This FREE 4-session course is informative and fascinating!

Sign up now to take it either in MAY or in JULY 2021 (your choice of Tuesdays or Saturdays in either month).

We use Zoom video, so people everywhere take our course.

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Scroll down to see the easy way to sign up.

The Cold War ended three decades ago, but nuclear weapons remain a threat to the world. Many recent and current actions by the U.S. government have sharply increased the danger of nuclear war in the “new cold war,” so now the “Doomsday Clock” is the closest to midnight it has ever been, since it was devised in 1953. Also, the U.S. is spending more on nuclear weapons than ever before – even more than at the peak of the Cold War!

However, most Americans do not want to think about nuclear weapons. This course provides necessary information for people who are new to the issue – and people whose knowledge is out-of-date. Much has changed recently, and dangers are increasing in several ways, but politicians and mainstream news media are failing to inform the public about what people need to know.

This 4-session course presents the serious information in a supportive environment and also lifts up some positive ways people can solve the problems. We go far beyond “doom and gloom” to actually empower people to support the solutions.

Four well informed people designed this course and trade off during the sessions so you’ll enjoy a mix of voices and areas of expertise. We designed this course of four two-hour sessions to help people regardless of how much they have known about nuclear weapons.

Topics include:

the evolution of science that led to nuclear weapons
how nuclear weapons – and the policies for using them – have changed over the years
new dangers since the 2016 election
impacts of nuclear weapons testing on innocent people
decades of grassroots organizing to stop the arms race and abolish nuclear weapons
international efforts to make nuclear weapons illegal, including the very exciting treaty which will soon come into force
our own feelings and values related to nuclear weapons
the power of nonviolent resistance
Nuclear weapons are frightening, but ordinary people can learn what they need to know and can take smart actions to reduce the dangers. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by hard, scary realities, this course helps people learn and also empower themselves to support the positive efforts that are happening at the global, national and local levels.

The course is presented by four well-informed persons from the Olympia WA area:

Glen Anderson is chair of the Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (OCANW)
Mark Fleming is the secretary of the Rachel Corrie Chapter #109 of the Veterans for Peace in Olympia
James Manista is a peace activist who recently faced federal charges for resisting the Trident nuclear submarine
Joanne Dufour has experience with disarmament issues including nuclear weapons, international humanitarian law, et. al.
We are volunteers who offer this course for FREE.

Here is how to sign up:

To take the 4-session course in MAY 2021, choose either:

Saturdays: Pacific Time 10:00 a.m. (sharp) to 12:00 noon May 1, 8, 15 and 22. (If you’re in another time zone, please adjust for your local time (11am MDT; noon CDT; 1 pm EDT.)
Tuesdays: Pacific Time 5:00 (sharp) to 7:00 pm May 4, 11, 18 and 25. (If you’re in another time zone, please adjust for your local time: (6 pm MDT; 7 pm CDT; 8 pm EDT.)
If you anticipate a conflict, please plan ahead to be sure you can attend the alternative. The first class of each session will be offered on Saturday, then repeated on the following Tuesday.

To take the 4-session course in MAY OR JULY 2021, please notify Joanne Dufour at jduf234@gmail.com and provide the information below..

The presenters are offering the course twice a week during July 2021 as well, with the first class offering on Tuesdays, and repeated on Saturdays of the same week

Tuesday classes are held from 5:00 – 7:00 pm (Pacific time) on July 6, 13, , 20 and 27;
Saturdays: Pacific Time 10:00 a.m. (sharp) to 12:00 noon July 10, 17, 24 and 31. Please see the May schedule ABOVE for the times for each class in other time zones. If you’re in another time zone, please adjust for your local time
Whichever class you decide to join, please send Joanne Dufour an e-mail to jduf234@gmail.com with this subject line:
OCANW course on Nuclear Weapons. Or you may phone Joanne at (206) 550-1841.

Please provide your name, email address, home mailing address, and phone number. Specify whether you want MAY or JULY and whether you want TUESDAYS or SATURDAYS.

She will e-mail you the Zoom video link so you can join our course.

Also, we will e-mail each participant a number of readings and videos that flesh out the topics of each of the four class sessions. These are not mandatory but we do encourage participants to read at least some of the readings and watch at least some of the videos, because they do provide important information and insights.

We hope you will join us!

