2020/04/25 zoom webinarWorld Conference – No to war

World Conference for Disarmament, Peace, Climate & Justice –> MOVED to the internet! Registration online now !

ONLINE – WORLD CONFERENCE: ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS; RESIST & REVERSE CLIMATE CHANGE, FOR ECONOMIC & SOCIAL JUSTICE

April 25, 2020 9 a.m. New York/Boston/Washington, D.C.
9 a.m. EDT, 3 p.m. Central Europe, 10 p.m. April 26 Tokyo

Register at: bit.ly/abolishnuclearIn the context of the suffering and changes being wrought by the pandemic, the two- hour world conference will focus on the continuing urgent need to abolish nuclear weapons and its relationship to stanching the climate emergency and challenging injustices which have left so many people marginalized and vulnerable. Additional sessions of the World Conference and four workshops will be for a healthier time in the future.

To accommodate people across the world the conference will be held at 9 a.m. New York/Boston time (3 p.m. in Europe, 10 p.m. in East Asia) with simultaneous interpretation. The conference will be held in concentric circles with up to 500 people in the conference itself with simultaneous live streaming so everyone can join by listening in. The conference will also be recorded and posted and made available on the worldconference2020.org and co-sponsors sites for continuing availability.

Speakers include:
• Sharon Burrows (ITUC, Australia)
• Reiner Braun (IPB, Germany)
• Joseph Gerson (AFSC/CPDCS/IPB, USA)
• Emad Kiyaei (IDG Group, Iran)
• Hiroshi Takakusaki (Gensuikyo, Japan)
• Rev. Liz Theoharis (Poor People’s Campaign, USA)
• Dr. Carlos Umana (IPPNW, Costa Rica)
• Wada Masako (Japan Confederation of A- & H- Bomb Sufferers Organizations, Japan)

Invitations pending to United Nations Office for Disarmament, the Sunrise Movement, and Marshall Islands

REGISTRATION: https://bit.ly/abolishnuclear

For more information: check out the Facebook site World Conference 2020 – Moving Online or write:

please find below the mail from Joseph Gerson. the npt will also not take place…

Following is the announcement from our planning committee. As you will see, we are building for the future.

Stay healthy and all best wishes,
Joseph

Concern for people’s health and protecting people from the risk of the accelerated spread of the corona virus has led our World Conference planning committee to cancel the in-person April 24-26 World Conference, rally and march.
BUT, we are planning to build from all that we have already accomplished, including planning for an international online conference with simultaneous interpretation. Look forward to future announcements.
The international coalition we have built is remarkable and will persist in these changed circumstances. With 1,500 people already registered to join our conference and related events, we have a strong foundation on which we can build for the future.
In this period, we recognize that there are already many forms of action dedicated to achieving our conference goals – abolition of nuclear weapons, reversing climate destruction, and social and economic justice – planned in many places around the world. We appreciate the support that many of you have given to our organizing. We look forward to our continuing collaborations and wish you every success in your actions in your communities and nations. We also recognize that new forms of organizing and social mobilization will be necessary. We will do our best to develop these new strategies and to learn from others’ initiatives.
We also want to report that the in-person New York organizing meeting scheduled for Thursday evening, March 12 is being moved online, with the announcement to come from Peace Action New York State.
Finally, with conferences at the U.N. either cancelled or reduced to symbolic events without the participation of civil society through mid-April, and with Secretary General Guterres’ announcement that the U.N. is now closed to everyone but those who work there, it seems unlikely that a meaningful NPT Review Conference will be held. Should a symbolic event be held, we will develop means to manifest the world’s demands for nuclear weapons abolition.
For the Planning Committee,
Joseph Gerson

Announcement: April 24-26 World Conference, Rally, March & Petitions Presentations

The Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive, New York City, NY USA

Eve of NPT Review Conference

Registration at: https://worldconference2020.org/registration/

List of speakers and co-sponsors below.

Humanity faces two existential threats: increasing dangers of nuclear war and climate catastrophe. Human beings created these threats, which can only be reversed by mass popular actions.

2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — the beginning of the nuclear era which threatens human survival today. It marks the birth of international efforts to abolish nuclear weapons, and the 25th anniversary of the UN Climate Change Conference. It also marks the 10^th Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference to be held at the U.N. in April and May.

Our international coalition of disarmament, climate, justice and peace organizations is organizing a World Conference, rally, march and petitions presentations in New York City, April 24-26, the eve of the 2020 NPT Review Conference

We are engaging the broadest possible collaborations with nuclear weapons abolition, peace, justice and environmental constituencies as well as with diplomats and politicians from countries which are actively and meaningfully committed to achieving a nuclear weapon-free world, a sustainable environment and social and economic justice.

