Monthly Archives: January 2021

Viewpoint by Soka Gakkai President Minoru Harada

Following is the text of a press release President Harada welcoming the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on January 22, 2021.

TOKYO (IDN) Together with the members of the Soka Gakkai worldwide, I wholeheartedly welcome the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on January 22, 2021. The entry into force of the TPNW heralds the start of the end of the nuclear era and marks a significant step forward toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

I would like to express my deepest respect and appreciation to all those who have struggled for years toward the shared objective of ridding this world of nuclear weapons, including the worlds hibakusha, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and others in the international NGO community.

The Soka Gakkai has long been committed to the prohibition and abolition of nuclear weapons as its social mission and responsibility. Our efforts have been inspired by second Soka Gakkai president Josei Todas declaration, issued on September 8, 1957, calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons and harshly condemning them as a threat to the right of the worlds people to live.

Toda shared the resolve of the first president of the Soka Gakkai, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, who died in prison having fought for the sake of peace and human rights, never succumbing to pressure from the Japanese military government during World War II.

The spirit of Todas declaration was then inherited by Daisaku Ikeda, third president of the organization, who has denounced nuclear weapons as an absolute evil and dedicated his life to building the foundations for lasting peace. We are determined to continue to work to realize our founding presidents resolve to realize a world free from nuclear weapons.

Under President Ikedas leadership, members of the Soka Gakkai and Soka Gakkai International (SGI) have devoted ourselves to grassroots initiatives to eliminate nuclear weapons, efforts driven by the passion and energy of youthful future leaders.

These efforts, with their consistent focus on one-to-one dialogue, include the organizing of antinuclear exhibitions and symposia, campaigns to collect signatures and the publication of the testimonies of atomic bomb survivors. The SGI has actively collaborated with other NGOs, civil society actors and faith-based organizations (FBOs) around the world toward this common goal. The TPNWs entry into force is the culmination of the long, persistent struggle of citizens from around the world coming together in solidarity. It is our hope and conviction that it will become a significant milestone on the path to nuclear abolition.

Threats to global peace and security are multifaceted and complex. As SGI President Ikeda has repeatedly argued in his annual peace proposals, the world must shift from a traditional state-centred understanding of national security to a more fundamental and authentic approach to security-focused on protecting peoples lives and dignity. From that perspective, it is clear that prohibiting and abolishing nuclear weapons from this world is the surest and most realistic path to lasting security for humankind.

The Soka Gakkai has always placed foremost importance on standing with the people. Japan is the only country to have suffered the wartime use of nuclear weapons. We, therefore, express our strong desire that Japan participate as an observer in the first meeting of States Parties of the TPNW with the goal of creating the conditions that will make its ratification of the treaty possible. Japan should assume a leading role in advancing the prohibition and abolition of nuclear weapons by bridging the deep divisions that now exist between the nuclear-weapon states, nuclear-dependent states and the non-nuclear-weapon states.

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons represents a pragmatic vision for achieving a world free from nuclear weapons. Along with the legal and institutional establishment of the treaty, it is crucial that its animating spirit and vision be widely disseminated and received. This is a challenging undertaking that must be driven and sustained by hope and faith in the power of the people.

The TPNWs entry into force is the occasion for redoubling our efforts to build global solidarity among people who seek a world without nuclear weapons. As heirs to the spiritual legacy to which our organizations three founding presidents dedicated their lives, the members of the Soka Gakkai will continue to take action and engage in dialogue toward the goal of constructing the defences of peace in the hearts of individuals everywhere. [IDN-InDepthNews 24 January 2021]

Photo: ICAN campaigners protest in Sydney, Australia on 22 January. Credit: Michelle Haywood. Photo (in the text): Minoru Harada | Credit: Keikyo Shimbun

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Global Buddhist Network Heralds Entry into Force of Nuclear Ban Treaty - IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

CHENNAI, India Indumati Shivarajs routine has been the same for more than a decade at dawn she walks to her masters house, mucks out the cattle shed, cleans the tools and sweeps the yard. Four hours later, she walks home.

Besides a cup of tea each day, Shivaraj, 45, gets about 3,000 Indian rupees ($40) a year and a few sacks of grains for her labor.

She is among thousands of Dalits considered Indias lowest caste in an ancient social hierarchy who work for little or no pay in the homes of upper-caste families in Karnataka state under a custom called bitti chakri that was recently outlawed.

Novembers ban on the long-standing tradition by the government of the southern state came after years of campaigning by anti-slavery groups for bitti chakri to be recognized as bonded labor.

Its a rare acknowledgement of the fact that such forms of bonded labor still exist in the country, said Kiran Kamal Prasad, founder of the Jeevika charity that led the fight against bitti chakri.

