Proposition One

INTRODUCTION

PROPOSITION ONE
WHAT IS IT?

The Proposition One Committee of Washington D.C. would like to introduce you to an idea whose time has come.

Proposition One is a grassroots campaign for global nuclear disarmament and economic conversion - using the billions of dollars saved to retool, retrain nuclear weapons industries, and provide for human needs, such as housing, health care, education, agriculture, environmental restoration, and alternative energy.

The horrible hidden history of nuclear accidents, radiation tests, criminally negligent waste disposal, of nuclear explosions and stockpiles, is slowly coming to light, thanks to whistleblowers inside government and out. But the information will be meaningless unless it leads us to a profound revision of policy.

Nuclear weapons must be made illegal through enforceable law.

Treaties, important as they are, can be inadequate smokescreens (like START II, INF, CTBT, and NPT), and ultimately may be unenforceable, except by going to war.

Only the people can or ever would begin the process of nuclear disarmament. The politicians apparently can't or won't do it without our insistence. What is urgently needed is real and direct change. Initiatives can promote change.

We believe that, given their democratic voices, the people in all nuclear-armed countries will alleviate many problems once and for all.

Progress is being made at the grassroots level. More and more communities and countries have declared themselves nuclear-free zones, for example. Proposition One takes this movement one step closer toward the final elimination of nuclear weapons through binding law.

In Washington DC, Proposition One was first brought to the voters as Initiative #37, which won an election in 1993 with 56% of the vote. As a result, Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced HR-3750 to U.S. Congress in 1994, the "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act." She said she believed the goals could be accomplished via ordinary legislation rather than Constitutional amendment. Eight Congressional co-sponsors signed onto HR-3750 in 1994. Ms. Norton pledged to re-introduce the bill each session, and has lived up to that commitment through 2011 (HR-1334).

About two thousand bills are introduced into Congress each year, so your letter informing your representative about Ms. Norton's "Nuclear Weapons Abolition and Economic and Energy Conversion Act" might actually make a difference. It needs, and merits, strong grassroots support, globally.

This has begun. A Proposition One speaker was invited to Japan in 1994, in 2001, and again in 2008 at the Article 9 Conference in Tokyo. The World Court accepted into evidence a letter from Ms. Norton about the bill in Congress, as an example of U.S. leadership which does NOT support the official policy of "we've got 'em, we're keeping 'em, we don't care what anyone thinks." Many visitors from all nations and states have signed our petition.

Ideally, Congress will adopt Eleanor Holmes Norton's non-binding translation of Proposition One, the President won't invoke "executive privilege" and "national security" to veto the bill, nuclear weapons will soon be safely tucked away, and the cleanup begun, before some idiot blows us up or poisons Earth beyond redemption. However, experience would suggest that there will have to be more than one success like DC Initiative 37, and substantially more than the nine Congressional co-sponsors gathered since 1994, before we'll begin to see success.

YOU, TOO, CAN HELP!

We are fully aware that this process will not be easy. Nothing worth having is. But it's sure worth a try.

So please, individually or collectively:

ORGANIZE a local Proposition One Committee! Convince reluctant politicians with your own voter initiative campaign.
LOBBY! U.S. RESIDENTS: Write, call, visit political leaders.
Ask your Representative, your Senators, and the House "National Security" and "International Relations" Committees, to actively support Delegate Norton's "Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act."
Congressional switchboard: 202-225-3121
U.S. House of Representatives, Washington DC 20515
U.S. Senate, Washington DC 20510

Call the White House: 202-456-1111 (hold the line for voice), or e-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
WRITE your United Nations Ambassador, c/o U.N. Plaza, New York, NY 10017; ask for help convincing all countries with nuclear weapons capability to promise, "Yes, we'll get rid of our nuclear weapons if everyone else does."
WRITE TO US at Proposition One Committee, phone 202-210-3886
P.O. Box 26, Tryon, NC 28782, USA
e-mail: et@prop1.org

WELCOME ABOARD!

Proposition One Petition * Bill in Congress
Articles of Incorporation * Proposition One Home Page