Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
July 2007
Banner photo: Jozef Szentpeteri/Getty Images
The Power of Youth
Youth make their voices heard at the NPT PrepCom Conference in Vienna, 2007
[Janine Korduan]
The Ban All Nukes Generation (BANg) is a network created by European youth to promote awareness about the threat of nuclear weapons and to mobilize nonviolent youth action and participation toward nuclear disarmament. Julia Kramer, from Germany, is one of its founders.
SGI Quarterly: Could you describe the BANg network and what your vision is?
Julia Kramer: At the United Nations in New York in 2005, youth delegations from different countries attended the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons for the first time.
At the end of the conference, which failed, Giorgio Alba from Italy, Sophie Lefeez from France and I agreed we should work together more closely in Europe on the issue of antinuclear awareness-raising and to make Europe nuclear weapons free.
In October 2005 we had a meeting in Milan, Italy. There were people there from seven countries in Europe including from Belarus and Ukraine, some from different NGO groups. We thought about ways in which we could link up to create synergies and start in our own countries to create a nuclear weapons-free world. We are also affiliated with IPPNW [International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War] students and youth in other NGOs. We now have people from around 15 countries.
We were also in Vienna at the NPT conference, which ended on May 11, 2007; 30 to 40 young people from Austria, Germany, Belarus, Italy and Poland. We called the BANg youth action program "Vienna 007--License to Disarm" and read a speech to the delegates at the conference.
Every morning we welcomed the delegates with performances and chalk messages in front of the Austria center. We also went to schools and ran workshops, and we released our DVD "Genie in a Bottle Unleashed" for use in awareness-raising and workshops.
We realized that it is very necessary to have patience and not to give up and that it is necessary to have young people acting on this issue. The trouble is that many people don't know the basic things about nuclear weapons, but once we start discussing the issue, they are usually very interested.
SGIQ: What is the most important thing to get across in an awareness campaign?
JK: The main issue is to create an image or a question in the mind, not to say that nuclear weapons are bad and should be abolished, but to raise a question about it. This is the most challenging aspect, to imagine the issue from a future perspective. That is also my personal aim in this network, for young people to find ways to empower themselves and to take responsibility for the future.
BANg representatives listen to the testimony of an atomic-bomb survivor
[Janine Korduan]
SGIQ: How do you bring issues alive that seem so distant to so many people?
JK: The young people said that talks with hibakusha were very inspiring; it was always where people felt very motivated and interested.
Nina Eisenhardt from Germany, aged 16, who was at the NPT review conference in 2005 in New York with us, said that the most thought-provoking moment for her was hearing the testimonies of the hibakusha in the NGO room. She then realized that around the corner in the main conference they were not actually considering the human aspect of the issue and that the delegates were talking about their politics in a power game way.
SGIQ: How did you decide to become so active on this issue?
JK: I have always been interested in peace and social justice issues, and I studied Peace Studies at Bradford University. When I came back to Germany, it was by chance that I found an NGO here where I could work on this issue in the social movement context. People in the peace movement are getting older, and young people are not involved and don't feel that they have their own style of movement.
In a broader context I think I have a strong love for life and for the Earth, and anger as well. I feel motivated to do things that are meaningful rather than career-orientated.
Visit: www.bang-europe.org
