WILPF at the World Social Forum

A Report by Rhianna Tyson,
Reaching Critical Will Project Associate

At the behest of Abolition 2000, a network of over 2000 organizations dedicated to the abolition of nuclear weapons, of which WILPF is a founding member, I was asked to organize a nuclear abolition teach-in event to be held at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai, India, which took place January 16-22, 2004. While I was organizing disarmament experts from around the world to participate in our event, Peace Boat, a Japanese NGO also affiliated with Abolition 2000, invited members of Abolition 2000 who were going to the WSF, to join the boat from Singapore to Mumbai, and teach their passengers and Global University students about international disarmament regimes, and to help their WSF participants prepare for their events at the Forum. Once a trip to Singapore was established, I was then asked by Alyn Ware of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) and the Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament (PNND) to travel also to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to meet with various Foreign Ministry officials on the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treat (NPT) and other international disarmament issues.

January 7
Met with Ron McCoy, President of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Ron will be, in the upcoming months, traveling to Beijing, Moscow, and possibly Mongolia, for IPPNW business. He is very much interested in meeting with WILPFers, especially in Beijing, where, in September, they will be holding an IPPNW Congress with the theme, “Peace through Health.”

We also met with Gurdial Singh Nijar, Professor of Law. Mr. Nijar is investigating war crimes in Iraq through interviews with war victims, with the purpose of identifying the soldiers who perpetrated the crimes. The evidence and cases will then be brought to the courts in the home districts of the soldiers.

WILPF or other women’s NGOs might be able to send delegations to Iraq, especially Arabic speakers, to help interview the victims, to ensure a gender perspective in the interviews and in the procedure. Legal experts in Britain and U.S. will help bring the cases to court in those areas.

At the McCoys’ house, I also met with his daughter, Ruth, who works with the ILO in Geneva. The ILO just finished a Commission comprised of businessmen, governmental reps, and NGOs, to discuss “globalization,” to bridge the gaps between the World Social Forum and the World Economic Forum. The report of the Commission will be launched in February ’04 in London. Among many various issues discussed in the findings of this diverse group, will be water and water privatization.

It would be very useful if WILPF could get copies of this report, which will be available in all six languages of the UN, in preparation for the Congress in August.

January 8
Still in Malaysia. Morning meeting with Rohana Ramli, Under-Secretary for Multilateral Political Division, Department of Multilateral Affairs (head of disarmament), Riedzal Abdul Malek, Assistant Secretary in Multilateral Affairs Division, and another Assistant Secretary (no card was given). Rohana is new to disarmament, coming from Human Rights, but Riedzal seemed to have a grasp on the issues and recent developments.

In the afternoon, we met with Hasmy Agam, the former Permanent Representative to the Malaysian mission in NYC, recently moved to the position of Ambassador-At-Large for Non Aligned Movement (NAM). Among various issues, we discussed a potential Asia-held conference to explore Nuclear Weapons Convention issues, i.e. Malaysia could play Canada’s role in the Ottawa process. Hasmy seemed keen on the idea, but suggested that it be an NGO-held event (IPPNW) but that all of the NAM and Asian ambassadors be invited. He also suggested focusing on principles of disarmament without references to the NPT, in order to ensure India and Pakistan’s participation.

January 13-15
Four presentations were delivered to Global English Teachers’ classes on board the Peace Boat on WILPF, RCW, and basics of the international disarmament regime and basic UN education. PeaceWomen postcards were distributed as well as many Abolition 2000 materials.

Peace Boat presentation: “Can we prevent war? Can we abolish nukes? How?” created in partnership with Jennifer Nordstrom of Global Action to Prevent War and Zachary Allen of Global Security Institute. The finished version included Japanese translations, which I will receive in a few weeks.

January 16
Arrive in Mumbai. The Peace Boat media staff had organized a press conference upon our arrival, and we were also greeted by a big group of WSF organizers and Indian activists. The Abolition 2000 teachers on board were singled out to the press. The local daily Mumbai paper included a feature article on the Peace Boat’s arrival.

January 17
World Social Forum events, including one entitled “Gender and Permanent War” that was sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, based in Germany. One of the women that spoke on that panel was from the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, which was created in the spring of this war-torn year.
There were also calls at another event for another World Mach of Women. See www.worldmarchofwomen.org or email info@marchemondiale.org for more info.

