Abolition
2000: United for Peace and Justice Nuclear Disarmament/Redefining Security Working Group Campaign Proposal |
Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP) participates in the Nuclear Abolition/Redefining Security working group of United for Peace and Justice. The working group is convened by Western States Legal Foundation's Executive Director Jacqueline Cabasso. She can be reached at webmaster@wslfweb.org |
NUCLEAR ABOLITION A PRIORITY |
At the United for Peace and Justice national meeting in Chicago, June 6 and 7, 2003, an action priority was adopted by the several hundred person plenary as follows:
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NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT (REDEFINING SECURITY) |
The Bush administration continues to demand disarmament from other nations, while expanding U.S. programs designing and building weapons of mass destruction. As part of its broader effort to achieve global military dominance, the U.S. is working to make its enormous nuclear arsenal more useable in warfare. The continued possession of thousands of nuclear weapons by the existing nuclear weapons states, together with the U.S. policy of preventive war and its push to modernize its nuclear arsenal, provide arguments for other countries to develop nuclear weapons of their own. Nuclear weapons threaten everyones security. They remain the most dangerous of all weapons, the only ones that can destroy civilization in a day. We need to redefine security in human and ecological rather than military terms: food, shelter, clean air and water, jobs, healthcare and education. This kind of security is universal. Nuclear disarmament must become a core issue on the global peace movements agenda. Through education, advocacy, demonstrations, and coordinated civil society presence at international disarmament fora, and by linking with other issue constituencies, this campaign seeks to move beyond narrow arms control approaches by building broad visible public support in the US for sweeping measures to eliminate nuclear weapons in the US as well as worldwide. Major goals: This is the moment to demand the elimination of these genocidal, ecocidal, and suicidal weapons. The re-legitimization of nuclear weapons by the worlds first nuclear weapons state and the likely result, increasing nuclear proliferation, pose perhaps the gravest threat to international security. As illustrated in the runup to the Iraq war, the Bush Administrations declared threat of first use of nuclear weapons as part of its preemptive war doctrine, its announced plans to develop more "useable" nuclear weapons, and its blatant disregard for international law, have made visible the present and very real dangers of nuclear weapon use. In the interests of promoting human security, we call on the U.S. government to reaffirm and make good on its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations and commitments. We call on the U.S. to:
! National actions from August 1-11, bracketing the anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These will include a week of actions at U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska, where military planners will be meeting to discuss the development of new or modified nuclear weapons for new nuclear warfighting strategies, and a mass demonstration at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California, where nuclear warheads are designed. Main Messages: The U.S. continues to design and develop the ultimate weapons of terror. We must mobilize now, or risk the U.S. using nuclear weapons in one of its wars on terror. Global disarmament starts at home; it is time to disarm America. Why should UFPJ work on this? How does it directly challenge Bushs empire-building agenda? The nuclear weapons establishment is one of the most powerful sets of institutions sustaining the U.S. quest for world military domination. In the midst of the U.S.-led perpetual war, the risks of nuclear catastrophe are increased and present a threat to all of us. People of the world need to work within one united movement against nuclear weapons. The countries that are being threatened with a nuclear attack by the U.S. (including North Korea, Iran, Syria) would likely be less tempted to seek weapons of mass destruction if this nuclear threat was eliminated. The empire cannot be built under existing international law; thus the Bush administration has threatened the system of international law by undermining the Non-Proliferation Treaty, ignoring the International Court of Justice opinion of 1996, rejecting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (after signing it) and destroying the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The elimination of nuclear weapons, through verifiable multilateral negotiations, would reinvigorate the authority of international law, and infuse the global community with a sense of equity. Which constituencies would this campaign help us bring into the movement or develop strategic alliances with? Nuclear weapons are an equal opportunity destroyer. Polls have consistently shown that the worlds people want nuclear abolition. If nuclear disarmament is in the forefront of the American peace movements agenda, we will be able to build strategic alliances with nuclear disarmament groups around the world, as well as with environmentalists, human rights activists, anti-corporate globalization activists, parliamentarians, UN diplomats, and Mayors for Peace. Within the U.S., the economic and local environmental impacts of the nuclear enterprise offer natural bridges to low-income and directly affected communities, including Native populations and workers who suffer the brunt of the health and environmental impacts of the nuclear cycle. How would this campaign strengthen our ability to win other parts of our agenda down the road? The elimination of war cannot happen in the absence of the elimination of weapons- especially the most destructive. Peace and justice will remain unattainable so long as we lack the resources spent on armaments. The permanent cessation of nuclear testing and the sustainable and appropriate stewardship of nuclear waste would constitute major victories for the environmental movement. If the U.S. took leadership in the elimination of nuclear weapons, it would have the credibility to demand the same from others, including Israel, India, and Pakistan, nuclear-capable states that are not party to the NPT. The renouncement of nuclear weapons by Israel has the potential to be the catalyst for peace in that region. List any key dates and locations related to this proposal:
August 1-3: Speak out at STRATCOM, Omaha, Nebraska
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