GZ Editor’s Note: The following article by Frida Berrigan was originally published in TomDispatch on June 24, 2021, and provides a sobering alternative to the jingoistic revelry of July 4th. Frida lives in the shadow of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which built the first generation of Trident submarines, and is building the next generation (12 New Tridents!!!) as you read this. I have included Tom Englehardt’s introduction. If you aren’t familiar with TomDispatch, you will find truly independent journalism and hard-hitting writing about the waning days of The American Empire. Just the thing for the Fourth of July! ************ Frida Berrigan, Living […]
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Open Letter to Presidents Putin and Biden: No First Use!
At their Summit Meeting in Geneva on June 16th, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted a U.S.-Russia Presidential Joint Statement on Strategic Stability in which they reaffirmed ‘the principle that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’ and announced that they will embark together on an integrated bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue in the near future. ‘Through this Dialogue, we seek to lay the groundwork for future arms control and risk reduction measures.’ This agreement advances key points in an Open Letter to Presidents Biden and Putin in Advance of their June 16, […]
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Kucinich Calls for Freedom from Fear, Nuclear Weapons and War
Here’s a real gem from the Ground Zero archives. Way back on August 7, 2011 Congressman Dennis Kucinich spoke at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action during our annual gathering to commemorate the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His speech was timely and powerful, calling on the United States to take concrete steps to work toward a nuclear weapon’s free world. He also called on the US to forge a new doctrine of Strength through Peace. Kucinich wrapped up his speech by reminding us that it is up to we the people to “resolve that we shall become as architects of […]
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Only Rogue States Have Nuclear Weapons
By David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War, and Elizabeth Murray, of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, originally published by Kitsap Sun, January 24, 2021 From January 18 to February 14, four large billboards are going up around Seattle that proclaim “Nuclear Weapons Are Now Illegal. Get them out of Puget Sound!” What can this possibly mean? Nuclear weapons may be unpleasant, but what is illegal about them, and how can they be in Puget Sound? Since 1970, under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, most nations have been forbidden to acquire nuclear weapons, and those already possessing them — […]
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The Great Evasion
By Guest Contributor, Lawrence Wittner Two related events—the 75th anniversary of the January 24, 1946 UN General Assembly Resolution 1 (which established a commission to plan for the abolition of nuclear weapons) and the January 22, 2021 entry into force of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (designed to finally implement that goal)—should be a cause for worldwide celebration. In fact, however, they are a cause for shame. The nine nuclear powers have refused to sign the treaty and, instead, today continue to engage in a nuclear arms race and to threaten nuclear war—a war capable of […]
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