Strategy for Building a Nuclear Abolition Movement
Former Oregon PeaceWorks Director Peter Bergel has written a Strategy for Building a Powerful U.S. Nuclear Abolition Movement. View it using the link below or download it using the button below. He has also created a slide show you can download below to watch and/or present yourself. When you view the slide show in PowerPoint or a similar program, be sure to turn on “play narration” in the slide show pulldown menu.
Your comments are welcome. Comment here or write to pbergelATigc.org.
Nuclear Abolition Strategy Slide Show
“Warheads to Windmills” – The Nuclear Abolition Strategy Slide Show.
Narration for Nuclear Abolition Slide Show
Template for Printing Your Own ICAN Stickers
Print on Avery 22806 sticker stock. Order online or purchase at your local office supplies dealer.
Short answer: no. Longer answer: I have no idea who has looked at this plan, much less if anyone has taken steps to implement it, other than myself and a few with whom I am currently working. It’s about time to reach out to a wider audience. A small group here in town is preparing a recruiting video that is intended to do just that, when it is completed. If you have ideas about tracking mechanisms or other suggestions as to how to reach more folks with this proposal, I’m all ears. Let’s talk.
OK, looks like we’re in total agreement on everything. We should be able to carry on. Question: Have you been able to track the operatives/activists around the country/world that are using your guidlines? Is there a way to keep in touch with them and their activity?
Between two people who agree to understand the need for systemic change, you’re right that the word choice is semantic. However, in dealing with society as a whole, and even the larger progressive movement, I think we need to continue to emphasize that we will not be content with adjustments to the system that leave the profit motive enshrined as our country’s highest value. I agree that profit has a place in the society I want to help create, but when profit occupies the position of highest value, then all other values are – by definition – subservient to profit. That is what has led to most of the problems we now face, IMO.
As regards the use of the word “progressive” or “progressivism,” I am very comfortable with those words, but I am aware that some people are not. I am not clear whether branding our movement with those words helps or hinders what we’re trying to do. If it provides a brand identity that helps us organize more effectively, then I am all for it. If it alienates more people than it attracts, I would prefer another term that still retains the focus on fairness, inclusivity, environmental protection and justice that the word “progressive” conveys to me.
Oh, thanks for the links. I look forward to opening them.
Maybe you mean the Ocasio-Cortez legislative proposal incorporates language promoting a “change” from profit orientation. Or maybe you don’t mean any one document that expresses the “full concept”, but rather an implied concensus by the majority of Green New Deal advocates.
In any case, your distinction between the words “changes” and “reforms” is well-taken in the spirit it was intended, but in the end, probably just a semantic comparison. As a Warren supporter in 2020, my desire for “structural change” is a given, though not to exclude ALL profit orientation for the individual. That’s the kind of strict ideology that hurts Progressive influence and tries to ignore human nature and the need for personal incentive as well as civic. The two can co-exist in harmony and balance, like the two wings of an airplane.
The point of the comment was not that we don’t need the new mind-set orientation, but that we have a tag that can consolidate and focus this Movement on a rallying platform – the Progressive Movement.
One place is here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/climate/green-new-deal-questions-answers.html.
Here is another: https://theintercept.com/2018/12/05/green-new-deal-proposal-impacts/
For detail, I like this one: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwji77DO0aPpAhVBs54KHYquCr4QFjAAegQIARAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nuclearban.us%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F06%2FWarheads-Windmills-FINAL-single-file.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1Wzq93FJPDjsU1k3XRSXPX. My proposed strategy borrows heavily from this one.
Where is the best place to go to see this “full concept” of the Green New Deal you referenced?
Maybe we need a word that describes and encompasses all these reforms, including democratic Rights, Criminal Justice, Poverty, Nuclear, Climate Crisis, etc.
Let’s just call it Progressivism.
Clark, I would like to think that the changes we need in all these areas go well beyond “reform.” What we need strikes at the heart of the system: a change from profit orientation and pursuit of wealth to people orientation and pursuit of well-being for everyone as well as the planet. The full concept of the Green New Deal takes in all of these changes.
Thank you David Hart.
Thanks. Great work.