The second international conference on nuclear free zone local authorities (mayors, city councillors etc.) will be held in Spain. Delegates from over 20 countries and 4 continents are expected to attend. Contact:
Margarita Ruiz, Organizing Committee of the Second International Conference, Place Judes Levi, Cordoba, Spain.
An International Conference on Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies will be held December 30, 1985 to January 5, 1986 to kick off the International Year of Peace. It will be held in Suva, Fiji, contact The University of the South Pacific, Box 1168 Suva, Fiji, airmail for registration booklet. Penalties for registration after September 30, 1985.
Simon Roseoblum reports from Sudbury that Project Ploughshares there and in Saskatoon have received Manpower-type grants to fund peace education programmes in the schools. A small stipend (around $250 wk) covers the salary of a full time worker. He thinks that other peace organizations may want to work out similar arrangements.
There will be a showing of peace-related artworks at the University of Moncton Art Gallery during the Peace Conference May 8, 9, and 10 at the University. Submissions of poems, essays or visual art works are welcomed but they will not be able to return them. Address: P.O. Box 1434, Ploughshares, Moncton, NB. EIC 8T6. Please send works to arrive before April 30th, 1985.
Physicians for Social Responsibility will be holding a "National Conference on Waging Peace in the Nuclear Age" in Toronto on April 12 and 13, 1985. For further information or to register contact: Ed Crispin, M.D., Program Chairperson do Physicians for Social Responsibility (Cda) Room 534, Banting Institute, 100 College St., Toronto, ON, MSG 1L5 416-593-6828.
There's not much time left to join the Adventure Peace Tour of the Soviet Union sponsored by the Canada-USSR Association Inc.. The Tour is scheduled for April 25 - May 18, 1985. The complete package costs $2,218.50 from Montréal, $2,314.50 from Toronto and $2,465.50 from Victoria. For further information on the itinerary, goals and details of the Peace Tour contact: Canada-USSR Association Inc., Ottawa Branch, P.O. Box 5520, Station "F", Ottawa ON, K2C 3M1.
A group of youth from Caledonia are interested in organizing a human chain across Canada to show the world that we want nuclear disarmament. They are interested in contacting people with the ability and experience to plan such a large event. If you can help Out in The International Year of the Youth please contact: S. Adlerson, Group Leader, box 655, Caledonia, ON N0A 1a0.
New York City is a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone as of November 8th, 1984. New York City Council passed the resolution prohibiting production, transport, storage, placement or deployment of nuclear weapons within the territorial limits of the City of New York by a vote of 26 to 4 with 3 abstentions. Of the 16 Nuclear Free Zone resolutions on the ballot in the US on November 6th, 14 were passed with the result that there are now 80 Nuclear Free Zones in the USA.
Valerie Osborne of Halifax says that they think the nuclear subs now come into port only at night when they can't be seen. Halifax activists are in touch with their counterparts in the "North Atlantic Network" -the coalition that met last summer in Iceland. They are convinced that the submarines are creating a more dangerous situation than even exists in Europe. NATO is pushing toward Northern Norway. Because the Russian subs can be tracked, and the American ones cannot, there is an imbalance in the North Atlantic which no one is attending to. END Journal had an article on the situation in October.
Dan La Berge, of Newcastle, New Brunswick, says he is giving his friends copies of Endless Enemies, by Jonathon Kwitney. (Available through Methuen, 2330 Midland Avenue, Agincourt, ON., MlS 1P7, or as an alternate selection through the Book of the Month Club.) Kwitney, a Wall Street journalist, documents the way U.S. foreign policy has supported dictatorships for the past 30 years, contrary to the financial interests of the average American.
Walter Davis, of St. John's Newfoundland, is coordinating a project to write Senators and M.P.s to ask that Canada put aside party politics and submit a joint resolution by Parliament to the United Nations, asking for a 1 percent reduction in arms spending to finance famine relief in Africa. Canada would call on all nations to support this plan. He says he's had good replies from many parliamentarians so far. He'd be pleased if all readers of TPM write their parliamentarians in support of this.
Walter Davis also has received a letter from Yoko Ono: She sends her love and best wishes to the Canadian Peace Movement. The St. John's people are planning to convert a local park into a peace park, where they can hold vigils for peace. Evidently some members of the Canadian Legion objected to their holding peace vigils at the War Memorial.
Ploughshares London held a very successful workshop/seminar January 12-13, 1985. Members generally were so impressed with the results that they hope to turn the workshop weekend into an annual event.
Planning for the 12th World Festival of Youth and Students is proceeding apace. Delegates to the Festival in Moscow will be chosen to represent the diversity of Canada. The Preparatory Committee welcomes volunteers to help with organization and promotion. For further information: The Canadian Festival Committee c/o 290 Danforth Ave., Toronto 464-7300 (days).
Nanoose Conversion Campaign got off to a successful start in their campaign to end weapons testing by the US Navy at Nanoose Bay. More than 300 people joined their 2'/2 mile walk to rally outside the gates of the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Range. Their resolution calling for 1) non-renewal of the Canada-U.S. Nanoose agreement on its expiry April, 1986 2) an end to all weapons systems testing at CFMETR and 3) the conversion of CFMETR to peaceful purposes, was unanimously endorsed. The Campaign invites ideas and support from Canadian peace activists. Please contact the Nanoose Conversion Campaign, Box 1981, Parksville, B.C. VOR 2S0.
The situation in Labrador is even worse than when described in the November issue of TPC. Planes from Germany, England, Italy, and the US continue to use the area for war games, greatly to the distress of the Native People and the animals on which they depend. The Department of National Defense has even produced a film advertising for other NATO people to come there. Project North is planning a conference on the problem. An anthropologist at Memorial University is coordinating efforts to stop these manoeuvers. Contact him, Peter Armitage, at 709/737-8868.
The Peterborough, Ontario city council voted for a resolution supporting the United Nations resolution on the freeze.
Joanna Miller, of Saskatoon, has been part of a small group carrying out an anti-Star Wars campaign. She, George Ignatieff, Penny Sanger, and about six others have prepared a briefing paper dealing with the questions that people ask on the subject. She urges other peace activists to become persistent letter-writers. "If we want to be noticed, we've got to do better than we did on the cruise in getting thousands of personal letters to the Prime Minister or the Minister of External Affairs. Anyone can sign postcards or petitions but these aren't taken seriously. It's the individual, thought-out letter that gets the attention." Joanna calls attention to a statement by Doug Anguish that when he. as an M.P., got 5 or 6 good letters on an issue, he'd go back and take a look at his position.
Joanne Rogers, of Regina, notes that people in her area are concerned about the installation of a base across the border in the U.S. which will be home base to 16 B-52 bombers with maximum payloads - a total of 64 air-launched cruise missiles.
Bette Pepper, of White Rock, B.C., says that her group, the New Horizons Peacemakers, have premiered their film The Edge of History. Its producers, Erin Theirman and Vivian Verdon-Roe, of Santa Cruz, California, previously produced The Last Epidemic, In the Nuclear Shadow, and What About the Russians? The new film is for rent. Contact Bette at 604/531-0106.
Peace Magazine March 1985, page 30. Some rights reserved.
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