 December 2001/ January 2002
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
What We Can Do Now, for Ourselves and for Peace Ann Fagan Ginger directs the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute in Berkeley, CA; www.mcli.org I need to take the time and energy to face the basic facts in the current situation because sometimes in history, people have made a difference in what happened next. They joined together to think, to talk, and finally to act, firmly, with courage, without stopping until the situation was dealt with as peacefully and affirmatively as possible. I invite you to join me in looking at this situation and figuring out what to do. As half the world faces winter, the whole world is in a situation that has never happened before. There is one superpower, only one. The leader of this superpower was selected in violation of many national laws, and his advisors are destroying civil rights and liberties for citizens, students, and immigrants in the name of patriotism, in a killing field that is not a declared war against any nation. This superpower is in an economic recession and cannot wage war without killing budget items for education, health care, housing, the environment, and social security, killing the dreams of a great many in the next generation. The other feature of the present situation is also new in the history of the world. The United Nations is a system of global governance that has operated for 56 years. It has helped bring to life a free, democratic South Africa. It has brought elections to an independent East Timor. It has helped settle many disputes that seemed intractable. 189 nations have committed themselves not to use force or threat of force in the settlement of disputes. These commitments are written into the UN Charter, the Nuremberg Principles, and treaties spelling out, step by step, what to do when nations or terrorists attack. The International Court of Justice can hear charges against nations for supporting terrorists.
We have to take a huge step, each one of us, if we are to get
to peace and save our democracy. We have to become active citizens
of the United States and of the world. Using the United Nations Charter and the US Constitution Please get a copy of the UN Charter at www.un.org, or from the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, and read Articles 2.3, 2.4, and 33 through 54 on what to do when there is a threat to the peace anywhere. Then contact every one of your elected government officials and remind them that they must follow the steps in the UN Charter because, when they took the oath of office, they swore to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States, and the UN Charter is part of "the laws of the United States." It is a treaty, and it was signed by the President and ratified by the Senate.
Please also get a copy of the US Constitution at your local library
or at Write to the President and the Attorney General to tell them that they can not legally, under the US Constitution, issue an executive order abolishing trials for so-called terrorists, without judge or jury or courtroom trial. They can not legally permit jailers to deny arrested people the right to talk to their lawyers without police wiretapping. They can not legally tell local police departments to call in and question students who come from Arab nations.
Write to your local and national newspapers and TV and radio stations,
and say that you expect them to use the free press rights guaranteed
them by the First Amendment to provide accurate and complete coverage
of US and world events. Peace is Possible Peace is possible because it is absolutely necessary.
The path to peace is not in the proposals of the current US administration.
The path to peace is in the solemn legal agreements made at the
end of World War Two--a war that had just killed 30 to 50
million people. We must follow that path in order to avert World
War Three--a war that could end the human race.
Article 2 3. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. 4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations. Article 33 1. The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice. 2. The Security Council shall, when it deems necessary, call upon the parties to settle their dispute by such means. Article 41 The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations. Article 42 Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of Members of the United Nations. Article 49 The Members of the United Nations shall join in affording mutual assistance in carrying out the measures decided upon by the Security Council. Article 51 Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security. Article 54
The Security Council shall at all times be kept fully informed
of activities undertaken or in contemplation under regional arrangements
or by regional agencies for the maintenance of international peace
and security.
Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. Amendment VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Amendment XIV
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject
to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States
and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens
of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny
to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of
the laws. 
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