Five Peace Planks
Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice
A Wisconsin Peace Platform 2006
Hundreds of individuals and groups around the state of Wisconsin are resisting the call to militarism, injustice and fear. We are dedicated to building an open, equitable and peaceful society, one that calls out the best we have to offer as intelligent beings. We are not naïve in our faith that we can construct a more livable world. We have been hearing too much of the war-like features of our society and of its fear in the face of a changing world. It is time to turn the tide of public discourse.
The platform has five 'planks', encompassing the work of WNPJ member groups and individuals, which is described more fully in the following pages, and each one of which is essential to our mission. They are:
- International cooperation, justice and equality - groups involved
- A fair and sustainable economy - groups involved
- A non-violent society - groups involved
- A truly democratic society - groups involved
- A peaceable and safe environment - groups involved
To promote these ends we:
- Advocate, Witness and Organize to promote peace, mutual understanding, and build community.
- Use non-violent strategies of communications, outreach, legislative initiatives, and direct action.
- Undertake projects to educate ourselves and the community and to increase public awareness.
- Engage in community “grass roots" organizing, and political campaigns.
We are involved in every county in the state in building a state of peace and justice
A GLOBAL COMMUNITY BASED ON
COOPERATION, JUSTICE AND EQUALITY
If we want peace, then we must have justice
Towards GPS: A Globally Positioned Society – Guaranteeing Safety Positively
To reach this goal WNPJ members are actively working for:
- Strengthening the international community through the United Nations, the International Courts, and the international rule of law.
- An end to the current wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Columbia and elsewhere, ending U.S. military control and a withdrawal of personnel from all occupied countries.
- An end to the exploitation of the world's populations of low income and peasant peoples, and ending poverty, homelessness and hunger abroad and in our neighborhoods.
- Fair trade and debt cancellation for impoverished countries; and in opposition to corporate globalization and free trade agreements which benefit multinational corporations at the expense of workers, their families and the environment.
- The abolition of nuclear weapons worldwide, ending weapons manufacturing in Wisconsin and alerting citizens to the danger of nuclear radiation and to a new era of nuclear weapons development.
- The elimination of land mines and for the implementation of landmine clearance projects.
- An end to the trafficking of women and children for prostitution.
- Ensuring the mental and physical well being of our troops when they return from war zones, and for their successful reintegration into a non-militarized society.
- The educating of people in Wisconsin to become world citizens, think globally, promote human rights and safety in foreign relations, make wise consumer choices, and have an understanding of the interdependence of our actions and choices in the world community.
Suggested actions for 2007
Campaign for a Department of Peace in State Government
Support the referendum for getting troops out of Iraq
Highlighting the work of Mayors for Peace
Crisis in Sudan: Call on the US Congress to fund the US share of the UN Peacekeeping assignment for peacekeeping force in Darfur region of western Sudan, to promptly fund UN Peacekeeping force in Southern Sudan, and to urge the Security Council to refer Sudan atrocities to the international Criminal court for investigation and possible prosecution.
Defeat any bill that attempts to end the restriction on nuclear reactor building in Wisconsin
A NON-VIOLENT SOCIETY
Advocate for peace; witness for peace
Teach and live non-violence as a way of life.
To reach this goal WNPJ members are actively working for:
- Educating ourselves and others on our non-violent heritage and spreading the understanding that “peace begins with me”.
- Appreciating and valuing our nation’s diversity and wider recognition and acknowledgement of the interconnectedness of all living beings.
- Ensuring equality and respect for people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, sexual orientation and faiths, and support of Native American treaty rights and the civil rights of all citizens and non-citizens.
- Learning and sharing the skills of non-violent action and dialog, compassion with those with whom we disagree and reaching those who disagree with us.
- Constructive dialog, in support of just resolutions to conflict, between supporters of different sides on controversial issues and extending the imaginative work of creating alternative non-violent solutions to conflict.
- Reform of the criminal justice system in Wisconsin, including rebuilding rehabilitation programs, ensuring the human rights of prisoners, supporting restorative justice, and opposing any reinstatement of the death penalty.
- An end to poverty, environmental racism, domestic violence, gun violence, military recruiting in schools and other systemic causes of violence.
- Education about the costs and impact of military spending on our society and on our way of life, as well as its impact on the minds and behaviors of our children.
