The Ukraine war has shown us that nuclear weapons do not prevent war. Possession of these weapons can gives the aggressor a relative impunity from direct interference by another nuclear-armed state, since the other state can see the risk of a direct conflict going nuclear. In this way the nuclear stand-off is an ongoing crisis with whole civilian populations held hostage. Everyone keeping their fingers crossed that no-one will actually use the nuclear weapons and kill untold thousands immediately and millions over the following weeks and months.
And this is the most important point – nuclear weapons are weapons of mass murder. They are illegal and criminal and basing them up in Scotland at Faslane is an ongoing conspiracy to commit mass murder that undermines our humanity and has turned us into a terrorist state.
When questioned during the House of Commons debate over the renewal of Trident,Theresa May, was honest, unlike previous Prime Ministers, and admitted what nuclear deterrence actually means. She said she would be willing to authorise a nuclear strike that could kill 100,000 people! To remain Prime Minister she had to say and mean this. We all witnessed what happened when Jeremy Corbyn, as Leader of the opposition Labour Party, said he would never use nuclear weapons ……
Nuclear “deterrence” is not some common-sense insurance policy, it is a step over the line to inhumanity. And it is a real threat to our security. It does not protect us, it endangers us.
The TPNW has at last enabled the majority of states to ban nuclear weapons, even though the 9 nuclear weapon states are not supporting it. This specific United Nations ban has now entered into force with 86 states signing it and 61 ratifying it and more states coming on board all the time.
Like the bans on other inhumane weapon systems the TPNW is shifting the norm in regard to nuclear weapons. This is shown in the number of financial institutions worldwide that have dis-invested from nuclear weapon production since the Treaty came into force.
The first meeting of States Parties to the TPNW takes place from the 20th to 23rd June in Vienna. These states will be discussing how to strengthen their plans for global nuclear disarmament. People all around the world, knowing that any use of nuclear weapons will affect everyone and likely cause mass starvation through the nuclear winter effect, need to publicise this global effort to bring the nuclear weapon states to their senses and to disarm all their nuclear weapons.
The UK does not have an independent nuclear force as the missiles are owned by the USA and targeting and use is controlled by the USA. Getting out from the influence of the USA, especially with the current government in power, is going to be extremely difficult. They are turning back the clock and allowing the USA to make the UK their aircraft carrier again with nuclear bombs being scheduled to return to Lakenheath airbase in Suffolk. The peace movement actions were able to get the last of the US nukes in the UK removed in 2008 but now we have to start once again with our actions to make it impossible to keep them there.
The current crisis in Ukraine, with nuclear weapons part of the mix, is draining attention, focus and action away from tackling the most immediate existential crisis facing us – the climate and biodiversity/environmental emergency. This is why our Trident Ploughshares actions at Faslane and Coulport in the coming days is being done alongside Extinction Rebellion Peace. We are highlighting the massive carbon boot-print of the military.
XR Peace has several key messages:-
- Militarism is a central pillar of the extractive industrial corporate systems that are causing Climate Change.
- Nuclear weapons join climate change as an existential threat to humanity and the planet.
- Climate change causes war. War causes climate change.
- To address the climate crisis we must end militarism and war.
There is a need for all social change organisations to link up together. None of us can confront and change the military industrial complex on our own. We need to understand how all our separate struggles and campaigns for change are linked. We are all connected.
This was one of the reasons I wrote my latest book – ‘Activism for Life’. It charts my campaigning journey from understanding the racist British colonial under-development and resource extraction of Africa, to cold war nuclear threats, and proxy wars, to forest destruction and assaults on indigenous peoples lands and livelihoods. Like many of you here I have been involved in countless demonstrations and direct actions here and abroad. It is hard to keep going when we see how little change has happened. We could look at the growth of the power and impunity of corporations who are profiting from the destruction of our eco-systems and feel we have changed nothing. We can see that our political leaders have been co-opted to maximise the profits of small, powerful, rich elites, including banks, arms manufacturers, and other huge corporations. The exploitative and aggressive, economic growth models that have been pushed on so many countries around the globe are not only destroying our lives but threatening all life on earth.
But change is afoot, springing up around all around us. We have to continue, our work is not yet complete. And we are not alone. I have tried to make the links between many social change struggles and to distill the many lessons I have learnt on the way.
With the crackdown by the government on protest many people are understandably going to be reluctant to join in nonviolent protests. But we must not give up our protesting or we will have to face more horrors in the future. We have to confront the bullying, autocratic, mendacious policies of the present government that are drawing us into a more repressive and abusive system. There is no reason why we have to live in a country that underpays the real workers and overpays a very small percent while turning away refugees fleeing the conflicts that we have caused directly or indirectly.. But it requires us all to act. Not just by signing petitions and using social media but also by getting into the streets and protesting actively, noisily and even disrupting the life-destroying systems embedded in our nation.
This is why we are going on up to Faslane and Coulport, to do our little bit of protesting about our nuclear weapons. Instead of pointing the finger at the Russians or the Chinese let us put our own house in order.