Download flyers: Global Network  | WILPF: Pg 1 - Pg 2 | Events | Reports | Links | Action Alert

The very heavens are at risk: As the world’s one sole super power seeks “full spectrum dominance” of land, sea, air and space. Keep war out of space: September 25 to October 2 the U.S. is deploying land based interceptors as the first step in “missile defense” – an untested, unproven “missile shield” from behind which the Pentagon claims pre-emptive wars can be waged. This year, for the first time, weapons in space and nuclear powered rockets are in the U.S. budget submitted to Congress. Stop plans to wage war in space!!! End dreams of space colonization by the U.S. military-industrial complex.Space belongs to all: Support the 1967 UN Space Treaty, (summary) and promote an expanded version banning all weapons in space. Support multi-lateral, internationally monitored space exploration and resource sharing. Strive for PEACE ON EARTH and IN THE STARRY SKIES ABOVE

The Bush Administration (after unilaterally abandoning the1972 ABM Treaty) promises to deploy missile defense interceptors in Alaska before the next election. Ten interceptors (that have yet to be proven effective) will be put into the ground at Ft. Greely, Alaska to “protect” the continental U.S. from attack. This year the Global Network’s Keep Space for Peace Week coincides with this deployment effort. For the past several years our Keep Space for Peace Week of local actions has taken this issue into classrooms, libraries, TV and radio programs, churches, military bases, aerospace corporation facilities, and the offices of political leaders. We encourage you to organize a local activity during the week in solidarity with groups all over the world. Working together we must create opposition to Bush’s dangerous and destabilizing Star Wars deployments.

This year, the Disarm! project of WILPF US is co-sponsoring Keep Space for Peace Week, and are encouraging all sections of WILPF to organize some kind of event between 25 September and 2 October.    If you are planning on organizing an event during that time, please send an email to the WILPF UN Office with the details (date, time, and location).

Keep Space for Peace Week- Events
25 September - 2 October, 2004
planning an event?

No Election Time Deployment of "Missile Defense"!
No Weapons in Space!
No Nuclear Rocket!
End the War in Iraq!
Abolish Nuclear Weapons!
Keep Space for Peace!
Fund Human Needs!
 
 
Sept 25 – Oct 2 Local Actions (List in formation):
WILPFers we know of
Albuquerque, NM (Sept 18 Peace Camp at Kirtland AFB) stopthewarmachine@comcast.net

Albuquerque, NM (Oct 1-2 Conference on “Resisting the Empire: New Mexico’s Role in the Global War Machine”)  citizen@comcast.net

Asheville, NC   (Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing planned) patrie.wncpsr@main.nc.us

Amherst, MA (Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing at Univ. of Mass. during the week)  ChadAmherst@aol.com

Bath Ironworks, Maine (Oct 2 Vigil & potluck gathering) globalnet@mindspring.com

Bismarck, ND (Oct. 8-9, annual Peace Congress on "Americans Deserve Democracy, Too!") ndpeacecoalition@yahoo.com

Burbank, CA (Oct 1 A Space 4 Peace video showing)   (818) 842-5055

Cape Cod, MA    (Oct 2 Demo at PAVE PAWS radar)  swalker@capecod.net

Chicago, IL (Sept 26 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing at Healing Earth Resources)  drlora@ameritech.net

Colorado (October 2 The 2nd annual Adopt-a-Silo day will focus on Air Force Space Command's nuclear missile field in Colorado)   veggirrrl@aol.com

Croughton RAF/USAF base, UK (Oct 2 Rally)  oxonpeace@yahoo.co.uk

Darmstadt, Germany (Sept. 18 Information table & leafletting at European Space Operation Center's "space night") regina.hagen@jugendstil.da.shuttle.de

Des Moines WILPF Branch will be showing A Space for Peace on October 3 and hopes to do additional showings after that occasion.

Detroit, Michigan (October 2 – 10:00 am) showing of  A Space for Peace at International Institute, 111 E. Kirby, Detroit. WILPF Detroit Branch plans at least ten showings during the week.

