The declared aim of the March Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul (attended by Nick Clegg) was to stop nuclear material falling into the hands of “terrorists and rogue governments”. It would be too much to expect the nuclear weapons states to admit openly that their lack of enthusiasm for nuclear disarmament has contributed to the present sorry situation where nuclear weapons or even an interest in nuclear weapons is a guaranteed route to international importance. President Obama has however taken the opportunity to state “more forthrightly than in the past” [“Step by careful step”, Guardian leading article 27/3/2012] that the United States has more nuclear weapons than it needs: “quite a courageous underlining of his position when there are Republican adversaries more than ready to denounce him for endangering American security.”
He has “encouraged an approach... in which all countries can make their suggestions and contributions about preventative measures that are likely to be more fruitful than the top-down model in which the powerful craft a control régime and try to impose it”. I wonder what Nick Clegg had to say about UK plans to spend many billions on the replacement of Trident, deliberately ensuring that Britain remains a nuclear nation for the next fifty years? CND has been advocating for many years that a voluntarily nuclear-free UK would provide a spectacular example to the rest of the world without endangering national security one jot.
According to the report in the Guardian, Mr Obama will be discussing reductions in strategic nuclear weapons with newly inaugurated Russian President Vladimir Putin when they meet at the G8 meeting at Camp David this month. A limit of 1550 strategic warheads on each side was agreed in 2010 and “rumour in Washington” has suggested a radical drop to 300.
Given the obscene destructive power of even a single one of these warheads it might be felt that such a cosy arrangement between the superpowers is very far from their obligation under international law to commit to total nuclear disarmament. They need to be reminded that in 1996 the judges of the International Court of Justice decided unanimously that “...a threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law” and “...there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to complete nuclear disarmament under strict and effective international control”.
Still, it is a step in the right direction, and to President Barack Obama’s credit.
This book (“Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control”: Medea Benjamin, OR Books 2012, 180pp £11) was reviewed by Chris Cole in the May issue of Peace News: “For the busy activist trying to grapple with the growing development of drone wars, what is needed is a well-written, easy-to-read book... that lays out the issues in an accessible but not simplistic way. Thankfully long-time US peace activist Medea Benjamin has written the very thing.”
I was first alerted to the horror of drone warfare at the 2011 London Region CND conference where Chris gave a powerful presentation. Drones are called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by the military, and their use in armed conflict is spreading rapidly, from Gaza and Afghanistan to Yemen and Somalia. ‘Targeted killings’ in the tribal areas of Pakistan have become notorious because of documented deaths amongst civilians as NATO attempts to assassinate the Taliban leadership.
The film shown at London Region was unforgettable. US drone pilots were pictured sitting in comfort on the other side of the world, compartmentalising their lives every day between long-distance battlefields and ordinary home life. How can a sense of moral responsibility be retained in such circumstances?
“The idea that we can separate ourselves off (at the personal and political level) from the economic, political, moral and human consequences of our actions has been taken to a new level” writes Chris. Next month he comes to Wimbledon to speak at a meeting jointly organised by WDC/CND and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Monday June 11th 7·30pm at the South London Irish Centre, 140 Hartfield Rd, SW19 5TG.
Further details will come with the June Newsletter but meanwhile put June 11th into your diaries.
WDC/CND was represented at demonstrations at two of the proposed new nuclear power stations, Hinkley Point (see our photo-report in March) and Sizewell (see Jill Beauchamp’s Sizewell report). As far as CND is concerned the big argument against further developing the nuclear industry is that it is perpetuating a technology that creates the new materials for atomic bombs (there is no such thing as natural plutonium) while leaving a legacy of poisonous waste for the foreseeable future. All this is combined with the ever-present operating risks as so clearly demonstrated at Fukushima.
There has been a big effort to paint nuclear energy as the green alternative to fossil fuels and the answer to climate change. Interesting facts that have recently emerged expose the commercial incentives for the nuclear industry to be ‘economical with the truth’. An article in the Guardian at the end of March, “Nuclear policy hit by German retreat” (Guardian 30/3/2012) claimed that the government’s nuclear energy policy was in disarray after German utilities RWE and E.ON abandoned plans to build new nuclear reactors at Wylfa and Oldbury (the Horizon project). France’s EDF has been mooted as a potential buyer of Horizon but “EDF and other nuclear power companies are wary of investing multi-billion-pound sums in facilities without a guarantee on how quickly their investments will be paid off”.
And in April the financial pages carried the headline “French energy firm seeks sweetener to build nuclear plant” (Guardian 17/4/2012). The chief executive of GDF Suez (the French firm behind plans to build a new plant at Sellafield) said he wanted talks with the government about the right fixed or minimum price for producing nuclear energy. (So much for “too cheap to meter”!)
Jonathon Porritt, Tony Juniper, Charles Secrett and Tom Burke, all former directors of Friends of the Earth, have written to David Cameron suggesting that UK nuclear power is out of step with other countries. Japan, Germany and Italy are planning substantially to reduce their nuclear dependence and the French will only build new nuclear reactors in the UK if the financial risks involved are transferred from France to Britain, “leaving UK taxpayers to pick up the bill to protect the French nuclear industry”. They also note that the nuclear plans proposed by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and EDF are based on a type of reactor France has been advised to abandon by the French National Audit Office as too complex and expensive.
