Leonard Peltier’s "Walk To Justice" began in the Twin Cities - and now the walkers have reached Washington DC ....over 1,000 miles! They will ask President Biden for clemency for political prisoner, Leonard Peltier. A political prisoner is someone who is out fighting for his or her people's rights and freedom and is imprisoned for that alone. Learn more here: https://www.facebook.com/LeonardPeltierWalkToJustice/ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/leonard-peltier-imprisoned-native-american-activist-new-message-biden-rcna19731 Let #JoeBiden know that you support granting clemency for #LeonardPeltier Data has shown that an excellent way for Peltier supporters to communicate with the White House is by telephone call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111. If the lines are busy, try the White House switchboard at (202) 456-1414. Ask for the comment line. #FreeLeonardPeltier #PoliticalPrisoner #AmericanIndianMovement #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners Leonard Peltier still stands strong and defiant against injustice. Send our brother some love and Humility: Leonard Peltier, 89637-132, USP Coleman I, P.O. Box 1033, Coleman FL 33521. White paper and envelope only. leonardpeltierwalktojustice@gmail.com

On Tuesday, July 26, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPA) of 2022 with a strong bipartisan vote of 401-20. The bill reauthorizes the historic Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and provides more than $1 billion over five years to strengthen both the domestic and international response to the second largest criminal enterprise in the world – human trafficking. It now awaits consideration by the Senate. Take Action - Let Your Voice Be Heard! Action Alert sent to WNPJ by Congregation of St. Agnes (CSA) www.csasisters.org www.facebook.com/csasisters tabler@csasisters.org ​ Contact: Tracy Abler 920-907-2315 320 County Road K, Fond du Lac, WI 54937

Last month, the MMSD School Board in Madison voted to give $5/hr raises to educational assistants, clerical staff, security, and food service, but not our 200+ custodial, maintenance, and grounds workers. Excluding these short-staffed, already underpaid employees from such a significant wage increase is unfair. It devalues the dedicated staff who remain in these positions and step up to shoulder the load, knowing that they could leave and be better off working somewhere else, as the district is unable to attract people to fill all of the open positions in our schools. Please sign on to send this letter to the Madison Metropolitan School Board asking to include them in the raise. www.workerjustice.org www.facebook.com/workerjusticewi info@workerjustice.org ​ Contact: Rebecca Meier-Rao 608-255-0376 1602 S. Park St. #116, Madison, WI 53715 ​ We are a non-profit organization that focuses on the education and empowerment of workers and laborers. We help ensure fairness, dignity and equality in the workplace through collective action and education.

From: La Crosse Tribune letters , October 26. 2022 Ashland Daily Press letters, October 27, 2022 During the only gubernatorial debate, Republican challenger Tim Michels was asked about climate change and the evidence that more frequent extreme weather events tied to climate change are disrupting the wild rice beds, a source of food and culture for the Ojibwe people in northern Wisconsin. Wild rice, also called manoomin, grows in water, and Wisconsin’s Great Lakes region holds part of the largest and last remaining extensive coastal wild rice beds in the world. Michels, a multi-millionaire businessman who owns a construction company that routinely does work on major oil pipelines, said he had never heard of it. Despite never hearing about it, he said he was sure it was not because of climate change. Michels’ denial is at odds with more than 99% of scientists who say that human-caused carbon emissions from fossil fuels are causing climate change. This would be an inconvenient admission, given that Michels’ company is currently the mainline contractor to reroute Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline that would go through northern Wisconsin carrying up to 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids per day. The Bad River Ojibwe and environmental groups say this project further threatens the wild rice beds. It’s no surprise that Michels has pledged to “make sure Line 5 gets built” if he becomes governor. He also suggested breaking up the Department of Natural Resources into separate agencies: one for business regulations and the other for hunting and fishing. A climate denier should not be entrusted with protecting Wisconsin’s natural resources. Al Gedicks, Executive Secretary Wisconsin Resources Protection Council, WNPJ member group www.wrpc.net www.facebook.com/WisconsinResourcesProtectionCouncil/ agedicks@eagle.uwlax.edu

