Activists around Puget Sound are Bannering for Nuclear Abolition Now!

Peace activists from grass-roots organizations in and around the Puget Sound region of Washington State will be bannering this week on and around the International Day of Peace (September 21st) and the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons (September 26th).

The International Day of Peace was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly. Two decades later, in 2001, the General Assembly unanimously voted to designate the Day as a period of non-violence and cease-fire. The 2021 theme for the International Day of Peace is “Recovering better for an equitable and sustainable world.”

The UN General Assembly commemorates September 26th as the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, an occasion for the world community to reaffirm its commitment to global nuclear disarmament as a priority. It provides an opportunity to educate the public – and their leaders – about the real benefits of eliminating nuclear weapons, and the social and economic costs of perpetuating them. It addresses one of humanity’s greatest challenges; achieving the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.

Even as the United States government was leaving Afghanistan, the Senate and House of Representatives, both Democrats and Republicans, agreed to add another $24 billion to the already staggering $715 billion the Biden administration had requested for the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2022 budget. According to a new report, at least 11 Senators and 36 members of Congress and their spouses own millions in defense contractor stocks. While the 20-year war in Afghanistan left a trail of devastation, death and suffering, it has enriched both the weapons producers and the elected representatives who voted for the war and who support these same corporations through legislatively.

According to a report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, in 2020, the nine nuclear-armed states spent $72.6 billion on nuclear weapons, with the U.S. leading at $37.4 billion, or $70,881 per minute. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, on January 27, 2021, announced it is keeping the hands of its Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest we’ve ever been to global annihilation, stating: “By our estimation, the potential for the world to stumble into nuclear war-an ever-present danger over the last 75 years-increased in 2020,” and noting: “the existential threats of nuclear weapons and climate change have intensified in recent years because of a threat multiplier: the continuing corruption of the information ecosphere on which democracy and public decision-making depend…[T]he COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call.”

At the close of its 89th Annual Meeting, on August 31, 2021, the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) Executive Committee unanimously adopted a bold new resolution Calling on the United States to Welcome the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons [TPNW] and to Act Now to Prevent Nuclear War and Eliminate Nuclear Weapons.

At a time when the U.S. and the entire world continue to grapple with the COVID pandemic, and are directly experiencing the effects of climate change, we face an existential choice – continue squandering human and financial resources on militarism and nuclear weapons and face the disastrous consequences, or redefine “national security” and redirect our tax dollars and human capital to ensure human survival and create a sustainable future.

Grassroots organizations in Washington State continue to work to redirect our focus and spending to create real national security. Many of these same groups will be making a concerted effort to raise public awareness during the International Day of Peace and International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

During Campaign Nonviolence Action Week, September 18 – 26, activists are bannering in at least the following locations: