Peace Action Blog

The news that the Obama Administration is considering a “zero option” – leaving no troops behind in Afghanistan after the end of 2014 – got some coverage last week but not a lot. I wrote a letter to the editor to the New York Times based on its article on this issue. It didn’t get […]

Let me first thank you for the phone calls to cut the budget for the B-61 nuclear warhead.  We lost the amendment vote by a surprisingly small margin 196-227.  Click here to see how your Rep. voted and please contact them to “thank or spank.” Now to nuclear issues in Iran.  A month ago, the […]

The following came out of our mid-year staff retreat, comments or questions are most welcome! Priorities and Opportunities for Peace Action/Peace Action Education Fund program, organizing, advocacy and political work for the second half of 2013 -Move the Money/ Cut Pentagon Spending Campaign: Planning is underway to do the next round of Move the Money […]

Update:  The B61 vote will happen today sometime after 2pm.  It’s not too late to generate calls or emails to your representative.  Don’t forget to post on Facebook and Tweet your friends asking for calls.  We count over 150 votes in favor of cutting funds for the B61, so we are within striking range of winning.  […]

Today the House of Representatives is considering the Energy and Water Appropriations bill where, surprisingly, much of the United States nuclear weapons programs are funded.  We expect a vote tonight or tomorrow for an amendment to cut millions of dollars to unnecessarily “modernize” the B61 nuclear warhead — the oldest nuclear bomb in the U.S. […]

by national Peace Action board member Larry Wittner on History News Network http://hnn.us/articles/still-preparing-nuclear-war Lawrence S. Wittner (http://lawrenceswittner.com) is Professor of History emeritus at SUNY/Albany. His latest book is a satirical novel about university life, “What’s Going On at UAardvark?” (Solidarity Press).] B-29 and B-36 bombers in 1948. Credit: Wiki Commons. Nearly a quarter century after […]

Tell President Obama: The time is right and the world is ready to negotiate the elimination of nuclear weapons! Click here to sign the petition. First, the good news: In May, a new United Nations working group began meeting in Geneva “to develop proposals to take forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations for the achievement and maintenance […]

Join us next week at the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law for the annual week long Human Rights on the Hill course organized by Peace Action board member and University of Hawai’i professor Joshua Cooper. All sessions are free and open to the public, and yuo can come […]

The Post argued that U.S. security interests require a “more robust . . . intervention” in the Syrian civil war ["No time for half-measures," editorial, June 15]. A better case can be made for avoiding the fray altogether.   Sending medium-size and heavy weapons into Syria, with or without the establishment of a no-fly zone, […]

By Judith Le Blanc, Field Director, Peace Action On Wednesday, President Obama said,  “So long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe.” And that is why Peace Action and over 20 national organizations are urging President Obama to join in multilateral negotiations to achieve the global elimination of nuclear weapons. As Paul Kawika […]

By Judith Le Blanc – Field Director, Peace Action Congrats to the US Peace Council, the New Haven Peace Commission, No Nukes No War, the CT AFL-CIO and International Association of Machinists on the passage of the bill for a state commission on converting defense work to green jobs. There is a push being made now to insure […]

Despite calls to the contrary from unsuccessful presidential candidate John McCain and other “when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail” know-nothing war-mongers, who apparently thought the disastrous Iraq and Afghanistan wars were just ducky, the Obama Administration has so far held off on a military escalation in Syria. Of […]

  By Sally Jones – Peace Action of Staten Island I was invited to speak about Peace Action at the Curtis High School Parent Teachers Association (PTA) meeting on May 14th by the co-chair of the PTA.  I had 15 minutes.  There were about 20-25 parents & teachers there.  I thought it was a great […]

–Kevin Martin, Executive Director One of the great benefits of my job is traveling the country and observing/supporting/learning from the outstanding work Peace Action affiliates, chapters and activists carry out every day of the year. Last week I was in Boston for a terrific rally protesting sequestration and budget cuts to human needs programs, and […]

We need a movement that is global and grassroots, that will take action, educate and generate an alternative vision for global economic security for all.  By Judith Le Blanc – Field Director, Peace Action US Tax Day was different than Tax Days of the past. It was also the Global Day of Action on Military […]

According to an Associated Press article from last Thursday, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai says the United States wants to keep nine military bases in the country, which Karzai has said could be agreed, with certain conditions (namely the U.S. continuing to provide military training and economic development aid). We’ll need to press Congress and the […]

Last year, three nonviolent peace activist senior citizens armed with bread, candles and bottles of human blood breached “security” at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee nuclear weapons facility in order to protest the insanity of nuclear weapons. The government, in its infinite stupidity, is charging them not only with trespassing, which they admit to, but with “sabotage,” which […]

By Judith Le Blanc, Field Diretor Peace Action Sequestration, across the board cuts, is no way to run the federal government. Some say it is stupid or dumb. Plain and simple, it is a bad idea with no basis in fact. Now academic research has debunked the idea that cuts and austerity are the way […]

    (photo: Kevin Martin) That’s Sam on the right, with Korean-American peace activist Jae Lee on the left, on Saturday at Lafayette Park in front of the White House. Sam, his 69 year-old cousin Joe Winstead and “youngster” Ron Scroggs (age 66) biked from Raleigh, NC to our nation’s capital on Sam’s second annual […]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pentagon-cuts-can-work-to-our-advantage/2013/05/02/3b75f022-b11a-11e2-9fb1-62de9581c946_story.html Letter to the editor Pentagon cuts can work to our advantage It’s neither a quandary nor a conundrum. It is an addiction. The post-9/11 increase in defense contracting created an economy dependent on the Pentagon budget. Congress created the addiction. Now it’s time for it to wean the Pentagon by using the money cut […]