Edwards AFB, CA (Oct 2 Demo)  sbremser@charter.net

Florence, OR (Sept 25 Forum/demo on cost of war in space)  shenderson88@hotmail.com

Florence, OR (Oct 2 Forum/demo on human cost of war) patdoris@harborside.com

Ft Greely, Alaska (Sept 24-26 Peace Camp at NMD deployment site) info@nonukesnorth.net

Fylingdales, UK (Sept 25 Demo at Star Wars radar)    cndyorks@gn.apc.org

Graham, FL (Oct 2 Peace Pickin Music Festival)  fcpj@earthlink.net

Hartford, CT (Oct 9 Conference entitled “Nuclear Weapons & The American Empire”)  maryhess2@comcast.net

Hiroshima, Japan (Translation of Keep Space for Peace poster into Japanese and distribution nationally by Satomi Oba)  Kota-goldencat@kfa.biglobe.ne.jp

Hirohima, Japan (Sept 11 Street Action at Atomic Dome)
Kota-goldencat@kfa.biglobe.ne.jp 

Isahaya City, Japan (Oct 2 Raging Grannie Protest to keep space for peace)
      Kota-goldencat@kfa.biglobe.ne.jp

Kennedy Space Center, FL (Oct 9 Demo)   (321) 632-5977

Lyndon State College, VT (Sept 27 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing and music by Tom Neilson)  Amanda.Ruckdeschel@lsc.vsc.edu

Mankato, MN (Sept 29 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing at MSU) gschmitz@ssndmankato.org

Menwith Hill, UK (Oct 2 Demo at NSA/USAF spy base)  caab@btclick.com

Mid-Hudson Valley, NY (Sept 18 Militarization of space workshop at regional People’s Assembly)   vanini@netstep.net

Molesworth Joint Analysis Centre, UK (Sept 26 Schubert’s Quartet “Death and the Maiden” Concert at base main gate) acheetham@beeb.net

Naples, FL (Oct 2 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video & luncheon)  Browardpeace@cs.com

Pittsburgh WILPF Branch is showing A Space for Peace in Coffee Houses during the week.

Portland, OR (Sept 25 Space videos public showing at Multnomah Friends Meeting) curner@qwest.net

Portland, OR ( Sept 29 Vigil & leaflet at noontime at Pioneer Square)  curner@qwest.net

Portland, OR (Oct 3 Keep Space for Peace contingent in anti-war march) curner@qwest.net

Saintes, France (Oct 29-31 Rally for Int’l Disarmament) acdn.france@wanadoo.fr

San Francisco, CA (Oct 2 Public meeting on space issues)  (415) 929-0487

Santa Cruz CA WILPF  organized a meeting with Bruce Gagnon September 17, and were inspired to write a song.

Saugerties, NY (Sept 29 Arsenal of Hypocrisy video showing)  vanini@netstep.net

Springfield, Illinois Mary Wood WILPF Branch, will show A Space for Peace and may use on cable public access TV.

Stennis Space Center, Mississippi   (Oct 1 vigil)  jeanegan@tulane.edu

Stockholm, Sweden (Oct 1-3 Conference entitled “Nuclear weapons in space? NPT and the Nordic countries role in US space plans”)  agneta.norberg@spray.se

Stuttgart, Germany (Oct 2 Rally at EUCOM) Wolfgang.Schlupp-Hauck@t-online.de

Toledo, OH (Sept 25 – Oct 2 Tabling at Kabuki Sculpture in Levis Square)   rkmarovitz@hotmail.com

Toronto, Canada (Oct 2 Make Space for Peace Rally and March) cpa@web.ca

Tucson, AZ (Sept 27 Community Forums at University of Arizona & Unitarian Church)   birnie@gci-net.com

Tucson, AZ (Sept 28 Vigil at Raytheon)  birnie@gci-net.com

Valley Forge, PA (Sept 25 Vigil at Lockheed Martin)   brandywine@juno.com

Vandenberg AFB, CA (Sept 25 Demo at NMD deployment site)  mindful@redshift.com
Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara and Monterey Branches can all be expected to participate in Vandenberg Air Force Base demo on September 25.

Washington DC (Oct 2 Nat’l Memorial Procession to White House) mobuszewski@afsc.org <Look for the Baltimore WILPF Branch>

Links

Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space

Reaching Critical Will
Read the Reaching Critical Will summary of the Outer Space Treaty here.
Be sure to subscribe to RCW's First Committee Monitor to get weekly updates on what is happening around PAROS during the General Assembly!  http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/action/joinlistform.html

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom- US Section
Space For Peace Information

Vandenberg Peace Legal Defense Fund

THE BEST THINGS IN SPACE AIN'T FREE
(To the tune of "The Best Things in Life are Free." by BG DeSylva. Lew Brown and Ray Henderson)

written by Jan Harwood of Santa Cruz Branch and forwarded to us by WILPF US Section President, Sandy Silver

