The Peace Calendar Vol.1 No.10
Full text version of all articles from The Peace Calendar Vol.1 No.10.
Lynn Harrison — November 1983
The Alliance for Non-Violent Action (ANVA) is organising a week of action against the management of Litton Systems Canada Ltd., beginning on Remembrance Day, November 11. Hundreds of people are expected to occupy the grounds surrounding the Litton plant, participating in three days of civil disobedience.
The week will begin with an “Alternative Remembrance Day” on Friday, November 11. This will be the first gathering of the people who will be involved in the action of the following week. People are encouraged to bring banners and signs and to gather together in recognition of the significance of the day for the peace movement. Buses will leave from Bathurst St. United Church at 3:30 pm on Friday, arriving at the Litton plant at 4:00, when a walk and vigil will take place. None of the events on the “Alternative Remembrance Day” will involve civil disobedience.
The three days of civil disobedience are the Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the following week. Each day has a particular focus. Monday, November 14 involves action by women’s groups. Wednesday, November 16 represents “Liberation Struggles” — those of gays and lesbians, and of Third World countries.
Friday, November 18 is “Stop Cruise Production Day,” when all of the groups present during the week will encircle the Litton management building and form a sit-down blockade. The two days that don’t involve civil disobedience may be used by other groups who wish to hold rallies, vigils or other legal activities.
A special gathering for women who have been through the training for the week’s actions will take place Sunday, November 13, the anniversary of Karen Silkwood’s murder in 1975. Silkwood was a worker in a factory that produced parts for nuclear weapons, and was regularly exposed to plutonium. Through research, she discovered that she and her co-workers were working in unsafe conditions. She began to agitate for a risk-free environment, and was en route to meet with a reporter concerning her findings when her car was driven off the road. She was killed, and the information she carried with her was not recovered. The gathering to remember her will not involve illegal action.
Preparation days will be held on October 29 and 30, and November 5 and 6, when “affinity groups” will be formed for the following week. Affinity groups are groups of people who will stay together throughout the week of action and also through any trials or other legal actions which may ensue from the week’s civil disobedience actions. Emily Smith of ANVA says that people who already share close ties, as friends, or as members of particular peace groups, are encouraged to form affinity groups. This will facilitate the maintenance of strong support-systems that might be necessary in the months that follow.
The actions at Litton are part of a three year campaign which has focussed on Litton as a manufacturer of the guidance system of the sea launched cruise missile for the United States Navy. This campaign has grown from a few individuals to include the hundreds of Canadians who will practice civil disobedience during the week of November 11.
According to Ken Hancock of ANVA, this dramatic increase in the number of people willing to become involved in civil disobedience actions. illustrates a growth in the seriousness and commitment of the Canadian peace movement.
ANVA is an alliance of groups in Ontario and Québec, and its Ontario members include the Cruise Missile Conversion Project and Women’s Action for Peace. For more information about the actions taking place at Litton on November 11-18, contact Emily Smith or Margaret Hancock of ANVA, at xxx-xxxx.
Anonymous — November 1983
Everyone in the disarmament movement seems to be asking “What next?” and “Where do we go from here?” The Toronto Disarmament Network is planning a two-day strategy conference December 10 and II to consider these questions. The conference will be open to all interested groups. Planning is still in the early stages, so anyone interested can help out. For more information, contact Matthew Clark at xxx-xxxx.
Metta Spencer — November 1983
On October 22, over 2 million people gathered in the streets of North America and Europe in support of the United Nations’ disarmament campaign. The marchers in Europe were protesting against the imminent deployment of cruise and Pershing II nuclear missiles on their continent.
Canadian demonstrators, who numbered more than 50,000 in all, were also expressing their opposition to the testing of the air-launched cruise missile. More than 40 communities held some sort of public observance on that day.
The largest Canadian demonstration was in Toronto, where an estimated 24,000 spirited citizens walked, on a bright autumn day, to Queen’s Park for a rally.
Nevertheless, the marchers in Toronto, like those elsewhere, realised that their mass demonstrations had not achieved the major goal —prevention of the next phase of the arms race. Governments of several NATO countries again announced their intentions of deploying the new missiles, regardless of what might go on in the streets.
On the day following the demonstrations, The Peace Calendar’s staff, making our monthly phone calls across Canada, discovered a consensus to be emerging — a sense that the peace movement needs to shift its emphasis from demonstrations to face-to-face persuasion. Several spokespersons reported that their communities are rethinking their approach and generally favour door-to-door canvassing, along the lines proposed by the Peace Petition Caravan. A riding-by-riding campaign will require consistent work by peace activists, but is seen as the most promising way to influence the government.
Beth Richards — November 1983
Countering the accusation that Canadian peace activists who oppose the cruise tests are ‘anti-American’, U.S. disarmament groups are setting out to prove the opposite. Already over 100 national, regional and local peace groups in North America have endorsed the call for “Refuse the Cruise” Canada-U.S. Solidarity Days on December 2-3. “On that Friday and Saturday,” the call declared, “people all over North America will be joining in a united show of opposition to any tests of cruise missiles and all preparations for nuclear war. We urge individuals arid organisations working for peace to plan local protests — of any size — on one or both of those days.”
In the United States community-based peace groups are organising civil disobedience vigils and blockades at weapons production plants, federal buildings, military installations and other appropriate sites. Many of those actions will be centred at the 26 U.S. sites where parts of the air-launched cruise missile are manufactured.
December 2 marks the anniversary of the world’s first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction that occurred in 1942 at the University of Chicago. More important, December 1983 marks the beginning of the Euro-missile deployment and represents a dangerous turning point in the race toward nuclear war.
The People’s Test Ban is the main organising body for the U.S. solidarity actions. Their newspaper publicizing December 2-3 preparations stresses the destabilising nature of cruise missiles.
“Designed not for ‘deterrence’ but for war-fighting, the cruise missile represents a major leap toward global suicide. A total of 3,000 air-launched cruise missiles are scheduled for the U.S. strategic arsenal, independent of NATO.” The deadly accuracy, sophisticated guidance system and small size of the cruise were listed as evidence that it is an unverifiable, hence destabilizing weapon. But the People’s Test Ban newspaper also pointed out the missile’s utility in waging war in Central America or the Middle East, as the cruise is designed to carry conventional as well as nuclear bombs.
Testing of the air-launched cruise in Canada is scheduled to begin sometime after Christmas, in effect selling the precedent for further complicity in the arms race. Once the cruise is tested, Cabinet will be discussing the testing of new and more devastating weapon systems. To counter that threat, U.S. and Canadian peace groups are setting their own precedent. Recognising that international unity is essential to peace, the December 2-3 Days of Solidarity provide a crucial opportunity.
Copies of the endorsement call are available by writing to “Refuse the Cruise,” CANDIS, 10 Trinity Sq., Toronto, M5G 1BI. For copies of the special publication, “Fulfilling the Nuremberg Obligation” contact People’s Test Ban, P.O. Box 42430, Portland, Oregon, 97242. Further information on December 2-3 events in Canada can also be obtained from CANDIS at xxx-xxxx.
