[PAA-Discuss] Fw: Think Globally, Act Locally: Cities Are Not Targets!

Thu Dec 17 16:02:09 EST 2009

   Might we get Annise involved in the Mayors for Peace project ?
   http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/index.html
   She will be mayor of   Houston :  City of  Peace    

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      An historic membership drive needs you to join in saying: 
"Cities Are Not Targets!"

As we continue our efforts to end the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is working with dozens of international and U.S. peace organizations to bring pressure to bear on the U.S. and other nuclear powers to do more than just talk about a nuclear weapons free future, but to create it.

UFPJ is working internationally with allies including the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, Mayors for Peace, and the International Trade Union Confederation, to put nuclear issues on the political agenda of world leaders as the United Nations prepares for the 2010 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference next May.  Groups from around the world are coming together to demand that President Obama and the leaders of the other nuclear-armed nations commence negotiations on a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons within a timebound framework. These activities include: a massive global petition campaign; an international peace conference in New York (April 30 and May 1); an International Day of Action for a Nuclear Free World (May 2); and an unprecedented Mayors for Peace membership drive. 

Cities around the world are saying: "NO!  We reject absolutely the right of any nation for any reason whatsoever to threaten us with incineration and our planet with nuclear winter.  We are home to women, children, the elderly and other noncombatants traditionally protected under international law.  We are no longer willing to be held hostage to cruel, inhumane, and indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction.  We demand liberation from the nuclear threat."  

Leading the movement to protect municipal populations from the scourge of war is Mayors for Peace [www.mayorsforpeace.org], a dynamic international network of cities founded in 1982 to promote local government solidarity against war and the nuclear threat. The primary focus of Mayors for Peace is its 2020 Vision Campaign, a determined effort to outlaw nuclear weapons and eliminate every one of them by 2020.  Today, momentum is building.  Cities can make it happen!

At its annual meeting in June 2009, the United States Conference of Mayors, the national association of mayors of cities with populations of 30,000 or more, unanimously adopted a resolution in support of Mayors for Peace.  The resolution, Affirming the Role of Cities in Achievement of a Peaceful World Free of Nuclear Weapons by 2020, "welcomes enthusiastically the new leadership and multilateralism that the United States is demonstrating toward achievement of a nuclear-weapon-free world, and calls on President Obama to announce at the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference the initiation of good faith multilateral negotiations on an international agreement to abolish nuclear weapons by the year 2020." It doesn't get any more mainstream than this!  

Cities can make themselves heard at the international level only through unity and cooperation.  One way Mayors for Peace is demonstrating that unity is through its rapid growth. In 2003, membership stood at 550 cities. On December 1 2009, it reached 3,396 members in 134 countries - with 150 U.S. mayors.  Now, Mayors for Peace is embarked on the most ambitious city recruitment drive in history!   In five months, from December 2009 through April 2010, Mayors for Peace intends to bring 1600 new cities into its network. When its membership tops the 5000 mark, Mayors for Peace will directly represent over one billion people who cannot be ignored.

Please help Mayors for Peace protect you! Invite your mayor to join Mayors for Peace!

For the tools you need go to: www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/mayorsforpeace_document_pack.pdf

Invitations are most effective when they come with a personal touch. If everyone who learns of this membership drive takes personal responsibility for reaching out to one mayor, Mayors for Peace will reach its goal. At the webpage above, you will find an invitation from Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, the President of Mayors for Peace, and a Registration Form. Get these to every mayor you possibly can. Then, follow-up by contacting the mayor's office. Request a meeting. Tell the mayor about the U.S. Conference of Mayors resolution. Most mayors are happy to join Mayors for Peace if you can just get them to slow down for a minute and think about it.  

Let others know so they can pitch in!

The success of this drive depends on thousands of concerned citizens approaching their mayors. Please forward this email.  If you are a member of a civil society organization, encourage that organization to formally take part in this historic effort.  If the mayor of your city or a neighboring city is already a member of Mayors for Peace, offer to help her/him reach out to fellow mayors.  You can find an updated list of member cities here.

UFPJ recognizes that nuclear weapons are at the core of U.S. militarism, and that working for their abolition is fundamental part or our work for peace and justice.  Nuclear disarmament should serve as the leading edge of a global trend towards demilitarization and redirection of resources to meet human needs and restore the environment. 

UFPJ needs your financial support, now more than ever!  To donate: click here!

For more information about Mayors for Peace and UFPJ's nuclear abolition campaign, contact Jackie Cabasso, UFPJ Nuclear Disarmament/Redefining Security working group convener and Mayors for Peace North American Coordinator, wslf at earthlink.net; (510) 839-5877

      Help us continue to do this critical work: Make a donation to UFPJ today.

                    UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

                    www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545

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