:

WHAT: Northern California Climate Mobilization
WHEN: This Saturday, November 21st, 10:30 AM
WHERE: Lake Merritt Amphitheater, Oakland, CA

WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso will speak at 3:35 pm at the rally in Frank Ogawa Plaza. Click here for all the details.

UPDATE: Text of rally talk by WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso, "Climate change and nuclear weapons are twin existential threats."

Address by Andrew Lichterman, Senior Research Advisor, Western States Legal Foundation, at a United Nations 70th Anniversary Event, Featuring the Sustainable Development Goals, Unitarian Universalist Church and Center, San Francisco, California, Sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist-United Nations Office and the United Nations Association of San Francisco – Council of Organizations October 25, 2015.

Presentation of the Western States Legal Foundation to the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, October 16, 2015, by Andrew Lichterman, delivered by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director.

The Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center will honor Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation’s Senior Research Advisor, with its Peace Advocate of the Year Award at its Annual Gala, Saturday, October 24, 2015, 6 – 9 pm at the Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church, 55 Eckley Lane, Walnut Creek. The Community Organization of the Year Award will be given to the Richmond Progressive Alliance, with keynote speaker Gayle McLaughlin, former Mayor of Richmond. The evening will feature a full-course dinner, music, a raffle, student art and a silent auction. Tickets $65/person; $50/person for Peace Center members. Order tickets at www.ourpeacecenter.org. More information: (925) 933-7850 or margli@ourpeacecenter.org. Click here for event flyer.

PUBLIC EVENT, Wednesday, October 7, 7 pm at the VETERANS BUILDING at San Francisco Civic Center, 401 Van Ness Avenue at McAllister (southwest corner). Hear from the Crew of the historic Golden Rule peace boat, and antinuclear activist Jackie Cabasso of the Western States Legal Foundation. Members of Veterans For Peace Chapter 69 will discuss plans for Fleet Week. For more information, go to www.vfpgoldenruleproject.org and www.vfpsf.wordpress.com

Click here for pdf flyer for the event.

Apology to a Whale: Words to Mend a World, by Cecile Pineda, is now available from WingsPress.com. Western States Legal Foundation is sponsoring a benefit book launch, reading and signing on Saturday, October 10 at the Berkeley Town House, 2550 Dana Street at the corner of Parker Street, with a wine and cheese reception at 3:30 pm and author presentation at 4 pm. Cecile Pineda will talk about how the work developed, and answer questions from the public. Admission is free. Book sales will benefit Western States Legal Foundation, which has been working for the abolition of nuclear weapons throughout the world for more than three decades. pdf flyer for the event

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the “Enola Gay,” a U.S. B-29 bomber, dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.Three days later, a second American nuclear bomb incinerated Nagasaki.

On August 6, 2015, at 8 AM, Come to Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, Vasco Road at Patterson Pass Road.

Program featuring Daniel Ellsberg, Country Joe McDonald, Taiko drummers and more; followed by a short march to the Lab gate, a traditional Japanese Bon Dance, nonviolent direct action and witness. Sponsored by dozens of Bay Area peace and justice groups.

More info: Western States Legal Foundation, 510-839-5877.

pdf flyer for the event: front back

Philip MuIdari interviews WSLF Executive Director about the Iran nuclear agreement. KPFA Sunday Show, July 19 (segment starts at 01:06:21)

Cafe Valparaiso, 1403 Solano Avenue, Albany, CA

Buy your own dinner, starting at 6 pm; Program at 7 pm
Donations to Western States Legal Foundation gratefully accepted!!
RSVP requested: wslf@earthlink.net; (510) 839-5877

Report by Western States Legal Foundation Executive Director Jackie Cabasso on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference held at the United Nations in New York from April 27 – May 22, and the Peace & Planet Mobilization for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World: an international conference, rally, march, festival and petition presentation to UN officials April 24 - 26.

Enjoy reasonably priced, delicious Chilean and Latin American cuisine, find out about plans for the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab August 6, hear what's new with Mayors for Peace, and more! pdf event flyer

On June 22, 2015, at the close of its 83rd Annual Meeting in San Francisco, the United States Conference of Mayors, for the 10th consecutive year, adopted a strong resolution in support of Mayors for Peace, noting that August 6 and 9, 2015 will mark the 70th anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Article Text of resolution

Text of a presentation by Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation, delivered at an NGO side event on autonomous weapons and nuclear weapons organized by the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility, the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, and the International Peace Bureau during the 2015 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, New York, April 28, 2015.