Marjorie Elston — November 1983
If you want to support the private member’s resolution declaring Ontario a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone you should contact your MPP directly and request that he or she vote in favour of the resolution when it comes before the Ontario legislature in November. This is the advice of Richard Johnston, MPP for Scarborough West who introduced the resolution last April 19.
This type of “friendly” lobby, Johnston feels, is the best way to ensure that the issue will be treated in a non-partisan manner t and that MPPs from all three parties will support the principle that Ontario should .be a Nuclear Weapon Free Zone.
Although he remains firmly committed to the resolution, Johnston will withdraw it on November I, and Richard Alien, MPP for Hamilton West, will re-introduce it on the same day. This procedure will enable the issue to be debated much sooner, since Alien’s allotted time in private member’s hour is scheduled much earlier than Johnston’s. (The scheduling of private member’s bills and resolutions is done by lottery, with MPPs drawing names out of a hat.)
Adoption of the resolution would have tremendous significance for the nuclear disarmament movement. However, a resolution cannot become law or legislation.
It is simply a principle which the MPP who submits it wishes the government to endorse.
Support for the resolution has snowballed since it was presented on April 19th, says Johnston. There are now about 380 people from across the province working to gather support for its adoption by distributing petitions. Johnston’s office also publishes a newsletter on the resolution.
“We should have about 20,000 signatures by the end of October,” Johnston says. Signatures have come from across Ontario, and Johnston plans to sort them by riding and to present them to the appropriate MPPs as part of his lobby.
Johnston is planning events in November to lead up to November 24th when the resolution will be debated. Tentative plans include speakers and the showing of two films, Dark Circle and If You Love This Planet, to the MPPs. Watch The Peace Calendar for information on further developments.
Mary Vrantsidis — November 1983
The Cruise Missile Conversion (CMCP) will play an. active role in the series of civil disobedience actions at Litton Systems of Canada Ltd. during the week of November 11-18. The group’s involvement in these actions is a reminder of its particular contribution to the Canadian peace ‘movement, for it was CMCP which first drew the public’s attention to Litton’s role in the nuclear arms race.
It was, in fact, the discovery three years ago that Litton had been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy to manufacture the guidance system for the sea-launched cruise missile that led a group of peace activists to form CMCP. Today the group has 80 Project members, and although their important work at Litton is still an important focus, the group has expanded its involvement in the anti-nuclear movement to include a number of other activities, particularly through their participation in the Toronto Disarmament Network.
CMCP’s actions at Litton will be directed toward management. and not toward the workers in the plant. This emphasis is particularly important, says Dave Collins, a CMCP member, since it is part of a recent clarification of the group’s purpose.
For the past three years CMCP led a small had focussed on educating and reaching out to Litton workers in order to make them aware of what was going on in their plant and of the positive alternatives to working for a military-based industry. However, the message became confused when, as part of civil disobedience actions staged at least three times a year, CMCP members tried to stop Litton workers from doing their jobs. Collins says that CMCP has now tried to make clear that its fight is with those who have control of the plant, not with the workers.
CMCP’s brochure describes the group as a project aimed at changing Litton’s military production to production which meets human needs. Most economists agree that military spending creates relatively fewer jobs than civilian spending and that it accelerates inflation, wastes resources and hinders the development of civilian technology. According to a recent study by the Association of Machinists, one billion dollars can create 55,000 military jobs or 100,000 civilian jobs.
The group is working to promote positive alternatives to military production or loss of jobs by advocating planned economic conversion to useful production. CMCP fully supports the right of working people to have a say in what their factories are producing, but, as one member put it, criticising the capitalist system of management controlled production doesn’t mean you’ve jumped into the communist camp. Alternatives within the western framework are possible.
In their “vision statement”, or statement of purpose, CMCP describes the bomb as the ultimate expression of all forms of oppression based on class, sex and age. In keeping with their egalitarian emphasis, CMCP Operates as a non-hierarchical collective, whose decisions are the result of consensus.
Although the group wants to offer Litton management concrete proposals on how to convert the plant over to more peaceful production, Collins says, the group’s efforts have become trapped in a vicious circle. “Management wants to know our plans before they will talk to us, but they won’t let the group in to assess what the plant is capable of. They have cut off all communication with our group until we come up with concrete proposals.
Ideally, CMCP would like to work for Litton as consultants in order to help the plant convert to civilian technology. They would draw on the expertise of members of Science for Peace and other equally qualified people in the peace movement.
According to Ernie Regehr, a Canadian weapons and peace expert, conversion wouldn’t be a costly procedure. He also notes that the technology Litton uses to manufacture the cruise guidance system was civilian before it was applied to military purposes. CMCP supports technology as long as it addresses itself to real human problems, such as mass transit and medical research. Technology makes tools which can be used to gain power but the workers must have some say in what tools are produced and have some pan of that power.
Litton and its U.S. parent company have been called union busters. The United Auto Workers have tried three times to establish a union at Litton. (There are at least 2500 workers at Litton, and although their working conditions are not known, their salaries are rumored to be very low.)
Because Litton has a federal designation as a security zone as a result of its defense contract, according to CMCP’s Bob Penner, workers at Litton are not free. Political activity in the plant is suppressed and workers aren’t allowed to talk about their jobs even with their families. If they leave their jobs, they are debriefed by the Mounties.
When asked how they would choose between stopping nuclear arms production and the loss of workers’ jobs, CMCP members say the group will have to discuss the issue more deeply, However, in the meantime, they have started a support fund for workers who are fired for political activities. They would also like to work on retraining programs for workers.
Because of the the security within the Litton plant, CMCP has no statistics on the political actions of Litton workers. However, some CMCP members have heard that many workers have left Litton because of the knowledge gained by the leafletting CMCP conducts biweekly. Although the action was condemned by CMCP. the 1982 bombing of the plant did harm relations between CMCP and the workers. Fewer workers take the leaflets now than did before the bombing.
Collins and Penner agree that, even of the cruise is tested, the group will continue in its efforts to have Litton converted to peaceful production, Their other peace networking will continue. Conversion groups similar to CMCP exist around defence factories both elsewhere in Canada and in the U.S. For example, a group has organised in Montréal to draw attention to the Trident company, which produces nuclear submarines, and to a storage site of nuclear warheads nearby.
There are several examples of other defense industries in the city, but CMCP decided from the beginning that the most effective way to operate would be to have as direct a focus as possible. Other people and groups should take on other industries. In the meantime, CMCP will continue its efforts to make the connection between the production of the cruise and its human ramifications.
Nicole de Montbrun — November 1983
The toughest thing about walking away with a race is keeping your concentration on the course.
Tom Perry often found he was distracted along the 22 kilometre course but he cruised to an easy victory — as did the other 149 entrants participating in the October 2nd Refuse the Cruise Walk-a-thon.
In a bid to raise money to support Toronto’s peace movement, most of the participants sported well-worn running shoes and winning smiles. Ensured of success, the walkers (representing a variety of Toronto peace groups) good-naturedly limped the last kilometre.