Statements from WNPJ groups and affiliates on the War in Ukraine (Feb - October) : · Interfaith Peace Working Group · Veterans for Peace · WILPF · UNA-USA · Democratic Socialists of America · Peace Action WI – Code Pink - Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice · …a statement from WNPJ's Lifetime Achievement Awardee: Bonnie Block. ************************************************************************ From Interfaith Peace Working Group * 10/28/2022 As people of faith and conscience, believing in the sanctity of all life on this planet, we urge our government to take a leadership role in bringing the conflict in Ukraine to an end through a negotiated settlement, before the conflict results in a nuclear war that could devastate the world’s ecosystems and annihilate humankind as well as many other living creatures. www.interfaithpeacewg.org/ 608-514-2811 interfaithpeaceworkinggroup@gmail.com ​ *************************************** From Veterans for Peace * 2/24/2022 Veterans For Peace Encourages Diplomacy Not War Veterans For Peace condemns the invasion of Ukraine. Our mission remains the same. We are committed to a sustainable and just peace. As veterans we know increased violence only fuels extremism. We have watched, and in some cases been firsthand witnesses to how the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc. have had their countries and lives destroyed by U.S. and Russian military involvement. For the United States and Russia, the only sane course of action now is a commitment to genuine diplomacy with serious negotiations – without which, conflict could easily spiral out of control to the point of further pushing the world toward nuclear war. Genuine diplomacy is a commitment to compromise and maintaining open lines of communication. We reject punitive sanctions that harshen the lives of people across the region. The sanctions that Biden is proposing are not tools of diplomacy, nor are they nonviolent methods of foreign policy; they do NOT target those responsible for war, but affect vulnerable civilian populations by limiting access to basic necessities. The U.S. has a responsibility to pursue genuine diplomacy to push for an immediate ceasefire and to apply pressure on other nations to do the same. Veterans For Peace recognizes that this current crisis did not just happen in the last few days, but represents decades of policy decisions and government actions that have only contributed to the building of antagonisms and aggressions between countries. We must respond to this current crisis, and continue our focus on addressing the causes of war; by redirecting the military budget towards human needs, pushing for the global abolition of nuclear weapons and eliminating the ability of corporations to profit from war. Local chapters: *Veterans for Peace – Chapter 25 – Madison Address: PO Box 1811, Madison, WI 53701 E-Mail: books24u@aol.com Website: http://madisonvfp.org/ *Veterans for Peace – Chapter 102 – Milwaukee Contact: Mark Foreman Address: 11325 W Daphne St, Milwaukee, WI 53224 Phone: 414-550-8945 E-Mail: vfpchapter102@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MilwaukeeVetsforPeace/ *Veterans for Peace – Chapter 114 – Sheboygan Contact: Chris Kuehnel Address: 2034 N 6th, Sheboygan, WI 53081 E-Mail:cqnel@clevelandwi.net Website: http://vetsforpeacesheboygan.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Veterans-for-Peace-Sheboygan ****************************************************************************** Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom * 2/24/2022 Crisis in Ukraine and its threats for planet and people The crisis in Ukraine has escalated into an all-out war. In addition to the threat to life, the current military build-up and a potential for a broader military conflict in Europe would have devastating impacts on the climate and the environment. We urge climate and environmental youth activists to mobilise for an end to this conflict and the militarisation of our societies. We all need to act to protect the planet, the people, and all the living things from impacts of war, and to work together for environmental justice and peace. Local Chapter: *Women's International League for Peace and Freedom – Madison Branch Contact: Susan Freiss Email: wilpfmadison@gmail.com Website: http://www.wilpf-madison.org ********************************************************** Rachel Bowen Pittman, Executive Director of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA), issued the following statement today on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022: “The United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) condemns in the strongest possible terms Russia’s invasion and subsequent attacks on Ukraine. Russia’s military offensive on another sovereign nation contradicts the fundamental principles of the United Nations and is a clear violation of the UN charter. We echo the UN Secretary-General’s call for Russia to end its assault and bring its troops back home. “We know all too well the destructive impact of war, and innocent civilians always pay the highest price. Amid the escalating violence, more than 500,000 Ukrainians have fled their homes to seek refuge in neighboring countries with millions more impacted and expected to be in need of humanitarian assistance in the coming days and months. “As UN partners scale up humanitarian operations on the ground in Ukraine and at its borders, UNA-USA stands committed to helping the Ukrainian people caught in the middle of this conflict. “Our thoughts are with the millions of people in Ukraine impacted by this egregious act of violence. This conflict must come to an end – immediately. ### Take Action Here are three actions you can take right now to support Ukraine: Donate to OCHA’s Ukraine Humanitarian Fund (UHF) and other UN agencies, like UNHCR and UNICEF, working on the ground in Ukraine and at its borders to provide critical support and assistance to people in Ukraine. Ahead of tonight’s State of the Union address, send a message to your Members of Congress urging them to support full funding for the UN and its agencies to ensure they can continue to carry out their life-saving work around the world, including in Ukraine. Participate in a peaceful protest. Find one close to you. United Nations Association of the United States of America 1750 Pennsylvania Ave NW#300 Washington, DC, DC 20006 United States *United Nations Association–Dane County Chapter Contact: Linda Baumann, President Address: PO Box 5155, Madison, WI, 53705 Phone: 608-332-8431 E-Mail: ljbauman@wisc.edu Website: http://www.unadane.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnitedNationsDaneCo/ *United Nations Association – Milwaukee Chapter Contact: Dan O'Keefe Address: PO Box 511638, Milwaukee, WI 53203 Phone: 414-688-0694 E-Mail: danok@att.net Website: https://www.unamilwaukee.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UNAGreaterMilwaukee/ **************************************** From Democratic Socialists of America On Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine * 2/26/2022 The Democratic Socialists of America condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demands immediate diplomacy and de-escalation to resolve this crisis. We stand in solidarity with the working classes of Ukraine and Russia who will undoubtedly bear the brunt of this war, and with antiwar protestors in both countries and around the world who are calling for a diplomatic resolution. This extreme and asymmetrical escalation is an illegal act under the United Nations Charter and severely threatens the livelihoods and well-being of working-class peoples in Ukraine, Russia, and across the region. We urge an immediate ceasefire and the total withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine. There is no solution through war or further intervention. This crisis requires an immediate international antiwar response demanding de-escalation, international cooperation, and opposition to unilateral coercive measures, militarization, and other forms of economic and military brinkmanship that will only exacerbate the human toll of this conflict. DSA reaffirms our call for the US to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict. We call on antiwar activists in the US and across the world to oppose violent escalations, demand a lasting diplomatic solution, and stress the crucial need to accept any and all refugees resulting from this crisis. Much of the next ten years are coming into view through this attack. While the failures of neoliberal order are clear to everyone, the ruling class is trying to build a new world, through a dystopic transition grounded in militarism, imperialism, and war. Socialists have a duty to build an alternative. No war but class war. Madison Area Democratic Socialists of America Address: 2645 Milwaukee Street, Madison, WI 53704 E-Mail: DSAmadison@gmail.com Website: www.madison-dsa.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dsamadison ****************************************** Peace Action WI stands with the Code Pink Statement: 2/3/2022 CODEPINK strongly condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where over 350,000 civilians have fled the country in fear of explosive weapons and missile attacks, while remaining residents from eastern to western Ukraine seek refuge in underground subways and bomb shelters. As an international peace organization, we call for an immediate ceasefire, negotiations without preconditions, withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, an end to NATO expansion and a return to the negotiating table to address the security interests of all stakeholders. We stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people under vicious attack and with the thousands of courageous Russian anti-war activists risking arrest and imprisonment to protest in the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg. There is no military solution to the conflict over Ukraine, a country caught in the crossfire between the United States and Russia, the world’s two most heavily armed nuclear nations. While we denounce Putin’s reckless veiled threat to launch nuclear weapons against NATO countries, we also recognize the United States government is culpable in the proliferation and deployment of nuclear weapons, and must reverse course on its decision to pursue nuclear rearmament and instead advance verifiable agreements for global nuclear disarmament. In condemning Putin’s invasion of a sovereign country, the shelling of a Ukrainian hospital, the tanks closing in on Kyiv, we understand the U.S. has played a major role in exacerbating this conflict, facilitating a 2014 coup to overthrow the democratically elected leader of Ukraine and breaking promises not to expand NATO into Eastern Europe, where offensive missiles in Romania and Poland could reach Russia in minutes. Though some will argue NATO is a defensive alliance of 30 countries, we view NATO as a threat to world peace with its military encirclement of Russia and support for U.S. military aggression in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, where an estimated