See http://political-cleanup.org/?p=5077 for full text of Press Release, cover letter and Note to the Prime Minister.
Sam Walton, son of WDC/CND members Linda and Keith, successfully hijacked Vince Cable’s opening speech at the UK Trade & Investment Defence and Security Organisation Symposium (UKTI DSO) on April 26th, running onto the stage and speaking for nearly a minute before being bundled out of the conference room.
UKTI DSO is a government unit which promotes arms sales around the world, and earlier the attendant arms dealers and civil servants had heard that the Prime Minister was “unequivocal in lending the full weight of his support to our mission”. Sam opened his alternative speech with the words “I am here today to give voice to the people... whose lives you are ruining”: video footage is available on http://youtu.be/0KFenHHzS_8
“The conference was totally surreal,” explained Sam. “Lots of talk about exports and trade but none of the consequences of flogging arms all over the world.... Our government has no business using taxpayers’ money to prop up arms companies... when education and health services are being cut.” Despite ongoing repression in response to the Arab Spring, UKTI DSP continues to promote weapons sales to repressive régimes. The arms trade represents only 1·5% of UK exports but enjoys vastly disproportionate support.
The tentative plans to run a series of discussions/talks in partnership with a local church (see March Newsletter) are now beginning to take shape. We hope to launch the first event during Merton Peace Week (17–21 September) with the provisional title “The Militarisation of Society”. Is it happening? Is it necessary? Is it inevitable? What does it mean for us and our community?
We shall be inviting outside speakers but we hope for in-depth discussion of this and other complex issues by an audience drawn as widely as possible from the local community. A full programme will be issued as soon as possible.
(See also version with photos on our website).
There was the usual dawn rendezvous on the Embankment. We had an extra 4-footed passenger i.e. a medium-size dog. The coach driver was none too happy as he had been assured that it was a ‘small’ dog. Then we all jumped aboard and zoomed off to Sizewell. Sizewell is approached down a narrow country lane flanked by fields. The setting of Sizewell-by-the-sea is all very picturesque with the additional idiosyncratic charm of the Vulcan pub!
On the dunes a very organised temporary Peace camp had been established by the local CND group, with banners, information boards & toilets. Hurrah! for the London Region, as we were the only coach party of supporters.
The local group had a timetable of events which kicked off with a rally outside the gates of Sizewell. Under the necessary protection of a parachute canopy and effective sound system there were informative and stimulating speakers, local and international.
The local speakers, including a councillor, were very committed in negotiating with local business and community groups on the detailed, long-term horror of having a nuclear reactor in their vicinity. The international speaker was a Taiwanese lady who has Japanese friends and is very involved in Japan CND and had visited Fukushima. She gave an illustrated speech which contained the observation and warning that the Japanese government/industrial establishment could be using civilian nuclear power as a way into developing military nuclear capability. Very alarming!
Of course it rained and the parachute canopy leaked.... The gravity of the speakers was leavened by the musical interludes and the funky dancing of Youth CND.
The local CND triumphed on the catering and fed, if not exactly the 5,000, at least a happy 50 doughty activists. We then trudged down to the beach and did a guided walk alongside both reactors — ancient and modern. Full of dread and deadly information regarding the current and future lack of safety/effectiveness/destruction of the sea and coastal terrain, we gathered into the coach and swished back to Waterloo.
The final word must be positive. The Taiwanese have managed to reduce their dependence on nuclear energy.
Hinkley update: The Barn and hedgerows have been demolished and destroyed. Weep! (see photos from April demonstration — http://www.wdc-cnd.org.uk/Events/Hinkley/index.html#barn )
Jill Beauchamp
Kate Hudson, CND General Secretary, delivered personalised messages from CND supporters (including one from WDC/CND) to Ambassador Peter Woolcott, chair of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee in Vienna, opening at the end of April. The conference was urged to take ‘concrete action’ towards a Weapons of Mass Destruction-Free Zone (WMDFZ) in the Middle East and make further progress on global disarmament.
In 2010, 189 countries voted at the NPT Review Conference for steps to be taken towards implementing a WMDFZ in the Middle East. The result was the scheduling of a landmark conference, convened by Finland, to take place in late 2012. The aim of this conference was to bring to the table all states in the Middle East in order to start face-to-face negotiations towards outlawing nuclear weapons and other WMD in the Middle East.
“The vision of a WMD-Free Zone in the Middle East can only be realised through a combined approach of constructive debate and concrete action,” said Kate.
CND Press Release
There will be an impressive line-up at the benefit for the Stop the War Coalition at St James Piccadilly on 25th May, with Tony Benn, Roy Bailey, Mark Rylance, Brian Eno, A.L.Kennedy, Roger Lloyd Pack and others. Contact Maisie for tickets: 020 8286 3144
Planning continues for our major annual fundraiser and we are pleased to have so many kind offers of help. This is a final plea for goods to stock the stalls and we especially need good quality brac-à-brac. Anything is potentially saleable as long as it is not too big. We also need raffle prizes (unwanted gifts are ideal!) and help with distributing publicity leaflets, both on the day and beforehand. See you there!
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