There were no dropouts in this crowd. One elderly gentleman, when asked how he found the arduous trek, answered “I’ve been training every day for the past 8 months for an event like this — every morning I walk my dog.” When asked about his pronounced limp, he shrugged it off. “I’ll worry about it tomorrow.”
The event was successful — so successful that the walk-a-thon will probably be repeated in the spring or fall of next year, according to one of the co-ordinators, Joe Maheuts.
The $14,000 raised was distributed by the organisers, T.D.N. and the Cruise Missile Conversion Project. The earnings were allocated to several current disarmament projects: one third to the October 22 Campaign, another third to the November 11 actions, and the remaining third to the groups in the T.D.N.
As the last entrants reached the finish line, they were egged on as much by the knowledge of the money raised as by the promise of some ‘fringe benefits’: a free meal, folk music provided by Paul Kriwoy, Ken Whitely, Dave Graham and Bob Carty, and, most importantly, by the waiting Wendy Moore massage therapists, who kindly volunteered to massage those weary feet at the end of the trek.
Shirley Farlinger — November 1983
Ms. Farlinger works for the United Church of Canada and attended the Sixth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Vancouver during July. The following account of Dr. Helen Caldicott’s address to the assembly was excerpted with the author’s permission from a longer article in the Newsletter of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.
For her address to the Sixth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Dr. Helen Caldicott chose the title “Life, Confronting and Overcoming Death.”
“Nuclear war is the single most urgent problem facing the human family today,” she begins. “Even before it happens, the global armaments are preparing the world as a tinder box for the final conflagration, depriving two thirds of the world’s children of food, adequate clothing and shelter. Seven hundred billion dollars are spent per year on the conventional and nuclear arms race, and the wealthy western nations and the Soviet Union are peddlers of armaments and death to Third World countries. Unless we break the cycle of corporate greed manifested by the role of armaments of death, the future of the planet is in gross jeopardy.” .
Many people in the audience know first-hand about deprivation and corporate greed. One of them, Domitila de Chungara, is the wife of a tin miner in Bolivia. “Our country has great riches.” she says, but we live in appalling poverty because of our dependence on other capitalistic countries. My husband works all day with neither Saturday nor Sunday off and he can’t even cover the family’s basic needs. The workers’ demonstrations are always met with massacres, torture and armed attacks. We wish to live in a free democratic country and will not allow a dictatorship of death to return.”
In contrast to short, solid Domitila, Dr. Caldicott is tall, slim and well-dressed. Her experience as a lecturer is evident as she continues.
“The Reagan administration has postured the Soviet Union as the only evil influence in the world and the Pentagon has prepared a Five Year Defense Guidance Plan which calls for American capability to fight and win a protracted nuclear war over a six-month period. The cold war has reached a higher plateau than at any other time since the Dulles brinkmanship era. Many great scientists and statesmen in the United States now predict that we will be lucky to survive to 1990 without a nuclear war.”
Caldicott doesn’t name the scientists and statesmen, but she has regular contact with many. Her first book, Nuclear Madness, is filled with data about plutonium, the dangers of uranium mining and nuclear industrial waste and the connection with cancer.
Caldicott’s own medical training inspired her famous lecture on .the death of the planet. Describing Earth as a patient with a rapidly spreading disease of atomic devices, she predicted an early death. This lecture was captured on film, interspersed with actual shots of atomic test explosions in Nevada, scarred Hiroshima victims and clips of military personnel, and made into the film if You Love This Planet. One of the clips shows Ronald Reagan as a young obedient soldier in a 1940s propaganda movie.
Incredible as it seems, this same Reagan recently granted Caldicott over an hour of his time at the White House. She found him both uninformed and insensitive. “Most of his information was incorrect and he had to ask an aide which country in South America was which.”
At age 72 Reagan is very susceptible to strokes and should have his cortex examined every six months, Caldicott believes. The knowledge that this unfeeling, uninformed, stroke-prone man is at that very moment directing nuclear-armed ships in a ‘show of strength’ in the Caribbean is especially chilling for the WCC delegates from Central America.
Most people are in a state Caldicott calls “psychic numbing.’” It is to overcome this that she describes a nuclear scenario.
“A nuclear war would kill from blast alone within the first hour 750 million people, and would seriously injure 350 million in the northern hemisphere. Many hundreds of millions more would die from burns, radiation illness, starvation, uncontrolled epidemics of black plague, typhoid, rabies, poliomyelitis, hepatitis, encephalitis and tuberculosis. It is possible that most people in the northern hemisphere will die within several years and many millions more in the southern hemisphere from fallout, direct nuclear attack and destruction. of the global ozone layer inducing famine, blindness and severe lethal sunburn to humans exposed to the sun for one to two hours. Other global ecological effects might be the cooling of the Earth … inducing another ice age and the darkening of the planet for several months. All these effects could well induce destruction of most life on Earth.”
She continues with a quote from Einstein. “‘The splitting of the atom has changed everything save man’s mode of thinking, thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.’ The simple scientific and medical truth is that man can no longer light. We have opened Pandora’s box, relegating war to one of the anachronisms of history. If World War II had been fought in Europe with nuclear reactors everywhere, Europe would still be uninhabitable 37 years later. Conventional wars are no longer biologically acceptable because of the dangers of nuclear meltdowns in nuclear power plants.”
The problems of radioactive fallout are well-known to the WCC delegates from the South Pacific. Twice evacuated, the Marshall Islanders have returned home to a cancer-ridden life where their newborns sometimes resemble a jelly-fish or ‘a bunch of grapes.’ Beneath these actions the delegates sense the ugly white hand of racism, the white nations of France and the U.S. disregarding the concerns of powerless black nations.
Caldicott continues her speech to the delegates. “Nationalism is also anachronistic. Man must learn to live’ with man, respecting and honouring the differences, and working to make the world a place where the children are fed, clothed and educated; where the overpopulation problem is solved and where the end product of the brilliance of man’s mind — science, industry and high technology — is put towards the health and well-being of the world instead of profits, death, destruction and Armageddon. This is the ultimate moral and religious. issue of our time.” Holding out her hands, she declares “we hold God’s creation in the palm of our hand. This generation will either decide actively to save it, or, by passive complicity, to destroy it.” She receives a standing ovation.
In addition to her books, speaking engagements and visits to leaders (she will visit Andropov soon), Caldicott is going to concentrate on . what she calls the ‘gender gap.’ Is there something inherently different in males and females that makes the arms race mainly a male obsession? .
Caldicott’s search for the answers takes her back to the births of her three children. She loved bearing her children and realised one day when driving with her baby in a car that looked as though it might crash that she would gladly die to save her child. Most women would, she claims. What is it in males, she wonders, that they can passively allow the installation. of weapons which threaten the existence of all life?
