Nukewatch Quarterly Winter 2020-2021

By Christine Manwiller

A lawsuit against the nuclear navy in Washington State’s Puget Sound began June 19, 2012, over the safety and environmental impact of a second Explosives Handling Wharf in Hood Canal, home of Bangor Trident submarine base. The $715 million wharf, 15 miles west of Seattle, is for loading and off-loading heavy nuclear-armed missiles. The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action and Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility brought suit against the navy’s plan for failure to consider the risks of accidental explosions at the new wharf, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Navy officials did not even “comply with the navy’s own explosives-siting regulations,” Ground Zero reports, and the military’s Explosives Safety Board flat out denied permission to build the second wharf “in part, because the navy would not study the risk of a chain reaction explosion while loading two subs,” KOMO-TV news reported. “If both full subs explode [48 missiles in all], the equivalent power is 7.44 million pounds of TNT,” the ABC News affiliate said.

Glen Milner with Ground Zero told KOMO-TV, “They’ve doubled the amount of explosives. And they’ve doubled the number of times that missiles are being handled.” The lawsuit warns of the risk of one exploding missile igniting 47 others. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 85% of the weight of each missile is the highly explosive rocket fuel.

The lawsuit faced significant setbacks in 2012 when certain navy records were sealed after the navy claimed publication would place national security at risk. The records were sealed by the court and a gag order regarding their contents was imposed on the plaintiffs just a few days before a scheduled hearing where they were to be used as the basis of the peace group’s arguments.

In 2014, the NEPA lawsuit was dismissed by US District Court Judge Ronald Leighton, and the plaintiffs appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. While the Ninth Circuit shockingly ruled against the NEPA failure to assess risk claims, it struck down the gag order and the sealing of documents. Judge Leighton released the records and lifted the gag this past August 20. Another judge later ordered the navy to pay the two peace groups’ legal fees incurred to obtain the records and fight the gag order.

—Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, Oct. 29, 2020; KOMO-TV News, Seattle, Oct. 28, 2013

 

Nukewatch Quarterly Winter 2020-2021

WHAT YOU CAN DO on January 22, 2021 to Celebrate the Entry Into Force of the TREATY on the PROHIBITION of NUCLEAR WEAPONS

A letter from from the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Nukewatch, The Nuclear Resister, and the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability:

Dear nuclear abolitionists,

Now that nuclear weapons are outlawed, it’s time to take action!

On January 22, 2021, people around the world will celebrate the day that the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force, a day the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) describes so eloquently as “the beginning of the end of nuclear weapons.”

Please join us—the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Nukewatch, the Nuclear Resister and the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability—to help maximize the global impact of this historic event with a wide variety of public actions across the US on January 22 and beyond. (See list in progress online at ICANw.org/events)

We envision organized, nationwide public actions that spotlight the treaty ban as a victory for humanity on this historic day, with coordinated publicity and documentation of these events. Places to act (including some where action planning is already underway) include: nuclear weapons facilities, military bases, federal buildings, congressional offices, churches, public squares, overpasses, financial institutions, corporate facilities, and academic institutions that are participating in nuclear weapons activities. See the materials produced by PAX/The Netherlands and ICAN available at ICANw.org.

We hope to develop an enduring collaboration with organizations who recognize that the treaty is an opportunity to renew the disarmament effort in the US.

Please join us!

If you have any questions or want more information contact: nuclearbantreatyEiF@gmx.com

Yes, celebrate—and organize. Any celebration should include an action item that raises the profile of the treaty ban in the United States. The first goal is to make people aware of the treaty. Goal 2 is to make sure they know that it is entering into force. And Goal 3 is to begin to use public awareness to pressure the government to recognize, sign, ratify and comply with the treaty ban. If that sounds like a lot it is, and it will take time. And it will never happen if we don’t make it happen.

What follows are several options that you can mix and match with your own ideas. Some can be done all by yourself, others work better with small groups —with pandemic precautions please.

And please, report back! This is crucial—even if your action seems like a simple one. We gain strength from working together and knowing that people all over are taking action. And your effort, large or small, is amplified when it is shared. We hope to build a database of actions and to demonstrate widespread support for the treaty across the country. You can post your actions on Facebook at the Nuclear Ban Treaty EIF group. We will publicize other sites as they become available.

