The Movement for Global Nuclear Weapons Abolition: On from Vienna to New York City!
– Peter Deccy, Development Director
Peace Action and our allies in the global movement for nuclear abolition won a small but significant victory at the Third International Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons last week in Vienna. We have been pressing the administration for over a year now demanding greater participation in international fora dealing with nuclear disarmament. This was the first time the United States was present to address the impact of nuclear weapons and the potential for their use on human health, the environment, agriculture and food security, and the economy.
The U.S. was absent at the first two of these international conferences, a visable reminder to the growing number of nations working for zero nuclear weapons that the U.S. wants to keep nuclear weapons out of their hands but isn’t planning to give up its nukes anytime soon. The Obama administration needed to demonstrate it is taking their work seriously or risk serious blowback at the next year’s review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT RevCon).
Peace Action’s Field Director, Judith LeBlanc and our chapters in New York and New Jersey are playing a key roll in organizing an international grassroots presence at the NPT review conference, just as we did at the last one in 2010, organizing an international conference and a 15,000 person march to the United Nations.
Peace Action and the American Friends Service Committee have dedicated staff working with an ad hoc committee of nuclear abolition allies formulating plans for the our presence at the NPT review conference which will involve:
• Organizing an inclusive international Nuclear Weapons Abolition conference on the eve of the NPT RevCon;
• Organizing a mass rally and march on the eve of the Review Conference to demand nuclear weapons abolition, peace and justice – including reducing military spending and the funding of essential human needs;
• Organizing an international peace festival at the conclusion of the rally and march;
• Facilitating organizing by the rising generation of young nuclear abolitionists;
• Facilitating delivery of millions of Japanese petition signatures urging negotiations without delay for a nuclear weapons abolition convention;
• Facilitating the organization of an international interfaith service on the eve of the Review Conference;
• Facilitating the visits of Hibakusha and international peace activists to communities in the United States to encourage nuclear weapons abolition organizing; and
• Exploring additional nonviolent actions that can reinforce our demand for nuclear disarmament.
You can expect to see more from us on our NPT actions as plans are finalized early next year. We certainly hope you will take action in support of our nuclear abolition campaign in the coming months and we promise to provide you with ample opportunities to do so.