India outlawed bonded labor or debt bondage in 1975, but it continues to be the most prevalent form of slavery, with people trapped into working without pay in fields, brick kilns and mills to pay off family debts.

Under the abolition of bonded labor law, the offense is punishable with imprisonment for up to three years and a fine.

In bitti chakri, there is not normally a debt to repay rather a customary obligation to fulfill. Payment is usually in kind, and the expectation of free labor often passes through generations resulting in decades of slavery, Prasad said.

This form of slavery is not like debt bondage, where people are forced to work to pay off loans. Here there is no loan, just an understanding that a Dalit person is obligated to work for a landlord, practically for free, he said.

Residents wait in front of a government fair price ration shop to collect free gift hampers on the occasion of the Pongal harvest festival in Chennai on Jan. 4. | AFP-JIJI

At the anti-bonded labor department in Karnatakas state government, director Revanappa K said it was an age-old practice where landlords used lower-caste people to work and gave them foodgrains in return.

In todays age, were recognizing it as a form of bonded labour, he said.

Fair wages must be paid, not just grains, he said.

Jeevika found more than 3,000 Dalit families in 15 Karnataka districts were working for free, while a further 10,000 were doing unpaid labor during weddings, funerals and other ceremonies, according to a 2019 report by the charity.

They were given some maize, wheat or pulses in return and, on rare occasions, a token sum of money.

Social worker Indumathi Sagar, 44, regularly visits villages in the Bidar district of Karnataka, stopping at Dalit homes to ask them about where they work and how much they earn.

There are so, so many still trapped in bitti chakri, too scared to complain against the landlords who live down their street, Sagar said by phone from her home in Bidar.

They know they are being exploited, they understand their rights but it is very difficult for them to break free from the tradition.

Hindu devotees wait in a queue to enter a Hindu temple on Jan. 1. | AFP-JIJI

In other parts of the country, similar forms of caste-based customary labor have faced closer scrutiny in recent years.

In the eastern state of Odisha, Baghambar Pattanaik led a campaign to ensure barbers and workers hired to wash clothes did not have to work for free for upper-caste people leading the state to include the custom in anti-slavery laws.

As a result of that, more than 2,000 barbers and washermen have been given release certificates by the government since the ban was implemented a decade ago, he said, adding that more remained to be done.

Implementation of the law has always been a challenge, particularly in cases of free labor, where the usual parameters of bonded labor like confinement and abuse dont always exist, Pattanaik said.

Besides banning, governments have to seriously undertake surveys to identify these people, who are too scared to speak up because of years of oppression they have faced. Otherwise, it will remain a change on paper.

Shivaraj, who works as a low-paid casual laborer in addition to her daily unpaid toil at her masters house, said she hoped the ban on bitti chakri might give her a way out allowing the family to earn enough to pay off their debts.

We have accepted it as our reality but hope that with the new ban, maybe things will change in the future. If we get proper wages, we will not be forced to take loans again.

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'Wages must be paid': In southern India, age-old custom banned as slavery - The Japan Times

Many things, large and small, have changed over the last four years. World leaders have come and gone. Important books have been written. Our planet has experienced a pandemic. We have both retired.

But some things dont change. The opening of the Iowa legislative session sees the introduction of a bill by Senator Brad Zaun proposing the abolition of tenure at our states public universities. To date, this years version has advanced from the House education sub-committee to the full committee. Chapters of the American Association of University Professors at all three of Iowas state universities oppose the bill. AAUPs reasons for opposing it remain much as they were four years ago. Here they are as published in February 2017, the top ten ways tenure benefits students and all Iowans:

10. Tenure promotes stability. It enables the development of communities of scholars who devote themselves to the long-term pursuit of new knowledge and ongoing mentoring of students and beginning scholars.

9. Tenure routinizes intensive evaluation of faculty members work. In the American academic community, tenure is a sign that a scholar has completed scholarly work at the highest level. To gain it, emerging scholars willingly undergo a series of grueling reviews of their scholarship, teaching, and service. If successful in earning tenure, they can expect ongoing annual evaluations and intensive periodic post-tenure reviews in order to maintain it.

8. Tenure permits independent inquiry. It ensures an environment in which scholars pursue research and innovation, and arrive at reliable, evidence-based conclusions free from commercial or political pressure.

7. Tenure encourages first-rate teaching. It permits scholars to bring their findings and research methods directly into the classroom, informing and inspiring Iowas future scholars and community leaders.

6. Tenure promotes effective faculty recruitment and retention. Were tenure to be prohibited, Iowa public universities would have a difficult time attracting and retaining the most promising teachers and scholars to work in our state and teach our students.

