Tag Archives: F-35

Ban Nuclear Weapons ~ Madison Alder Contact ~ #BackFromTheBrink

Contact city alders and be sure they have all of the following information and links.

Dear Alder:

We/I write to ask you to support a City of Madison Back from the Brink (BftB) Resolution. It calls on the federal government to honor the Nonproliferation Treaty of 1970 (NPT), embrace the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) of 2021 and take the following steps to reduce the risk of nuclear war:

Madison, Wisconsin declared itself a nuclear free zone in a 1983 ordinance and passed a proclamation in 2019 commemorating August 6th as Hiroshima Day and August 9th as Nagasaki Day. The 2019 proclamation also called on the US to live up to its obligations under the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty and cancel the nuclear weapons modernization program.

We are asking for the City to make a financial commitment that aligns with its history of advocacy for nuclear disarmament. The Madison Back from the Brink Resolution includes a pledge by the City to end investments in and contracts with companies involved in nuclear weapons production such as those listed in the 2022 Don’t Bank on the Bomb “Hall of Shame”.  We look forward to developing a workable plan with City of Madison staff.

Over sixty-five US cities have passed the Back from the Brink Resolution.

Fifteen US cities have so far passed resolutions committing themselves to nuclear weapon free investments and/or contracts.

 

For additional information, see links below:

-12/2022 Background on Back from the Brink.

– Summary of Divestment Information

 – PSR Wisconsin Back from the Brink web page

 

We are eagerly awaiting your support of this Resolution.

 

Sincerely,

 

Back from the Brink resolution Co-sponsors:

  • 350 Madison,
  • Dane County Chapter of United Nations Association,
  • First Unitarian Society Social Justice Ministry,
  • Four Lakes Green Party, 
  • Friends Meeting of Madison,
  • Interfaith Peace Working Group
  • Madison Mennonite Church,
  • Physicians for Social Responsibility – Wisconsin,
  • Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society Social Action Committee,
  • Progressive Dane,
  • Raging Grannies of Madison/Dane County, 
  • Reverend Franz Rigert, Conference Minister of General Synod of United Church of Christ (UCC passed the resolution at the General Synod in June 2019),
  • Veterans for Peace – Chapter 25,
  • Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice
  • Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and
  • World BEYOND War  

 

Public & Press Release: Nonviolent Resisters Block Shift Change at Truax Military Base Monday Morning

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Madison, WI, 3/27/2023

Nonviolent Resisters Successfully Blocked Shift Change at Truax Air National Guard Base this Morning to Oppose F-35 Fighter Jets & War

—–

Contacts:

Janet Parker, Madison for a World BEYOND War, 608-228-9096 janetparker8@gmail.com

Joy First, Wisconsin Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars, 608-239-4327

Live this morning on Channel 27: https://www.wkow.com/news/demonstrators-gather-at-truax-field-to-oppose-arrival-of-f-35-fighter-jets/article_a526c44c-cc8f-11ed-9c13-6b59db1b26b4.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

A nonviolent resistance action successfully blocked the shift change this morning at Truax ANG Base this morning, March 27, 2023.   More than 40 activists, including Iowa County parish priest Father Jim Murphy, took part in protesting the F-35 fighter jets, which are scheduled to come to Truax Field in Madison this spring.  These jets were opposed by the MMSD School Board and the Madison City Council.  Activists are calling on the Governor to change the mission of Truax ANG base to a peaceful one.  Today in Burlington, VT, the other F-35 base, activists are also demonstrating.

“Help us say no to war, environmental pollution, militarism, and F-35’s in Madison or anywhere else.”              – Andrea Novotney, Great Turning Catholic Worker Farm, Madison

 “We call for grounding the F-35 fighter jets, gun control at the Pentagon, and war abolition: an end to the organized mass murder called war.”

– Janet Parker, Madison for a World BEYOND War.

“We want the Governor to meet with a delegation of Safe Skies representatives in order to discuss the F-35 project and to propose a solution that will meet the needs and concerns of Madison residents and our local public official allies.  We want the Governor to negotiate with the Air Force to create a new mission for the Air National Guard at Truax Field.”

– Safe Skies organizer Tom Boswell

Statement: 

F-35 FIGHTER BRINGS THE WAR HOME TO WISCONSIN!

WE SAY NO!

We come here today, March 27, 2023 to say: ground the F-35 fighter jet and abolish war! The F-35 fighter jet is a threat to the planet. It should not be based in Madison or anywhere.

Under state law, the Air National Guard provides protection of life and property and preserves peace, order and public safety, but the ANG at Truax violates that mandate. ANG bases in several states provide emergency relief during floods, earthquakes and forest fires; search and rescue operations; medical missions. Fighter jets can’t “preserve peace, order and public safety.” They are worthless in a natural disaster.  They are not effective for search and rescue. They can’t help maintain vital public services. The F-35 is only an instrument of war and more than ever before, the ANG at Truax will threaten the lives of civilians abroad and degrade the quality of life in Madison.

