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Global Network 33 years and still much to do….

 

Dear friends,

 

I began working on space issues after watching C-SPAN government TV on June 12, 1982. C-SPAN aired the one million people protesting in New York during the Special Session on Disarmament at the United Nations. They covered the rally and march against nuclear weapons.

 

After those events, C-SPAN switched to a right-wing conference where President Ronald Reagan’s head of SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative – Star Wars) was speaking. During the Q & A someone asked, Gen. Graham, ‘They say there are a million people in New York City protesting against nuclear weapons. Aren’t you worried?’ The general answered, ‘No I think it is great. They are protesting against nuclear weapons and we are moving into space. They don’t have a clue. Let them keep doing what they are doing.’

 

In that moment I was living in Orlando, Florida (just one hour from what is now called Cape Canaveral Space Force Station). I told myself, I’ve got to get on this issue now.

 

The very next year I went to work for the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice (from 1983-1998) and over those 15 years we organized many protests at the space center opposing military satellite launches, the 1987 first flight test of the Trident II nuclear missile (which drew over 5,000 people), and three plutonium space launches. In 1997 NASA launched the space probe Cassini with 72 pounds of plutonium-238 on-board which drew 1,000 people at the space center protest. Our Cassini opposition campaign went international and was covered by the CBS-TV program 60 Minutes.

 

Along the way we discovered that US space war fighting installations were being built all over the world. So, in 1992 the FCPJ, Colorado-based Citizens for Peace in Space and Journalism professor Karl Grossman created the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. It was clear that if we hoped to ever stop war in space, we needed to build an international base of people who understood the issue and would work to create the needed momentum.

 

The aerospace industry says that Star Wars will be the largest industrial project in human history. The publication Space News, many years ago, acknowledged they needed a ‘dedicated funding source’ to pay for the program, targeting the ‘entitlement programs’ that in the US are Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and what little is left of welfare programs for the poor and disabled.

 

We have had good success in creating an international understanding and growing base, but we still have a long way to go. Trump now proposes building the ‘Golden Dome’ which the Congressional Budget Office reports could cost trillions of dollars that the US does not have. Trump is trying to drag allies – Canada, Japan, South Korea and NATO – into the program to help pay for it.

 

If you saw our recent Keep Space for Peace Week email reporting on demonstrations around the world, you know there are organizations in many places dealing with these ever-emerging space surveillance and targeting technologies, new spaceports, and concerns for space’s dominant role in current and future warfare and imperialist adventures. As we head into the next crucial years, we must actively remain on this case.

 

We currently have one full-time, and a part-time staffer. Your support is needed to help us keep abreast of this dynamic military space environment, maintain connections with local groups around the world, publish our newspaper Space Alert!, and actively resist the chaos of the US Space Force’s mission of ‘full spectrum dominance.’

 

We hope you can donate now to keep our crucial work going. Membership in the GN is on a sliding scale from $15-$100. You can use our secure donation page on our website here.

 

If you would prefer to send a check in the mail just look below for our Post Office box address.

 

We thank you for your support.

 

In peace,

 

Bruce K. Gagnon

GN Coordinator