Statement of the Western States Legal Foundation to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, by Andrew Lichterman, New York, May 1, 2015. The statement was endorsed by over 100 organizations, from local groups to national and international organizations.

English Spanish
video List of endorsing organizations

Presenter: Jackie Cabasso, National Co-Convener, United for Peace and Justice and Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation

Momentum is building for the April 24 – 26 Peace & Planet Mobilization for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World in New York City and around the world! Western States Legal Foundation is centrally involved in the planning and organizing. Nearly 300 organizations have already endorsed Peace & Planet. Read the Call to Action and click here to add your group's name.

The Peace & Planet Mobilization will open with an International Conference April 24-25 at the Cooper Union and culminate in the streets of New York for a mass Rally, March, and Festival on April 26, the eve of the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. While the largest numbers of people will be turning out in NYC, you can join and support Peace & Planet by signing the Petition and organizing a local event to "wave goodbye to nuclear weapons" as part of the Global Wave. Help us to demonstrate broad and deep international support as we use this occasion to call for:

• The abolition of nuclear weapons
• The just and peaceful resolution of global wars and confrontations
• Economic justice, including moving the money from the Pentagon to meet human needs
• Racial equity and the demilitarization of policing
• Environmental justice and urgent responses to climate crises

Our goals are two-fold: to demand immediate negotiations for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, and to use this Mobilization to strengthen and connect our movements. Click here to learn more.

Read a Truthout op ed about the Peace and Planet mobilization and its broader context by WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso, Peace Action's Kevin Martin, and Jospeh Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee: MLK's Call to Honor Peace, Justice and Our Planet Still Challenges Us.

On February 17, 2015, Code Pink organized a press conference at the Oakland, California Federal Building, calling for opposition to a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force and the end to endless war in the Middle East and beyond. Speakers included WSLF executive director Jackie Cabasso, who also spoke on behalf of United for Peace and Justice, Emily Yates, Iraq War veteran, Cat Brooks of ONYX/Black Power Network, Paul Cox of Veterans for Peace, Stephen McNeil of American Friends Services Committee, Janet Weil, CODEPINK staffer and military family member, and a member of Congress member Barbara Lee's staff, who read a statement from Congress member Lee.

Video of the press conference

Statement of Jackie Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation, and National Co-Convener, United for Peace and Justice.

A commentary on the need to be clear about disarmament goals in advocacy on nuclear weapons issues.

WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso and Senior Research Analyst Andrew Lichterman participated in this state-wiNo New AUMF. de gathering to consider strategies for closing California's last operating nuclear power reactor. Cabasso co-facilitated the meeting, and Lichterman gave a talk on the connections between nuclear weapons and nuclear power.

An excerpt from host organization Mother's for Peace press release:

"Meetings of a coalition of organizations under the banner of Nuclear Free California were held on Saturday and Sunday, facilitated by long-time activist Harvey Wasserman of Solartopia, Jaqueline Cabasso of the Western States Legal Foundation and Mary Beth Brangan of Ecological Options Network. Speakers from Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, World Business Academy, San Onofre Safety, RADCAST, SLO Clean Energy, Code Pink, No Nukes Northwest, No Nukes Action, PSR-Oregon and many others joined organizers Mothers for Peace and Nuclear Free California in giving presentations that covered a diverse range of issues and perspectives. There were also reports from Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer of Fairewinds, Paul Frey of Frey Organic Winery, energy analyst Paul Gipe of Wind Works, lawyer Mike Aguirre, labor issues specialist Steve Zeltzer and Fukushima resident/activist Chieko Shiina who came from Japan for these meetings." For the full text of the press release and more about the meeting, click here.

By launching this newsletter, we hope to keep our friends and supporters a bit better informed about what we have been doing. Each issue will have a sampling of our recent activities, together with information about upcoming events. Late summer and fall have been busy, with events ranging from the annual Hiroshima Day commemoration at the Livermore Lab to organizing conference sessions at the Climate Convergence Conference in New York City. A focus of our work throughout has been exploring ways to build the broader movements we will need to have an effect on the immense institutions and power structures that sustain nuclear weapons, nuclear power, and an ecologically unsustainable economy driven by forms of competition that also generate militarization and conflict both at home and abroad.