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This webinar will announce the launch of BanKillerDrones, a new campaign for an international treaty to ban weaponized drones and military and police drone surveillance. This comes at the moment when the Biden Administration is reportedly looking to increase U.S. drone killing and drone surveillance as key to retaining some level of colonial control in Afghanistan, under the guise of countering Al Qaeda, as U.S. troops are removed. The reality appears to be that U.S. drones, and other U.S. military aircraft, will continue to support U.S. special forces operating in Afghanistan. A New York Times article on April 15 indicates that drone killing will be even more at the center of global U.S. military policy, quoting U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin: “’There’s probably not a space on the globe that the United States and its allies can’t reach,’ Mr. Austin told reporters.” Civilians continue to be the primary casualties of drone war.

Panelists include:

Brian Terrell participated in the first protest in the U.S. against killing by remote control in 2009, shortly after newly elected President Obama made assassination by Predator and Reaper drones the cornerstone of his military policy. Since his arrest at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada that spring, Brian has participated in nonviolent protests around the country and abroad as this deadly technology has been proliferating. At these protests he has been arrested many times, serving jail sentences in New York and Nevada, and in 2013 Brian spent six months in federal prison for presenting a petition against drone war at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Brian has traveled extensively, making several visits to Afghanistan where he met with drone victims and their families. He has spoken about drones at universities, high schools, churches and rallies in the United States, Europe and Asia and his writings on the subject have been widely published and translated into several languages. A peace activist for more than 45 years, Brian lives on a Catholic Worker farm in Maloy, Iowa.

Kathy Kelly serves on World BEYOND War's Advisory Board. She has traveled to war zones and lived alongside ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Bosnia, Haiti and Nicaragua. She and her companions in Voices in the Wilderness and then Voices for Creative Nonviolence believed the U.S. should end all U.S. military and economic warfare. From 1996 – 2003, Voices activists formed 70 delegations that openly defied economic sanctions by bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq. Kelly traveled to Iraq 27 times during that period. She frequently writes and speaks about experiences living in Iraq during the first weeks of both the 1991 and 2003 U.S. invasions and, more recently, visiting Kabul as a guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers from 2011 to 2019. She has helped publicize and protest drone warfare through nonviolent direct actions at bases operating drones. In 2015, for carrying a loaf of bread and a letter across the line at Whiteman AFB, which operates weaponized drones flying over Afghanistan, she served three months in federal prison.

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is cofounder and executive director of World BEYOND War and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and was awarded the 2018 Peace Prize by the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation. Swanson is on the advisory boards of: Nobel Peace Prize Watch, Veterans For Peace, Assange Defense, BPUR, and Military Families Speak Out. He is an associate of the Transnational Foundation.

Leah Bolger retired in 2000 from the U.S. Navy at the rank of Commander after twenty years of active duty service. Her career included duty stations in Iceland, Bermuda, Japan and Tunisia and in 1997, was chosen to be the Navy Military Fellow at the MIT Security Studies program. Leah received an MA in National Security and Strategic Affairs from the Naval War College in 1994. After retirement, she became very active in Veterans For Peace, including election as the first woman national president in 2012. Later that year, she was part of a 20-person delegation to Pakistan to meet with the victims of U.S. drones strikes. She is the creator and coordinator of the “Drones Quilt Project,” a traveling exhibit which serves to educate the public, and recognize the victims of U.S. combat drones. In 2013 she was selected to present the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Memorial Peace Lecture at Oregon State University. Currently she serves as the President of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War.

Click the "Register" button to sign up and receive the Zoom info for the event!

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Photo Credit: Stefanie Glinski, The Guardian. (Badshah Dullah, 40, stands in what is left of his house in Khost, Afghanistan, hit 15 years ago. Dullah has never been able to rebuild it.)

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Christian Sorensen is a researcher, journalist, and author focused on the U.S. war industry. His work includes distilling the U.S. military’s daily contract announcements into digestible monthly summaries in order to educate the public about the profitable nature of war. He believes an educated public can make the decisions necessary to redress the state of the nation, particularly moving to embrace the democratization of the workplace.

Understanding the War Industry

Sorensen contributes frequently to independent media outlets. He is currently a senior fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network, an organization of independent veteran military and national security experts.

Understanding the War Industry is his seminal book describing today’s military-industrial-congressional complex.

His novels, available for free on this site, are designed to spark the creative steps toward a better future for all. His novel Reading Heeled—written in 2018, long before federal agencies cracked down on Portland—depicts a federal task force facing off against anarchists in Chicago.

Sorensen’s website: https://warindustrymuster.com

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