5. Tenure helps the economy. It is not, as some claim, a job for life. A tenured professor may be discharged for malfeasance or, sometimes, for financial exigency. Yet the security tenure provides is valuable and induces many highly credentialed scholars and professionals to forgo more highly paid employment elsewhere in industry or the private sector to work here in Iowa, teaching our future community leaders.

4. Tenure fosters students creativity and analytical skills. In classrooms led by faculty insulated from commercial and political pressures, students may examine important issues from a variety of perspectives and arrive at conclusions based on information and their own values.

3. Tenure advantages Iowa communities. It encourages scholars to contribute their expertise to the communities in which they live when issues related to their work arise, because they may do so without political or commercial pressures. An example of this could be seen in Flint, Michigan as issues with polluted water arose.

2. Tenure increases the value of Iowa degrees. It enhances the academic standing and economic value of degrees from Iowas public universities in national and international markets. Currently, Iowas universities are of such stature that they attract international attention from leaders of industry and the professions as well as academics. If Iowa were to prohibit tenure and be hampered in its efforts to hire and retain the most promising professors, regard for graduates of Iowas public universities would decline accordingly.

And the Number 1 reason tenure benefits students and all Iowans: Tenure is indispensable to academic freedom. It allows professors the independence to do the best work they are capable of doing without fear that they will be fired for their opinions or conclusions.

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Letter to the editor: Top 10 ways tenure benefits students and all Iowans - Little Village

President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on Jan. 21, 2021. (Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg)

A deal made Monday in the Senate to keep the filibuster intact will play a major role in curbing President Joe Bidens agenda, according to Greg Valliere, chief U.S. policy strategist for AGF Investments.

An effort to scrap the filibuster failed in the 50-50 Senate Monday as two Democrats Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona indicated they would not support abolition, thus keeping alive the rule that 60 votes are needed to cut off debate, Valliere explained in his Capitol Notes email briefing Tuesday morning. This means President Biden and his allies will have to move on to Plan B.

With the filibuster still alive, many of Bidens bills will languish unless theyre tied to budget issues, which would allow a bill to pass with only 51 votes via a process called reconciliation, according to Valliere. That provision can be used only twice this year and it appears that those two bills will be for Covid relief and for infrastructure, supported by tax hikes.

Climate legislation and overhauls of policing and immigration lawsprobably couldnt be folded into a budget-related bill via reconciliation, Valliere continued, which means that an ambitious progressive agenda will face an uphill battle.

The bottom line, according to Valliere: Well get a Covid relief bill via reconciliation by spring, but it could be significantly less generous than the initial Biden proposal. Potential casualties: massive aid to states and a minimum wage hike.

Itsnot in the Constitution, James Angel, associate professor of finance at Georgetown Universitys McDonough School of Business, told ThinkAdvisor on Tuesday in an email. It is part of the Senates rules for when to shut off debate. The filibuster effectively creates a 60-vote supermajority provision for getting Senate approval of legislation. Thus, a party with less than 60 party stalwarts wont be able to pass legislation on purely partisan votes.

The filibusterwill prevent legislative implementationof some parts of the so-called progressive agenda, Angel said. There are some loopholes, though, that affect the tax code and allow temporary measures to get in with less than 60 votes.This is why so many tax features expires in a few years, such as the changes in the estate tax.

Biden, Angel said, will have to work harder to get bipartisan support for his initiatives.He needs to develop a Reaganesque ability to work with the opposition to get needed things done,something Obama lacked.

Added Andy Friedman, principal and founder of The Washington Update,in an email: Elimination of the filibuster was highly unlikely in any event, so this development saves unnecessary threat, delay, and rancor later in the term.The Senate never needs to find an excuse to slow down legislation, but at least this one is out of the way.

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Many Biden Bills Will Languish as Filibuster Remains Intact - ThinkAdvisor

THE SECRET LIFE OF DOROTHY SOAMES: A Memoir, by Justine Cowan. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) I didnt love my mother, Cowan declares. But this investigation into her mothers life is equal parts memoir and love letter to the difficult, occasionally cruel woman who was not the person she claimed to be: Far from growing up in the wealthy, fox-hunting circles she had always suggested, her mother had in fact been raised in a foundling hospital for the children of unwed women. Cowan is a public interest lawyer accustomed, when taking on a new case, to plunging into a heap of documents and piecing together a narrative, Ellen Barry writes in her review. The propulsive parts of the book come as Cowan uncovers the past that her mother was so intent on hiding.

THE CROOKED PATH TO ABOLITION: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution, by James Oakes. (Norton, $26.95.) In this carefully and rigorously argued book, Oakes describes how the antislavery movement used the federal Constitution to buttress its cause, emphasizing every provision and every clause that could be used on behalf of abolition. Gradually the antislavery advocates accumulated a variety of textual protections for freedom and limitations on slavery, Gordon S. Wood writes in his review. Then they began moving beyond the text of the Constitution to invoke its spirit. In his final and perhaps most original chapter Oakes traces the winding route Lincoln followed in order to get to the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in the United States once and for all.

TROUBLED: The Failed Promise of Americas Behavioral Treatment Programs, by Kenneth R. Rosen. (Little A, $24.95.) Rosen experienced a few of the tough-love institutes that he writes about in this searing expos: wilderness camps and therapeutic programs that treat young substance abusers and troublemakers, largely unregulated. Often, he claims, the programs do more harm than good. Rosen approached dozens of former participants before finding people who were willing to open up, and he spent a number of years with each of them to understand them better, Robert Kolker says in his review. This alone turns Troubled into not just a work of extended empathy but a public service; these life stories, taken together, shine a light on an industry that has been able to thrive in darkness.

AMERICA AND IRAN: A History, 1720 to the Present, by John Ghazvinian. (Knopf, $37.50.) This book presents the long, troubled relationship between the United States and Iran in a breezy and supple narrative, replete with poignant anecdotes, to posit convincingly that antagonism between Iran and America is wholly unnecessary. Abbas Milani, reviewing it, applauds Ghazvinian for detailing how there is in the United States a powerful chorus that wants nothing to do with Iran, along with elements in Israel and Saudi Arabia working against normalized relations between the two countries. Milani adds: The book is commendably exhaustive in its effort to expose the machinations of these forces. Even when we disagree with Ghazvinian, the story he offers is delightfully readable, genuinely informative and impressively literate.

CRAFT: An American History, by Glenn Adamson. (Bloomsbury, $30.) Adamson, the former director of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, has assembled a startlingly original history by examining the mostly unsung artisans who built the country literally by hand from Indigenous and enslaved populations to todays maker movement. That no one has ever previously attempted this may be because when we bother to think about craft at all, it is usually through a gauzy haze, Deborah Needleman writes in her review. Yet Adamson manages to discover making in every aspect of our history, framing it as integral to Americas idea of itself as a nation of self-sufficient individualists. There may be no one better suited to this task.

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10 New Books We Recommend This Week - The New York Times

Today is the day the United Nations Treaty on Nuclear Weapons goes into effect. Its the long planned but seemingly impossible day millions if not billions of people have waited for since Hiroshima Day, August 6, 1945.

Today, the U.N. treaty declares that the manufacture, possession, use or threat to use nuclear weapons is illegal under international law, 75 years after their development and first use. Actions, events, vigils and celebrations will be held around the nation and the globe to mark this historic moment.

Even though Ive spent most of my life working for the abolition of nuclear weapons, I never thought Id live to see this day. The most striking test of faith came in none other than Oslo, Norway, where my friend, actor Martin Sheen, and I were invited to be the keynote speakers at the launch of something called The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, which went on to the win the Nobel Peace Prize.

I have been arrested dozens of times for nonviolent civil disobedience actions against nuclear weapons, including at the White House, the Pentagon, several Trident submarine bases, the SAC command base near Omaha, Nebraska, the Nevada Test Site and Livermore Labs. Since 2003, I have led the annual Hiroshima Day peace vigil outside the national nuclear weapons labs in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I had been planning with friends a major anti-nuclear vigil, rally and conference near Los Alamos, New Mexico to mark the 75thanniversary of Hiroshima, but instead, we held a powerful virtual online conference seen by thousands that featured Dr. Ira Helfand, co-founder of the Nobel Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility and one of the leaders of ICAN.

On Dec. 7, 1993, with Philip Berrigan and two friends, I walked on to the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, North Carolina, right through the middle of national war games, up to one of the nuclear-capable F15 fighter bombers and hammered on it, to fulfill Isaiahs prophecy that some day people would beat swords into plowshares and study war no more. For that act, I faced 20 years in prison, was convicted on several felony counts, spent nine months in a tiny cell, several years under house arrest and continued to be heavily monitored by the government. My friends, Dan and Phil Berrigan, who launched the Plowshares movement dreamed of this day. Other friends sit in prisons across the nation today for their recent actions.

But this was something else. This was a first for me. We had been brought to Oslo by the Norwegian government. We stood before some 900 people that Saturday night, March 1, 2013, at the civic forum, which preceded the global gathering of representatives from over 132 nations. (Of course, the United States refused to attend.) The formal meeting would start Monday morning. As far as we could tell, there had never been such a conference before in history.

Martin began his talk by thanking ICAN for their work to build a global abolition movement, and encouraged everyone to keep at it. He read aloud their general call for nuclear-armed states to completely eliminate nuclear weaponsand a treaty banning any state from developing them.