On September 20, 2014, Western States Legal Foundation and partner groups presented a two part workshop at the Climate Convergence Conference in New York City, "Deadly Connections: Challenging Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Power, and Climate Change," the day before over 300,000 people marched in the City demanding action to stop global warming. Part one of this workshop addressed the ways that climate change will intensify conflicts and war risks generated by a system based on competition among immense organizations and endless growth. It also explored the role in the global economy of state-dependent high-tech enclaves, including the nuclear energy sector and the military-industrial complex. Part two provided perspectives from people working on a variety of initiatives from the local to the global aimed at finding ways to make progress when the politics in national capitals is locked up. Presenters included organizers working in grassroots networks, a U.S. mayor who works on climate change and disarmament, the foreign minister of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a nation directly affected by both climate change and nuclear colonialism, and a lawyer representing the Marshall Islands in their historic World Court case holding the nuclear-armed states to account for non-compliance with their disarmament obligations.

This page has video of both workshop sessions, presentation texts where available, and some additional related videos. Check back for additional presentation texts, which will be added as they are received. Click on the title link above for the "Deadly Connections" workshop page.

On October 23, 2014, California affiliates of the Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific presented a workshop at the University of California at Berkeley titled "The Nuclear University and U.S. Power in the Pacific: Time for a New Free Speech Movement?" Video of presentations by Dr. Gray Brechin, author, Imperial San Francisco; Arnie Sakai, Moana Nui Network; Christine Hong, Assistant Professor, UC Santa Cruz; Stephen McNeil, American Friends Service Committee and Andrew Lichterman and Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, are now on-line. Texts of the presentations of some presentations also will be posted as they become available. For the workshop videos and materials, click on the title link above.

This statement was coordinated by Western States Legal Foundation and drafted by Andrew Lichterman, Jacqueline Cabasso, and John Burroughs. For a copy of the full statement and list of endorsing organizations, click here.

Spring 2015 mobilization for a for a nuclear-free, fair, democratic, ecologically sustainable and peaceful future.

2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the United States atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It also marks 45 years since the first five nuclear powers agreed in Article VI of the NPT to undertake good faith negotiations for the elimination of their nuclear arsenals. It is long past time for the world’s people to call to account all those who exercise power by threatening nuclear annihilation.

We call upon the parties to the NPT to use the 2015 Review Conference to immediately, without delay, develop a time-bound framework for negotiating the total ban and elimination of all nuclear arsenals.

We call on the four states outside the Treaty that have nuclear arms, India, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan, to join in any such negotiations, immediately and without delay.

We urge all people who hope to build a fair, democratic, ecologically sustainable and peaceful future to join us in New York City and around the world for international days of action, including:

• An international peace, justice and environmental conference – April 24 & 25;
• A major international rally, march to the United Nations and peace festival – April 26;
• Nonviolent demonstrations, protest actions and numerous side events to press our demands for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, and for economic justice and environmental sustainability;
• The presentation to the NPT Review Conference of millions of signatures on petitions calling for nuclear weapons abolition;
• Youth and student organizing; and
• An Interfaith Service for Nuclear Weapons Abolition

Let our numbers be so large that our voices are certain to be heard inside the UN and around the world!

For the full text, of the call, click here.

University of California, Berkeley
Room/Building: 60 Evans
Thursday, October 23, 2014
6:00 PM -- 9:30 PM

Program:
The U.S. Pacific Pivot: overview
The Marshall Islands: Ground Zero for nuclear colonialism
California, US power in the Pacific, and the University
Universities: intellectual arsenals for U.S. power

Presenters: Corrina Gould, Ohlone elder; Dr. Gray Brechin, author, Imperial San Francisco; Paul Otoko, Marshall Islands elder; Arnie Sakai, Moana Nui Network; Christine Hong, Assistant Professor, UC Santa Cruz; Stephen McNeil, American Friends Service Committee; Andrew Lichterman and Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation

Sponsors: American Friends Service Committee; Western States Legal Foundation; Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific; San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility; Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California at Berkeley

More information: Jackie Cabasso (510) 839-5877; wslf@earthlink.net for a pdf flyer for the event, click here.

