Daniel Ellsberg, WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso, Rose Aguilar, Dennis Kucinich. Photo by James Lerager
Representative Barbara Lee introduces
Dennis Kucinich. Photo by Myles Boisen.
"You know you've accomplished something," wrote Gar Smith for the Berkeley Daily Planet, "when a birthday rolls around and Barbara Lee, Dennis Kucinich and Daniel Ellsberg all show up for the party. That was the case on February 10, when the Western States Legal Foundation marked its 30th year as a nuclear watchdog." "An Anti-nuclear Half-Life Celebration Rocks an East Bay Night," Berkeley Daily Planet, , February 14, 2013.
Emceed by KALW radio host Rose Aguilar and featuring keynote addresses by Dennis Kucinich and Daniel Ellsberg, the event drew hundreds of WSF supporters and friends. Representative Barbara Lee introduced Dennis Kucinich, and WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso reminisced a bit about WSLF, and also gave an overview of current struggles against nuclear weapons and nuclear power. (Video of these talks are linked below). The plenary was preceded by a reception featuring a variety of food offerings from local businesses.
The WSLF staff and board extend their thanks to all those who have supported us for the last three decades, and also to the many volunteers who helped to make this anniversary event a success.
Suggested donation: $5 - $10 No one turned away for lack of funds
Through archival footage and contemporary interviews, In My Lifetime portrays the history of the nuclear era
and the complex search for “a way beyond.” In My Lifetime challenges viewers to learn from this history and
find a way to accomplish what might seem like the impossible, because it is an absolute necessity.
June 16, 2012: At the close of its 80th annual meeting in Orlando Florida, the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) unanimously adopted a strong, comprehensive new Mayors for Peace resolution, Calling for U.S. Leadership in Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons and Redirection of Nuclear Weapons Spending to Meet the Urgent Needs of Cities.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the national association of cities with populations over 30,000. Resolutions adopted at its annual meetings become official USCM policy.
For the full story, click here. For a pdf copy of the resolution, click here.
Tell the Berkeley City Council to vote YES on a resolution to Decommission California Nuclear Power Plants and Transition to Green Non-Nuclear Generation Sources
TUESDAY JUNE 19, 6 PM: RALLY ON THE STEPS OF BERKELEY CITY HALL, 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way
7 PM: CITY COUNCIL MEETING (2nd agenda item)
FEATURED RALLY SPEAKERS:
Bob Meola, Berkeley Peace & Justice Commissioner
Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation & Nuclear Free California
Joanna Macy, Eco-philosopher
Dan Hirsch, Committee to Bridge the Gap
Daniel Ellsberg, of Pentagon Papers fame
In honor of its 30th Anniversary, Western States Legal Foundation
is pleased to announce the launch of a new book by Cecile Pineda,
Devil’s Tango: How I Learned the Fukushima Step by Step.
Published by Wings Press on March 11, 2012 – the one-year anniversary of the
Fukushima Daiichi disaster, Devil’s Tango is a whirlwind tour of the nuclear
industry, seen through the lens of the industrial and planetary crisis
still unfolding in Japan.
Saturday, March 24, 2012 from 3 – 5 pm 2550 Dana Street at Parker, Berkeley; downstairs forum
Wine & light refreshments
Cecile Pineda will read excerpts from and sign copies of her book. We will also have a
Special guest, Kaisha Aktahanova, an anti-nuclear activist and scientist from
Kazakhstan (location of the Soviet Union’s principal nuclear test site); and
recipient of the 2005 Goldman Environmental Prize. Proceeds from book sales will benefit Western States Legal Foundation
“Profound, quirky, laugh-out-loud funny at times, and utterly terrifying, Pineda
challenges us to join her in waking ourselves out of denial. Read it if you dare.
Read it if you care.” —Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western States
Legal Foundation, from the Foreword.
For more information: (510) 839-5877; wslf(at)earthlink.net, or see the flyer at the links below.
Saturday April 14, 2012; 10 am - 4 pm
Berkeley Friends Meeting Social Hall
2151 Vine St. (east corner of Walnut) Fri. April 13: Wine & Cheese Preview 7-9 pm
Donate old jewelry, shop for something new,
and support Western States Legal Foundation!