We are committed to preventing nuclear war, prohibiting and eliminating all nuclear weapons, and working in solidarity with the world’s Hibakusha. We are equally committed to stemming and reversing the climate crisis, to social and economic justice, and to building the intersectional movements we need to prevail.

Our World Conference and rally provide unique opportunities for the world’s nuclear disarmament, peace, climate and justice movements to press our demands and to develop the alliances and intersectional movements we will need to prevail.

Speakers include: Tadatoshi Akiba – (Gensuikin-Japan), Walden Bello – (FGS – Philippines), Oleg Bodrov (CCB -Russia), Sharran Burrow (ITUC – Australia), Jackie Cabasso (WSLF & UFPJ – US), Noam Chomsky (USA), Arielle Denis (IPB – France), Sharon Dolev – (IDM – Israel), Beatrice Finn (ICAN), Sophia (Soda) Garcia – (GBWP – Philippines), Philip Jennings (ITUC/IPB – Britain), Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner (Poet-Marshall Islands),Emad Kiyaei (IGD Group-Iran), Michael Klare (Five College PAWS/The Nation Magazine -USA), Youngdae Ko (SPARK – Korea); Andrew Lichterman (WSLF – US), Leona Morgan (NISG – Navajo/USA). Binalakshmi Nepram – (CAF-India), Setsuko Thurlow (Hiroshima Hibakusha – Canada). For bio information see worldconference2020.org

Additional confirmed speakers from Gensuikyo, Korean A-Bomb Survivors Organization, and Nihon Hidankyo, and additional invitations are pending

24 Forums and workshops

April 26 Rally from Union Square and march to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, including presentation of 10 million+ nuclear weapons abolition petition signatures being organized.

Co-sponsoring organizations include: American Friends Service Committee, Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security, Gensuikin, Gensuikyo, International Peace Bureau, International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, International Trade Union Confederation, La Mouvement de la Paix, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Nuclear Free Philippines Coalition, Pax Christi, PEAC, Peace Action, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, United Electrical Workers Union, Western States Legal Foundation, Women’s International for Peace & Freedom – U.S.

[Other organizations are welcome to sign on!]

For more information including conference agenda, see https://worldconference2020.org/

This is a save the date notice, urging you to plan to come to New York for a crucial disarmament, peace climate and justice event on the eve of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference.

As you will read in the attached announcement and call, CPDCS (Campaign for Peace, Disarmament & Common Security), together with leading Japanese, European and other peace, climate and justice organizations, will be holding a significant World Conference in New York City and organizing a major rally, march and petitions presentation April 24-26.

We have reserved the prestigious Riverside Church to accommodate the 800+ Hibakusha and activists coming from Japan and an equal number or more coming from across the U.S., Europe and beyond. We’ll be a remarkable mix Nobel Peace Laureates, leading national and grassroots movement leaders and activists. In addition, we expect a very high-ranking U.N. official to accept our invitation.

There will be NO registration fee, but contributions will be greatly appreciated.

We need about 40 volunteers to ensure the success of this important action. We invite you to be part of the team and welcome your questions or suggestions. Please write to me at .

Finally, the bones of our website worldconference2020.org have been created, with details to added in the coming months.

So, plan to join us if you can, and please spread the word.

For peace, climate and justice,

Joseph Gerson

P.S. The timing of this announcement, which is being released in different countries around the world is no accident. It’s been timed to go out between the International Day of Peace and the International Day for the Complete Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

World Conference – Abolish Nuclear Weapons; Resist and Reverse

the Climate Crisis; For Social and Economic Justice

April 24-26, 2020, New York City NY USA

Humanity faces two existential threats: the increasing dangers of nuclear war and climate disruption. Human beings created these threats, which can only be reversed by mass popular actions.

2020 will mark the 75th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — the beginning of the nuclear era which threatens human survival today. It also marks the birth of international efforts and movements to abolish nuclear weapons and create a nuclear free world. 2020 is also the 75th anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe and Asia and the founding of the United Nations, the 25th anniversary of the UN Climate Change Conference following the Rio Earth Declaration, and the 10^th NPT Review Conference will be held at the U.N. in April and May

With the encouragement of partners involved in organizing annual World Conferences against A- and H-Bombs in Japan on the anniversaries of the A-bombings, the Peace and Planet network and the International Peace Bureau, supported by the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, have initiated planning for a World Conference and related events in New York City on the eve of the 2020 NPT Review Conference. These events build on the 2010 and 2015 conferences and mobilizations in New York, which included addresses by then-UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Hibakusha (victims of the atomic bombings and nuclear testing) and disarmament movement leaders. Rallies and inter-religious services involving thousands of activists from around the world culminated with the presentation to the United Nations of millions of petition signatures urging the complete elimination of the world’s nuclear arsenals.