September 26, 2014 has been declared by the United Nations as the first International Day for Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Join the Western States Legal Foundation and the Western Institute for Social Research (WISR) in an evening of analysis and discussion, reviewing the state of the world's nuclear arsenals, their role in the global economy and in growing great power confrontations, and new approaches to disarmament.  The workshop will be held at The Western Institute for Social Research, 2930 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 300, Berkeley. Click here for a flier and program for the event.

Nuclear weapons and climate change are the two existential threats that face humanity, and the military is one of the largest contributors to climate change. Part one of this workshop will consider the ways that climate change will intensify conflicts and war risks generated by a system based on competition among immense organizations and endless growth. It also will explore the role in the global economy of state-dependent high-tech enclaves, including the nuclear energy sector and the military-industrial complex. The second part of the workshop will provide perspectives from people working on a variety of initiatives from the local to the global aimed at finding ways to make progress when the politics in national capitals is locked up. Presenters include organizers working in grassroots networks, a U.S. mayor who works on climate change and disarmament, the foreign minister of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a nation directly affected by both climate change and nuclear colonialism, and a lawyer representing the Marshall Islands in their historic World Court case holding the nuclear-armed states to account for non-compliance with their disarmament obligations. For the full program of this two part workshop, click here. For a pdf flyer for this workshop, click here.

Sponsored by the Western States Legal Foundation, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, and the American Friends Service Committee, with support from the Jane Addams Peace Association

Bay Area peace and justice advocates will mark the 69th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan at the Livermore Lab, where the U.S. is spending billions of dollars to create “new and modified” nuclear bombs. 

The Wednesday, August 6, 2014 event is titled, “Failure to Disarm: Holding Our Government Accountable.” Participants will gather at the northwest corner of the Livermore Lab (at Vasco & Patterson Pass Roads). The event begins at 7:30 AM.

The one-hour program will feature music, art and speakers, including Western States Legal Foundation Executive Director Jackie Cabasso. Rick Wayman of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation will offer the keynote address on the recent lawsuits brought by the Republic of the Marshall Islands against the U.S. and 8 other nuclear powers for their “Failure to Disarm.”

At 8:30 AM, there will be a “call to action,” immediately followed by a procession to the Livermore Lab West Gate, where a Japanese folk dance will be performed. Those who choose will peaceably risk arrest. Others will witness and support.

 For more information, contact Western States Legal Foundation at 510-839-5877 or Tri-Valley CAREs at 925-443-7148. For a pdf flyer for the event, click here.

Article by Jackie Cabasso, WSLF Executive Director and Mayors for Peace North American Coordinator. For a pdf of the article click here.

Thursday, June 26, 2014. Dinner: 6 pm. Program: 7 pm.

Enjoy delicious Chilean and Latin American cuisine accompanied by the music of Duamuxa, followed by updates from WSLF Executive Director, Jackie Cabasso, Senior Research Analyst, Andy Lichterman, and WSLF Board members. Find out what's happening in nuclear disarmament land and how WSLF is engaged in current challenges and opportunities. Café Valparaiso, 1403 Solano Ave, Albany. No-host dinner (pay your own way).

RSVP REQUESTED: (510) 839-5877 or wslf(at)earthlink.net For more about the event, click here for a flyer.

This conference, held May 3, 2014, in New York City, provided an opportunity for reflection and discussion on the world wars of the last century, and about the risks of great power war today. The conference will be held alongside the 2014 preparatory committee meetings for the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review conference. It brought together activists and academics with knowledge and experience relevant to emerging dangers in key regions, from wars, resource conflicts and profound ongoing political realignments in the Middle East, to growing tensions in the Western Pacific over territory and resources as well as the U.S. strategic “pivot” to Asia. Speakers addressed the risks of great power war, the implication of those dangers for peace and disarmament efforts, and the kinds of movements we will need to build to forge a path to a more peaceful world.

The Conference conveners and sponsors were the American Friends Service Committee, Peace and Economic Security Program, International Peace Bureau, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office, and the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms and its U.S. affiliates, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy and the Western States Legal Foundation.