Suggested actions for 2007
Holding Non-Violence trainings throughout the state
Support the campaign against the proposed state marriage amendment
A PEACEABLE AND SAFE ENVIRONMENT
Good stewardship for a sustainable world.
The survival of a healthy environment is essential for human survival.
To reach this goal WNPJ members are actively working for:
- The prevention of further global warming and for the protection and preservation of natural habitats and indigenous ecosystems.
- An end to the exploitation of the world's non-renewable resources and widespread environmental injustice involving disproportionate risk to minority populations, and a way of life which relies on community rather than consumption
- The conservation of energy and increased use of renewable energy.
- The preservation and restoration of groundwater and drinking water; clean water is seen as a right, not a commodity, and the wide scale consumption of consumption of bottled water is ended.
- The elimination of public hazards to human health such as military toxics, electrical pollution, non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in confined animal feeding operations.
- Family farms and community supported agricultural groups, by purchasing locally produced goods and products and opposing factory farming.
- Public health steps to halt the growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics from the pollution of our waters and soils with these medications currently being used to prevent disease and stimulate growth, rather than to treat disease.
- An end to preferences for large-scale confinement and industrial agricultural operations seen in state legislation, funding, grants, low interest loans, assistance, subsidies, public university research, policies and campaigns.
Suggested actions for 2007
to be determined!
A FAIR AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY
A rising tide of economic justice lifts all boats
To reach this goal WNPJ members are actively working for:
- An economy based on fair trade, community supported agriculture, small organic farms and locally owned businesses, in which solutions to contemporary problems are based on life-affirming values not cost-benefit-analysis.
- An end to corporate “personhood”, the legal doctrine that claims that corporations have rights equal to those of human beings; and for holding corporations accountable for their actions.
- Full employment, safe work places, inflation-adjusted living wage levels, occupational health standards, workers’ rights to organize unions, and workplaces free from harassment.
- Alternative investments that increase jobs and provide interest free loans for housing and education.
- Fair taxation through progressive taxation and tax equity to close the income gap and provide financing of social and community building services.
- Healthy, integrated neighborhoods, with affordable housing in every community.
- Full and equitable funding of K-12 schools and of comprehensive childcare programs.
- Universal high quality, affordable health care, national health care standards and the right to make decisions concerning one’s own health.
- The elimination of subsidies and other publicly funded supports that provide preferences to large-scale animal confinement and industrial agricultural operations; and opposing factory farming and supporting humane practices.
- The establishment of winter farmer's markets, construction and funding of local value-added processing facilities; small-scale, cooperatively and farmer-owned food manufacturing facilities in tax incremental financing economic development and business districts near cities throughout our state.
Suggested actions for 2007
Blanketing the state with "Buy Local Food from Local Farmers" signs, bumper stickers and billboards.
Campaign to protect the property exemption for housing owned by non-profit agencies providing services to those in need
Develop models for guiding the growth of healthy and integrated neighborhoods
A TRULY DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY
Democracy depends on our participation.
Work to educate and involve others.
Take responsibility for yourself, your community and your government.
To reach this goal WNPJ members are actively working for:
- Social and political participation for all in decisions that affect us all.
- The civil rights of everyone, regardless of racial, religion, ethnic, national or gender origin, orientation or ability.
- Comprehensive campaign finance reform in all local, state and federal elections to put control back into the hands of voters, and to limit the impact of large money donations on elections and legislative actions.
- Full public financing of local and state office candidates to provide a level playing field for all candidates.
- Truth in campaigning and full and fair representation and discussion of diverse communities and viewpoints.
- Transparency in election results, and instant run-off voting allowing fuller choices for voters than the winner takes all method.
- The creation of an independent commission to ensure enforcement of campaign laws and ethics requirements, and an end to gerrymandered voting districts.
- Comprehensive media reform including free airtime for election candidates to promote fuller and more open discussions on policy issues.
- Full representation of all sectors of the population including diverse communities and minority viewpoints in state legislative processes.
- Restoring local control and decision making to towns and counties in processes that determine the future shape of the community and the health and safety of community members, such as the location of industrial plants, large-scale livestock facilities, and large-scale housing developments and over such issues as minimum wage levels and smoking and gun control regulations.
Suggested actions for 2007
to be determined!
Prepared by Sheila Spear following the August 2005 WNPJ Executive Committee retreat