Letters

Malaysian Resolution

As a follow-up to the World Court opinion opposing nuclear weapons, Malaysia is submiting a resolution to the United Nations that "Calls upon States, including the nuclear-weapon States, to commence negotiations in 1997 leading to the conclusion at the earliest possible date of a Nuclear Weapons Convention prohibiting the development, production, testing, deployment, stockpiling, transfer, threat or use of nuclear weapons and providing for their elimination" Voting in the Disarmament Committee will be in the second week of November, and in the full plenary in the first week of December. Most countries decide how they will vote by the time the vote is taken in the Disarmament Committee.

Please contact your Minister of Foreign Affairs, Parliamentary member, congressional representative, or U.N. ambassador to urge them to co-sponsor or at least vote in favor of the resolution.

In our case this is Hon. Lloyd Axworthy, Minister of Foreign Affairs, House of Commons, OTTAWA ON K1A 0A6 (postage free). Alternately a fax can be sent to him (or any other MP) through a link to "Fax the Feds" accessed through this file on my personal web site: http://www.IslandNet.com/~emerald/govtndx.htm .

If you have contacts with government representatives in other countries, please encourage them to support the resolution.

Alan Rycroft, Victoria, B.C.

Listen to Terrorists

Terrorists terrorize nations, killing all they can, because they are angry and frustrated. Leaders in turn try to kill these terrorists, but fighting terrorists in their own way is not going to bring about peace. These people have causes which need to be heard.There are reasons why each one chose to become a terrorist. One by one they became terrorists; one by one they can be brought to be peaceful citizens again.

No two are the same, and that all have a right to live. There never was, and never will be perfect peace, but we can have a better life with less hate and bloodshed.

Eglantine L. Riviears, West Palm Beach, FL

Meateaters for Peace?

It seems strange that the first two articles (Sept/Oct 1996) are more anti-hamburger than anti-war. Still, I think what Steel and Morris are doing is very good. I am a vegetarian and I can say frankly that vegetarianism is not a peace issue. It's an individual choice. It is true that many people eat more meat than is good for them, and become passive as a result, but neither peace nor vegetarianism will solve this.

There's nothing wrong with Peace's mixing apples with oranges, but it doesn't help radicals who are trying to attack today's madness, to say that apples are oranges.

Zagreus, Toronto

Link up the Left

Last year my son, who is in high school, studied under Noam Chomsky at the Z Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusett, where he met Michael Albert, who is trying to develop links between left-wing organizations and periodicals. I would like to see the same thing occur in Canada. This could strengthen the Left and the publications. At present many are competing for the same market. I have approached our local libraries, our MPP and the large unions in our area to try to encourage an "adopt a subscription" concept. We would create a friends of the library organization to adopt a subscription. We'd meet with the local libraries to get a list of periodicals, magazines, and newspapers they have discontinued due to budget cuts. To that list we would add Canadian publications and progressive U.S. publications. We would print a brochure with the complete list and urge the public to adopt a subscription.

Rick Palmer, Sault Ste. Marie

Sounds great to us! [Ed.]