February 2001

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Keeping Space for Peace

Bruce K. Gagnon works with Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. For information on spring organizing: PO Box 90083, Gainesville, Fl. 32607; www.space4peace.org

We can't afford to wait. Congress, with growing numbers of weak willed "New Democrats," has already voted to give the president the right to deploy "missile defense" as soon as technologically feasible. All that is left for us to do is rapidly build an international movement that can create the intense pressure to slow down and then stop Star Wars. We can't wait for the Democrats to do it for us--they likely will not.

We must stretch ourselves to do more, to take bolder action, if we hope to block a new arms race in space. We must go to the corporate offices of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, TRW, and Raytheon. We must go to the Space Command and other military installations that are working on Star Wars. Like Martin Luther King, who brought people into the solid south to protest against segregation and for civil rights, we must create a nonviolent civil "crisis" of conscience over this issue. We are in a historic struggle to keep space for peace. We must force a debate that the government and the corporate-controlled media do not want to have.

In February we will be protesting at the International Space Nuclear Power symposium and we will be back in Huntsville for the Global Network's upcoming March 16-18 National Space Organizing Conference & Protest. In early May we'll hold our International Star Wars conference in Leeds, England and hold a protest at nearby Menwith Hill. On May 19 there will be a major day of resistance at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the place where National Missile Defense is being tested, wasting over $100 million per test. And people all over the world are planning protests around the next NMD test which is expected to take place sometime in early spring. And we'll soon enough return to this solid south for protests in southwest Mississippi, at the Stennis Missile Center, that has just been chosen as the test site for the Space Based Laser, the real Reagan Star Wars (one of Bush's favorite new weapons systems.)

We will press on and hope that the peace movement and the public will respond. We have no choice. We must have hope.

In Memoriam: Alan Cranston

The following message is from the Global Security Institute to friends and colleagues of Alan Cranston. Contributions to further Alan Cranston's work and goals can be made to the Global Security Institute, PO Box 475160, San Francisco, CA 94147

When Alan Cranston died on the final day of the 20th century, we lost one of the most prominent advocates of a nuclear weapons free world. A warrior for peace, Alan was 86 years old and had lived a full life, but he was still working daily on plans to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons. The staff, board, and friends of the Global Security Institute, which he founded to further this cause, will deeply miss his wit, vision, strength and unwavering determination. He said that his work on nuclear weapons abolition was more satisfying than his years in the US Senate. Those who knew him and worked with him remember his utter humility and complete commitment to the task at hand.

Alan Cranston used as a guide for leadership a quote by the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu, which he carried in his wallet for years: "A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, less good when they obey and acclaim him, worse when they fear and despise him. Fail to honor people and they fail to honor you. But of a good leader, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will all say, 'We did this ourselves.'"

Previous Article    Next Article