The coronavirus pandemic has stimulated people around the world to question governments' priorities, and to call for a shift in budgets and investments from nuclear weapons and military security to public health and human security.
On March 17, Newsweek published an article by Basel Peace Office Board Member Jonathan Granoff entitled National security is too crude to protect us from pandemics: It’s time to shift to human security.
On April 1, three former UK Royal Navy Commanders sent a letter to all UK parliamentarians questioning the policy of maintaining a continuous at sea nuclear deterrent, and calling for cuts to the nuclear weapons budget to help address the corona-virus pandemic.
In the USA, Senator Ed Markey, Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, has been leading the calls for the US administration to cut the bloated nuclear weapons budget, and activate the 1950 Defense Production Act for Massive Wartime Manufacturing Mobilization to vastly upscale the development of coronavirus tests and medical equipment (See Senator Markey letter to President Trump, March 15, 2020).
These issues, and what we can do about it, will be discused in the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money webinar on April 21. (Details below).
Also below is information about The Nuns, The Priests and The Bombs, a documentary, which you can now watch online, of octogenrian nuns and priests challenging the nuclear weapons establishment by breaking into nuclear facilities and undertaking 'disarmament' actions.
Former UK Royal Navy Commanders call for nuclear cuts to help address Covid-19
Three former UK Royal Navy Commanders sent a letter to all UK parliamentarians on April 1 questioning the policy of maintaining a continuous at sea nuclear deterrent. The three commanders are:
- Commander Robert Forsyth RN (Ret’d). 2nd in Command Polaris submarine, commanded two other submarines and the Commanding Officer’s Qualifying Course.
- Commander Robert Green RN (Ret’d). Former nuclear-armed aircraft bombardier-navigator, Staff Officer (Intelligence) to CINFLEET in Falklands War
- Commander Colin Tabeart RN (Ret’d). Former Senior Engineer Officer, Polaris submarine
They note that the £2 billion a year cost of maintaining this nuclear posture and readiness for war appear to be unjustifiable, especially as the economic costs of the coronavirus pandemic are mounting, and while there appears to be no threat of a ‘bolt from the blue’ nuclear attack against the UK, for which the policy is intended to counter.
In addition, the letter questions the decision by parliament to invest even more substantial resources in building new nuclear warheads and the submarines to carry them.
“It is completely unacceptable that the UK continues to spend billions of pounds on deploying and modernising the Trident Nuclear Weapon System when faced with the threats to health, climate change and world economies that Coronavirus poses,” said Commander Robert Forsyth RN (Ret’d).
Commander Robert Forsyth RN (Ret'd), one of the co-authors of the letter on Trident and the coronavirus pandemic.
The signatories to the letter hope that their efforts to question the nuclear ‘Continuous At Sea Deterrent’ will encourage politicians and the wider public to begin to question the morality and the feasibility of nuclear weaponry.
According to Commander Robert Green RN (Ret’d), former nuclear-armed aircraft bombardier-navigator and one of the other co-signers of the letter, ‘Nuclear deterrence is no more than a repulsive, unlawful protection racket used as a counterfeit currency of power, and hugely profitable to the corporate arms industry.’
The letter was supported by a number of peace and disarmament movement leaders including Bruce Kent (Vice-President of the Campaign for Disarmament), and a number of UK parliamentarians including Rt Hon Ian Blackford MP (SNP Westminster Group Leader), Lord Green of Deddington, Baroness Sue Miller of Chilthorne Domer and Bill Kidd (Member, Scottish Parliament). Baroness Miller and Mr Kidd are the UK Co-Presidents of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND).
‘It is very encouraging that three senior British Naval Officers agree that spending billions of pounds on another nuclear weapon system, which is not even independent, is a foolish waste of public money,’ said Mr Kent. At this time of a grave public health crisis it is the NHS (National Health Service) that needs our support and increased finance. CND members will continue to promote the’NHS not Trident’ message.’
“Covid-19 is showing us that humanity’s worst threats- pandemics and climate change are shared globally,’ said Baroness Sue Miller. ‘We should not waste resources on renewing nuclear weapons as we should be using all resources we can in tackling these all too real issues.’
For more details see Former UK Royal Navy Commanders call for nuclear cuts to help address Covid-19
Move the Nuclear Weapons Money Webinar, April 21
Organised by Abolition 2000, Basel Peace Office, World Future Council and Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.
This webinar will highlight public campaigns and legislative efforts to cut nuclear weapons budgets, along with examples of nuclear weapons and fossil fuel divestment by cities, universities, governments, religious organisations, pension funds, banks and private investors.
The webinar will examine how divestment (and impact investment) can assist initiatives to cut nuclear weapons budgets and support public health, climate protection and sustainable development.
The webinar will include the preview of a Handbook on Nuclear Weapons Divestment which is being developed by the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign and will be published later this year. Click here to register
The Nuns, the Priests and the Bombs
Peace activists, including octogenarian Catholic nuns and priests, challenge the security and legality of America's nuclear weapons when they break into two top secret facilities. The film follows the federal criminal cases against the activists who are driven by their conviction that nuclear weapons are immoral and an imminent threat to humanity.
As the world copes with the coronavirus, the activists in this film are raising the alarm about a far more serious danger.
Watch on Google Play, Amazon, Apple i-Tunes, You-Tube or Blu-Ray. For more information contact Helen Young.