If you are going to see the documentary Countdown to Zero to learn more about nuclear weapons and how truly dangerous they are to our very survival, please download and print copies of this UFPJ information flyer to hand out at the movie. Some significant points were missed in the movie, including information about what you can do. Information and government accountability is what is needed, not fear and blaming “the other.” Nuclear weapons are dangerous in anyone’s hands.
Download flyer: COUNTDOWN TO ZERO? Or Fight for a Nuclear Free Future!
Some questions:
- Which nation invented nuclear weapons?
- Which nation has used nuclear weapons?
- Joseph Gerson in his book, Empire and the Bomb, lists 39 incidences of “nuclear blackmail,” when a country threatened to use nuclear weapons. Of those, 33 were made by which nation?
- Which nation has by far the largest conventional military forces?
- Which nation could most easily start the nuclear disarmament process?
The answer to all of these questions is the United States….
Did you know that when President Obama submitted the START Treaty to the Senate for ratification, he also submitted a Congressionally-mandated classified report outlining the Administration’s plan to maintain and modernize U.S. nuclear forces for the foreseeable future?
According to a White House fact sheet: “The plan includes investments of $80 billion to sustain and modernize the nuclear weapons complex,” including new bomb factories in New Mexico, Tennessee and Missouri, and “well over $100 billion in nuclear delivery systems to sustain existing capabilities and modernize some strategic systems” by the year 2020.
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) funding will increase by more than 40%, from $6.4 billion in FY 2010 to $9 billion by 2018 — 43% above what the US spent on similar programs during the Cold War!
While the U.S. government lectures and threatens Iran and North Korea about the evils of nuclear weapons, it routinely test fires nuclear missiles from Vandenberg Air Force base in California into the Pacific Ocean. Two launches were conducted in June, and the U.S. “arsenal of hypocrisy” is poised for another unarmed warhead launch in September. These tests are a visible symbol of the ongoing U.S. commitment to the nuclear threat as a central pillar of its foreign policy.
The Administration is promoting a nuclear renaissance, from weapons modernization, to more nuclear energy and new uranium mining on Indigenous land. All of this despite a nuclear legacy of sickness and death. Thousands of nuclear weapons workers at plants around the country are sick from exposure to radioactivity and other toxic materials, and many have died over the years. Tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of communities have been impacted by this nuclear death industry.
Currently, in New Mexico, Hydro Resources Inc. wants to begin in situ leach mining of uranium that will contaminate an aquifer that is the sole source of drinking water for 15,000 Navajo near Church Rock. It is also on a sacred Indigenous site. The Navajo have a ban against uranium mining, but the courts are clearing the way for the new mine. This disrespect happens again and again…
But the tide is beginning to turn! In May, over 17 million signatures were delivered to the United Nations calling on governments to start negotiations on a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons without delay.
And in June, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the association of cities with populations over 30,000, unanimously adopted a resolution supporting U.S. participation in the global elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020 and calling on Congress to slash nuclear weapons spending well below Cold War levels and redirect funding to meet the urgent needs of cities.
Think Outside the Bomb, a national youth-led antinuclear network is organizing an exciting new “Disarmament Summer,” including a permaculture encampment, July 30th – Aug 9th near Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico. Disarmament Summer will train a new generation of youth and organize creative nonviolent actions at Los Alamos on August 6th, the 65th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Join the global call to abolish nuclear weapons by 2020. Organize in your community to:
- Demand START ratification without a $180 Billion nuclear weapons modernization plan. Dismantle weapons instead.
- Call for deep cuts in nuclear weapons spending and redirection of funds to create healthy jobs in a green energy economy.
- Stop permits for new uranium mines or nuclear power plants.
- Clean up and protect our water, air and soil.
- Support the 2010 RECA Amendment Act to expand compensation to uranium workers for radiation exposure.
- Demand healthcare and reproductive justice for impacted communities.
- Respect Indigenous rights – honor the Navajo uranium ban and protect Indigenous sacred sites.
Download flyer: COUNTDOWN TO ZERO? Or Fight for a Nuclear Free Future!
For more information visit the Nuclear Watch Blog.