Material from the conference, including texts of addresses, the conference program and call, and audio or video of the panels, can be found at http://afsc.org/resource/facing-dangers-21st-century-great-power-war-conference-centenary-world-war-i

Andrew Lichterman, senior policy analyst for WSLF, spoke on the first panel, his address is linked here: Looking forward, looking backward: World War I, today's risk of great power war, and nuclear disarmament.

This is the third letter in a series initiated by the Western States Legal Foundation, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Peace Action, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, American Friends Service Committee and Peace Action New York . It is timed to coincide with the upcoming 2014 Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting for the 2015 Review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which will take place at UN headquarters in NY, April 28 – May 9. The letter, with the 61 initial signatures, was sent this week to President Obama and the other officials cc’d. The final letter, now with 107 organizational signers, will be hand delivered the U.S. delegation and the NPT Prepcom. We will also are publishing and distributing it as an "Open Letter to President Obama" as widely as possible.

Here’s how the letter opens:

Dear President Obama,

During the closing session of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague on March 25, 2014, you cited a number of concrete measures to secure highly-enriched uranium and plutonium and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime that have been implemented as a result of the three Nuclear Security Summits, concluding: "So what’s been valuable about this summit is that it has not just been talk, it’s been action."

Would that you would apply the same standard to nuclear disarmament! On April 5, 2009 in Prague, you gave millions of people around the world new hope when you declared: “So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” Bolstered by that hope, over the past three years, there has been a new round of nuclear disarmament initiatives by governments not possessing nuclear weapons, both within and outside the United Nations. Yet the United States has been notably “missing in action” at best, and dismissive or obstructive at worst. This conflict may come to a head at the 2015 Review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).

We write now, on the eve of the third Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) meeting for the 2015 Review Conference of the NPT, which will take place at UN headquarters in New York April 28--May 9, 2014, to underscore our plea that your administration shed its negative attitude and participate constructively in deliberations and negotiations regarding the creation of a multilateral process to achieve a nuclear weapons free world. This will require reversal of the dismal U.S. record.

The full text of the letter is at wslfweb.org/docs/Obamaletter416.doc (ms word) or wslfweb.org/docs/Obamaletter4.28.pdf (pdf)

Readings on the crisis in the Ukraine, providing background missing from the mainstream media, from a variety of perspectives.

April 14, 2014 has been declared as the fourth Global Day of Action Against Military Spending (GDAMS), coinciding with the release by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) of its annual statistics on global military spending. GDAMS was initiated by the International Peace Bureau, recipient of the 1910 Nobel Peace Prize, and is coordinated by an international coalition of organizations including the American Friends Service Committee, Peace Action, and United for Peace & Justice. You can find out more about GDAMS at www.demilitarize.org

Ask your Mayor to issue a Proclamation Declaring April 14 and 15, 2014 as Global Days of Action Against Military Spending (GDAMS). Click here for the GDAMS Mayoral Proclamation and Mayors for Peace Tool Kit.

Join us on September 26, 7 to 9 PM, All Souls Church, 80th and Lexington, for this wonderful evening of film and talk, with Kathleen Sullivan of Hibakusha Stories, Jacqueline Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, Abolition 2000 and Mayors for Peace, and Akira Kawasaki, Peaceboat, ICAN, and Abolition 2000. Unitarian Church of All Souls, 1157 Lexington Ave. New York, NY. For more information, click here for a pdf flyer for the event.

If you missed our Summer 2013 mailing, click here for the online version..

These photos were taken for us by James Lerager, a peace activist, professional photographer, and long-time friend of WSLF. If you were at the event, you might find great photos of yourself with friends, family members, or even with one of our celebrity guests! Click here to view and order photos.

On June 24, the US Conference of Mayors unanimously adopted the Mayors for Peace resolution Calling for US Leadership in Global Abolition of Nuclear Weapons and Redirection of Military Spending to Domestic Needs. Click here for a list of ideas on how to use the resolution and for links to resources, including a model city council resolution that can be adapted for use in your town or city. Mayors are well placed to understand the impacts of bloated military spending on human needs and on the public services we all depend on. This powerful statement calling for new priorities provides us with a wonderful opportunity to get that message heard! Let’s run with it!!

WSLF Executive Director Jacuqeline Cabasso is North America coordinator for Mayors for Peace.

Bay Area peace and justice advocates will mark the 68th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the Livermore Lab, where the U.S. is spending billions of dollars to create “new and modified” nuclear bombs. 

