4-18-05, 9:15 am

From United For Peace and Justice

May 1, 2005: MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION – MARCH AND RALLY IN NYC

*ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS *U.S. OUT OF IRAQ – BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW *NO WARS ON IRAN AND NORTH KOREA

In August 1945, the United States incinerated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs, initially killing more than 200,000 human beings, and starting a nuclear arms race that has held humanity hostage ever since. In the ensuing decades, enough nuclear weapons were produced to wipe out all life on this planet many times over. But people didn’t remain silent in the face of this growing horror. An international movement for nuclear disarmament was born, ultimately forcing governments to sign treaties banning both the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons and the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries. This movement also was instrumental in bringing about a series of arms control treaties between the U.S. and the USSR/Russia.

But today, the risk of use of nuclear weapons is climbing towards levels not reached since the darkest days of the Cold War. Formerly the private domain of the “Big Five” (U.S., USSR/Russia, Britain, France, China), other countries are joining the list of nations with nuclear weapons capabilities. The proliferation of nuclear weapons endangers everyone and must be opposed. However, global nuclear nonproliferation cannot succeed when those in the nuclear “club” cynically manipulate public fears of proliferation, while at the same time modernizing their own nuclear arsenals and threatening to use them.

The Bush Administration has declared a sweeping, open-ended policy of preventive war, in which “America will act against... emerging threats before they are fully formed” with a nuclear option. In the run up to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, Bush told the American public that “we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.” He didn’t tell us that the mushroom cloud was more likely to emanate from the U.S. than from Iraq.

The Bush administration cowed many into supporting the invasion of Iraq with charges that Saddam Hussein was developing “weapons of mass destruction” — meaning nuclear weapons. The whole world now recognizes this fabrication as an attempt to justify a war to control access to Iraq’s oil and enhance U.S. power in the Middle East. And as this war rages on, with mounting casualties, a country in ruins, and the poor in the U.S. facing drastic cuts in vital services, Washington is turning its sights on Iran and North Korea, seeking again to inflame public fears of a new nuclear threat. In the late 1990s, when both India and Pakistan went nuclear, the U.S. responded with condemnation, but it has turned a blind eye to Israel’s sizable, sophisticated nuclear arsenal — described by The Economist as “the world’s worst kept secret.”

While it demands that other nations cease and desist, the U.S. will spend nearly $7 billion this year to maintain and modernize its nuclear warheads, keeping them useable for decades to come, and many billions more to operate and modernize their means of delivery. Altogether, the U.S. spends about $40 billion a year on its nuclear forces. Ten thousand nuclear warheads — two thousand on hair-trigger alert — remain in the U.S. arsenal, each one many times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped 60 year ago. Worse yet, the nuclear hawks in the Bush Administration are trying to sell the idea that it is acceptable to use nuclear weapons in the field of battle. No one can deny that the world has seen many horrendous conflicts since 1945. Nonetheless, the international norm against the use of nuclear weapons has held firm. Now, the Bush Administration is flirting with breaching that “firewall”. Once breached, it will be forever weakened.

If the most powerful country that has ever existed asserts the right to use nuclear weapons to ensure its security, we shouldn’t be surprised to see other countries follow suit. As responsible global citizens, we must demand a more sustainable concept of universal security based on human and ecological needs. Nuclear weapons have no place in this new security paradigm.

This May, world leaders and citizens from many countries will converge at the United Nations in New York City to discuss the fate of the endangered Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). While ignoring their own NPT disarmament obligations, the nuclear weapons states are selectively and hypocritically accusing other nations of seeking nuclear arms. Inspired by the aging “hibakusha” (the survivors of “hell on earth” in their cities), the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have launched an Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, enrolling Mayors around the world to come to New York to demand immediate negotiations to eliminate all nuclear weapons under strict and effective international control.

On Sunday, May 1, 2005, the day before the NPT Review Conference begins, United for Peace and Justice and Abolition Now! are calling for a massive demonstration for global nuclear disarmament, culminating in a rally in New York City's Central Park.

To end nuclear proliferation and to avert further “preventive” wars, we urge you to join us and help build the May 1st mobilization for immediate negotiations to ban all nuclear weapons — including our own.

As we mark the 60th anniversary of the first — and only — use of nuclear weapons in war, we must commit ourselves once more to the cause of nuclear disarmament. No less than our collective survival depends upon it.

We urge you to join us and help build the May 1st mobilization for a nuclear weapon free world.

Initiated by: Abolition Now! United for Peace and Justice