For the next 48 hours we spoke non-stop, in workshops, to the press, to small groups and large groups. We were given a private tour of the Nobel Peace Prize museum, attended a reception with the Norwegian Parliament and met many members and politicians whom we urged to carry on their initiative for the abolition of nuclear weapons, including Norways foreign minister, the Vice President of Parliament, and the Mayor of Oslo.

It was there at that reception that we met Dr. Ira Helfand, who told us thatfor the first time in four decadeshe felt hopeful about nuclear disarmament. There has never been such an important gathering in history, he said with a smile.

At one point during the ICAN conference, a teenage student asked to speak privately with me. He confided that he was one of the survivors of the massacre a year and a half before, when an insane shooter killed 78 children during their summer camp on an island in a large lake not far from Oslo. My new friend told me how he dodged the bullets and swam far out into the lake and barely survived. He wanted to talk with me about nonviolence and forgiveness. I encouraged him on his journey of healing toward a deeper peace, but was profoundly moved by his connection between the summer camp massacre and the global massacre that can be unleashed through nuclear weapons. He saw now what most people refuse to see. And he was determined to do his part to prevent a global massacre of children.

All of these experiences were so touching and inspiring, but there was something even more powerful afoot. From the moment we landed in Oslo, as we met various dignitaries and longtime anti-nuclear leaders from around the globe, we heard the same statement over and over again: We are going to abolish nuclear weapons.

After a while, Martin and I looked at one another and thought to ourselves: somethings not right with these people. Sure, we do what we can, of course, but were not going to live to see the abolition of nuclear weapons. Our new friends were drinking the Kool-Aid.

But we didnt know who we were dealing with, nor did we yet understand the faith and hope that undergirds lasting global change movements. These were the same people who organized the global campaign to outlaw landmines in 1997. These were the same people who organized the global campaign to ban cluster bombs in 2008. Now, they were telling us calmly, they were setting their sights on nuclear weapons. They intended to use the same tried and true strategy to slowly plot their end. This was going to work. No doubt about it.

All we have to do is get 50 nations to sign a U.N. treaty banning nuclear weapons, they said; then we can slowly chip away at every other nation in the world, until all that are left of the nine nuclear weapons nations who will eventually be shamed into dismantling their weapons and signing the United Nations Treaty. It was a no-brainer.

Well, good luck with that, we said.

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And here we are. Today, the treaty goes into effect. Today is the beginning of the end of nuclear weapons.

For my friends and me, this is a day we never quite believed we would see.

Nuclear weapons have totally failed us. They bankrupt us, economically and spiritually.

Right now, the treaty does not legally apply to the United States, said Ken Mayers of Veterans for Peace New Mexico, because we have not signed or ratified it. But that does not mean we will not be feeling the moral force of the treaty. All nuclear weapons, including the thousands in the U.S. stockpile, have been declared unlawful by the international community.

Mayers and others will keep vigil today near the labs in Los Alamos, New Mexico, calling for an end to weapons development. Similar vigils will be held across the United States today with banners hung outside nuclear weapons production sites declaring Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal!

The treaty is a turning point, said Joni Arends, of Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety. On the one hand, it is the end of a long process to outlaw nuclear weapons. On the other hand, it is just the beginning of a new movement to confront nuclear weapons states and demand they lift the dark shadow of nuclear annihilation that has loomed over the world for the last 75 years.

The U.S. was among the last major countries to abolish slavery but did so in the end, said Jay Coghlan of Nuclear Watch New Mexico. To modify Dr. Kings famous quote: The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards [the] justice of abolishing nuclear weapons. This ban treaty is the beginning of that end and should be celebrated as such.

Every time we have journeyed up to Los Alamos over the years, we offered the same, simple message: Nuclear weapons have totally failed us. They dont make us safer; they cant protest us; they dont provide jobs; they dont make us more secure; theyre sinful, immoral and inhuman. They bankrupt us, economically and spiritually.

According to the Doomsday Clock, we are in greater danger now than ever. A limited nuclear war between India and Pakistan is very possible; an all-out nuclear war would end life as we know it. If we spent billions instead on teaching and building nonviolent civilian-based defense systems and nonviolent conflict resolution programs around the world, to be orchestrated by the United Nations, we could make war itself obsolete.

The work of ICAN and the United Nations to get 50 nations to outlaw nuclear weapons and build a process toward their elimination is one of the most exciting, hopefulif widely ignoredmovements in the world today.

Just before Christmas, Dr. Helfand called me. He continues to work morning to night in a Massachusetts clinic treating COVID patients, but he wanted to talk about the treaty. How can we push Americans to demand that the United States sign the treaty and dismantle our arsenal, he asked me? How can we mobilize the movement to make President Biden and the U.S. Congress do the right thing?