From costume jewelry to the good stuff; odd pieces
welcome. If you have jewelry to donate, please contact
Phyllis Olin: (510) 526-7217; olins(at)pacbell.net
The panel will take place Sunday, March 18, Room E308 03:00pm - 04:40pm. If you are planning to attend the Left Forum, we hope you will join us.
The panelists will be Ray Acheson, director of Reaching Critical Will, a project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Michael Menser, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Brooklyn College, and a member of the doctoral faculty in Earth and Environmental Science and Environmental Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Andrew Lichterman, a lawyer and policy analyst for the Oakland, California-based Western States Legal Foundation. Additional information about the panel and the presenters is available by clicking on the title link above.
As we approach the 9th anniversary of "Shock and Awe," we are once again seeing U.S. politicians and elected officials targeting an oil-rich nation in the Persian Gulf, claiming that it might soon build nuclear weapons, a claim based on sketchy evidence provided by sources we never see. This time the target is Iran, and the U.S. is once more trying to drag its allies with it on a path that could lead to war.
Yet while the U.S. government lectures and threatens Iran and North Korea about the evils of nuclear weapons, it routinely test fires its own long-range nuclear missiles from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central coast of California, sending a clearly implied nuclear threat to the world. The next test launch of the U.S. "arsenal of hypocrisy" is scheduled for February 25, 2012.
A nonviolent protest is planned at Vandenberg at five minutes to midnight, Friday February 24.
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has chartered a Green Tortoise bus that will leave for Vandenberg from Oakland at 5 pm, Feb. 24, returning by 7 am the next day, picking up people along the way.
Plan to get on the bus! $40 requested; no one turned away! Contact MacGregor Eddy: macgregoreddy@gmail.com; 831 206 5043
If you live in Southern California, please join a protest from 12 noon – 1 pm on Feb. 24 at the Los Angeles Air Force Space and Missile Center, 262 N. Douglas Street.
Wherever you live, please sign the petition calling on President Obama to cancel the test and start negotiations for the elimination of nuclear weapons. click here to see the petition.
The role of science and technology in driving nuclear weapons modernization: a reappraisal,By Andrew Lichterman, talk delivered at an NGO side event organized by the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility on the role of science and technology factors driving nuclear weapons modernization, during the 2013 Preparatory Committee meetings for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, April 23, 2013.
Nonviolence or nonexistence, democracy or nonexistence, Andrew Lichterman, address to Hiroshima remembrance gathering, August 5, across the street from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California.
Nuclear Connections is a series of brief analyses that explores the relationship between nuclear institutions and the global economy and its power structures, with an emphasis on organizations and institutions with a physical presence in the San Francisco Bay Area and the American southwest.
The Reaching Critical Will project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom has released a new report on nuclear weapons modernization. The report, titled Assuring Destruction Forever: Nuclear Weapon Modernization Around the World, can be downloaded for free and hard copies are available for $8 from the Reaching Critical Will website (click here).
The report explores in-depth the nuclear weapon modernization programs in China, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and analyzes the costs of nuclear weapons in the context of the economic crisis, austerity measures, and rising challenges in meeting human and environmental needs. It features three pieces by WSLF authors. Andrew Lichterman, senior research analyst for Western States Legal Foundation, wrote the chapter on the United States and a chapter on the role of civil society and social movements in creating the requisite political will for disarmament, and John Burroughs, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy and a WSLF Board member, wrote a chapter on international law and nuclear weapons.
The chapters also are available separately as pdf files. Below are the links to chapters written by WSLF staff and board members.
There will be a launch event for the report in Vienna, Austria on Thursday May 3, one of a number of NGO events scheduled alongside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty preparatory committee meeting the first two weeks of May. The launch event will be in Room M2 of the Vienna International Center, May 3, 1:15–2:45p.m.
A collaborative work of non-governmental researchers and activists who critically examine the mainstream discourse of nuclear weapons. With contributions by Western States Legal Foundation executive director, Jacqueline Cabasso, Board members Andrew Lichterman and John Burroughs, and Counsel Michael Veiluva, the book explores some of the most important challenges that governments and civil society face at the 2010 NPT Review Conference and beyond, highlighting the prospects and pitfalls for nuclear disarmament in the current world order. Throughout, the authors demonstrate that nuclear disarmament must be pursued in the context of a broader movement for social and economic justice and equality.
