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The 5th ITUC World Congress

The 5th ITUC World Congress in Australia has celebrated the role of trade unions in peace-building, without which there can be no social justice.
Presenting the Freedom Report 2022: Unions Building Peace to the delegates, ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow said: “Some two billion people live in conflict-affected countries, with 56 state-based conflicts in the world today.

“International humanitarian trade union solidarity, such as the major efforts to support workers in Ukraine, Myanmar and elsewhere, is part of a broader framework of trade union efforts to build and sustain peace and to avoid conflicts and rebuild in their aftermath. The world must learn from this example.

“If world leaders can come together to look at addressing the threats from climate change, then it should also invest in global dialogue on measures to prevent conflict, to end existing conflicts and to rebuild in the aftermath of war in a just and sustainable way.

“There are many examples of trade union action for peace, justice and democracy. We take pride in these achievements and the inspiration we draw from them will help unions everywhere plan and campaign for fundamental freedoms, democracy and peace.”

The report includes case studies from:
• In Colombia, unions have been at the forefront of decades of struggle for peace and social justice.
• In Northern Ireland, the trade union movement has long been a motor for peace and overcoming division and sectarianism.
• In Myanmar, the unions continue their longstanding peace and democracy struggle in the most difficult and dangerous circumstances under a ruthless military dictatorship.
• In Tunisia, the UGTT and others were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to build a post-dictatorship country with a new constitution. A commitment that remains just as strong as the country faces new challenges.

Missiles on Poland: Restraint is Vital

IPB supports the statement below, which was issued on 15 November 2022 from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is deeply concerned by reports of a missile explosion in Poland and is appalled that lives have been lost. These most recent developments demand clarity and restraint. This latest tragic episode in the ongoing catastrophic war in Ukraine should not, and must not, result in an escalated military response. This is especially important given the heightened nuclear threat. We call on the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to clarify the facts of what took place, and we reiterate our calls for an urgent and peaceful resolution to this conflict.

Open Letter Launch on military spending and climate finance

In a collaboration between the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) , World BEYOND War (WBW), and the International Peace Bureau (IPB), we come to present you two Open Letters written especifically for the occasion of the COP27 happening in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egipt from the 6th to the 18th of November.

The first letter is addressed as an Appeal to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Chang (UNFCCC) to Study Climate Impacts of Military Emissions and Military Spending for Climate Financing. The second one, as a Global Appeal to Reduce Military Spending and Re-Allocate to Climate Financing, is addressed to Yannick Glemarec, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund.

➡️ UNFCCC-Climate-Financing_Joint-Letter67-1 Download

“It is inconceivable that while millions of people are waiting for vaccines, medicines or food to save their lives, the richest countries continue to prioritize their resources in armaments at the expense of people’s well-being, climate, health and equitable recovery.”

We appeal to the UNFCCC and the IPCC to do a special report and assessment of the climate impacts of war and the military. Global military spending has risen to over $2.1 trillion USD. We urge the UNFCCC to call on member states to cut military spending for climate financing.

In 2021, global military spending rose to $2.1 trillion (USD), the highest ever in history. This is 20 times more than the $100 billion pledged for climate finance, a target that Western countries failed to meet.

➡️ ED-Green-Climate-Fund_Joint-Letter59-1 Download

The military is the largest consumer of fossil fuels and biggest carbon emitter in the governments of state parties. Countries must demilitarize to decarbonize.

Military emissions and expenditures are derailing progress on the Paris Agreement. Peace, disarmament and demilitarisation are vital to mitigation, transformational adaptation, and climate justice. We also appeal to the Green Climate Fund to study the reduction and re-allocation of military spending for climate financing facilities.

The Failure of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference Leaves Humanity Increasingly Vulnerable

Written by Joseph Gerson, IPB Vice-President

The failure of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference to adopt a final conference statement adopting specific goals and deadlines for further disarmament weakens humanity’s ability to defend itself against the existential and increased danger of nuclear war. (The conference was held at the United Nations in New York, August 2-26)

Colors of Peace – Istgah Orchestra & IPB

Have you ever had a fight or conflict with anyone? Did you reconcile after the fight? What do you think is the color or war? What do you think is the color of peace? Eight children from different international backgrounds give their answers to these simple but profound questions.

In collaboration with the International Peace Bureau, the Istgah Musical Orchestra presents us with this beautiful piece of art, sending to all the world an important and necessary message of peace. May the perspective of children guide our take on conflicts and on how to bring more color to our society.

Istgah Orchestra Manager: Mahdi Norouzi Executive Director: Kimia Bakhtiarian International Affairs: Nazanin Adhami Coordinator: Mahdis Yaghoubnezhad Costume & Set Design: Yasamin Hariri Photographer: Melika Naeiji Question Developer: Golfam Goudarzi (Child Psychologist) Director & Editor: Soroush Q mar C Videographer: Amin Nakhi

More info: https://istgahmusical.com/en/

Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemoration ceremony – Berlin

Last Saturday, August 6, 2022 – 77 years after the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima by the U.S. – Sean Conner, Deputy Executive Director of IPB, spoke at a Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemoration ceremony in Berlin. The ceremony was organized by the german association ‘Friedensglockengesellschaft’ and took place in Volkspark Friedrichshain at the world peace bell.