“Women must let men know that the kind of man they admire is the one who has the courage to stand up for weak people, is kind and gentle, loving and caring. They are the real men,” she contends;
“What can we do?” asks a tearful mother of a ten-year-old who tells her he won’t have a chance to grow up. Caldicott says, “Get. it into your soul how. desperate the situation really is. Ask the politicians to cut off all aid to corporations who make weapons. Use the ballot box. Tap the feeling of all mothers that they would die to save their children. Become more powerful. Say to yourself: “I will save the planet!”
John Pendergrast — November 1983
On July 20 Operation Dismantle, along with 26 other peace organisations, filed a suit in Federal Court requesting a temporary injunction to stop testing of the cruise missile in Canada. In the suit Operation Dismantle argued that the tests would violate Article 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The federal government responded by seeking dismissal of the suit as “frivolous and vexatious.” Thus began a legal battle that will almost certainly lead to the Supreme Court of Canada, perhaps more than once.
The issue, as the Government points out, involves more than the question of whether or not to test the cruise missile. At stake is the relation between Parliament and the judiciary, and the extent to which political decisions can be weighed against constitutional guarantees. When Justice Alex Cattanach of the Federal Court ruled on September 15 against the government’s plea for dismissal, it was on the grounds that the establishment of a Constitution with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms had in fact reduced the powers of Parliament, making it answerable to the overriding provisions of the Constitution, as interpreted by the courts.
The government immediately appealed the decision, and the matter was accordingly transferred to the Federal Court of Appeals, which received submissions on October t I and 12. As of October 24 the court had reserved its judgement.
Up to this point, it should be noted, the suit for a temporary injunction to halt cruise testing has not been debated on its own merits. All of the discussion to date has been over whether or not the courts have jurisdiction to hear the case at all. Furthermore, according to a spokesperson of Operation Dismantle, a split decision by the live-man Court of Appeals will probably be appealed by the losing side, whereupon the case will move to the Supreme Court of Canada. If the Supreme Court rules that the suit does indeed fall within the jurisdiction of the courts then it will revert to federal Court for decision. If the Federal Court rules in favour of the suit, than a temporary injunction will be issued immediately, pending the preparation of a more elaborate case for a permanent injunction. Of course the government might appeal this decision, but the spokesperson for Operation Dismantle felt that this was unlikely, since the injunction would. remain effective during the appeal and since the suit for a permanent injunction would keep the case open anyway.
Given the labyrinthine nature of the legal process, time is obviously rather short, with testing scheduled to begin in January. Accordingly Operation Dismantle has requested that the courts expedite the matter, and it is hoped that the suit for a temporary injunction will be heard and decided before Christmas. Should the suit be granted, a more lengthy preparation of the case for a permanent injunction will then be possible.
— November 1983
The breakdown of detente, the flare-up of the Cold War, the pitiful scenario in Geneva and the threatened deployment and testing of new, terrifying weapons have brought us all out of the woodwork. What was a small group yesterday has turned around and suddenly found itself, with relative shock, to be a movement.
Our diversity, cutting across social, class and professional barriers, is said to be our strength. Yet without unity (a unity that is more deeply defined that a one-shot, spontaneous campaign), our diversity may weaken our impact. In Canada the cruise testing issue has provided us with an arbitrary unity, an immediate focus and the blessings of having to devise only short-term strategy. The cruise testing issue may not last forever, but the goals of our movement must.
The sixties provided lessons on how movements are born and how they die, and in many ways the sixties became an experiment. In twenty years, however, the world has hurled itself to within an inch of peril. There 1s no time for experiment anymore. It’s now or never.
Perhaps no one has broached that topic in a public forum with more depth than Rudolph Bahro, a West German Green, who visited Toronto briefly in October.
“We must look beyond the threshold of a single weapons movement to the deepest roots of the arms race; to the crisis of life on this planet.” Bahro defined that crisis as one of dehumanising technology. and said that even if we avoid a nuclear confrontation, the biosphere will be ruined within two generations due to ecological waste and pollution.
“Ecological problems form the quintessence of the industrialist system in East and West,” said Bahro. “And with the popularity gained by the peace movement, we have to use that strength to become a third force with an independent ideology.” Citing the slogan of END, the European umbrella group, Bahro stated that we must be “neither loyal to one side or another, but loyal to each other;” That loyalty can be strengthened by more east I west exchanges of people, not of weapons or of diplomats. The Geneva arms talks are held by shoemakers discussing ways to abolish shoes, said Bahro, and only public disquiet can effect real progress.
In West Germany, protest is sharply focussed on the deployment of NATO missiles, but at least one group — the Greens — has urged the public to be more aware of larger issues, such as the existence of the bloc system. “Even if we manage to prevent deployment of existing weapons systems,” Bahro warned, “within five or ten years we will be threatened by even more dangerous weapons.”
It is seductively easy, he said, to appeal to the lowest common denominator, concentrating on a particular weapon and thereby ensuring the broadest grassroots support. But concentrating on a single issue may relegate the movement to a position of referee, accusing whichever superpower is ahead in the arms race at a given moment of being the bad guy.
The bloc system provides a self-perpetuating hegemony of the industrial/military north over the underdeveloped south. Unless West Germans get out of the bloc system, Bahro warned, their homeland will inevitably become a battlefield someday.
While nearly fifty million children die each year of starvation and disease, the north spends billions in arms production, maintaining that imbalance. The reason for this gross inequality, explained Bahro, lies in the fundamental nature of modem technology.
Whether an industry is run privately or nationally, relentless expansion forces workers into the role of robots, creates pollution and depletes energy resources — to name only a few of the real fruits of ‘progress.’ We must change from a civilisation of ever-expanding desires to one in which desires are suitably moderated, shifting from a consumer-oriented philosophy to a civilisation that is self-regenerating. Resembling the Buddhist concept of ‘Middle Way’ economics, the Green way stresses moderation and harmony with nature as two fundamental elements of a new society.
The Greens adamantly maintain that violence begets violence and only a sweeping change of consciousness on the part of humanity will ensure. the dawn of a new era. The enemy, explained Bahro, lies within.
By hurling accusations at outer enemies, whether real or perceived, we avoid confronting personal contradictions, thereby perpetuating an inhuman system by virtue of our own irresponsibility toward the immediate environment. As long as we are afraid of being individuals, we’ll always behave like sheep. West Germans are particularly sensitive to this phenomenon, having witnessed masses of their compatriots follow Hitler in a movement which stressed group, rather than individual, identity.
If we can save the world from its current dilemma, Bahro envisions the superpowers becoming “gentle, green, nonviolent republics” which stress self-sufficiency, ecology and the dignity of life. His expectations for this movement are broad indeed, but Bahro insists that the Greens offer a realistic perspective for the future. “This is not a dream,” he stated. “It’s the only way to survive.”
Anonymous — November 1983
The Peace Calendar is a monthly publication of the Canadian Disarmament Information Service (CANDIS), a non-profit, .non-partisan, communications and resource group serving the Canadian disarmament movement. CANDIS is. sponsored by the Holy Trinity Church in Toronto and is funded by donations. The CANDIS office is located in the Peace Chapel. of Holy Trinity (behind the Eaton Centre) and is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday, and from 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm on Saturday. Telephone — 585-225S.