Edited by Ray Acheson
Published by Reaching Critical Will, a project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Read on line or order paperback: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/resources/books/beyondarmscontrol.html
NPT 2010: Rhetoric vs. Reality
Address by Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director, Western Stats Legal Foundation
Public Hearing, Challenges to Peace and National Sovereignty--The NPT Review, Brasilia, Brazil, April 7, 2010
Burdens of Proof: Iran, the United States, and Nuclear Weapons A Global View
by Michael Veiluva, Western States Legal Foundation Counsel (Paperback - July, 2009)
Burdens of Proof, by Michael Veiluva, offers a rare and unique set of insights into the ongoing and complex political and legal implications surrounding the United States and Iranian political negotiations over Iran's growing nuclear program. Grabbed right from today's political headlines, author Veiluva adds valuable information that will inform and enlighten anyone concerned with today's international political situation. Veiluva's Burdens of Proof examines several fundamental themes critical to understanding the current state of U.S./Iranian relations: the "cold war" that has existed between the two countries since 1979, Iran's nuclear program, the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency, American nuclear weapons developments, and the international legal implications of the U.S.'s doctrine of preventative war. Written as a one-stop guide for anyone interested in the current crisis with Iran, Burdens of Proof brings a new voice to the complex debate over Iran's perceived ambitions and the rule of international law.
Order from Amazon: click here
Fusion Energy and the Illusions of Power, Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation Commentary, Summer 2009 pdf
Rhetoric vs. Reality: Elite Disarmament Proposals and Real Disarmament Prospects, Jacqueline Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation Information Brief, Spring 2009 pdf
Deterrence, Torture, Power, Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation Commentary, Spring 2009 pdf
Nuclear Weapons Forever: The U.S. Plan to Modernize its Nuclear Weapons Complex, Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation Information Brief, Spring 2008 pdf
StratCom in Context: The Hidden Architecture of U.S. Militarism, Presentation by Jacqueline Cabasso at the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space annual meeting, Omaha, Nebraska April 12, 2008 pdf files textslides
The Divine Strake Nuclear Weapons Simulation: A Bad Signal at a Bad Time, Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation Information Brief, Spring 2006 pdf
Vandenberg Air Force Base: Where the Present and Future of U.S. Warmaking Come Together Andrew Lichterman, Western States Legal Foundation Information Brief, Spring 2006 pdf
Questions and Answers About Weapons of Mass Destruction, Western States Legal Foundation Information Brief, Spring 2006 pdf
WSLF IN THE NEWS: WSLF staff and board members appearing or quoted in print and electronic media
Other Voices TV
No Nukes?
Jackie Cabasso discusses her experiences as an NGO representative at the recent UN conference on nuclear weapons. (58 mins)
Peninsula Peace and Justice Center,
June 1, 2010
International News Net World Report
New START pact between Russia and the USA
Round Table discussion with Jacqueline Cabasso and William Hartung
May 26, 2010
U.S. plans major increase in nuclear budget
By Yumi Kanazaki, Staff Writer
Chugoku Shimbun, Hiroshima
March 8, 2010 (posted online March 12, 2010) WSLF Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso, quoted here, provided the background for this story during an interview conducted at the 4th Global Citizens Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons in February, in Nagasaki, Japan.
A segment on the KPFA show Against the Grain featured WSLF's Andrew Lichterman talking about nuclear weapons issues in the context of the global economic crisis. The show is archived on the KPFA web site and can be accessed there. The segment was a portion of a a longer talk delivered at the Alameda Public Affairs Forum, the full talk can be accessed as an mp3 file. Links to both are below.
This page provides links to information and research tools useful for researching the campus and community impacts of military research and of weapons production, with an emphasis on pages which provide links to further resources.
Links to a variety of information and opportunities to take action to contest the rapid erosion of civil liberties resulting from the U.S. government's approach to its open-ended "war on terror." This page also has links to resources on government secrecy and freedom of information, including several sites providing good information on how to pursue Freedom of Information Act requests from the initial request through litigation.
Links to a variety of resources, ranging from special Iraq sites of major media organizations to analyses of the human and economic impacts of the Iraq war and occupation.