million died under a rain of bombs and millions more were displaced. NATO’s aggressive stance on China, another nuclear-armed nation, also threatens world peace and efforts to unite in the face of existential climate catastrophe. In advance of the NATO summit in June, CODEPINK calls for an international security agreement to protect the interests of all Europeans to remain free from war and occupation. Such an agreement should have been forged after the fall of the Soviet Union and dissolution of the Warsaw Pact; instead the U.S. and NATO sought further militarization in a continuance of the Cold War that spawned multiple hot wars, from Korea to Vietnam. To prevent further fighting in Ukraine, to stop the loss of life, bloodshed and grave environmental degradation from the bombing of munitions plants, let us return to the 2015 Minsk II agreement that established a blueprint for peace and an end to the civil war rocking eastern Ukraine. Ukraine should be a neutral country; its incorporation into NATO should be off the table as a starting point for diplomacy. During this perilous time, when further military escalation could trigger a Chernobyl radioactive meltdown or push us to the brink of nuclear annihilation, we urge President Biden and Congress to stop the flow of weapons to Ukraine, offer humanitarian assistance and safe refuge instead, renew lapsed arms control treaties (Anti-Ballistic Missile, Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces, Open Skies) the U.S. abandoned with Russia, and reject the imposition of massive sanctions that will harm the Russian people who, like us, want peace and security. Blanket sanctions on the entire Russian economy could spread economic and environmental hardship to Europe and potentially the global community with energy price hikes that may reduce energy consumption in the short term but prompt more oil drilling and lethal burning of fossil fuels in the long term. In solidarity with anti-war protesters in Russia and across Europe, we call on the world’s peace-loving people, including conscripted front-line soldiers, to join us in a massive unified response to say: No to War in Ukraine; Yes to Negotiations and Peace. *Peace Action of Wisconsin Address: 1001 E Keefe Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53212 Phone: 414-269-9525 E-mail: info@peaceactionwi.org Contact: Pam Richard, Office Manager ******************************************************* From the Board of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice: Feb. 26,2022 Global citizens are witnessing a transgression against humanity and a violation of international law as Russian military might continues to roll over the independent nation of Ukraine. Debates over what triggered this moment must now take second place to the very pressing need for peace. There is no debate about the ravages of war, of innocents killed, of destruction of the earth, and of human beings displaced from their homes and their way of life. The Ukrainian people are asking for help. And brave Russian citizens are standing for peace even as the threats of imprisonment and charges of treason are held against them. Let this be the moment when people of goodwill unite and demand a change of course. As a Network we have the opportunity to raise the voice of peace. Peace internationally, as well as peace right here with one another, with each organization, and each community throughout our state. We must be in solidarity for peace in Ukraine, as well as oppose the current trends that weaken voting rights, civil rights and workers’ rights and increase militarism in our own backyard. It is all part of a bigger human rights tapestry. We invite you to stand for peace in whatever way you can, in whatever way calls you. Thank you for all of your efforts. May peace prevail. Sarah Hinkley (she/her/hers) Former Network Coordinator Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice office@wnpj.org ***************************************************** And from Bonnie Block – awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 NO WAR! The current situation in Ukraine is another example of what happens when the dominant operating principle among governments is using military and/or economic force as the means of bringing an end to conflict. It’s not just the Russian troops and tanks currently illegally invading Ukraine. It’s also NATO’s military alliance expanding into former provinces of the Soviet Union in violation of an agreement at the end of the Cold War. As a result member states of NATO now have their weapons and troops on Russia’s borders. The U.S. is a key supporter of NATO (and has engaged in its own multiple invasions) so it is hypocritical to pretend we haven’t engaged in similar power politics. Furthermore, our annual military budget is approaching $800 Billion (which is greater than the combined spending of the next ten countries) and that is hardly a way to world peace and sustainability. Furthermore, the nuclear weapons of Russia, the U.S. and several countries of the European Union heightens the grave danger of this war. Physicians for Social Responsibility has described the unbelievable death and destruction of even a small nuclear exchange. Please see https://www.psr.org/issues/nuclear-weapons-abolition/ Not only are nuclear weapons a danger but so is nuclear