CANDIS — WHAT WE OFFER
1. Information on Nuclear arms and disarmament
CANDIS gathers information from all sources on nuclear arms and disarmament, and makes that information public through its Toronto office and by telephone. CANDIS maintains a clipping file and reference library for public use, and also distributes copies of brochures, flyers, educational kits, periodicals and resource lists on nuclear disarmament. CANDIS volunteers are in the office to answer your questions. When the office is closed you can call 585-2255 and leave a recorded message.
2. Communication between Disarmament groups and the Public
In order to facilitate communications between disarmament groups and the public, CANDIS maintains an annotated list of peace and disarmament organisations in Canada. To have your organisation included send a brief description (e.g. church, political, professional, etc.), a mailing address and the names and telephone numbers of at least. two contact people.
For $2.00 CANDIS will add your organisation to a computerized mailing list which is available for use by disarmament and peace groups across Canada, and will send you a copy of this list for your use.
CANDIS is working to establish links with disarmament and peace groups throughout the world, and welcomes any information which will help to strengthen the international disarmament movement.
3. Liaison with the media
CANDIS .maintains contacts with the television, radio and print media and acts as a liaison between disarmament organisations and the media.
4. The Peace Calendar
Each month CANDIS publishes The Peace Calendar, a newspaper which includes an extensive listing of peace and disarmament events in Toronto, as well as a listing of major events across Canada. Listings for any month should be submitted by the 21st of the preceding month.
The Peace Calendar is distributed free at the CANDIS office and in bookstores, restaurants, libraries, schools, churches and other locations throughout Toronto and in major cities across Canada. Annual mailed subscriptions cost $10.00. Cheques should be made payable to CANDIS. Send your order to CANDIS, The Church of the Holy Trinity, 10 Trinity Square, Toronto, Ontario, MSG 1B1.
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Are you a repressed researcher? A latent librarian? Our Education Committee would like to hear from you. Call CANDIS at xxx-xxxx and ask for Beth Richards or Roberta Spence.
The Peace Calendar exists to support and build the disarmament movement across Canada. This is your paper, and your comments and suggestions are welcomed. Please send them to the Editorial Board, CANDIS, 10 Trinity Square, Toronto On., MSG 1B1.
CANDIS, as an ongoing service to the community, requires regular sources of income. The service is supported by donations, subscriptions and advertising revenue. CANDIS must develop these funding sources in the coming weeks and months, and you can help. If you would like to participate in any way, please call Beth Richards.
CANDIS also needs your help in distributing The Peace Calendar across the nation. If you’d like to help us make copies available in your city, please call Richard Kopycinski at 416/xxx-xxxx.
Anonymous — November 1983
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The Peace Calendar is published monthly by CANDIS, an Information clearlnghouse for the peace movement. We are in favour of international nuclear disarmament. and within that broad context. do not endorse any official policy. The Peace Calendar attempts to provide a forum for discussion of these proposals within space restrictions. We are supported by donations. subscriptions and advertising revenue.
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Announcements should be sent to Peace Network News, Toronto Area Calendar, or Across Canada Calendar, c/o CANDIS, 10 Trinity Square. Toronto. On. M5G 1B1. Space is limited, so please be brief. We welcome letters to the editors.
Jon Spencer — November 1983
Many people wonder why so many concerned citizens are protesting the testing of the cruise missile in Canada. The issue is a complex one, and a short answer is only a beginning, but one has to start somewhere. There are four principal arguments against the testing of the air-launched cruise missile (ALCM). Here they are, in abbreviated form.
1 — Verification. Weapons-limitation treaties are a crucial step toward balanced nuclear disarmament. Many people are frustrated by the slow process of negotiations, but it must be remembered that neither the U.S. nor the U.S.S.R. has violated any of the 14 treaties signed since the development of atomic weapons.
By using satellites and other surveillance methods, each superpower can maintain reasonably reliable estimates of the size of their opponent’s arsenal.
The ALCM would change all that. Current surveillance technology cannot detect the 6-metre-long cruise missile. Because of its small size, any number of ALCMs could be secretly stored in trailer trucks, warehouses and the like.
Once each side loses the ability to verify the number of missiles held by its opponent, treaties become meaningless. Why bother to negotiate the reduction of intercontinental missiles when your opponent could be stockpiling thousands of cruise missiles? The ALCM, when perfected, will jeopardise future arms reduction treaties, dooming the planet to an ever-increasing number. of nuclear weapons. The arms race is out of hand now, and it will only get worse when treaties are things of the past. It must stop sometime, and now is our best chance.
2 — Launch detection. The ALCM is a sophisticated weapon. It can fly undetected by enemy radar, following the terrain at tree-top level. The guidance system of the ALCM distinguishes it from all previous weapon technologies — it is a new breed
“Hey, Vladimir, I have two fairly reliable witnesses who called to report seeing a cigar- shaped missile in the air, headed our way.” “Fuddle-duddle, lvan, there must be 200 more that we can’t spot on our radar screens. We’ve got five minutes or less to decide whether to retaliate or not. How reliable are these sources of yours? Should we take their word for it?”
The scene above is exaggerated, but it does convey the source of the problem.
From January 1979 to June 1980, U.S. early-warning systems detected 147 false Soviet attacks. Imagine a nation that cannot rely on radar to detect enemy missile launchings, but has to depend on less reliable sources of information.
3 — Accuracy. The ALCM can hit its .target with pinpoint accuracy. If a nuclear weapon is to be used for retaliatory purposes, it needs only to land in the general vicinity of its target. A missile with that much firepower doesn’t need precision in order to inflict “unacceptable damage’,’ the threat of which is the basis of deterrence. .
There is only one possible reason for such an accurate weapon destroying ‘hardened’ military targets, such as missile silos. The cruise doesn’t fit in with the official policy of nuclear deterrence, for if it were launched in retaliation, it would only be destroying empty missile silos.
It is noteworthy that the U.S. has not agreed to a “no-first-use” policy,. as the Soviets have done. In the Soviet case, it may be empty words, but in the U.S. ‘s case, this refusal (along with the structure of their arsenal) guarantees them the ability to escalate from conventional to nuclear warfare.
4 — Canada’s role. Canada is not obliged to test the cruise. Several of our NATO allies have refused to participate in the deployment of cruise technology, and they remain members of NATO in good standing. Still other NATO nations are questioning their support for these NATO policies.
At its testing site in the western United States, the ALCM has not passed its tests. It is no. perfected yet. And the U.S. government needs Canadian airspace to run the ALCM through its final tests, because our terrain and weather are similar to those of the Soviet Union. If the cruise is not tested here, the U .S. will have to find a new test site, delaying the point of no return.
The U.S.S.R. is developing its own version of a cruise missile and theirs is not perfected yet either. If the U.S. was unable to test the ALCM, they would be in an excellent position to negotiate with the Soviet Union that neither side should develop such a weapon.
