Keep Space for Peace Week at the most dangerous place on earth

It was a busy Keep Space for Peace Week, October 4 to 13. So far we've learned of 13 WILPF sponsored or co-sponsored events around the United States, and another five in Germany, Britain and Australia. Now Ashland Or, Boston, Monterey, Omaha, Palo Alto, Portland OR, Sacramento, St Louis, Tucson, MacGregor for Vandenberg AFB, and West Palm Beach all need to send reports (and photos if possible) for submission to the United Nations World Space Week publication. We want them for our own use as well. Send reports to carol.disarm@gmail.com. I'll check with you before submission if any editing is needed.

On the first day of KS4P, October 4, the Executive Officers and staff in Geneva issued a strong statement for delivery to diplomats engaged in all the UN bodies that could contribute to negotiation of a strengthened treaty on Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space, and banning weapons in space. It identifies the United States as the single nation blocking such negotiations, and also as the only one that can prevent a space race. Read it at www.wilpf.int.ch/statements/keep.space.for.peace.2007.html . I would like us to also deliver the statement to our members of Congress. What do you think?

October 5 I flew to Omaha, Nebraska, home of the Strategic Command. That evening, speaking at a Jesuit University, Bruce Gagnon of Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, identified Strat Com as the most dangerous place on earth. It is the nerve center for both our nuclear weapons and space programs. Plans for the bombing of Iran have already been shaped there, and if and when the President orders an attack, Strat Com will execute it.

On October 6 Nebraskans for Peace held their well organized and well attended annual peace conference. Bruce and Bishop Gumbleton opened the conference: Bruce with a strong challenge to counter the death economy epitomized in Strat Com, and Bishop Gumbleton calling on us for the deep inward growth necessary if we are to save our own nation, the human race and our planet home from destruction. Later in the day I facilitated a workshop on Strat Com, the aerospace industrry and the Omaha economy using WILPF materials. Andy Heaslet, young director of the Peace Economy Project in St. Louis, joined us to initiate thinking about challenges of conversion to a peace economy in Omaha and Nebraska. (I'm still proud and pleased that my own state, Oregon, is one of the two least militarized in the union. I hope Oregonians can keep our peace economy and show others how to succeed.)

On October 8 a few of us visited the Strat Com aerospace museum. I felt much as I did when visiting Dachau. How could the Germans not recognize the significance of that horror in their midst? How can the citizens of eastern Nebraska live with the horror of those nuclear weapons so proudly displayed along with the aircraft designed to carry them? Billions of dollars spent on these weapons of mass murder while so many of our world's children starve or go without education, health care or adequate shelter. But Nebraskans not only accept these weapons, they organize tours for their school children and give them all bright yellow model nuclear weapons as souvenirs. How thankful we must all be for the challenge of an organization like Nebraskans for Peace.

On the 9th, my own last day in Omaha, top management in the aerospace corporations began gathering with military brass for the annual Space Foundation conference held during UN World Space Week. The captains of industry and masters of war strategize, vie for contracts and proudly show their wares. A dozen of us drove around the entrance in a truck with a giant shopping cart-- full of mock nuclear rockets, satellite dishes and boxes of DU weapons -- while others stood in front with giant banners ready to talk with those entering the great nuclear arms bazaar. In the truck we sang a song urging our government to recover from its addiction to buying nuclear weapons and star wars paraphernalia. Stop shopping, we sang. Give up war in space! Renounce the fatal weapons race! Stop the killing! Stop the killing!

On the 10th I flew to St. Louis for a Peace Economy Project national seminar co-sponsored by our WILPF Branch there. That's a story for a later blog entry, But for this tale let me say how pleased I was when my hostess, 88 year old Peggy Gallagher, joined WILPF to work with us on space and nuclear issues. I called her after I left, and learned that she had been arrested for participating in a die in with some Catholic Workers in front of the Strat Com conference building on October 10th. That day was the 40th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty which seeks to ensure space is used for peaceful purposes and the benefit of all humankind. Peggy's trial is November 14 and we will post the outcome on our DISARM UPDATE web pages (www.disarm.wilpf.org). We'll keep you apprised, as well, of plans for a return to Omaha and Strat Com next April for the Global Network organizing conference. WILPF will again be co-sponsoring, and it looks like an exciting event with non-violent activists coming from the Czech Republic, Poland, India, the European Union and around the world.

in peace, Carol Urner

U.S. WILPF DISARM! Dismantle the War Economy Chair