Tag: Lawrence Wittner

Although Two Out of Three Americans Oppose Increasing U.S. Military Spending, the U.S. Government Is Boosting It to Record Levels

by Oregon PeaceWorks • March 14, 2018 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – Early this February, the Republican-controlled Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed new federal budget legislation that increased U.S. military spending by $165 billion over the next two years. Remarkably, though, a Gallup public opinion poll, conducted only days before, found that only 33 percent of Americans favored increasing U.S. military spending, while 65 percent opposed it, either backing reductions (34 percent) or maintenance of the status quo (31 percent).

Should We Pay the Staggering Economic and Human Costs of Nuclear Weapons?

by Oregon PeaceWorks • December 26, 2017 • 1 Comment

LAWRENCE WITTNER – Most countries are moving down the road toward a nuclear weapons-free world. This past July, the official representatives of most of the world’s nations, meeting in a UN-sponsored conclave, voted 122 to 1 (with 1 abstention) for an international treaty prohibiting countries from developing, testing, manufacturing, possessing, transferring, or threatening to use nuclear weapons. However, the nine nuclear-armed nations boycotted the conference and are not among the countries backing this Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons―at least not yet. Given the staggering economic and human costs of nuclear weapons, isn’t it time that the nuclear nations got on board?

Should Limiting North Korea’s Nuclear Ambitions Be the Responsibility of the U.S. Government?

by Oregon PeaceWorks • October 15, 2017 • 1 Comment

LAWRENCE WITTNER – Leaving aside the wisdom of U.S. policy, why is the U.S. government playing a leading role in the North Korean nuclear situation at all?

Is It Time to Restructure US CEO Compensation?

by Oregon PeaceWorks • July 25, 2017 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – An awful lot of Americans are skeptical about the value of their nation’s corporate executives. As a 2016 nationwide survey reveals, 74 percent of Americans believe that top corporate executives are overpaid. This public dismay with CEO compensation exists despite the fact that Americans drastically underestimate what top corporate executives are paid every year. In fact, the survey found that CEO compensation at Fortune 500 companies was approximately 10 times what the typical American thought it was.

The Trillion Dollar Question

by Oregon PeaceWorks • April 3, 2016 • 1 Comment

LAWRENCWE WITTNER – Isn’t it rather odd that America’s largest single public expenditure scheduled for the coming decades has received no attention in the 2015-2016 presidential debates? The expenditure is for a thirty-year program to “modernize” the U.S. nuclear arsenal and production facilities. Although President Obama began his administration with a dramatic public commitment to build a nuclear weapons-free world, that commitment has long ago dwindled and died.

Recent Civil Resistance Against Shell Oil Shows Important Role Nonviolence Plays

by Oregon PeaceWorks • August 21, 2015 • 0 Comments

PATRICK T. HILLER – I don’t know any of the 13 activists who lowered themselves from the St. John ’s Bridge in Portland, Oregon, nor any of the dozens of kayakers paddling in the Willamette River below them, but they succeeded in a temporary blockade of the Shell-leased Arctic-bound icebreaker MSV Fennica. I know that the activists participated in our democracy—they were nonviolent and far more civil than many members of Congress. The ship was in Portland for repairs of damage to the hull, which ironically occurred when it was scheduled to leave for the Arctic as part of the safety conditions Royal Dutch Shell Oil needed to fulfill for federal approval to drill for oil after a series of accidents in 2013.

Corporate Welfare Fails to Deliver the Jobs

by Oregon PeaceWorks • June 19, 2015 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – For several decades, state and local governments have been showering private businesses with tax breaks and direct subsidies based on the theory that this practice fosters economic development and, therefore, job growth. But does it? New York State’s experience indicates that, when it comes to producing jobs, corporate welfare programs are a bad investment.

Historian Poses Ten Questions for Conservatives

by Oregon PeaceWorks • January 14, 2015 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – Now that the Republican Party―the conservative voice in mainstream U.S. electoral politics―has attained the most thoroughgoing control of Congress that it has enjoyed since 1928, it’s an appropriate time to take a good look at modern conservatism.

The United States is No. 1 — But in What?

by Oregon PeaceWorks • October 28, 2014 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – American politicians are fond of telling their audiences that the United States is the greatest country in the world. Is there any evidence for this claim?

Global Problems Call for Global Solutions

by Oregon PeaceWorks • October 4, 2014 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – Sometimes, amid the heated political debate about what should done by the U.S. government in world affairs, a proposal cuts through the TV babble of the supposed experts with a clear, useful suggestion.

It’s Time to Give Up Our Nationalist Illusions

by Oregon PeaceWorks • September 24, 2014 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – After thousands of years of bloody wars among contending tribes, regions, and nations, is it finally possible to dispense with the chauvinist ideas of the past? To judge by President Barack Obama’s televised address on the evening of September 10, it is not. Discussing his plan to “take out” ISIS, the extremist group that has seized control of portions of Syria and Iraq, the president slathered on the high-flying, nationalist rhetoric.

