2022 War
Abolisher Awards to Go to Italian Dock Workers, New Zealand Filmmaker,
U.S. Environmental Group, and British MP Jeremy Corbyn
World BEYOND War’s Second Annual War Abolisher Awards will recognize
the work of an environmental organization that has prevented military
operations in state parks in Washington State, a filmmaker from New
Zealand who has documented the power of unarmed peacemaking, Italian
dock workers who have blocked the shipment of weapons of war, and
British peace activist and Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn who has
taken a consistent stand for peace despite intense pressure.
An online presentation and acceptance event,
with remarks from representatives of all four 2022 award recipients
will take place on September 5 at 8 a.m. in Honolulu, 11 a.m. in
Seattle, 1 p.m. in Mexico City, 2 p.m. in New York, 7 p.m. in London, 8
p.m. in Rome, 9 p.m. in Moscow, 10:30 p.m. in Tehran, and 6 a.m. the
next morning (September 6) in Auckland. The event is open to the public
and will include interpretation into Italian and English.
The Whidbey Environmental Action Network (WEAN), based on Whidbey
Island in Puget Sound, will be awarded the Organizational War Abolisher
of 2022 award.
The Individual War Abolisher of 2022 award is going to New Zealand filmmaker William Watson in recognition of his film Soldiers Without Guns: An Untold Story of Unsung Kiwi Heroes. Watch it here.
The Lifetime Organizational War Abolisher Award of 2022 will be
presented to Collettivo Autonomo Lavoratori Portuali (CALP) and Unione
Sindacale di Base Lavoro Privato (USB) in recognition of the blocking of
weapons shipments by Italian dock workers, who have blocked shipments
to a number of wars in recent years.
The David Hartsough Lifetime Individual War Abolisher of 2022 Award will be presented to Jeremy Corbyn.
Whidbey Environmental Action Network (WEAN):
WEAN, an organization with 30 years of accomplishments for the natural environment, won a court case
in April 2022 in Thurston County Superior Court, which found that
Washington’s State Parks and Recreation Commission had been “arbitrary
and capricious” in granting the United States Navy use of state parks
for military training. Their permission to do so was vacated in an
unusual and lengthy ruling from the bench. The case had been filed by WEAN
with the support of the Not in Our Parks Coalition to challenge the
Commission’s approval, given in 2021, for its staff to proceed with
permitting the Navy’s plans for war training in state parks.
The public had first learned that the U.S. Navy was using state parks for war rehearsals in 2016 from a report at Truthout.org. There followed years of research, organizing, education, and mobilizing of the public by WEAN and its friends and allies,
as well as years of lobbying pressure by the U.S. Navy, which flew in
numerous experts from Washington, D.C., California, and Hawaii. While
the Navy can be expected to keep pushing, WEAN won its court case on all
counts, having persuaded the court that unannounced warlike actions by
armed troops in public parks was damaging to the public and the parks.
WEAN impressed people for years with its dedicated efforts to expose
what was being done and to put a stop to it, building a case against the
environmental destruction of war exercises, the danger to the public,
and the harm to resident war veterans suffering PTSD. The state parks
are locations for weddings, for the spreading of ashes following
funerals, and for seeking quiet and solace.
The Navy’s presence in the Puget Sound region is less than positive.
On the one hand, they tried (and will likely try again) to commandeer
State Parks for training in how to spy on park visitors. On the other
hand, they fly jets so loud that the state’s flagship park, Deception
Pass, becomes impossible to visit because jets are screaming overhead.
While WEAN took on the spying in state parks, another group, Sound
Defense Alliance, addressed the Navy’s making life untenable.
A small number of people on a small island are having an impact on
Washington State and developing a model to be emulated elsewhere. World
BEYOND War is very pleased to honor them and encourages everyone to hear their story, and ask them questions, on September 5.
Accepting the award and speaking for WEAN will be Marianne Edain and Larry Morrell.
William Watson:
Soldiers Without Guns, recounts and shows us a true story that
contradicts the most basic assumptions of politics, foreign policy, and
popular sociology. This is a story of how a war was ended by an army
without guns, determined to unite people in peace. Instead of guns,
these peacemakers used guitars.
This is a story that should be much better known, of a Pacific Island
people rising up against the largest mining corporation in the world.
After 10 years of war, they had seen 14 failed peace agreements, and the
endless failure of violence. In 1997 the New Zealand army stepped into
the conflict with a new idea that was condemned by the national and
international media. Few expected it to succeed.
This film is a powerful piece of evidence, although far from the only
piece, that unarmed peacekeeping can succeed where the armed version
fails, that once you actually mean the familiar statement that “there is
no military solution,” real and surprising solutions become possible.
Possible, but not simple or easy. There are many courageous people in
this film whose decisions were critical to success. World BEYOND War
would like the world, and in particular the United Nations, to learn
from their examples.
Accepting the award, discussing his work, and taking questions on
September 5 will be William Watson. World BEYOND War hopes that everyone
will tune in to hear his story, and the story of the people in the film.
Collettivo Autonomo Lavoratori Portuali (CALP) and Unione Sindacale di Base Lavoro Privato (USB):
CALP was formed
by about 25 workers in the Port of Genoa in 2011 as part of the labor
union USB. Since 2019, it has been working on closing Italian ports to
weapons shipments, and for much of the past year it has been organizing
plans for an international strike against weapons shipments at ports
around the world.
In 2019, CALP workers refused to allow a ship to depart Genoa with weapons bound for Saudi Arabia and its war on Yemen.
In 2020 they blocked a ship carrying weapons meant for the war in Syria.
In 2021 CALP communicated with USB workers in Livorno to block a weapons shipment to Israel for its assaults on the people of Gaza.