power. Ukraine has already had a nuclear reactor meltdown in 1986 in Chernobyl. That meltdown near Ukraine’s northern border, caused the immediate deaths of people nearby, spewed radiation worldwide, increased cancer rates and birth defects, and has made the area uninhabitable for centuries. All of this can happen again if one of the fifteen remaining reactors is bombed or loses electrical power. This makes clear the urgent need for the U.S., Russia, and all other nuclear powers to ratify the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which requires that these countries will abolish their nuclear weapons arsenals. But instead the U.S. plans to spend $500 Billion in the next decade to maintain and upgrade nuclear weapons – money that I think should be used instead to mitigate our other existential threat, namely, climate change. Every single one of us needs to get informed and work diligently to end the stupidity of war and demand our governments find a diplomatic solution to the current crisis. Only then can we honor our shared humanity and protect this beautiful, yet fragile, planet from the death and destruction of militarism and the economic sanctions that mostly end up harming ordinary people. Bonnie Block, Madison 3/1/2022 blb24@earthlink.net

Abolition is a fearful word for those who insist on living in fear. When Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tim Michels spews about maintaining “law and order” he’s actively seeking the fearful, people who have all but forgotten their humanity. The ones who desperately try to erase the historical context of this country. Content to live with division and superiority, they are willing to sacrifice the common good. But our history is not merely in the past; it’s hauntingly in the present. It’s present every time a Black man is brutally killed by police. It’s present in our schools and in the stories we omit to teach. It’s present as the Supreme Court attempts to whittle away the sovereignty of Tribes, and as we ignore the hideous truths of boarding schools. Our lack of accountability for past harm and our care-less approach to reparations of any kind are testaments to our inhumanity. The cry of many politicians, to escalate the police state, is in direct opposition to the voices of Abolition. And while the unyielding word “Abolition” is turned into “All That Should Be Feared”, the truth is this: the more human we become the less tolerant we are of inhumanity. And that is as it should be. The violence of the dominant or those who would be dominant is escalating. They are and have always been the minority. We’ve been taught to believe otherwise and have cowered because of it. Being human is not radical. We have the tools for transformation: clarity, kindness and love. Add conviction to the mix while maintaining the recognition of what is possible and we can begin to make it happen. Let’s have a new beginning. Roll up your sleeves; it’s time to clean it up. *Blog post by Dena Eakles, WNPJ Board member - Oct 26, 2022 Let Kindness Win - is a periodic blog, created by Dena Eakles of Echo Valley Hope https://www.wnpj.org/echo-valley-hope *To learn more and to comment on this post, see https://letkindnesswin.wordpress.com/2022/09/08/books-unite-us/

This resource "PFAS In Your Water Supply? A Quick Guide for Wisconsin Communities" was released and shared on 10/19/22 at the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition conference in Milwaukee, WI at a PFAS-related session that representatives of the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network and Wisconsin Green Muslims presented and participated at. https://wisconsingreenmuslims.org/water/ This quick guide was made possible by a small grant from the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network to Wisconsin Green Muslims in collaboration with Midwest Environmental Advocates. Peace/Salam. Huda Alkaff, Founder & Director, Wisconsin Green Muslims interfaith.earth@yahoo.com | info@WisconsinGreenMuslims.org West Bend and Milwaukee, WI | https://WisconsinGreenMuslims.org/ Facebook / Twitter : @WIgreenMuslims Wisconsin Green Muslims (formerly known as the Islamic Environmental Group of Wisconsin), a grassroots environmental justice group formed in 2005, intends to educate the Muslim community and the general public about the Islamic environmental teachings, to apply these teachings in daily life and to form coalitions with others working toward a just, healthy, peaceful and sustainable future. **17 Years .. Connecting Faith, Environmental Justice, Sustainability and Healing through Education & Service**

