The Disarm/End Wars Committee is in the midst of 75th anniversary online programming for this very important year: the anniversary of the 1945
development, testing, and use
of these genocidal weapons in war. The next webinar is this Monday! Also, we are emailing you to give you a status report on the
treaty's progress
and to let you know about a special offer. And we invite you to join us in this work. Please see more details below about our Webinar Series and our special offer, as well as information about WILPF.
Progress on the U.N. Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and More
As of the end of today, the leaders of 81 countries have signed the treaty, and 39 legislatures have ratified it. It goes into effect when 50 countries ratify it.
In addition to signatures supporting the treaty, we have collected 24,774 s
ignatures on the
online letter to the House of Representatives
, supporting Eleanor Holmes Norton's "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act."
However, it will take much more public pressure and organizing to convince our own government to change its position.
Ways You Can Support This Work and Other WILPF Work for Peace
WILPF works to ban nuclear weapons
and also addresses a number of interconnected issues, all with the goal of ending war and the causes of war. We invite you to help support the WILPF US campaign work to inform the public about the profound dangers of nuclear weapons and to prohibit them.
We hope you might be interested in other areas of WILPF US work:
- building a sustainable society,
- expanding economic and social justice,
- advocating for human rights - including voting rights and an accurate count!
Founded in 1915, WILPF has consult
ative status with the United Nations.
Actively engaged with local, national, and international bodies
for over one hundred years, we seek to establish the foundations for a peaceful world. The Disarm/End Wars Committee is one of six WILPF US committees working on these issues. Please take a look at our WILPF US
facebook page
and
website
to learn more about WILPF.
Webinar Series: Disarm/End Wars Focusing on this 75th Anniversary Year
Few of us alive remember back 75 years. In this unprecedented time, these webinars look back at the year 1945, joining with the #HiroshimaNagasaki75 activist coalition to provide resources. The coalition is helping people demand a world without nuclear weapons and an end to the whole nuclear era!
Learn more about our free upcoming webinar presentations: This 75th Anniversary events series is fully described on the WILPF US Disarm/End Wars Committee
webpage
,
and on our online
timeline of events
.
- On Monday, July 13, join our webinar (Zoom link here) about the "Downwinders." This webinar commemorates the first "Trinity" nuclear weapon explosion at the Tularosa Basin, Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. New Mexico and other "downwind" US residents have suffered increased cancers and other effects from this very radioactive test, and from open air tests at the Nevada Test Site. Yet New Mexico victims have never yet been compensated by the government. They hope to be added to the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act before it sunsets in 2022.
- On our Sunday, August 9 webinar (Zoom link here) , survivor Dr. Hideko Tamura shares her personal experiences from before, during, and after the August 6 Hiroshima atom bombing.
See our
Disarm webpage
for more on our September 20 and October 24 webinars.
Being Active, Joining the Activist Community
Do you want to take further action to inform the public about the dangers of nuclear weapons? We'd like to thank you for your interest -- and possible efforts -- with this special offer: sending you two origami peace cranes which were hand-folded by supporters of atomic bomb survivors in Japan! Along with the cranes, we'll send a handy tip sheet about paper cranes: what they represent, instructions on how to fold them, and ideas for using them in your community. Origami cranes can be an inviting way to open a conversation about nuclear weapons.
Please email
Info@WILPFUS.org
if you would like to receive this free package, and let us know if you might like to work with us in any way. (Send us action photos to share with the #HiroshimaNagasaki75 coalition and on our
Facebook page!)
And if you're not yet a member of WILPF US, please
join us
!
Sincerely,
DISARM-End Wars Issues Committee Co-Chairs:
Robin Lloyd (robinlloyd8[at]gmail[dot]com)
Ellen Thomas (et[at]prop1[dot]org)
Cherrill Spencer