Thats the question. We talked about various efforts we could make, and agreed to do what we could. The responsibility lies with us, he said. We were the first to use nuclear weapons; we must be the ones to end them once and for all.

A few days later, he sent me an email with the gist of our message. In addition to climate change, the nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons in the world pose an existential threat to humanity. The threat of nuclear war has never been greater, with tensions rising between the United States, Russia and China. Even a limited nuclear war could kill hundreds of millions, and bring about a global famine that would put billions of people at risk. A larger war could kill the vast majority of humanity.

This is not the future that must be, Dr. Helfand wrote me. Nuclear weapons are not a force of nature. They are little machines that we have built with our own hands, and we know how to take them apart. Nations around the world have come together in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It is time for us to move back from the brink and eliminate nuclear weapons before they eliminate us.

And so, the day has come when that long dreamed of future has become a real possibility. Our task is to make the possible probable, and then actual. Time to get back to work. We need to call President Biden and Congress, write letters to the editor, mobilize the movement, tell the nation: Lets abolish nuclear weapons now, once and forever, and use the billions of dollars we spend on these weapons to vaccinate everyone, rebuild our nation, protect the environment, abolish war and poverty, and welcome a new culture of peace and nonviolence.

As I learned in Oslo, anything is possible if you believe.

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'I Never Thought I'd Live to See This Day': The Beginning of the End for Nuclear Weapons - Common Dreams

This is the second installment of a two-part digital series. You can read the first story here.

URBANA On a Friday night in late October of last year, University of Illinois police Officer Kyle Krickovich began his shift at 10 p.m. it would last until 8 a.m. patrolling the east side of the University of Illinois Urbana campus. During the four hours I spent with him, he spotted two students whose car ran out of gas, and helped them push the vehicle into a parking spot. He offered to give them a ride to the gas station, but they declined. Later, he extinguished a large dumpster fire roaring next to an apartment building in Urbana. Around 2 a.m., he pulled over a group of teenagers whose car drove straight through a turn only lane. He wrote the driver a ticket because it was the second time he had been cited for the same offense.

Listen to Illinois Newsroom Reporter Lee Gaines interview experts in alternative forms of justice:

It was an admittedly slow night, Krickovich said. But not all nights are like this. Krickovich recounts a situation in which he was called to assist a victim in a shooting incident near campus.

I put a tourniquet on his leg to, you know, hopefully stop the bleeding and, you know, kind of keep him with us until the ambulance or EMF personnel could get there to take over and get him to the hospital. So thats one of the ones thats like, definitely your hearts pumping and racing, he said.

Krickovich, who is in his mid 20s, has been a UIPD officer for about three years. But some students and community activists at the U of I campus want his job eliminated, and the roughly $8.2 million the department receives annually diverted to other services for students, like mental healthcare and alternative forms of justice. Its a part of a growing national movement to defund campus cops, which has taken root at other institutions in Illinois, Connecticut, California and Michigan. At the U of I, students say campus cops over police students of color, and they dont feel protected or served by the agency. Data obtained via a Freedom of Information Act Request shows that more than half of the people physically taken to jail by UIPD officers between 2016 and 2019 were Black.

Krickovich said this kind of activism isnt new, but he said a lot more people became involved after George Floyd was killed. Floyd, a Black man, was killed by police in Minneapolis last May, sparking global protests and invigorating a police abolition movement on university campuses. When I interviewed him last fall, Krickovich said he hadnt seen the entire cell phone video that a bystander took of a police officer kneeling on Floyds neck until he died. But he said the incident changed the way he thought about his job.

Im just constantly reminding myself that, you know, I got hired, essentially, to work for the people of this community. You know, theyve entrusted me with a very interesting and powerful position, he said.

Krickovich received his basic training for the job at the University of Illinois Police Training Institute (PTI), which serves not only U of I police officers but also recruits from law enforcement agencies around the state. The institute claims to be unique among police training organizations nationwide.

We consider ourselves very progressive, said Michael Schlosser, the director of PTI and a former police officer himself. Weve created a lot of new courses and done things that I think have always been kind of in line with police reform.

Once hired, police recruits including university police officers are mandated to complete 14 weeks of training and pass a final exam at one of seven police academies in Illinois. That training includes a 650-hour curriculum created by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board with an extensive list of subjects, ranging from community and social media relations to crisis intervention, investigations, defensive tactics, officer wellness and 40 hours of scenario based training that includes role playing police-related incidents, among many other topics. And the training doesnt stop there. Once theyve completed basic training, recruits are sent back to their departments where on-the-job training continues, which includes a probation period typically lasting between a year and a half to two years, Schlosser said.

