Think Outside the Bomb Newsletter
March 2007

The four months since the fall 2006 Think Outside the Bomb conferences have been characterized by a lot of growth for the TOTB network.  In the last few months, we have:

• Solidified our presence on both the east and west coasts.
• Expanded our electronic outreach activities, including opening a blog and initiating a redesign of our web site.
• Spoken out at the Department of Energy hearings regarding Complex 2030.
• Begun to organize a series of events within the working groups.
• Most important, we have initiated five new working groups to help coordinate our activities on a national level.  Everyone in the TOTB network is strongly encouraged to join these.

The working groups, which is where the real work of the TOTB network takes place, are as follows

Nuclear Weapons-Free Zones: In 1967, twenty-two years after the beginning of the Nuclear Age in 1945, the world witnessed the creation of the first NWFZ, thereby grounding the hope for a nuclear-free world.

Today, one NWFZ treaty or another covers virtually the entire Southern Hemisphere of our planet. In 2000, under the sponsorship of Brazil and Aotearoa/New Zealand, the UN General Assembly called for the creation of a Southern Hemisphere and adjacent areas NWFZ treaty, uniting the current zones around the planet. The next NWFZ was the Central Asian NWFZ covering the countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Throughout the world, hundreds of cities and municipalities have declared themselves nuclear-weapons-free. While without international legal status, these zones generate significant political will and public support for nuclear disarmament and larger regional NWFZs.

For more information on TOTB’s work to support and expand nuclear weapons-free zones, please contact Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone Working Group Convener Monika Szymurka at monika@atomicmirror.org.

End Nuclear Colonialism: Each stage in the nuclear fuel chain -- uranium mining, uranium milling, uranium enrichment, fuel use, nuclear weapons production, nuclear waste storage, and nuclear weapons testing -- has taken place disproportionately on the lands of indigenous peoples, both in the US and globally. This process has had devastating consequences for these communities' past, present, and future generations, leading to spiraling cancer rates and the long-term poisoning of the lands on which they depend for their cultural well-being.

This working group supports indigenous campaigns that oppose Nuclear Colonialism. Its activities include grassroots education, relationship-building with indigenous communities, and providing these communities with various resources (such as web sites and fundraisers) as needed and requested.

*The next major project of the End Nuclear Colonialism working group will be a California-wide speaking tour of native peoples who are subjugated by the nuclear industry. Read below for more information!*

To get involved, e-mail working group convener Will Parrish at wparrish@napf.org.

Communications: Oversees all communication within the Think Outside the Bomb network and all TOTB electronic outreach activities.  One of its main responsibilities is compiling this newsletter, which currently has over 500 subscribers, along with the blog and newsletter.  If you would like to assist with any of these activities, we would love your help. 

To get involved, please e-mail Communications Working Group Convener Andrew Culp at aculp@napf.org.

Conferences Organizing: This working group is responsible for planning, organizing, and supporting Think Outside the Bomb conferences.  Its members do not necessarily initiate all TOTB conferences.  However, we recommend that if you are interested in organizing a TOTB conference in your area, that you join this working group to draw on the experience and insights of the people involved. 

To get involved, please e-mail the working group’s convener, Will Parrish, at wparrish@napf.org.

 

* Valentine to the World! 40th Anniversary of the World’s First Nuclear Weapons Free Zone: Sweet, Secure, Successful

The world’s first Nuclear Weapons Free Zone celebrated its 40th Birthday on Valentine’s Day!  The celebrations took place February 14-15 in Mexico City, Mexico.

Forty years ago, in 1967, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean joined together in creating the Treaty of Tlatelolco, banning the development and presence of nuclear weapons in their territory.  The initiative inspired the creation of four additional zones in the world, including the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central Asia.  Today, virtually the entire Southern Hemisphere is free of nuclear weapons.  These regions of our planet have already accomplished what the rest of the world is attempting to do: abolish nuclear weapons.  The success and potential of NWFZs give us hope for a nuclear-free world.

The Atomic Mirror sent a delegation of community leaders from Ventura County, California to join government and civil society representatives from around the globe in celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco in Mexico City.  Included in the program of the celebrations were discussions on the importance and necessity for disarmament education in achieving global nuclear disarmament.

In appreciation of all of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean that showed us a way to a nuclear weapons free world, the Atomic Mirror is calling on you to send a Valentine Thank You message to Mexico City.  To learn more about the initiative and to download a sample “Valentine to Tlatelolco”, please visit www.atomicmirror.org.

For more information about Atomic Mirror’s Nuclear Weapons Free Zones Initiative or to join the TOTB Nuclear Weapons Free Zones Working Group, please contact Monika Szymurska at monika@atomicmirror.org.

* Strike Against War Initiated at UC Santa Barbara Takes Place at 27 Campuses

Students at 27 high school and college campuses throughout the US participated in a coordinated protest against the Iraq War on February 15.  The day of action was initiated by students at UC Santa Barbara, whose action was a massive strike against the war. The action culminated with a mass sit-in on a freeway leading to campus.  The action took place, in part, to address the military-industrial complex’s ties to UCSB, particularly through the UC’s management of the nuclear weapons laboratories at Livermore, CA and Los Alamos, NM.

