Written by Ben Purden Once every twelve months, usually in springtime, residents of towns in Massachusetts meet to discuss and vote on issues of town importance. This year in seven towns across western Massachusetts, residents considered something of global, existential importance: the abolition of nuclear weapons. The residents of Chesterfield voted on May 13,…
Written by Ben Purden On May 4th, 2019, residents of Conway gathered at their annual town meeting as they do every year, to vote on issues such as the town budget, town laws, articles put forward by town boards, and citizen petitions. This year was no different, except that residents weighed in on a…
Written by Ben Purden Annual town meetings are a New England tradition dating back to colonial times. In what Henry David Thoreau called “the true Congress,” residents engage in direct democracy on matters affecting them all. Residents in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, made their May 4th, 2019 meeting a forum about an issue of global importance:…
Written by Ben Purden On April 10th, 2019, residents of the town of Montague, Massachusetts, weighed in on a matter of great national and international significance: the abolition of nuclear weapons. At the annual town meeting, a tradition of direct democracy called “the true Congress” by Henry David Thoreau, Article 38 was passed, creating…
BERKELEY, DECEMBER 11: Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin was presented yesterday with a certificate from NuclearBan.US, officially recognizing Berkeley’s “Alignment” with the 2017 U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Berkeley City Council passed a resolution on May 15, 2018, declaring itself ‘strongly supportive’ of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and proclaiming…
(NORTHAMPTON, MA) Last Wednesday September 26, at a ceremony on the steps of Northampton city hall, Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz issued an executive policy order establishing a city policy barring, to the extent practical and permitted by law, Northampton from investing and contracting with nuclear weapons companies. Under the executive policy order Mayor Narkewicz…
TAKOMA PARK, MD, March 15, 2018 — The City Council of Takoma Park, Maryland, last night (March 14th) voted unanimously on a resolution that reaffirms the city’s support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or ‘Nuclear Ban Treaty.’ The Nuclear Ban Treaty was adopted last year at the UN by 122 countries.…
Agenda Item #11 – Future of Life Institute Professor Max Tegmark and Lucas Perry represented the Future of Life Institute. Tegmark reminded the Board that the Cambridge City Council had voted to encourage the Board to divest from firms involved in producing or upgrading nuclear weapons. He stated that he hoped to assist the Board…
TEXT OF ORDERS – Cambridge City Council Order-1 Mar 21, 2016 MAYOR SIMMONS WHEREAS: Nations across the globe still maintain over 15,000 nuclear weapons, some of which are hundreds of times more powerful than those that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and detonation of even a small fraction of these weapons could create a decade-long nuclear…
In the City Council, November 16th, in the Year Two Thousand and Seventeen Upon the recommendation of Councilor William H. Dwight and Councilor Alisa F. Klein R- A RESOLUTION Calling for the United States to “Pull Back from the Brink” and Prevent Nuclear War WHEREAS, since the height of the Cold War, the United States…