GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

This hybrid meeting[3] organized by ABFANG[4], WILPF[5] Austria and the IPB[6] took place on June 19 and was supported by IPPNW[7] Austria, Frieden./.attac, ITUC[8] , transform!europe, forum wissenschaft&umwelt, ICAN[9], the Vienna NGO Committee on Peace and the International Department of the International Trade Union  Confederation. Politically correct beginning with voices on the situation in Ukraine for peace from Yurii Sheliazhenko, executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement and Oleg Bodrov, chairman of the Public Council of the Southern Shore of the Gulf of Finland, Russia. Apart from the call for immediate ceasefire and for dialogue, they stressed the importance of youth involvement into the peace process. Confronted with the propaganda, which only makes enemies everywhere and thereby contributes to divide people, it is important to tell the truth, in particular for youth as part of one society on our planet. For this the peace process should become operational on regional level. This was followed by a passionate presentation of the most important paragraphs of the Treaty and of practical ways of implementing it by Rebecca Johnson (UK), co-founder of ICAN. She addresses nuclear weapons and climate destruction as the major extinction threats of our time. Nuclear weapons have to be banned as they are enabling war, not preventing it. Power should be shifted from nuclear players into the international community and international law. NFU, no first use, a problematic concept, the aim should be no nuclear weapons at all. No  military attacks on nuclear facilities. Importance of victim assistance and environment remediation. Vanessa Griffin from ICAN Pacific spoke of fighting for peace in the Global South and in particular of the long term effects of nuclear testing of the USA, GB and France in her part of the world. In this regard, she sees the whole world today as a colony of the nuclear powers. The conclusion was a stirring, eloquent presentation of trade union peace work, peace struggle, struggle for security and workers and people human rights by Philip Jennings (UK), ITUC and co-president of the IPB. He introduced a report published by the Olof Palme International Centre, the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) on Common Security 2022: For Our Shared Future. The meeting ended with a Panel Discussion in cooperation of peace and environmental movements – Way to an eco-social society? Participants: Helga Kromp-Kolb, environmental meteorologist, Professor BOKU, Phill Gittins, Education Director WBW (World beyond War), Heidi Meinzolt, Europe Regional Representative, WILPF, Alex Praça, Brazilian Journalist, Alessandro Capuzzo, Trieste Non-Nuclear Movement. Heinz Gärtner, political scientist, OIIP (Austrian Institute for International Affairs).