Mission Statement
The mission of the Affected Communities and Allies Working Group is to raise awareness of the legacy and ongoing impact on frontline communities by the nuclear industrial complex. We advocate for policy and action to assist survivors and affected communities impacted by ongoing and intergenerational harms resulting from radioactive violence. We also work to fulfill the promise of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to press the United States and all nuclear-armed nations to sign, ratify, and implement the Treaty.
Vision Statement:
The Affected Communities and Allies Working Group is an inclusive space, where Indigenous Peoples, First Nations, Pacific Islanders, Downwinders, Atomic Veterans, nuclear weapons and nuclear test survivors, those otherwise impacted by nuclear policies, and allies can come together to demand equity and justice, to strategize and to organize actions for the total elimination of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy.
We cannot eliminate nuclear weapons as long as we allow the commercial use of uranium and plutonium, parade nuclear energy as a climate solution, and create pathways for private corporations and other institutions to make a profit.
We call for the dismantling of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy as they are both forms of nuclear colonial violence and are impossible to separate. The global nuclear industrial complex – from uranium mining, to fuel fabrication, to weapons manufacturing, to nuclear weapons usage and tests, and the creation of radioactive and toxic waste – produces carcinogenic and mutagenic harms that will last millions of years. These harms most disproportionately impact marginalized people worldwide especially women (and people with uteruses) and children, Indigenous Peoples, communities of color, and low-income communities.
If resources continue to be invested in the pursuit of nuclear weapons and energy, from the brain drain to the actual limited elements and materials involved, humankind will not have the means to survive the climate crisis nor learn to resolve conflicts to create real security.