Supporters of cruise missile testing are reluctant to address these arguments, especially the first two. When they do, they indicate their lack of understanding of these issues by mixing the arguments up. More often, they stick to safer ground — addressing issues that are of little importance. thereby giving the impression that the peace movement’s concern is based on these issues. (Our favorite is: The U.S. will not be testing armed missiles here. What are you worried about?”) By ‘replying’ to imaginary arguments. and by avoiding the real issues, cruise supporters have confused the Canadian public.
The implications of cruise missile testing are frightening. But perhaps more frightening is the lack of concern Canadians demonstrate about the issue. For if nobody has presented a logical argument demonstrating that the cruise is verifiable and that it won’t make the Soviets more trigger-happy, then every Canadian should be opposed to the testing.
We haven’t yet heard any cruise supporters answer these specific arguments, but we’d like to. If we receive any logical responses, we’ll print them. (Take this as a challenge if you will). We don’t think cruise supporters can afford to address these issues, without losing the debate.
Anonymous — November 1983
- We Can Avert Nuclear War
Edited by Robert Epstein and Lucy Webster.
This book provides some good background to the article about Pugwash in the October issue of The Peace Calendar. This volume consists of the proceedings of the 25th anniversary commemorative Pugwash conference held last year in Nova Scotia. Part I is mostly formal remarks; in Part 11 the participants get down to issues. I found nothing all that new, and certainly nothing to justify the title. The participants disagreed somewhat about how much of a verification problem is presented by cruise missiles. This issue is of immense importance and it deserves extensive technical discussion, which is not provided here. We Can Avert Nuclear War will be of use to those who have a specific interest in Pugwash, but it’s not essential for the general reader.
Reviewed by Matthew Clark
- _This is the Way the World Will End, This is the Way You Will End, Unless…_By Harold Freeman
“A big book is a big evil” An updated version of an earlier American edition, it provides an admirably concise account of the problem of nuclear proliferation. The best introduction to the subject I have found, it is clear, to the point and gripping. It successfully condenses .a great deal of research into a few pages without sacrificing accuracy or attention to detail. For anyone uncertain about the nuclear issue. it provides an ideal (and inexpensive) way to convince them of the importance of nuclear disarmament. It is easily read in a few hours, but will leave its readers pondering for days.
Reviewed by Leo Groarke
- “And Then There Were None” by Eric Frank Russell.
Found in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Ila (Ben Bova, ed.), this novella is an intriguing extrapolation of the effects of civil disobedience on another planet in the far future. The story is even more thought-provoking and entertaining than it was when it was first published in 1951.
Anonymous — November 1983
The Day After
ABC-TV, November 20
On Sunday, November 20th, ABC will present a two-hour graphic T. V. show called The Day After. This drama depicts the effects of a nuclear war — on an American town, Kansas City. and problems of “survivability” in nearby Lawrence, Kansas. Jason Robards plays the part of a Lawrence doctor attempting to deal with this horrifying event.
During the filming 3,000 residents of Lawrence posed as corpses. Recently, these extras were invited to view the finished film and they were stunned by the impact of what has been described as “the most controversial and horrifying (film) ever made for the home screen. to According to descriptions by viewers, the film is relentlessly depressing, with scenes of enormous destruction by firestorms, people being. vaporised. mass graves, the irretrievable loss of food and water supplies, vandalism, murder, the breakdown of medical care, disfigurement and death from radiation sickness, Even though the film is reported to have watered down reality considerably, it is strongly suggested that you do not watch this show alone.
Growing out of their concern for the psychological response of the viewers, a group of professionals in’ California have developed the idea of holding forums in the U.S. and Canada to help people air these feelings and deal with them constructively in a nurturing environment. This is to be called The Day Before to remind people that it is still the day before any atomic blast has happened, and that we can work towards creating a world with a different scenario.
The November issue of Scientific American has an excellent brief article about the difficulties of a first strike; “The Uncertainties of a Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack,” by Matthew Bunn and Kosta Tsipis. I recommend this article both in itself and as a companion to Aldridge’s book.
Matthew Clark
War, CBC-TV
Gwynne Dyer, National Film Board.
CBC-TV is currently airing the NFB’s WAR series. seven one-hour films examining the nature, evolution and consequences of modem warfare.
The first episode, The Road to Total War, reviewed the last two hundred years of military developments in the social, economic and technological arenas. War, once an honourable, patriotic activity restricted to musket. bearing soldiers. was slowly replaced with a new phenomenon — one which used tanks, machine guns and bombs, often aimed .at civilian populations. This trend culminated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Episode two focussed on the training of military recruits, and the third film looked at ‘officer material’ — the requisites for a military commander.
The fourth film examined the conflict in the Middle East, and the fifth focussed on the current European scenario — NATO’s war games. the buildup of conventional, nuclear and chemical weapons, and the coming European conflict.
In November the final two films will be aired — Notes on Nuclear War on November 6th and Goodbye War on November 13th. These episodes promise to be of special interest to the disarmament movement. CBC is showing the series on Sunday nights at 9:00.
Jon Spencer
Anonymous — November 1983
Produced and Directed by July Irving, Chris Beaver and Ruth Landy
An experiment. Drop a live frog into a pan of boiling water. Result: frog feels the heat and jumps out again relatively unharmed. Then put a frog into tepid water. and increase the heat incrementally. Result: the frog’s body heat adapts to the rising temperature, and it eventually boils to death. At no point does the frog decide that the heat is unbearable or dangerous.
No, we’re not suggesting that you try this cruel experiment. The experiment is an analogy for the world in which we live, suggested by Pam Solo of the American Friends Service Committee in the film Dark Circle.
Since the dawn of humanity, we’ve been ‘improving’ our methods of waging war on each other. With the development of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb, we made large leaps toward the ‘boiling point.’ In the analogy, it’s the frog who dies -no big deal, most of us would say. In the real world, however I the ‘boiling point’ will be the end of life as we know it on our planet.
Albert Einstein once said that with the development of nuclear technology, everything changed except the way we humans think and act. The frog adapts. but remains unaware of the danger it is in.
Peace activists have all faced the same difficulty — reaching people and convincing them of the urgency of the situation. We’ve all found our. selves prosletysing, debating, and persuading people to look at the world we live in. Many of us have found ourselves in a .dilemma, We point to indications of this urgency. but we find that the heavy-handed, evangelical approach turns people off.
Dark Circle avoids the hysterical, indignant appeal that many of us feel we must use. Instead, it relies on the facts, the human costs of nuclear technology, presented without melodrama. None of the people profiled break into tears, and the narrator’s voice remains calm and matter-of-fact. Much of the strength of the film stems from this ‘honest’ approach.
By no means does this careful, logical presentation of the facts leave the audience bored or uninvolved. It is unlikely that anyone could see this film and remain tranquil. It reaches into its audience and locates their sense of horror and of compassion. no matter how deeply they’re buried.
If You Love This Planet and The Day After focus on the effects of nuclear war on humans and their planet. Dark Circle has an additional focus — it concentrates on the danger inherent in the preparations for nuclear war; the arms race itself.
