Text Fwd: TAKE BACK THE INITIATIVE

Bruce Gagnon blog
Sunday, August 09, 2009
TAKE BACK THE INITIATIVE

At 11:02 am today the whole city of Nagasaki stopped for a moment of silence to observe the exact time the US dropped the bomb 64 years ago.

I returned to the second day of the Mayors for Peace conference. I attended a three-hour workshop that reviewed the campaign strategy for the organization. Then they opened the floor for more mayors to speak. It was interesting to learn that 57% of the cities in Belgium (323 of them) now belong to Mayors for Peace.

There are 13 mayors here from Bangladesh and they have committed to return home and organize 100 cities to join the organization during the next four months.

The US is lagging way behind as only 155 mayors have joined the organization and it appears that getting them to take an active role is quite a challenge.

I was approached by the mayor and a councilman from Freetown, Sierra Leone, which is the capital and largest city in that African country. He too asked for a copy of the speech I made yesterday and asked about affiliation in the Global Network. I was really impressed with his sincere interest in the space issue and promised that I'd be in touch with him immediately.

I was also impressed today with Syria's representative who talked about the obvious fear that the Middle East could soon see a regional nuclear arms race. Syria has proposed a resolution at the United Nations to create a Nuclear-Free Zone in the region but Israel has been blocking it. Israel, the only current nuclear power in the Middle East, refuses to acknowledge that they have a couple hundred nuclear weapons and is adamant that no other Middle East country (Iran) should be allowed to have nukes.

A couple of days ago I was on the speaking platform with old friend Joseph Gerson who works for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in New England. I first met Joseph in Tokyo in 1984 when we both attended the World Conference against A & H Bombs. During his presentation in Hiroshima the other day he quoted Gen. Maxwell Taylor (from the Vietnam war era) talking about control of oil in the Middle East. Gerson said Gen. Taylor called the region the "jugular vein of western capitalism." That tells the whole story.

I head for the city of Fukuoka late tomorrow afternoon after the final sessions of Mayors for Peace conference conclude. I will speak in Fukuoka on Tuesday night. Wednesday I get a day off before flying to Seoul, South Korea on Thursday where I will spend my final week of this trip meeting with many different Korean organizations and doing two formal talks - all of which have been organized by Global Network board member Sung-Hee Choi.

One final observation here. After listening to people from virtually every continent over the past two weeks I see a trend underway. The public around the planet generally feel powerless as most governments are ignoring the people. The strategy of most peace groups has been one of playing "inside the box". I mean no offense to anyone but too often our organizations end up acting like "junior negotiators" with the politicians and political systems. When we play by the rules of the status quo nuclear powers we get submerged inside their box. They are pros at controlling the game and the agenda.

The way out I believe, the way we make real progress, is to get out of the box and get with the people. We must "up the ante" and ask for more. We should stop begging for "arms control negotiations" which are bearing no real fruit. Instead we should be creating a global coalition of peace groups, unions, cities, social justice groups, womens organizations, environmental organizations and together we need to be call for full and complete global disarmament and conversion of the military industrial complex.

We have to take back the initiative and advance a positive alternative transformative vision of the future that solves for poverty, climate change, human needs, peace and justice.

The global movement is out there but fragmented. We need to "globalize" our message and unify our movement. When we do that we can put the corporate forces of globalization on the defensive and we can make progress. All of us need to begin talking about this in our local meetings and at every other opportunity we get.

[국문 번역]Text Fwd: MAYORS ARE GETTING IT

Bruce Gagnon blog
Saturday, August 08, 2009
MAYORS ARE GETTING IT

I arrived in Nagasaki yesterday. It is even hotter here than Hiroshima was.

This afternoon I was the keynote speaker at the Mayors for Peace 7th General Conference. The speaker before me was Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann who currently serves President of the United Nations General Assembly. There were about 300-400 people in attendance inside the huge beautiful hall. In my speech I weaved in many of the words of our Global Network leaders and friends from around the world.

Much to my surprise there was only one US mayor present. He is from Akron, Ohio. The US Conference of Mayors sent two representatives. There were many mayors from Japan of course. Other representatives from cities around the world included Bangladesh, Belgium, Cameroon, Croatia, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, New Zealand, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sri Lanka, Uganda, United Kingdom, Israel, Bahrain, Republic of Benin, Costa Rica, Eritrea, Denmark, Kenya, Kuwait, Malawi, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, and Syria.

Mayors for Peace has been growing at a phenomenal rate in the last few years. It is a great thing that local governments around the world are beginning to see that they can in fact have something to say about "foreign policy" issues as they do affect directly the cities ability to provide human services to their constituencies. The growth of such political movements is one great way to work around the corporate arterial blockage of most national governments these days. It was indeed a real honor for me to have been invited to speak today.

Immediately after I spoke a young man from Senegal came up to the front row of the hall where I was seated and said my speech had touched him. He asked could he have a copy of my speech so he could translate it and distribute it in his country. I handed him my copy.

After the plenary session broke up the mayors adjourned to a smaller meeting room where they began reviewing their organizing plan for the coming campaign to build international pressure on the nuclear powers to get rid of all nuclear weapons. They also began a process of hearing short speeches from 16 mayors. The first eight spoke before they ran out of time. The rest will speak tomorrow.

Here are a few highlights from some of the mayors:

* The children of Croatia are being educated on disarmament by learning to fold paper cranes in the schools.

* The mayor from a small French city said, "Sustainable development and nuclear weapons are not compatible." This has to become an issue in our local governments, he said.

