News

In a personal message to UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings, world-renowned singer and activist Yoko Ono has given her blessing to UNI’s work for world peace and nuclear disarmament and her support for the UNI World Congress that will be held in Nagasaki in November.

Ono has been an outspoken supporter for the abolition of nuclear weapons, a move supported by UNI Global Union, which has long championed the cause.

In a recent address to Mayors For Peace, an international organization calling for total disarmament by 2020, Ono said the end of nuclear weapons must begin with the people.

“It’s up to us to do something about it,” she said in her speech. “With your efforts and the strong wishes of the people of the world, I know we can and we will create a peaceful world for ourselves and for this planet.”

Jennings wrote to Ono, thanking for her message and inviting her to speak at the organization’s World Congress in support of UNI’s “Breaking Through for Peace” initiative.

Ono wrote in a personal message to Jennings, thanking him for helping bring awareness to the issue.

"Dear Philip, Blessings to your work for Peace. Thank you. Love, yoko"

UNI will hold its World Congress in November in Nagasaki — a city that has played a key role in the nuclear disarmament movement. There, UNI Congress delegates will hold a peace march and rally at the Nagasaki Peace Park on November 11.

“We are bringing the union world to Nagasaki to win the struggle for a nuclear weapon free world,” Jennings said.

UNI is involved in several programs working toward disarmament, including the Peace Messengers — a group of high school students from Nagasaki and Hiroshima who travel around the world to push for world peace and nuclear disarmament.

Inspired by some of the Japanese high school students and Ono’s use of art to promote peace, UNI is collaborating with students in its local community of Nyon, Switzerland, to spread the Peace Messengers’ ideas with an art contest.

The contest gives local second year high school students the chance to win a trip to Japan by creating a work of art, literature or music that exemplifies the theme of world peace. The two winners will take part in a number of social and cultural exchange events, and their works will be featured at the Congress.