1. Everyone can learn about the treaty, and you don’t have to wait until January 22. A quick google search will turn up resources, some as brief as 90 seconds. Others are deep-dive webinars. There is a Fact Sheet with basic information here: https://orepa.org/nuclear-ban-treaty-entry-into-force-resources/.
2. Hang or hold a banner in a public space. Activists will be hanging banners at nuclear weapons sites and nuclear military bases across the country. We have a template that you can use to have a banner made (around $50 if you go on-line) that you can hang or hold at any federal building, your local post office, federal courthouse, or representative’s office. You download the template here: https://orepa.org/nuclear-ban-treaty-entry-into-force-resources/

2b. Is a banner too much? Here is a template for a poster size version of the treaty that you can      hold or deliver or post in the place of your choice.

3. Focus on the $$$. Our friends in Europe have been successful in pushing investment funds and corporations to divest from companies or investment funds that profit from nuclear weapons production—and the treaty gives us even more leverage. You can find a list of the companies and banks that invest in nuclear weapons at Don’t Bank on the Bomb. You can hold a poster outside the local Bank of America or Wells Fargo branch office. If your credit card is issued by a nuke-bank, you can change cards or write to the issuer and ask them to get out of the illegal nuclear weapons business. See: https://www.dontbankonthebomb.com/

4. There is a list of US universities and colleges that are directly involved in supporting nuclear weapons production. Some of them even operate nuclear weapons sites! If your school is not on the list, you could find out where their endowment funds are invested—chances are there is a link to a nuclear weapons corporation or fund. See Schools of Mass Destruction at: https://universities.icanw.org/

5. Write your representatives in the House and Senate. Tell them you expect their name to be on the first bill introduced in the new Congress that addresses the treaty ban. Tell them you’ll be watching.
6. Write a letter to the editor. This is an important way to broaden your reach throughout the public arena. Mention your congressional representatives by name so their staff will clip the letter and show it to their boss.
7. Share the news! If you use Instagram or Facebook or if you tweet, you can share ICAN’s pages and other news about the Entry Into Force.
8. Donate! Please write a check or give on-line. There are dozens of groups around the country that are dedicating themselves to long-haul work to make the promise of the treaty a reality at home and around the world. They rely on donations and public support to keep going. Even a small contribution counts.
9. Commit for the long haul. Find the group nearest and dearest to your heart and join so you can stay involved, track the progress of the treaty, and learn about more things you can do to help make it a reality. Get on their mailing list, either on-line or on paper.
10. Ask your local place of worship to ring its bell for peace on January 22 or place a notice in the bulletin.
11. Ask your local government to join the ICAN Cities appeal—present a copy of the treaty and ask for a resolution calling on the United States to join.
12. Deliver copies of the treaty in person or send via mail (link to printable format) to congressional representatives and other public officials, and business, financial and educational institutions with ties to nuclear weapons activities, with a warning of their unlawful complicity.
13. Watch for more ideas: Please post your plans on the Nuclear Ban Treaty EIF Facebook group, and look at what others are planning to do.

Nukewatch Quarterly Winter 2020-2021

Pope Calls Nuclear Deterrence ‘Immoral’ 

The Church of England’s top leaders have called on the British government to join 50 other nations in ratifying the new international treaty outlawing nuclear weapons.

The archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, and the archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, along with 29 Anglican bishops, have signed a letter published by The Observer, saying that the UK’s support for the treaty would give hope for a peaceful future.

Art Laffin of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in Washington, DC, reports in the National Catholic Reporter that the Roman Catholic Church’s Pope Francis is the first Pope to condemn the mere possession of nuclear weapons. In a Nov. 10, 2017 address, he said in part, “If we also take into account the risk of an accidental detonation as a result of error of any kind, the threat of their use, as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned.” Two years later, during a visit to Nagasaki, Japan Nov. 24, 2019, he said, “We must never grow weary of working to support the … Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.” Visiting Hiroshima that day he said, “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral.”

 

Nukewatch Quarterly Winter 2020-2021

An open letter from 56 former heads of state, foreign ministers and military secretaries—including those from 20 NATO member countries, and from Japan and South Korea—was issued Sept.19, 2020 urging the world’s current presidents and prime ministers to ratify the nuclear weapons treaty ban.

All the letter’s signers are from countries whose current heads of state have refused to embrace or promote the treaty. Among the signers are former leaders from Albania, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey.

Former prime ministers of Canada, Japan, Italy and Poland are among the 56 signatories, and two —Willy Claes of Belgium and Javier Solana of Spain—are former Secretaries General of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Under US diplomatic and economic pressure to increase military spending and to ignore treaty obligations, no current NATO member state has yet ratified the nuclear weapons ban.

Pointedly, signers of the letter include former leaders from the five NATO countries—Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey—that station and train to use a total of about 140 US nuclear bombs that in a nuclear war on Russia would be unleashed from their NATO bases. In all five countries, overwhelming public opinion favors the permanent removal of the US weapons, something the treaty ban would necessitate if the governments ratified the law.