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For Immediate Release
January, 12 2018, 12:30pm EDT
Contact:
Daniela Varano,Email:,daniela@icanw.org,Phone: +41 (0) 78 7262645
ICAN Statement on US Nuclear Posture Review
WASHINGTON
Statement from Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of ICAN:
"The US already has the nuclear ability to destroy the world many times over. The idea that they need more and not less nuclear weapons would be laughable if it wasn't so dangerous. The rest of the world is moving towards a total ban of nuclear weapons, while the US is planning to develop weapons they admit they are more likely to use. There are only two possible endings to this story: either the end of nuclear weapons or the end of us all."
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a coalition of more than 400 non-governmental organisations in 95 countries. We are calling on governments to launch negotiations on a treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons, which would place them on the same legal footing as chemical and biological weapons and help pave the way to their complete elimination.
LATEST NEWS
'Crime Minister!': Israeli Families of Hostages March Against Netanyahu
"This is our final chance to secure a deal that will save lives," said one family member. "Netanyahu continues to trade on the lives of hostages in exchange for maintaining his seat of power."
Aug 10, 2024
Thousands marched in the streets of Israeli cities on Saturday to demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu end his sabotage of negotiations that would see an end to the fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas for over nine months.
As human rights defenders and world leaders condemned the Israeli government throughout the day over the latest "heinous" massacre of innocent civilians in Gaza—this time at another school-turned-shelter in Gaza where an estimate 100 people or more were killed by IDF missiles overnight—family members of hostages were among those who accused Netanyahu of keeping the carnage going in order to maintain power.
In Tel Aviv, demonstrators held up signs that read: "Crime Minister!"; "Bring Them Home!"; and "Bibi, Stop Wasting Time!"
Einav Zangauker, identified by Haaretz as the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, accused Netanyahu of using victims like her son "as pawns to preserve his power."
With the United States, Qatar, and Egypt trying to hold a new round of talks next week, Zangauker said that Israel has "reached a crucial moment" that Netanyahu must not be allowed to sabotage.
"This is our final chance to secure a deal that will save lives," she said. "Netanyahu continues to trade on the lives of hostages in exchange for maintaining his seat of power."
While the heads of Arab nations have told President Joe Biden he must put more of a squeeze on Netanyahu in order to compel him towards a deal, Israel's own defense chiefs have indicated Netanyahu does not want any such deal.
The assassination of Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month by Israel was one clear signal that negotiations—for which Haniyeh was a key player—is not how the Israelis under Netanyahu want to proceed.
Meanwhile, news on Friday that the Biden administration was releasing another $3.5 billion in military aid and weapons sales for Israel indicated that the U.S. president is not applying any pressure on the prime minister ahead of next week's talks.
Ghadir Hani, an anti-war leader in the Standing Together and Women Wage Peace organizations, spoke at a demonstration in the town of Caesarea on Saturday where she said that in addition to the safe return of Israeli hostages, a deal is "also necessary for the sake of the thousands of innocents in Gaza, whose agonized deaths breaks the heart of everyone in whom humanity remains."
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Sanders to Headline 'Progressive Central 2024' on Sidelines of Democratic Convention
The two-day event in Chicago ahead of the DNC, said one organizer, "will highlight a very practical, realistic agenda that promotes a program that directly addresses the most pressing concerns of average American households."
Aug 10, 2024
Organizers behind the "Progressive Central 2024" event scheduled to take place just ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month announced Friday that Sen. Bernie Sanders will be the keynote speaker alongside a roster of lawmakers and movement leaders determined to keep the left's working-class agenda moving forward ahead of November's election—and beyond.
Nearby in downtown Chicago and just before the DNC kicks off, the two-day sideline event is being orchestrated by Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), The Nation magazine, The Arab American Institute, and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
Alan Minsky, executive director of PDA, explained to Common Dreams that it's being "organized around a simple concept: what if the progressive wing of the Democratic Party was putting on a national convention—like the DNC or RNC. What programs and ideas would be foregrounded?"
