Before you read on, a quick reminder to join us at our commemorative film screening at Glasgow’s Quaker Meeting House on the evening of August 6th (Hiroshima day).
Our members are also holding vigils across the whole of Scotland in their local areas during the commemoration week. We invite supporters to contact campaigns@banthebomb.org if they would like to be connected with members in the areas of Renfrewshire, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling, where vigils are taking place!
On the 80th year since the Hiroshima bomb, we’ll be showing a selection of short films about disarmament struggles worldwide. Such a momentous anniversary is an opportunity to consider the challenges that we still face living in a nuclear world, but also to reflect on how much the peace movement has achieved in recent decades.
Only around a fifth of the nuclear weapons that existed in 1986 still exist today (13,000 down from a height of over 70,000), showing that mass worldwide disarmament has clear precedent. We also, crucially, now have a UN treaty to universally prohibit nuclear weapons.
But we are entering an era of renewed nuclear militarism, 80 years on from invention of the nuclear bomb. Join us on August 6th to keep the legacy of the hibakusha nuclear victims alive as we continue our struggle for a more peaceful world!
As many of you will know already, it was reported this week that US bombs had returned to England for the first time since 2008.
Campaigners have long been warning that preparations were underway to host US bombs at Lakenheath. It seems now that their fears have been confirmed, and CND are now pressing the government for transparency about the presence of US nuclear weapons in England, since neither the US or UK militaries have officially confirmed that the bombs have arrived.
The same aircraft that probably carried nuclear cargo to Lakenheath last week was spotted on a similar mission just yesterday. Along with the UK and France’s recent “Northwood” nuclear agreement, this shows that the US and Western Europe is returning to a Cold War posture of continent-wide nuclear rearmament and preparation.
This comes at a time when Russia has long been suspected to be planning to station nuclear weapons in Belarus.
The dynamic of mutual rearmament has worrying resonances with the 1970s/1980s Pershing crisis, when US missiles, aimed eastwards, were stationed in Europe in response to the USSR building up their own missiles along the Iron Curtain.
This new era of nuclear strategising shows that Western leaders have learnt none of the lessons of the Cold War – the main one being that nuclear proliferation only leads to a greater risk of nuclear conflict, not security. Historically this was well understood, and that is what led to arms-reduction treaties like the INF treaty and START treaties.
Today it sadly feels hard to imagine the world leaders could even recognise the dangers of nuclear proliferation, so entranced they are by militarism and ignorant of current and historical nuclear risks.
But not all in society are so reckless as people like Trump, Starmer and Putin. Our own campaign recognises the historical injustices caused worldwide by nuclear weapons, and understands that they do not, in fact, keep us safe. That’s why we are inviting all our members to join our Faslane vigil on Saturday 9th of August, the 80th anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing:
Although we cannot provide transport on this occasion, public transport connections to Faslane are quite reliable. If you can make it to Helensburgh train station, the 316 bus will take you straight to the North Gate where our vigil will be held from 1pm-3pm.
Join us in commemorating the hibakusha nuclear victims and expressing our opposition to Scotland’s nuclear occupation.