Nuclear Disarmament 2022 Work Plan

MAPA Discussion 2022

Working Group Name: Nuclear Disarmament

 Executive Summary:   

The Nuclear Disarmament Working Group is one of the longest functioning groups in MAPA, with about ~150 members on the listserv, and 15-25 regularly attending meetings. Many members are active in other organizations so that our purview is national rather than solely Massachusetts. THE NDWG now has four subcommittees focused on a) Outreach and Community Engagement; b) Pushing for US joining of the Treaty Prohibiting sting Nuclear Weapons; c) Dangers of “Missile Defense” programs; and d) Abolition within the Decade, whose goal is to speed motion toward complete nuclear disarmament. The No First Use Campaign now has its own meetings, but functions in close relationship with NDWG.

After the U.S. Govt announcement of the $trillion dollar nuclear weapons triad upgrade plans, the NDWG decided to included a focus on the costs of the weapons upgrades.  The Fund Healthcare not Warfare Campaign has now sprouted roots within the healthcare community and proceeds independently of the NDWG. The other prior thrusts to raise up the economic costs of nuclear weapons, notably  – “Build Subways not Submarines”, “Invest in Minds not Missiles”, have not taken off. 

Our efforts to form campus chapters in the greater Boston area have not resulted in stable campus-based committees, though the Raytheon campaign has had some significant success on that front.

The range of activities in 2022 will continue to include promoting bills in the State Legislature, promoting bills such as Markey/Lieu in the US Congress; joining in efforts to cut the NDAA pentagon appropriations; organizing webinars and conferences as a path to building the movement from below; participating in demonstrations and standouts to call attention to pressing issues; writing letters to the editors, Op-Eds and articles promoting nuclear disarmament. If there are strong nuclear disarmament advocates running for office in 2022, and endorsed vey the MAPA Legislative/Elections  Committee, we would engage with those campaigns “.

New members are always welcomed to our working group and to the subgroups.  

Policy

Long Range Policy Goal:      Nuclear Weapons, US sign on to the TPNW, Eliminate Nuclear Weapons within the decade,  Promote Divestment of state pension funds from nuclear weapons manufacturers,  

Long Range Strategy: To expand and enlarge social constituencies who will actively support nuclear disarmament.   These constituencies include college students/faculty.  Other important constituencies include nurses, teachers and their unions and those who are impacted by the cuts in federal human service programs due to bloated military spending.

Achievable Objectives for 2022:

Bring No First Use legislation to a vote.  Advocate for Peace agendas/bills with our state and national legislators.  Increase coalition work.

Activities

     Activities planned in 2022 to further policy goal:   Webinars, demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns, legislative work to pass bills in our legislative agenda (MA state legislature:  Nuclear Weapons Commission).  Continue to promote cities and towns to adopt Back From The Brink Resolutions.  

Coalition work:

Public Engagement- making contact with other peace and social justice groups with MA. and continue our involvement with groups (including PSR, CPCS, Nuclear Ban.US, 350MA, Poor People’s Campaign) Maintain and expand connections with peace groups in the US (Nuclear Ban Coalition, NDCC), work on joint programs, efforts and actions with other MAPA working groups.  

Organization: monthly meetings.  Subcommittees meet at varying intervals.

Convener:

Susan Mirsky, chair    Jonathan king, vice-chair

Contact:   Susan Mirsky, smirsky7@gmail.com

Co-conveners- subcommittees:  

TPNW – Lynne Hall, Vicki Elson

 The TPNW sub-group is primarily focused on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear Ban Treaty).  We have held a number of webinars.  In celebration of the 1st anniversary of the TPNW, we held a webinar on “Climate Change and Nuclear War: What We Can Do About the Twin Existential Threats.”  Our most recent activity is supporting state legislation with letter-writing, lobbying, and testifying at the Statehouse.  Future activities may include educating the public about the Treaty, lobbying for the ICAN Campaign. pressuring the complicit corporations to convert jobs and infrastructure to more life-sustaining products, and/or more political action at the state, local, and/or federal level.

Public Engagement and Movement Building– Kathie Malley-Morrison, Jack Synder

    In 2022, we have been building on initiatives begun in 2021, which involve identifying and reaching out to various types of MA peace groups to share ideas and plans for future collaboration and mutual help on behalf of nuclear disarmament, emphasized by the heightened threat associated with the invasion of Ukraine.  We are also focussing on efforts to engage college students and high school students in the nuclear disarmament cause.  Several interns on the committee are working on designing a film series to help educate other young people about the nuclear risk. 

TEN -D – Elimination of Nuclear Weapons within the Decade – Ira Helfand, Peter Metz

   The TEN-D subcommittee seeks to achieve the MAPA Nuclear Disarmament Working Group’s new goal of accelerating the advent of a world without nuclear weapons by creating collaboration among many independent nuclear disarmament groups and stimulating a more urgent sense of public concern.  We are also seeking new ways to enable public decision-makers to take a forthright stand and to feel supported as they do so.

Missile Defense – Subrata Ghoshroy, Yeva Khranovska

 The Missile Defense  subgroup is aiming to promote awareness and education in the peace community about the US deployment of missile defense systems globally, which is contributing to a nuclear arms race with Russia and China.  The group hopes to adopt an action-oriented agenda to pressure Congress for a policy change. 

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