He said the curriculum was updated several years ago to include mandated de-escalation training, which most academies already teach in some form. But Schlosser said theres now an increased focus on training for mental health crises, implicit bias awareness and cultural competency.

He said most police officers are good people who also want reform. Schlosser said most were also infuriated by the killing of George Floyd.

I cant think of any officers in this area that would not have only said, get off their neck, they would have shoved him off his neck, because that benefits both the arrestee and the officers. Its just the right thing to do, he said.

The reforms required are systemic, and run the gamut from being able to fire an officer who has committed harm without intervention from police unions, making sure theyre unable to get a job as a cop elsewhere, to additional training, Schlosser said.

I think its obvious in our society, in America, that we have to own and be aware that every person has certain assumptions, biases and stereotypes, he said. Tackling those implicit biases involves getting to know people from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds when youre not pulling them over or arresting them. And, of course, through training.

But Schlosser draws the line at abolition. He said he can completely understand and respect peoples views that police should be eliminated, or disarmed or prevented from responding to certain types of incidents. But he said without police, crime will increase.

I just dont understand how you cant have police. But we can do a better job of what that looks like, Schlosser said.

Work with us

UIPD Officer Krickovich said he realized his decision to become a university police officer was the right one while a recruit in training at PTI. Krickovich is in his mid 20s. He grew up in the area going to U of I sporting events with family, and he attended Parkland Community College in Champaign. Krickovich said he completed his bachelors degree at the U of I while working as a civilian for the campus police department part-time. After he decided engineering wasnt the career for him, he said he was inspired by his uncle, a retired deputy with the county sheriffs department, to become a police officer.

While at PTI, Krickovich met other recruits from departments across the state, and it solidified my choice in working for the university, you know, we do things different than maybe a city or like a county would.

Like Schlosser, Krickovich said change is necessary. While he cant support abolition, Krickovich said police, including campus officers, are asked to address too many things, from homelessness to mental health.

You know, we do so much. I dont think the right message is defund us, its work with us. Lets find other money to enact that change.

Krickovich said if police werent responsible for addressing so many of societys and the university communitys problems, then, maybe, you wont need as many officers like him.

No one gets into this job to not help people or to hurt people, you know, thats not what any of us are here to do, Krickovich said. We want to see everyone succeed. And I was a student here, I know what it was like to be a student here. Ive lived in the community for such a long time. This is home.

Foundationally violent

As the movement to abolish campus police gains momentum at campuses across the country, Dylan Rodrguez hopes it doesnt get watered down. Rodrguez is a professor of media and culture studies at the University of California Riverside, and hes also a member of a faculty-led group advocating for the elimination of university police across all UC campuses by this coming fall.

What is interesting to me about the moment were in now is how much traction the term and concept, abolition, actually has with people, he said.

Rodrguez said hes been an abolitionist for the last 25 years. He traces the roots of his activism back to the late 1990s, when he met the author and civil rights activist Angela Davis, who served as one of his graduate school instructors at UC Berkeley. He said she became a mentor. Rodrguez said he began to understand the prison industrial complex as an instrument of genocide against Black and brown communities.

They talked about it in terms of how that structure, how the prison industrial complex and policing, were eliminating entire sectors of their communities. They were destroying families. They were inhibiting, if not exterminating, the capacity to socially reproduce, he recounts.

At its core, Rodrguez said policing is foundationally violent, foundationally anti-Black, foundationally colonialist, misogynist, homophobic and transphobic.

In order to address that foundational violence, what you actually need to do is destroy the existing system and recreate the world so its a creative project, he explains.

Collective safety and justice through the lens of abolition looks like a world in which historically marginalized and vulnerable people i.e. Black, indigenous and transgender individuals are prioritized rather than victimized, Rodrguez said.

Rodrguez said college campuses are an excellent place to experiment with new and inclusive forms of justice that attempt to address the conditions that result in crime before it actually happens.

We dont want better reactions to this stuff [from police], we actually want a form of security and community and accountability that addresses the problems at their root, at their cause were talking about institutionalizing that kind of structure

Targeting this kind of activism at the elimination of campus policing is strategically important in the mission to abolish police and the prison industrial complex altogether; colleges and universities are places where the creative side of abolitionist work could actually take root sooner rather than later, Rodrguez said.

Theres an opportunity at these sites to do that work, and to do it in the absence of an armed police force. I think thats at the best of it. Thats what I see happening right now, Rodriguez said.

Repairing harm

I struggled to find any colleges or universities that had actually defunded and disbanded their police forces. However, I found at least two campuses that have changed the way they approach crime and punishment.

