In the next few weeks, the “super committee” will decide on a plan that could shape the federal budget for the next decade. We are mobilizing our supporters to contact the super committee and counteract the major push from the defense industry.

We sent the letter below to super committee members to clearly outline the balanced security budget Peace Action West’s supporters would like to see. You can tell the super committee that you support these priorities by clicking here.

On behalf of Peace Action West’s 50,000 supporters, I am writing to urge you to produce deficit reduction recommendations that make Americans more secure by balancing our security budget and preserving domestic programs that contribute to security and prosperity at home.

Friends,

As we watch events unfolding on Wall Street, that financial heartland of companies that make up the vast military-nuclear-industrial complex, we see the power of direct action – of people taking to the streets and speaking truth to power.  Of course, it doesn’t get much more visible than on Wall Street.  Even then, the corporate news media does its best to tone down events such as these.

Even less visible are the decades of countless direct actions undertaken by generations of peace activists attempting to shine a light on the massive waste of human and financial capital by military planners, politicians and the corporations with whom they dance and whose stocks are traded on Wall Street.

Friends,

As we watch events unfolding on Wall Street, that financial heartland of companies that make up the vast military-nuclear-industrial complex, we see the power of direct action – of people taking to the streets and speaking truth to power.  Of course, it doesn’t get much more visible than on Wall Street.  Even then, the corporate news media does its best to tone down events such as these.

Even less visible are the decades of countless direct actions undertaken by generations of peace activists attempting to shine a light on the massive waste of human and financial capital by military planners, politicians and the corporations with whom they dance and whose stocks are traded on Wall Street.

On September 24, 1996, President Clinton signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would ban any signatory nation from exploding nuclear weapons.

The problem is that 15 years later, the Senate has yet to ratify the treaty. And without the full backing of the United States, the treaty has languished, with progress in other countries stalled as well.

But now, President Obama is testing the waters for a possible push to finally ratify the treaty, and set the stage for a global ban on nuclear explosions. After our recent victory in making the first reductions to the US and Russian nuclear arsenals in decades, momentum is on our side.

Southeast Action Camp Workshops, August 19-21, 2011

I participated in the Southeast Action Workshop in Zirconia, NC the weekend of August 19-21, 2011.  Forty-plus people from not only the southeast, but as far away as Chicago and British Columbia, came together for a series of workshops (I presented the videography workshop, and planted seeds about Proposition One in other workshops).  I videotaped several of the workshops, and interviewed several participants.  I’ve uploaded these videos to YouTube.  Here is the list:

Nuclear:

Atomic Appalachia Workshop presented by  Linda Modica, Asheville contact for Christian Peacemakers Team
1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IopgQP4Kn7E
2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dJ7Wnhf6NU
3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLXslqdHy_g
4- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDBYY4SEgPo
5- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7podgF8lAk

Mary Olson of Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Bill Fisk, formerly with FEMA, about probable results of a nuclear accident in Western North Carolina highways between Oak Ridge and Savannah River nuclear weapons/power facilities:
1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbK3U_asw1w
2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tQy2BTi4SQ
3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg6N0Siq5cs
4- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLmw1DHI6-M