Interested in America’s Relationship with Russia?? The City of Oakland has an official Sister City (and Sister Port) relationship with a port city in the Russian Far East: Nakhodka, not far from Vladivostok. The agreements were signed in 1972 as a result of the Nixon Brezhnev détente, when 4 other US cities were paired with 4 other Soviet Cities.
In the mid-1970s there were several exchanges of city and port officials, including then City Council Member John Sutter and a teacher who had organized children’s exchanges with Oakland’s Japanese Sister City. With the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980 the Soviet sister city relationships were suspended, but in 1986 MPC’s Plowshares Committee was approached by an East Bay activist who encouraged us to look into reviving the relationship with Nakhodka.
Out of our activities, the Oakland-Nakhodka Sister City Association (ONSCA) was born. We approached Oakland’s City Council and Port Commission asking for their support of the Sister City Association, and, having received it, did outreach in the Oakland and Berkeley communities inviting people to join the new group. We organized ourselves as a corporation, applied for (and received) non-profit status with the IRS and Franchise Tax Board, and reached out to the Oakland Unified School District to see if there was interest in student exchanges.
Between 1987 and 2005, the Association sponsored numerous exchanges of City and Port officials, high school students, children’s choirs, physicians, jazz musicians, journalists, and drug treatment professionals. But in 2005, the Association went dormant, as Nakhodka got a new mayor who was less interested in US relationships, and local leadership became difficult to recruit.
A couple of us who were involved in the Sister City Association’s founding are looking for a small group of people who might be interested in reviving it. At this time in history, it’s important to take advantage of an opportunity for citizen diplomacy! If this sounds intriguing to you, please contact Bonnie Hamlin to talk about what might be involved.
