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From: PATBNAAV@aol.com
Date: Sun, 1 Aug 1999
Subject: HR-2545-Norton/Woolsey Appeal to Activists for Telephone/Letter Campaign in Support of Abolition/Conversion
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
U.S. Congresswomen Norton and Woolsey, Co-Sponsoring HR-2545,
Appeal to Activists for Telephone Campaign in Support of
Global Nuclear Disarmament and Conversion
On July 30, 1999, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, representing the
District of Columbia, held a press conference to announce her introduction of
H.R. 2545, the "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act of 1999"
(NDECA). In Ms. Norton's own words, "The bill would require the United States
to disable and dismantle its nuclear weapons and to refrain from replacing them
with weapons of mass destruction once foreign countries possessing nuclear
weapons enact and execute similar requirements. The bill also provides that the
resources used to sustain our nuclear weapons program be used to address human
and infrastructure needs such as housing, health care, education, agriculture,
and the environment."
Although Norton's bill has been characterized as "idealistic" and "quixotic,"
her press conference seemed not only to highlight the rationality of the
measure, but also to galvanize some supportive action.
"On the 54th anniversary of the first nuclear test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, I
introduced the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act. This is the
fourth time I've introduced it. I try to link my introduction of the bill
every year to some current notions that I think make the bill more and more
timely, " Ms. Norton stated. "My hope is not that one day the Republican
Congress will get religion and understand they ought to pass my bill all at one
time, I do not live in fairyland, but that gradually this bill and parts of
this bill will capture the imagination of a majority of Congress."
Ms. Norton was joined at the press conference by California Representative Lynn
Woolsey, the first co-sponsor of the measure. "The cold war is over, yet ...
with the cold war being over, the threat of nuclear weapons still hangs over us
like a dark mushroom cloud that does not go away, and it won't until we do
something about it. And while my colleagues, our colleagues, are taking care of
building more nuclear weapons, I continue to ask the question, who's taking
care of our children?" Rep. Woolsey said.
Ms. Woolsey noted that the NDECA would complement her own measure "H.R. 82
(which) calls on the president to use the United Nations' 'model nuclear
weapons convention' as a guideline to start multilateral negotiations to rid
all countries of nuclear weapons.... I am pleased to be signing on as a
co-sponsor of the NDECA, and if it doesn't pass this year, I'll sign on in the
next Congress, and the next Congress, and the next Congress, until it will,"
Woolsey pledged.
Norton explained that the United States "cannot make a credible case to
persuade such countries to abandon their nuclear ambitions unless we ourselves
are willing to take the initiative in dismantling our own nuclear weapons
program and helping arms industries to convert to useful economic activity."
Dr. Marcus Raskin, co-founder of Institute for Policy Studies, former member of
the White House Staff (1961), a White House Delegate to the U.N. Disarmament
talks in Geneva (1962), currently a Professor at George Washington University,
author of 17 books, and one of the nation's foremost experts on nuclear
disarmament and international affairs, made a practical observation on the
effective history of nuclear arms control: "The United States signed on to the
idea of general and complete disarmament. And there are six treaties in being
which begin with that idea, including various arms control agreements, no
nuclear testing in the atmosphere, space, and so forth. The point is also that
the United States has done virtually nothing with regard to moving toward
general and complete disarmament. It also is part of the non-proliferation
treaty, the idea of cutting back radically in nuclear weapons, and getting
other nations to do the same. So the United States has not done its role."
Dr. Raskin apparently stimulated thoughts of activism with a couple of
additional comments. "I don't think the peace movement has done its role
either, and I think that one of the problems here is that we have to work
through the strategy for bringing on a disarmament situation." Specifically,
Raskin suggested that there are "many members of Congress who should be lobbied
very hard, for this bill, and for the economic conversion part of this bill,
and perhaps a good place to begin with would be with the Progressive Caucus
itself."
"There are a number of things that have to be linked together, which means that
there has to be a dialogue in the peace movement to show the linkages between
these various questions," Raskin said, referring to weapons systems, economics,
and politics. Finally, Raskin suggested that it was up to the "peace movement"
to "come up with a program which could be worked through with members of
Congress, led by Congresswoman Norton, and just see where we go over the course
of the next three or four year period."
In direct response to Dr. Raskin, Ms. Norton replied, "It seems to me we need
to talk a great deal more to Marc Raskin. Let me just say as a member of the
Progressive Caucus he's come forward with one of these obvious and therefore
brilliant ideas.... I'm willing to get the Chairman of the Caucus, of which I
am a member, to sign a 'Dear Colleague' letter with me asking all members of
the Caucus to sign onto this bill. This is their politics anyway. But if you
let the bill just lie in the hopper, there it lies. The way it jumps out of the
hopper is that other members join in on the bill, and I would ask you to
contact members of your network to ask them to write their Congressmen, or
better still, call. If you call and say, 'Are you a co-sponsor of, and use the
title of my bill, HR-2545, Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act of
1999?' When a Member hears you ask that question, particularly a member of the
Progressive Caucus, if they're not, they quickly become a sponsor. It'd be even
better than writing a letter."
Raskin's suggestion of political activism caught on. Bob Tiller, director of
the national office of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a national
organization of over 15,000 health care professionals, U.S. affiliate of
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (recipient of the
1985 Nobel Peace Prize), picked up the hint. "We will be, as Ms. Norton asked
and encouraged us to do, be contacting our members and asking them to urge
their members of Congress to become co-sponsors of this legislation," Tiller
promised.
Following on the same suggestion, Arnold Peterson, the coordinator of the
Metropolitan Area Veterans for Peace, pledged that he would be making the same
plea to the members of his organization.
The full transcript of the press conference, with speeches by Congressional
Co-Sponsors Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), and nuclear
policy experts Dr. Marcus Raskin (Institute for Policy Studies), Mary Olson
(Nuclear Information and Resource Service), Bob Tiller (Physicians for Social
Responsibility), and John Steinbach (Veterans for Peace), as well as the text
of the bill HR-2545, can be found at
http://prop1.org/prop1/990730p1.speeches.htm
PAT BROUDY
Legislative Advisor