In remembrance of the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he reminded the audience that the world has not become safer with nuclear weapons to date and the legal frameworks of disarmament, the NPT and the TPNW, are the only way to prevent further nuclear disasters. But it is not only the danger of a nuclear war which needs immediate action, but also the climate emergency which the world is facing. A faster push towards renewable energies and a significant cut in military spending are the necessary and long overdue actions the world has to take. In order to find long-term solutions to these challenges, security has to be rethought. The concept of Common Security, originally developed in the 1980s and revived this year, does that. It means that no state can achieve security at the expense of another state, which is what has led to the arms race in the first place.

Please find the full speech in German and English language here: https://ipb.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Speech_Friedensglocke_Sean_Conner.pdf

STOP THE WARS, STOP THE WAR IN UKRAINE, STOP THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS! – Le Mouvement de la Paix

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine shows how the existence of nuclear weapons promotes wars instead of preventing them, as the ideologies linked to the so-called nuclear deterrence claim. On the other hand, the present situation and Russia’s repeated threats to use nuclear weapons show how nuclear weapons allow the nuclear powers to disregard respect for international law and oppose the construction of a world of common security and peace.

In this framework, and in the context of its participation in the next World Conference against A and H bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki between August 4 and 10, 2022, the Peace Movement joins the appeal launched by the organizing committee of this conference, a committee animated in particular by the associations of survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Hibakushas) and the victims of nuclear tests.

Le mouvement de la Paix is a non-governmental organization created in 1948 and approved as a “National Association for Youth and Popular Education”. A non-profit association under the 1901 law, the Mouvement de la Paix acts for disarmament, in particular nuclear, but also against the production and transfer of armaments, for the reduction of military budgets.

Even though the originally written in French, most of their last statements are available in English. You can find the the above excert in as a whole in the following link, together with other statements:

Click on the button to load the content from www.mvtpaix.org.

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The Stockholm +50 Coalition – “Peoples Forum for Environment and Global Justice” (May 31-June 01)

The Stockholm +50 Coalition invites all for the “Peoples Forum for Environment and Global Justice” happening from May 31st to June 01st.

The purpose of this event is to connect the issues and movements in different ways, covering some gaps in the overall system change that is necessary. Both looking at past experience and towards the future, the event aims for the connection between simultanous struggles from local to global levels including both resistance and building alternatives locally and at multilateral level.

Speakers are a mix of people from larger international democratic movements and those specialized on specific issues. Represented are the working class, indigenous, peace, environmental, climate and global justice movements as organizations with ITUC members – among their core members, Via Campesina, International Peace Bureau and WILPF, Friends of the Earth, COP26 Coalition, global justice movements as anti debt networks, social networks as Habitat International and cooperation among very many movements and NGOs as CoNGO as well as a broad range of more specialized organizations. There is also a generational, gender and geographic range.

Provisional-programme-Peoples-Forum Download

The registration, together with the rest of the program, with more than 50 activities, can be found in the following link: https://stockholmplus50.se/en/start-english/.

This common program has six parts, the inauguration, four sessions parallell to other self organized actvities and the closing session. The four common sessions starts with discussions concerning what to learn from 50 years of struggle for system change, continues with the issue of disarmament for a just social and ecological transition against racism in the present concuncture, followed by the need for a just world order ending with the issue concerning what to do now towards the coming 50 years of struggle.

IPB Triennial Meeting Registration

Please register by filling out the form below:

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World Social Forum 2022 plenary No To War – Yes to Life!

The more than 200 armed conflicts, 26 active wars and the threats of nuclear weapons clearly demonstrate the danger the world faces. While over 900 million people go to bed with empty stomachs, global military spending keeps expanding by the day.

Start time: 15:00 pm / UTC – 17:00pm / CEST

Participants:

Reiner Braun – executive director of the International Peace Bureau – Germany (zoom)
Noam Chomsky – Professor of Linguistics – USA (video)
Jeremy Corbyn – former Chair of the Labour Party, MP from UK (zoom)
Julieta Daza, Venezuela/Columbien Juventud Rebelde (zoom)
Aleida Guevara, Cuba (tbc)
Cindy Larissa Rodríguez, Deputy minister for international cooperation Honduras
Binalakshmi “Bina” Nepram – indigenous activist and Human Rights activist from India, board member IPB – India
Raul Vera, catholic bishop from Saltillo, Mexico

Organized by:

International Peace Bureau (IPB)

Prague Spring 2 Network against far right extremism and populism

Institute for Intercultural Research and Cooperation

visit this link for more information.https://wsf2022.org/