  The Tuesday, August 6, 2013 event is titled, “Unfinished Business and Our Most Urgent Responsibility; Banning the Bomb at the Livermore Lab and Globally.” At 7 AM, participants will gather at the northwest corner of the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Laboratory, Vasco Road and Patterson Pass Road in Livermore.

The program will feature Okinawan music by Genyu Kai, Taiko drummers, speakers and more. Daniel Ellsberg will deliver the keynote address. Also featured will be Rev. Nobuaki Hanaoka, a survivor of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Attorney Loulena Miles will discuss current nuclear weapons activities at Livermore Lab and author Cecile Pineda (Devil's Tango; How I Learned the Fukushima Step by Step) will illuminate the bomb's connections to nuclear power. Pete Yamamoto, the “Mayor of J-Town,” will read a poem.

Immediately following the program, at approximately 8:15 AM, will be a “call to action,” in which participants will be invited to march a short distance to the Livermore Lab West Gate. Those who choose will nonviolently risk arrest. Others will witness and support. 

This event is organized collaboratively and is cosponsored by the Livermore Conversion Project, Western States Legal Foundation and many other groups. For more information, contact Western States Legal Foundation at 510-839-5877 or Tri-Valley CAREs at 925-443-7148.

Click here for a downloadable flier with event details, nonviolence guidelines, sponsoring organizations, and information about the August 5 Peace Camp Out on the back. (The flier can be printed in color or grey scale.)

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in Las Vegas June 21-24, unanimously passed a resolution CALLING FOR U.S. LEADERSHIP IN GLOBAL ELIMINATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND REDIRECTION OF MILITARY SPENDING TO DOMESTIC NEEDS”! For a press release summarizing the process and the resolution, click here. For the full text of the resolution and the list of co-sponsors, click here.

Daniel Ellsberg, WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso, Rose Aguilar, Dennis Kucinich. Photo by James Lerager

Representative Barbara Lee introduces Dennis Kucinich. Photo by Myles Boisen.

"You know you've accomplished something," wrote Gar Smith for the Berkeley Daily Planet, "when a birthday rolls around and Barbara Lee, Dennis Kucinich and Daniel Ellsberg all show up for the party. That was the case on February 10, when the Western States Legal Foundation marked its 30th year as a nuclear watchdog." "An Anti-nuclear Half-Life Celebration Rocks an East Bay Night," Berkeley Daily Planet, , February 14, 2013.


Emceed by KALW radio host Rose Aguilar and featuring keynote addresses by Dennis Kucinich and Daniel Ellsberg, the event drew hundreds of WSF supporters and friends. Representative Barbara Lee introduced Dennis Kucinich, and WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso reminisced a bit about WSLF, and also gave an overview of current struggles against nuclear weapons and nuclear power. (Video of these talks are linked below). The plenary was preceded by a reception featuring a variety of food offerings from local businesses.


The WSLF staff and board extend their thanks to all those who have supported us for the last three decades, and also to the many volunteers who helped to make this anniversary event a success.


Videos of addresses at the event, by the Ecological Options Network.

WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso, introduced by Rose Aguilar



Representative Barbara Lee's address introducing Dennis Kucinich



Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich's keynote address



Daniel Ellsberg's keynote address



WSLF PUBLICATIONS, WRITINGS, AND ADDRESSES

The Rush to Bomb Syria: Undermining International Law and Risking Wider War, by Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation Briefing Paper, September 2013.

The role of science and technology in driving nuclear weapons modernization: a reappraisal, By Andrew Lichterman, talk delivered at an NGO side event organized by the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility on the role of science and technology factors driving nuclear weapons modernization, during the 2013 Preparatory Committee meetings for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, April 23, 2013.

Issue Update: Subcritical Tests, by Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation, Fall 2012.

Nonviolence or nonexistence, democracy or nonexistence, Andrew Lichterman, address to Hiroshima remembrance gathering, August 5, across the street from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California.

Atoms for Peace,Then and Now, by Jacqueline Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation Commentary, Summer 2012.

The Bechtel Corporation: San Francisco's Engineers of Empire, by Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation Nuclear Connections series, Summer 2012.

Nuclear Connections is a series of brief analyses that explores the relationship between nuclear institutions and the global economy and its power structures, with an emphasis on organizations and institutions with a physical presence in the San Francisco Bay Area and the American southwest.