Why Are Campus Administrators Making So Much Money?

by Oregon PeaceWorks • August 27, 2014 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – Americans committed to better living for bosses can take heart at the fact that college and university administrators—unlike their faculty (increasingly reduced to rootless and benefitless adjuncts) and students (saddled with ever more debt)―are thriving.

Does War Have a Future?

by Oregon PeaceWorks • June 20, 2014 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – Countries are not only preparing for wars, but are fighting them―sometimes overtly (as in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan) and sometimes covertly (as in portions of Africa and the Middle East). Nevertheless, there are some reasons why war might actually be on the way out.

Your Doctors Are Worried About Nukes

by Oregon PeaceWorks • May 28, 2014 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – Your doctors are worried about your health―in fact, about your very survival. No, they’re not necessarily your own personal physicians, but, rather, medical doctors around the world, represented by groups like International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). As you might recall, that organization, composed of many thousands of medical professionals from all across the globe, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for exposing the catastrophic effects of nuclear weapons.

America’s Peace Ship – Powerful Advocate for Nuclear Sanity

by Oregon PeaceWorks • April 18, 2014 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – Is there an emotional connection between the oceans and the pursuit of peace? For whatever reason, peace ships have been increasing in number over the past century.

Portrait of a Corporate Criminal: General Electric

by Oregon PeaceWorks • December 11, 2013 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – Can the world’s biggest corporations act with impunity? When it comes to General Electric (GE) — the eighth-largest U.S. corporation, with $146.9 billion in sales and $13.6 billion in profits in 2012 — the answer appears to be “yes.”

Raise the Minimum Wage

by Oregon PeaceWorks • December 7, 2013 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – Some 47 million Americans live in poverty, and a key reason is the decline of the minimum wage. First established under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the nationwide minimum wage was designed to lift millions of American workers out of poverty and to stimulate the economy. Unfortunately, however, it was not indexed to inflation, and big businesses — hostile from the start — fought, often successfully, to prevent congressional action to raise it.

How Disarmament Activists Saved the World from Nuclear War

by Oregon PeaceWorks • November 11, 2013 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – The conventional explanation for nuclear restraint by the relatively small number of nations possessing nuclear weapons is that the danger posed by these weapons has “deterred” nations from waging nuclear war and, overall, has created a situation of nuclear safety. But something is missing from the conventional explanation. The missing ingredient is a massive grassroots movement: one that has mobilized millions of people in nations around the globe: the world nuclear disarmament movement. This is the text of a talk delivered by Dr. Wittner in May 2013 to the Canadian Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Ottawa.

U.S. Still Preparing for Nuclear War

by Oregon PeaceWorks • October 18, 2013 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – Nearly a quarter century after the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the U.S. government is still getting ready for nuclear war.

Fighting for Peace at the Local Level

by Oregon PeaceWorks • October 25, 2012 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – On October 9, 2012, the legislature of Albany County, New York approved a proclamation calling upon Congress to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, cut the U.S. military budget, and use the savings to fund vital public programs at home.

Unlike Mitt Romney, Most Americans Want to Cut U.S. Military Spending

by Oregon PeaceWorks • August 2, 2012 • 1 Comment

LAWRENCE WITTNER – On some issues, there is a serious disconnect between candidates for public office and the public they are hoping to represent. Take the case of Mitt Romney and military spending.

Do Nuclear Weapons Really Deter Aggression?

by Oregon PeaceWorks • June 13, 2012 • 1 Comment

LAWRENCE WITTNER – It’s often said that nuclear weapons have protected nations from military attack. But is there any solid evidence to bolster this contention? Without such evidence, the argument that nuclear weapons prevented something that never occurred is simply a counter-factual abstraction that cannot be proved.

Why Even Failed Activism Succeeds

by Oregon PeaceWorks • June 5, 2012 • 1 Comment

DAVID SWANSON – Almost every account includes belated discoveries of the extent to which a government was been spying on and infiltrating activist groups. And almost every such account includes belated discoveries of the extent to which government officials were influenced by activist groups even while pretending to ignore popular pressure.

The Shame of Nations: New Record Set for Spending on War

by Oregon PeaceWorks • April 29, 2012 • 1 Comment

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER -“World military spending reached a record $1,738 billion in 2011 — an increase of $138 billion over the previous year. The United States accounted for 41 percent of that, or $711 billion.”

Try a Little Nuclear Sanity

by Oregon PeaceWorks • March 28, 2012 • 1 Comment

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – On February 8, 2012, Congressman Edward Markey (D-MA) took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to introduce the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act (H.R. 3974).

It’s Still the Same Old Story — from Guns to Nukes

by Oregon PeaceWorks • January 27, 2011 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE A. WITTNER – The discussion of the Tucson tragedy should be familiar, as we witness similar massacres in U.S. schools, shopping centers, and other public places played out periodically. Each time, the NRA and other gun apologists tell us that the easy accessibility of firearms, including assault weapons, had nothing to do with it. Indeed, they argue that the key to our safety is to obtain more guns. But does the fact that nearly 100,000 Americans are shot with guns and nearly 10,000 Americans are killed with them each year really have no connection to the remarkable availability of guns in the United States?