* A Japanese mayor remarked, "If we have solidarity across national borders then we can create nuclear disarmament."

* The mayor of Florence, Italy said no nuclear plants are allowed in their community and the kids are being taught about the "peace culture" in their schools.

* A local official from the UK reported on 30 years of work by the Nuclear Free local authorities.

It is surely a struggle between the war culture and the peace culture. There is something happening around the world. People are tired of endless war and wasting our resources on militarism. The mayors want to build public transit systems and educate the kids. They want to provide green jobs. The next step is to get them to talk about the conversion of the global war machine. You can be sure I mentioned that in my speech today.


*시장들은 깨달아 가고 있다.
2009년 8월 8일, 토요일, 브루스 개그논 씀

저는 어제 나가시키에 도착했읍니다. 여기는 히로시마보다 덥습니다.

오늘 오후, 저는 *평화를 위한 시장 모임의 7번째 일반 회담 기조 연설자였읍니다. 저보다 앞서 발언한 연설자는 현재 유엔 총회의 의장을 맡고 있는 미구엘 데스코토 브록크만이었읍니다. 거대하고 아름다운 홀에 약 300~400여 명이 참석했읍니다. 제 연설에서 저는 글로벌 넷워크의 지도자들과 전 세계 친구들의 많은 말들을 함께 엮었읍니다.

크게 놀랍게도 미국에서는 오직 한 사람의 시장만이 참석했읍니다. 그는 오하이오 애크론에서 왔읍니다. 미국 시장 회담에서는 두 대표를 파견했읍니다. 물론 일본의 많은 시장들이 있었읍니다. 전 세계 도시들에서 온 대표들의 국가들은 방글라데시, 벨지움, 카메론, 크로아티아, 프랑스, 독일, 이라크, 이탤리, 뉴질랜드, 파키스탄, 세네갈, 시에라 리온, 스페인, 스리랑카, 우간다, 영국, 이스라엘, 바레인, 베닌 공화국, 코스타리카, 에리트레아, 덴마크, 케냐, 쿠웨이트, 말라위, 모잠비크, 사우디 아라비아, 세르비아, 남아 공화국 그리고 시리아를 포함했읍니다.

평화를 위한 시장 모임은 지난 2년간 뚜렷하게 발전했읍니다. 전 세계 지방 정부들이 그들 스스로 그들의 선거민들에게 제공하는 능력을 도시들에 직접적으로 행사함으로서 그들이 사실 인력 봉사들로 “외교 정책 foreign policy” 이슈들에 대해 말할 수 있다는 것을 알기 시작하게 되었다는 것은 위대한 일입니다. 그러한 정치적 운동들의 성장은 오늘날 대부분의 국가 정부들의 동맥을 막고 있는 기업들에 대한 하나의 훌륭한 대안입니다. 오늘 제가 연설하도록 초대된 것은 진정으로 커다란 영광입니다.

제가 연설을 마치자마자 세네갈에서 온 한 젊은이가 제가 앉았던 홀의 앞줄로 나와 제 연설이 그를 감동시켰다고 말했읍니다. 그는 그가 번역해서 자신의 나라에 돌릴 수 있도록 제 연설 복사본을 가질 수 있겠는가 하고 물었읍니다. 저는 그에게 제 복사본을 주었읍니다.

총회가 끝난 이 후 시장들은 좀 더 작은 회의실들로 가 핵 보유국들이 모든 핵무기를 제거하도록 국제적 압력을 가할 미래의 캠페인에 대한 그들의 조직 계획을 검토하기 시작했읍니다. 그들은 또한 16명의 시장들로부터 짧은 연설을 듣는 과정을 시작했읍니다. 처음 8명이 연설을 다 마치자 시간이 가버렸읍니다. 다른 분들은 내일 말할 것입니다.

몇 시장들의 연설 중 약간의 하이라이트들을 말한다면:

* 크로아티아의 어린이들은 학교에서 종이학을 접는 것으로 비무장에 대해 교육받습니다.

* 프랑스의 한 작은 도시에서 온 시장은 “지속적인 개발과 핵무기는 양립할 수 있는 것이 아닙니다.” 이것은 우리 지방 정부들의 이슈가 되어야 합니다. 하고 그는 말했읍니다.

* 한 일본 시장은, “우리가 국경을 가로질러 연대한다면 우리는 핵 비무장을 만들어 낼 수 있읍니다.” 라고 언급했읍니다.

* 이탤리 플로렌스의 시장은 그들의 공동체에 어떠한 핵 공장도 허락되지 않으며 어린이들이 그들의 학교에서 “평화 문화” 에 대해 교육받고 있다 말했읍니다.

* 영국의 지방 관리는 비핵을 위한 지방 당국들의 30여년 간에 걸친 작업에 대해 보고했읍니다.

이러한 모든 것은 확실히 전쟁 문화와 평화 문화 사이의 투쟁입니다.

전 세계적으로 무언가 일어나고 있읍니다. 사람들은 끝없는 전쟁과 군사주의에 우리의 자원을 낭비하는 것에 지쳤읍니다. 시장들은 대중 교통 시스템을 짓고 어린이들을 교육하길 원합니다. 그들은 녹색 직장들을 제공하길 원합니다. 다은 순서는 그 들로 하여금 전지구적 전쟁 기계들을 전환하는 것에 대해 말하도록 하는 것입니다. 당신은 제가 제 연설에서 그 것을 말했음을 확신할 수 있읍니다.

-원문 링크-

2020 비전 캠페인을 위한 평화를 위한 시장 모임
http://www.2020visioncampaign.org/