The University of Colorado Boulder has used restorative justice since about 2000, although the program has grown significantly in size and scope in recent years. Last year, more than 1,000 students at the campus went through some form of a restorative justice process, according to Tyler Keyworth, the campus director for restorative justice and conflict resolution. Keyworth said the program tackles a range of offenses everything from the use of a fake ID to felony burglary and assault cases. The campus partners with the municipal court system and campus police department, which refer certain cases to the program, along with the campus office of student conduct and conflict resolution.

Keyworth defines restorative justice as a process that engages the people most directly involved with an incident that caused harm, and helping them to talk through what happened in the incident, what harm or impact was caused, and what they can do to make things right to the greatest extent possible.

In order to participate, students have to own up to and take responsibility for whatever it is theyve been accused of, Keyworth said. If someone was impacted by the students actions, theyre invited to participate in the process. Otherwise, the process is staffed by volunteers, who could be students, staff, alumni or residents of Boulder, Keyworth explains.

And then in that process, people are addressing three main things: what happened, what harm or impact was caused, and what can be done to make things right, he said.

Restorative justice is not a replacement for campus police, said Devin Cramer, assistant dean of students at CU Boulder. But the concept has changed the way the community addresses harm for the better, he said.

We have the police, we have the university, we have the city attorneys office and the municipal courts all bought into this concept of repairing harm as opposed to punitive measures like locking people up or excluding them from educational settings. And I think that changes the mindset of everyone whos working in the system, Cramer said.

He said its not a cure-all for the mistrust that may exist between students and their respective campuses, but its proved successful at CU Boulder, and something hed like to see expanded to other institutions.

I think that the more people we can get into a mindset of harm repair instead of punishment, I hope that that would result in systems, you know, improving.

Scholars and activists say a similar but different type of work is needed to fix systemic problems. Its called transformative justice, and students at U of I calling for the abolishment of campus police want to establish the practice on their campus.

Dara Kwayera ImaniBayer is the transformative justice program coordinator at Brown University.

This particular position doesnt exist really anywhere else. It was created by student organizingthe position is very new, even in concept, she said.

Transformative justice is defined by Bayer as a set of practices and principles created by communities that have been impacted by state-sanctioned violence, like LGBTQ, disabled, migrant, indigenous, Black and sex worker communities, as a means to address violence and create positive change in society without perpetuating violence. Transformative justice as a framework also recognizes that institutions, including police, have themselves caused harm, she explains.

Bayer said the program at Brown which began less than 2 years ago includes training a small cohort of students to practice transformative justice in their own communities. It also addresses interpersonal harm on campus through community accountability processes.

Its really about not just addressing an interpersonal dynamic around harm, but seeing how thats connected to the conditions and structures and violence that may have facilitated harm, Bayer said. She said the practice allows communities to solve problems on their terms in ways that arent punitive but constructive.

Bayer acknowledges that transformative justice typically takes place outside the confines of an institution, and its tricky to practice it within the context of a university. But she said its possible, though it requires what she calls radical imagination.

Because weve been told over and over again in our schooling, and just in our dominant society, that this is the way things have to be or this is the only way to address harm or to intervene or keep people safe, quote unquote and obviously thats not the case. We know these systems dont do that.

Radical imagination

Leojae Bleu Steward, a student at the U of I advocating for abolition, said it will take enormous creativity to enact change on this campus.

I mean, the society that were hoping for is one that we havent seen before. So that radical imagination is definitely going to have to come into play when we think of ways that we can include everyone, he said.

UIPD Police Chief Alice Cary said shes open to both approaches particularly the restorative justice model implemented at CU Boulder.

Traditional law enforcement is lagging, and we need something like this thats innovative, and it gives alternatives to offenders. And I think itd be a great idea and a great program to implement here, she said.

Cary said shes also committed to having hard conversation and transparent conversation with students, even those who dont think her job should exist on campus. She said theyve created an outreach program that Cary said is forging those relationships, its providing resources, its, you know, giving presentations and giving the tools that individuals need to protect themselves. Cary said the department is also reevaluating its policies with the help of an advisory committee made up of more than 40 people from the campus community.

In the meantime, Steward and his friend and fellow U of I senior, Latrel Crawford, say they havent changed their minds; they still want campus police abolished.

Policing in itself is rooted in a system of white supremacy, Crawford said. As an African American man who is 21, a law abiding citizen and taxpayer of this nation, in order for me to feel safe and most comfortable, I dont want them around. Period.

Both Steward and Crawford are realists; they know the U of I is years away perhaps even decades from abolishing its police force, and they know defunding the cops wont solve all societys ills.

However, Steward said. We do think that that is an important step towards making this society one for everyone like its supposed to be.

Lee Gaines is a reporter at Illinois Public Media.

Follow Lee on Twitter: @LeeVGaines

Link:

Finding Common Ground Between Abolitionists And U Of I Campus Police - Illinois Newsroom