It's clear: Wisconsin Doesn't Want Line 5! You may remember that last April 15 was not only Tax Day, it was also the end of a four-month comment period on the DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) which the Wisconsin DNR (Department of Natural Resources) had commissioned on Enbridge’s Line 5 expansion proposal. (Need a refresher? New to the pipeline fight? Click here for a Dec. 19, 2021 Newsletter explaining the issue.) Enquiring minds wanted to know... On April 16, we knew that a ton of people had commented, but we had no idea how many. We had to wait for the DNR to process them, and it took them months. And when we heard the unprecedented total of over 32,000 comments, we wanted to know more! How many were for and how many against the pipeline? What issues moved people? What did they say? Thanks to our volunteers, we now know the truth. So we assembled a team of 26 volunteers, who read all those comments, and tabulated the details, and yesterday we held a press conference and released our 18-page analysis. It contains the issues, graphics, numbers, percentages, and some of the most eloquent quotes from people who oppose the Line 5 expansion. We hope you’ll use social media, emails, or word of mouth to spread the word. Take a look at it now, then use these links to like and share however you can! Spread the word! It's easy and quick and effective. Read the analysis here. Read the blog, which includes a synopsis of the analysis. Share a social media post On Facebook On Twitter On Instagram You’ll be happy to hear that 63.1% of commenters called on the Wisconsin DNR (Department of Natural Resources) to reject permits for the Line 5 pipeline expansion. This despite a massive and costly campaign that Enbridge ran, sending out “tear and send” postcards to an audience wide enough that some of our supporters received them! The issues that pipeline opponents wrote about included: Concerns of the Bad River Band Hunting, Fishing, and Gathering Rights Climate Change The Line 3 Experience Waterways Lake Superior Wetlands Kakagon and Bad River Sloughs Copper Falls State Park Wildlife Impacts on People and Health The Need for a New DEIS We are extremely grateful to Greg Mikkelson, Ecological Economist at the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, who led the analysis team and did all the number crunching, and to the 25 volunteers who spent hours reading and tabulating! And a big thank you to all who sent a comment to the DNR. Our actions are making a difference. "I have heard the tremendous roar of horizontal directional drilling in Northern Minnesota. I have seen the ruptured land. I have taken water samples where the drilling mud floated on the surface of the rivers. I have cried for the destroyed forests." – Bernadette Water is essential. Water is life. We need it to physically survive, along with all the other plants and animals on this Earth. But it is also more. Our eyes are fed by its beauty. Our ears, by its soothing music. It has the power to make us clean. Cool us off on a hot day. Carry us to new shores. To be an enemy of water is to be an enemy of ourselves." - Jennifer Thank you for all you have done and will do to preserve our clean water in Wisconsin. Even something as small as writing a comment, doing a phonebanking shift, or liking our posts to spread the word (see above!) adds up to a movement that is getting stronger every day. Please contact our volunteer coordinator Nikki Darga at nikki.darga@350Wisconsin.org to find a place for you to help! And if you'd like to donate to support our work fighting oil pipelines, click here. Yours, Phyllis Hasbrouck, Tar Sands Team Co-Lead 350 Wisconsin P.S. Take a look at our analysis of the 32,000 comments that the DNR received, and then pass it on!

This article from the Nukewatch Quarterly Summer newsletter, 2022, written by Alfred Meyer .... former chair of the WNPJ Board. What are the consequences of using nuclear power to address climate change? Is nuclear power clean energy? Can it deliver reduction in greenhouse gases soon enough to help minimize climate chaos, with ‘soon enough’ defined as 10 years or less by the 2022 International Panel on Climate Change? Lastly, what part does the nuclear power industry play in enabling our nuclear navy and nuclear weapons? The consequences of operating nuclear reactors include: • Carbon dioxide (CO2), radioactive [1] and toxic emissions at each step in the nuclear fuel chain, the vast industrial infrastructure, parts of which are in almost every state in the U.S.; • Regular, planned releases of radioactivity into the air and water; • Thermal pollution of the surface water which provides the vast amounts of water needed to cool waste fuel and fissioning uranium fuel rods in the core; • Accidents, leaks and unplanned, unregulated releases of radioactive gases, liquids and solids into the biosphere; • Many forms of radioactive wastes, some of which remain toxic for millions of years, all while we don’t know how to safely store them for the next 100 years, much less for millions of years; and • Providing the academic, industrial and governmental infrastructures which are, according to former Energy Secretary Ernest J. Moniz, fundamental enablers of our nuclear navy and nuclear weapons [2], contributing some $42.4 billion per year for these purposes.[3] This is a formidable list of significant consequences. Given these impacts, nuclear power is clearly not a clean source of electricity, even though fissioning uranium, in and of itself, does not emit large amounts of CO2. The CO2 which nuclear power does put into the environment is hazardously radioactive. Nuclear reactors produce many other toxic and deadly emissions, as well as nuclear waste. We don’t know the full effects of ionizing radiation on living things and our planetary ecology, but what we do know is that in humans it can cause cancer and diseases of the pulmonary, cardiac and immune systems. In one sense, the worldwide nuclear enterprise has put all of us into a non-consensual, unplanned, unmanaged and out-of-control human experiment which involves irradiating our biosphere. Due in part to research about the radioactive strontium-90 from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests found in kids’ teeth around 1960, President John F. Kennedy signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 in an effort to reduce our exposure to radioactivity. According to the National Academy of Sciences, all exposure to ionizing radiation increases health risks, which are cumulative over our lifetimes.