Starting with Rockwell International’s Rocky Flats plant (where they produce the plutonium triggers for H-bombs), we are shown what people go through when a nuclear munitions factory moves into the neighbourhood. The film goes on to explore the link between nuclear weaponry and nuclear energy, and reviews the history of nuclear technology, showing atomic tests on buildings, cars, pigs and, yes, people.
The film is powerful, compelling, painful, inspiring and convincing — everything one could hope for from a film of this nature. Long-time peace activists, continually exposed to the type of information presented here, will still find Dark Circle outstanding. Most importantly, however, they must make sure others see the film. Show it to your union local, your students, your church congregation, your family and friends. Whatever it’ takes, but get people to see it.
Dark Circle is more than a horror story. In its honest, straightforward presentation of humans in conflict with nuclear technology, it reaches Out to its audience, rather than alienating it.
If humans cannot face the truth, we are no better off than the frog.
Jon Spencer
Robert Aldridge. — November 1983
In 1957, Robert Aldridge got a job as an aeronautics engineer at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. He worked on the design of Polaris and Poseidon sea. based missiles, multiple independently. targeted reentry vehicles (MIRVs). and manoeuvrable reentry vehicles (MARVs). In January 1973, after long consideration, he left Lockheed and since then he has been active in the disarmament. movement.
In First Strike!, Aldridge argues that by the late 1980s the U .S. will have the capability to enact a disarming and unanswerable first strike against the Soviet Union; the U.S.S.R. will have no comparable capability. An unanswerable first strike might present a considerable temptation for the U.S., especially in a crisis, and the U.S.S.R. might be tempted to try a preemptive strike, even if it were only partly successful, in order to limit the destruction of its own territory. It’s hard to imagine a more dangerous situation.
Let me quickly say that I’m not convinced by Aldridge’s argument. A successful first strike would require a near-perfect destruction of Soviet land-based missiles; an anti-ballistic missile defence system to deal with those Soviet missiles not destroyed in their silos; a perfect defence against bomber penetration; a perfect or near-perfect antisubmarine capability; and a command, control and communications system which could co-ordinate the whole show within seconds. Aldridge does demonstrate that the U.S. is making considerable advances In all these areas, but uncertainties necessarily remain — the systems cannot even be tested sufficiently in advance, and the consequences of even tiny failures would be catastrophic. I cannot believe that any rational commander would order a first strike even with the improvements and advances Aldridge describes; but then again, I’m not sure our commanders are rational.
Aldridge does convince me. however. that the U.S. military would like very much to have a first strike capability and that they are doing their best to get it. They may well be able to deceive themselves into the belief that they have it — and that belief (or Soviet fear) could be just as dangerous as the reality.
In the course of his discussion, Aldridge describes the new and up. coming nuclear arsenal in considerable detail; the book is essential reading for those who want to keep up with the technical aspects of the arms race. His discussions of missile accuracy versus megatonnage and warheads versus launchers is particularly useful in clearing up confusion perpetuated by the U .5. government. First Strike! requires a careful and critical reading, but it will certainly repay the effort.
Matthew Clark
Anonymous — November 1983
- War Without Winners: 1980, 30 min.
The film examines the economic, medical and social ramifications of the arms race in a good popular introduction to the issue. Available through AVEL, 85 St. Clair Ave E. xxx-xxxx. $22.50.
- Nuclear Countdown: 1978, 27 min., United Nations.
This film outlines the history of international arms agreements and points out the increasing world insecurity as world nuclear arsenals build up. Designed for non-expert audiences, it exposes the danger of the arms race, emphasizing that a lasting peace cannot be based on nuclear weapons.
Anonymous — November 1983
- Women for Survival, an Australian group, is setting up a peace camp near a U.S. Satellite Communications’ Base at Alice Springs, Australia. They have ‘rived broad support from Aboriginal people in the area and will start the camp on November I1 when peace protests will be staged throughout the country. Please send messages of sup. port to Women for Survival, P.O. Box 3603, Alice Springs, N.T., Australia.
- Peace workers in Edmonton are frustrated by media coverage (or the lack of such) in their city. They’ve formed the Edmonton Media Working Group to exchange ideas and experiences. develop analyses, and undertake media action. If you’re frustrated in getting your message through news filters, contact the Working Group for their ideas. c/o Edmonton Learner Centre, 10765 98 St., 2nd floor, Edmonton AB T5H 2P2, or call Bob Hacker at 403xxx-xxxx.
- In Toronto, several groups are planning an open house and facilitator-led evening on Monday, November 21st at the Bloor St. United Church (300 Bloor St. W.) at 7:30 (no charge). Organising groups are: Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Social Workers for Peace, Hiroshima-Nagasaki Revisited and the Toronto Chapter for Humanistic Psychology.
- Where missiles are headed: Here is a list of where Euromissiles are supposed to be deposited.
- BRITAIN-Greenham Common, Berkshire-96 cruise missiles. the first ones officially expected December 1983, but they may arrive sooner. Molesworth, Cambridgeshire-64 cruise missiles, expected 1986.
- GERMANY-Heilbronn, Neu-Ulm, Mutlangen, all near Stuttgart-36 Pershing IIs to each base (total 108), expected 1983-85. Hasselbach-96 cruise missiles. Date unknown.
- ITALY-Comiso, Sicily-1l2 cruise missiles, first ones expected December 1983.
- BELGIUM-Ardennes-48 cruise missiles, expected December 1985. Belgian government support for deployment is not yet certain.
- HOLLAND: Woensdrecht-48 cruise missiles, expected December 1985. The government has not officially accepted cruise, and the majority of Dutch people are opposed to deployment.
- New Group! Project Ploughshares has formed the Saint Simcoe Chapter. If you live in the area, contact Denise Fox, 208 Centre Street N., Beeton On.
- The Canadian Peace Listing, a compilation of over 500 peace, disarmament and development organisations, will soon be updated. The Spring 1984 edition will. be available for $5 from the Greater Victoria Disarmament Group, 4-2420 Douglas St., Victoria B.C. V8T 4L7. If you haven’t already got their first volume, don’t wait till Spring! Order now.
- Those arrested at a peaceful protest at Litton Industries continue their courtroom saga. They need lots of financial and moral support — the defendant’s box can be a lonely place to stand up for peace. Contact CMCP at xxx-xxxx and give your support.
- The WAR goes on. (See Page 8 for review.) The series of films will be available through all NFB offices starting in January 1984.
- 12 charges of the July 1st Canada Day arrests were dismissed on the grounds that the OPP has no authority to restrict our right to demonstrate, and legal remedies are being sought by the 12 defendants for the interference with their constitutional rights and the 20 hours spent in jail. Brian Burch and. Diane Sivard are facing trial on Dec. 10 for assault and trespass for attempting to chain themselves to the flagpole on Canada Day. Contact Burch at xxx-xxxx or xxx-xxxx to offer your assistance.