Our commitments are to prevent nuclear war, to achieve the prohibition and elimination of all nuclear weapons, to work for the relief of and in solidarity with the world’s Hibakusha, to promote disarmament, stemming and reversing the climate crisis, social and economic justice, and building the intersectional movements we will need to prevail. Disarmament will be an important topic at the different events, and “no to war” the general basis of our actions

In organizing for the conference, we seek the broadest possible engagement with nuclear weapons abolition, peace, justice and environmental constituencies as well as diplomats and politicians from countries which are actively and meaningfully committed to achieving a nuclear weapon-free world and a sustainable environment.

Danger and Opportunity

The World Conference will provide a timely opportunity to sound the alarm and to inspire popular movements and sympathetic governments to address the challenges, posed by growing dangers of nuclear war, the climate crisis and the racism, repressions and inequalities spurred by authoritarian, militarist and oligarchic governments. Racism, other forms of hate and growing economic inequality, driven in part by the rise of authoritarian governments, truncate the lives and hopes of people across the planet. The struggles for peace and democracy are two sides of the same coin. The Conference also provides a unique opportunity to promote and build intersectional and youth-led movements.

A successful outcome of the 2020 NPT Review Conference will be a challenge. The nuclear-armed states remain resistant to fulfilling their Article VI disarmament obligations and, in what threatens to become a new unrestrained nuclear arms race, they are all engaged in upgrading their omnicidal nuclear arsenals. Plans include deployments of new land-based nuclear weapons in Europe. And nuclear weapons proliferation (possibly by Saudi Arabia, Brazil or others) further undermines the viability of the NPT.

Powerful popular movements and local, state and national governmental commitments, including the Paris Climate Agreement, have responded to the growing dangers of climate disruption. But global temperatures and seas continue to rise. The climate crisis is already exacting heavy tolls on human lives and wellbeing. Deadlier hurricanes and cyclones, flooding, famine and sea level rise are taking lives, destroying communities, leaving people hungry and homeless, and fueling desperate mass migration which contributes to militarized conflicts. Additionally, as UNESCO’s Global Assessment Study recently reported, assaults on biodiversity have left one in four species at risk of extinction, threatening the ecosystems on which human life depends.

The Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty, expected to come into force in 2020, is a beacon of hope, and has become a priority for many of the world’s non-nuclear nations. A World Conference held during the 2020 NPT Review Conference, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings — at a time of increasing nuclear danger and the threats of wars — will serve as one of the last and greatest opportunities to put the experiences of the Hibakusha at the center of international attention, It will be a critical time to highlight their continuing warnings that “human beings and nuclear weapons cannot coexist,” and to recall the principal directive of the seminal 1955 Russell-Einstein manifesto: “remember your humanity and forget the rest.”

The World Conference will provide a unique opportunity for the world’s nuclear disarmament campaigns, allied movements and organizations, and diplomats committed to banning and eliminating nuclear weapons to amplify our abolition demands to the Review Conference. Making links to climate and social and economic justice movements offers a new opportunity to develop the alliances and intersectional movements we will need to prevail.

We envision the following events:

A World Conference against A- & H- Bombs held at a suitable site in Manhattan
A rally and march to the United Nations or Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza
Presentation of millions of Hibakusha and other petition signatures urgently calling for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons to the NPT Review Conference
An international and interdenominational religious ceremony
A disarmament, peace, justice and environmental festival
Self-organized youth events

While we will seek the broadest possible international presence and participation in New York City, we recognize that many will be unable to travel internationally. We thus encourage partner organizations in other countries to organize parallel events.

September 2019

David Andersson, New York Bureau of Pressenza, (USA),
Oleg Bodrov, Public Council of the South Coast of the Gulf of Finland, (Russia)
Reiner Braun, International Peace Bureau, (Germany)
Sharan Burrow, International Trade Union Confederation, (Australia)
Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation, (USA)
Reece Chenault, U.S. Labor Against the War
Noam Chomsky, Scholar, (USA)
Lisa Clark, International Peace Bureau, (Italy)
Corazon Fabros, Nuclear Free Philippines Coalition, (Philippines)
Joseph Gerson, American Friends Service Committee, Campaign for Peace, Disarmament & Common Security, (USA)
Chuck Johnson, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, (USA)
Koichi KAWANO, Gensuikin, (Japan)
Peter Knowlton and Carl Rosen, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, (USA)
Pablo Lada, Movimiento Antinuclear de Chubut (Argentina)
Kevin Martin, Peace Action, (USA)
Hiroshi TAKA, Gensuikyo, (Japan)
Terumi TANAKA, Nihon Hidankyo, (Japan)
Achin Vanaik, Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, (India)
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Britain)
Mouvement de la Paix (France)
Movimiento Antinuclear de la República Argentina (MARA)
Network “No to war – no to NATO” (international)
People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (Korea)