January 18
I attended more events on women and globalization, democratization of international institutions, independent media, and more. Also had lunch with Sushma (Indian WILPFer), Gillian and Deborah (American WILPFers).

January 19
More events, including International Conference on Global Governance. There will be a conference from May 29 to June 1, 2005 in Montreal on “Civil Society: visions and Strategies Toward Global Democracy,” which promises to “offer the opportunity for international civil society to be proactive; to identify the means of implementing a constructive agenda for world citizenry; to go beyond reacting to wrong global agendas; to strategically plant the seeds for a democratic, participatory form of global governance.”

Abolition 2000 event: The Threat of Nuclear War.

The event, co-organized by the World Peace Council and co-sponsored by 23 organizations around the world was divided into three panels. The first panel, moderated by Brian Fitch of the World Peace Council, was designed to give an overview of nuclear policy and practice in various parts of the world. The panel opened with Mr. Takamitsu Nakayama of the Japanese hibakusha organization Hidankyo, whose horrific narrative of that fateful day in 1945 put a human face on the nuclear issue. Mr. Nakayama was then followed by Tara Dorabji of Tri-Valley CAREs, who laid out U.S. nuclear policy and practice- including the Nuclear Posture Review, bunker busters and Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator development- in passionate, succinct and understandable terms. Athanassios Pafilis of the World Peace Council then spoke on NATO nuclear policy and practice with a focus on Greece, from which he hails. Ms. Ilina Sen of India’s Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace was by far one of the most powerful speakers at the event, outlining the gravity of the nuclear situation on the subcontinent. Atsushi Fujioka of the Global Network Against Nuclear Weapons and Power in Space then contrasted Mr. Nakayama’s view of Japanese society’s position against nuclear weapons by discussing Japan’s willingness to engage in space weaponization, especially missile defense. The first panel finished with a presentation from Khong Dai Minh of the Viet Nam Peace Committee on the effect of weapons in Viet Nam during that terrible war.

The second panel, moderated by Al Marder of the World Peace Council, focused on global campaigns to abolish nuclear weapons. In his opening statement, Al stressed that a discussion on nuclear weapons is not in isolation of the other discussions taking place at the WSF. Mr. Tadaomi Saito of Mayors for Peace, with translation by Steve Leeper, opened this second panel. He explained the Mayors’ Emergency Campaign, asking the audience for advice, opinions and assistance in the formulation of this yet nascent campaign. As usual, word of the Mayors’ initiative was received enthusiastically by most. Mr. Saito also discussed the necessity of a culture of peace to be fostered in the context of global cooperation, calling for getting as many organizations to the NPT PrepCom as possible. Alyn Ware then briefly spoke on the Internal Court of Justice opinion and process, the Nuclear Weapons Convention and Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament, and the role that civil society has played in all of these disarmament efforts. He concluded his presentation with a song from Aotearoa. It’s hard to beat a presentation that finishes with an Aotearoan song, but Lalit Suryjan, the Vice President of the All India Peace and Solidarity Organization, the India affiliate of the World Peace Council had to do just that. He too spoke on India’s nuclear policy and gave 7 concrete proposals for moving forward in India. Finally, to finish the discussion on global campaigns, Jennifer Nordstrom of Global Action to Prevent War gave a brief overview of the GAPW Plan of Action.

I introduced the final panelists all together: Arjun Makhijani of the U.S.-based Institute on Energy and Environmental Research, Dr. Kathleen Sullivan, a disarmament education expert, Michael Coffey of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and Pol d’Huyvetter of Belgium-based For Mother Earth. These panelists each discussed ways in which local community-based actions have succeeded in fighting the scourge of nuclear weapons. Arjun lifted everyone’s hopes by discussing several success stories in the U.S., noting that 70% of the nuclear facilities in the U.S. that have been closed down were done so in response to environmental protests, completely irrespective of international treaties and obligations to disarm. He then related these success stories to Indian law and practice, engaging the predominantly Indian audience. The empowerment felt by the Indian audience members was visible on their faces, as
Arjun spat out facts about their local nuclear facilities that were unbeknownst to all of them. (Mumbai, after all, is Arjun’s hometown).