[4] While one could argue based on these consequences alone that nuclear power should be stopped rather than promoted, let us consider if nuclear power can really be a part of the solution to climate change. Climate change, like nuclear weapons, poses existential threats to life on earth, so if nuclear power can play an essential part in mitigating climate change, then maybe accepting the above known and unknown detriments of nuclear power is just part of the price of survival. A steep price for sure, in environmental, health, financing, and nuclear weapons dangers, but no price is too high if it is the only path to survival, right? Do we have to accept nuclear power’s clearly evident risks to avert climate chaos? To avert climate chaos we have 10 years or less to significantly reduce CO2. While some of the 93 operating reactors in the U.S. are eligible for $6 billion of taxpayer subsidies to help them survive economically, the aging facilities are becoming increasingly dangerous and expensive to operate. Most of the cheerleading for new nuclear power, encouraged by $2.5 billion of new government funding, focuses on small modular reactors (SMRs), sodium-cooled reactors, generation IV reactors, and even micro reactors. In theory, this is an impressive lineup of technology’s cutting edge. In fact, it is largely new packages for old ideas, existing on paper only. It will take decades of research & development, prototype testing, creation of industrial capacity, and the unit-by-unit construction before new nuclear reactors can be operational. But, we don’t have that much time; we need truly clean energy that we can install now at a reasonable price with minimal harmful environmental effects to be on-line in less than 10 years! New nuclear can’t meet the time line. If nuclear is as bad as all that, why do we have it? If nuclear power is so fundamentally dirty, dangerous and expensive — with a growing waste problem that we haven’t yet solved — and new nuclear cannot deliver in time, if at all, why is nuclear power such a prevalent hope for so many, including some anti-nuclear weapons activists who think we need it to address climate change? Remembering that the public is saddled with the risks of these endeavors — environmental, medical, and financial — while private corporations take the profit, why does anyone believe that nuclear power is worth so many of our dollars? The short answer is “Atoms for Peace,” the U.S. government’s program announced at the UN by President Eisenhower in 1953. He introduced the peaceful uranium-235 atom, as an antidote to that war-making U-235 that incinerated Hiroshima and horrified the world. Atoms for Peace put a smiley face on the nuclear enterprise, drawing attention away from military weapons and their massive destruction, and instead directing attention to the promises of unlimited benefits. This program proliferated nuclear technology to over 40 nations around the world, including Iran, and was based on the aspirational atom that we would “tame” to “serve” us, with electricity “too cheap to meter” — along with atomic cars, boats, ships and rockets — truly a phantasmagorical and mythical cultural promise, which does not exist in reality. Certainly nuclear weapons are the most potent instruments of destruction in the world. As illustrated by the Manhattan Project begun in 1942, nuclear weapons depend upon an extensive scientific/industrial/academic/ infrastructure. Ernest Moniz, mentioned above, has clearly illustrated how much our nuclear military depends on the civilian nuclear power infrastructure, calling it “an essential enabler of national security.” The Atlantic Council in Washington, DC also mentioned above, calculates the value of this contribution to be $42.4 billion per year. In other words, if you support nuclear power, you are enabling nuclear weapons. Is nuclear power really the answer? — Alfred Meyer is a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility and has worked with communities affected by both the Chernobyl and Fukushima catastrophes. - Alfred welcomes comments and questions: send to alfred.c.meyer@gmail.com ***************************************** Endnotes: [1] Radioactivity is ionizing energy that is damaging to human health and other living things; see page 4, “New Study: Cancer Epidemic.” [2] The reference is to MIT physicist, ex-Secretary of Energy, and Co-Chair and CEO of Nuclear Threat Initiative (nti.org), Ernest J. Moniz. See: Energy Futures Initiative, “The U.S. Nuclear Energy Enterprise: A Key National Security Enabler,” August 2017. [3] “What is the value of the U.S. nuclear power complex to U.S. national security,” an Issue Brief by The Atlantic Council, a prominent Washington, DC think tank, Oct. 21, 2019. [4] National Academy of Sciences, “Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation BEIR VII, Phase 2” (2006).

