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“I’ll tell you why I am a fundamentalist Muslim,” said a Sri Lankan city council member named—I kid you not—A. Marika. “When you are grading a grammar test, if the student writes, ‘I will get a apple from the store,’ will you grade it correct or incorrect? The meaning is clear; is it correct or not?” 

Thus began one of the more interesting conversations I had at the Sixth World Conference of Mayors for Peace in Hiroshima, Japan, where I was privileged to represent Berkeley at the behest of Mayor Tom Bates. In coming weeks, planning meetings will begin for the many cooperative ventures hatched at that conference, including sending a Berkeley delegation as part of the cities contingent to the World Peace Conference in Vancouver next June. 

Mr. Marika told me that those who engage in terrorism under the guise of Muslim fundamentalism are not acting as true Muslims, but rather misusing Islam to promote political agendas. He attaches great importance to nonviolence—and to a nuclear-free future. 

The depth of that commitment may be deduced from a few striking facts. The 35 delegates (plus interpreters) from Sri Lanka constituted by far the largest representation from one country, other than Japan. To attend the conference, Mr. Marika and the others each spent enough money to buy a small home in Sri Lanka. 

Activists follow our lead 

During the three-day conference held Aug. 4-6 (ending on the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing), I was struck by the degree to which delegates throughout the world were interested in the leadership provided by a small, faraway city called Berkeley, Calif. 

On previous trips to Japan, I learned that peace activists in the Land of the Rising Sun are inspired by Berkeley’s leadership on global-justice issues. This was reinforced during an international peace conference near Tokyo July 30-31, at which Berkeley was asked to help lead a new movement to declare war-free cities around the world, inspired in part by the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act. Peace-and-justice leaders from Japan, Iraq, the Philippines, England, Switzerland, and Mexico expressed interest in Berkeley’s activist heritage and ways to work together in the future. I also spoke in Hiroshima, Sakai (Berkeley’s sister city), and Nishinomiya (near Osaka) at meetings where activists watched a documentary about Berkeley’s activism and discussed ways to apply the “Berkeley model” in their communities. 

On this, my fourth visit to Japan, I was unsurprised (but still awed) at Berkeley’s status as a touchstone for such activists. But I did not know what to expect at Mayors for Peace. This was an assemblage of government representatives, not grassroots activists; and they came from throughout the world, not just the progressive “hot-spots” represented at gatherings I’d previously attended. 

Cities also look to Berkeley 

What I found was this: Berkeley is looked to as a leader in the burgeoning movement of local governments acting on global issues. Consider: 

• With citizens and their local representatives increasingly frustrated by the destructive policies of their national governments (often at the behest of the current U.S. administration), Mayors for Peace has more than doubled in membership since its last world conference four years ago. It now includes more than 1,000 cities working to get rid of nuclear weapons. 

Participant after participant spoke about why it’s appropriate and necessary for localities to address global concerns. 

“It is on cities that nuclear bombs will fall, not governments,” said Mayor Garry Moore of Christchurch, New Zealand, whose interest in Berkeley led him to visit our city and have dinner with Mayor Bates and Assemblymember Hancock earlier this year. Mayors, he said, must protect their cities’ residents—including from the nuclear threat. Mayor Moore said it is possible and necessary “to be both idealistic and pragmatic at the same time.” 

• After my brief presentation about the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act, delegates from numerous cities approached me seeking assistance to develop similar policies for their communities. 

• In subsequent conference sessions, various delegates cited the Berkeley model as one to follow. A Massachusetts delegate particularly focused on the Berkeley-led South Africa boycott. 

• With an expected 20,000 participants, next year’s World Peace Forum in Vancouver, Canada will be the largest event of its kind to date, and will feature substantial participation from local governments. As Berkeley’s representative, I was lobbied heavily to participate in a meeting to organize local-government involvement in the forum. 

• On another issue, Berkeley was recently asked to join a global coalition of cities working to eliminate the death penalty worldwide, initiated by European cities impatient with national governments’ inaction. The Peace and Justice Commission’s recommendation to join the coalition is pending before the City Council. 

Clearly, the Berkeley model of thinking globally and acting locally is mushrooming worldwide. 

A responsibility to lead 

With so much admiration for Berkeley shown by Mayors for Peace delegates, I naturally felt great pride in the activist heritage of our town. I also felt a sense of responsibility, because such a reputation creates an opportunity—and therefore a duty—to lead. We owe it to our history; we owe it to our future. 

In a world threatened with nuclear annihilation, terrorism, grave social disparities, injustices against almost every social group, and environmental destruction, we do not have the luxury of parochialism. Having been handed the bat and ball, we must step up to the plate. 

As if to underscore that point, just as I was writing the preceding paragraph an e-mail message arrived from Namiho Nagata, who is running for City Council in the city of Kobe. “I will try to become a council member of Kobe city, and make a peace-loving city like Berkeley from my community,” she wrote. 

Can cities really help rid the world of the ultimate weapon of mass destruction? To the naysayer, we can point to our own city’s legacy. Was it “pie-in-the-sky” idealism to expect that apartheid could be brought down largely by a boycott started in a small California city? Was it “wishful thinking” for UC Berkeley protesters to believe their Free Speech Movement could break the shackles of censorship on campuses throughout the country? 

More than once, global challenges have been successfully confronted by innovative, effective action emanating from our small town. Ending the nuclear arms race may be a bigger challenge than campus free speech or ending apartheid, but we begin with a head-start over those earlier victorious efforts: A global movement is already in place, involving the elected leaders of more than 1,000 cities and coordinated by the politically astute Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima. We’ve shown ‘em before that the pessimists can be wrong. Let’s sock it to ‘em once again!  

Steve Freedkin is chairperson of the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission and publisher of ProgressivePortal.org. 

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