After New START: Where Does Nuclear Disarmament Go From Here?

by Oregon PeaceWorks • January 11, 2011 • 6 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER – With U.S. Senate ratification of the New START treaty on December 22, supporters of nuclear disarmament won an important victory. Signed by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last April, the treaty commits the two nations to cut the number of their deployed strategic (i.e. long-range) nuclear warheads to 1,550 each — a reduction of 30 percent in the number of these weapons of mass destruction. By providing for both a cutback in nuclear weapons and an elaborate inspection system to enforce it, New START is the most important nuclear disarmament treaty for a generation.

Looking Back on the Nuclear Freeze and Its Impact

by Oregon PeaceWorks • December 20, 2010 • 5 Comments

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – In Oregon, the Nuclear Freeze movement was led by Citizen Action for Lasting Security, one of the organizations that later merged into Oregon PeaceWorks. As we end one year and begin a new one, it is encouraging to look back at historian Lawrence Wittner’s chronicle of that exciting movement. – Editor

Thirty years ago, Randall Forsberg, a young defense and disarmament researcher, launched the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign. Designed to stop the drift toward nuclear war through a U.S.-Soviet agreement to stop the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons, the freeze campaign escalated into a mass movement that swept across the United States. It attracted the support of nearly all peace groups, as well as that of mainstream religious, professional, and labor organizations.

Public Mobilization Needed for a Nuclear-Free World

by Oregon PeaceWorks • October 11, 2010 • 2 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER — One of the ironies of the current international situation is that, although some government leaders now talk of building a nuclear weapons-free world, there has been limited public mobilization around that goal — at least compared to the action-packed 1980s.

BP’s Other Gifts to America — and the World

by Oregon PeaceWorks • June 27, 2010 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER — The offshore oil drilling catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico brought to us by BP has overshadowed its central role over the past century in fostering some other disastrous events.

Can We Live With the Bomb?

by Oregon PeaceWorks • June 9, 2010 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER — For some time now, it has been clear that nuclear weapons threaten the existence not only of humanity, but of all life on Earth. Thus, Barack Obama’s pledge to work for a nuclear weapons-free world—made during his 2008 presidential campaign and subsequently in public statements—has resonated nicely with supporters of nuclear disarmament and with the general public.

Answering Rand Paul on Civil Rights

by Oregon PeaceWorks • May 28, 2010 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER — Rand Paul’s criticism of the federal civil rights legislation of the 1960s can be better evaluated by looking at the workings of similar legislation that appeared on the state level two decades before.

Lying About Nuclear Weapons

by Oregon PeaceWorks • April 26, 2010 • 0 Comments

One of the most popular muckraking American journalists of the late twentieth century, I.F. Stone, once remarked: “All governments lie.” Even a prominent government official — Andrei Gromyko, the veteran Soviet diplomat — once admitted, in a weak moment: “Governments are never sincere.” This gloomy assessment appears all too true when it comes to national security policy, and particularly so with respect to nuclear weapons.

Is START Really a Beginning?

by Oregon PeaceWorks • April 20, 2010 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE WITTNER: Does the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), signed by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague on April 8, really provide a beginning toward a nuclear-free world? That’s what Obama implied in a statement two weeks earlier. Speaking to reporters at the White House, he described the treaty as an historic step toward “a world without nuclear weapons.”

Preserving the Golden Rule as a Piece of Anti-Nuclear History

by Oregon PeaceWorks • March 31, 2010 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER: The Golden Rule is in danger. No, not the famed ethical code — though proponents of selfishness certainly have ignored it — but a thirty-foot sailing ship of the same name that rose to prominence about half a century ago.

In War, Winners Can Be Losers

by Oregon PeaceWorks • January 22, 2010 • 1 Comment

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER: Thus far, most of the supporters and opponents of escalating the U.S. war in Afghanistan have focused on whether or not it is possible to secure a military victory in that conflict. But they neglect to consider that, in war, even a winner can be a loser.

Another Nobel Controversy

by Contributor • November 1, 2009 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE S WITTNER: The swirling controversy over President Barack Obama’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize brings to mind another controversy that began in October 1985, when the Norwegian committee announced that that year’s prize would go to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).

What Has Prevented Nuclear War?

by Contributor • September 1, 2009 • 0 Comments

LAWRENCE S. WITTNER: One of the great questions of the modern world is: Why has nuclear war not occurred since 1945?

Confronting the Bomb Now Available

by Contributor • July 1, 2009 • 0 Comments

A new book, Confronting the Bomb — A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement by frequent PeaceWorker contributor Dr. Lawrence S. Wittner is now available from Stanford University Press as part of its Stanford Nuclear Age series.