Contact
www.peacecouncil.net
spc@peacecouncil.net
2013 E Genesee St., Syracuse, NY 13210
(315) 472-5478
Office Hours:
Staff Organizers
Carol Baum
carol@peacecouncil.net
Michaela Czerkies
michaela@peacecouncil.net
Stay in Touch
E-lists: https://peacecouncil.net/stay-in-touch
Follow SPC on Social Media:
Facebook: @syracusepeacecouncil1936
Twitter: @SyrPeaceCouncil
Instagram: @syracusepeacecouncil_spc
SPC Program Committees
BEYOND WAR AND MILITARISM
(also part of CNY Solidarity Coalition) Ron
Van Norstrand, ron@vannorstrandlaw.com
JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE
Michaela Czerkies, michaela@peacecouncil.
net
NEIGHBORS OF THE
ONONDAGA NATION
Sue Eiholzer, (315) 492-2684 or
rsue@twcny.rr.com
NUCLEAR FREE WORLD
Diane Swords, (315) 391-4484 or
drswords@gmail.com
PLOWSHARES CRAFTSFAIR COMMITTEE
Rae Kramer, (315) 445-2840
SPC STEERING COMMITTEE
Aly Wane, wane.aly@gmail.com or
spcsteeringcomm@peacecouncil.net
Welcome to the New Year!
We hope that you are safe and well during this time of continued Covid anxiety and confusion, political frustration, and disappointment. But we know that many aren’t either safe or well – and it is up to all of us working together in community to change that.
Welcome to an E-newsletter experiment. For those of you who are more recent to SPC, or had never seen our print or online Peace Newsletter, we always had a section called “SPC in Action.” Since we stopped printing the PNL, we have occasionally attempted to create an “SPC in Action” section in the E-newsletter – but we missed the PNL’s more engaging layout, with graphics and photos.
We want to share with you what is going on with SPC politically and organizationally, with all its many projects.
So we are trying something new – we’re laying “SPC in Action” out as if it were to go into the PNL, and exporting it as a PDF for the web. The link is here. Please check it out and let us know if we should continue this on a quarterly basis.
We invite you to participate in whatever way moves you. Individual efforts, magnified by many other coordinated individual efforts, create power and social movements. Despite these difficult times, we hope you’ll find that the current work of SPC committees and local coalitions is exciting, motivating, and filled with promise for progressive change.
Again, please check it out here.
– Carol Baum and Michaela Czerkies
Nuclear Free World Celebrates One Year of the
Nuclear Ban Treaty
The Nuclear Free World Committee continues to give presentations to local elected officials and community organizations to seek their endorsement of the Back from the Brink Campaign: A Call to End Nuclear War. The campaign promotes five achievable steps, the first of which, to support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, is our focus this month.
event. To the left behind her is a poster of signatures collected
at Plowshares. Photo: Mike Greenlar
On January 22, 2021, having been ratified by over 50 countries, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force, making nuclear weapons illegal. To commemorate the first anniversary of this milestone achievement, on Friday, January 21, 2022, we held a press conference in front of the Federal Building and presented signatures collected at the Peace Council’s Plowshares Craft Fair in early December to representatives of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and Congressman Katko, urging them to endorse these five steps which will lead to nuclear prohibition. In addition, representatives from elected officials and from local organizations who have endorsed the Call were presented with a symbolic yellow rose.
No nuclear-armed countries have ratified the treaty. It is therefore crucial that we continue working on the Back from the Brink Campaign. You can sign our petition here calling on our elected officials to sign onto an open letter urging President Biden and Congress to pursue the Back from the Brink campaign’s five policies.
– Margrit Diehl and Diane Swords
Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation’s Many Projects
Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON) has been busy, even with the limitations of the ongoing pandemic. Here are only some of our past and ongoing projects.
Last summer, Onondaga held marches at the Nation to commemorate the Native children who died in “boarding schools.” NOON assisted and joined in the July march from the Nation to downtown Syracuse, which concluded with a rally and speakers.
In November, almost 100 people gathered for our annual Thanksgiving Day Circle of Peace and Hope at Onondaga Lake.
As highlighted in NOON’s December e-newsletter, NOON has been working with the Onondaga Nation School and the LaFayette School Superintendent to secure capital funding in the NYS budget for the coming year. The Onondaga Nation School, the Tuscarora Nation School and the St. Regis Mohawk School are not funded through their school districts. We reached out to Governor Huchul’s representative and to Rachel May’s office to add our voices. We printed postcards for support at Plowshares and sent in 200 signatures from that weekend alone. The governor’s budget did include money for funding, but a disappointingly low amount. The work continues.
Witness to Injustice has offered many virtual workshops in the fall and there are several more scheduled for January (for information about WTI and how to host a program, click here). WTI is in particular looking for a person skilled at handling the technical aspects of Zoom. If you have those skills and would like to discuss joining the team, contact cindysquillace@gmail.com.
NOON continues to organize with Women of Italian and Syracuse Heritage (WISH) to ensure the removal of the Columbus statue from downtown Syracuse. On Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2021, we collaborated on a large vigil at the monument, followed by a series of short films at the Everson Museum of Art celebrating Haudenosaunee culture. Then on January 13, NOON and WISH held a press conference on the Onondaga County courthouse steps. This was just before a court hearing of the Columbus Monument Corporation lawsuit against the City of Syracuse, which seeks to prevent the City from removing the Columbus Statue. Check out the news reports at WAER Radio and WRVO.
Look for several joint NOON/WISH educational programs in the next month or two. NOON and WISH plan to organize an educational program (via Zoom) to give the public the opportunity to hear the input that the Onondaga Nation was prevented from providing to the Court in the Columbus Monument Corporation suit. (There had been a previous decision by the judge to not allow the Nation to file an Amicus [friend of the court] Brief). There are also plans to hold a program on monuments.
There are still a few “Replace Columbus” lawnsigns available for a donation of any amount. Contact carol@peacecouncil.net to have one delivered to your lawn.
To join the NOON-local listserv (focused on upcoming local and regional events), contact rsue@twcny.rr.com.
– Hilary-Anne Coppola and Sue Eiholzer
