Marder, who is also president of the US Peace Council, expects that US residents will make the journey to Vancouver in large numbers. Vancouver, he said, is close, it is a wonderful site to hold the forum, and it is relatively easy for people from the US to make it. But he warned that US people need to be prepared to listen and learn. "Sometimes we think we are smart, but if that is so why aren 't we able to stop our own leaders? " Marder wondered.
The US-based United for Peace and Justice coalition will chair a special plenary organized by the No-Bases Coalition, a broad international coalition of organizations that attempts to educate and activate local communities against US and other countries ' military occupation with military bases. The plenary is important because the US far outnumbers all of the rest of the countries combined with overseas bases.
Keighley also addressed concerns about holding such an important meeting in Canada. He remarked that forum organizers and participants don 't want it to be about bringing out Vancouver 's middle-class and white population to talk about peace. It is a global movement that seeks to impact and be impacted by many societies, nations, peoples and cultures. Future World Peace Forums will likely be held in Nanjing, China and Cheju Island, South Korea. The mayors and civil political leaders of both of these municipalities are lobbying to hold the 2008 forum in their cities.
World Peace Forum 2006 organizers expect as many as 5,000 people from around the world to come from all the continents and hundreds of international peace organizations and local community groups.
One important highlight will be the visit to the forum by the Japanese Peace Boat, which is currently in its 53rd voyage around the world. The Japanese Peace Boat was initiated by survivors of the nuclear bombings in Japan at the end of World War II and brings its call for abolition of nuclear weapons to cities around the world. Its 900 participants will dock at Vancouver, where forum attendees will board the ship meet the Japanese Peace Boat members and hold a session on nuclear weapons abolition. This meeting will be a continuation of the so-called Middle Powers Initiative, which launched an effort in the United Nations by 24 second-tier nations to cajole and embarrass the big powers into abolishing nuclear weapons.
Other important features of the forum include a peace walk to Sunset Beach, which is expected to attract as many as 100,000 people. Peace concerts at the Plaza of Nations and at the University of British Columbia and many cultural activities are planned in downtown Vancouver itself. Visitors may also enjoy the world renowned Vancouver International Jazz Festival, which will be held at the same time as the forum. The forum will also coincide with the World Urban Forum and the Earth Festival.
Forum organizers say that participants should come prepared to share their experiences with one another, to learn from each other and engage in dialogue, but not expect to simply sit in stuffy meetings and lengthy plenaries. It is both a time to educate and mobilize against the great dangers caused by US imperialism and its allies, but it is also a time to celebrate the growing strength of the world 's other superpower the global peace movement.
Find out more at: www.worldpeaceforum.ca
--Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and will be door-knocking and phone-banking this fall to bring down the corrupt Republican Congress.
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