Rhetoric vs. Reality: Nuclear Dangers in a Time of Growing Global Economic and Environmental Crisis, by Jacqueline Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation Information Bulletin, Spring 2012.

New report on nuclear weapons modernization world wide

The Reaching Critical Will project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has released a new report on nuclear weapons modernization. The report, titled Assuring Destruction Forever: Nuclear Weapon Modernization Around the World, can be downloaded for free and hard copies are available for $8 from the Reaching Critical Will website (click here).

The report explores in-depth the nuclear weapon modernization programs in China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and analyzes the costs of nuclear weapons in the context of the economic crisis, austerity measures, and rising challenges in meeting human and environmental needs. It features three pieces by WSLF authors. Andrew Lichterman, senior research analyst for Western States Legal Foundation, wrote the chapter on the United States and a chapter on the role of civil society and social movements in creating the requisite political will for disarmament, and John Burroughs, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy and a WSLF Board member, wrote a chapter on international law and nuclear weapons.

The chapters also are available separately as pdf files. Below are the links to chapters written by WSLF staff and board members.

Chapter on U.S. nuclear weapons modernization, by Andrew Lichterman

Chapter on international law and nuclear weapons modernization, by John Burroughs

Civil Society, Social Movements, and Disarmament in the 21st Century, by Andrew Lichterman

There will be a launch event for the report in Vienna, Austria on Thursday May 3, one of a number of NGO events scheduled alongside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty preparatory committee meeting the first two weeks of May. The launch event will be in Room M2 of the Vienna International Center, May 3, 1:15–2:45p.m.

Vandenberg Air Force Base: Where the Present and Future of U.S. Warmaking Come Together, by Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation Information Brief, Spring 2012

Nuclear Connections: Weapons and Power in the Age of Corporate Globalization, by Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation Information Brief, Fall 2011

Nuclear Weapons at What Cost?, by Jacqueline Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation Information Brief, Spring 2011

START: One Small Step for Arms Control, One Giant Leap Backward for Disarmament? by Jacqueline Cabasso, WSLF Commentary, Winter 2011

"Nuclear Disarmament, Civil Society, and Democracy," by Andrew Lichterman, Disarmament Forum, 2010 No.4

The START Treaty and Disarmament: a Dilemma in Search of a Debate, by Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation Commentary, December 2010.

NPT 2010: Rhetoric vs. Reality, by Jacqueline Cabasso Western States Legal Foundation Information Bulletin, May 2010

Workshop presentation, Superficial politics, fundamental causes: some reflections on the relationship between the movements to abolish nuclear weapons and to stop global warming, by Andrew Lichterman, International Conference For a Nuclear Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World, Riverside Church, New York, May 1 2010.

Civil Society, Disarmament and the Need for New Beginnings
By Andrew Lichterman, Disarmament Times, Spring 2010
Western States Legal Foundation Reprint version

Beyond arms control: challenges and choices for nuclear disarmament (Paperback - May 2010)

A collaborative work of non-governmental researchers and activists who critically examine the mainstream discourse of nuclear weapons. With contributions by Western States Legal Foundation executive director, Jacqueline Cabasso, Board members Andrew Lichterman and John Burroughs, and Counsel Michael Veiluva, the book explores some of the most important challenges that governments and civil society face at the 2010 NPT Review Conference and beyond, highlighting the prospects and pitfalls for nuclear disarmament in the current world order. Throughout, the authors demonstrate that nuclear disarmament must be pursued in the context of a broader movement for social and economic justice and equality. Edited by Ray Acheson Published by Reaching Critical Will, a project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Read on line or order paperback: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/resources/books/beyondarmscontrol.html

NPT 2010: Rhetoric vs. Reality
Address by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western Stats Legal Foundation Public Hearing, Challenges to Peace and National Sovereignty--The NPT Review, Brasilia, Brazil, April 7, 2010

NPT 2010: Putting President Obama's Disarmament Rhetoric to the Test
Nagasaki Global Citizens' Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons February 6--8 , 2010 Address by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation
Nagasaki Appeal 2010

NPT 2010: Putting President Obama's Disarmament Rhetoric to the Test
By Jacqueline Cabasso, Expert Advisor to the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation Peace Culture Newsletter No. 64 (English), April 2010 (contributed January 2010)