"We all know very well that not only political offices are at stake this November, but also the very future of American democratic life." —Harvey J. Kaye
The answer to that question, he said, will be "nothing like the mass media's familiar mischaracterization of progressives as a group of outliers, (angrily) voicing a litany of complaints" toward those with more power.
"Rather, very much in contrast," said Minsky, the event—which will take place August 18 and 19 at the Chicago Teachers Union building—"will highlight a very practical, realistic agenda that promotes a program that directly addresses the most pressing concerns of average American households—and is very in line with the wishes and aspirations of a majority of the American voting public."
In addition to Sanders, prominent members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus will attend, including CPC Chair Pramila Jayapal and Reps. Ro Khanna, Jamie Raskin, Barbara Lee, Raul Grijalva, Maxwell Frost, Danny Davis, Jonathan Jackson, and Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia.
According to organizers, other scheduled speakers include former Ohio State Senator and activist Nina Turner; The Nation's longtime political correspondent John Nichols and the magazine's president Bhaskar Sunkara; Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison; NOW president Christian Nunes; attorney and Free Speech For People founder John Bonifaz; University of Wisconsin-Green Bay professor of history Harvey J. Kaye; and many others.
"The event will bring together a diverse group of voices in favor of sharing our respective progressive hopes and aspirations," Kaye told Common Dreams on Friday.
Kaye, who earlier this week published an essay and comic strip comic strip at Common Dreams with cartoonist Matt "The Letterhack" Strackbein on the need for a New Economic Bill of Rights for the 21st Century, said his hope is that attendees can galvanize around a shared vision and set of organizing principles for the future.
"We all know very well that not only political offices are at stake this November, but also the very future of American democratic life," said Kaye. "And if all goes well, we will develop a more strongly shared understanding of what needs truly doing."
"No more neoliberalism," he said, referring to the toxic strain of economic thinking that has infected both the Democratic and Republican parties for far too long and suggesting that the days of privatization, austerity for public programs, and hostility toward universal public goods must come to an end. "As FDR said: to win, the Democratic Party must be the party of 'militant liberalism' that is, social democracy."
While Sanders remains an independent lawmaker representing Vermont in the U.S. Senate, he caucuses with the Democrats and has been one of the Biden administration's key supporters on a number of issues. Sanders stood by Biden's 2024 campaign even as it struggled and even as Sanders repeatedly pressured the Democratic president to change course when on his support for Israel's relentless assault on Gaza.
"My hope is that the progressives leave more emboldened and with more knowledge than when they arrived." —Nina Turner
In public appearances in recent weeks and months, including since embracing the emergence of the Harris-Walz ticket since Biden stepped aside last month, Sanders has made it known that his prescription for beating Trump and the Republican in November is by galvanizing working class voters.
"Good policy for working-class voters is also good politics," Sanders said earlier this week in response to findings of a survey, he commissioned that broad support for progressive policies by swing state voters in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
"It should come as no surprise that expanding Social Security, raising the minimum wage, and capping rent increases are very popular," he said Monday. "The political class would do well to listen to the clear directive of American voters, and deliver. The simple fact is: Whether you're running for the White House or a city council seat, if you stand with working people, they will stand with you."
Nina Turner, a longtime Sanders ally, told Common Dreams that she looks forward to being at the Chicago event to remind progressives just ahead of the DNC "that the policies that we are pushing are not only popular among most Americans—no matter how they identify politically—but that we on the right side of history."
"I am excited by PDA's vision to create a space for progressive to gather, talk to one another, and be lifted up, because that is important," Turner explained by phone. "It's very easy to get wary in the type of work that progressives are doing in terms of standing up for what is just and for what is right. Ultimately, the goal of the progressive agenda is to create a human rights economy—an economy that sees and cares for every individual in society."
Turner, who remains a member of the Democratic National Committee and will be attending convention, said progressives are right to stand against the neoliberalism that has dominated the Democratic Party for too long and the neo-fascism represented by Donald Trump and his Republican Party. "They are out of touch," she said. "They are the extremists. We have to remember that and we have to start saying that in our rhetoric every single day."
