Nuclear Weapons

Defuse Nuclear War Kicks Off Nationwide Week of Action

September 26, 2023 Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams. Resist! disarmament, Nuclear War, Nuclear Weapons, Wars and Militarism

Activists from the Defuse Nuclear War coalition on Sunday launched a week of action to demand the U.S. government take steps to reduce the existential threat of thermonuclear annihilation, including by reinstating arms control treaties, shutting down hair-trigger missiles, and engaging in "genuine diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine." Defuse Nuclear War is organizing around 40 events across the United States. Demonstrations are planned in Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Tucson, Fresno, and Salt Lake City, pickets are scheduled across Washington state, vigils are set to take place in Hawaii and California, activists plan to unfurl a banner at a Lockheed Martin facility in Pennsylvania, and an interfaith gathering will be held outside United Nations headquarters in New York.

Floating For Peace On The Golden Rule

September 22, 2023 Robert C. Koehler, Common Wonders. Resist! Golden Rule, Nuclear War, Nuclear Weapons, Veterans

It’s 10 p.m. at Montrose Harbor in Chicago. Kiko and Tamar help me step from the dock into the wobbly rowboat. Kiko rows us out to the Golden Rule and I climb aboard in wonder. Oh my God! This is it – the 30-foot, anti-nuke sailboat with a history going back almost seven decades . . . back to the era of atmospheric nuclear testing and the Cold War at its simmering height. The Golden Rule: “Floating for sanity in an insane world.” Well, somebody’s got to do it! The United Nations has tried. In 2017 it passed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was finally ratified (by 50 countries) in 2021. Technically, nuclear weapons are now “illegal” – what a joke. The possibility of nuclear war, i.e., Armageddon, is more alive than ever. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock is now set at 90 seconds to midnight.

Oppenheimer, American Exceptionalism And Myths About US Nuking Japan

August 20, 2023 Mohamed Elmaazi, YouTube. Resistance Report Hiroshima, Japan, Nagasaki, Nuclear Weapons, Oppenheimer, Wars and Militarism

Dropping the atomic bombs on Japan wasn't necessary, didn't save lives and did not end WWII, argues historian Peter Kuznick. On the 78th anniversary of the US dropping two atomic bombs on Japan, Truth Defence spoke to Peter Kuznick, Professor of History and Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, based in Washington D.C. Professor Kuznick discusses how the historical record continues to be distorted to this day and what he feels the new Christopher Nolan film "Oppenheimer" gets right and wrong. Professor Kuznick is the author and co-author of numerous books including co-authoring "The Untold History of the United States" with Oliver Stone.

The Netherlands: Activists Arrested On Runway Of Volkel Air Base

August 10, 2023 Marion Küpker, Nuke Resister. Resist! climate crisis, Nuclear Weapons, Peace Movement, The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, on the morning of August 8, ten peace and climate activists (six from the U.S., three from the Netherlands and a German doctor) entered Volkel Air Base, where about 15 U.S. nuclear bombs are stockpiled. They knelt on the runway, prayed for peace and glued down copies of Article 1 and 2 of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on the runway. They were taken into custody and later released with a small fine, which no one paid. This nonviolent resistance action took place as part of an international peace camp at Volkel Air Base. The radical branches of the climate movement and the peace movement have joined together for a week of protest and action.

Survivors Of Oppenheimer’s Trinity Test Are Still Fighting For Justice

August 9, 2023 Alessandra Bergamin, Waging Nonviolence. Organize! health, Japan, New Mexico, Nuclear Weapons, Oppenheimer, Radiation, Wars and Militarism

Eighteen years ago, as Tina Cordova read her local newspaper in the town of Tularosa, New Mexico, she noticed a letter to the editor that made her pause. It was written by the now late Fred Tyler, a fellow New Mexican, about his mother’s recent passing from cancer, after having suffered from several types over the course of her life. “I’m wondering,” Cordova recalled Tyler writing, “when we are going to hold our government accountable for the damage they did by detonating an atomic bomb in our backyard?” In south-central New Mexico, the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945.

Atomic Bombing Of Japan Was Not Necessary To End WWII

August 8, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Resistance Report Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, Hiroshima, History, Japan, Nagasaki, Nuclear Weapons, Oppenheimer, Soviet Union, USSR, World War II

It is very common for Western governments and media outlets to tell the rest of the world to be very afraid of North Korea and its nuclear weapons, or to fear the possibility that Iran could one day soon have nukes. But the reality is that there is only one country in human history that has used nuclear weapons against a civilian population – and not once, but twice: the United States. On the 6th and 9th of August, 1945, the US military dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Around 200,000 civilians were killed. Today, nearly 80 years later, it is still very common to hear US government officials, journalists, and educators claim that Washington had no choice but to nuke Japan.

Nuclear Weapons: Devastation Inside The US

August 3, 2023 William J. Kinsella, Consortium News. Educate! History, Nuclear Weapons, Wars and Militarism, ww2

Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer has focused new attention on the legacies of the Manhattan Project — the World War II program to develop nuclear weapons. As the anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, approach, it’s a timely moment to look further at dilemmas wrought by the creation of the atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project spawned a trinity of interconnected legacies. It initiated a global arms race that threatens the survival of humanity and the planet as we know it. It also led to widespread public health and environmental damage from nuclear weapons production and testing.