The F-35, wherever it is deployed, will degrade the environment, intensify climate chaos, intensify the horrors of present wars and precipitate new ones. Due to the expansion of NATO and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the threat of nuclear annihilation has never been so grave as now. Placing the F-35 at Truax will make Madison a target in any nuclear confrontation with Russia.  But in reality, nowhere on earth will be safe.

We urgently call on the governor of Wisconsin, on the Adjutant General of the Wisconsin National Guard, on the commander of Truax Field, on the state’s legislature and congressional delegation to change the mission of Truax. We call upon world leaders to disarm and abolish war and on the world’s people to join us in this demand.







This weekend, Madison hosted the 20th Catholic Worker Midwest Faith and Resistance Gathering this past weekend, to prepare for nonviolent resistance actions in Madison on Monday, March 27 to oppose war and F-35 fighter jets.

Madison Veterans for Peace, Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin, Madison for a World BEYOND War are local hosts.  Madison activists are joined by Catholic Workers who converged from Missouri, Ohio, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Maryland and Wisconsin.  CODEPINK: Women for Peace are partners in the action also.

More details:

https://www.safeskiescleanwaterwi.org/save-the-date-march-24-27-catholic-worker-faith-resistance-gathering-no-f-35s/

Catholic Worker was formed in the depths of the Great Depression, 1933, when Dorothy Day and a few others hawked The Catholic Worker in New York’s Union Square. Today there are 187 Catholic Worker communities committed to non-violence, voluntary poverty, prayer and hospitality. They continue to protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms.

All Posts – Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin

Campaign to Ground the F-35 Jet Program

Code Pink launches national campaign to ground the F-35 and cancel the F-35 program

Letter to to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin specifically mentions South Burlington and Winooski

#CancelTheF35

“Sign on to the brilliant letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin put out nationally by Code Pink today, January 29, calling “for a cancellation of the F-35 program, an end to F-35 training in residential areas like South Burlington, Vermont and Madison, Wisconsin, and a reinvestment of the project’s funds to life affirming programs.”

The Code Pink letter also notes that Winooski is within the F-35 noise target zone and is “a working-class city, the most densely populated in Vermont, with the state’s most ethnic diversity.”

 

“The letter will also be hand delivered to members of Congress.

As Code Pink says in its email announcing the letter,

F-35 fighter jet production was halted pending an investigation into the crash where the pilot was ejected from the aircraft. [See video and analysis of the F-35 crash in Fort Worth last month]. Now the Dept. of Defense is delaying full-rate production, potentially for another YEAR. This is a win for the people and the planet and bad news for the war profiteers at Lockheed Martin.

Read and sign on to the Code Pink letter: http://www.codepink.org/secretary_austin_cancel_the_f_35?recruiter_id=355939 

 

Link to Cancel the F35 original article 

To get involved locally in Wisconsin or to sign up for updates. 

or comment on Facebook 

No to Nuclear ~ Help Strengthen the Treaty

Roxane Assaf-Lynn “ATTENTION STUDENT GROUP LEADERS: You’re invited to sign on as a co-sponsor to “Defuse Nuclear War” on the 40th anniversary of a history-making event in Central Park, New York. 
Thanks from RootsAction.org CONTACT: Rox@RootsAction.org

Sign Up Your Organization to Co-Sponsor the “Defuse Nuclear War” Live Stream Event June 12 

 

Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative

sign on, if you agree 

 

STATEMENT ON THE EXISTENTIAL THREAT OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS 

AND ON THE TREATY ON THE PROHIBITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

The power to initiate a global apocalypse lies in the hands of the leaders of nine nations.

As 122 nations of the world indicated when they adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in July, 2017, this is unacceptable.

As concerns about the threat of nuclear weapons re-enter the public consciousness, it is important to know that humankind is not without an answer to the nuclear threat. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force on January 22, 2021, provides a clear pathway to the elimination of the nuclear threat.

We call on all nuclear armed states to take immediate steps to:

  • engage the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,
  • attend the First Meeting of States Parties, and
  • sign, ratify and implement the Treaty.

We also call on the US media to recognize the existence of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to include the Treaty in discussions, articles, and editorials regarding the nuclear threat and methods available to address it.

 

Talk World Radio:
Norman Solomon on Defusing Nuclear War

David Swanson:  “This week on Talk World Radio, we’re talking about Ukraine and nuclear weapons with Norman Solomon who is Co-Founder and National Director of RootsAction.org. Norman also founded the Institute for Public Accuracy in 1997 and is its executive director. Immersed in anti-war, social justice, and environmental movements since the late 1960s, he is the author of a dozen books including “War Made Easy” and “Made Love, Got War.”

 

artist:  Yoshitomo Nara