For the sixth year WILPF is co-sponsoring Keep Space for Peace Week with Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. We hope every Branch and member will take some action or sponsor an event -- be it elaborate or very simple -- during October 3 to 10. This is a critical year when we have a chance we must not lose.
This is what we have been working for over the past decade. To read the entire document click here. Now we need to do our part to build support in our own country so that the process can continue and bear good fruit.On May 19, for the first time in ten years, the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations in Geneva adopted a program of work. The change was largely due to a dramatic shift in U.S. foreign policy. This year, instead of being the only nation in the world to vote NO on Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space, the U.S. will join in discussions and negotiations on PAROS. Point 3 in the accepted document (CS/1863) reads:
3. To establish a Working Group under agenda item 3 entitled "Prevention of an arms race in outer space" to discuss substantively, without limitation, all issues related to the prevention of an arms race in outer space.
Pursuant to its mandate, the Working Group shall take into consideration all relevant views and proposals past, present and future.
The Working Group shall present a report in the Conference on Disarmament on the progress of its work before the conclusion of the current session.
Click on the blue links below for information and program resources
from Women's International League for Peae and Freedom, U.S. Section
from Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
from WILPF Reaching Critical Will
and from the United Nations Agencies responsible for overseeing space law.
I.WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM, U.S. SECTION:
Watch the slide show on the Predator and the even more grim Reaper here on WILPF DISARM UPDATE. These unmanned UAVs are sample fruits of the U.S. space program. They are currently dropping bombs on Pakistan and Afghanistan, killing both those fighting U.S. occupation and civilians who get in the way.The pilotless planes are controlled by airmen and women in Nevada and other U.S. sites. They sit at computers with joy sticks aiming at images, provided by satellite, from half a world away. In the words of Congresswoman and WILPF member/sponsor Barbara Lee, we are becoming the evil we deplore. The slide show was developed by MacGregor Eddy, coordinator of our U.S. WILPF work on keeping space for peace.
WILPF is also joining in the campaign of CODE Pink and Nevada Desert Experience against the continued development of and use of these unmanned dronesl Click here for background information on the actions September 25 to 30 at Creech Air Force base near Las Vegas, Nevada. For more details contact Liz Hourican caterliz@yahoo.com.
WILPF is pleased to co-sponsor Keep Space for Peace Week internationally with Global Network. Posters, event registration forms and a letter inviting participation was mailed to all U.S. Branches in early September. Watch here for news on Branch actions.
This year two other international organizations have joined us in co-sponsoring Keep Space for Peace with Global Network:
- World March for Peace and Non-violence October 2 to January 2 2010 which WILPF U.S. Section endorses
- International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Bases with which WILPF is associated through Global Network and United for Peace and Justice.
II. GLOBAL NETWORK AGAINST WEAPONS AND NUCLEAR POWER IN SPACE
Use the long list of speakers, entertainers and DVDs available for Branch programs.
Watch the list of planned events grow day-by-day. Submit a description of your own event. Use the form provided to your Branch and mail it to the address given, or email the description to globalnet@mindspring.com
Explore the range of new videos -- and video clips -- now available on Global Network. Watch them yourself and share the URLs with friends. Use a lap top and projector to show them in a meeting or forum. Watch a man and a woman -- air force officers --launch a Predator attack. The woman does the killing.
Explore the Global Network home page for additional resources and information. Music is also available for download or order
III.WILPF REACHING CRITICAL WILL
Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) is the goal of both WILPF and Global Network. The U.S., has resisted PAROS negotiations for fifteen years and for the past three has been the only nation to vote NO on a resolution in the General Assembly supporting PAROS. This year, for the first time, the U.S. Administration is not resisting PAROS negotiations at the United Nations.
The PAROS Working group is a joint project of WILPF and Global Network. At present three U.S. WILPFers and two international members, plus representatives of four other GN organizations, participate in the effort to push forward negotiations on Prevention of an Arms Race in outer space. Click here to access the PAROS working group page hosted by Reaching Critical Will. Find fact sheets and extensive information on the UN treaty process.
The fact sheet on the Russian and Chinese treaty on prevention of weapons in outer space is very useful and illustrates the distance that must be travelled to achieve the effective ban we want. At least the U.S. is now for the first time to begin discussing such a treaty.
Others have much valuable information but also reflect past policies of the U.S. that the current Administration is in the process of changing.
There are also fact sheets on aerospace corporations promoting and profiting "big time" from the military space industry. Of course these corporations are at the heart of resistance to negotiation of new treaties that could prevent the weaponization of space or eventually even dismantle missile defense.
Scroll down to access information on all space treaties already in force, for a list of recent articles and for web sites of other organizations with resources on PAROS.
To explore space issues in more depth go to the Outer Space page of Reaching Critical Will.
The week was established by the General Assembly to promote the peaceful uses of space for all humankind. It occurs from October 4 to October 10 each year. Unfortunately we find the UN week, with aerospace corporations as co-sponsors, emphasizes exciting young people -- the potential future aerospace workforce -- about space exploration with little attention paid to the need to preserve space for peace.
Click here to visit the site, managed by World Space Week Association.
Since 2006 WILPF has submitted our KS4P reports to the annual UN World Space Week publication. Our aim was to make it clear that space militarization -- from which aerospace corporations draw their largest profits -- and peaceful uses of space are incompatible. Download the 2007 UN report with WILPF entries on Keeping Space for Peace at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Peace on Earth, Not War in Space and Budget for Peaee Not War in Space and many others.
WSWA and the UN organizatons have accepted these entries, even though UNOOSA and UNCOPUOS say their mandate includes only peaceful uses of outer space and does not extend to matters of militarization. WILPF also submitted other Global Network reports in an attempt to open dialogue and make it clear that space militarizaton aimed at domination is incompatible with peaceful uses of space. Nations and NGOs must work together to develop space law as the alternative to space warfare. In 2008 our entries were again included, but the publication was not printed but only published on line. Now, as we approach World Space Week in 2009 we find the 2008 report, originally around a hundred pages, has been edited down to 26 pages and our contributions have virtually disappeared. We can hope our efforts caused some discussion and questioning during the three years they have appeared.
This year Secure World Foundation is a sponsor along with military contractors like ATK and United Technologies. SWF is an organization that claims dedication to a vision of preventing war among human societies, and that has included a Buckminster Fuller quote in its sidebar:
"We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody."
Last year Secure World Foundation and other NGOs were, for the first time, allowed to attend the official sessions of UNCOPUOS in Vienna. So dialogue continues on various levels.
For WILPF the most effective channel is through attendance of Geneva staff at sessions of the Conference on Disarmament -- with opportunities for dialogue with delegates -- and through the detailed reports and information furnished by Ray Acheson of Reaching Critical Will.
