Taking Note
MLD
Grassroots Diplomacy IN 1982, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ALLOcated funds to municipalities around the country for the development of emergency evacuation plans in case of nuclear attack. Turning...
...tradition, at times with government encouragement, as Reagan's contra aid network illustrates...
...And unlike the distant bureaucrats running foreign policy in Washington, D.C., municipal foreign policymakers can remain under local scrutiny and control...
...Your city can have a foreign policy too, and that's empowering...
...Louis Pledge of Resistance, says the governors of Massachusetts and Maine-the first to speak out--did so in response to grassroots pressure...
...Bilateral actions include the sister relationships established with 346 cities in Latin America and the Caribbean...
...Hoffman says the commission has found school administrators open to use of a video on the Salvador trip and to a peace curriculum developed for elementary pupils...
...According to the Nicaraguan Embassy, Nicaragua pairings, which now number 73, have mushroomed in the last year...
...Now Central America activists are using similar techniques...
...TI M E MAGAZINE'S COMMENT ON THE MEXIcan ruling party's candidate was typical of the U.S...
...We'll start 1988 and Volume 22, no.1 with a look at how Honduras has fared under U.S...
...The office coordinates trade and tourism as well as 13 sister city relationships, among them, Managua...
...Popular or free-lance participation in foreign affairs is a U.S...
...Unilateral actions have been taken by 22 cities which have declared themselves sanctuaries for Central Americans fleeing violence...
...Shuman says "more than 1,000 U.S...
...Today the commission oversees two sister-city relationships-one in rebel-controlled El Salvador-and a variety of projects in peace education and economic security...
...Written by Research Associate David Brooks, this study will be labelled Volume 21, nos...
...This numbering change will not affect your subscription...
...Few get past stereotyped images, something a forthcoming product of NACLA's year-old Mexico program seeks to accomplish...
...Those early efforts grew into the Cambridge Peace Commission, now housed within and partially funded by city hall...
...media's portrayal of that country...
...The city's "Rapid Response Network" has been activated five times, flooding the Salvadorean government with telegrams when residents of Cambridge's sister city have been detained...
...New Haven, CT has forbidden police to arrest non-violent apartheid protesters...
...Peggy Moore of the National Guard Clearinghouse, a project of the St...
...The center's Bulletin of Municipal Foreign Policy is a wealth of information and inspiration for those seeking to foster international relations based on mutual respect...
...Participants in a Cambridge delegation to San Jos6 las Flores in El Salvador's Chalatenango province have been speaking to churches and schools about the Reagan policy in Central America...
...Municipal State Departments have been established in a few cities, further institutionalizing grassroots efforts...
...foreign policy," citing the Christic Institute's La Penca "secret team" suit and the California case against an Argentine Army officer accused of torture...
...We don't simply complain about Washington's foreign policy...
...Ensured the presidency, Carlos Salinas de Gortari's "task will be to guide Mexico's economy from the sleepy epoch of the sombrero into the dynamic age of the superconductor," commented the news weekly on October 19...
...But now, critics of Washington policy are building their own networks, and having considerable success in tapping into municipal resources...
...If each of us thinks globally and acts locally, we can become our own secretary of state-with funding, legitimacy and power," wrote attorney Michael Shuman in Nuclear Times last June...
...Immigration and Naturalization service in rounding up immigrants...
...Watch for this special issue of Report on the Americas in your holiday mail...
...state and local governments of all political stripes are participating in foreign affairs...
...San Francisco, a pioneer in the field, has instructed police not to cooperate with the U.S...
...Seven governors have opposed training of their state's national guardsmen in Honduras...
...Maryland's Catholic Quixote Center has documented $127,000 million in humanitarian aid to Nicaragua since 1985, a figure which rivals official contra aid...
...But on the positive side we've gained access to a whole variety of communities in Cambridge that peace activists don't normally touch...
...There are negative sides to working within city hall," says commission director Kathy Hoffman...
...Consciousness-raising campaigns through education, research and lobbying have been conducted extensively by peace groups...
...Empowerment is our main issue," Alan Wright of the New Haven, CT/Le6n, Nicaragua sister-city project told an interviewer last year...
...Further, he says "novel law suits could potentially cripple U.S...
...Seattle's Office of International Affairs, with a staff of four and a $250,000 budget, is in its first year...
...Turning government thinking on its head, city council members in Cambridge, MA worked with local peace activists in writing a pamphlet on the dangers of nuclear war...
...Cambridge has also shown how a partnership can offer more than tangible aid...
...Citizen diplomats" around the nation are prodding local governments to develop municipal foreign policies, promoting peace and friendships abroad and in some cases challenging federal policies...
...Taking sanctuary one step further, Shuman suggests that municipalities could provide legal aid to refugees...
...Shuman is president of the Center for Innovative Diplomacy in Irvine, CA, which monitors local efforts and provides technical assistance...
...The Cambridge experience is one example of a growing trend...
...influence...
Vol. 21 • July 1987 • No. 4
