Call of the international groups of fasters
We demand nuclear disarmament!
We are groups of fasters around the world who are fasting between Hiroshima Day, August 6th, and Nagasaki Day, August 9th, dates of the bombings of those two Japanese cities. We are fasting in remembrance of the hundreds of thousands of victims of those bombings, and to call for the world-wide abolition of nuclear weapons.
The COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated to an unprecedented degree the extent to which all nations of the Earth are interdependent. The security of the few – or their thirst for power – cannot be achieved at the expense of the safety and well-being of the many. In no area are the retrograde forces which act against our interdependency as starkly apparent as in that of nuclear armaments, possessed by the very few, but terrifyingly threatening for all.
The world spends $2 trillion a year on weapons. Much of this goes into the maintenance and development by just 9 nuclear-armed states of the world’s 14,000 nuclear weapons, a small fraction of which would be sufficient to destroy the planet several times over. Citing the nuclear threat, climate change, and disinformation, the Atomic Scientists who monitor the clock of the Apocalypse are currently keeping it at its all-time highest level set last year, of 100 seconds to midnight[*].
This situation must stop. We cannot continue to let a small minority of nations hold the rest of the world to ransom, and squander vast sums of money on these weapons of mass killing and destruction.
We live in dangerous times, but at the same time there are reasons to hope. This year has seen the coming into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). This is now a major component of International Law, legally binding on its signatories, and of compelling moral force for those countries who have yet to sign it. The terms of the debate are changing; the overwhelming majority of civil society organizations, and ordinary citizens, who resolutely oppose the folly of nuclear weapons, have won this first victory, and must now press for reason to prevail.
The possession, production, use and threatened use of nuclear weapons are henceforth prohibited under international law. The TPNW, along with all other anti-nuclear treaties, must be upheld, and enforced!
We, the undersigned groups of fasters, call on each and every person to join us in expressing our urgent call, to join the many partner organizations federated under the International Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (ICAN), Nobel Peace Prize 2017, and to participate in the campaigns of those organizations[†].
Nuclear disarmament must happen now! Join the Fast![‡]
Call on your country to sign the Treaty!
Groups of Fasters in:
FRANCE Dijon-Valduc Dominique Lalanne, <do.lalanne@wanadoo.fr>
FRANCE Mont Saint Michel Josette Lenoury <jolenoury50@gmail.com>
FRANCE Brest-Ile Longue Chrystelle <chrystelleanvroin@wanadoo.fr>
FRANCE Tours Marie Claude Thibaud <marie-claude.thibaud@wanadoo.fr>
GERMANY Berlin Lothar Eberhardt <lebgut@googlemail.com>
GERMANY Emden / Cologne / Büchel Serge Levillayer <levillayer.serge@orange.fr>
GERMANY Emden / Cologne / Büchel Matthias-W. Engelke< distelwenk@gmail.com>
GERMANY Offenburg Stefan Walther us.walther@t-online.de
NOUVELLE ZELANDE Auckland Audrey van Ryn <audrey@writeaway.co.nz>
TOGO Lomé Warie Yao <wariesadacrepin@gmail.com>
UK Barnstaple, England Sheila Bloggs <blogg869@btinternet.com>
UK Knighton, Wales Angie Zelter <reforest@gn.apc.org>
UK Iona, Scotland Margery Toller <margery.toller@gmail.com>
UK Plymouth, England Michal Lovejoy <michal@calstock.co.uk>
UK Bristol, England Rowland Dye <rowland.dye@cooptel.net>
UK Londres, England Marc Morgan <marcwmorgan@btinternet.com>
USA Kansas City, Missouri Ann Suellentrop <annsuellen@gmail.com>
More information: Marc Morgan, <marcwmorgan@btinternet.com>
[*] See the https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/: 2021 Doomsday Clock Statement, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
[†] There are many forms of action available to the citizens of nuclear and non-nuclear states alike : citizens’ vigils in front of nuclear military installations, appeals to politicians and elected representatives, groups supporting human rights and the protection of the environment, religious and spiritual organizations, banks involved in financing the nuclear industry, lobbying municipality to support ICAN’s Cities Appeal, calls for investment in citizens initiatives to defend democracy, etc.
[‡] More than ever this year, in the light of the coronavirus pandemic and its devastating consequences, we are aware that our freely taken decision to fast highlights the fact that we are not amongst the many millions threatened by malnutrition or famine. We will keep this in mind, and recommend that participants in the Fast donate the money they would be spending on food to organizations or charities helping to feed the destitute.