CFOW Weekend Update
July 14, 2017
Hello Stalwarts – Please join us tomorrow for a GOOD NEWS vigil/demo in Hastings. We (e.g., our leaflet) will be celebrating the recent UN Resolution that bans making/possessing nuclear weapons. Years in the making, the General Assembly passed the Resolution by 122 to 1. To our eternal shame, the United States boycotted the discussion and voting, and led a boycott by the nine nuclear-weapons states. But The Godfather's bullying failed to sway the determination of the rest of humankind, and a great milestone was achieved.
So please find your Happy Face and come out tomorrow for a vigil/celebration. (How often do we get to do that?)
Needless to say, as the United States opposed the UN action, the lapdog mainstream media mostly pretended that nothing happened, and made only a nano-effort to report this significant event. To compensate for this failure, DOWN BELOW I've linked or re-linked some good/useful reading that describes what happened and how it may save the planet from nuclear destruction. Also, a good website for this sort of thing is the one maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. This link has several assessments of the importance of the UN Ban.
News Notes
More good news. "Montrose 9" stalwart Mike Bucci was released from further judicial hassle yesterday after the judge agreed to accept Mike's statement that his "community service" requirement had been fulfilled by his work with the Seneca Lake protesters. All the other defendants in the "Montrose 9" action were sentenced to community service and required to pay a $350 fine. Mike refused to do this, setting forth his reasons in a letter to the judge linked here - tinyurl.com/MikeBucciLetter. And the judge agreed!
Orange County climate stalwarts Premilla Malick and famous actor James Cromwell began a week in jail today, as a result of their nonviolent action attempting to stop the huge fracked-gas power plant in Wawayanda, New York. Learn about this important case/action via this clip from this morning's Democracy Now! And here is a link to a petition from Cromwell to Gov. Cuomo demanding that the Governor deny the plant a water permit necessary for its operations; i.e., that the Gov. could stop this thing if he wanted to do so. Please sign the petition as a way to support the defendants in their righteous actions.
Rewards!
As today is Bastille Day in France, the "rewards" for this Weekend Update are obvious. First, here is an excerpt from Jean Renoir's 1938 film "La Marseillaise," which revealed for the first time that the French Revolution was actually a musical. Et puis, a few years later, "La Marseillaise" helped Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman launch a second front in "Casablanca." Magnifique!
Best Wishes,
Frank Brodhead
478-3848
SOME GOOD/USEFUL WEEKEND READING
Poised to outlaw nuclear weapons for the first time
By Tim Wright, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [July 6, 2017]
---- This Friday at the United Nations, an overwhelming majority of the world's nations will decide—by acclamation or vote—whether to adopt a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. Since June 15, they have been intensively negotiating its various provisions. Their aim: a robust, effective instrument that will lead us toward the total elimination of these abhorrent weapons. … The negotiations are part of a broader "humanitarian disarmament" agenda that places human beings at its center and challenges abstract notions such as deterrence and geostrategic stability—which have long dominated discussions on nuclear weapons and entrenched the dangerous status quo. Morality and ethics have, at last, entered the diplomatic discourse on this subject. [Read More]
Also useful/illuminating on the nuclear weapons ban – Jason Ditz, "Global Nuclear Weapons Ban Approved in 122-1 Vote," Antiwar.com [July 7, 2017] [Link]; Robert Dodge, "A Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty—Rx for Survival," Common Dreams [July 8, 2017] [Link]; and Graham Peebles, "Nuclear Weapons: Barbaric Tools of Insecurity," [Link].