Marking the start of the contemporary progressive era as one that emerged out of Sanders' 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, Turner—who served as national co-chair of his 2020 run—acknowledged that the movement is still maturing, and needs to mature, as it moves forward.
"We have to have an inside game and an outside game," she said. "We have to make demands and we have to have consequences for our demands not being made. We have to play chess and not checkers."
It has "been hard at times to keep our movement together," Turner said, "we have to recognize we are absolutely stronger together. There's a saying, 'If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.' So we have to be reminded of that collective agenda that we can call get behind and push for that agenda."
Turner said progressives, whether they consider themselves part of the Democratic Party apparatus or not, have to—in the words of activist and rapper Michael "Killer Mike" Render—"plot, plan, strategize, organize, and mobilize" if they want to have a chance of gaining ground.
"My hope is that the progressives leave more emboldened and with more knowledge than when they arrived," said Turner. "We must constantly remind ourselves that justice is not a destination, but a journey that every generation must take as they pass the baton to the next and the next and the next."
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'Holy Sh*t This Ad Is Powerful': UAW Says It Knows How to Defeat Trump and the Billionaire Class
"This is brilliant," said author Naomi Klein in response to new United Auto Workers ad. "It's also the message we need to be sending non-stop."
Aug 10, 2024
"There is only one answer to the threat we face as a nation. The answer is solidarity."
That is the core message directed at the American working class from the United Auto Workers (UAW) in a new ad that frames the nation's current political battle as one between organized workers and the billionaire and corporate classes.
"We stand at a historic crossroads in this country right now," says UAW president Shawn Fain to begin the 2-minute video. "And it's clear Donald Trump represents the billionaire class—that's his base."
"We let working-class people lead the fight."
Calling Trump a "scab" who will "ruthlessly fight for a vision of America in which the wealthy rule everyone and everything, and the working class is left behind and forced to settle for the scraps," Fain argues that "what we win or lose now" will ultimately impact "whether we go forwards or backwards for a generation—everything is at stake."
"In the wealthiest country in the world, working class people shouldn't have to scrap to get by, paycheck to paycheck," Fain says before championing the UAW's historic strike last year in which the union's members stood up to the Big Three automakers—and won historic contracts.
"We united the entire working class," he added, "that's the winning formula."
"The dream of a man like Donald Trump is that the vast majority of working class people will remain divide," says Fain. "They divide us by race. They divide us by gender, by who we love, or where we were born. That's the game of the wealthy, divide and conquer."
The UAW's framing accumulated praise Friday and into the weekend from progressives who share the idea that working-class solidarity remains the key to defeating the fascist threat posed by Trump and that also must serve as the foundation for enacting the vision of more equal, just, peaceful, and sustainable society.
"This is brilliant. It's also true," said author and social justice activist Naomi Klein in response to the ad. "It's also the message we need to be sending non-stop."
Andy O'Brien, a columnist for The Bollard magazine, reacted with: "Holy shit this ad is powerful."
Fain's speech that acts as the narrative of the new video was delivered last month when the UAW leader spoke at the national convention of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) in Detroit.
"In the wealthiest country in the world, working class people shouldn't have to scrap to get by, paycheck to paycheck."
The UAW has endorsed the Democratic presidential ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Meeting with the candidates earlier this week at a local union hall in Wayne, Michigan, Fain said, "To me, this election is real simple. It's about one question, a question we've made famous in the labor movement: Which side are you on?"
"On one side, we've got a billionaire who serves himself and his billionaire buddies. He lies, cheats, and steals his way to the top. He is the lapdog of the billionaire class," said Fain. "On the other side, we've got a badass woman who has stood on the picket line with working-class people. Kamala Harris is a champion of the working class."
Though not featured in the new ad, Fain also told the APWU members in July that the key to the UAW's victory against the Big Three was that "we let working-class people lead the fight" against management.
"We gave our members the information, we gave them the tools, and we gave them the courage to stand up for themselves," he said. Like the broader concept of working-class solidarity, he said, that's the "winning formula" for workers and their families to take control of their economic and political destinies.
"If you follow those core principles," he told the postal service workers, "you will not lose. And I guarantee you, the UAW will have your back every step of the way."
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