In 2022 USB workers in Pisa blocked weapons meant for the war in Ukraine.
Also in 2022, CALP blocked, temporarily, another Saudi weapons ship in Genoa.
For CALP this is a moral issue. They have said that they do not wish
to be accomplices to massacres. They have been praised by and invited to
speak by the current Pope.
They have also advanced the cause as a safety issue, arguing to port
authorities that it is dangerous to be allowing ships full of weapons,
including unknown weapons, into ports in the centers of cities.
They have also argued that this is a legal matter. Not only are the
dangerous contents of weapons shipments not identified as other
dangerous materials are required to be, but it is illegal to ship
weapons to wars under Italian Law 185, Article 6, of 1990, and a
violation of the Italian Constitution, Article 11.
Ironically, when CALP began arguing for the illegality of weapons
shipments, the police in Genoa showed up to search their office and
their spokesperson’s home.
CALP has built alliances with other workers and included the public
and celebrities in its actions. The dock workers have collaborated with
student groups and peace groups of all types. They have taken their
legal case to the European Parliament. And they have organized
international conferences to build toward a global strike against arms
shipments.
CALP is on Telegram, Facebook, and Instagram.
This small group of workers in one port is making a huge difference
in Genoa, in Italy, and in the world. World BEYOND War is excited to
honor them and encourages everyone to hear their story, and ask them questions, on September 5.
Accepting the award and speaking for CALP and USB on September 5 will
be CALP Spokesperson Josè Nivoi. Nivoi was born in Genoa in 1985, has
worked in the port for about 15 years, has been active with unions about
9 years, and has worked for the union fulltime for about 2 years.
Jeremy Corbyn:
Jeremy Corbyn is a British peace activist and politician who chaired
the Stop the War Coalition from 2011 to 2015 and served as Leader of the
Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. He has
been a peace activist all his adult lift and provided a consistent
parliamentary voice for the peaceful resolution of conflicts since his
election in 1983.
Corbyn is currently a member of the Parliamentary Assembly for the
Council of Europe, the UK Socialist Campaign Group, and a regular
participant at the United Nations Human Rights Council (Geneva),
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Vice President), and Chagos Islands
All Party Parliamentary Group (Honorary President), and a Vice president
of the British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Corbyn has supported peace and opposed the wars of many governments:
including Russia’s war on Chechnya, 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Morocco’s
occupation of Western Sahara and Indonesia’s war on the West Papuan
people: but, as a British member of Parliament, his focus has been on
wars engaged in or supported by the British government. Corbyn was a
prominent opponent of the 2003-begun phase of the war on Iraq, having
been elected to the Steering Committee of the Stop the War Coalition in
2001, an organization formed to oppose the war on Afghanistan. Corbyn
has spoken at countless antiwar rallies, including the February 15
largest-ever demonstration in Britain, part of global demonstrations
against attacking Iraq.
Corbyn was one of just 13 MPs to vote against the 2011 war in Libya
and has argued for Britain to seek negotiated settlements to complex
conflicts, such as in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and Syria in the 2010s. A
2013 vote in Parliament against war Britain joining the war in Syria was
instrumental in dissuading the United States from dramatically
escalating that war.
As Labour Party leader, he responded to the 2017 terrorist atrocity
at the Manchester Arena, where suicide bomber Salman Abedi killed 22
concert goers, mainly young girls, with a speech that broke with
bipartisan support for the War on Terror. Corbyn argued that the War on
Terror had made British people less safe, increasing the risk of
terrorism at home. The argument outraged the British political and media
class but polling showed it was supported by the majority of the
British people. Abedi was a British citizen of Libyan heritage, known to
the British security services, who had fought in Libya and was
evacuated from Libya by a British operation.
Corbyn has been a strong advocate for diplomacy and nonviolent
resolution of disputes. He has called for NATO to be ultimately
disbanded, viewing the build up of competitive military alliances as
increasing rather than decreasing the threat of war. He is a lifelong
opponent of nuclear weapons and supporter of unilateral nuclear
disarmament. He has supported Palestinian rights and opposed Israeli
attacks and illegal settlements. He has opposed British arming of Saudi
Arabia and participation in the war on Yemen. He has supported returning
the Chagos Islands to their residents. He has urged the Western powers
to support a peaceful settlement to Russia’s war on Ukraine, rather than
escalate that conflict into a proxy war with Russia.
World BEYOND War enthusiastically awards Jeremy Corbyn the David
Hartsough Lifetime Individual War Abolisher of 2022 Award, named for
World BEYOND War’s co-founder and longtime peace activist David
Hartsough.
Accepting the award, discussing his work, and taking questions on
September 5 will be Jeremy Corbyn. World BEYOND War hopes that everyone
will tune in to hear his story, and be inspired.
These are the second annual War Abolisher Awards.
World BEYOND War is a
global nonviolent movement, founded in 2014, to end war and establish a
just and sustainable peace. The purpose of the awards is to honor and
encourage support for those working to abolish the institution of war
itself. With the Nobel Peace Prize and other nominally peace-focused
institutions so frequently honoring other good causes or, in fact,
wagers of war, World BEYOND War intends its awards to go to educators or
activists intentionally and effectively advancing the cause of war
abolition, accomplishing reductions in war-making, war preparations, or
war culture. World BEYOND War received hundreds of impressive
nominations. The World BEYOND War Board, with assistance from its
Advisory Board, made the selections.
The awardees are honored for their body of work directly supporting
one or more of the three segments of World BEYOND War’s strategy for
reducing and eliminating war as outlined in the book A Global Security System, An Alternative to War. They are: Demilitarizing Security, Managing Conflict Without Violence, and Building a Culture of Peace.
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