Reaching Critical Will

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Reaching Critical Will is a disarmament program of Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, an affiliate of United for Peace and Justice.

Staff

From the Reaching Critical Will website:[1]

Mobilizing Feminist Action for Nuclear Abolition

Ray Acheson wrote an article titled "Mobilizing Feminist Action for Nuclear Abolition" posted at the Arms Control Association website in March, 2023 (excerpt):[2]

Nuclear weapons are gendered. They have gendered impacts; their existence is predicated and perpetuated in part due to gendered norms about power, violence, and security; and their abolition is challenged by the stark lack of gender diversity in discussions and negotiations related to nuclear policy.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) has done a lot to address these issues in recent years, but other nuclear governance infrastructure, such as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), has failed to do so. As a result, much more work is needed to advance intersectional approaches to nuclear weapons, an imperative for achieving nuclear abolition.

[...]

Feminist conceptions of intersectionality recognize that, although important, increasing the number of women is insufficient to challenge gender norms or diversify perspectives on weapons and militarism. Real diversity is not just about adding bodies to meeting rooms but also about creating space for nonhegemonic ideas, imaginations, and perspectives to inspire concrete changes in policy and practice. It is not useful to treat women as a monolithic group. Disarmament work needs people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, races, classes, abilities, backgrounds, and experiences.
Diversity is not just for its own sake. It is essential for challenging socially constructed norms about identity that impact the approach of diplomats, activists, and academics toward weapons and militarism. Gender norms, for example, perpetuate a binary social construction of men who are violent and powerful and women who are vulnerable and need to be protected. The term “militarized masculinities” has been used by feminists and LGBTQ+ scholars and activists to describe the normative association of cisgendered, heterosexual masculinity with militarized violence. For instance, the framing of war and violence as “strong” and “masculine” is often coupled with a framing of peace and nonviolence as “weak” and “feminine.” In this context, weapons are typically seen as important for security, power, and control while disarmament is treated as something that makes countries weaker or more vulnerable.

[...]

"Many feminist, queer, and anti-racist organizers have pointed out that having women, people of color, or LGBTQ+ persons at the table does not necessarily lead to less militaristic solutions to international conflict or to disarmament. Under the Obama administration, for example, women held leadership positions throughout the national security and nuclear weapons establishment, yet the administration still objected vociferously to the banning of nuclear weapons and actively lobbied U.S. allies to reject the TPNW.

[...]

Dismantling militarized masculinities means refusing to buy into idealized notions of strong men and passive women, of men needing to be providers and protectors and women needing protection, and of states needing weapons and the ability to wage war. Rejecting the gender binary is essential to this work."

LGBT+ Identity in the Nuclear Weapons Space

Screenshot from LGBT+ Identity in the Nuclear Weapons Space Panel Discussion
LGBT+ Identity in the Nuclear Weapons Space

Louis Reitmann (he/him) moderated the "LGBT+ Identity in the Nuclear Weapons Space" book launch on 6 December 2022 at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP. Verbatim from the invitation:[3]

The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) cordially invites you to attend a virtual book launch entitled “LGBT+ Identity in the Nuclear Weapons Space,” which will be held on Tuesday, 6 December 2022 from 15:00 to 16:15 Central European Time (CET) via Zoom. The webinar will also be livestreamed to YouTube.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other queer people were long excluded from the historically male and heteronormative nuclear weapons space. Their identities were thought to be incompatible with national defence, international security, and arms control work. This event will underline why LGBT+ inclusion, participation, and visibility in nuclear weapons policy is important, how it has been advanced, and what remains to be done.
Our speakers will share personal experiences of engaging with nuclear weapons policy as members of the LGBT+ community, explaining how their identities shape their work, and how they view LGBT+ visibility and equality in this field. The panel discussion will also spotlight the contributions by queer theory scholars and queer activists for peace and disarmament.
Speakers:

The panel will be opened by VCDNP Executive Director Elena K. Sokova (she/her) and moderated by Research Associate Louis Reitmann (he/him).

Left Forum

Ray Acheson has spoken at several Left Forum events:

From the Left Forum 2011:

Disarmament work amidst a global crisis:

From the Left Forum 2012: "Occupy the System: Confronting Global Capitalism":

Military industrial complexes, nuclear complexes, and the emerging movements for democracy and Economic justice

From the Left Forum 2017: The Resistance

Women Demand an End to the Whole Nuclear Era

References

  1. ↑ Staff (accessed June 21, 2023)
  2. ↑ Mobilizing Feminist Action for Nuclear Abolition (accessed June 21, 2023)
  3. ↑ LGBT+ Identity in the Nuclear Weapons Space (accessed June 21, 2023)
  4. ↑ Proposition One (accessed June 21, 2023)
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