- The first Southern Ontario Disarmament Conference will take place on November 19 from 10:00 am until noon the following day, with accommodation available for Saturday nigh!. Regional planning is a must in order to develop strong support between local coalitions and networks. Two delegates are being asked from each participating group and start thinking about what you’d like on the agenda. To participate, contact Doug Mohr, 301 103 Church St. Kitchener On. N2G 1S3. The sponsoring organisation is the Kitchener-Waterloo Peace Network.
- If you’re working with a small peace group in the Toronto area and you want to take pan in broad planning for the peace movement, join up with the Toronto Disarmament Network. Representatives from over fifty disarmament groups make their voices heard at monthly general meetings -and your voice counts too. Annual membership fee for organisations is $50 and you can pay by instalment. Call 585-2255 for more info.
- The Anglican Peace Fellowship has been formed after consultation with the Committee on Public Social Responsibility for the Diocese of Toronto. Christopher Morden and Hugh Alley have prepared a one-evening program called “Thy Kingdom Come: Peace and Justice in a Nuclear Age.” which is being made available to Anglican parishes in Toronto. In addition to providing the program, the Fellowship will train leaders and provide resources and support for ongoing study and action. A conference for more detailed study of the issues will be planned once as many churches as possible present the initial program. Contact Morden at 13 Aldridge Ave.. Toronto,
M4L JW3 or call -699-3683—>xxx-xxxx.
- Make Lunch, Not War! That’s the slogan of a newly formed peace group. We have doctors for peace, lawyers and dentists for peace. students and secretaries for peace, now it’s time for the broadest coalition possible: Becker’s Customers for Nuclear Disarmament! Don’t be misled, this is not a group for everyone. Meetings are 9 am to II pm, seven days a week, and peace camps are being formed in the aisles, next to the magazine rack. Central demands are as follows: “We want a homogenized peace movement,” “Reduce all arms expenditures to 2%” and “Ice cream for peace!” (Groan…) For more information, contact your local store.
- A Women’s Peace Camp has been established in Cole Bay, Saskatchewan, S0M 0M0, and welcomes visitors and supporters. Call 306/xxx-xxxx.
- NOTE: The CANDIS office will be closed from November 23 to December 14. However, we will be forwarding our phone, so you can still reach us at 416/ 2255 during that period.
- Edmontonians are working to strengthen their organisation to put their main energy behind the Peace Petition Caravan Project.
- “Target Seattle” is an impressive conference dealing this year with the theme Soviet Realities, and lasting from October 29 to November 6 at 909 4th avenue, Seattle Wa. 98104. Call 206/xxx-xxxx.
- A U .S. Senatorial election will be conducted to replace, the late Henry Jackson. Candidates are Bill Evans and Mike Lowry, who has been endorsed by Dr. Helen Caldicott. Any Canadians interested in the Lowry campaign should contact P.O. Box 4246, 114 3rd Ave., Seattle Wa. 98104. Call 206/xxx-xxxx.
- No Euroshima! No More Vietnams! A National March on Washington D.C. will take place on November 12th. The protest will focus on U.S. intervention in Central America and the Caribbean, and anyone wishing to participate should contact Mobilization for Survival, 853 Broadway, NYC, NY 10003. Or call 212/xxx-xxxx.
- It’s 1986 and the world is at peace. How did it happen? Outline the circumstances that brought about this global transformation. Send your replies to Tony Bond,” Box 95, Station A, Toronto. The best idea will be made into a script and then a film. Be a visionary! If we think positively, and act positive, our vision will become a reality.
- Concerned individuals and groups have banded together to form the Niagara Coalition for Disarmament. They work for peaceful means for world disarmament of both nuclear and conventional weapons. Political differences are recognised but the shared common concern for peace is paramount. Membership is open to all groups and individuals in the Golden Horseshoe area of Ontario. For more information, contact the Coalition at Box 2181, Niagara Falls, On. L1E 6Z3 or phone 416/xxx-xxxx.
- Operation Dismantle has incurred enormous costs in accumulated lawyers’ fees during the course of their court case (see Page 3 for details). They are seeking financial support, and you can send your cheque to Operation Dismantle, Box 3887, Station C, Ottawa K1Y 4M5.
Anonymous — November 1983
Every day, several people write to The Peace Calendar with suggestions for articles. The peace movement is involved in literally thousands of Important (newsworthy) projects, and we agree that we should be covering them all.
In the first week of each month, the Editorial Board of The Peace Calendar convenes and tries to decide which of these projects most need to be covered — not an easy task. We expanded to eight pages because it was necessary, not because we could afford to. We couldn’t even afford the old four-page format.
But we’re still swamped with letters requesting more analytical articles, more features, more resources, more news, more events listings, and so on. All of these things cost money. Printing alone costs us $50 for every thousand copies. Two CANDIS people are on small salaries, but salaries are what we cut first when we run out of money, which happens frequently.
Printing and salaries are only the beginning. Typesetting, supplies, phones and more — it’s expensive to put out a monthly newspaper.
The Peace Calendar’s production duo, our writers and editors, and our distribution and advertising volunteers have collectively produced a professional paper that reflects well on the peace movement. Their commitment has paid off. Or has it?
The outcome is a paper that appears to be well funded. The talent and dedication of our staff is working against us. Our readers think that The Peace Calendar happens by Itself. We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again, this time more clearly: WE ARE NOT WELL FUNDED!
Our creditors need not worry: we will always pay our debts. But our readers must not assume that The Peace Calendar will live up to its mandate without their support.
We don’t care how you do it, but we hope you’ll help us. If you have no money, come learn how to set type and do paste-up. Or work with our distribution committee. Or sell ads.
We’ve thought of leaving a page blank, with a little message saying that we don’t have enough money to set the type for the articles that were supposed to appear on that page. We hope we won’t have to resort to measures that drastic. In all your letters and phone calls, you have indicated that The Peace Calendar is vital to the Canadian peace movement. We hope you’ll pay more than lip service to disarmament.
We thank you in advance. We promise you’ll see results!
The Editors
Anonymous — November 1983
According to Sergei Batovrin and Mikhail Ostrovsky, representatives of the Moscow Trust Group Abroad, 2000 people are active in the independent peace movement in the U.S.S.R. A demonstration at the Soviet Mission to the U.N. on October 1st protested the arrest and detention of several independent peace activists. International appeal have gone out for the release of Alexander Shatravka (sentenced to three years of labour camp for collecting signatures to the Trust Group’s founding appeal), Vladimir Mishchenko (serving one year for the same ‘offense’), and Oleg Radzinsky (detained in prison and facing 12 years of labour camp and internal exile for independent peace activities). Branches of the Trust Group have been formed in at least five other Soviet cities. Batovrin and Ostrovsky ask that you send telegrams protesting the arrests to Yuri Andropov, General Secretary of the CPSU, The Krernlin, Moscow, U.S.S.R. For more information on the Trust Group, contact Batovrin at 1793 Riverside Drive, Apt. 58. New York, NY 10034, or call 212/xxx-xxxx.