Focused Read in 3-4 minutes
What will it take to ban
the bomb?
By Frida Berrigan
… the Doomsday Clock is
still with us. In fact, it has been inching closer to midnight in two
or three minute increments for the past 26 years. It is 2017, Philip
Berrigan is 15 years dead, and I am an adult with my own movie-loving
kids. In January, after the elections of Donald Trump, the
Bulletin moved the clock to two and a half minutes to
nuclear midnight — the closest it has ever been. In their
statement, they pointed to the ways Trump is fanning nuclear flames
by suggesting that Japan and South Korea should acquire
nuclear weapons as a counter to North Korea, and making provocative
statements about Iran. They also cite the multiple flashpoints
between the United States and Russia — Syria, Ukraine, cyber-space
— and worry about a new wave of hot proxy wars that defined the
Cold War period. The scientists also included the existential threat
posed by climate change in their analysis. They concluded by saying,
“Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding humanity
away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens must step forward
and lead the way.”
Back in the day, wise
citizens were out in front of the nuclear issue in a major way.
Throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, millions of people in the
United States were engaged in anti-nuclear activism and advocacy.
There were multiple national organizations that supported and
coordinated those activities. Here are just a few highlights: In
1961, 50,000 women marched as Women’s Strike for Peace in
60 different cities to oppose nuclear weapons and above-ground
testing. Throughout the 1970s, activists focused on the Seabrook
Station Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire. In May 1977, more
than 1,400 people were arrested there — 500 of whom were jailed for
nearly two weeks. The next year, 12,000 people showed up to the
protest.
The banner event of the
anti-nuclear movement was June 12, 1982, when one million people
came to New York City’s Central Park during the United Nations
Special Session on Disarmament to call for an end to nuclear weapons.
Two days later, simultaneous actions were held at the U.N. Missions
of all the nuclear armed states, resulting in the arrest of 1,700
people. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Western Shoshone
people welcomed more than 500 demonstrations involving
nearly 40,000 people in opposition to nuclear weapons testing on
their indigenous lands at the Nevada Test Site. In the 2000s, the
most covered anti-nuclear story was the Transform Now Plowshares; a
2012 breach of the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee (also
known as the Fort Knox of Uranium) by a trio of Catholic peace
activists, including an 82-year-old nun.
This is such an impressive
and abbreviated list. The international scene was also dynamic, with
millions of activists across Europe and beyond fighting for a nuclear
free future over this same time period. Trying to capture this
breadth, historian Lawrence Whittner wrote a three-volume series
called “Struggle Against the Bomb.” His works were published over
an eight-year span and total more than 1,800 pages, but a condensed
version was published in 2009.
And today?
Between them, nearly 30
years after the end of the Cold War, the nine nuclear states have
nearly 15,000 nuclear weapons, each one many times more powerful
than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, which
killed hundreds of thousands almost instantly.
In March 2017, confronting
the glacial pace of disarmament, the global community united to
announce a new initiative to “ban the bomb.” The U.N. General
Assembly adopted, with overwhelming support, a landmark
resolution to begin negotiations on a treaty prohibiting nuclear
weapons. According to Sally Jones, an organizer with Peace Action
Staten Island, such an action is unprecedented. “The treaty is
changing the dynamics within the United Nations,” she said. “A
hundred and thirty countries stood up to the nuclear weapons states
and their allies to push the negotiations forward. This has never
happened before.”
Nikki Haley, President
Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, walked out of
the meetings early, saying, “As a mom and a daughter there is
nothing I want more for my family than a world with no nuclear
weapons … But we have to be realistic. Is there anyone that
believes that North Korea would agree to a ban on nuclear weapons?”
This statement underlines the stalemate, with many experts arguing
that North Korea was able to acquire nuclear weapons because the big
powers’ continued to cling to their nukes even after signing
treaties pressing their intentions to disarm, because nuclear weapons
continue to be a currency of power on the international stage.
“Ban the bomb” can
break this paralysis. While most of the other nuclear states joined
Haley and the United States in her walk-out, the majority of the
world’s governments will negotiate a ban on nuclear weapons at the
United Nations in June.
In support of the “ban
the bomb” process, the historic Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom, or WILPF — along with many partners — are
calling for a Women’s March and Rally to Ban the Bomb on
Saturday, June 17. The organizers hope it “will bring together
people of all genders, sexual orientations, ages, ethnicities,
abilities and backgrounds” in New York City and across the world. ... "
You can read
more here
(Frida
Berrigan is a columnist for Waging Nonviolence and the author of "It
Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and Growing into
Rebellious Motherhood.")
You can read
more about Philip Berrigan in his NYT's 2002 obituary here
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