For more information, click here: www.sbantiwar.org. For more information on the Coalition to Demilitarize the UC, see www.ucnuclearfree.org and www.fiatpax.net.

* Think Outside the Bomb Conference in Washington DC April 21st

A Think Outside the Bomb conference will take place in conjunction with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability’s annual “DC Days” lobbying event.  For more information, please contact Nick Roth at north@napf.org.

* End Nuclear Colonialism Speaking Tour, April 16-25

The "End Nuclear Colonialism" will take place in multiple cities in California.  It will begin in San Diego on the 16th, followed by LA area (17th and 18th), Santa Barbara area (19th and 20th), and then the Bay Area (21st-25th).  It will serve to educate people in our communites about indigenous people who struggling to preserve their traditions and defend their lands against the onslaught of nuclearism. We also seek to raise money for them to benefit their struggles. Confirmed speakers include Margene Bullcreek of the Skull Valley Goshute.

The tour will also be an opportunity to make connections between nuclear colonialism and our local struggles for nuclear abolition, environmental justice, and demilitarization.

For more information, or to help organize the tour, please contact youth@napf.org.

* Los Alamos Study Group Announces Internships

The Los Alamos Study Group in New Mexico, which played a prominent role in both fall Think Outside the Bomb conferences, has announced the availability of several new internship positions!

The Study Group is located in the New Mexico “nuclear borderlands,” where an intense nuclear-military national security complex collides with a society often lacking basic security and characterized by income disparity, poverty, and related social ills.

Internships are somewhat flexible as to length, but will require a minimum commitment of ten weeks with starting dates in February, June, and September. Internships will be based at the main Study Group office in Albuquerque, NM and at the Study Group’s Los Alamos Disarmament Center in Los Alamos.

There will be a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 interns in each program. Interns will live in cooperative housing in Albuquerque or Los Alamos and will be paid $250/week for living expenses. An automobile or bicycle is helpful but not necessary.

For more information, please see http://www.lasg.org/Internships.htm.

* Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Internships Available

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is now accepting applications for its annual summer internships, the Lena Chang and Wallace T. Drew Internships.  Interns will work either out of the Foundation’s Santa Barbara, CA or its Washington, DC office. 

A stipend of $2,500 is given for these position. The intern is responsible for his or her own transportation and housing costs.

For more information, please see www.wagingpeace.org/menu/about/opportunities/internships.htm.

* UC Demilitarization Convergence
March 10-11 at UC Los Angeles

Students, alumni, and supporters from across the University of California will gather to reflect on our projects of this past academic year and decide on our next major actions in the movement to demilitarize the University of California. The meeting will take place days prior to the UC Regents’ March meeting at UCLA.

Interested in stopping the US wars in the Middle-East? Want to live in a world based on true security (one free of nuclear weapons)? Want to work effectively toward an ecologically-sustainable world? Join us as we exchange information and strategize on how to do precisely those things!

The Coalition of Demilitarize the UC is based on the idea that the most effective and transformative means for UC students to oppose war and imperialism is to challenge our own university’s material contributions to the war effort. These include (but are not limited to) management of the Los Alamos and Livermore nuclear weapons labs and well over $100 million in annual military research at campuses across the UC system.

Workshops featuring basic background information regarding the Coalition to Demilitarize the UC’s work and the issues it addresses will take place at the beginning of the convergence, to ensure all participants feel fully informed and empowered in all conversations. Again, the discussions will be very action-oriented: We will decide on many of our next major projects.

Free homestays are available. Free food will be provided throughout the weekend. Please RSVP to wparrish@napf.org by March 7th to ensure your spot!

* Nevada Desert Experience: Sacred Peace Walk, March 27 - April 1

Registration Deadline: March 10, 2007

We walk in the footsteps of a long legacy of peace walkers and spiritual leaders to draw attention to the nuclear dangers that continue to threaten our sacred planet and the community of life. Please join us in transforming fears into compassion and apathy into action in NDE's 2007 Sacred Peace Walk.

NDE's annual pilgrimage to the Nevada Test Site will begin on March 26th as we gather in Las Vegas and prepare for our six-day walk. On the final day, April 1st, we will gather at the gates of the Test Site with others who join us in a rally and action denouncing current nuclear plans and other warmaking preparations at the Test Site and propose alternatives for the land and industry. There will also be an optional action on Monday, April 2nd to reach out to the Test Site workers.

For more information, please see www.nevadadesertexperience.org or e-mail chelsea@nevadadesertexperience.org.

We are in the midst of a redesign of the Think Outside the Bomb web site.  The new design will reflect the new, more dynamic and interactive structure of the TOTB network, with the activities of the four working groups (see below) featured at the forefront.

The site now features detailed report-backs from both the October 2006 Santa Barbara conference and the November 2006 New York City conference.  Click here for the Santa Barbara conference page; click here for the New York conference page.

In an effort to make the web site a richer source of up-to-date information related to nuclear disarmament and the other issues the Think Outside the Bomb network addresses, we have added a blog to the web site.  The blog is updated frequently with the latest news and analysis written by members of the TOTB network themselves.  Among the first posts were accounts of outreach activities at the UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara campuses, reflections on the citizens movement that defeated the “Divine Strake” nuclear weapons simulation test in Nevada, and news and analysis about programs at the Los Alamos and Livermore nuclear weapons labs.