Kathleen opened her talk with a short song and interactive games with the audience. They were indubitably perked up and became much more active listeners afterward. Her expertise in disarmament education was apparent to all. She referred to Einstein’s quote that empowered people to think differently, stressing that peace will not be possible unless we first imagine peace all together.

Through likening nuclear weapons to Auschwitz gas chambers, Pol d’Huyvetter invoked the Nuremburg principles in laying out the case for citizens’ weapons inspections. He talked about the process for weapons inspections and the history of them in Europe, calling for a vast increase in the amount of inspections that take place worldwide.

As a disarmament educator himself, working with university students in California, Michael followed Kathleen’s lead splendidly, asking individual audience members to state one goal toward peace that they could hope for this year. The responses were varied and people were jumping at the chance to offer their hope for a peaceful 2004. He also addressed the need to bring in new people to a sustainable peace movement, maintaining that the old methods of fear, mushroom cloud images etc. do not and cannot work on a youthful audience.

Overall, the event was well-received. There wasn’t enough time for all of the questions that were hatched among the audience members, but several informal discussions, networking, information-swapping took place for at least an hour after the event officially concluded, despite the late hour.

India.indymedia.org broadcasted it on their site live.

January 20-21
More WSF events, including several on Democratizing the UN; Women and Peace (Rwanda, Somalia, Mali). At the latter, the last of the Peacewomen postcards were distributed. I managed to speak with Charlotte Bunch, one of the panelists at the morning session on International Democracy, who referenced both WILPF and PeaceWomen and their work with 1325 in her presentation.

Evaluation
While the overall costs of the trip were high, I believe in the end that it was indeed a fruitful tour, with the confirmation of new contacts that are involved in peace and disarmament issues from every level of participation: government officials, NGO activists and concerned individuals. Dozens of Abolition enrollment cards were also picked up and several returned already. Bearing in mind that the initial reasoning for the trip was to promote nuclear disarmament within the general global peace movement, I worked my hardest to get a reference to nuclear disarmament included in the Final Document, and my speech was met with tremendous response.

With many of the new RCW contacts based in India, it is important that we begin to branch out away from a focus on the NPT, a treaty not favored by many Indian disarmament activists. They believe that their government, as well as Pakistan’s, will never sign and ratify the NPT, as it is viewed as an inherently discriminatory bargain. Rather, RCW must continue its advocacy and education on a Nuclear Weapons Convention in addition to creating new, India-focused PrepCom materials on Why the Review Process is Important (see next paragraph). The now defunct Nuclear Weapons Convention Monitor, once edited by either Merav Datan or Alyn Ware, will soon be started up again, and RCW has been asked to become a main contributor to it.

A new package product that works to convince activists to get involved at this year’s PrepCom, and, more importantly, next year’s Review Conference, must also be created, posted on the site, and sent to the new contacts. Many of the new contacts are passionate about disarmament but are totally foreign to the UN process and many believe it is not worthwhile. We must tap their passion and work to involve them in these international efforts.

The WILPFers that attended the WSF that I was able to contact- including Gillian, Deborah and Sushma- were all in agreement that WILPF needed to have a stronger, more organized presence at the WSF. Next year, which rumor has it will be held in Porto Allegre again, it is highly important that WILPF reserve a table or booth and send several delegates in order to staff the table continuously and conduct fruitful outreach and solicitation of new members. I believe that, with the growing feminist presence at the WSF, WILPF could easily expand our membership with scores of new women from different corners of the globe. I think that it would also be important to send a PeaceWomen staffer as well, in order to bring in 1325 to the dozens of self-organized events that focus on women, peace and security in a variety of contexts.

I spoke many women of various ages who wanted to know more about WILPF. Possibilities for new membership at a gathering such as this are immeasurable. I cannot stress enough how important it is for experienced, knowledgeable, and dedicated WILPFers to go to Social Forums (regional and world) and other large networking gatherings of activists. We must reach out to activists and young women around the world at all available opportunities. A strong, unified, WILPF presence that would be able to teach women about the history of WILPF, our amazing principles from which I personally derive so much pride, and of our projects going on all over the world is an absolute imperative if we are to build momentum for our work and to promote sustainability of our beloved organization.