The Best Things in Space Ain't Free
The moon belongs to billionaires--
The best things in space ain't free.
The stars are toys for zillionaires
They're not there for you and me.
There'll soon be a place
Way out there in space
Where lasers can zap
the whole damn map
The sky's our brand new battleground--
The best things in space ain't free.
There's gold, they say, on asteroids--
The best things in space ain't free.
If there's a cure for hemorrhoids,
It's prob'ly on Mercury.
The planet that shines
so pure and so fine
Will soon be a sad uranium mine--
And this is what our taxes buy--
The best things in space ain't free.
(HUM tune during spoken part)
Ah, yes, boys and girls,
liberals and conservatives, independents,
Greens, libertarians, and astrologers:
The day is coming soon
when Orion the Hunter, Leo the Lion, cunning Cassiopoea,
The Big Dipper and its little nipper, The Little Dipper,
The full moon, the crescent moon,
the Blue moon and the Honeymoon
--Not to mention the Milky Way and the Mars Bar--
Will all be out of bounds, off limits,
away on the other side of the tracks,
for folks like you and me.
We can forget about dancing in the dark,
spooning 'neath the moon,
singin' in the rain
(which will be all misty with plutonium and strontium and tritium and all the other gritty-ittiums)--
The heavens will be the exclusive, gated communities
for Halliburton, Fox, GE, the Pentagon, Trump, Gates
and those elite few
who've got the deep, deep pockets in space. FLY THEM TO THE MOON, AND LET THEM SAIL AMONG THE STARS--
THEY'VE GOT STOCK IN PLUTO, AND IN JUPITER AND MARS.
IN OTHER WORDS, WE ARE SCREWED!
IN OTHER WORDS, WE'VE GOT TO STOP THEM!
They want to steal my sky from me,
My heaven of boundless blue
They've trashed it up with space debris,
Yeah, somebody oughta sue!
The poets can't write of stars in the night,
The Pentagon's got the copyright,
SO LET'S TAKE BACK OUR UNIVERSE!
THE BEST THINGS IN SPACE ARE FREE!

Reports from WILPF Activities

Sweden

From October 1st to October 3rd the Swedish Peace Council and WILPF arranged a conference, among others, in Stockholm, with the theme "Keep Space For Peace! NPT and The Role of The Nordic Countries in US Spaceplans." Speakers and the audience came from Norway, Denmark, Finland, Aland, US and -Sweden.

The conference started with the eminent musicians Johan Norberg and Jonas Knutsson, giving a short concert followed by Joseph Gerson, American Friends Service Committee, US, who gave an important analysis and historical overview until today, of the US foreign policy:"Arrangements for the 21st Century: US Empire, Full Spectrum Dominance, and Common Security Alternatives".

This was followed by a video: Arsenal of Hypocrisy, where Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons& Nuclear Power in Space, gives a vivid lecture of the origins of the present Space Programme in the US till today.

Day number two started with a video: The Hill, women’s struggle to get to know what the spy base, Menwith Hill, in England is about. Today it is an important link in US NMD programme. The video was followed by Agneta Norberg, vice chair Swedish Peace Council, with an overview of the chain of radar bases and spy bases encircling the globe.

Norway’s part in US war policy was scrutinized by Gunnar Garbo, former ambassador to Tanzania, where he described how he, in his youth had been in favour of NATO, had turned in the opposite direction, fiercely criticizing US preemptive war policy. He has recently published a book "War is also terrorism".
By then we were prepared to walk to the US Embassy, a big fortress
On Dag Hammarskjöld’s vag 101.A group of young activists performed street-theater in front of the Embassy, where they showed how president Bush held a speech, and protesters brutally were taken away, by the police.

Joseph Gerson, US, Kirsti Kolthoff, WILPF, Sweden and AnneLise Ebbe, Danish Peace Council, gave short speeches where they protested against US foreign policy in general and space plans in particular. A letter was handed over to the US Embassy, where we protested against the militarization of space, the so-called missile defence, and plans to include Europe and even the Nordic area into this military system. We ended the letter by referring to the general agreement in the UN, that an arms race in outer space should be prevented.

The afternoon was entitled to listen to the chair of the Danish Peace Council Annelise Ebbe who gave an overview of the US policy in Denmark and the Danish and US policy in Greenland in particular. Denmark rules over Greenland’s foreign policy and US rules over Denmark’s policy. A month ago Colin Powell was at Thule base in Greenland and confirmed that Thule radar base is an essential part of NMD.

A team of activists from Finland, Norway and Sweden has inspected another important radar, Vardo radar, a few miles from Russian border in northern Norway. They gave us a vivid report orally and with pictures about their expedition to the base and the inspection, which was a big surprise to those working at the base. This had not happened before.

The third day was devoted to planning for the future. We stressed the importance of continued cooperation among the Nordic countries and to further contact people in Iceland, Greenland and Faroe Iceland’s for the next conference. Next steps for us to take are participating in European Social Forum in London in October and the NPT conference, next spring, in New York.
Agneta Norberg.