Top Medical Journals Publish Unprecedented Joint Call

August 3, 2023 Jake Johnson, Common Dreams. Resist! Doctors, Nuclear Disarmament, Nuclear Weapons, Ukraine

Leading medical journals published a joint editorial late Tuesday calling on world leaders to take urgent steps to reduce the risk of nuclear war—and eliminate atomic weapons altogether—as the threat of a potentially civilization-ending conflict continues to grow. The call was first issued in The Lancet, The BMJ, JAMA, International Nursing Review, and other top journals. Dozens of other journals are expected to publish the editorial in the coming days ahead of the 78th anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The editorial begins by noting that the hands of the Doomsday Clock are closer to midnight than ever before, reflecting mounting nuclear tensions amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Oppenheimer’s Deadly Legacy Of Nuclear Terror

July 21, 2023 Klee Benally, Indigenous Action. Educate! History, Hollywood, Navajo, Nuclear Weapons, Oppenheimer, Wars and Militarism, ww2

To glorify such deadly science and technology as a dramatic character study, is to spit in the face of hundreds of thousands of corpses and survivors scattered throughout the history of the so-called Atomic age. Think of it this way, for every minute that passes during the film’s 3-hour run time, more than 1,100 citizens in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki died due to Oppenheimer’s weapon of mass destruction. This doesn’t account for those downwind of nuclear tests who were exposed to radioactive fallout (some are protesting screenings), it doesn’t account for those poisoned by uranium mines, it doesn’t account for those killed during nuclear power plant melt-downs, it doesn’t account for those in the Marshall Islands who are forever poisoned.

How A Small Activist Sailing Ship Challenged The Nuclear Arms Race

May 21, 2023 George Lakey, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! History, Nuclear Weapons, Peace Movement, The Golden Rule

In today’s polarized context, progressive movements need their best strategic thinking. One source for inspiration should be the Golden Rule, a historic sailing ship that’s currently visiting ports along the Eastern U.S. Organized by Veterans for Peace, this national tour puts the 1958 Golden Rule voyage back in the news. Nearly 65 years ago, the Golden Rule defiantly sailed toward the Pacific Ocean site where U.S. nuclear weapons were being tested, sparking a movement that forced the U.S. government to sign the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. As a young activist, I got to know and learn from some of the original crew members and organizers. So, it was a delight to set foot on the Golden Rule last week for a sail in the Philadelphia harbor.

Activists Blockade US Nuclear Ballistic Missile Sub Base

May 16, 2023 Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, Popular Resistance. Resist! Blockade, Mothers Day, Nuclear Weapons, US military

Silverdale, Washington - Activists blockaded the entrance to the US Navy's west-coast nuclear submarine base, which is home to the largest operational concentration of deployed nuclear weapons, in a nonviolent direct action the day before Mother's Day. Eight peace activists from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, holding banners reading “The Earth is Our Mother Treat Her With Respect” and “Nuclear Weapons are Immoral to Use, Immoral to Have, Immoral to Make,” briefly blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington as part of a May 13th Mothers Day observance.

Golden Rule Peace Boat Brings Message Of Nuclear Disarmament

May 13, 2023 Cindy Farquhar, People's World. Resist! Baltimore, disarmament, Nuclear Weapons, The Golden Rule

Baltimore, MD—Do you know about the back story behind the U.S., U.K., and USSR signing the “Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water” in 1963? It is a very dramatic tale, involving illegal arrests in international waters, switching missions from one ship to another, children tasting nuclear fallout as it came down like snow—and it all began with Hiroshima. The atomic bomb which the U.S. dropped on that Japanese city on Aug. 6, 1945, caused Albert Bigelow to leave his military career as a Navy captain just before his date of retirement.

Seymour Hersh: My Meeting With Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf

May 6, 2023 Seymour Hersh, Scheer Post. Educate! India, Nuclear Weapons, Pakistan, US Hegemony

During the first year of the Obama administration, I spent months in the summer and fall of 2009 reporting about the Pakistani nuclear arsenal from here in Washington; from Islamabad, the Pakistani capital; from New Delhi, the Indian capital; and from London, where Pervez Musharraf, the former president of Pakistan as well a former army chief was living in exile. The story I eventually published in the New Yorker was edited slightly in accordance with a White House request that I did not contest. The issues then and today are the same: Pakistan is a nuclear-armed nation. So is India, its rival, an on-and-off ally of both Russia and America that rarely, if ever, discusses its own nuclear capability.

Action Alert: False NYT Spy Claim On Iran Nukes Needs Correction

May 6, 2023 Jim Naureckas, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Resist! Iran, Media, New York Times (NYT), Nuclear Weapons

The New York Times (5/1/23), reporting on Iran’s execution of British spy Alireza Akbari, reported: The spy had provided valuable information — and would continue to do so for years — intelligence that would prove critical in eliminating any doubt in Western capitals that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons. This is not correct; as FAIR has often pointed out (FAIR.org, 10/17/17, 9/9/15, 9/24/13; 1/31/13; Extra!, 3–4/08), the position of US intelligence is that it has no proof Iran has decided to build a nuclear weapon. As the US State Department reiterated in April 2022: The United States continues to assess that Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons–development activities it judge necessary to produce a nuclear device. This is a serious error that deserves prompt correction.

First Boat To Protest Nuclear Weapons Inspires A New Generation

May 3, 2023 Arnie Alpert, Waging Nonviolence. Organize! Golden Rule, History, Nuclear Weapons, Peace

Fredy Champagne has been a peace activist ever since he returned from combat in Vietnam. He’s been kicked out of college, where he was accused of starting a riot. He’s opened health clinics in Vietnam. He’s delivered school buses to Cuba. But in 2010, he received a call that opened his eyes to a story of resistance he had never heard before. The call was from one of Champagne’s fellow members of Veterans for Peace, or VFP, asking him to go check out a boat that had been hauled out of the water in Humboldt Bay, California — only an hour’s drive north from his home in Garberville, where he was serving as the president of the local VFP chapter. The boat — named the Golden Rule — wasn’t much to look at.

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