The nearly 2,000 Wisconsinites who are eligible for parole were all sentenced more than 22 years ago by judges who assumed they would have a chance to earn their release by now. Those who were released in the past four years have worked hard at needed jobs and have supported their families and communities. And none of them has been found to have committed a new violent crime. Some politicians and their wealthy friends have spent a fortune trying to spread a false message about parole. We know that when we are told the truth, Wisconsinites are fair and reasonable people. Tell your elected officials that you support a functioning parole system, so that people can get the second chance that was promised to them long ago. The parole-eligible people have done their part, we need our elected officials to do theirs. Click here to find your elected officials along with their contact information. In Solidarity, David Liners Executive Director, WISDOM wisdomactionnetwork@gmail.com

Press release October 17,2022: Over 220 Organizations Aross the world sign Letter Demanding an End to the United States F35 Fighter Jet Program We found at least 10 of our Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice member groups signing onto this list - How many can you find from Wisconsin? Ben Cohen, Roger Waters join organizations from Europe to South America in calling for President Biden and the U.S. Congress to cancel the manufacturing and training of the F-35 fighter jet. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: In a time of economic uncertainty, climate crisis, and the necessity for peace and stability for people and planet, over 220 organizations join together in an international campaign to end the United State’s F-35 program. Citing “harm caused abroad, cost of the program to the taxpayer, inefficiencies and failures, the environmental impact of F-35s, and the effects training has on local communities” the large coalition of organizations are joined by Ben Cohen, Roger Waters, Noam Chomsky and others in signing a joint letter addressed to President Joe Biden and members of the United States congress. "I joined over 200 organizations from around the world in calling on the U.S. government to end the disastrous F-35 fighter jet program because as a global community we need to drastically change our priorities." Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd continued, "To the people in the countries the F-35 is sold to and produced in, it's time we demand a reinvestment into life, not war." The organizations signed on to the demand represent human interest groups from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Paraguay, Germany, Spain, Kenya, and Switzerland. With the intention of the US to sell the F-35s to countries around the world, citizens from those countries push back on the program and those sales. “This is of deep concern to many of us in the country." explaines Ruth Rohde, board member at the Arms Information Centre in Germany. "Germany is looking to buy the F-35 to carry American nuclear weapons stationed here. Not only is this going to be a large, unnecessary financial burden but also sustains the disastrous, indefensible threat of nuclear war on and from German soil.” The coalition points out in the letter that not only is the F-35 program an extension of dangerous militarism but the jets themselves have proven to be a money-draining and faulty piece of machinery. Even The Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith called the F-35 a “rathole.” "The global community is fed-up with overpriced, underperforming weapon systems like the F-35. It's a complete waste of tax-payer dollars that causes harm abroad and here at home in Vermont." Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Vermont local continued, "The only people this project benefits are the executives at Lockheed Martin. Real security is knowing you can see a doctor when you're sick, not a boondoggle fighter jet that can't fly near thunderstorms." Cohen, along with many Vermont-based organizations represent the working-class families who unwillingly are subjected to the physically and mentally detrimental F-35 training program that terrorizes their neighborhoods. The noise caused by the F-35 hits 115 decibels which especially hurts and injures infants and children, the elderly, and the disabled. The F-35 has 300 to 600 takeoffs and landings a month. Madison, Wisconsin residents are the next on the list to be subjected to this violation of personal privacy. The campaign to end the F-35 program is being spearheaded by CODEPINK: Women for Peace as part of their overall goal to end the war economy and create a stable and sustainable planet for all, not just a few. "The F-35 program is a microcosm of the military industrial complex. Each year the U.S. government funnels massive amounts of money into the program while letting places in the U.S. go without clean water for months or years. Sustaining this program for any longer will have detrimental effects on human life and the earth." Danaka Katovich, national co-director of CODEPINK. The letter is being emailed to the White House and Congressional staffers this week as well as being hand delivered directly to select members of Congress. The letter itself is just the beginning of the campaign. An international day of action is being planned for 2023 with thousands of people from four continents taking to the streets to stop President Biden from including the F-35 program in his defense budget proposal to be submitted to Congress for FY2024. Between now and the 2023 action, the 200+ organizations will be petitioning their elected officials and educating the public on the real life dangers and consequences of continuing the F-35 program. For more information regarding the campaign, please contact Danaka Katovich at danaka@codepink.org.

Former WNPJ Board member and treasurer, Charles Uphoff, is part of the Cap Times story about 'Madison's co-op living: from the Fellowship Farm to the Future' - by Seeger Gray - Oct. 13th, 2022. Photo credit: Charlie Uphoff holds a framed photo of his parents, Walter and Mary Jo, in front of Fellowship Farm’s old barn. - SEEGER GRAY