Burdens of Proof: Iran, the United States, and Nuclear Weapons A Global View
by Michael Veiluva, Western States Legal Foundation Counsel (Paperback - July, 2009)

Burdens of Proof, by Michael Veiluva, offers a rare and unique set of insights into the ongoing and complex political and legal implications surrounding the United States and Iranian political negotiations over Iran's growing nuclear program. Grabbed right from today's political headlines, author Veiluva adds valuable information that will inform and enlighten anyone concerned with today's international political situation. Veiluva's Burdens of Proof examines several fundamental themes critical to understanding the current state of U.S./Iranian relations: the "cold war" that has existed between the two countries since 1979, Iran's nuclear program, the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency, American nuclear weapons developments, and the international legal implications of the U.S.'s doctrine of preventative war. Written as a one-stop guide for anyone interested in the current crisis with Iran, Burdens of Proof brings a new voice to the complex debate over Iran's perceived ambitions and the rule of international law. Order from Amazon: click here

WSLF IN THE NEWS: WSLF staff and board members appearing or quoted in print and electronic media

What's Next for the Nuclear Disarmament Movement?
By Lawrence Wittner Yes! Magazine (Blog) June 14, 2010

Other Voices TV No Nukes?
Jackie Cabasso discusses her experiences as an NGO representative at the recent UN conference on nuclear weapons. (58 mins) Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, June 1, 2010

U.N. Nuke Meet Ends with Good Intentions and Empty Promises By Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service, May 29, 2010

International News Net World Report New START pact between Russia and the USA Round Table discussion with Jacqueline Cabasso and William Hartung May 26, 2010

Some Activists Losing Faith in Obama Nuclear Weapons Agenda Friday, May 7, 2010 By Elaine M. Grossman Global Security Newswire

If You Love This Planet: A Weekly Radio Program with Dr. Helen Caldicott Jacqueline Cabasso with the latest on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation efforts Blog post and audio download Recorded May 6, 2010; posted May 24, 2010

U.S. plans major increase in nuclear budget By Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writer Chugoku Shimbun, Hiroshima March 8, 2010 (posted online March 12, 2010) WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso, quoted here, provided the background for this story during an interview conducted at the 4th Global Citizens Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in February, in Nagasaki, Japan.

WSLF board member Andrew Lichterman on KPFA Radio's Against the Grain, February 3, noon.

A segment on the KPFA show Against the Grain featured WSLF's Andrew Lichterman talking about nuclear weapons issues in the context of the global economic crisis. The show is archived on the KPFA web site and can be accessed there. The segment was a portion of a a longer talk delivered at the Alameda Public Affairs Forum, the full talk can be accessed as an mp3 file. Links to both are below.

Against the Grain, February 3, 2010

Andrew Lichterman, talk at the Alameda Public Affairs Forum, September 12, 2009

OFF-SITE COMMENTARY BY WSLF STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS

See Disarmamentactivist.org

PRESS RELEASES

U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously adopts resolution “Calling for U.S. Leadership in Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and Redirection of Military Spending to Domestic Needs”

WSLF Executive Director Jackie Cabasso serves as North American Coordinator of Mayors for Peace.

NEW TOPIC PAGES

Military Spending: Researching Impacts on your Campus or Community

This page provides links to information and research tools useful for researching the campus and community impacts of military research and of weapons production, with an emphasis on pages which provide links to further resources.

United for Peace and Justice Nuclear Disarmament and Redefining Security Working Group page

Western States Legal Foundation participates in the Nuclear Abolition/Redefining Security working group of United for Peace and Justice. This page provides information, documents, and links relevant to the working group.

Civil Liberties and Government Secrecy Page

Links to a variety of information and opportunities to take action to contest the rapid erosion of civil liberties resulting from the U.S. government's approach to its open-ended "war on terror." This page also has links to resources on government secrecy and freedom of information, including several sites providing good information on how to pursue Freedom of Information Act requests from the initial request through litigation.

Iraq Resources

Links to a variety of resources, ranging from special Iraq sites of major media organizations to analyses of the human and economic impacts of the Iraq war and occupation.

War and Law

Analysis by WSLF and others of legal issues relevant to the Iraq war and occupation.

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